Well, it's official. On a Vote taken today, at the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Meeting in Chambers, the long awaited homeless shelter 'Minimum Standards of Care' has been passed into City Law, by a Vote of 9 Members in favor with 2 Members opposed.
Here is the Cover Text introducing the legislation which is touted as being one partial solution to insuring that anyone staying in a tax funded homeless shelter, in San Francisco, shall be treated with Dignity & Respect, as a matter of undeniable, enforceable law (the will of The People).
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| Recommendations of the Government Audit and Oversight Committee |
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| Present: Supervisors Peskin, Ammiano, Maxwell |
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| 14. | 071518 | [Standards of Care for City Shelters] | Supervisors Ammiano, Mirkarimi, Peskin, Daly, Maxwell
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VERY SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS'
MEMBERS WHO SPONSORED THIS LEGISLATION
The Vote was 9 Board Members in favor (they 'get it') and 2 Board Members opposed ('don't get it') to this legislation. *Aaron Peskin is President of this Board.
We will post the details on the voting here as soon as we get them....
VERY SPECIAL 'WHAT'S UP WITH YOU' TO THESE SF BOARD OF SUPERVISORS' MEMBERS WHO OPPOSED THIS LEGISLATION
[
Details just arrived.... these 2 BOS Members (shown below) Voted AGAINST This Community Will Driven Legislation ... hopefully, they will become enlightened and join us next time... Or, have the courage to 'think independently' and 'do the right thing even if someone else is trying to tell them otherwise... ]
March 18, 2008 - 2PM - Public Meeting/Hearing
San Francisco City Hall - Board of Supervisors' Chambers
In addition to requiring 'Dignity & Respect' for all City shelter residents, as a matter of law; this new legislation also provides for many basic hygiene, safety and staff training requirements in what can only be described as a 'future cost prevention' investment in the human beings that live and work in our City's Shelters.
Our City's Shelter and Resource Centers serve approximately 1,500 San Francisco residents that are poor, elderly, disabled and veterans who do not have a safe place of their own, to call 'home', every day of the year.
A public, community 'work group' was tasked with the writing of this legislation more than nine months ago, by the City's Shelter Monitoring Committee (SMC) which inspects and reports on tax funded shelter conditions to the City & the People of San Francisco.
This 'Standards of Care', community work group was comprised of a ton of people from all walks of life, color of skin, economic status, religions and backgrounds.
Their 'common ground', as San Franciscans, is that they are all dedicated serving the needs of San Franciscan residents that are in great need of widespread community support to enable them to 'make it' to 'their next step'.
Whether that 'next step' be obtaining social services, applying for veterans' benefits, reconnecting with family and work contacts, job searches, vocational training, medical services, substance abuse program enrollment or whatever -- every shelter resident has the right to be able to have 8 hours of peaceful rest, clean drinking water, nutritious food, respectful and qualified staff, clean and sanitary living conditions, transportation and access to electricity for their cell phones and medical deivces.
That has NOT been happening at most of our shelters, for the past 15 years due to a lack of standards, lack of 'caring culture' and general lack of dilligent government and community oversight.
On the contrary, they have been notoriously neglectful and abusive which was a 'dirty little secret' in this City until our Civil Grand Jury and later our SMC started reporting to us, about the Real Conditions of our multi-million dollar shelter and housing systems (including SRO's which is another topic for a later date).
This 'very diverse' group of work group participants, met regularly and attended some 44 meetings over nine months.
This ongoing 'Standard of Care' Work Group is comprised of several SMC members including the current SMC Chairperson Quintin Mecke (a well known homeless, affordable housing & safety advocate who ran for Mayor of San Francisco last year); SMC Member James Lenard (an advocate, former local business owner, investigator and homeless shelter resident, who first moved to the Bay Area in 1978); and several other homeless shelter residents; staff; and directors from Dolores Shelters, Central City Hospitality House, Next Door, Episcopal Sanctuary, Episcopal Community Services and St. Vincent DePaul's MSC South Shelters; and community advocates such as Jennifer Friedenbach, Director of the SF Coalition on Homelessness and concerned City Staff from the Department of Public Health (Dr. Deborah Borne, Director of Tom Waddell Clinic) and numerous other individuals all came together 'as one' using a consensus model to hammer out this legislation.
The only persons missing from this community table (before) was direct and consistent representation from the Mayor's Office and the Human Services Agency which had oversight over these shelters, in the form of 'contract compliance'.
The residents' complaints were revealed in the Coalition on Homelessness' 'Shelter Shock Report' and the SMC's findings all concurred that 'compliance' to existing laws and contracts were virtually non-existent in most of our City's homeless shelters for many years.
Widespread abuse.
No accountability for bad conduct and the theft of food, supplies and donations. We're talking about tens of millions of dollars here, folks ... every year !
No transparency in the complaint process. No communication back to the residents about status of conditions, repairs, et cetera.
Noone working at these shelters really very often 'got fired' or were fined or had their contracts taken away, they all just kind of moved over to another shelter or onto another 'program' with a new name.
It was a 'dirty little secret' that included plaintiffs in court cases being 'bought off' with pretrial settlements which kept it hidden from the public eye. There was very little earnest and factual local news coverage (like from The Chronicle who only gives shallow information and regularly uses a sports writing 'columnist', named C.W. Nevius, who is not a journalist to report on shelter conditions. They use these biased articles to paint false little 'pretty picture' reports to cover up the true nature of these shelters which were horrendous).
One health official recently described our tax funded City shelters as dangerous 'petri dishes' which pose a great health risk to all San Franciscans.
Instead of our City Servants showing wisdom, courage and leadership, by spending a couple million dollars, up front, to 'prevent problems and reduce harm and risk' they prefer to keep spending hundreds of millions of dollars in emergency response and crisis services (such as overtime for police, fire and medical personnel) after the fact.
It's a gross reflection of how many people are making money by NOT doing the right thing. It's corruption that results in perpetuating harm, abuse, theft and encourages a system that causes us all great harm and loss, every year because they are making money while we all suffer. It's disgusting and violates the public trust, yet, for some reason, they are unwilling to change their evil and despicable ways, which is why 'the people' have decided to 'do right' with or without help from City Officials.
However, over all of these years, there have been reliable newspapers such as The Street Sheets (written by people experiencing homelessness and abuse) and the SF Bay Guardian (whose dedicated professional journalists recently went undercover to expose abuses and lack of contract enforcement -- just a couple weeks ago) and even the SF Weekly and others have a history of reporting these abuses, as they really are and were.
The homeless in San Francisco were so tired of not being believed and not being protected that they started their own SFHomeless Yahoo! Group and blogs (this blog you are reading now, is their brain child) in order to bring real stories and real photos of shelter conditions to the forefront of the minds of all San Franciscans, every day.
The goal was to bring reality of the widespread abuse, theft and waste of tax payer dollars and human lives onto every desktop, laptop and cell phone in San Francisco, to put an end to the lies, the profiteering and the cover-ups that have been going on for 15 years. They had no idea that the 'whole world' would be watching their web site and blogs.
They have done well considering the fact that not only do all kinds of local homeless and city and non-profit service provider staff visit the Yahoo! Group and Blog sites, but also individuals and groups from around the state and around the nation also vist to find out what's going on in San Francisco.
Including poverty law centers and homeless and housing service providers on the east coast and the northwest (Oregon, Washington).
Amazingly enough, there are also regular visitors from other countries that visit these sites to learn about how 'things are done' in San Francisco with respect to its poor, elderly, disabled and ill residents and see how tax dollars and community donations and resources are being used (or misused) by City Agencies and Non-Profit Service Providers.
Even a nationally recognized law school (from back East) Masters Program Student, has been visiting and using the SFHomeless Yahoo! Group site for a study in how the internet can empower even low income people to enable them to speak out and defend their human, civil and legal rights. Especially when government agencies and non-profit providers fail to 'do their duty' and cause harm to people that need real help, not systematic abuse and exploitation.
Over the past few years, homeless shelter residents have continuously complained about the lack of access to the most basic of things, such as being allowed to plug in a cell phone, to maintain contact with family and employers and the growth of mold in bathrooms and showers.
One shelter has had 'black water' leaking into their basement cafeteria for years; dripping right next to and sometimes on to the food and condiments being served to residents (whom are often already sick and elderly at risk persons that deserve much safer and better care).
Whenever it rains or the street cleaners go by or even during heavy fog, the condensation gathers from the sidewalk above and eventually drips down as bacteria laden black water into the main basement dining room.
Several times, the condiment table was directly under this 'black water drip' and this nasty water dropped into the bins of sugar, creme and coffee cups of the shelter residents. Many of them were so tired and hungry they did not even notice this.
Over the years shelter residents have complained about some of the shelters being used to manufacture and sell drugs; one shelter in circa 2001 purportedly was manufacturing methamphetamines in the shelter's industrial kitchen every night, while the shelter residents were asleep on the floors above.
Had that 'secret' tax payer funded 'meth lab' exploded, it could have harmed or killed several hundred homeless residents in the blink of an eye.
They reported daily verbal and physical abuse at some shelters, but supervisors, staff and even directors would accuse the homeless of 'being mentally ill', drug addicts, liars or whatever to hide the bad behavior of their own staff and supervisors themselves. Many of whom are family members because the shelters do not use hiring standards to screen out bad people and routinely hire relatives (nepotism).
Real nonsense because in the first place, most homeless people are already suffering a trauma, so they tend to 'not' want to be a whistleblower and are grateful to be off of the streets, at first. They have bigger things on their minds than to run around making up stories and risking themselves to be abused or denied services in retaliation for their 'whistleblowing'. That's just common sense to begin with.
Once people are abused by people that make a salary from our tax dollars, they get angry and start speaking out. To anyone that would listen.
But, many city employees are 'jaded' and 'biased' against the homeless, so noone was really listening to their complaints.... The have preconceived notions and tended to lump all 'homeless people' into one category or set of attributes which is jsut as ridiculous and ignorant as saying that all 'white people' or all 'black people' or 'asians' or 'christians' or 'muslims' are all 'the same'.
It takes a little work for any of us to make sure we see and treat people as 'individuals' instead of stereotyping them, but that is where we find reality, based on looking at every person, as a unique individual no matter what 'group' they happen to be in or part of.
It served no purpose and there is no need for them to lie, at all. They mostly want to be left alone and they'd just keep to themselves if it wasn't for the fact that the abuses and thefts are so widespread and became common enough for them to get very upset about it, every day !
We discovered that a lot of the people that accused the homeless of making up these reports were actually 'bad actors' and haters that were 'part of' the abuse, the drug dealing and the grand thefts. They lied to cover hide the truth from public view and scrutiny.
That's why so many 'street homeless' have refused to go into the shelter and housing systems here.
That is why they do not trust our City Agencies. They do not trust our 'church' affiliated and community based non-profits.
They is why they do not trust our Mayor or other politicians.
Had these shelters been operating with 'good care' and 'proper oversight' more homeless would not be homeless and suffering today.
And more 'street people' would be totally supportive and willing to go into shelters and housing systems because they can see 'good things' happening.
But, over the years, they all saw abuse, assaults, drug dealing and general chaos and violence that has been San Francisco's shelter, housing & homeless services environment which has cost us all, hundreds of millions of dollars in taxes and who knows how many lives have been lost, due to preventable and predictable causes.
Things like obese people being denied extra mats or larger beds because the metal edges cut off their circulation.
Lack of ventilation which can trigger respiratory illness and loss of breathing resulting in sudden death. Lack of ventilation which can also lead to advancement of TB and other air borne diseases that can also result in permanent disease or premature, preventable death.
The stress level of a person with high blood pressure being screamed at by unqualified, 'gangland' type shelter staff and not being allowed to sleep 8 hours can trigger a stroke or heart attack.
If you try to 'force' or 'yell at' mentally ill people to 'do what you want' that can trigger a violent, mental episode when it would be better to have qualified, trained and sensitive staff deal with them in ways that will de-escalate conflict and prevent harm. It's about 'caring' and about 'being qualified' and about 'being specially trained' to deal with people that 'are not like you are'.
Lack of proper nutrition and food portions (calories) can trigger malnutrition, fatigue, heat stroke and other ailments that are much more expensive to treat, as an emergency response (such as police/fire/medics working on overtime pay) when all that was needed was to fully fund adequate Standards of Care.
Spending the money, up front, as a totally affordable (at any invesment amount, whether it be $93 per person per year or $500 per person per year) human investment because it Saves Lives and Saves Tax Money by preventing problems before they happen....
They were served lousy food in very small portions. Oftentimes, their bread was stale and moldy while staff sat at their stations eating fresh chicken and ribs.
One cook was reported by several kitchen volunteers to have been putting ex-lax and other substances into the shelter resident's meals. And that cook was reportedly selling drugs, stealing food by the case and 'stressing out' the female residents... all at the same shelter !!
When they complained too much, some shelter staff would deny the residents coffee, sugar or refused to serve them seconds, even when they had lots of food to spare.
Food stocks were stolen on a regular basis and was being sold at three or four locations around the Tenderloin and out in the Filmore Neighborhoods (on the streets and resold to local stores and markets that resold the food to unsuspecting customers). Even some screwed up residents were part of organized rackets to steal food and 'sneak it out' in trash cans and back packs. We even suspected some staff were stealing food and preparing meals in shelter kitchens for their own catering businesses on the side. Again, this is grand theft of tax money and community donations.
The courageous shelter residents that 'stood up' and 'spoke out' were routinely 'denied services' and thrown out of shelters on trumped up charges.
Many shelters have no hiring standards or drug testing. They routinely hired friends, relatives and neighbors to maintain 'control' over shelter operations and the continuous theft of food and clothes that were purchased with tax dollars or donated to the shelters.
Instead of making sure the residents got good care, decent food, clothing and shelter, the supervisors and staff would 'take all the good stuff for themselves' and leave the scraps behind for the 'captive' shelter residents.
That has been the legacy and history of homeless shelters in San Francisco.
As we move forward, lets keep in mind that many of the people that stole and abused our people and resources are STILL EMPLOYED at some of these shelters; resource centers and even at our non-profit housing service provider organizations.
To stop this 'never ending cycle' we must completely change all of these systems.
We must develop shelter, homeless and housing staff hiring standards, drug testing and apply 'zero tolerance policies' for the theft and misuse of donations, clothing, food and resources; and stop the abuse of shelter residents.
Otherwise, nothing will change and we'll keep seeing the same homeless people being held 'captive' by these shelters and hanging out in the streets and parks and jails and hospitals; all costing us many times as much money in taxes, to accomplish very little.
Now is 'the time' for all 'Good & Honest San Franciscans' to come together, as 'one community, one voice, one free will' to change this entire corrupt system, from the ground up, to benefit all San Franciscans.
So, today is a historic day in the history of 'How San Francisco Treats It's Homeless Residents in 2008', with the passage of new homeless shelter 'Standards of Care'.
This is the beginning of an era where Our People are finally putting an end to the abuse, the lies and the coverups that have caused tens of thousands of people to suffer, alone and often in forced silence, during these past 15 years of these kinds of 'shelter operations'.
We have a lot more work to do. And yes, this legislation has been 'watered down' and reduced in cost down to about $93 per year, per person, but it is a big step, in the right direction.
Yes, our homeless residents are still 'captive' because one of the most important provisions, the bus tokens (or discounted Muni Passes which would have cost half as much as HSA stated in their bogus, misleading reports on this legislation) was ripped out, apparently to appease our Mayor Gavin Newsom and some Agency Directors and Department Heads who apparently do NOT want our homeless residents to be enabled to 'make it' to their required and necessary appointments on time using public transportation.
At least, that is what we believe because 'Trent Rohrer' (current Director of SF's Human Services Agency, aka HSA) stated in a public meeting last month, of the 10 Year Plan Council, that he did not make these stupid budget cut decisions, but it 'was his Department Heads' that made these decisions. Not himself (Trent Rohrer) and not The Mayor...'
They all seem to lie, so we really do not know which of them (Trent Rohrer, Mayor Gavin Newsom and some of their representatives and employees) which is a huge part of the problem.
They have not been meeting regularly with our Board of Supervisors. They have not been attending public meetings and work group sessions. They have chosen to remain 'out of the loop' and then they make unilateral decisions in a vaccuum that serves their interests or the interests of 'rich' special interest groups.
And when they finally discover, late in the day, that they screwed up again (because of their own lack of attention, attendance and good faith in 'our people' and the Board of Supervisors) and made decisions on budgets that cause harm and exponentially increase un-necessary future costs they seem to blame their department heads or staff which just causes even more disconnects inside agencies and makes them all untrustworthy in the eyes of the whole community. It's a viscious cycle that must come to an end.
But, even though there are still some public servants that 'have something against' our homeless residents and they 'refuse' to spend money to minimize their suffering and hardship (which will result in people staying longer than necessary in shelters and will result in more failures due to lack of independent access to transportation) we are confident that in time, change for the better will arrive.
They will either become enlightened and 'get a heart' and start meeting our people and our Board of Supervisors on a regular basis (in good faith and honesty) or they will be replaced by people that want to invest in humans so they can get out of this 'captive' shelter system that has enslaved too many of our good people.
So, we are hopeful that we can build on this movement and we hope that the shelters and homeless & housing service providers will 'step up' and take advantage of the fact that our community will support them. But only ass long as they live up to their agreement and promise to maintain dignity and respect for all San Franciscans regardless of their economic or health status, religion, sexual orientation, gender or the color of their skin or national origin.
As long as everyone plays by the rules and take 'good care' of our residents and stop stealing the money and the food, there will be no need for the enforcement provisions of this legislation to kick in.
But, let the efforts of the diverse San Franciscans that all came together, as one, on this legislation, serve as a warning to all of the individual thieves, haters, abusers and con artists that are still in our shelters, housing and homeless service provider organizations and on staff in our City Agencies and even our elected public officials, politicians, board & committee members.
We will not forget how and who has abused us for the past 15 years.
We are going to keep a very close watch over every thing you do; everything you say; and every step you make -- we will be right there to make sure that you either 'do right' by all San Franciscans.
Or, if you are unwilling to change your bad ways, we will escort you to the door and you are free to leave or become arrested, because we are no longer going to tolerate any more abuse of our people or the theft and waste of tax payer or donated money and resources.
THOSE OLD DAYS ARE GONE NOW WITH THE PASSAGE OF THESE NEW 'MINIMUM STANDARDS OF CARE', AS A MATTER OF LAW.
We'd like to again, give a Special Thanks to the Board of Supervisors that sponsored and voted in favor of this legislation and Special Thanks to all of the individuals and groups that worked together, in the San Franciscan way, to make this happen.
We hope that in time, all city officials, agencies and service providers will come to our well researched understanding that it's much cheaper and better for us to give our home-less residents all the tools, support and resources they need to 'move on' instead of trying to 'hold them captive' for the sake of power, profit or political gain.
We have so many more homeless people coming that we must all work together, as one community, to make sure all San Franciscans are treated with dignity and respect.
And with all resources being limited and scarce, we cannot afford to waste or steal or squander any more food, supplies or other resources.
We must all open our minds to the fact, that it is true, every time you see a poor, elderly or disabled person walking in the street --- be 'thankful' that you are not in their shoes today.
Remember, that due to any sudden, economic or natural disaster, you could be in their shoes tomorrow or next week. You may become a homeless shelter resident, resource center client or have to use other homeless and housing services, just to survive and make it to 'your next step'.
Treat others as you would like to be treated because that is what makes us all human.
Spending money on all the tools and resources our home-less residents need is money well spent because it is an investment.
It's so much cheaper to do exactly what so many other Cities have been doing for many years now. Oregon, Washington, Ohio, Florida and even some parts of Texas.
They know it's cheaper, in the first place, to give all people a safe place, a good meal, good role models and positive environments so they can be productive, than it is to not take good care of them and let them loose on the streets to be victimized, beaten down and criminalized which is very, very expensive.
Our City Officials keep telling us they 'cannot afford' to spend money on homeless services, mental health services and other proven preventive and cost saving systems, yet they'll submit a budget that includes some $200 Million dollars in 'regular' overtime for police, fire and medical personnel ???!??!
It's all backwards and they know it. We're not waiting for them to get the courage to reverse all of these prehistoric, self destructive budget calculation methods and self serving spending habits that are literally 'killing us' and wasting precious tax dollars on a few, while the masses suffer and are placed at great risk.
We will move ahead, as a 'united community' and use any legal, political or social tool neccessary to put the horse back in front of these carts.
And we are ready and able, by ourselves if need be, to do this.
Because as 'an informed and united community' we have all the records, surveys, documents and proof to show what's been wrong with all of these 'systems' for the past 15 years who has lied and been corrupted.
Now, we are determined to use that knowledge to 'build anew' the kinds of structures and processes we need to improve the quality of our lives exponentially.
But this time, we will do this to benefit and uplift 'the masses' instead of catering to the needs of a few (who are mostly the richest and most uncaring among us).
So, let's all stop being ignorant, greedy, insecure about our 'programs' and 'grants' and stupid. It's time for us to stop being selfish, little juvenile delinquents and start acting like humane, caring adults so we can put San Francisco back to its place as a world leader in humanity, justice and 'profitability in business', as it was before, and as it should be, again. To benefit us all, not just a few.
Let's stop being greedy, cold, 'controlling' and heartless towards our people. Let's stop putting more importance on our SUV's and 'our clothes' than we have been putting on our fellow human beings... that materialism crap has to go.
We must be about substance and honesty or we are really worth nothing at all.
Let's all 'get on the same page' and start 'doing right' by each other and by all San Franciscans and live together in peace and prosperity again, as one united community.
JOIN US. START BY ATTENDING PUBLIC MEETINGS. JOIN A LOCAL COMMITTEE OR BOARD. DO SOME VOLUNTEERING TO SEE WHAT'S REALLY GOING ON. TO SEE HOW YOUR TAX DOLLARS AND DONATIONS ARE BEING USED OR MISUSED.
DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH. READ ALTERNATIVE MEDIA SOURCES. TALK TO HOMELESS PEOPLE. TALK TO OUR ELDERLY AND OUR POOR.
START OPENING YOUR MIND AND GET RID OF YOUR PRECONCEIVED IDEAS AND BIASES AGAINST 'OTHERS' THAT ARE REALLY JUST PEOPLE THAT NEED HELP WITHOUT BEING ABUSED OR RIPPED OFF OR HELD CAPTIVE.
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