SF Homeless Shelter Model - Makes Respect, Dignity and Hygiene enforceable by law.

by SFHomeless | February 1, 2008 at 07:28 pm | 1520 views | 19 comments

San Francisco, after 10 or 15 years of a somewhat abusive, violent and generally undesirable living conditions, our City's Shelter System is finally reversing years of suffering and lack of moral and incentives, the good shelter residents and staff are ready to pass the country's first City Shelter 'Minimumm Standards of Care'.

On February 20, 2008, There is a Noon Rally on the steps, in front of San Francisco City Hall and a Hearing before the SF Supervisor's Budget & Finance Committee, at 1 PM - In the Meeting Room 200.

PUBLIC IS INVITED TO SUPPORT THIS VALUABLE AND COST EFFECTIVE LEGISLATION.

Something that all sheleters should have been doing a long time ago, but lapses in consistent and 'escalating' enforcement of City Shelter Contracts by some City departments and staff (and shelter management themselves, at times for not being more proactive in setting standards.) every day shelter residents suffer harm, losses, lack of sleep and appropriate respect and dignity by our tax funded shelter managers and staff.

When homeless shelter residents and staff are overworked, stressed out, tired, undernourished (clients, not staff - they eat very well on food meant to the homeless in many SF Shelters), treated abusively, denied adequate services to 'get out' of being homeless, they all tend to fail and we have to 'recycle' them back into the same system, filled with non-compliance with all kinds of human rights, contracts, local and state health and safety codes and lack of well trained staff.

It's an expensive revolving door when we do not make standards into law, to insure that positive compliance is not optional, year after year, but required.

Protecting our homeless is necessary to defray all other costs to the community and it saves lives and resources.

And after the harm, losses and trauma of being denied basic services, to improve the quality of their lives , it becomes much more expensive to correct failures caused by the shelter facilities and personnel, than to have a universal set of standards, in place.

I surmise that in many case, due to unanticipated need, shelters were often 'thrown together' rapidly, without consideration of what happens when large
and small numbers of staff, work against the best interests of the residents they serve and the staff, become part of the violence, corruption and drug dealing that we supposed to be helping to protect all of our City's residents from, homeless or not.

[ re-posted with permission via email to The SFHomeless Yahoo! Group, San Francisco, California ]

Flag this story

Upload

Make your good story a great story. Click here to add your photos & video to this story.

Crowd Power

Scan the web to add photos and videos to this story or add them from the NowPublic Archive.

ryan

at 20:25 on February 1st, 2008

We'd love to see some photos of the event. `

matt.rapczynski

at 21:01 on February 1st, 2008

matt.rapczynski has contributed a photo to this story. (On request from Ryan, cheers)

joshuanitschke

at 22:06 on February 1st, 2008

I was visiting San Francisco to see my father and saw a picture of this supposed homeless man. I paid him a dollar for the photograph, even though I don't support where he's going to put the money. As you can see, he cares more about his habit than food, or other necessities; or nice clothes for a job interview. I don't support the premise of this article, but if they want pictures of the homeless, the authors can use mine.

joshuanitschke has contributed a photo to this story.

SFHomeless

at 19:54 on February 2nd, 2008

joshuanitschke

Saw the picture and yes, we'd love to see more... you can email them to sfhomeless@yahoo.com ...

I do not know if you have ever been homeless or not... people that are or have been tend to see first hand what happens with tax dollars spent on shelter systems. If video were streamed from inside, it would shock the nation and give a jolt of instant awareness to why any emergency; temporary; transitional; or even permanent housing absolutely need standards just to keep the quality of life from slipping down where it ges much more expensive.

Every shelter we've been i, where the staff were highly knowledgable, obviously caring and helpful, all levels of conflict, sickness, diesease, confrontations, erronesous write-ups and denials of services, violence, death and arrests were way down compared to other shelters that are lax, noninformed, staff with recent histories of criminal activity and behavior, high illeteracy and general corruption.

Anyone who's lived in the shelters can see the percentage of waster,false reproduction of case manager notes, food theft, misuse of city property, and things that cause harm to the most vulnerable segment of our population because 'homelessness' has all kinds of people in it.

A large percentage of them had homes and were paying taxes, last year and most of the years before becoming homeless here. Mortgages fail, divorce happens, veterans have six month back log on their claims, we have mentally ill and others that have skills, talents that all need and deserve to always be treated in a dignified manner and given those basic tools that anyone needs, to 'get out' of being homeless.

No, not everyone will be able to do that. We have a small percentage of the population that may always be unemployed, disabled that as a community, we look after, as a family member of our community.

Thanks to everyone for their great postings !! !!

EyesBLK

at 22:27 on February 1st, 2008

I will keep taking picture of homeless people to something help them.

EyesBLK has contributed a photo to this story.

dhaneshsr

at 22:59 on February 1st, 2008

I took this photo while travelling through the silicon valley san francisco.It was a quick shot inside from a CAB. In a website I saw that in United States, there are approximately 754,000 homeless men, women, and children. That total includes people who are living on the streets, staying in shelters, or living in transitional housing.

dhaneshsr has contributed a photo to this story.

Breathtaking Photos

at 00:16 on February 2nd, 2008

A homeless girl lays in the dirt. The youth, our future of our country is just thrown away. Away like a piece of trash. In a country of such riches. This should never be allowed.

Breathtaking Photos has contributed a photo to this story.

magnifik 2.0

at 01:19 on February 2nd, 2008

magnifik 2.0 has contributed a photo to this story.

magnifik 2.0

at 01:20 on February 2nd, 2008

redgiraffe7

at 05:59 on February 2nd, 2008

On my first visit to San Francisco I was shocked by the number of homeless people. Even by London standards the volume of this problem was a real eye opener. The main difference which became instantly apparent was the lack of aggression and intimidation that is so evident in the UK. I was pretty much ignored while walking around grabbing shots at sunrise or late in the evening.

On talking to some locals in the bars in the finance district, the general consensus was that SF was a ‘good place to be homeless’. I’m not really sure that I agree any place is good to be homeless.

What moved me about this scene was that the old woman, who as a minimum has contributed her existence, was almost invisible to the business as usual human traffic. Everyone seemed much more concerned with the ‘Art’ at the local crafts fair. People quite happy to part with their cash in the name of art rather than considering helping a fellow human being.

The world is upside-down.

redgiraffe7 has contributed a photo to this story.

Richard Cody

at 15:54 on February 2nd, 2008

I take photos of people sleeping on the streets of San Francisco for a portfolio that I call "Hotel San Francisco". My purpose in doing this is to illustrate the conditions that we in The United States, the richest country in the world, allow our poorest members to suffer. With each shot that I snap I am hoping for a better, more humane world.

Richard Cody has contributed a photo to this story.

javism

at 17:36 on February 2nd, 2008

1710 Market St at noon

javism has contributed a photo to this story.

elpollomuerte

at 04:32 on February 3rd, 2008

Some bedding arranged in one of the back doorways of Star of the Sea near Clement Street.

elpollomuerte has contributed a photo to this story.

wispa23

at 07:01 on February 3rd, 2008

I took this photo whilst in San Francisco in the summer of 2007. Due to the city's moderate climate its where many homeless choose to congregate and set up home in the many near by parks. This trolley is their life holding possessions and many items to recycle where they receive money in return.

wispa23 has contributed a photo to this story.

hessam

at 06:01 on February 4th, 2008

I was visiting SF from abroad and was once again reminded by the widespread poverty right in downtown SF. I thought I could give it some visibility and brought my camera along one morning to work.

hessam has contributed a photo to this story.

shaire productions

at 14:19 on February 5th, 2008

This was taken at Powell Street Bart Station on a wet and stormy day, though it rains everyday when you're homeless.

shaire productions has contributed a photo to this story.

coleadam

at 00:58 on February 6th, 2008

I took this photograph while pursuing my street photography of San Francisco. I spend most of my time downtown documenting the homeless. While I photographing this man from across the street, a tourist approached me and asked what my motives were. He asked if I was going to give my subject money and asked why a lot of people walking by were giving this particular man their change but were walking right past another man just down the block. I really didn't have an answer.

http://www.cole-emde.com

coleadam has contributed a photo to this story.