39 Fell

by Will Emerson/STREET SHEET

The "39" on a burgundy awning along Fell Street is the most visible marking identifying a city-funded drop-in center that is gearing up to expand its services in anticipation of greater numbers of homeless clients walking through its doors.

Often referred to as "39 Fell" by those in the know, the McMillan Drop-In Center is broadening its sobering services, adding full-time nurses and experimenting with a computerized shelter placement system that may grow to include photographic and fingerprinting capabilities. In addition, McMillan peer counselors, many of whom are former homeless, have been warned to meet professional standards or face disciplinary action.

The expansion of McMillan‚s stabilization or sobering area to include additional medical services appears to be a priority. Normally the facility has 28 beds set aside for public inebriates brought in by the police and Mobile Assistance Patrol. Like McMillan, MAP is under the aegis of Community Awareness and Treatment Services, Inc., a non-profit organization that contracts with and receives funding from the city.

According to the Department of Public Health, it was the Board of Supervisor's Hospital Diversion Task Force that recommended increasing McMillan's sobering services. The beefed up stabilization area is being called the McMillan Sobering Center and is considered a pilot project. This means the program may or may not be a permanent fixture depending on its level of success.

Interestingly, a few individuals who work with the homeless see ulterior motives behind the city's efforts. They say the strengthening and expansion of McMillan's services is a result of the city yanking funds from full-fledged detox facilities and the likely implementation of Proposition N, which will cut welfare benefits.

On the night of April 7, two men who look lost wander into the McMillan Drop-In Center. It turns out the two are nurses from the Ozanam Center, a local detox facility affiliated with the St. Vincent de Paul Society. They say Ozanam is closing its medical detox unit, and they are considering working at McMillan. Ozanam is one of several detox facilities that will reduce or eliminate services for substance abusers.

The advent of Proposition N may also be impetus for McMillan's increase in services. In July, certain individuals receiving approximately $340 a month in city welfare benefits will have their payments cut to about $59. The city says it will use the $14 million or so in expected savings to provide more housing and services for the homeless. The homeless say that's hogwash. They fear increased lawlessness and greater numbers on the street.

Supporters of Proposition N, which was ratified by voters in November and devised by city supervisor and mayoral candidate Gavin Newsom, say the homeless squander their cash benefits. Indeed, Proposition N was given the popular moniker Care Not Cash. Voters may have been convinced that it is housing and services the homeless need not money.

But in addition to other logistic difficulties with Proposition N, what voters may have failed to realize is that the city will be hard-pressed to free up housing for the homeless when former dot.commers and the newly unemployed are clambering for affordable places to stay in a city where reasonable rents are nearly impossible to find.

It is about 6 p.m. on a Tuesday night and the McMillan Drop-In Center is rapidly filling. Of the 60 or so chairs available for clients to sit in about eight remain free. Clients sit along six oblong tables where they eat, play cards, talk or simply sleep. There is also an area at the back of the facility where clients can watch television.

Asked to give their impression of Proposition N, two McMillan clients who receive cash benefits from the city quickly speak up. They joke about the homeless turning to crime to make up the difference in cuts. The men, who are regulars at the center, appear more resigned than concerned about the potential slash in benefits. Just another hard knock for the homeless.

Not far from the men sits a woman, probably in her late thirties, who has sat idly in the drop-in center every day for at least the last six months. Rarely if ever does she speak, as she sits staring straight ahead, a black hood hiding her face and three white plastic bags at her side.

An old man with frizzy, white hair and a tangled beard sits against the wall. For the most part he is quiet tonight, but he has been known to laugh hysterically for no apparent reason and masturbate in view of other clients. Staff has been instructed to ask the man to shower at least once a week to guard against his problem with lice.

The two McMillan clients described above are not atypical of the homeless people who arrive every day at 39 Fell. Many are mentally ill, drug addicted or both, meaning that simple solutions such as shelter and nominal services will not meet their needs. These are individuals who will only benefit from long-term care in the forms of housing and treatment.

According to city officials, implementation of Proposition N will free up about $14 million that will go toward homeless services and housing. But it is no secret that the amount is but a pittance when considering the scope of San Francisco's homeless problem and the population's medical, housing and treatment needs.

The McMillan Sobering Center is tentatively scheduled to open near the July 1 implementation date of Proposition N and will be funded by the DPH, private hospitals and private fundraising to the tune of about $800,000. According to the DPH, the department's share of the funding will be in the neighborhood of $400,000. The DPH's Tom Waddell Health Center and CATS will operate the project jointly.

So it is to a nondescript drop-in center on Fell Street that the city is turning to meet the needs of a population that continues to grow despite cuts in services, police raids on camps and disdain from the city's elites. The question is whether McMillan and other service providers will be up to the task.

(Editor's note: The $400,000 in private funding for the Sobering Center is for one year only. Meanwhile, the estimated cost to the City to operate the 39 Fell St. facility next year is estimated to be over $1,000,000.00. The actual medically supported detox facility at Ozanam center is having $563,722.00 cut in this budget cycle and is slated to close July 1st, 2003.)