Homelessness in San Francisco Glossary Ada - Americans with Disabilities Act

Recommendations 18

• R1a
  The Board of Supervisors should initiate a Charter Amendment to create a department- level, seven-member Commission on Homelessness. The Commission would be charged, but not limited, to do the following:  Direct and oversee the implementation and monitoring of the Continuum of Care.  Provide oversight and accountability for the Local Board and the Mayor's Office on Homelessness.  Assume the responsibilities and duties of the current Mayor's Office on Homelessness. In addition, the Commission would be responsible for the hiring of a director of this new Office on Homelessness and of monitoring the activities of that Office. The Office on Homelessness would continue the current responsibilities of MOOH, but with a greater focus on implementing the Continuum of Care, and would provide staffing to the Local Board and the Commission.  Establish a clear, accountable, and public decision-making process for residents, the members of the Local Board, City departments, service providers, and the City and County of San Francisco.  Provide fiscal accountability by reviewing any General Fund expenditures earmarked for homeless programs. This would be mandated and the DPH, DHS, and all applicable departments that fund homeless programs or services would be required to submit information to the Commission for its review. The Commission on Homelessness would include other aspects:  The Local Board would act as the representative body of this Commission and would continue with its current mandate, including the management of the federal McKinney funding. Through its debate and valuable public process, the Local Board would make recommendations to the Commission for final action.  Appointments to this Commission would be split between the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor, with at least one member being homeless or formerly homeless.  The Commission would not take over the administration of any homeless programs, which would remain with the current departments.  The Commission would have sufficient staff to provide it with the capability to conduct fiscal and policy analyses of programs and legislation.
• R1b
  Because of the long-term nature of solving homelessness, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors should consider the establishment of a dedicated source of funding for homeless services and for low-income, affordable housing. This funding stream could be modeled on 1998's Proposition E which established baseline funding for MUNI, or on the hotel tax which provides funding for the arts. Required Responses --  Board of Supervisors - 90 days  Local Homeless Coordinating Board - 60 days  Mayor's Office on Homelessness - 60 days  Office of the Mayor - 60 days
• R2a
  The Mayor and the Board of Supervisors should fund the Local Board to a level that would allow it to effectively fulfill its mandate. This would include mandatory training for members, the hiring of full-time dedicated staff, and the increasing of its capacity to conduct fiscal and policy analysis.
• R2b
  The Local Board should prepare an annual report on the state of homelessness in the City, including, but not be limited to:  identifying gaps in services provided by the City  providing information on the current needs of the homeless population  providing documentation on the services that are provided.
• R2c
  The Local Board, in coordination with other City departments, should take responsibility for the performance and execution of a broad-based census, using consistent, scientific methodology, of the homeless population in San Francisco.
• R2d
  The Local Board should develop a common methodology of budgetary reporting, with regard to homeless services, from all applicable City departments. The Local Board should develop a five-year fiscal projection for the Continuum of Care.
• R2e
  Consistent with the Continuum of Care, the City should pay all members of the Local Board who earn less than $25,000 per year a living-wage stipend for their time on the Board. CGJ believes that this is necessary to facilitate and to encourage the participation of people who are homeless, formerly homeless, and low-income (3).
• R2f
  The Local Board should identify all information, data, and resources needed to fulfill its entire mandate. Responsibility should be specifically assigned to City departments for the timely gathering and submission of this information.
• R2g
  The Local Board should have seats for involved state and federal officials. Additional seats could include a representative from HUD.
• R2h
  Appointments to the Local Board should be distributed between the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors.
• R3
  The City should develop an integrated informational system that can track participants and provide the homeless population with improved and focused services from the City and from service providers. CGJ recognizes that information sharing of this type is controversial. It is the view of the CGJ that serious consideration should be given to a system similar to DPH's "Reggie" system. That extensive system has the capability of safeguarding extremely sensitive, private information; participation in the program is voluntary. Such a system would have several goals:  Provide a higher level of integrated service for homeless individuals, children, and families.  Provide a way of assessing what needs are being addressed and where more resources are needed.  Reduce duplication of services.  Provide consistent, accurate, and accessible information on homeless services.  Ensure compliance with HUD's required implementation of an HMIS.
• R4a
  The City and the Local Board should convene involved departments, homeless advocates, and service providers in order to develop an integrated, central database of available beds. A city-wide referral system would improve access to the location of available beds on any given night.
• R4b
  The Local Board and City departments should develop minimum standards of operation for all homeless shelters.
• R4c
  The Local Board and City departments should develop a standard "Bill of Rights" for all shelter participants, inform participants of these rights, and create standard system-wide operating policies.
• R4d
  The Local Board and City departments should develop minimum standards of training for all shelter staff and establish minimum client-staff ratios throughout the entire shelter system.
• R4e
  The Local Board and City departments should work with the Mayor's Office on Disability to ensure that all shelters, including the expanded winter shelters, are architecturally ADA compliant in addition to ensuring reasonable programmatic access at each site (5). In addition, CGJ recommends that the Office of Contract Administration work with the MOD to ensure that all homeless service contracts include these provisions.
• R4f
  CGJ concurs with the Continuum of Care and strongly recommends that the Local Board and City departments convene a system-wide shelter monitoring committee to provide oversight for shelter conditions and standards of care (3). Required Responses --  Department of Human Services - 60 days  Department of Public Health - 60 days  Local Homeless Coordinating Board - 60 days  Mayor's Office on Disability - 60 days  Mayor's Office on Homelessness - 60 days  Office of Contract Administration - 60 days PUBLIC EDUCATION
• R5
  The Mayor, Local Board, Board of Supervisors, advocates, service providers, and major City departments need to initiate a major public education effort about homelessness and the reality of poverty in San Francisco. This campaign should cover but not be limited to the following areas:  the historical and root causes of poverty and homelessness  the history and status of the City's past and current efforts in combating homelessness  the involvement of the public in developing solutions. Required Responses --  Board of Supervisors - 90 days  Department of Human Services - 60 days  Department of Public Health - 60 days  Local Homeless Coordinating Board - 60 days  Mayor's Office on Homelessness - 60 days  Office of the Mayor - 60 days Summary of Required Responses  Board of Supervisors - Recommendations 1a, 1b, 2a, 2h, and 5  Department of Public Health - Recommendations 1a, 3, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f, and 5  Department of Human Services - Recommendations 1a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f, and 5  Office of the Mayor - Recommendations 1a, 1b, 2a, 2h, and 5  Local Homeless Coordinating Board - Recommendations 1a, 2a, 2b, 2c, 2d, 2e, 2f, 2g, 2h, 3, 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 4e, 4f, and 5  Mayor's Office on Disability - 4e  Mayor's Office on Homelessness - 1a, 2a, 3, 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, and 4f  Office of Contract Administration - 4e ATTACHMENT A - SOURCES 1 Homeless Deaths Identified from Medical Examiner Records December 1997-November 1998 http://www.dph.sf.ca.us/Reports/Homeless/RptHomeless98.pdf December 1996-November 1997 http://www.dph.sf.ca.us/Reports/Homeless/RptHomeless97.pdf 2 Homeless Survey 2001-2002, Budget Analyst http://sfgov.org/budanalyst/homeless/homeless_survey2001-02.htm 3 Continuum of Care: A Five-Year Strategic Plan for Homeless Services 2001-2006 http://sfgov.org/lhcb/reports/coc032301.htm 4 Mayor's Office on Homelessness - Homeless Count Report http://sfgov.org/homeless/count.htm 5 Mayor's Office on Disability pamphlet Americans with Disabilities Act - An Overview of Programmatic Access Requirements for City Contractors OTHER INFORMATIONAL INTERNET LINKS Controller's Office: Performance Audit of Homeless Services (May 2002) http://sfgov.org/controller/Audits/hs.pdf Letter from Budget Analyst to Local Board http://sfgov.org/budanalyst/letterlhcb/index.htm Local Homeless Coordinating Board http://sfgov.org/lhcb/ Mayor's Office on Homelessness http://sfgov.org/homeless/