Homeless folks and homeless advocates release a REAL homeless services proposal
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by PoorNewsNetwork staff When I was little, my single mom and I lived on disability she received for bipolar disease. Though she's a talented writer interpreter and translator, my mom can't work full time and make enough money for us to live on and be able to save in case of an emergency because she has been intermittently plagued with highly debilitating illnesses like fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome. I just came to understand the meaning of savings and how terrified my mom must be that we don't have any such life savings in case of an emergency. That Eemergency, that always seemed so distant came right before I was to start my last year of high school. Despite a verbal agreement that we would continue paying the same rent at least until I finished high school-- around August of 2000-- the landlady of our San Francisco apartment gave us a notice saying she would be increasing our rent from $1500, a price that we couldn't afford without a roommate in the first place, to $3000 for our two bedroom apartment. She claimed that it was legal under the Costa-Hawkins precedent because we were supposedly subtenants. This was at the height of the dot com boom when there was a 1% vacancy in SF. After a crazy legal circus and way more anxiety than my mom could handle, we settled. We had until the next August to leave and she gave us 5,000. The money went to the lawyer and we essentially got left with nothing. With all the anxiety that this precarious situation caused in my mother she again became ill and could not work as much as she needed. Now we had to look for a house with a past bankruptcy on my mom's credit report and no reference from our last landlady, besides the fact that rents were way too high and we didn't have the money to put down first and last months rent on any place. If it hadn't been for my grandfather 's and my godmother 's help we would have been on the street. It really is a thin line between homefullness and homelessness. So for the people faced with such emergencies, through no fault of their own, who don't have families and friends to back them there is the street or the centralized intake system & For single adults who can't even get into shelters 90% of services are only offered Monday through Friday from nine to five o'clock. Adult shelters can often consist of one hundred or more people all in one room with one monitor. And, despite legislation that is supposed to provide service to all those needing in-home support, it seems that no results have surfaced. This means that if a person is not capable of self-care they are thrown out. As Allison Lum from Coalition on Homelessness pointed out a major problem with the shelter system is the disparity in power between staff and homeless people &the power of writing people up is all in the hands of staff. And there isn't total unaccountability, where the treatment of the people in the shelters is concerned. According to Rebecca Vilkomersen from Homeless Prenatal there are three basic ways to get into a shelter. 1) Case management, which means you follow what the case manager tells you and can get into a shelter from 30-60 days 2) lottery, this is random and can get you a room for one to seven nights 3) coordinator referral, which just isn't working right now. For people with children the only option is a family shelter, of which there are four in San Francisco. Right now there are 150 families on a 3-6 month waiting list in order to get into a shelter. Once they are there, depending on the situation they can stay for up to 6 months and then they have to sign up all over again. The instability of the current shelter system is especially destructive to families. Those that don't get into shelters often ride buses all night, go to SRO hotels or stay in abusive relationships in order to keep a roof over their heads. Under case management there are certain times when a person must be in or out of the shelter. The times are set without regard to a person's work schedule. A major problem occurring right now is the waste of money on bureaucratic systems that don't really serve any useful purpose. Right now $500,000 a year is going to an office whose only job is to manage the shelter wait-list. Rebecca notes that there is more emphasis on database collection then on services. Homeless Prenatal is currently working on a "Know Your Rights Book" to hand out to people in shelters. If you would like to participate they are asking people to go 995 Market St. on the 9th floor from 3 to 5pm every third Thursday of the month. The press conference to release The Community Homeless Proposal was held on the steps of city hall Wednesday, February 20, 2002. In response to Supervisor Gavin Newsom's homeless plan which includes extended hours for shelters and drop-ins, the creation of a new homeless department and homeless services advisory board, and interagency coordinating council, a five-year plan and the centralized information system, the community of homeless people and homeless service-providers has introduced The Community Proposal, endorsed by over 40 organizations. While the real experts, homeless people and homeless service-providers, agree that extended hours for shelters and drop-ins are needed we feel that the rest of the legislation would waste money, violate people's rights and in the end would only help to perpetuate the cycle of poverty and homelessness. According to the experts, 'This proposal is an expensive and desperate attempt to make it look as if change is happening. In reality, it simply creates more bureaucracy at high cost. None of the components of the proposal would create the permanent solutions that are really needed: such as additional subsidized housing, treatment, child care, education, job training or living wage jobs. Finally, as Joyce Miller put it, If homeless people had housing they would not be homeless. It is for that reason that The Community Proposal seeks to build low-income housing while reforming the shelter system until sufficient housing is built. It is time for people to stop seeing homeless people as a separate population that came out of nowhere and that can be thrown in and out of shelters and can be used by this and that politician to win votes. Homelessness needs to be solved and the only way to do so is to provide homes through a process that involves the real experts every step of the way. ******************************************************* The following is the Executive Summary of The Community Proposal:
The Community Proposal
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The following is an alternative proposal, birthed from years of bi-weekly or monthly workgroup, council and community meetings, as well as a critical examination of practices in other communities. It is in response to Supervisor Newsom's recently released plan to create a new Homeless Services Department. We have serious concerns with that proposal and put forth this proposal in its place. CITY-WIDE HOMELESS COORDINATION AND STRATEGIC PLANNING
Eliminate the Mayor's Office of Homelessness In its place, create an Independent Office with at least one full time staff person. This Office's responsibility would be to provide staffing for the Local Board.
Change the make up of the Local Board To include federal and state representatives, as well as the current local department representatives. Two-thirds of the remaining community seats would be held mainly by homeless or formerly homeless individuals (90%). 10% of the community seats would be for homeless service providers. 40% ofthe community seats would be for families and 60% for single adults. In addition, community seats would be representative of poor neighborhoods throughout the city and reflect the City's homeless population young and old, immigrants and veterans, gay and transgender, disabled, victims of domestic violence, members of the diverse racial and ethnic groups. Televise the Local Board meetings on a public access station MANAGEMENT AUDIT OBJECTIVES To discover and understand the weak links or breakdowns in this large and complex system, a true Management Audit needs to do the following: determine who is making what decisions and on what authority review enabling legislation (Local Board) for all funding streams and policy making bodies sort out who does what among the various coordinating / advisory / intra- and inter-departmental groups list community and provider strategy planning sessions review contract goals and objectives monitor oversight and advisory bodies review contract awarding processes review program policy, procedure or eligibility changes determine who makes changes in objectives and priorities, and on what authority determine who oversees and monitors the coordination and integration of homeless programs with treatment, housing, employment and education determine who decides what is or is not cost effective, and on what basis. MONITORING COMMITTEES System-wide Shelter Monitoring Committee
Develop a system-wide monitoring committee to make unannounced visits to shelters and drop-in centers. The responsibilities of the Committee will include the monitoring of city-funded shelters and drop-in centers for single adults, families and youth. Civil Rights and Diversity Monitoring Committees
Begin implementation of the civil rights and diversity committees as described in the Continuum of Care plan, recently passed as the City's five year homeless plan HOMELESS DEATH ACCOUNTABILITY Restart the homeless death count immediately, with staff allocated for this effort.
Reform the Advisory Board to advise the department of Public Health's outreach team, to oversee the data collection, and with input from DPH epidemiologists, to release an annual report in time for the Winter Equinox annual memorial. CENTRALIZED LIST OF VACANT CITY OWNED PROPERTIES
Create a central database of all vacant city owned property. Each landowning city department will report quarterly on property whose original use is no longer needed, e.g. when a school or fire house closes down or moves. Create a Community Advisory Board to be appointed by the Board of Supervisors that is made up of non-profit housing developers, architects, Homes Not Jails, homeless or formerly homeless people, and the Mayor's Office of Housing. The Board will determine if the newly vacant property is suitable for providing affordable housing to people who are homeless, or if it should be sold to create a dedicated Fund for the development of affordable housing. The Local Board will maintain this fund and award contracts for the development of this housing. Ensure long-term affordability of all housing developed through this process by developing through a Community Land Trust. Rehabilitation of the buildings will utilize a model that includes wages for homeless and formerly homeless people. INTAKE FOR FAMILY SHELTERS
Reduce services at Connecting Point to a 1-800 number for homeless families, the telephone to be staffed by two individuals, staggered hours, at a community organization. COORDINATED STREET OUTREACH WITH INTAKE WORKERS
We propose an outreach effort, coordinated through the Mobile Assistance Patrol, that will have intake workers from different non-profit agencies and representing different area of service accompany MAP drivers. In addition, we propose that the police stop their practice of ordering homeless people to move on when no law has been violated. |