Proposed Sex Offender Clinic Roils San Francisco Neighborhood

After a rowdy and raucous Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association community meeting Monday, the owners of a for-profit chain of sexual offender rehabilitation clinics promised to delay their plans to move into an empty storefront at 100 Church Street.

The California chain, Sharper Future, had signed a lease with Maitri hospice to move into the former home of a thrift store and medical clinic that had been occupied by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation.

Sharper Future treats offenders out on parole or probation from state or federal prison.

"Our movers are on hold," Sharper Future President Mary-Perry Miller, Ph.D., a lesbian, told the Bay Area Reporter .

At the standing-room-only meeting in the auditorium of California Pacific Medical Center, some 200 residents, many wearing nametags that said "I Have A Question," heard gay Supervisor Scott Wiener promise that the move "was not a done deal."

"You have my word," said Wiener, "that this is just the beginning" of the process to debate the subject.

At issue was whether Sharper Future has gone through all the legal and regulatory channels necessary to move into the empty space.

The city issues involve local zoning and permit regulations, which will be discussed at a Board of Appeals hearing next week. The city had issued a letter of determination, essentially telling Sharper Future that given the limited information it supplied, zoning officials thought it appeared to meet the qualifications to occupy the small part of the space that had been occupied by AHF's medical clinic.

In response to the Sharper Future controversy, Wiener on Tuesday introduced legislation that would require new tenants offering medical services to receive a conditional use permit, which requires a public hearing, and an enforceable community outreach process. If approved by the Board of Supervisors and the mayor, the legislation would be retroactive to February 9 and would apply to Sharper Future, according to Jeff Cretan, an aide to Wiener.

The state issue involves a California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation regulation requiring contractors be at least 250 feet away from any facility that significantly serves minors. There are several childcare centers near the site, including the Mary Lane Infant and Toddler Center on Webster Street, and the Friends of St. Francis Children's Center on Belcher as well as at a church on Church Street. The state had previously conducted a site visit but had not found those centers. The visit will be repeated, according to a post by Duboce Triangle resident Marc Heber on a closed Facebook page called "San Francisco Coalition for Neighborhood Quality of Life."

Sharper Future argues that it qualifies under both local and state regulations, while opponents disagree.

The controversy began in January, when a Hoodline story disclosed that Sharper Future intended to move its sex offender rehabilitation program offices into 100 Church Street.

Community groups responded swiftly, with DTNA saying it was "blindsided" by the news and announcing that it would devote most of its February 8 meeting to the topic. In its February-March newsletter, DTNA said it took "no position" on the business itself, but the "unexpected announcement and lack of any vetting process has created a great deal of anxiety in the neighborhood."

In the meantime, a change.org petition was launched, gathering over 900 signatures, calling for a halt to the move.

Frustration Boils Over

The community's frustration and anger was evident at the meeting, when several dozen attendees repeatedly shouted down the speakers trying to defend and justify the project.

Much of the anger was directed at Miller, who conceded that her organization "had stumbled" in its attempt to communicate its plans to the neighborhood. She said that the organization had hired a public relations firm to help it conduct further outreach.

Miller said that the dustup in Duboce Triangle has been different from anything the company had been through in the 15 other cities where it has locations.

"We have peacefully co-existed with neighbors in San Francisco" for over 20 years, she said. Sharper Future began in Pacific Heights in the mid-1990s, and beginning in 2000, has been located in commercial buildings on Market Street. Its current site at 1540 Market Street is being torn down, forcing the company to find a new location.

Miller tried to convince the audience that the neighborhood would actually be safer with Sharper Future operating there. Some of the offenders already live in the neighborhood, while others may be allowed to visit in the area, although all wear some type of mandatory GPS monitor so that probation and parole officers know where they are at all times.

Sex offenders are not "monsters who jump out of the bushes" to attack you, Miller explained. She said 95 percent of the victims are friends or relatives of the offender.

Attendees also criticized Maitri Executive Director Michael Smithwick, a gay man, who explained that the rental income from the downstairs space accounts for a "significant portion" of Maitri's budget. He said he signed a lease with Sharper Future only after an 18-month search failed to turn up any other suitable tenants.

Smithwick said Maitri signed the lease because it appeared not to be controversial "in terms of permitting." Now, said Smithwick, Maitri is required to stand by its contractual obligation.

Several audience members, who did not identify themselves, said they weren't opposed to the idea that sexual offenders be offered rehabilitation services, but felt it should not be located in a residential neighborhood.

Agreeing with that sentiment was Park Station police Captain John Sanford, who received a round of applause when said he had "great concerns" about sexual offender rehabilitation being done in a residential community.

Several other audience members expressed their frustration that the "facts" presented by Sharper Future seemed to change.

In an interview with the B.A.R., DTNA President Dennis Roybal said that he has found Sharper Future officials "secretive" and "inconsistent" about their business and plans to move to the community.

For example, said Roybal, Sharper Future has maintained that most of its clients are not at high risk for relapse, yet state corrections documents require the company to have half their caseload of such individuals.

The company "has not been direct or straightforward" in answering our questions, said Roybal.

The B.A.R. contacted Sharper Future for a comment on the number of high-risk clients it would be treating at 100 Church Street. Miller said she was "unavailable" and referred calls to BergDavis Public Affairs, which said in an email that "due to privacy laws, Sharper Future is unable to provide details on clients."

Roybal, a property manager for Greentree Property Management in San Francisco, also predicted that Sharper Future's stated intention of subleasing the 4,000 square feet in their space that it is not using will be "impossible" to fulfill. If Maitri had been unable to find a tenant for that space, "how will Sharper Future be able to?" he asked.

When asked that question by the B.A.R., Miller said, "We have a good commercial realtor who will help us find someone."

But Roybal predicts both sides will agree to void the lease when "it becomes clear how much uncertainty there is" about the company receiving city and state approval to move in.

"This appears to be a situation that is a mix of people who didn't know what they were doing, and at the same time, pulling the wool over our eyes," he said.