Mayoral candidate Daniel Lurie faced skepticism after announcing his ambitious plan to establish 1,500 shelter beds in six months. Realizing the target was unrealistic, the focus shifted to having 1,500 beds either established or in progress by July. This change included counting beds from the previous administration as part of the total. Despite criticism regarding semantic changes in the goal and sincere intentions from Lurie, missing this deadline could actually be beneficial to avoid overcrowding shelters, a relief to city officials.
Lurie has redefined a broader scope of beds to fall under the aegis of "shelter bed," and decided to count 361 beds that were "in the pipeline" during the administration of Mayor London Breed toward that 1,500.
While we're at it, what's a bed? You'd think a bed is a bed is a bed, but, in San Francisco, it's not.
These are political games politicians play. But the appeal of Lurie was that he's not a politician. Semantic exercises of this sort are all the more awkward coming from someone whose earnestness and genuineness were, and still are, major selling points.
Missing this arbitrary deadline is not necessarily bad news. If Team Lurie had decided to go damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead on adding homeless beds, that would be worse.
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