By Danielle McVay, HANC Board

The April 13th HANC meeting was a coming together of San Francisco non-profit royalty. First, we had Coalition on Homelessness Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach, followed by Lydia Bransten, Executive Director of The Gubbio Project, and to close the evening was Joe Wilson, the Executive Director of Hospitality House.

During Jennifer Friedenbach's time she shared something very surprising to the crowd: that there are 90,000 calls to 911 annually that are related to homeless people. She was clear that these calls are only related to the "presence of a homeless person" and not related to safety issues. She is working with members of the Board of Supervisors to work toward a compassionate care response. She discussed the lawsuit against The City due to continued sweeps/destruction of property of homeless persons despite this being against federal law, the lack of effective services and police response to homelessness. The lawsuit it to demonstrate The City is violating the law, to push them to follow their own policies and step up to treat homeless folk with dignity.

Next up was Lydia Bransten, executive director of the The Gubbio Project. She spoke about her goal for Supervised Consumption Sites to be implemented in San Francisco. She shared a wonderful anecdote of a time she was caring for an individual at The Gubbio Project, hosted at St. John the Evangelist, in The Mission. The individual is a Person Who Uses Drugs (PWUD) who needed medical treatment. With coaxing, the individual felt comfortable going with Lydia to a health clinic despite his previous willingness to have his health deteriorated for fear of what could happen to him or how he might be treated. Lydia drove this person to the hospital. During her explanation of this experience she asked the crowd what we thought the first thing he did when he got into the car was. Many in the room explained "light up" or something similar related to using drugs once he was in the car. Lydia exclaimed that he put on his seatbelt. She used this story to express that all people have the ability and desire to keep themselves safe and should be afforded the opportunity and ability for conversation. What does this require? According to Lydia - courage! The City needs to be willing to share liability with those operating Safe Consumption Sites.

Joe Wilson was open about how the media is "undermining a lot of the good work that happens in this city everyday" as well as "human services being put in a position to solve a problem that they did not create" while also having heavy media scrutiny. He read an open letter that he wrote followed by questions.

Here is a segment from his open letter that seemed especially poignant. "To repeat: nonprofits have an obligation to fulfill their missions, and to use public funds responsibly. However, Hospitality House will not abandon friends and colleagues – and especially not the communities they represent – when help is needed. We express full support for those organizations needing resources, assistance, and capacity to meet contractual obligations – while holding them accountable for the use of public funds. Criticism is easy. Extending a helping hand can mean everything. Our work through the years has taught us that. Words should lead to positive action."

The full letter can be read here: An Open Letter Regarding Hospitality House .