Guide
Perimeter checks under San Francisco’s Good Neighbor Policy
From November 2026, San Francisco expects covered housing, shelter and health program sites to look over their perimeter three times a day. This guide follows a single pass from the front door to the curb, through escalation and the shift handover.
Where the perimeter begins and ends
San Francisco’s Good Neighbor Policy (August 2026) gives covered sites a specific stretch of ground to watch, which it names the immediate area surrounding the site: the sidewalk out front, the curb, the building face, each entry and exit, the public space beside them and any nearby spot that staff know program activity regularly touches. A program in a single storefront treats that storefront as the whole perimeter.
Providers hold no legal authority over a public sidewalk, and the City says so plainly. A check exists to notice conditions and hand them to the City, never to police the block, and it runs during operating hours, which means every hour at a site that never closes. The policy reaches supportive housing, shelters, transitional housing, access points and drop-in centers funded by the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, plus client-serving programs under the Department of Public Health. Implementation is planned for November and December 2026, with an enforcement window to follow. The City publishes the policy on its Citywide Good Neighbor Policy page, and this guide was last reviewed against it in October 2026.
Three passes a day, and when each one goes on record
Three perimeter checks a day is the baseline, and the sf.gov summary applies it to every city-contracted site. Logging each pass in the City’s Good Neighbor app is a separate step that a funding department imposes in writing, naming the review period and the condition behind it.
Three kinds of site may have to log every pass: sites under a City corrective action plan, busy walk-in or no-appointment programs, and sites where the same problems kept going unlogged or unreported. If your program sees heavy walk-in traffic, plan on logging every pass and build the written routine early. The City judges a site on the actions it documented, not on how many complaints arrive.
What a single pass looks at
A good pass is an unhurried loop of the frontage, the doors and the curb. Staff pick up litter and discarded items where that is legally and operationally possible, and program trash, such as containers after a meal service, goes into closed bins instead of staying on the street. Entrances, exits, curb ramps and the adjoining sidewalk stay open so every passerby, including people using wheelchairs or strollers, has a safe path.
Some finds are reported rather than handled. Human or animal waste and hazardous items go into the GN app instead of being treated as litter. Graffiti on property the provider controls comes off in a 72-hour window, weather and access permitting, while tags on a neighbor’s wall are reported in the app.
Choosing the right escalation route
The policy’s reporting guide sorts findings into three routes. Threats to life or safety go straight to 911: a medical emergency or overdose, fire or smoke, violence, a crime under way, or a behavioral health crisis with immediate risk. Noise, trespassing, vandalism, suspicious activity or an entrance blocked enough to create an access problem go to the police non-emergency line or the GN app. Debris, hazardous waste, graffiti, encampments and abandoned items are submitted in the GN app, which passes each one to 311 or the department responsible.
Staff are never expected to step in physically: they redirect when it is safe and disengage and escalate when it is not. A problem that keeps returning after routine reporting goes to the program manager at the funding department.
Building checks around the shift handover
Three passes slot neatly into the points where a site already pauses: the morning start, the afternoon handover and the evening change. The policy itself suggests recording recurring issues at shift change and adjusting staff deployment to match, so the outgoing person walks the frontage just before leaving and the incoming person starts with a current picture of the doors and the curb.
Spread the passes across the hours of operation, since three bunched into one morning leave the evening unwatched, and keep the same order on every loop. The policy also asks property management, front desk, security and services staff to coordinate so each group responds the same way.
How HALO supports your perimeter routine
HALO Private Security works beside your team rather than in place of it. Your organization stays the accountable primary operator, and your staff still enter checks and escalations in the GN app. HALO adds a reliable person on the frontage at the times you choose and a written account of what that person saw.
On-site security personnel can take the scheduled passes, checking the sidewalk, entries, curb ramps and bins in the order your site sets and photographing anything that needs staff action, timed around your shift changes, with a visible presence at the main door in between. Patrol rounds along checkpoints your site picks handle the late passes, and with 24-hour coverage the overnight hours get the same attention as the afternoon. Where cameras already watch your doors, CCTV monitoring keeps eyes on those entrances between loops and reaches your contacts in the order you give.
Every pass and observation goes into a photo patrol report for the contact you name: what was checked, what turned up and a picture of anything that needs action, giving your staff a dated record to work from when they log entries in the GN app. To set the route and timing, a risk assessment and security plan looks at your entrances, operating hours and the way people arrive and leave.
HALO’s San Francisco coverage includes SoMa, the Mission District, Union Square and the rest of the city. Getting ready for the Good Neighbor rollout? Tell HALO about your frontage, your operating hours and the shifts you run, and HALO comes back with perimeter coverage built around the routine your staff already keep. Day-to-day staffing is described on the supportive housing and shelter security and rehab and treatment facility security pages.
Services
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A few useful answers
Quick answers
How many perimeter checks does the Good Neighbor Policy expect?
Three a day at every city-contracted site. A funding department can also require each pass to be logged in the GN app when a threshold criterion applies.
What ground does a perimeter check cover?
The sidewalk, curb, frontage, entries and exits around the site, plus nearby spots that program activity regularly affects. A storefront program treats its storefront as the perimeter.
Who enters our checks in the GN app if HALO walks the frontage?
Your own staff, because the primary operator stays accountable. HALO’s photo patrol reports give them a clear account of each pass, pictures included, to draw from.
Where should a pass report a blocked entrance?
When the blockage creates an immediate access problem, use the police non-emergency line or the GN app. If anyone’s safety is at immediate risk, call 911.
Does a 24-hour site need passes overnight?
Yes. The policy runs through operating hours, so a site open day and night spreads its passes across the full clock, with patrol rounds or a 24-hour post taking the late ones.