NIMBY Wins; Sex Offender Rehab Co. Gives Up on San Francisco Site

Sharper Future, the sex offender rehabilitation company, has announced that it's given up trying to move into San Francisco's Duboce Triangle neighborhood.

Many residents, upset by the rehab's lack of community outreach, protested its attempt to move into the former Out of the Closet thrift store.

A couple days after a February 8 meeting about the move drew about 200 people, Mary-Perry Miller, the company's president, released a statement saying, "Sharper Future has decided to immediately halt efforts to move into 100 Church Street. After Monday evening's meeting, it is clear that our presence would be divisive for everyone concerned.

"Out of respect for the community and the very critical work that we do, we've elected to seek an alternative location," Miller added.

Miller didn't say where her company would be looking. A spokeswoman declined an interview request.

Sharper Future had signed a lease with Maitri hospice, which owns the site, in January. AIDS Healthcare Foundation had operated the thrift store and a medical clinic in the space.

Even though it's been vacant for more than a year, Supervisor Scott Wiener, whose District 8 includes the facility, said he doesn't think Maitri would "have a problem filling the space."

"It' s a great location, and I know there will be interest in it," Wiener said.

Just before Sharper Future announced it was giving up, he introduced a resolution that would impose interim zoning controls for an 18-month period. The legislation would require new tenants offering medical services to receive a conditional use permit, which requires a public hearing, and an enforceable community outreach process.

Asked about whether a medical marijuana shop could be put there, Wiener said the site is part of a "green zone" and "is properly zoned for medical cannabis."

He said the Sharper Future fiasco is "a good reminder of the importance of strong, robust outreach."

"Surprising the community is never a good thing," Wiener said. "... You need to work with people. This project was going to be controversial regardless, but the lack of outreach created mistrust in the community that made it a more difficult situation than it was already going to be."

In a Facebook exchange with the Bay Area Reporter after Miller's announcement, Duboce Triangle resident Devin Kordt-Thomas said, "The community did the right thing. Both Sharper Future and Maitri's board of directors could have spared themselves this ordeal and, had they been forthcoming with their plans, learned earlier that 100 Church Street was not a suitable location for a sex offender rehab center. The neighborhood involvement on this issue was inspiring and I am thankful for everyone's efforts."

Kordt-Thomas, who's with SF Coalition for Neighborhood Quality of Life, started a change.org petition opposing the Sharper Future move that drew almost 1,000 signatures.

But the outcry that scared off Sharper Future also disturbed some residents.

In a post to the Duboce Triangle Neighborhood Association's Facebook group, Erik Flatmo, a resident of the area for more than 11 years, said, "I really feel that our neighborhood's reaction to this issue has been overzealous and without compassion. Frenzied, without patience, and free from any sort of understanding of human complexity. Definitely not 'liberal' in the true sense. ... I would love to change the tone of our reactions to such situations in the future."