A much anticipated tiny cabin village for homeless people is finally open in San Francisco’s Mission District after years of planning, delays and intense controversy over the project’s steep price tag.

As of Tuesday, 10 unhoused people had moved into the village, located near the BART 16th Street Station, with plans to welcome an additional five people each day until all 60 cabins are occupied, according to Emily Cohen, spokesperson for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. 

The village at 1979 Mission St., which is San Francisco’s second tiny home site, is expected to last only about two years, before developers break ground on an affordable housing project at the site. That’s despite an eye-popping price tag of about $113,000 for each cabin, when taking into account the cost of a community room and management offices. 

Cities such as Oakland and San Jose have built tiny cabin villages for a fraction of that cost in recent years, prompting critics to question why public projects — from tiny homes to trash cans to toilets — seem to cost so much in San Francisco. The city will spend an additional $2.9 million a year to provide services at the site.

The strife surrounding the project illustrates the difficulties San Francisco faces in trying to expand its housing and shelter system. San Francisco has added more than 1,000 temporary shelter beds over the past six years, but last year city officials estimated it would take 6,000 new supportive housing units and shelter beds and cost more than $1 billion to end unsheltered homelessness over the next three years. Meanwhile, city officials must navigate neighborhood opposition and rising construction costs.

Controversy over homelessness and street conditions has been particularly intense in the Mission in recent years. Residents, merchants and the neighborhood’s supervisor have decried visible tents, open drug use, vending of illegal goods and other quality-of-life issues. 

The high costs of the project concerned city officials and residents from the start. It also recently led leaders of a nonprofit that oversaw the much cheaper building of the city’s first tiny home village at 33 Gough St. to question whether the city should take on projects like these. 

Plans for the tiny cabin village were placed on hold in early 2023 after serious backlash from community members, questions about the eye-popping price tag and concerns from Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the Mission District, that the city was failing to keep the blocks around another shelter in the area free of tents, loitering, graffiti and trash. 

Ronen pushed for the project to help address growing homeless encampments in her district but briefly walked back her support after community resistance. She also called the original cost estimate, about $100,000 per cabin, “insane.”

By late 2023, Ronen told the Chronicle that she was giving the project a “thumbs-up,” in part because officials assured her there would be a full-time staffer on call to handle community complaints. 

Ronen said Tuesday that she was grateful to have a safe, dignified and welcoming environment for unhoused people that helps them transition out of homelessness. 

“It feels like a mini version of any beautiful street and neighborhood here in San Francisco,” she said. “It feels truly healing and will be such a nice transition from the street.”

Ronen added that she hopes that the tiny home village will show detractors that placing unhoused people in these types of projects will be much more successful and cost-effective in getting people off the street than congregate shelters or supportive housing. 

Cohen said the village is an example of “creative temporary uses of city-owned property to maximize the positive community impact prior to development.”

Cities across the Bay Area, including San Jose and Oakland, have embraced tiny cabin villages in recent years as a more affordable way of quickly getting people off the streets and on a pathway to permanent housing. 

Advocates say they also offer homeless individuals a more dignified alternative to congregate shelters, which many unhoused people decline to go to because of lack of privacy, storage restrictions and theft concerns. 

The private cabins at the Mission site offer residents a bed, desk, storage space, heating and a window. The site includes shared bathroom facilities, laundry machines, a dining area and community space.

Mayor London Breed, who is in China this week, said in a statement that the cabins will “provide a critical new space” to “bring people off the streets and into a safe, stable environment.”

“That’s how we end homelessness for people who need help and it’s how we prevent long-term encampments in our neighborhoods,” the statement continued.

The city contracted with Five Keys Schools and Programs — a San Francisco organization founded by the sheriff’s office in 2003 — to operate the site, provide security and offer onsite social services such as case management, life skills classes and workforce programs. Five Keys currently manages the Embarcadero Navigation Center.

Staff will not only be responsible for serving the residents living in the cabins but also responding to community concerns and keeping the surrounding streets clean and safe, according to Steve Good, president and CEO of Five Keys.

Good said he hopes to transition people out of the cabins and into a more permanent housing option within six months. 

“Our goal is to really make this a true interim stop,” he said. “It’s a respite from the streets — an opportunity to clean up, sleep in a bed, have laundry services and meals and help people stabilize and then move onto more permanent supportive housing.”

Reach Maggie Angst: maggie.angst@sfchronicle.com. Reach Aldo Toledo: aldo.toledo@sfchronicle.com