We do not know for sure, why he is stalling. His point man at the Budget & Finance Meeting told us
they wanted to go over alternatives or something, but that is what the work group and the whole
community have done for 9 months, and two years, respectively.
The Mayor was not actively particpating until the very last moment and that bothers us greatly.
It automatically brings the important issues of Trust and Motive -- into the forefront of our minds.
We know there are times when he is honest.
There are times we know he has been more dishonest than a large percentage of homeless people
and non-homeless people I know.
That is why we are not sure... Trust in our Mayor Newsom; Trust in Trent Rohrer of Human
Services and Trust in the non-profits is at al all time low, in that descending order.
Let's all Examiner this topic closer and learn something about him and about ourselves.
Mayor's Office Stalls Legislation to Create Shelter Standards of Care [aka Minimum Standard
of Care ] for our City's homeless shelters. [ According to the latest news reports from the
SF Bay Guardian on February 27, 2008 - Beyond Beds by the 'should win a Pulitzer Prize'
Journalists Bryan Cohen and Amanda Witherell; in her Article 'Shelter Shuffle' , written
on February 12, 2008 ]
San Francisco has only one 24 hour center for our homeless, elderly and often mentally
ill residents, to go to, especailly at night, to be safe, warm and dry.
This 24 Hour Drop-In Center Site reduces risk of harm to 150 people, every night.
Safe Places can often prevent 'slightly' mentally ill & traumatized people from 'acting up';
becoming violent or being provoked into violence (set-up) or from becoming 'seriously'
mentally ill.
Whenever our community fails to invest in preventive programs - or fails to enact carefully
thought out 'standards' for programs, the predicatable result is an immediate skyrocketing
of expenses, to all tax payers and greatly increases risk and rates of serious injury &
fatalities, of our fellow residents -- we need to be smarter about applying 'human value'
factors and 'future risks and costs' to the way in which we determine budget cuts.
We mention these items together (Closing of Buster's Place, cutting off the 'slightly mentally
ill resources & stalling the Shelter Standard of Care legislation) because they are having a
negative impact to our community and is causing immediate harm to all homeless residents
and to all San Franciscans.
We want to trust the Mayor is doing right by stalling (i.e. he has a sincere interest in
these issues).
But the fact remains clear, that the rest of our community, already spent 2 years and nine
months going over every facet of this legislation with shelter residents, shelter providers,
dept. of health representatives and homeless advocates. They are all confident that this
is the right legislation and fair estimates of cost, for this human investment.
References:
This HIP Group 'apparently' (web sites and glossy funding brochures and vid-e-ohs can be
highly deceptive.... so, let's keep it real now ...) says they have been able to provide 1,000
'homes' to real homeless people, every year. BRAVO !
Real homes (not SRO's or group living, but homes with ownership) for real people.
We are keeping our eyes on this provider, as one example that proves that when 'the will'
of good people is honored, supported, funded and followed through on, anything is possible.
Gee, homeless people that are housed become tax paying workers and good consumers
generating more taxes to help more people.... what a concept !
And this is money being spent to save lives, reduce current and future costs (for damage,
disease, abuse all caused by lack of these standards, in particular) so this is not a regular
'expense' like some legislation to build a building or hire a homeless czar, for example.
This (Std. of Care) legislation will save us many times more money because this is a capital
investment in reforming an inhumane set of conditions that allowed our people to be abused,
warehoused and 'held back' from leaving shelters.
The way in which many of our shelters have been operated (without enforced standards
and accountability) have caused more people to 'stay homeless' and 'stay ill' instead of
'moving on' like they should have.
We have huge percentages of homeless that have been homeless for many years...
because there were no standards and the contracts were not being enforced consistently.
This investment in 'standards' will give immediate results worth many, many millions of
dollars more, EVERY YEAR, by eliminating 25 to 50% levels of waste, fraud and act to
prevent future costs in treating sickness, disease and increase harm reduction and
abuse prevention -- exponentially. Hundreds of people will no longer be abused,
denied services erroneously or live in 'step away from a slum', anymore.
Reference:
2. SEE DEFINITION FOR SLUM - 2003 Global Report on 'Human Settlements' -- PDF File --
Studies Conditions in Major Cities and Regions -- Slum Lords.Excellent Reference !!
Frankly, when you have been homeless and 'seen it all' you tend to get impatient with
people that either 'don't get it' or have something to gain, by not improving the lives
of others to a humane level. Or, it's just a potporruri or lack of standards, training,
enforcement, et cetera. SAME OLD SONG....
A no-brainer for reasonable human beings once you stop the lies and think about it.
Anyone can try to 'spin' this legislation, but, the bottom line is that this legislation will go a
long way to end chronic, systematic, widespread abuse of homeless residents now and into
the future. It will stop a lot of abuse and save a lot of money and help a lot more people,
every day -- instead of the exact opposite which is the system we have now.
Look at the budget items for tens of millions of dollars of overtime that City Agencies
have submitted increases over last year, for.
We believe that proper, careful planning, training and hiring standars equals less overtime
hours needed for any department or company.
We believe that shoddy planning, lack of oversight, lack of training and lack of hiring standards
(and anti-nepotism policies, for example) lead to out of control, scandalous overtime spending.
How many times have we seen 4,5,6,7 officers, at the scene of an arrest, that are not even involved
in the arrest, 'chatting away' at hundreds of dollars per hour ?
The same with all kinds of City workers that take long lunch breaks, use City vehicles to 'run
personal errands', visit friends and even make drug deals.
If you were to enforce 'best performance' practices on all City Agencies and monitor the time
wasters, we could likely cut overtime needs and expenses by anywhere from 25 to 50% BY
ALL OF US -- USING OUR WORK TIME WISELY & ETHICALLY.
We are not picking on the police, fire or any particular agency. We totally respect the hard and
dangerous work many of the do. Many of them are willing to risk their lives for us.
However, if we are going to be totally honest with ourselves and each other, we must look at
the fact that there is 20 to 50% of waste in nearly every office, agency, department and
contract service provider in our great City.
Each City Worker needs to be honest with themselves and the community, when it comes to
'overtime'.
Is it really needed ? Is it really justified ?
Or, is it just a 'way of life' to look for ways to make overtime because we need the money for
'ourselves' because of outrageous rent or living expenses, or for commuting in and out of the
City, in gas guzzling SUV's ?
To many of us that are home-less, we tend to think that Mayor Newsom is either 'out of the loop' or 'out of his league', in being able to understand the concepts that we are talking about and presenting here.
Budget planning; budget cuts; and program implementations must take into account, both immediate and future long term benefits (measured in human lives and savings from reduced future health, shelter and other expenses for our residents).
From what his homeless Czar stated at the February 20th, Budget & Finance Hearing, it's like they want to go back over all of the ground that the SOC work group had already covered. Why stall ?
Doesn't our Mayor ''trust' the final work product (the SOC Legislation) that the homeless people, shelter providers and staff and community groups have worked hard on, by consensus, for the past nine months (and 2 years) ?
Does not make any sense to stall now or make changes or attempt to kill this crucial , life saving and disease preventing legislation now, so late in the time line; because in the meanwhile, people are suffering now.
ANOTHER CASE OF PATIENT DUMPING AND HARM CAUSED BY UNTRAINED RESOURCE CENTER STAFF
Last night, while checking on our homeless brothers and sisters in the Tenderloin Neighborhood of San Francisco, we met a man with two large plastic bags, that appeared to 'slightly' or moderately, mentally ill.
He had been discharged from Mills Hospital on the Pennisula for an operation of some sort to his stomach and may have been receiving other care, as well.
According to this shelter system client, a social worker at Mills Hospital had called up to Next Door Shelter (operated by Episcopal Community Services) and arranged for this patient to go there for shelter.
When the man arrived at Next Door, something happened and he was told, he had to go to TARC to get a reservation. He is a disabled person and they did not make what you or I would consider a 'reasonable accommodation' by accepting the refer, in lieu of making him walk to T.A.R.C. to play 'roulette wheel' to see if he could get an open bed at Next Door.
[ We say 'roulette wheel' because we know that some resource center staff 'hold back' good beds at Next Door for friends, family and favorites (that are not waiting in line ) while giving the worst shelter beds (like Ella Hill Hutch) to everyone else waiting in line... like this disabled person is about to find out for himself.
This is referred to as 'patient dumping'.
The man had just gone through an operation, has insomnia, cannot stay in a shelter like Ella Hill Hutch (mats on the floor only) and thought he had been properly referred to Next Door by a social worker, before he left the hospital.
He was telling us the 'blacks' up there at Next Door, and 'the blacks' at TARC, were mean and rude to him.
He had been sitting on the floor (on his two plastic bags) watching TV at TARC, waiting for his bed reservation. He was told he was probably going to be sent to Ella Hill Hutch (although we know there are always open beds at Next Door and other shelters, from the Shelter Monitoring Committee and HSA reports).
The Security Guard and the staff at TARC threatened to call the police because the man talks incessantly because he is suffering from insomnia. The way that this resource center (HSA policy be damned) handles mentally ill people that talk too much, is to shove them outside, unsupervised and threaten them with police action.
He CANNOT control his vocal motor skills. He CANNOT stop talking, unless perhaps, someone that is 'trained' in dealing with mentally ill people can use verbal techniques to 'calm him down' and take good care of him and his urgent needs.
But, obviously, neither the staff at TARC, nor the Security Guard, had any training to realize that this man posed no threat, thus to use 'control and intimidation' techniques to deal with a mentally and physically ill person is wrong.
It is also a form of abuse caused by ignorance and lack of training on the part of the staff at both facilities.
They violated the man's right to be there to get proper shelter with reasonable accommodations for his physical and mental condition. Period.
The conduct of this staff are in violation of the multi-million dollar contracts they have with the City and likely violate State and Federal Laws concerning treatment of persons with disabilities.
They committ these types of violations EVERY DAY because the staff being hired at TARC (and other shelters and resource centers) are often ignorant (no offense here. ignorance means you do not know something because no one at home, school or work 'taught you' what you need to know to do your job properly. 'Ignorance' does not mean stupidity, unless you do know better, but choose to be hateful or ignorant by your own choice.)
When we saw him in front of St. Boniface, stresed out with an endless stream of names and numbers of people that have tried to help him.
But, because of his intial experience with ignorant and abusive staff attitudes and conduct at Next Door Shelter and TARC, his condition had been aggravated to point he was asking people randomly,
'Please, I beg you. May I be a one night guest on the floor of your hotel or SRO ?
I am a good man. I just got out of the hospital.
Here is all of my paperwork, please, please, somebody help me.'
Needless to say, we sat there with tears streaming down our faces as this mentally ill human being was mistreated by our shelter system and the result is he is now begging people to let him sleep on their floor, just so he can SLEEP.
We knew that if we asked TARC to help, the chances are, they would likely send him to Ella Hill Hutch even if they had other beds available that would accommodate him.
We know this because we are aware that TARC Staff keep 'lists' of friends, family, associates and 'favorites' they use to illegally procure the best beds for them, ahead of and instead of, the honest people that wait in line, every day and night 'going through the system' that play by the rules.
We also know that when one of the Senior Staff at Next Door (and at other shelters) 'likes you or the way you look' or you are a family member or friend or associate, they will always get you a bed, on the spot, with or without a reservation.
If you are mentally ill, or they just do not like the way you look or the color of your skin, they will illegally DENY YOU SERVICES.
Too many people have complained about 'the blacks' that run the shelters in this town and that is a crying shame. But, it is truthful to the extent that many bad, ignorant, unqualified, prejudicial, biased African Americans have been 'running' these shelters 'their way'; not according to their contracts; not according to the law' but according to how they personally 'want to', just like a spoiled child.
The grand majority of the staff that operate our shelters appear to be African American or into 'hip hop' type styles.
Too often they are very young and inexperienced, yet some of them command an hourly wage of $23 to $26 per hour, at the age of 23 years.
How can that be ?
Unless that young person is some sort of degreed, certified social worker, how can they be getting these kind of salaries that are dis-proportionate to their skill level, life experience level and level of work activity and responsibilities ?
Something is obviously very wrong with the salaries being doled out at our shelters and resource centers. We have homeless people with ten times the life experience and ten times the literacy, training and qualification level being asked to take harder working jobs for $10 per hour.
Yet, we apparently have some 'internal closed culture' of shelter and resource center staff making 'bank' on salaries and overtime at rates that are 2 to 4 times higher than San Franciscans that are much more experienced and a lot kinder than the staff we see now in these places.
If you are 'white' or 'latino' and do not have a certain 'look' or are not already family or friends of the shelter supervisors and staff, your chances of being hired are a million to one, BECAUSE THEY HAVE NO COMMON SENSE OBJECTIVE HIRING STANDARDS.
It's like a money train pipeline for 'the service provider insiders' !!
That's why they want to keep shelter conditions a secret !!
They are making bank for doing as little as possible and they abuse anyone that wants them to improve and do their job right !!
There are a few exceptions, but they are rare. M. Espinosa, was an example of a person that appeared to be - non-African American, on staff, at Next Door and was at first, pretty much liked by everyone, until something happened, and the environment changed for the worse.
Unfortunately, over a very long period of time, it was reported that he started to do all kinds of aggressive, biased things towards the clients. We do not know if he was always so 'rough' to homeless before he worked in our City's shelters.
Or, whether he was influenced by the 'anti-homeless' culture inside the shelter system and he chose to 'conform' to being biased against 'groups', such as homeless, or other 'group' distinctions, such as economics, physical ability, race or who knows.
Once a person becomes biased or prejudical against one 'group' or 'class' of people, they often just keep repeating to make ASSumptions about other 'groups' and 'classes' based on appearances of human, financial or educational status because it becomes a habit. An abusive and risky habit, but a habit, whether its against rich people, poor people or this race or that.
One example was like when he used to falsely accuse 'the homeless' of stealing newspapers from racks and placing them in the lobby of Next Door Shelter.
He said those comments without even thinking or checking (reality check on his own preconceived notions) and even when the paper was still showed to him, he maintained his predisposition against 'the homeless'.
When anyone complained about leaky toilets or moldy shower curtains (for months at a time) he would say 'You're homeless. Don't you know where you are at ? Where do you think you're at, The St. Francis Hotel, or something ?'
He never bothered to look and see that for two years, the papers being 'stolen' were actually not stolen, at all. THEY WERE FREE PAPERS (The Examiner).
Another example was that unless you were his 'favorite' he never really was concerned or supportive to help make positive health and hygiene changes to address most clients' legitimate concerns. Instead of showing dignity and respect to the people that pay the bill for the staff's services, he would mock the clients because of their appearance or status. He had a mean streak. In any other service, industry or shelter in some other organization, his rude behaviors to his clients would have landed him job-less. He was openly rude and demeaning to other clients.
He had a bias against the homeless and displayed indifference and a condescending attitude, towards the people he was hired to serve.
Because of the extremely subjective, offensive and biased (racially and economically) environment cultivated by cyclic bad behavior and lack of good role models and training, he may have been 'preconditioned' to believe as fact, that those stacks of papers were being stolen 'because all homeless or most are thieves'.
Well, if staff steals the food from the homeless and gets away with it, then that is about the only 'role model' homeless people see every day and every night.
They can learn to steal by watching people paid with tax dollars, steal every day, without suffering any consequences for their illegal conduct. If you hire theives as teachers, then students become thieves.... does that make sense to anyone, yet?
Stealing from the homeless should come with a penalty of chopping off the hand of the thief, in a public showing.
He mentioned to some residents, that he was also passed over for promotion several times and many homeless residents reported he was very aggressive to anyone that did not 'snap to', when he shouted orders.
Many homeless cannot recall how often the staff at any shelter actually said the words, 'PLEASE' and 'THANK YOU' as a standard way of communicating.
Loud and aggressive staff misconduct often triggers un-necessary conflicts and abuse, which usually result in the homeless guy (whose paying the bill for the services he has purchased through HIS TAX MONEY and HIS SSI MONEY) being thrown out the door, into the street.
It's like the employees of your company throwing your out of the place that was built with your money -- homeless people get yelled at and threatened with being thrown our by the people that are essentially, on the homeless person's payroll.
DOES THAT MAKE SENSE TO ANYONE ?
WHERE IS THE PROPER TRAINING TO INSURE STAFF DO NOT AGGRAVATE OR TRIGGER SLIGHTLY ILL OR TRAUMATIZED CLIENTS ?
WHERE IS THE MANDATORY, RANDOM DRUG TESTING TO KEEP THE CRACK HEADS FROM MAKING SALARY ON TAX DOLLARS PUTTING OUR HOMELESS AT A GREAT AND KNOWN RISK ?
HOMELESS MYTH - YOU AIN'T PAYIN FOR THESE SERVICES, SO SHUT THE FUCK UP !
The screwed up notion that these services are 'free' so, 'shut the fuck up' is just a lie to cover up the fact, that one way or another, almost all homeless and non-homeless people are causing revenue to flow from their benefit to the benefit of the people that are trying to take advantage, of all of us San Franciscans.
IT'S ONE BIG CORRUPT BALL OF SLUDGE THAT NEEDS A DEEP CLEANING
M. Espinosa, in this example, had several un-necessary confrontations with all kinds of clients and used to aggressively 'step into' the personal space of a client and put his finger inches from their nose (sometimes touching) -- shouting orders, like a 'control freak'.
This is kind of provocation seems to be due to ignorance and lack of training that usually resulted in a client taking a swing at the aggressor, in rage, because he and other staff use this technique, like a habit, to routinely violated people's personal space.
And noone, homeless or not, likes to have anyone 'get in their face' in a threatening manner, as he and other staff do, routinely which results in the client being labelled 'violent' which means he is again, thrown back out into the street and is barred from services for a period of time.
To clarify the predicatable, well-documented pattern of this crime.
1. Staff treats paying client badly. Humiliates him. Barks at him. Makes him upset.
2. Client politely (or angrily, its his right to express without real violence) starts to complain against staff.
3. Staff makes up excuses for bad behavior. Calls client liar or ignorant. Family members on staff, shamelessly lie to back up their family.
4. Staff retaliates by creating fake reasons to promote conflict and a physical confrontation.
5. Staff uses 'step in' 'finger touch nose' method to incite client to take the fatal swing which causes client to be Denied Services and unworthy of a shelter bed.
That is the loop that we keep trying to explain. They are making a ton of money by keeping whistleblowers and just plain righteous people from exposing the abuse and demanding to be treated with the dignity and respect, a CASH paying clients deserves.
It's their 'way of doing things' that has been this way for 15 years.
That whole scenarios above and many others, of course, lead to erronesous and illegal 'Denial Of Services' and often the police would be called to arrest a client THAT HAD DONE NOTHING WRONG, EXCEPT TO DEFEND HIMSELF FROM OUTRAGEOUS CONDUCT ON THE PART OF STAFF.
THIS HAPPENS EVERY DAY TO DOZENS OF INNOCENT CLIENTS THAT ARE 'SET-UP' BY UNTRAINED, UNQUALIFIED, IGNORANT STAFF.
BACK TO THE 'PATIENT DUMPING' OF THE MAN FROM MILLS HOSPITAL
So, we told this mentally ill person to follow through with TARC to get his bed and we suggested that he go down to the Mayor's Office on Disability to file a complaint and then to go to the SF Human Rights Commission, to report this.
In fact, we are going to make a point to start organizing more homeless residents to report every instance of abuse by staff at any resource center or shelter, and make sure that these violations of human decency and abuse are well documented so that we can file a Class Action Law Suit to bring these practices to a halt.
Our hearts break every time we see a human being suffering (especially the mentally ill and physically ill) on the street ONLY BECAUSE OF BAD STAFF AT SHELTERS AND RESOURCE CENTERS THAT CANNOT BE TRUSTED TO DO THEIR WORK ACCORDING TO THEIR CONTRACTS AND HSA POLICIES.
That mentally ill man also told us, that in the six hours he's been in San Francisco, (the distance between Next Door Shelter and TARC) he had already had his watch stolen.
Here we have a typical 'victim'. A 'slightly' mentally ill person, with no safe place to go. He apparently was only following his social workers lead on a referral to a tax funded shelter, and then is sent through this disgusting maze only to be thrown out to the street, because of ignorant, corrupt staff.
Staff that are 'power tripping' because they selectively enforce 'rules' against people they want to and then do not enforce rules against their family members and favorites.
THIS HAPPENS EVERY HOUR OF EVERY DAY AT MOST OF OUR SHELTERS AND RESOURCE CENTERS.
IT IS DISGUSTING. IT IS DISHONEST. IT IS A DOUBLE STANDARD.
THIS IS WHAT CORRUPTION, AT IT'S MOST BASIC LEVEL LOOKS LIKE.
THIS IS YOUR TAX DOLLARS AND COMMUNITY DONATIONS ARE PAYING FOR.
WE HAVE BEEN SUBSIDIZING A NETWORK OF ORGANIZED FRAUD FOR ALMOST 15 YEARS NOW, IN BOTH OR HOMELESS AND HOUSING NON-PROFIT SERVICES.
IT IS A 'RACKEET' THAT SHOULD BE INVESTIGATED BY FEDERAL AUTHORITIES EXPERIENCED IN ORGANIZED CRIME, UNDER OUR 'RICO' AND FALSE CLAIMS ACT STATUES.
In 2008, we think these are crimes against humanity.
The lack of standards of care and lack of hiring standards, background checks and random drug testing in shelters that are operated by mostly black americans is CAUSING RACIST feelings, in the hearts of all other culture groups here.
The Corruption is Causing Racism and Division in Our Community.
Let's say that again to be clear.
The CORRUPTION in non-profits is CAUSING RACISM & DIVIDING OUR COMMUNITY.
THIS IS NOT THE SAN FRANCISCAN WAY.
THIS IS NOT HOW U.S. CITIZENS ARE SUPPOSED TO BE USING TAX DOLLARS AND DONATIONS.
---------
BACK TO:
MAYOR GAVIN NEWSOM'S DECISION TO STALL THE PENDING LEGISLATION THAT WOULD HAVE HELPED THAT MENTALLY ILL MAN AND THOUSANDS LIKE HIM, HAD WE PASSED THAT LEGISLATION LAST WEEK.
Mayor Gavin Newsom may not understand 'human capital investments' that result in reduced future expenses, relative to what happens to 1,200 people that suddenly can sleep 8 hours, eat nutritious food, AND not be abused by staff.
They become safe, healthy, productive and move out of shelters at 2 to 4 times the rate, as they have been doing for the past 15 years because of a lack of standards.
THIS LEGISLATION IS CHEAP CONSIDERING ITS HIGH RATE OF RETURN ON INVESTMENT...Mayor Newsom is closing this 24 Hour Drop In Center & 'slightly' mentally ill health care. Recipe for Disaster.
Maybe he doesn't like it. Maybe it's not run properly. Maybe it's too small. FINE.
If you want to get a new, better, more cost-effective place, that's great.
But, why in the hell would you basically give these people that use that center now, what amounts to a 'death sentence' (putting mentally ill people in the streets at night, with no safe place to go - because of bad shelter staff - mentally ill people are NOT safe in many shelters, as we just showed you with the example above - - is putting them into harm's way, today) because YOU want to shut down Buster's right now ?
And then what ?
Are you going to make sure the new RFP (Request for Proposal by the City) for a 24 Center is going to be awarded to a shelter provider that has NOT been abusing us for 15 years ?
Or are you going to give it to one of your 'FAVORITE' providers, that has a known track record of harming us ?
Or, are YOU, MAYOR NEWSOM, going to make sure there is NO 24 Hour Center; blame it on financial woes; which will result in hundreds of mentally ill, at-risk residents to be thrown to the streets where they WILL BE ABUSED by street thugs, untrained police officers.
And IT WILL COST US MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MORE IN EMERGENCY RESPONSES (goody, goody, more overtime for police and fire.... what a fraudulent cycle).
NOT TO MENTION POTENTIAL LAW SUITS, BECAUSE THE CITY SEEMS TO BE CREATING CONDITIONS FOR THE ABUSE TO TAKE PLACE AND ARE PROFITTING BY DOING SO, AT OUR EXPENSE AND HUMAN SUFFERING.
PERHAPS, WE NEED TO DOCUMENT EVERY CASE WHERE CITY OFFICIALS AND SHELTER OPERATORS HAVE FAILED IN THEIR DUTIES, WHICH DIRECTLY CAUSED HARM TO EACH AND EVERY HOMELESS PERSON, FOR
THE PAST 10 YEARS.
WE COULD MAKE A CLAIM FOR A COUPLE BILLION AND DISBURSE PART OF IT TO THE HOMELESS, FOR REPARATIONS AND USE THE REST TO BUILD OUR OWN SHELTER SYSTEM TO KEEP OURSELVES SAFE FROM ALL OF YOU, THAT SEEM TO BE THE CAUSE OF OUR SUFFERING.
We are going to start looking for attorneys with experience in Federal Courts to deal with these things because frankly, after we studied all of the past years' reports, government documents, court cases, here and in other cities; your office has not shown us anything definitive, to indicate that you intend to reverse these predicatable cycles.
On the contrary, the 'sweeps' and lack of contract enforcement tells us that for some reason, you intend to continue everything 'just the way it is' but are going to change the names of the agencies, people and programs to 'fool us' into believing that you are really going to change your ways....
This is the problem. We're not trying to personally attack the Mayor, but 'the facts' of his personal conduct and the fact that his agency's have allowed multi-million dollar providers to routinely abuse us for so many years. And, they are still abusing us today.
Here is our problem in trying to have faith in the Mayor or these shelter and housing providers (and some community groups, as well that 'thought' they were doing the right thing but actually caused us more harm, as well).
Collectively, all of you (The Mayor himself, City Officials, Agencies, Non-Profit Providers) have abused an entire 'class' of people for so many years, and then the Mayor gets caught cheating on his best friend's wife and the HSA failed to protect us when the abuse is going on right under their noses, and none of you, stepped up to the plate to apologize to us and to vow to protect us.
On the contrary, you still want to play politics. You still want to stall. You still resist CHANGING FOR THE BETTER. You still want to deny us the LAW that WE ALL CREATED.
Bottom line is we do not TRUST any of you because you all are guilty of behavior and crimes against humanity, human decency and have all violated the Public Trust.
If you were sincerely 'sorry' about what you have done to us and are still doing to us, you would not be stalling or trying to block OUR WILL TO HELP OURSELVES BECOME RESPECTED AND PROTECTED AS A MATTER OF LAW WHICH IS BEING EXPRESSED AS THESES SHELTER 'MINIMUM STANDARDS OF CARE'.
Everything you do that is NOT the immediate passage of these Standards, sends us the clear message that you either DO NOT WANT us to be protected. Or that you are not willing to pay for your past and current cycles of abuse and criminal and corrupt behavior and practices. You are either in denial or are incapable of empathy or you are still trying to 'wiggle out of' taking responsibility for what you are doing to us and to our entire San Francisco community.
To take tax payer money and donations and NOT follow contracts and to NOT be responsible and sensible enough to implement standards and accountability IS A FRAUD AGAINST ALL SAN FRANCISCANS.
WHERE IS OPRAH WHEN YOU NEED HER !!!!
If anyone knows how to get in touch with Oprah Winfrey, seriously -- please have her contact our SFHomeless Yahoo! Group.
We know that years ago, she dressed up like a 'bag lady' and went to Glide for a meal to see 'for herself' what it was like.
it only took her a few hours to figure out that our homeless residents were being mistreated by unqualified staff, at Glide Church. And she discovered that many items that were supposed to be purchased and served to us, just never made it to our tables.
So, she pulled out something like $200,000 cash, that she had already donated to Glide and supposedly she runs that episode on her program every year.
She did not have to have endless meetings, reviews, research, undercover investigations, et cetera, to figure out that they were not worthy of her money.
So, to us, we all KNOW the City and Some Shelter and Housing Service Providers, have jointly been misusing tax money and donations to cause harm.
We know that they have caused preventable harm. We know they are causing preventable harm, right now, as we write these truths here for you.
We know that they are quick to 'say no' and deny services to people that need it.
We know they operate with bias and discriminatory practices. We know they are corrupted.
We know in our hearts, that some of the shelter provider management have likely used money for personal gain - such as to purchase assets; property out of state; and placed perhaps, in the names of bogus companies and family relatives to hide money, STOLEN FROM US.
STOLEN FROM OUR COMMUNITY.
And, we know that they are more inclined to spend tens times as much money on un-necessary emergency services and criminalization of people who only wanted and deserved a safe place 'to be'.
Why is it so hard for The City and these providers to 'do the right thing' and put the money up front, so that our City can SAVE MONEY and SAVE LIVES that is only wasted when we fail to plan with standards and follow the law and the contracts ?
For the past 2 years, we have been working on several shelter and housing models that already include hiring standards, drug testing, background checks, preference for bilingual staff, qualified and cost effective 'on-site' case management services, with real social workers that have degrees and experience, in the business model.
And, it's going to cost less than any of the models we have seen in place, here in San Francisco and in other cities.
All we had to do was realize that most shelters and programs here have a constant running basis of like 25 to 50% waste, graft, corruption and redundancy and it was 'a piece of cake' to recreate the entire system, at less than half the cost of how they've been doing it for the past half generation.
So, we are moving ahead to source out private and foundation investors, to take a look at our models for homeless and housing systems.
If we can find some 'clean' (and we don't mean 'green' we mean corruption free and reliable) funding sources here in the Bay Area, that would be great. Background checks, drug checks and zero tolerance for staff being ignorant or mean to any body, especially our clients.
We have a long list that we are working through right now.
But, in compiling that list, we discovered too much 'overlap' with the current providers, so we are looking for funding sources from other states for these models.
We are doing this because its obvious we need some 'clean', righteous, kind hearted souls to come into San Francisco and help us build our own set of homeless and housing services.
We do this as a reaction to how we have already been treated (mistreated) and how this pending legislation is being 'dragged down', delayed and tampered with (while people are suffering today).
It just looks like not very many of our Officials or Non-Profits here are going to change their 'evil', greedy, hateful and abusive ways.... their ACTIONS speak louder than their WORDS and we have had ENOUGH of this CRAP.
The keep 'saying' one thing and then turn around and do another.
We're smarter than that are are weary of playing what we call 'children's games' with adults that do not look or act like they are going to take full responsibility for what they do.
MONEY TALKS -- BULL SHIT WALKS.
IT'S TIME FOR US TO RISE UP AND DISMANTLE THIS ENTIRE SYSTEM USING THE MONEY, EXPERIENCE AND RESOURCES OF PEOPLE WE TRUST TO TAKE THE PLACE OF THE PEOPLE THAT OBVIOUSLY, CANNOT BE TRUSTED.
People are being harmed today. People are suffering and dying and we can no longer 'wait' for you to make the changes because all you want to do is stall, and give excuses and cut funding because your heart is not in this.
You all (some providers and agencies that profit from chaos and mismanagement and abuse) just want the money (millions and millions in overtime and you keep hiring young, inexperienced staff that are not trained to watch over anyone, let alone 'at-risk' adults) and that is not good enough for us.
SHAME ON YOU THAT ARE ACTING LIKE THE PEOPLE THAT BROUGHT US THIS ILLEGAL IRAQ WAR. ALL CHAOS - ALL THE TIME. BILLIONS MISSING AND UNACCOUNTED FOR.
HUMAN SUPSPECTS TORTURED BY HATEFUL, BIASED BIGOTS THAT KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING AND REFUSE TO CHANGE BECAUSE THEY PROFIT FROM SUFFERING, EVERY DAY.
INNOCENT PEOPLE SUFFERING AND DYING EVERY DAY -- ONLY BECAUSE PEOPLE IN POWER, LIKE WHAT WE SEE HERE IN OUR BELOVED SAN FRANCISCO, HAVE NO BACKBONE AND NO WILL TO STOP THEIR OWN CORRUPT WAYS....
IT'S LIKE A BIZARRO DRUG. YOU ALL ARE ADDICTED TO 'FEELING SUPERIOR' AND 'TAKING ADVANTAGE' OF HOMELESS PEOPLE THAT YOU DO NOT LIKE, UNDERSTAND, CARE ABOUT OR RESPECT, ANYWAY. BUT, WE ARE THE ONES THAT SUFFER AND PAY THE BILL... SCREW THAT.
That is not good enough for the 'good' residents of San Francisco who are tired of giving money and donations to people that are not capable of being responsible to our needs.
They have seen the scandals in San Diego [ San Diego Non-Profit Food Charity Operators Indicted -- We Wish We had a District Attorney in San Francisco like This!! ] and elsewhere, and are 'getting up to speed' on the harsh realities of Our City's and their City's shelter and housing providers and 'overseers'.
We've seen too many other 'cutting edge' shelters do so much more with so much less money and donations. We believe its because they care from the bottom up and it shows. The homeless 'feel it' and that goes to self esteem for everyone.
It creates a safe environment. Respect, Dignity, Training & Standards, create safe, growing, positive, cost effective, environments. Metal detectors and security guards are a largely nonsensical 'reaction' to the underlying, root cause of violence.
Violence occurs when people feel they are being intimidated, controlled, ignored, neglected or provoked, for the most part.
Qualified, well trained staff do not easily 'trigger' violent episodes or conflict. They reduce conflict, hence, security guards and detectors are not needed, where staff are well trained and the clients are happy, well fed and 'feel safe'. Get it ???
We do need to be prepared if this City refuses to change its ways.
We will have to keep moving towards finding external, uncorrupted funding sources and resources to make ourselves free from the 'out of control' abuse and profiteering. And we need to include expansion plans to allow for anticipated increased numbers of homeless.
We need providers that can be trusted, that truly care about us and in other cities and states, they do not tolerate the 'games' that ya'all keep playing around here.
You got money for beaucoupe overtime for 'after the fact' emergency responses, at high base pay rates and ballistic O/T Rates for thousands of tax funded City Employees...
But, we do NOT have the measly few millions needed to reduce harm, abuse and save the lives of thousands of abused residents ? That's backwards...
No Brainer. Help homeless well now, which enables us to reasonablly and cheaply 'cut back' anticipated over time of emergency response providers.
WE SAVE MONEY HELPING HOMELESS. WE SAVE MONEY HELPING 'SLIGHTLY MENTALLY ILL'. WE SAVE MONEY BY -NEVER- LETTING A DAY GO BY WITHOUT HAVING A 24 HOUR DROP IN CENTER.
WE KEEP HOMELESS AND SERVICE PROVIDERS AND EMERGENCY RESPONDERS SAFER WHEN WE HELP KEEP THE HOMELESS, CLEAN, SAFE, SANE AND 'ON THE MOVE' OUT OF THE SHELTERS.
SO, THAT IS THE QUESTION.
PICK ONE BELOW [ A OR B ONLY ]
OPTION A:
ENACT STANDARDS, AS IS, NOW TO SAVE MONEY & INSURE 24 HOUR DROP IN CENTER & KEEP FUNDING FOR 'SLIGHTLY MENTALLY ILL' RESIDENTS
Do we want OUR TAX DOLLARS to be spent to reduce harm to homeless, to decrease mentally ill confrontations, prevent injury and loss of life AND do we want to reduce OUR TAX DOLLARS being paid to un-necessary Over Time for City; Shelter and Housing Provider Staff......
OR,
OPTION B:
NEGATIVELY MODIFY THE STANDARDS, WATER THEM DOWN, SCREW THEM UP & CUT FUNDING FOR A 24 HOUR DROP IN CENTER & KILL FUNDING FOR 'SLIGHTLY MENTALLY ILL' RESIDENTS
Do we want OUR TAX DOLLARS to be spent to INCREASE KNOWN harm to homeless, to INCREASE mentally ill confrontations, CAUSE injury and loss of life AND do we want to INCREASE OUR TAX DOLLARS being paid to un-necessary Over Time for City; Shelter and Housing Provider Staff......
WHATEVER CHOICE YOU MAKE WILL REFLECT ON WHAT YOU HAVE IN YOUR HEART AND YOUR MIND.
HOW YOU ALL CHOOSE TO TREAT US -- IS PRETTY CLOSE TO HOW WE SHALL TREAT YOU, IN KIND MEASURE.
IT DOES NOT GET ANY SIMPLER THAN THIS.
MANY OF US FEEL LIKE IF YOU ALL BURN US AGAIN -- THEN WE'LL TAKE AWAY ALL THE MARBLES FROM THE TABLE AND GO PLAY WITH OTHER SAN FRANCISCANS -- WE TRUST TO RESPECT US AND TAKE CARE OF US.
SO, THAT WE MAY DO THE SAME FOR THEM, SHOULD OUR ROLES EVER BECOME REVERSED.
AND THE WAY NATURAL DISASTERS AND ECONOMICS ARE GOING, THAT COULD HAPPEN TO ANY ONE OF US, AT ANY TIME, REAL SOON ...
Can you imagine ? Rich people being homeless is San Francisco ?? Happens all the time, we guess ....
We had one gentleman staying at our shelter, whose family had started one of the world's largest and first Oil Companies (gas refiners and stations) in the World.
He, at one time just a year ago, had several Rolls-Royces' and a happy marriage to a woman, of foreign Royalty. He had it all.
One day, tens of thousands of dollars to spend as he wised, and the next day, he's staying in a SF Shelter, being yelled at by an youngster, that cannot read or write, with zero social skills, life skills and training, like basically, acts like a 'gang banger from hell', abusing a man that was wealthy, respectful and well educated, staying inone of Our Shelters.
Can you imagine what kind of 'justice' he could but once he gets back to to his former family and access to wealth ?
He could be like the ultimate Homeless Super Hero... comes riding back to town in a fleet of limosines scooping up shelter contracts for 50 cents on the dollar, firing the entire network of unqualified, abusive, thieving shelter and housing staff, because he can.... and because it one year, we could be moving twice as many homeless onto their next step at half the cost, minus the graft, corruption, politics, violence, abuse, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera....
---
WE NEED YOUR FAMILY'S & YOUR COMMUNITY'S INPUT ON THE CURRENT HOMELESS AND HOUSING SITUATION AND FUTURE MODELS, FOR USE IN SAN FRANCISCO AND OTHER CITIES AROUND THE GLOBE.
THE GOAL IS TO SPEND MONEY IN WAYS THAT REVERSE THE CYCLES TOWARDS INCREASING 'COSTS' FOR EMERGENCY SERVICES; BY APPLYING COMMON SENSE FACILITY & HIRING STANDARDS THAT PREVENT HARM, ABUSE, INJURY OF CLIENTS AND STAFF; WITH REALIZED PRACTICES & INCENTIVES TO PREVENT FRAUD, WASTE AND THEFT OF TAX PAYER AND DONATED FUNDS.
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These are just some of the thoughts, stories and conversations that are taking place amongst our San Francisco Residents, who are fed up with what they see now.
If you have any comments, ideas, business plan models, tips, leads on funding and foundations or access to experienced, trustworthy service providers, email us today at our Main Email Address, SFHomeless@yahoo.com
[ Or, if you wish to remain 'ANONYMOUS' click here or copy the text below, into your Email to us. ]
To: SFHomeless@yahoo.com
Subject: ANONYMOUS FROM SFHomeless Blogger
All emails sent to us with the word 'anonymous' in the Subject Field, will be treated as confidential.
If we ever need to include your name on a complaint or report, we will contact you first, for permission to include your name.
Otherwise, all information we recieve may be used as we see fit, but, we will NOT use your name if you put 'Anonymous' in the Subject Field -- without your express permission. ]
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