Victory of Resistance!

by Jennifer Friedenbach/Coalition on Homelessness

After two years of hard work by the Coalition on Homelessness, and its allies, the Board of Supervisors voted 9 to 2 to pass ground breaking minimum standards in San Francisco shelters. The legislation, sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano and co-sponsored by Supervisors Mirkarimi, Peskin, and Sandovol requires shelters to maintain their facilities, ensure clean sheets, towels and blankets, provide training for staff, nutritious food and more.

In May of 2007, the Coalition on Homelessness released a report entitled "Shelter Shock" regarding abuse cruelty and neglect in San Francisco's shelters. The report captured the voices of shelter
residents and their experiences. Based on the report findings, the
Coalition's Right to Roof Work Group outlined recommendations to create a standard of care in San Francisco's shelters. The ideas came directly from residents, regarding the on-going struggle of living in the shelter and what changes would make substantive differences in their lives.

The legislation follows standards that are set in place for other
congregate living facilities. There were literally hundreds of people
working on the legislation, with a chunk of the work being done in the Shelter Monitoring Committee Standard of Care work group. Shelter Providers, Human Services Agency, Department of Public Health, Disease Control, Worker Occupational Safety, and TB Control all had a voice in the process. The overall legislation also includes health standards to contain the spread of illness and disease. After all, living in a congregate setting, this should be of utmost concern. When residents don't have basic access to
toilet paper, and then do not have soap to wash their hands, the spread of disease is an obvious outcome. When residents don't have nutritious meals, their health further falters.

The Shelter Monitoring Committee found that a full one third of San Francisco's shelters did not meet basic hygiene standards. The
Coalition on Homelessness based on the voices of shelter residents that found that 55% of shelter residents experienced some form of abuse in San Francisco's shelters. The Mayor's Office on Disability reported that a full one-quarter of their complaints came from shelter residents. A look at both our own findings and those of governmental sources indicated that we had a major problem in the shelters. Problems that the administration continues to deny or downplay to this day.

While the legislation has garnered broad support from providers and homeless community members alike, the Mayor's office sent a letter opposing it. They stated it was too expensive based on inflated costs that were provided by the Human Services Agency. We worked hard to debunk those inflated costs with the Budget Analyst and in the end, the Mayor was forced to support the legislation for no other reason then we had enough votes to override a veto.

The passage of this legislation is seen as a major victory for homeless people and their organization, the Coalition on Homelessness. It is the third major systemic change in the shelter system that the organization has realized. The first victory was the passage of the shelter advocate program, which ensures due process when individuals are put out of shelters, and the second was the passage of the Shelter Monitoring Committee, which monitors shelter conditions. This legislation will strengthen the Shelter Monitoring Committee, as it will now have standards by which to measure the conditions of the shelters, and the ability to recommend fines for Public Health to carry out if the non-compliant shelter does not take corrective action.

Originally the idea was for the Shelter Monitoring Committee to levy fines, but that was found to be illegal by the City Attorney at the last minute. In that version, organizations could appeal fines to the Human Services Agency. Now Public Health, which is much more
independent from political winds then the Human Services Agency and levies fines in other situations for health code violations, would be the ones fining agencies for non-compliance. It is our hope, there will be no fines, as the shelters have the opportunity to take corrective action before it gets to that point.

Since the passage of this legislation, homeless shelter residents now have a right to:

Being treated with Dignity and Respect

A Safe Environment Free from violence.

Toilet Paper, hand soap and dryers

Clean Sheets, Blankets,

Pillow and Towels

Fresh Drinking Water

First Aid Kits

Reasonable accommodation for meals

Nutritionist in system to plan meals

8 hours of sleep

Daytime access in 24 hour shelters

Electricity for charging cell phones

Access to free local calls

Materials in Spanish and English

Staff who wear badges

Disaster plan

Public notice of meetings

Access to free laundry

Minimum 7 night stays (except CAAP beds)

Staff who is trained

To learn more about the work of the Coalition on Homelessness, and to get the latest scoop on the
politics of poverty in SF, go to the Street Sheet blog:
www.cohsf.org/streetsheet