SF Shelter Standards of Care - Investment vs. Class Action Law Suit - You Decide ? Either or - or Both.

SF homeless residents noticed a few details missing from news reports (i.g. right to 'plug in' cell phones & other details ARE included in the Standards of Care) on this. There's ample documentation of 15 years of abuse & negligence by the City & its Shelters. Our legislation's cheaper than paying class action suits, for millions of dollars. More- Open Letter to City Officials & 'church' affiliated non-profits: [ Ignore any part of the letter below that does not apply to you. If any part does apply, take a good, long look at yourself in a mirror and decide. What you are going to do, to 'make up' for 15 years of systematic abuse. ] To Whom It May Concern in our City Government and the Non-Profit Directors, Supervisors & Staff in our tax funded and donation funded Homeless Shelters & Housing Systems: Thought you might want to check this out. It's food for thought. ---- Now that we, as a community, have finally 'put it all together'; documented everyone's stories, read all the SMC Inspection Reports, looked at previous cases in other cities (with similiar conditions) -- we have come to some resonable conclusions, based on facts. Neither this City, nor the Boards, Committees and Directors that 'oversee' & manage these shelters have been taking 'reasonable care' of our homeless people for the last 15 years. And they have not done their duty to dilligently enforce contract requirements (and HSA policies), to curb these widespread cycles of abuse and neglect, over the past 15 years. We keep repeating '15 years' to emphasize that in 2008, we are only now willing to face the realities of our own tax funded shelter system. That's about 14 years 'late' for us, as a community, to implement standards that would have greatly reduced the suffering of our residents and saved us millions, if not a billion dollars that has been essentially 'wasted' by haters, cheaters, liars and thieves that have all profited, while our homeless residents suffered and died from preventable and highly predictable causes. WE FAILED THEM ALL. WE FAILED OURSELVES. WE CREATED AND PERPETUATED THE CORRUPT SYSTEM THAT WE ARE NOW GOING TO FIX. We are NOT talking about 'everybody' in the system. But all it takes a few abusers and a few cheaters to basically ruin the value of even the best designed system. This is nothing new, although the shelter abuses were 'well hidden' for many years until the good homeless people and shelter staff started to expose the realities of our shelters. A similiar example would be like when there was widerspread abuse and cruelty (like shock treatment, experimental drugs, whippings, beatings, food poisoning) inside of our state mental hospitals and institutions. This condition was allowed to grow because of lax enforcement against the bad individuals and management that 'turned a blind eye' or actually performed or encouraged the abuse of their own clients. Instead of putting the blame on the state and local agencies that had a 'duty' to go into those hospitals and hold the management and staff accountable, in civil and criminal courts (holding individuals accountable), Governor Ronald Reagan decided to pass a sweeping law that basically let all of the mentally ill people to 'go free' to the streets, unprotected. The cats were let loose out of their cages and exploited the moment they hit the streets. Here again -- if our City and State agencies had done 'their duty' and gone into these shelters (without bias against the homeless resident whistleblowers) and actually applied liquidated damage clauses and pulled the contracts of the repeat offender shelter organization and transitioned them to other organizations with proven track records (like Haight-Ashbury and St. Boniface, for example) --- that would have forced the offensive or negligent service providers to 'get their own' act together, internally with hiring standards, written policies, drug testing of staff, et cetera) without the need for our community to step in where they have failed. If you want to reform a 'system' - first you must look to see if the 'system' is being run properly by the people charged with running the system. It makes no sense to shut down 'a site' because its hurting people. Buildings, like guns, are inanimate objects that cannot be at fault for how ignorant or criminally oriented individuals misuse them to cause harm to others. Why do Mayors, Government Officials and Agencies keep shutting down places (hospitals, shelters, drop in centers, etc.) -- instead of, 'doing their job' which is to hold individuals and groups ACCOUNTABLE for their Conduct ? Every time they do this (shut down a place or a program) they announce a New Place or a New Program and expect everyone to be happy, now. On paper that may look good. In a Press Release that may sound good. Once its done it may even feel good.... at first. But, if you go back and hire the Same Bad People and the Same Incompetent Non-Profits to run the New Programs and the New Places, then nothing has changed for the better. In fact, its now worse. Because the Clients are the same and you promised to help them and protect them and when you gave them a new place or a new program, they were filled with happiness, hope and joy.... Then of course, once they got into the new program or the new place they become Doubly Traumatized because the same bad people that abused them last year in the Old Place and the Old Program are now here, at the New Place with more money and more power than before. And then we have the revenge and the retaliation used to beat down the residents and whistleblowers even more.... By filling up 'new programs' and 'new places' with the same bad people is like rewarding them for their past bad behavior. In fact, you have now empowered them and enabled them to 'feel free' to increase the level of the their abuse and drug dealing and violence and theft because you have proved to them, that they are not going to be 'held accountable' for their wrongdoing.... Oh, no. They are learning from our elected officials that they shall be, in effect, rewarded for bad behavior. Bush and his regime do the same thing. He does not enforce the law. He copies things; he does not create things. He does not 'think ahead' and set up safeguards and tracking of money and materials going to Iran and Afghanistan. He is NOT CAPABLE of empathy for others. He 'acts' he does not 'think'. He 'tells people what to do' because he 'does not want to listen' to anyone but himself. His 'ego' will not permit him to admit when he is wrong. His friends and associates that break the law are rewarded with more and better jobs. In Bush's World, whistleblowers are attacked. Whistleblowers are fired. Whistleblowers are slandered and mocked. What kind of a Mayor and a Board of Supervisors and City Workers and Non-Profit Agencies, do we really have in San Francisco ? Are they really working 'with us' or are they working against us ? Are they more like JFK, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy ? Or, are they more like Bush, Cheney, Nixon and the San Diego Food Bank Directors that stole and resold almost all of their donated and taxpayer funded food stocks, a couple years back ? Do our 'community and civic leaders' just 'talk the talk' like a con artist or do they 'walk the walk" like a mature, responsible adult member of our community ? They keep borrowing ideas (copy cats) from other places like New York and try to force these ideas down our throats. They keep hiring companies from Florida and New York who are incapable of having our best interests at heart, they way good, local San Franciscans would. Instead of 'working with' us, they want to 'control' and 'manage' us according to their ways instead of our own. If we do not do 'what they want us to do' then they will write us up with citations, they will harrass us, they will criminalize us, in the name of public safety. If I am better off sleeping in a park instead of one of these dangerous, non-ventilated, petri dish shelters, then by what authority can anyone force me into one of them ? Do I not have the right to make up my own mind and have the right to put my body only in places where I feel safe ? What if Gavin Newsom was homeless ? Let's say, hypothetically, he got caught up in scandals and lost his power because he was no longer found to be useful or credible ? What if he missed his house payments and he woke up one day - home-less. Or, what if a petition was circulated to terminate Trent Rohrer's position, as Director of HSA ? What if he was caught stealing and was put out into the streets, without a penny to his name and was 'temporarily' unemployable ? If these two men, whom yesterday were fully employed and seemingly 'powerful' were to suddenly become 'home-less', would we force them to go into a dangerous (meaning a place full of abuse and neglect) shelter ? Or would we tell them that they can stay in a designated park, give them a tent and a sleeping bag and help them by 'fixing' the shelters by 'enforcing' contracts and laws and get rid of the criminally abusive staff so that we can make the shelters safe for them ? What would Gavin Newsom or Trent Rhorer say if we told them 'Stop sleeping in the park or go to jail ' ? What if we said, Gee, Trent, we can tell by your constant 'twitching' and nervousness that you are 'slightly' mentally ill and need treatment. We'd like to help you but, unfortunately, we just cut the budget (for no good reason) and decided to cut funds for treating people like you. And Gavin, gee, we know that you have a few enemies in town that are trying to find you and beat you up because you did things that caused them to suffer. We know you can't go the shelters because some people you owe money too are looking for you there. We'd like to send you to a 24 hour crisis center, so you can rest and get yourself organized, but we cut the budget (for no good reason) and we don't have a safe place for you to go anymore. We'd like to help you but can't you just panhandle to make enough money so you can get a hotel room for the night ? Or, hang on... we can put you up into an SRO, but tell us first, if you have any allergic reactions to bug bites, abestos or have a drug addiction, because unfortunately, we're understaffed and don't have any rooms available that are bug free, but if you're willing to 'rough it' for six months, we'll get you on this housing list and if you check back with us every week, we promise not to drop you from the list or let our friends and relatives 'cut in line' ahead of you. In fact, if you give me $20 bucks, right now, I can get you a nice room at a new SRO for at least a night ? What ? You have no cash ? You have care not cash ? You don't have a cell phone or you can't find a place to plug in your phone so you can call us ? Oh, you are allergic to bed bugs.... geez... sorry, but I guess we can't help you today.... Do you think Gavin would take that lying down ? Do you think Trent Rohrer would call that 'acceptable' and 'in line' with HSA Policies if he were the one that was suffering by lack of adherence to HSA contracts ? Scary, isn't it. Well, what Gavin and Trent 'do to us' is exactly what could happen to ANY SAN FRANCISCAN -- AT ANY TIME. NATURAL DISASTER, EARTHQUAKE, SUDDEN JOB LOSS, PHYSICAL AILMENT, ACCIDENT, DIVORCE, BANKRUPTCY, FIRE, DOMESTIC VIOLENCE... ALL ROADS LEAD TO HOME-LESS-NESS. Don't you think, as a somewhat reasonable man of intelligence (with or without a substance abuse problem) he would resist being told to do things that are against his own personal self interest ? You bet he would. He would run straight to his lawyer and tell the courts that city employees are causing him great harm and stress by forcing him to sleep somewhere that is likely to cause him harm. So would any of us, because it's wrong. You cannot solve the problems of a City like San Francisco, where respect and smarts are common. The only way to solve Our Problems in a meaningful way is by all us, having patience and courage to sit down at the table together and Create Our Own Solutions. That is how we have always done it because that is how leaders and leadership and ownership are used to make sure we all agree to rules that we all intend to follow through on. You can Make People do things by using force, but that is not respect or an example of 'free will'. It's called opression. A Dictatorship. A Rule by Fear and Intimidation that never lasts because its 'fantasy'. Real Love and True Respect can last a lifetime and beyond. Ruling by Fear and Intimidation can never give us lasting positive results or positive behavioral changes because eventually, the people you thought were 'under your control' will rise up with anger and rage because you tried to take away their freedoms. The day always comes when the people are more angry than fearful because of they way in which, YOU have been mistreating THEM. If you want people to do something, first you need to talk with them. Listen to what they are telling you. You need to have faith in them or they will not have faith in you. You need to believe that what they are saying to you (like about shelter conditions) is a fact, until proven otherwise. Then you need to 'work with them' and help them arrive at their own reasonable conclusions about what needs to be done or changed to 'fix' whatever is broken. Once you have done that, then they will help you to make the changes and they will make sure that everyone plays by the rules, because they are the ones that helped to create the rules. They will make sure that 'their will' be done. This is because you did not take away their 'free will' to make their own decisions, to govern themselves with your support and guideance. That it how you make 'a community' work. It takes leadership. It takes every person in a position of power, authority or leading role to Set The Example of being honest, being fair, being kind, being lawful, doing the right thing. Our country's best leaders are the ones that listened to the people. The ones that consistently 'go out' 'to the people' and have conversations, give and take, deal with harsh realities (not disneyland fairy tale reports that come from on high, far away from where the people really live and work). Those kind of leaders the people will follow -- to their death, because their leaders led by example and 'showed' they cared by being 'with the people', not far away, against them. This is not rocket science but too many our City Officials and City Workers and Shelter Staff seem to think they are Superior to those of us that, for the moment, do not have 'material wealth' or that are mentally ill or addicted to drugs or home-less. They become 'control freaks' in denial, because actually, people with this type of Superiority Complex are actually suffering from some sort of undiagnosed mental illness or they were raised to be greedy, abusive and criminal. If nobody stops them, then they will keep going, getting worse and worse until they cause a tragedy. By not screening them out of contracts funded with tax dollars and donations, this City and the Church Affiliated Service Providers are guilty of placing Bad Role Models to watch over the most vulnerable members of our community. That is criminal negligence. Go to the dictionary and look up the phrase 'Criminal Negligence'. The City and the Shelters, acting in concert, have been receiving federal monies and community donations to finance known criminal activities, in which individuals and small groups have been committing horrendous crimes and abuses against people that are unable to defend themselves. Thousands of our fellow San Franciscans (and Katrina Victims and other US residents) seeking care, refuge and 'shelter' have been verbally, mentally and physically abused, raped, beaten, corrupted and lost their dignity, self-esteem, personal property and in some cases, their lives -- All as a direct, predicatable result of 'gross negligence' on the part of this City and the Non-Profit Organizations we contract with. When City Employees and Officials and Contracting Organizations do not take 'reasonable care' of the people and property and resources in their care, they are considered to be 'Negligent' because they neglected their duties and the rights and failed to respect the people they serve. When people are negligent and their negligence (especially it keeps being repeated year after year) causes preventable harm and crimes to take place, it's called 'Criminal Negligence'. Thats when 'neglect' moves from just causing accidental losses into the realm of causing harm and losses of property and life that could have been prevented, had these people not been neglectful. There are many good people inside the City and inside the non-profits. We're stricting talking about the cheaters and the 'blind' that have refused to accept responsibility for what has taken place. The ones that 'took money' and resources out of our shelter and housing systems, so they could buy property and homes on the backs of the home-less. We have people that we TRUST in all kinds of government and non-profit agencies... locally, and across the country. This is a network of 'good people' that cannot be bribed, that are not corrupted that have been fighting these kinds of battles for centuries, here and in other countries. These 'negligent' matters have nothing to do with our 'good people' that step in and step up to protect all San Franciscans. We are talking about those individuals that by ignorance, fear or whatever, either cause the abuse or 'turn a blind eye' or that profit from the 'way things have been' for too long, now. On the contrary, some people and agencies, in this City and in each of your respective entities have done their best to conceal, downplay and outright lie and deny -- that these abuses even existed, let alone existed to the extent that we now know, which has resulted in causing great harm, abuse and injury to tens of thousands of our San Francisco residents (over the past 10 to 15 years). So, let's stop playing the lying game because it no longer works, now. And it was all so predictable and preventable. Had any one of you, made a decision and taken effort to tell the truth and implement standards, guides and models to prevent the harm you have all caused, then we could have had a lot more homeless people 'moving on' and we could have prevented a whole lot of suffering and waste of tax dollars -- and loss of life and property. Let's forget for a moment about the contract requirements and the HSA Policies that have not been reasonably enforced to prevent these abuses. Let's talk about why Shelter Directors REFUSE to play by the rules we set down for them. We know this because HSA Policy says.... 'cell phones may be used by clients at all tax funded shelters...' This is a lie. HSA knows it. The SMC knows it. The Mayor should know this. The Board of Supervisors, should know this. They should all know it because every homeless person that has been to Next Door or most all other shelters knows what happens if you try to plug in your cell phone so you can keep in touch with family, look for work, get call backs for work... The staff (and your case manager) will tell you that if you plug in your cell phone again, it will be confiscated. At Next Door, as recent as six months ago, some staff would try to charge you $20 bucks to get your confiscated cell phone back. And if you actually take the time and effort to read the Quarterly Shelter Monitoring Reports (which go to the Mayor's Office; our Board of Supervisors and to Trent Rohrer at HSA) you will see numerous references taken from Staff/Client Complaints and SMC Site Inspections and Public Meeting Minutes all collaborate the facts. At almost all shelters, YOU CANNOT PLUG IN YOUR CELL PHONE TO CHARGE. The 'mind set' at some shelters has alway been 'We do not want these homeless people gettin too comfortable, up in here....' . That ignorant and thoughtless 'mind set' (or 'shelter management culture) 'fosters' a systematic climate of neglect and abuse that continues, even as we write this today. You failed to provide role models. 'You' being city officials and shelter management. You failed to screen out your Director's, Supervisors and Staff for illicit drug use, violence, abuse and did not make 'integrity', literacy and 'clean living' for a year or two, as a basic job requirement. If you want a good role model to enable residents to regain confidence, self esteem and become motivated to be 'self sufficient', then you need to hire angels (people who are good, kind and capable of empathy, even if they have not been drug addicted, poor or homeless themselves, per se). Along with qualified angels we need proven reformed backsliders (who have been there but have been proven themselves to be clean, kind and nonabusive for the past year or two) so they can 'relate' to the homeless because they've gone through many of the same experiences that they have. When a person in an authority role 'sets a good example' it creates instant respect and good behavior (mimicking) on the part of the shelter residents. If you want to cause harm to the sick and elderly, hire a known felon with multiple, recent drug and violence issues whom was just released last month to watch over the shelter residents.... You all ignored the homeless and 'blamed it all' on them. Instead of looking at yourselves and your organization's 'lack of standards' that are the root of all of the mayhem and chaos we've seen happen over and over again, all these years. It's not 'our behavior' -- it's your lack of vision, training, qualifications, standards and 'ego' that is THE PROBLEM. We are NOT your problem. YOU and people like you that act like you are above contract requirements and 'the law' are EVERYONE'S PROBLEM. You hired family members, associates (thugs) and all sorts of unqualified people that abuse us, for so long now. You all did what you could to 'hide' the facts about all of this. You falsified 'case management' notes and documents. You tried to destroy 'write-ups' made by hateful, abusive staff. You lied to protect each other (friends and family members on staff). You do not even understand basic, common terms like 'conflict of interest', 'nepotism', 'favoritism' and the harms that come from your ignorance of the meaning and crucial importance these phrases have to keeping us safe from harm and abusive practices. You filed False Claims with government agencies to finance your corrupted shelters, at the expense of our dignity, our safety and in some cases, at the expense of the lives of people that never asked to be homeless. We never asked to be abused or neglected. We never even considered or imagined in our wildest dreams, that we would be abused by our own local people -- that make a salary from OUR TAX DOLLARS. While all of you were making tons of money in salaries for 'doing so little', unqualified for the positions you held and ate the good food and took the good clothes and left us the scraps. SHAME ON ALL OF YOU FOR WHAT YOU HAVE DONE. WE CANNOT TRUST YOU, EVER AGAIN. IF WE HAVE BEEN 'DOING TO YOU' WHAT YOU ALL 'HAVE DONE TO US' YOU WOULD NOT TRUST US EITHER. BUT 'DOING THE RIGHT THING NOW' IS ONE STEP TOWARDS YOUR REDEMPTION IN THIS COMMUNITY. The Mayor and some members of this community can get behind 'sweeps' and spending millions to write up 'nuisance' citations but you can't be bothered with spending a lousy 1 or 2 million dollars on basic health and hygiene in shelters or for a 24 hour crisis shelter or to help the 'slightly mentally ill' ? You'll spend several million to pay police overtime to write out unjust tickets, but you won't spend a couple million to prevent the mentally ill and homeless from predictable harm, violence and trauma ? The problem with homelessness in San Francisco is NOT the homeless. The problem with 'homelessness' in San Franciso is the people in positions or public trust whom have forsaken their duties, in order to 'profit' and make personal and political financial gains -- off the backs of our poor, mentally ill and elderly residents. This is who and what we hate about this whole situation: Those of you who have no backbone to stand up for whats right. Those of you that put money -- ahead of people's dignity, safety and their very lives. Those of you that put 'surface' ahead os substance... you are the ones who have the problem. Your excessive greed. Your excessive negligence and lack of meaningful oversight. Your lack of courage and lack of integrity is THE MAJOR CAUSE of violence, abuse and aggravation of mental illness that faces our community today. Your indifference and your criminal negligence makes us sick to our stomachs. ... And some of you claim to be of 'the church' -- Christians. How would your 'Jesus' have been treating all of our homeless residents ? Would 'Jesus' have lied to cover up ? Would he have remained silent while watching the haters and the abusers and the drug dealers conduct their business, contrary to all morales and against all american principles and international concepts of humanity and human decency ? We talk about these kinds of things every day, as we go through your shelter and housing 'merry-go-rounds' and you all have disgusted us for 15 years, now. Isn't time you all grew up and stopped your exploitation of our homeless, poor and elderly and disabled residents ? Please distribute to each Board & Committee Member, or your related organizations, as you see fit. Share this story with anyone that either 'hates the homeless' or is 'clueless', arrogant, mean, greedy or hateful towards other human beings... Enlighten them for the sake of our beloved San Francisco..... read more digg story