From left: Fernando Senegal, Leah Edwards, Shaun Aukland, Adam Hong and Lara Hashimoto are members of the SOMA West Neighborhood Association. The group filed a formal complaint with state authorities, alleging that San Francisco is unlawfully concentrating homelessness and mental health services in the neighborhood.

Whenever dystopian images of San Francisco flash across your social-media feed — of tent encampments, naked people in the throes of a mental-health crisis, piles of needles or human waste — there’s a good chance they were taken in the Tenderloin or South of Market neighborhoods. 

For decades, these two areas have served as de facto containment zones for San Francisco’s most pervasive social woes; they account for 60% of the city’s homeless shelters and transitional housing facilities. 

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Pretty much everyone agrees this isn’t fair. But there’s far less consensus about how to fix it.

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Residents and business owners have repeatedly sued the city over street conditions in the Tenderloin, with limited legal success. Last year, Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, introduced a bill to spread homelessness and mental health services across the city. The law, which went into effect in January, prioritizes funding shelters in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of homeless people than beds — largely affluent, development-resistant communities on the west side — and requires additional review before new shelters can be put in the Tenderloin and SoMa. 

Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who represents the Tenderloin, wrote a law that prioritizes funding shelters in neighborhoods with a higher percentage of homeless people than beds, with the goal of spreading services throughout the city.

For one group of SoMa residents, however, Mahmood’s legislation didn’t go nearly far enough.

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On Friday, the SOMA West Neighborhood Association filed a formal complaint with state authorities, alleging that San Francisco has used a........

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