Guests who moved into SIP hotels on or before Nov. 15, 2020, are eligible to participate in SF COVID-19 Command Center’s rehousing program, which will offer three housing options. Most of my clients prefer to remain in the City, close to their providers (yours truly), but some say they will refuse Tenderloin and Bayview-Hunters Point to avoid drugs and violence. While waiting for an elevator at a SIP hotel, one SIP hotel guest excitedly told me that she was moving out to Tracy (over 60 miles south of SF) to start a new life.
This rehousing process has picked up pace as federal government reimbursement for SIP hotels will run out Sept. 30, 2021, and the City plans to gradually close SIP hotels between fall 2021 and mid-2022. SF Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing plans to spend $1 billion to house 6,000 homeless people by July 2022.
According to
a report by Coalition on Homelessness, SF has a “generational opportunity” to cut homelessness in half by using federal, state and local Prop C funds to purchase
struggling hotels and convert them into permanent supportive housing, which is
quicker and half the cost of newly constructed affordable housing.
Inside SIP hotel floor with separate hallways leading to case managers, medical staff, and Homebridge caregivers, meeting the needs of SIP hotel guests, who receive three meals per day in subsidized rooms with private bath, laundry service, and three daily check-ins by staff who carry walkie-talkies. SIP hotel guests also sign in/out of a book in the lobby, and cameras record goings-on in common areas. This surveillance system reminds me of assisted living.
This investment in SIP hotels has transformed lives of unhoused people by providing onsite access to basic needs.
“…beyond the healthcare services, it’s also the simple dignity of housing that has allowed patients to heal. Having a chance to rest, to use the bathroom without having to run from place to place, to have three nutritious meals per day — these basic dignities are prerequisites for managing any health condition.”—Naomi Schoenfeld, NP, quoted by Diane Qi and Rani Mukherjee, “Providing more supportive housing is the best way to heal the homeless: San Francisco must act quickly to acquire more hotels and other sites,” SF Examiner (Apr. 13, 2021)
No wonder SIP
hotel care coordinators offer incentives like food and gift cards to engage comfy
guests to get assessed for rehousing, provide documentation (state ID, Social
Security card, proof of current income), and sign participation agreements that include fill-in-the-blank for reasonable accommodation/life safety
concerns (with verification from health provider). Participants have up to two business days to respond to a housing option. Rehousing is a limited opportunity: Participants who refuse three times end their eligibility for rehousing. One client seeks to stall the rehousing process, as he wishes to remain at his SIP hotel until closing in order to maintain access to onsite medical care (also supported by his primary care physician).
Another program to transition SIP hotel guests is Flexible Housing Subsidy (FHS) Pool, which places them in private market rate rentals and provides support services. Under this FHS arrangement, tenants contribute rent based on 30% of their income and the remainder subsidized by nonprofits through 2022, then the City takes over funding.
Attention Adult Protective Services: Muni commuter holds up sign reading “Stop violence against the elderly in the SIP hotels.” (June 15 was World Elder Abuse Awareness Day.)
During this pandemic, other unhoused people were moved into group shelters and outdoor tent camps, like this “safe sleeping village” fenced outside SF Main Library. SF Supervisor Rafael Mandelman proposed controversial expansion of temporary safe sleeping sites, with an average cost of $190 per tent, per night! This “shelter for all” policy has been criticized for taking resources from long-term solutions, like permanent supportive housing. Puzzling why SF Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing recently sought $20 million over next two years to fund 260 tents in six Safe Sleeping Villages, at a cost of over $60K per tent, per year?
Poster reminder to Share the Sidewalk: Keep it clear, clean, and cool ("look out for one another - especially kids and seniors").
California Gov. Newsom said “what’s happening (tent camps) on our sidewalks is unacceptable.” Henceforth, he proposed more home-ful plans: spend $12 billion to house homeless people over five years ($7 billion to expand Project Homekey, convert hotels to housing + $1.75 billion to build affordable housing + $3.5 billion on new housing and rental support); and state’s payment of all back rent owed by lower-income people who haven’t been able to pay rent during pandemic.
Yet the state’s spending on homelessness has been criticized for a lack of centralized system to track spending, and inability to determine duplicative efforts, according to state auditor’s report: Nine state agencies spent $13 billion through 41 programs to address homelessness in the past three years…like too many chefs in the kitchen?!
“With more than 151,000 Californians who experienced homelessness in 2019, the State has the largest homeless population in the nation, but its approach to addressing homelessness is disjointed. At least nine state agencies administer and oversee 41 different programs that provide funding to mitigate homelessness, yet no single entity oversees the State’s efforts or is responsible for developing a statewide strategic plan.”—Elaine M. Howle, California State Auditor, Homelessness in California: State’s Uncoordinated Approach to Addressing Homelessness Has Hampered the Effectiveness of Its Efforts (Feb. 2021).
In response
to this state audit, California unveiled Homeless
Data Integration System
(HDIS), the first statewide repository of homelessness data from 44 regional
continuums of care; some stats from 2020:
·
161,548
people experienced homelessness on a single night in January 2020
·
In
2020, local providers reported serving 248,130 people experiencing homelessness
(36,810 from age 55-64; 14,802 from age 65+)
·
Of
the people who were served, 91,626 people (37%) moved into permanent housing
throughout 2020
Unhoused clients pay relatively sizeable amounts from their government income for storage space, which is limited when they stay in shelters (typically one backpack, one luggage). Example: 73-year-old Buffalo Sojourn of Oakland has been “unhoused on and off” for the past 20 years, and spends $480 (out of his $700 government aid check) to pay for monthly storage of his Black Panther Party memorabilia.
Coalition on Homelessness (COH) issued a report, Stop the Revolving Door: A Street Level Framework for a New System (Sep. 2020), based on pre-pandemic surveys of homeless experts (584 unhoused people in SF) and called for:
·
Prevention:
pass policies to keep housing affordable; expand access to variety of permanent
supportive housing options (rental assistance/subsidies).
·
Shelter:
majority prefer legal camp with amenities (over existing shelters associated
with institutionalization, dependency, stigma, strict curfews that interfere
with getting hired/maintaining jobs); demand for both clean and sober shelter;
high quality case management (many complained of low-quality).
·
Substance
use: need for diverse system that includes methods of harm reduction and
abstinence.
·
Mental
health: bring mental health services including peer support where homeless
people already congregate at drop-ins, shelters and navigation centers; stable
housing after treatment is critical to stabilizing mental health.
·
Trans
homelessness: need gender-affirming care.
COH report's "revolving door" refers to homeless people churning through SF’s homeless response system without landing permanent housing. But the report doesn’t address the revolving door of staff who work with the unhoused population (other than briefly mentioning "it is difficult to attract and maintain quality staff" in Shelter section, p. 42), allowing clients to fall through the cracks. Yet dedicated staff is essential to build stable therapeutic relationships with clients to provide case management, substance use and mental health treatment services. Sadly, as in long-term care facilities, there appears to be high turnover among staff who work with the unhoused population that can negatively affect operations and client outcomes. And staff turnover existed prior to this year's Great Resignation. In last year's Performance Audit of SF Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (DHSH), SF Budget and Legislative Analyst noted high staff turnover/understaffing, insufficient contract oversight and unspent funds made DHSH unprepared to handle the growing homelessness crisis amid the pandemic.
Home Match, a
nonprofit that pairs older adults who have extra home space with people seeking
affordable housing, is “good at homeless prevention,” said its Program Director
Karen Coppock.
Tents inside fenced parking lot and outside parklet space keep sidewalk clear.
Encampments opposite outdoor murals.
Books adorn this Bigbelly trash compactor on streets of Tenderloin, sharing space with tents; Helayne B. reminds us of our humanity: we are like books, full of stories.
Warning sign on traffic light post marks drug-free zone in Tenderloin, yet enforcement is lax.
Tenderloin’s Sierra Madre Apartments fire displaced 60 residents, mostly seniors, a reminder how precarious our housing status is.
UC Hastings Law is constructing 14-story, mixed use complex that includes 600+ units of below-market-rate graduate student housing with occupancy set for June 2023. Murals painted on building exteriors make art freely accessible to people on the street.
Mural of androgynous face on Mosser Tower Apartments, with balconies that provide perfect pandemic escape!
Alicia McCarthy’s “Untitled” mural on luxury hotel that was former SRO.
Mural on boarded up Aviary storefront invites viewers into meditating frame of mind.
Mural of “Misunderstanding” by 13-year-old Marisol, painted in groovy style.
Van Mess (ongoing construction for five years, three years overdue and counting) could use some colorful murals as distraction during slow traffic.
While moving forward with SF’s reopening, it’s also an opportune time to reflect on how this pandemic has exposed many broken systems and prompted emergency measures to invest in our safety net: food security with Great Plates home-delivered meals (ending next month); Medicare coverage of telehealth; CARES Act coverage of uninsured patients with COVID-19; free COVID-19 testing and vaccination; universal basic income pilot; etc.
Home-ful measures included eviction moratorium and rental assistance, suspension of homeless sweeps and “poverty tows” (people who live in their cars). Now there’s consideration of more city-sanctioned spaces for unhoused people to park and live in their vehicles.
