Special Report - Homeless Connect -PCH#19 - 12/05/2007

SFHomeless Yahoo! Group

SPECIAL REPORT ON - Homeless Connect aka - PCH #19 - Wednesday, December 5, 2007 - Bill Graham Auditorium across from San Francisco City Hall

Merry Christmas To Our Homeless & Poor Citizens of San Francisco !

SFHomeless Connect (started by Mr. Alex Tourk, yep! They don't mention this on the current sfconnect.org web site... instead they say '... was started under Mayor Newsom' ... why rob credit from one of the project's main creators. Who would not want to give him credit and recognition on the site for the program he practically fathered ? ) came back to life in our town again, with all kinds of goodies for the good town folk.

ANYWAY, We're only going to touch a few good and few bad issues because overall, we like the idea of this event and hope to see many more, perhaps more often.

Let's start out with the morning line.

Between sunrise and 8:30 am, it looked like there was no event !

Small groups would go to the doors, get their time-stamped color coded ticket and take off to 'do their' thing until it was their time to 'get in line'. No huge crowds like a couple past events. No heavy police presence, just lots and lots of volunteers. That was a good thing. Keep the crowds thin and there's lesschance of conflct. Orderly.

WAITING AT THE HOMELESS DAY CARE CENTER . . . AS USUAL . .
A large number of Homeless Connectees congregated around the Main Public Library, aka'Our Homeless Day Care Center'. There was a great deal of tension in the air this mornging, though. Burning in most homeless person's mind is a great and urgent need to get the very thing it is, their MOST URGENT priority.

And can you guess what it is... that most homeless people want every night ?

Something they dream about and hope for every day....

And, what do most home-less people want ? That's right, YOU GOT IT !!

100 Homeless People Surveyed - said..... DING! 'SAFE AFFORDABLE HOUSING' !

The one thing most desperately needed is - safe, affordable, permanent housing.

They see what looks like a ton of money and human effort going into a lot of really 'neat' services and programs that move us around from place to place, several
times in one year or more. And when all is said and done; when their day is finally over, they are reminnded that they will not get the 'thing' that they need the most. Safe Housing.

Being homeless in San Francisco means being torn apart every day in so many ways.

Emotionally, physically and mentally. Longs walks to get from one service to the other wasting lots of valuable time. Temptation and potential confrontations on every other street corner.

Most shelters are in or adjacent to The Tenderloin or Sixth Street (SoMa) with hordes of dealers chattering 'chiva, chiva, chiva' or 'O-C, O-C, I got what you need...) which is strressful to non-drug addicts and drug addicts in recovery.

Beat cops are starting to make more of a presence (just like they used to) but without constant coverage and long term committment, the homeless are easy marks and totally outnumbered by dealers on the streets and inside the shelters. Guaranteed to lower street homicide
rates.

Who's stupid idea was it to take away beat cops anyway ?!

ALL statistics show that beat cops increase community ties, provide more leads and tips on dangerous criminals and reduce actual street crime and violence (costs less, too... duh !).

M O R E B E A T C O P S = L E S S V I O L E N C E - AND -

LESS STREET CRIMES ( Einstein... ) (less shootings, stabbings, etc.)

Our Homeless Community's Love-Hate Affair With SF Homeless Connect

Can you imagine" what its like to be ever so grateful for the presence of Homeless Connect, but forever wondering where does all the tens of millions of dollars for services (one official government employee stated at a meeting it costs something like $64,000 per person, to meet one year of the most basic needs - just for never ending re-cycle of 'temporary, substandard living spaces) and why doesn't it all make it into real safe, affordable, long term housing and real jobs at livable wages FOR ALL WORKING AND POOR SAN FRANCISCANS..

Our fellow San Franciscans, ( many of them having been homeless and now work in shelters, resource centers, etc.) that are barely making it;

Some of them burning money into Bush's pocket on commutes or riding unreliable Metro, losing sleep and spirit every day. Muni workers, other local and state employees and all kinds of service and restaurant and security staff are either being stripped of their consumable income due to low wages and outrage rents or they are living far away adding to the daily commute that is choking our City.

Anyway, more on Homeless Connect, today.

- The Morning Line up . . . .

Instead of having a well regulated 'gated' entrance into the beginning of the barricaded walk way, all kinds of people holding different ticket times were crowded, arguing and stressing on the lack of order in the line.

There were two care takers with wheelchair clients in the line that were on the cell trying to get their right to be ahead of the line, by the door. Not buried in a barricaded walk way (with no 'safety exit' gaps') with unevenly placed security staff.

If a fight had broken out (there were several face to face confrontations on the corner and in the line) the people in the wheel chair could not have quickly fled or gotten out of the way. They would have been slammed up onto the metal barricades or knocked over and possibly trampled.

REAL HARM REDUCTION - REGULATE THE ENTRANCE INTO THE LINE BY CHECKING EVERY TICKET.

Most clubs, events raves, and concerts control access when using tickets. Single file line and noone gets into 'roped off' lines without the right ticket for the right line or the right time. To expect very hungry, often desperate and 'not 100% together' people to follow orders without proper checks and oversight is pretty short sighted.

There were several dozen people in line that had the wrong ticket times and when the police officer came by with his megaphone to 'shout' that noone should be in line that doesn't have, for example, the 10am to 1015am salmon ticket should not be in line. He did not check.

All the cheaters, haters and line cutters just 'laughed' and made fun of the cop with the megaphone because it was like 'for show'. Nothing changed and no 'order' in the line was restored by his dramatic, megaphonic presence.

Another risky, tough decision making moment for the homeless. Now, the 'good homeless' that had the right ticket and were pissed off at the line cutters that pushed their way past us, had to decide between 'sucking it up' or risk getting into a fight and pulled from the line (and making a new enemy) because of a lack of experienced, professional line security....

No one regulated the entrance to the line to require that the only people that were able to get into line were the right color and time ticket. That simple common
sense practice would have eliminated the tension, the stress, the line cutting, the arguments and the sheer number of people in line, in half at least.

The care givers (with their wheel chair bound clients in tow) had already tried twice to go directly to the main entrance and were told by either police officers or connect staff that they had to all the way to the back of the line even though they had apparent disabilities..

'They were in wheelchairs . . . what's so hard to figure out about that... where were the 'supervisors' that were supposed to cruise around to fix
problems caused by the volunteers ? Lack of training... heck ! Why do disabled in this town always end up getting disrespected ? '

At one shelter the basement cafeteria 'monitors' used to tell the disabled, 'If you ain't got a cane then you need to step up and get your own god damned plate... shit...' [ Next Door Shelter - ECS - 2006, 2007 ]

Have you ever seen a elderly man with a limp or a back problem or tremors 'shuffle' up to get a plate of food (real slow) and then watch him spill his juice and his food all over his tray and onto the floor as he 'shuffles' and hobbles back to his seat, at the back of a lunch room ? We have. It's heart breaking and gut wrenching to
watch.

BACK TO THE MORNING LINE UP . . . . .

Onward. another dozen guys cut past another group in line because the people with later time stamped tickets were just standing in a column with a crowd of others alongside them and noone could tell where was the true 'end' of the line or why the line was not moving. It caused confusion and anxiety.

Everyone that had not stayed at one of the few shelters that has sufficient breakfasts, were very hungry.

The ones that got the lousy breakfasts or had to walk a mile or so with heavy bags and backpacks were irritable due to lack of energy. So, another group of a dozen starts cutting in line and by the time we got near the doors, they got shut, and we got delayed again by the cheaters with no sense that the security was even aware of the tensions in the crowd.

FINALLY, MADE IT TO THE CLIENT ASSESSMENT PART OF THE SHOW . . .

Going through the client assessment lines were fast enough, and we got these really tasty chocolate energy bars and corporate green tea.

But when one volunteer (who was sending people to the intake tables, where other
volunteers held colored cards up in the air, signalling they were ready for another client), told the other volunteer, that two clients need someone that speaks Spanish.

The other volunteer said, 'okay...' but sent the non-english speaking client over to anasian volunteer and we listened, but she did not speak english, anyway.

So, it looks like all the volunteers need just a little training on how to refer clients to 'other language' volunteers to help the client get what they need without mistakes or embarassment.

Several people raved about the chiropractor. Once again, they said 'no housing, just information' which was kind of predicted but, you could still see the sense of 'housing hopelessness' in the eyes of the homeless and the volunteers who had to clarify that for the non-believers.

Shelter reservations (money for non-profits which is not a bad thing in and of itself, but the money would be better spent on 'real housing') were available at a wide array of fine and not so fine shelters.

A lot of

the homeless looked really messed up like they NEEDED to get off the street TODAY and it was so sad to see that all too familiar look on their face that says, 'fuck it, I give up look' when they realized there were not going to be offered 'housing' at the 'housing information' tables, again....

GET YOUR GRUB ON !

IS THAT LUNCH ORDER FOR HERE, OR 'TO GO' .. . .

The lunch was good and one could choose between turkey or veggie sandwiches, some decent minestrone looking soup, brown rice pilaf kind of side dish, coffee, apple juice and killer chocolate chip cookies !!

Later in the day, we saw a woman walk back a block away from the library to get her cookie she left on the landscaped concrete bank. And that's when we noticed the Moo Cow milk cartons (which we will get into a little bit later in this posting...).

So, the food was good, the only real bummer, so far, was the lack of eyeglass, DMV ID services ran out early, as usual. And they had some realy cute little 'Christmassy' things (gifts?) on one set of table. GAAP (General Assistance Advocay Project) was there helping with GA related problems (man they work hard and take a lot of crap from their clients at their offices on Golden Gate).

Gavin Newsom even walked by us with only a couple of visible body guards and we did not even recognize him.

He had ditched the suit and only had nice dress shirt (causal) being trailed by the
ever slightly interesting Abdallah, the self proclaimed 'homeless advocate for
17 years..' or something like that.

Heard a rumor that he helped 'blow the whistle' on a number of issues around the homeless rights and corruption, but he went too far and was purported to have 'written up' a homeless client that had plugged in his cell phone ( a violation of Next Door's Policies to plug in a cell phone, except the floor monitors and front desk not only plug their cell phones in but at night, the monitors watch DVD's with sound eliminating head phones all night ).

Uh, Oooohhhh.... Damn it! Just when it was all going so well....

THE BIG SHELTER SYSTEM CRASH !!

Then came the crash . . . yes, ladies and gentleman.

THE NUMBER ONE NEED OF MOST HOMELESS WAS EFFECITIVELY DENIED TO EVERYONE ! HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM...

The computer network for the entire building died. Zip. Off Line...

All of the computers for entering in data (unless entered into software programs running on a laptop or desktop) were rendered useless. No Shelter Reservations were possible because Homeless Connect lost all network connectivity for several hours.

What do they call that in the corporate world ? ? When they do process and task planning ? ??

Aw, yes, the Mission Critical task apparently had no redundant (duplicate) back up system in place. The entire 'shelter reservation' system, the single most important 'thing' needed by almost all homeless clients was rendered unavailable.

No manual hard copies of 'vacant beds/mats' no cell phone 'call in' reservation system, zip, zero, ,nada for nadia (nothing for nobody). Most clients were told that it
could be a few minutes to a couple hours until the system was back online. A Lack of Connection For The Homeless. And a lack of communication.

Generally, when a computer system, any system goes down, you need a back up plan - a plan 'B'. All clients just want someone that really knows to keep them posted - but it looks like noone working on the system was giving any ETA's to the Shelter Reservation people from the shelters.

THIS IS STILL HIGH-TECH SF RIGHT ? WHERE ARE ALL THE GOOD, ON THE BALL, QUALIFIED TECHIES NOW TO HELP US WHEN ENTIRE NETWORKS GO DOWN ?? ARE THEY NOW HOMELESS OR SOMETHING !

WHY DON'T THEY JUST 'GET A JOB' AND STOP BEING HOMELESS ?!

What makes it so irritating to the homeless people we have discussed this with over the years, is that there are dozens of computer techs tand people in all kinds of professions, hat are homeless and they cannot get work until they have certain things in place, like safe, reliable, long term housing.

It is rare for anyone to get up out of the shelter system because there are a million
ways that shelter life will trip up and mess up your working life.

Lack of sleep, lack of bus tokens, lack of storage space for work gear, lack of
reliability of 'wake up' calls, no access to telephones, care no cash or change
for laundry, phone calls, cell phone bills, no access to plug in cell phones,
not allowed to use cell phones or alarm clocks to wake up with.

Working a decent job where you cannot be late and must look sharp and be sharp just becomes nearly impossible when staying in most shelters. That is another 'captive shelter' reality.

When your most basic, 'normal' needs are denied or delayed you cannot keep a decent job because you will be late, you will not be performing well and you will likely lose serveral jobs while homeless, which all end up somewhere on your record or becomeS part of your 'reputation'.

It wears you down quick and leads to a whole bunch of social, emotional, financial and physical problems.

If you got the right amount of sleep, got enough to eat and did not have to wait in
lines for hours just to get a bed for a night, most able bodied homeless people
would 'go to work' every day (if there is steady work available) just like they
used to....

WHERE ARE THE GOOD SHEPARDS AT - THAT WATCH OVER OUR TAX FUNDED SHELTER SHEEP !

Now, we are down to a couple of the bummers of homeless connect, but first, we need to give everyone a little background for reference.

SMC INSPECTION AT TENDERLOIN HOUSING

- ARE ANY OF YOU STILL WAITING TO BE HEARD !

Earlier in the day, we were talking to some homeless people that had been at Tenderloin Housing Cllinic, the other day, with about 35 people that had waited around for the Shelter Monitoring Committee to arrive for a prescheduled inspection (as opposed to 'surprise' inspections that they make without notice to catch the mice at play) and were told that it looked like only one person showed up from the SMC and they only stayed about ten or 15 minutes.

It looks like alot of people had a lot more to say and did not have near sufficient time
(like they did a week or so ago at TARC) to bring out all of their issues.

The observations and experiences of each and every homeless person is very important information and should be kept quiet or be left unheard. Every action taken to help the homeless community comes directly from the sharing of their experiences with the entire SF community.

THE NEEDS OF THE HOMELESS IS BEST EXPRESSED BY THE HOMELESS.

YOU ARE THE ONES THAT MAKES THE DIFFERENCE. HOMELESS SHELTER RESIDENTS AND HOMELESS SERVICE CLIENTS NEED TO BE SMART TO MAKE ALL OF THEIR VOICES HEARD . . . ORGANIZE AND USE SIMPLE PETITIONS !

One thing that works for cure the 'lack of time' problem is what has been done at several shelters, with great success. Residents would hold their own private
meetings away from shelter staff and 'write up' all of their grievances from 20
or 30 residents at a time, in Petition format and everyone would sign off on
that, that were affected by the same issues.

Then a small group of 4 or 5 would meet or call or email their Petition to the Shelter Monitoring Committee directly (during inspections) and send a copy to the SFHomeless Yahoo! Group, who would review it, 'blank out' the names and signatures to protect the innocent and forward it all to the SMC and all other appropriate agencies and players in homeless world for action, as a registered, yet semi-anonymous complaints.

Another reason the SMC needs to increase their presence and visibility within the homeless community (at events like this one) has to do with the fact that there is a lot of important things happening that will dramatically affect the entire City's Shelter System.

Projects, work groups and activities that are going on with the Shelter Monitoring Committee's 'Shelter Standards of Care' legislation that is now winding its way down a treacherous path through unchartered waters around City Hall and various agencies and committees that all homeless people need to be aware of and be kept informed about.

We walked all around and saw lots of non-profits and city agencies, but there was no table at homeless connect, set up by the Shelter Monitoring Committee.

However, not all was lost. Several Members of the Shelter Monitoring were spotted, in attendance. We got to hear two committee members(one volunteer, one client) that were discussing these various homeless related issues (man, some of these members never seem to stop 'doing something' to help all of our homeless residents. We really appreciate the work that they have doneand expect a lot more from them, as time marches on.

We did not mean to eavesdrop, but they were standing next to each other talking about this so we took notes...

Apparently, the only paid staff member that reports to the SMC is a woman that we have seen in action named Bernice Casey. She does the work of like 3 people and she usually does set up a booth at Homeless Connect.

She is on maternity leave [ bless her and her baby(ies) ] and so that is why noone was here at the event. I guess for lack of planning or resources or organization or whatever, the SMC members themselves did not cover this slot.

Quite a damn shame since it looks like their Standard of Care legislation that is being 'bounced around town' like a hot potato. Someone from the SMC, could have been passing out copies of the latest draft legislation and been outreaching and seeking support and endorsements BY THE HOMELESS.

The very people who are going to be most affected or dis-affected (we'll see how and who is going to really enforce the standards and laws that have NOT been for like ten years or more, now). ANOTHER MISSED OPPORTUNITY !!

One of those two SMC Members stepped up in the conversation and offered to 'be there' for the next PCH, so, we'll see if he keeps his word on that. We all know the SMC has it rough with their star (and only) staffer out, but why didn't the SMC Members or the Chairperson make plans for coverage.... ???

THE GRAND FINALE !

THIS WAY TO THE EXIT PLEASE. WATCH YOUR STEP !

HEALTH ALERT !

DO NOT DRINK THE CHOCOLATE OR WHITE MILK IN THE CARTONS... THEY ARE OUTDATED AND NASTY !!

And you had better 'watch your milk', too. Even though the exit line volunteers gave us a pretty good selection of drinks (except the weird Kellogg Special K20 Water with ZERO vitamins), fruit (yummy oranges), little mini cereal packets,
and KILLER CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES !!, we had to take exception to something that kind of made us sick. We are grateful but we'd like to see more
nutrition. More nutrition. More nutrition....

No. Really. We got sick off two items that we were given that was a 'preventable' thing if someone had stopped for a moment and read a label. We were given Crystal Brand White and Chocolate Milk (in cartons) that was out of the 'use by' date for almost a week.

Crystal White & Chocolate Milk in Cartons - Rotten

Chocolate Milk Dated Nov 30 - Lumpy & Chunky

Lowfat White Milk Dated Nov 29 - Sweet & Sour

We saw angry homeless people throw their milks down onto the sidewalk, in front of the library, as they choked and puked on the sour, back dated milk. Lumpy, lumpy chocolate milk and sickly sweet and sour white milk.

Hopefully, we will never see this again... And, of course, we checked out cartons that were left on top of trash cans, all around City Hall and the Tenderloin.

The only milk we found that had a 'good' date was one that was very cold and had been stamped differently - because it likely came from a local store.

Every other carton we came across from PCH#19 all had bad dates....

Got Housing ? No, but we got Milk !

-- END OF REPORT --

Thanks to Tina, Elisha, Bob, Tyrone and Jonathan for the great info ! Keep your eyes open.... allways...