(Presented at HANC's April 2023 Meeting)

By Joe Wilson, Executive Director, Hospitality House

Recent media coverage of the struggles nonprofit organizations face in fulfilling contractual obligations has renewed the public's call for more accountability. Hospitality House fully embraces accountability, openness, and oversight in monitoring the use of public funds, and we welcome public scrutiny as a catalyst for constructive dialogue and improved performance. We express full support for our partner organizations needing resources, assistance, and capacity to meet contractual obligations – while holding them accountable for the use of public funds. Hospitality House does not and will not excuse misuse of public funds.

Human service organizations largely came into being to fill gaps - to augment gaps that have widened over time because of racial, ethnic and gender inequities, America's disappearing safety net, and systemic retreat from our social contract. In communities of color in San Francisco, these needs have deepened because of the COVID pandemic, seismic shifts in the national economy, and widening inequality. Millions of America's low-income renters live in substandard housing.

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.

 

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

This month HANC will focus its general membership meeting on the city budget. Three guests will join us to go through the key issues presented by this budget: Supervisor Budget Chair Connie Chan from District 1, Debbi Lerman, Director of the San Francisco Human Services Network, a coalition of some 50 faith and community based non-profit health and human services providers, and Tim Redmond, Editor and Founder of 48 Hills, who has reported on San Francisco politics, including budget politics for some 40 years.

In March, a Joint Report from the Controller, the Supervisors’ Budget Analyst and the Mayor’s Budget Director reported to both the Mayor and the Board that the City's revenue outlook had deteriorated from its initial January report of this year’s projected budget deficit of some $200 million to $290 million and the projected five year deficit to a whopping $1.3 Billion . Last year the Joint Report estimated an $80 million surplus for this year when the City passed its current $13.8 billion budget.

The expected shortfall was reported BEFORE the Mayor proposed and the Supervisors passed a$27 million supplement the Police Department’s current $713 million allocation to cover police overtime AND a new labor contract that will cost the City an additional $167 million over the next 3 years, providing a 10% increase in pay for the police. For every other department the Mayor has asked for a 10% CUT.

 

By David Woo, HANC President

The developers of 730 Stanyan, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) and Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), held their seventh public meeting about the project on April 4th, 2023. The project is expected to begin construction in June of this year, including the use of a crane.

Three Major Changes

There are three major changes that have happened to the project since the last developer update in September 2022. The first is that the number of housing units dedicated to Transitional Age Youth (TAY) has gone from 30 to 20. This is because the state of California, Governor Newsom, did not fund the project and San Francisco had to fill in with gap funding. This shift coincides with the addition of 32 units of Project Based Section 8 Voucher family units.

By Tab Buckner, HANC Board

At its April 20th meeting, the HANC Board voted unanimously to sign on to the letter from the HIV Advocacy Network (HAN) and HIV/AIDS Providers Network (HAPN) representing organizations in support of a funding set-aside for HIV/AIDS needs in the upcoming city budget.

Most San Franciscans living with HIV are now over 50 years old. As more people with HIV live longer, new challenges emerge. Individuals who are unhoused or marginally housed face a higher risk of HIV infection and a lower rate of viral suppression. The budget proposals address medical care, mental health service, harm reduction, subsidized housing and service organization support.

 

By Lisa Awbrey, HANC Vice-President

Am I the only one who thinks there’s been a marked increase in fires in our local neighborhoods? Here’s a partial list of recent fires and the number of people displaced by them:

  • 1/22/23 1:45 AM 1310 Hayes (Divisadero) 25 people and three dogs displaced.
  • 8/23/22 12 PM. 1604 McAllister (Divisadero) 13 residents and two businesses displaced. Three alarm fire, fought by over 100 firefighters.
  • 8/31/22 3:41 PM, 700 block of Divisadero (Haight). 12 people and one small business displaced. 
  • 4/5/22 8:39 PM 400 Upper Terrace over 50 people displaced. 
  • 2/18/19 3 PM 1230 Page Street. 14 people displaced.
  • 12/14/18 11 PM 24 unit building@ Hayes and Baker. 20 people displaced. 

How does our city respond to these life changing and tragic events and is there a coordinated process for assisting victims of fire when burned out of their homes? 

Short answer: currently, there is no single city department that is responsible for leading or coordinating assistance to fire victims. 

Is there a centralized data base where the city tracks residential fire incidents? Is the data organized to reflect incidents in specific districts or neighborhoods?  What is the city’s process for investigating the cause of residential fires?  Are we seeing patterns or trends in these recent fires? 

By Tes Welborn, HANC Board

Reparations Meeting

The March 15th Board of Supervisors hearing on the draft Reparations Plan and Dream Keeper Initiative was an amazing event!  The chair and vice chair, Eric McDonnell and Tinisch Hollins, briefly presented the 60 page report of  the San Francisco African-American Reparations Advisory Committee [AARAC] detailing 111 recommendations. The entire Board made statements of support, including disclosures that two supervisors' own relatives had received reparations from Germany which had helped their families, and voted unanimously to accept the report. The BOS hearing chamber, room 250, was packed with supporters of the Reparations recommendations, nearly all African American, and of all ages. In addition, large numbers of Black residents and allies filled the phone lines to support the AARAC recommendations.

By Danielle McVay and Tab Buckner, HANC Board

HANC’s next general membership meeting will occur on Thursday, April 13 at 7:00 PM in a hybrid format at the Flywheel Café at 672 Stanyan Street (see accompanying article for online access). Guest speakers will address accountability deficiencies at City Hall and community efforts to counter such shortcomings. The panel will include San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness (COH) Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach, Hospitality House Executive Director Joe Wilson, and Lydia Bransten, Executive Director of the Gubbio Project.

The COH filed a lawsuit last September against the City & County of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed in response to police sweeps of homeless encampments as a violation of people’s constitutional rights. On December 23, U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu granted a preliminary injunction to halt aggressive policing against the unhoused by means of enforcing certain laws against sitting, lying and sleeping on sidewalks. The injunction also prohibits confiscation and destruction of their personal property. The ruling stated that the City was violating its own laws as well as federal precedent by displacing and destroying encampments without offering a stable shelter alternative. The court’s decision was based on expert witness findings that reviewed three years of enforcement data, declarations from 25 impacted unhoused individuals and the observation of three former City employees. The findings indicate that the City’s forced displacements expose the illusion of a “services-first” program in place. The City has appealed the preliminary injunction and moved to stay the injunction pending the appeal.

 

  1. Haight-Ashbury Scores on Homeless Oversight Commission Appointments
  2. A Successful Haight-Ashbury Town Hall
  3. District 5 Affordable Housing Opportunity Sites
  4. Update On Medicare Privatization
  5. Plans For a Public Bank Released For Community Feedback
  6. San Francisco Residential Rental Registry and Commercial Vacancy Tax Implemented