Sunday, May 10, 2009
Homeland Security Should Give Us $258 Million To Build A Self-Empowered Mega Shelter
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
Our Friend Ricky Hasn't Seen His Family in 22 Years.
San Francisco, CA - December 22, 2008
Monday, December 8, 2008
33 Famous People Who Have Been Homeless
Thought you might want to check this out.
[ see the link to the Full Story below ]
Today's homeless population, especially here in San Francisco has a much higher percentage of educated and experienced people than ever before.
Many years ago, most homeless people either had severe mental, physical or social problems and were largely unskilled or otherwise unemployable until they got job training and skills training and professional treatment for their conditions.
Any one of us can be fully employed today, living in a nice house that we do NOT even own (the Banksters do...) and you could literally wake up homeless, all of a sudden.
Homeless tomorrow, wishing we had not been so arrogant as to think it could never happen to me.....
The ELITE and GREEDY DO NOT CARE ABOUT YOU.
THEY WANT YOUR HOME AND THEY WANT YOU TO BE ON THE STREETS SO THEY CAN GET YOU ARRESTED AND SET UP AN ACCOUNTS RECEIVABLE WHEN YOU FAIL TO APPEAR IN COURT OR LOSE YOUR CASE BECAUSE YOU CANNOT AFFORD ADEQUATE LEGAL REPRESENTATION.
THOSE FINES AND DEBT YOU OWE ARE SOLD IN BLOCKS TO BANKS AND FINANCIAL COMPANIES.
Fire, divorce, bankruptcy, death in a family, banking, credit and credit card ripoffs, gentrification, downsizing, job outsourcing, plant closures, natural disasters, law suits, layoffs and more.Monday, February 25, 2008
SFHomeless - mentioned on Curbed SF
SF Homeless Blog Exists, Is Popular Wednesday, December 12, 2007, by Sarah Hromac
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Saturday, February 23, 2008
Watch the Video of People Supporting Shelter Standards of Care - SF Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Meeting - Feb. 20, 2008

EVERYONE INTERESTED IN SEEING HOW SAN FRANCISCO HOMELESS SHELTERS HAVE BEEN OPERATING (ABUSING OUR RESIDENTS) FOR THE PAST 10 TO 15 YEARS, NEED TO WATCH THIS VIDEO CLOSELY. (it's long but worth watching)
It's the official video taping of the Wednesday Feb. 20, 2008 Meeting of the SF Budget & Finance Committee, under the SF Board of Supervisors.
[ SF Budget Process Note: Before a piece of pending legislation goes before the full Board of Supervisors, it has to be presented and passed by the Budget & Finance Committee.]
The City Hall chambers were packed with homeless people, advocates, community groups, Shelter Monitoring Committee Members, the Director of Tom Waddell Clinic (Dr. Deborah Borne, DPH), Linzie Coleman (Director of Next Door Shelter-Episcopal Community Services) that ALL spoke up in favor of passing these 'Minimum Standards of Care' to make dignity, respect, health, hygiene and safety practices become LAW that MUST BE ENFORCED.
A few of the Public Speakers presented photographs of conditions (torn mats, open electrical wiring boxes, racist graffiti stating 'Fuck Niggers' at one homeless resource center) which are exemplary of the same sort of material evidence that has been officially documented in the San Francisco Shelter Monitoring Committee (SMC) Quarterly Reports.




Other collaborating evidence has been uploaded by good and courageous anonymous shelter residents and staff, to the SFHomeless Yahoo! Group Site (Photo Section - Shelter Meals and Conditions).
Other photos (of empty beds while residents are turned away from long bed reservation lines) are available in the SF Bay Guardian Articles written by undercover journalists which did an excellent job of exposing the current conditions of these shelters.
February 2008 Articles From SFBG.COM: (they deserve nomination for the Pulitzer Prize for their awesome undercover work! )
1. Search for shelter: Bryan Cohen's nightly journals
2. Shelter shuffle - Inside San Francisco's confounding system of housing the homeless BY AMANDA WITHERELL3.Five Days Homeless: The Journals
4. No shelter from the budget storm Buster's Place, the city's main 24-hour homeless drop-in center, faces closure BY BRYAN COHEN
HSA Reports (under Trent Rohrer, HSA Director) to our Board Of Supervisors fraudulently attempted to misled everyone into believing that the provisions and standards being demanded by shelter residents, directors, staff and community groups are 'already HSA Policies in effect', which is a lie.
A bold faced lie, considering the fact that most of the 'policy' items in their report have not and are not now 'in effect' at nearly all of the tax funded shelters !!!
Under Oath, this would be considered Perjury.
We know this - because we've spoken with residents of nearly every shelter and they all say the same thing.
At most shelters (including the ones itemized by HSA's report to the contrary) they cannot plug in cell phones; they cannot have their laundry done for free (they have no cash to speak of, since Mayor Newsom implemented 'Care not Cash' program... how unamerican is that ! ), they do not get bus tokens for meetings and appointments, they do not get a 'blanket and a sheet', et cetera.
It's one big gross disgusting lie to 'the people of San Francisco' and one big lie to our Honorable Board of Supervisors' and one gross miscarriage of justice and human decency to our homeless San Franciscan residents.
The point of this legislation is not to ever have to use the Enforcement Mechanism.
The point is to make sure that Shelters operate in strict accordance of 'The People' , as a matter of law, instead of leaving the compliance of these standards left to City Agencies who have not really done their job properly for the past 15 years.
Had they all done their job properly to safeguard and take 'good care' of our homeless residents in shelters, by enforcing their own contract requirements (and policies) we would not have been suffering abuse and 'nasty' shelter conditions for the past 15 years.
Millions of dollars, misery and suffering of thousands of shelter residents (and staff) would have been prevented if all of our shelters were held to a 'standard'.
These shelters were basically 'thrown together' with very little input and planning by including residents and staff in the process, which resulted in a shelter system that has been wholly neglectful, uncaring and hazardous to our homeless residenst and the entire San Francisco Community.
The $700,000 or $2,000,000 that this legislation is supposed to cost are pennies on the dollar, in terms of being an investment in our homeless people to restore 'law and order' into the shelters and enable our shelter residents to be provided with the 'basic' conditions and tools needed to get to 'their next step'.
We must do this so they can move on from the shelters rapidly -- instead of being what has been 'a captive shelter system' where most shelter residents were abused, barred from using plugs for their cell phones, ripped off and suffered losses by negligent and often 'criminal' staff and supervisors.
Their food and clothing stocks (paid for with tax dollars and charitable donations) were routinely stolen by Supervisors and staff at most of the shelters.
Contrary to what the SF Human Services Agency stated in their highly fraudulent and inaccurate, misleading report to the Board of Supervisors about all of these 'policies' most shelters refused to provide access to plugs, bus tokens to get to interviews and appointments, denied access to free laundry services because HSA failed to enforce most of their policies.
We find their conduct and report to the Board of Supervisors to be close to being criminally negligent because they failed in their duty to protect us for 15 years and they failed to REQUIRE and ENFORCE their own multi-million dollar contracts and policies inside our shelters.
People suffered, property was lost, people became sick and ill from unsanitary conditions and inadequate meals and likely many died preventable and predictable deaths -- due to the joint negligence of City Agencies and many of these tax funded and donation funded Shelter Directors, Supervisors and Staff.
Those are the facts as is born out by the testimony you will see and hear for yourself by watching this video carefully and by simple review of all of the Shelter Monitoring Committee Quarterly Reports and the recent newspaper reports by undercover journalists and in the SF Coalition on Homelessness' Shelter Shock Report .Or, just ask any homeless shelter resident on the street. They ALL CONFIRM these horrific realities of 'homeless shelter' life in San Francisco, in 2008.
And remember folks, what happens here in San Francisco doesn't stay in San Francisco. It happens all across the country.
So, it is the responsibilty of every American Resident to send undercover journalists into Your City's Homeless Shelter and Housing systems.
Trust in and Verify stories and reports from your City's poor, elderly, homeless people and veterans about abuses and fraud operating in Your Cities.
Organize and support your homeless populations.
If not for their sake, do it for the sake of the fact that Your Tax Dollars and Community Donations are being stolen and ripped off by all kinds of organizations, agencies and even 'church affiliated' non-profits that 'hide' their criminal activity by preying on and intimidating the most vulnerable members of our society in shelters, food banks, missions and housing programs In Your Town, Every Day !!!
Check it out and email us with your tips, stories, photos and evidenc eof what's happening where you live. We will forward your information to federal and state authorities, homeless coalitions, legal suport groups and the general public in order to stop this massive loss of money and wasting of good people's lives.
Remember. You have been lied to. We have all been lied to...
Based on all that we have seen with our own eyes and heard with our own ears, MOST homeless people are not the problem in our communities because they do not even get the bare minimum of 'what they need' to 'move on' from homelessness. NO.
It has been and is being stolen by abusive, untrained, unqualified service providers across the country.
Most of the anger and 'bad conduct' of our nation's homeless is a direct result of being abused, beaten, underfed and mistreated by bad people that make their living off of our tax dollars and charitable donations and they blame the homeless to misdirect attention away from their horrendous crimes.
This is what RICO (Racketeering) and the False Claims Act are all about. Investigation and Enforcement tools to stop the abuse and theft of tax funded programs and services. Put them all in jail !
People are making money by submitting false claims for goods and services that are NOT being delivered properly to our nation's homeless.
And you can readily see that even Government Agencies, like HSA in San Francisco, will and do falsify reports to assist in the covering up of unlawful, immoral and criminally negligent acts committed by non-profit management and staff.
Totally Un-American and totally unacceptable by any standard of human decency.
Wednesday, February 13, 2008
Amanda from the SF Bay Guardian - 'Gimme Shelter' Report - Feb 2008
Amanda and her colleague have done an outstanding job at bringing the truth of today's homeless shelter operations and conditions to all San Franciscans to LEARN FROM.
[ so, we can make better decisions for all San Franciscans, not just a small group the is stealing or misusing our money and human resources in ways that harm us all.] Reports from real investigative journalists that 'live through' their stories, the way Amanda and her 'accomplice' (from our SF Bay Guardian paper), that follow their industry's ethics as professionals -- add yet another layer of undeniable facts and eyewitness accounts of 'what's really going on' with our tax payer and donated dollars and shows us all, exactly how we have been treating and mistreating and profitting off the backs of the thousands of our fellow residents that we all 'say' we wish to help.
These kind of well rounded, no nonsense professional reports, should cure the unenlightened or those of us whom appear to be stuck 'in duh-Nile' about how we have been contracting, budgeting, planning and delivering [ and wasting] millions of dollars worth of homeless and housing, goods and services.
We're talking huge percentages of money lost by misuse and mismangement across the board of city agencies and service providers.
Leaving, always leaving the homeless people 'hanging' and falsely blamed or hated by the town folk (i.g. the unaware or uncaring businesses, residents and tourists who need educating) when its 'the administration' and 'the community decision and policy makers' that have failed us all, by not enforcing the will of the people's decisions (vis a laws and contracts) which created this whole corroded homeless and housing environment.
Now, about the ones that have been 'unaware' or maybe tried to 'hush' up the realities, as they have been unfolding over the past 15 years.
We should all be sickened to witness the lying to our Board of Supervisors that has been taking place recently, by HSA and other City agencies and some non-profits, desperate to 'keep hidden' the scale of the negligence, neglect and abuse that harms our homeless residents, every day. Now, the entire world can see it, SO clearly. It is Time -- for us to clean up thsi mess and set new standards not just for shelters, but for all city programs with performance and funding triggers, all on well advertised, open bid contracts. We need competent, caring and qualified organizations, supervisors and staff to reform and rebuild all of these services from street to shelter to SRO to long term affordable housing for all. But, it can only be done by inplementing standards and speeding up the processes for obtaining new lines of funding and training for qualifed staff. Health and Hygiene are a good start, but as one can tell from this article, our City's shelters are nothing like the fairy tale picture that Trent Rohrer and C.W. Nevuis in their 'prearranged' 'inspections'.... Obviously, once any one of us start trying to deceive or mislead other San Franciscans or our Board of Supervisors in written reports and hateful cutting of successful, cost effective, life saving programs, then we get into issues of Public Trust. So, in response to that, we must seek alternative, responsible and caring people to take the place of the ones that 'just don't get it' or perhaps derive some pleasure or profit from the past and most recent 'status quo' of shelter contracts, funding and operations. Implement the standards for the shelters and the agencies that oversee them. Stop the corruption, grafts and favortism in the shelter and security firm operations so we can get ready for the new homeless, attributed in part to the mortgage and recession crisis and anticipated return of our sons and daughers from the illegal oil wars in Iraq. Now, if we can just replace the people in City Government that are a roadblock to the success of 'taking care' of our City's homeless, poor, elderly and ill, then we can move ahead -- as one united community.
We are in a historical position to be able to set 'the best model' for street to shelter to real affordable housing 'systems' without the profiteering and misinformation, waste and corruption.
By 'doing it right' with honesty, caring and dignity, we all win this 'war' on homelessness by simply treating others like we would want to be treated -- If we became homeless, tomorrow.
If we just plan by numbers instead of planning by people, then at the end of the day, we will have only changed more numbers than we have changed individual people's lives.
Tags: Life homeless McKinney Abuse Health corruption humanity budget cuts Funding ECS episcopal Gavin Newsom hsa Board of Supervisors next door mayor of san francisco local homeless coordinating board trent rohrer linzie coleman
Wednesday, December 26, 2007
SFHomeless Yahoo! Group Wiki-Updated- Homeless Health Alert !
The SFHomeless Yahoo! Group's Wiki has been updated with a new Health Alert! news story about homeless San Franciscan residents at a winter shelter whom were served 'breakfast' that were really leftovers. about 36 hours old from dinner, 2 days before!. The potentially bacteria laden meals were served at about 6am, on Wednesday December 26th, by the Episcopal Community Services Staff/Volunteers. The meals were 'room temperature' to the touch and inside the middle of all of the portions, the food did not appear to have been cooked, reheated or even refrigerated over the past several hours, up to 36 hours before, when the same meals were served almost two days earlier, as dinner, on the evening of December 24th, 2007. A detailed, preliminary report with statements by guests and witnesses and color photos of the actual meals served have been updated on the SFHomeless Yahoo! Group's Blog Site, their 'home' SFHomeless Yahoo! Group Site and on their SFHomeless Yahoo! Group Zoho Wiki Site, shown here. If you or anyone you know has eaten this unfit meal, please get checked out by a medical professional or public health care worker. You may email any information or photos about this or any other homeless related issues happening, in San Francisco or other major cities, directly to: SFHomeless@yahoo.com STAY SAFE OVER THE HOLIDAYS !
Tags: Christmas San Francisco Abuse bacteria bacteria growth Community cooking cooking temperatures Dehydration DISABLED E. coli ECS elderly episcopal food handling Government Health homeless human rights INTESTINAL leftovers MEAT negligent non-profit physically ill potatoes Public Health public safety residents risk s.a.f.e. Salmonella scandal sfhomeless sfhomeless yahoo group http://www.nowpublic.com/tag/sfhomeless@yahoo.com st. mary's cathedral unsafe food Interfaith winter shelter program
Sunday, December 2, 2007
SF California Restaurant Meal Program EBT Cards
J.P. Morgan EFS is the contracted EBT Card processor in several states but, they have been processing illegal charges for sales tax, card processing fees in several U.S. Cities, including San Francisco. This article is part of a series that addresses some dirty little secrets behind EBT Card Food Stamp programs. J.P. Morgan EFS is contracted to process EBT transactions for millions of EBT Card Holders and provide training for the employees of the stores, restaurants, markets and cafes that accept Food Stamp Food Benefits. Due to lack of oversight by J.P. Morgan EFS and local and state government, millions of dollars worth of taxes, processing fees and surcharges (card holder charged higher price for food than the menu or price tag states, for food and beverages only because they are using Food Stamps) over the past several years. All EBT Card Holders are rightfully entitled to receive compensation for these highly predictable, known, preventable and illegal charges. All three groups involved in these illegal transactions share some measure of responsibility for their negligent handling and processing of EBT Cards. EBT Cards are the electronic method of purchasing food stuffs under the USDA Food Stamp Program which is supposed to be regulated and monitored by local and state agencies. Most people that are unable to cook in their own homes for themselves, such as is the case with elderly, mentally and physically ill, poor and homeless persons (including those that live in homeless shelters) are given monthly Food Benefits that can be used in many cities, to purchase hot and cold food at participating restaurants, stores, cafes and markets. Program participants that sell the food; J.P. Morgan EFS (and other EBT Card processing contracting companies)that is supposed to properly train them; and our government tax authorities have all been cited in several official government audits as being fully aware that these charges are illegal, yet they happen every day at both local and nationally franchised restuarants and markets like Subway Sandwiches and Kroger Supermarkets. These audits cite many failures in which the employees that ring up the food sales at cash registers are not trained properly and the contracted EBT Processors have not been processing and performed adequate account reconciliations or apparently made any attempt to refund illegal charges back into the accounts of millions of EBT Card Holders, nationwide. Instead, firms like J.P. Morgan EFS just stick the money into 'slush' accounts under the heading of 'unapplied' EBT Overpayments. These official audits also cite the failures of local and state overseers who likewise, ahve failed in their duties to enforce the laws and program contracts that were designed to protect the poor and homeless from have their Food Benefits illegally taken away from them by such illegal charging of sales tax, card processing fees and practices that discriminate and harm the poor, disabled and homeless, such as when restaurants charge EBT Card Holders more for their food than they do customers using cash or credit cards. Another harmful and discriminatory practice that has happened at Subway Restaurants in San Franciso include things like a store on Polk Street that does not let EBT Card Holders use their cards after 6pm. These practices are illegal under federal and state law and violate the USDA's Food Stamp Program rules. So, who's responsible for the millions of dollars that have been essentially stolen from our nation's elderly, mentally ill, disabled, poor and homeless residents ? It's a 3 way split between the merchants, the contract processors and your state and local governments. SHAME ON THEM ALL !
Tags: California Benefit card processing fees class action client Compensation county determined ebt ebt cards eligible federal claims act fns food benefits food stamp program Food Stamps illegal charges J.P. Morgan EFS Kroger lack of training Law Suit Life MEAL neglect oversight participate program Restaurant Rip Off sales tax stamp STATE SALES TAX stores subway restaurants subway sandwiches USDA
About Our SF Homeless Group
- SFHomeless Yahoo! Group
- San Francisco, CA, United States
- Group of independent homeless and formerly homeless residents of San Francisco that care and work about improving the quality of life of all San Franciscans, but especially the poor and homeless residents who need and deserve our understanding and honest caring.


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