Fw: A PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS IN SAN FRANCISCO and the USA
William Tinker (wtinker@fcgnetworks.net)
Mon, 15 Nov 1999 23:26:09 -0500
To Whom It Concerns: 11-15-99
Please find a plan that could be fashioned to end homelessness in our
country,Thanks !BillTinker
----- Original Message -----
From: ch@nce <coh@sfo.com>
To: <wtinker@fcgnetworks.net>
Sent: Monday, November 15, 1999 10:40 PM
Subject: A PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS IN SAN FRANCISCO
> Bill, you inspire me. Peace, ch@nce
>
> **********************************************************************
> ***********************
>
> A PLAN TO END HOMELESSNESS IN SAN FRANCISCO
>
> Compiled by Homeless and Poor People in San Francisco
>
> HOMELESS PEOPLE'S CONGRESS
> October 27, 1999
> Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco
>
>
> WE THE HOMELESS PEOPLE
> ratify the following action plan to end of homelessness on this
> twenty-seventh of October, Nineteen Hundred and Ninety Nine.
>
> Introduction
>
> San Francisco has failed to solve the problem of homelessness.
> While the number of homeless individuals and families in San Francisco
> and across the U.S. has continued to rise at an alarming rate, we have
> witnessed an alarming increase in police-based responses to the presence
> of homeless people in public spaces. But homelessness is an economic
> issue, not a nuisance issue.
>
> There has been precious little public discussion of the reality that
> homelessness, like most other social problems, can, in fact, be
> alleviated. The Coalition on Homelessness submits the following Plan
> For Action to all concerned residents of the City and County of San
> Francisco, and urge all who are concerned about the homeless problem to
> take action for change.
>
>
> Guiding Principles
>
> o We must ensure that homeless people can actively participate in
> the development and implementation of programs and policies that
> directly or indirectly impact homeless people.
>
> o The City must stop sinking money into temporary Band-Aid
> solutions.
>
> o The City must stop creating and continuing policies that
> criminalize people for life sustaining acts that they must do in public
> because they are homeless.
>
> o The City must ensure that all services in San Francisco must be
> provided with dignity, respect and equality.
>
> o The City and its Departments must provide honest, accurate and
> timely information about policies and decision making.
>
> o Services should be culturally appropriate and competent for the
> populations being served.
>
>
> Action Steps
>
> Housing
>
> The City must have a commitment to provide dignified, decent housing to
> meet the needs of homeless and very low-income people in San Francisco.
> Central to this commitment is the responsibility to develop new funding
> sources dedicated to the creation of truly affordable housing.
>
> 1. Create a Housing Trust Fund from general fund money that is
> dedicated to the creation of low income housing.
>
> 2. All new housing should be developed, maintained and operated by
> homeless people paid a living wage and available for all homeless San
> Franciscans regardless of background.
>
> o For those who need it, mental health and substance use services
> would be offered.
>
> o Housing created should serve all those who are homeless individuals
> including unmarried couples, alternative families, youth, seniors, and
> people with disabilities.
>
> o Housing created should have kitchen facilities and adequate
> bathroom/shower facilities.
>
> o Low income housing must make accommodations for people's pets.
>
> o Substance use should not be a barrier to housing.
>
> 3. Create housing subsidies for families and individuals to ensure
> that a shorter waiting list for Section 8, and other housing programs
> exists.
>
> 4. Pass legislation that mandates that 20% of all surplus public
> lands be dedicated to housing homeless people.
>
> 5. Change HUD regulation to give currently homeless families and
> individuals priority to get into public housing.
>
> 6. Make existing housing available at the Presidio for homeless
> people.
>
> 7. Pass the Public Housing Protection Act that would provide one to
> one replacement of all HUD housing units demolished by the federal
> government, ensures financial accountability, and guarantees the rights
> of people to return to housing.
>
> 8. Expand funding a citywide eviction prevention which combines legal
> services with grants for back payment of rent.
>
> 9. Hotels must not be allowed to force people to move after 27 days
> to avoid their gaining tenant rights. All other loopholes allowing
> landlords to evict low income tenants should be closed.
>
> 10. Implement "vacancy control" so landlords will not be allowed to
> raise the rent when a tenant moves out.
>
> 11. Utilize housing that is in tax default and has code violations
> for homeless families and individuals.
>
> 12. Ensure that housing affordable to extremely and very low-income
> people will conform to health and building standards by holding funding
> contingent on buildings meeting health and safety codes.
>
> 13. Hotels should be restricted from charging residents for
> non-overnight visitors. One piece of ID should be sufficient for
> visitors.
>
> 14. Change laws to make squatting legal.
>
> 15. Refuse to let police or Sheriff evict tenants under new
> non-citizenship clause of the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility
> Act.
>
> 16. Ban HUD from sharing information with the INS.
>
>
> Economic Justice
>
> People must have adequate access to humane employment, and economic
> opportunities in order to acquire and maintain housing.
>
> 1. Actively support a living wage bill in San Francisco that will
> allow working families and individuals to be self-sufficient.
>
> 2. Ensure full implementation of First Source Legislation which
> requires businesses that contract with the city to hire homeless people
> and public assistance recipients, as well as have training programs that
> lead people into jobs.
>
> 3. Establish citywide jobs program, making 200 full-time and 100
> part-time jobs available to workfare workers at prevailing wages for a
> period of 2 years.
>
> 4. Award workfare workers the rights of other union employees,
> including paying prevailing wages, work place protections and allow for
> other benefits.
>
> 5. Provide more language and training programs for all individuals
> with more appropriate schedules that allow for those that work or have
> children to attend.
>
> 6. Provide training and opportunities in alternative economies where
> documentation is not a barrier to employment. This includes the
> creation of more day labor and casual labor opportunities where you are
> hired if you show up and you are paid at the end of the day. Workers
> should also be provided with worker rights training.
>
> 7. Provide job retention services to ensure that there are necessary
> support services for homeless people placed in jobs.
>
> 8. Make quality, affordable childcare available to working parents
> and those in search of work.
>
> 9. Make welfare treat recipients with respect: keep recipients
> informed of their status, reduce paperwork, and provide ongoing,
> adequate training for workers.
>
> 10. Expedite reciprocity agreement with adjoining counties that allow
> families forced to leave San Francisco to continue their training,
> education, childcare and other welfare related programs in San Francisco
> while they receive their benefits in their new county of residence.
>
> 11. All welfare recipients should receive an annual cost of living
> increase.
>
> 12. Voluntary money management program should be available for those
> who seek it.
>
> 13. Reform the PAES program to include voluntary job placement. and
> provision of decent housing for no more than 30% of monthly income.
> Department of Human Services should not stipulate where PAES recipients
> look for employment.
>
> 14. Provide more employment opportunities that do not discriminate
> based on criminal convictions, legal status and lack of official
> identification.
>
> 15. The City should apply for State and Federal grants to create
> jobs that pay a living wage.
>
> 16. Places need to be established for homeless people to put their
> pets and belongings while they are working, as well as availability of
> appropriate work and interview clothing.
>
> 17. Service providers and businesses should have apprenticeship
> programs for homeless people to enter the industry.
>
> 18. All services, including shelters, job training, education, and
> health care must be accessible to employed individuals needs.
>
>
> Health Care
>
> Health care must be made accessible and available to all, focused on
> quality, appropriate to the needs of patients or clients, integrated in
> its approach, convenient in its location and compassionate in its
> application.
>
> 1. Commit to full funding of treatment on demand to build a community
> based treatment system that fully serves the diversity of San Francisco.
>
> o This must include bilingual and culturally appropriate substance
> use treatment.
>
> o Access should also include twenty-four hour services such as detox,
> and include facilities for youth.
>
> o Minors should be able to access to all treatment (including
> methadone) without parental consent or fear of legal trouble.
>
> o Aftercare for people who go through residential or outpatient drug
> treatment to help them adjust to life on the outsides.
>
> o Harm reduction principles should be integrated into all treatment
> programs.
>
> 2. Rebuild the mental health care system to address both the acute
> and chronic mental health care needs of homeless San Franciscans,
> including culturally appropriate and bilingual mental health care. This
> includes the expansion of all levels of treatment including expansion of
> residential treatment programs, both in number and length of stay.
> Mental health treatment should be voluntary and not require
> incarceration in order to access treatment.
>
> 3. Guaranteed access and clientele's choice to the latest medication
> and therapy including holistic therapy.
>
> 4. The City must make all efforts to make health care facilities
> welcome and available to homeless people. This means having well
> trained staff, as well as not prohibiting homeless people from being on
> clinic properties after hours.
>
> 5. Increase availability of mobile medical vans to increase access to
> health care to people who are unable to access the clinics and
> hospitals.
>
> 6. Provide bilingual and culturally sensitive programs for women that
> come from domestic violence.
>
> 7. Bathrooms should be accessible 24 hours throughout the City.
>
> 8. Ensure that individuals who are hospitalized during their stay
> at a shelter do not lose their bed space.
>
>
> Civil and Human Rights
>
> The human and civil rights of all people must be respected, regardless
> of race, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or economic status.
> People forced to live on the streets and in shelters should not face
> additional discrimination as a result
>
> 1. Always separate the criminal justice system from service providers
> and the provision of benefits.
>
> 2. Take affirmative steps to end hate crimes directed against
> homeless and very poor people.
>
> 3. Prohibit all private taxation "benefit zones," (Business
> Improvement Districts) that privatize public spaces and act to further
> criminalize homelessness through the use of private security forces.
>
> 4. All social service staff should be well trained and safeguard the
> privacy and property rights of homeless people.
>
> 5. All homeless people should be treated with respect, equality and
> without discrimination regardless of race, ethnicity, religion,
> disability, housing and economic status, substance use, nature of
> employment, age, immigration status, gender, gender preference, or
> sexual orientation.
>
> 6. Embrace equal access to public spaces for homeless and non
> homeless people, including the elimination of architectural barriers to
> people being in such public places.
>
> 7. Ban all laws, and enforcement of laws that in practice target
> homeless people for their status of being homeless.
>
> 8. Implement a comprehensive independent grievance process for all
> city social services and treatment programs.
>
> 9. Provide twenty four hour notice before removing homeless people's
> unattended property, and stop the confiscation of any property that is
> attended.
>
> 10. All programs must comply with applicable local, state and
> federal disability rights laws protecting the rights of persons with
> disabilities and insuring access to government benefits and services.
>
> 11. Programs that provide shelter, housing and treatment services to
> families shall not require that families separate as a condition of
> obtaining these resources. This includes alternative families and
> unmarried couples.
>
> 12. Ensure that community oversight bodies, including Local Homeless
> Coordinating Board, are empowered in full, work to receive direct input
> from people using the services, and ensure both quality services and
> financial accountability.
>
> 13. Ensure Shelter Monitoring Committee is fully empowered in all
> city funded shelters to monitor shelters, and receive direct input from
> homeless people staying in shelters, as well as front line staff.
>
> Conclusion
>
> In a City which is rapidly losing affordable housing, the above
> steps should be viewed as steps toward proactively addressing
> homelessness. So long as public discourse on the problem of
> homelessness remains centered around "Quality of Life," and is not
> explicitly linked to the lack of affordable housing, subsidized health
> care, economic equity, and civil rights for the City's indigent
> residents, the problem will continue to grow.
>
> It is has been said that so long as one person is hungry, none can
> eat in peace. It should also be said that as long as one person is
> homeless, none can sleep in peace. It is in the spirit of this truth
> that we must not complacently accept that people are sleeping on the
> streets in San Francisco. With hard work, we can end homelessness once
> and for all.
>
> We urge all people concerned about the future of San Francisco to
> earnestly evaluate this Plan. And then to Act upon it.
>
>
>
>
> ***A note on how this document was put together:
>
> This document was based on input received from over 250 homeless people
> at twenty-six different meetings taking place around the city during the
> months of June, July, and August. The sites where input was gathered
> include: United Nations Plaza, Collingwood Park, Cesar Chavez Street,
> Dolores Street Community Services, Golden Gate Park, Multi-Service
> Center North shelter, Multi-Service Center South shelter, Hamilton
> Family Shelter, Vehicularly Housed Residential Association, St.
> Anthony's Women's shelter, Lutheran Church, St. Anthony's Poverello
> Room, A Women's Place, Mission Rock, A Man's Place, The Sanctuary
> Shelter, Lutheran Church, Hospitality House, United Nations Plaza,
> Collingwood Park, Cesar Chavez Street, Dolores Street Community
> Services, Golden Gate Park, Washington Square Park, Haight Ashbury Youth
> Outreach, and McMillan Drop-In Center.
> Coalition on Homelessness, San Francisco
> 468 Turk St.
> San Francisco, CA 94102
> vox: (415) 346.3740
> Fax: (415) 775.5639
> coh@sfo.com
> http://www.sfo.com/~coh
>