By Christin Evans, Calvin Welch, and David Woo, HANC Board
This month at HANC we will present a panel on policing in our neighborhood and citywide. The panel will include Police Commissioner Max Carter-Oberstone, Legislative Aide to the District 5 Office Melissa Hernandez, and Park Station Police Captain Jack Hart.
To offer some context for the meeting it is important to remember that in the 1970's the Haight- Ashbury, now among the most wealthy neighborhoods in the City, with the City's largest number of Airbnb's catering to upscale tourists and visitors, was considered the "hell hole" of San Francisco and far more disparaged in the media than the Tenderloin is today. In story after story in the City's THREE daily newspapers and six or seven TV stations, public nudity and moral depravity, dope smoking and acid consumption in plain view, and the brisk sale of both on every street corner on Haight Street was reported. Sixty Minutes and the New York Times sent reporters to walk Haight Street to report that our neighborhood was the precursor, not simply of the fall of San Francisco, but of the entire western world as we knew it. Didn't happen, the media was wrong (again).
But what did happen and was rarely reported was the community response: the Diggers, the Free Medical Clinic, Westside Community Mental Health, The Haight Ashbury Community Alcohol Treatment Program (yes alcohol!), The Haight-Ashbury Community Development Corporation, the Food Conspiracy and the community based battle to keep Park Police Station open and local.
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By Teresa Palmer, MD, Geriatrics/Family Practice (Attending Physician at Laguna Honda 1989-2004)
A final reprieve from closing Laguna Honda Hospital and Rehabilitation Facility (LHH), our 780- bed public nursing home, was given by the federal government (CMS-Center for Medicare and Medicaid services) on May 18. This was just one day before evictions of all residents was scheduled to start.
CMS gave the reprieve reluctantly due to a serious citation (“immediate jeopardy”) that appeared after staff was supposedly trained to avoid these. (This deficiency in resident care was: having no plan for monitoring a known suicide risk.)
Evictions and closure now start Sept 19, 2023. Funding by the federal government (80% of LHH cost) stops March 19 2024. Since CMS shut down new admissions in April 2022, only about 530 residents are left at LHH. Between April and July 2022, 12 of 57 residents who were evicted died.
LHH may apply for recertification (and re-opening to admissions) as early as July of 2023. This would prevent evictions and closure. However, LHH will only be recertified if its house is in order. Delays past September are likely. Evictions may resume in the interim.
For Laguna Honda to be recertified (and to avoid closure and evictions), CMS has very detailed and strict requirements, as detailed in a May 18 letter from CMS which can be downloaded here: CMS Laguna Honda Letter.
The requirements include adequate support by the State (California Department of Public Health, along with the following:
1. A Certified Nursing Home Administrator must be hired by June 26.
2.There can be no more “immediate jeopardy” citations.
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