As City of SF moves to evict seniors with severe mental illness, dozens of residents & family, staff rally in protest
SFDPH’s move to close two floors of the BHC to convert it to a fully locked facility would displace vulnerable adults, starting with seniors, threatening their stability & survival

Article July 1, 2025

The City & County of San Francisco is getting a $21 million state grant for renovations to create new locked psychiatric beds and has decided the Behavioral Health Center (BHC) at San Francisco General Hospital is the place to do it. The problem? There are 82 people with several mental health conditions already living in its Residential Care Facility for the Elderly (RCFE) and Adult Residential Facility (ARF) — so the City is telling them they will have to move out.

Thursday, June 26, dozens of RCFE and ARF residents, their family members, and staff rallied outside the BHC with a plea to SFDPH Director Daniel Tsai: Don’t evict and displace vulnerable people to facilities where they’ve struggled before — or the streets.

Most of the 83 current residents were bounced around from private facility to private facility prior to landing at the BHC. They struggled in those placements or were kicked out — but have found stability and well-being at the RCFE and ARF. So much so that 90% of them signed a petition delivered to the SF Public Health Commission last Monday asking them to stop the plan to close the RCFE and ARF.

“I’ve been working with the ARF clients for the last 20 years,” said mental health worker Sharifa Rahman. ”This isn’t just a place to live, it’s a therapeutic environment that the staff created. Most importantly, the staff here made them feel special, like they matter. That human connection is what helped them to become stable and well.

“In 2019, DPH already tried to close the ARF, and it caused confusion, stress, and fear. Now they’re going through it all over again. We understand the need for more locked facilities, but please, not at the cost of those who are already stable and healing. Don’t take away their home. Don’t undo years of progress.”

“By closing the beds at the RCFE and the ARF in order to open a locked facility, we lose beds. It’s not good policy to close one resource that’s already operating at a high level to open a new resource,” said SEIU 1021 Vice President of Organizing and SFDPH registered nurse Jennifer Esteen, who works at the BHC.

“In addition, the current locked facility located in the current building at the BHC has not had 100% occupancy for years. If we can’t staff and fill the current locked facility, what makes us think we’re going to staff and fill the new one? We should not displace residents who are currently stable, who were otherwise previously unstable, in order to build those beds. Please don’t make my clients decompensate, don’t send them to psych emergency, don’t send them to the streets.”

Antoinette Conde, the sister of a resident of the RCFE, spoke at the rally. “The BHC has provided security, safety and stability,” she said. “The staff really are familiar and skillful in dealing with this type of patient and his health conditions. To move him to these contractual facilities where he’s been before will create anxiety and even confusion. My brother is all I have. If I don’t fight for his safety and well-being, who else will?”