San Francisco Policy and
Practices
The board of supervisors have passed several laws like “care not cash” and the single standard of mental health care that are not followed in San Francisco the way that they are written in the books. The actual practice of San Francisco is the programs implemented by the Newsom Administration including: the 10-year plan to end homelessness; “care not cash” which is called “not cash” by the homeless who cannot get care; Project Homeless Connect (diverting all of the cities resources to a once a month event or publicity stunt depending on your perspective; an oriented plan to make the homeless less comfortable (assuming that could ever be comfortable); to close the shelters and drop-in centers that make the homeless comfortable; and to hold shelter beds for individuals who sign up for General Assistance (GA) for six months even if they never show up and someone else wants to sleep in the bed.
Single
Standard of Mental Health
The San Francisco Health Department adopted the "single standard of care" as it's mental health policy in 1998. This policy has provided uninsured San Franciscans access to the same level of mental healthcare of the insured and has been widely supported in the mental health community. It also is credited for opening up much needed services to San Francisco's hard-to-reach and uninsured homeless population. Providers and advocates point out that this cost saving measure will hurt the same population of homeless people that the administration claims to be focusing on. Due to budget restraints the single standard of care has been reduced to emergency (when you are a threat to yourself or someone else) care for the past year. One July 12 the board of Supervised repast the single standard of care. We will have to wait and see if it is followed.
Project
Homeless Connect (PHC)
This is a program designed by the Newsom Administration to get large amounts of volunteers to wonder through the streets to encourage homeless people to get services at the Billy Graham Civic Auditorium that is held once a month. While these project connects are largely seen as publicity stunts and ways for average citizens to feel good about them selves, they seem to have little affect on the homeless. All of the services offered at PHC are offered every other day of the week. Often times homeless individuals are told that they will be given housing if they go to PHC even though they know that they are only going offer 25 Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotel rooms to the more than 1000 homeless people that want it that day. Often times housing slots sit vacant for weeks to be saved for PHC when there are hundreds of people who have their GA checks cut to $49 a month in order to pay for these housing slots. Some people have been waiting in shelters for more than 8 months to get housing and the slots are then given to people who come to PHC for the first time. Read the San Francisco Bay Guardian article called “project disconnect.”
Read the San Francisco Bay Guardian article called: “the forgotten” and never believe what you read about “care not cash” in the San Francisco Chronicle. Care not cash was designed to give GA recipients housing and food in exchange for a lower GA check ($49 a month split into two checks). This lower amount of money has caused a 70% reduction in the number of people who access GA. This is not because there are fewer homeless in the city, as the mayor suggest, rather it is that it is now seen as too much work (which include workfare and meeting monthly with a case worker) for too little pay off. Individuals have sued the city because they have had their payments decreased and they never receive the care.
This is the national model of solving homelessness that is in practice in San Francisco. The philosophy is that you give people housing then you help them address the core issues of their homelessness (addiction, mental illness, legal/criminal issues, education, health problems, etc). While this is in practice in San Francisco, the leading authority in “housing first” testified at the board of supervisors meeting that project homeless connect, the city’s attempt to make the homeless uncomfortable while not providing them services and other options and “care not cash” are actually contrary to the housing first process.