the city of san francisco rules committee occurring on january 15, 2015 will begin shortly.

>> good afternoon. everybody is sitting in the back. welcome to our rules committee meeting for thursday january 15, 2015. i am supervisor norman yee and i will be chairing this meeting. i am joined by supervisor katy tang and supervisor david campos. the clerk today is ms. so mera. the committee would like to acknowledge the

staff of sfgtv today charles and jonathan who record each of our meetings and make the transcripts available online. madam clerk are there any announcements. >> yes. please make sure to silent all sen phones and devices and speaker cards that are part of the file should be submitted to the clerk and minutes will be done next. >> madam clerk please start with item 1. >> item 1 is a report on the shelter monitoring committee. >> okay. we have jim simby from the shelter monitoring committee here to present. >> i am nicholas and i am the

chair and jeff is the staff member. i will be presenting a report. however we're both available for questions. just briefly if you're not aware of the shelter monitoring committee we are here -- the purpose of the shelter monitoring committee is provide the city with accurate and comprehension information about the conditions of the shelter and there to enforce the standards of care. it was established in 2004 by the board of supervisors through the coalition of homelessness and through community members for the shelters and standards of care weren't there and we now have nine members so we have two vacancy, two of which are board of supervisors seats and i don't know if you will be on rules in the future but we will come back for those appointments. out of

all the seats four are currently formerly homeless individuals and we actually have two staff designated for the committee. however we have been at one staff since august i believe and with one staff capacity that affected our ability to handle complaints and go on site visits. this report is covering january through june so some of that might not be visible in the report. however when we come back with a future report that might be delayed because of staffing you will see negative effects because we're at half capacity. we do 18 a quarter and adult shelters and drop in sites and we do 70 a year and the system is inundated and 6400 in the city and we have 1150 shelter beds for single adults and we know there are over 2200

kids in the school district that are homeless. we only have a couple hundred units available for them for shelter for families so i want to let you know this is a dire situation. a lot of conditions they see are due to the indication they experience and the dearth of beds in the city. just to let you know what we have been doing so far. can you read through the report. we conducted 45 of the 48. we're going to work on the format at this and in the past we're assigned more site visits than the legislature required. it's 72 a year so some are only part times a year so it depends on the quarter and how many we do. we going to work on the format and make it

more readable. the numbers speak for themselves. we are trying to do as many sites as possible. we are prioritizing the sites that have a large number of complaints come from and it's in line with the larger shelters. if you have 300 people there are more complaints than a site with 20 people. each one has its own issues, and addressed in various ways, but for these quarters -- this is obviously six months ago so most of the issues have been resolved but in terms of the shelter monitoring committee the staff member jeff in conjunction with the nurse kate and works with the department of public health and great and awesome people. great employees for the city. they're working at trainings for the shelter so they have done trainings at delores street and msc south and the largest and the drop in in the bay view and

covering issues how staff can better use personal protective equipment and if there is bodily fluids in the shower and work on hand washing and communecable diseases and bugs and lice and bed bugs and how to avoid them from occurring and get rid of them. lately trainings are on hold and staffing is a issue. there is currently one and it's a long process because of the city's hiring requirements and that delays the process so before jeff came the one staff member was alone for five months before she had relief from him coming on so i am letting you know it's an issue and anything can be done with that here that week great but i would focus on the policy recommendations

we're are looking at. there is the policy in the family shelters and meant to address domestic violence, however we see it is problem at and i can if one partner abuses the other the person who initiated the violence is kicked out and the victim is kicked out as well and they're denied service for 30 days so they can't access emergency shelter or state funded shelters in the city so we see that as problematic and in the talks about the domestic violence consortium it prevents people coming forward with claims of domestic violence and if they say something happens even if staff doesn't witness it they are kicked out then. we are definitely working on. we heard about a

meeting about this issue and we weren't there and we are working on transportation and money is an issue and get them to doctor appointments and other appointments efficiently and quickly. in my opinion it has to do with the sheer number of the tokens. there isn't enough in the shelter system. i believe if they gave them to every client they would be gone in a day or two and they're given out on a monthly basis and they're looking at a way to distribute this and at the binning of the month rather than the middle and the other areas we discussed. training we discussed in 2014 and a lot of work was done by jeff and kate and we want to improve the readability of this report in the future and want to work with the shelters. we had a subcommittee to work with them to find out what areas they want prioritized and how the report

is depicted because right now it's wordy and sometimes shelters may address or resolve an issue and may not be reflected in this report so i don't know if there are questions that's it or questions about numbers. i didn't plan on going through them individually. >> supervisor tang. >> thank you so much for the presentation. i was happy to hear about two things. one is regarding the domestic violence victims and i helped my predecessor work on legislation who were tenants in apartment buildings and making sure they could stay in place or leave if they wish and i am glad you're taking the similar approach for shelters. i think that is important. i hope you keep us posted if it requires legislative action or something a department can do or the shelters can do on their own and

also regarding language access. that's also something that i care a lot about. we have legislation in progress right now trying to strengthen the language access that we provide for everyone so want to make sure we're supportive in what is needed in your shelters to make sure people of different backgrounds can access the services that they need and i want to thank you for the report. >> yes, language services is an issue. as it says here the committee -- after the fourth consecutive year and every shelter could have a language link line however they do not. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you very much. thank you mr. chair for your hard work and your commitment to this issue. i wanted to follow up on a couple of things, and i fully agree with supervisor tang in terms of the issues around domestic violence so keep us posted on that but on the

language access, so you said it's the fourth consecutive year for advocacy of $10,000. do you know what the issue has been in terms of why that money has not been included? >> i don't know why. we've come here and it should be in the report. i don't know what's holding it. i don't know why it hasn't been accomplished. >> okay. maybe we can hear from the department on that. >> yeah. >> the other issue was with some of these inspections there were a couple instances where issues around lynnin. the report says that the issue remains. i think at the emergency family shelter at larkin and i am wondering if you could talk about that. what is the issue and what do you mean what the report says that the

issue remains ongoing? >> it's a fairly -- it's not that complicated actually. i guess the way they do the laundry and launder the lynnins has to do with the cost or whatever because the standards of care require two sheets and one blanket for each client. however some give two blankets opposed to having any sheets so that is something we want to talk to the shelters and the clients about because like i said according to hsa it has to do with the fees and general washes them and some of the providers and the cost would be more if they want to wash the sheets. i am sure they can elaborate more than on that but we will update the legislation and the standards of care and we back to rules on that because that maybe an issue and two blankets may suffice

compared to two sheets and a blanket. >> i understand and it's a providence family shelter as well. does that mean with the cold weather people have enough blankets? they have enough when they get a bed to at least be warm during the evening i imagine. >> yeah we have seen -- everyone has one blanket that we have come across. i know at delores street if an extra one is requested they give it to them. we haven't heard it at the committee level but i heard from clients it's cold and especially being on a ground and a mat and it's not much warmer there. i have heard it several times. they're not denied services, blankets but i don't know if providence has double to give to everyone. >> does the city have enough as far as you know? >> presumably they do. they

have enough for everyone in there now. when the super storm happened there was an issue at some shelters and the city had a couple it extra hundred beds that night and people weren't getting blankets -- at least that's what i heard so i don't know if the shelter system expands what the situation would be with that. >> maybe we can from the department on that as well. one of the things needed in the report was -- this is an ongoing issue and the department is actually working with us on this for quite some time. there was a complaint at next door in terms of potential discrimination based on someone's transgender status so i am wondering if you could talk about that and whether or not that it's a recurring issue that you see in some of the shelters? >> i think it should be note in the day i work in a shelter as

a shelter collaborative i am more there than the chair obviously but i hear that's a fairly frequent accusation. we know they have come to the committee numerous times with that complaint. think the lgbt shelter built in delores will alleviate some of this and it's an issue that they face at every shelter they stay whether clients, staff, whomever there is a stigma and like the general population i think they face the same issues. >> okay thank you. i am looking at items on the report that remain unresolved and would united council mother brown and back of tokens and first aid kit and no statement if that was addressed and i am wondering if you know? >> i went there two months

ago. well, part of the reason is -- this is back in june and since then most likely has been but we're have been short committee members and didn't have quorums for a while and site visits were lacking and now we have nine and getting on top of that and going to united council presumably in this quarter and i can't speak to those in the report because it was some time ago. >> and the issue of staffing -- i also want to hear from the department on this. how long have you -- >> before jeff it was bernice casey and five months alone and they worked together for three months and she left in august so he's been alone since august. >> any since of when that issue would be addressed? >> that's a question for the departments. >> okay great. thank you. >> thank you. actually my questions would be targeted

towards jeff. thanks for your -- >> >> >> hi jeff. >> hi. maybe you could start with supervisor campos. >> let's start with the staffing issue. any sense of when you will get the additional person so you have all the help you need? >> yeah i hear my supervisor walking up and does the hiring. >> maybe he could -- >> more details about that. >> so we got the rec out in record time but part of the issue is this position -- [inaudible] >> [inaudible] >> part of the issue is that expired list, so dhr is actually examining our job description and use another department's list for that. if not, if that

doesn't work out they recommended we are able to hire temporary until that position gets filled. >> can you give us a sense because i don't want you to -- it's been one individual since august. any idea of timeline when you will have another person whether it's temporary? i dale permanent but what's the timeline here? >> >> so it's kind of hard to answer. what has happened our department has gone out and it's closing off any of the existing 1822's. they're asking if they're interested in doing a lateral transfer. that would be closed off on the 20th of this month, and so if there's any applicants that are existing 1822's then we can interview them and hire them relatively soon. if that doesn't then we have to go through the others and i will probably have to do

a temporary, just try to get a temporary position in there and i think we can do that rather quickly. >> so what's the shortest timeline for hiring someone and what's the longest? >> i hope within the two months that we get it filled. >> that's a long time. is there anyway -- i don't know if there is anyone else who can talk about whether or not we can get someone in there as soon as possible. >> i can try to hire on a temporary but i have to go through the dhr system. >> obviously we want the rules to be followed but in the meantime i think having one person as staff for all of these shelters -- >> the other possibility in the next two weeks if i move staff over from another section to temporarily help on that and get the temporary hire to back fill. >> i think it would be helpful to let us know in the next two

weeks what you have done but i don't want to be back in the situation where it's another two months or even another month? >> sure. >> okay. thank you. >> that was my first question and when you're missing one person in a two member staff it's a percent so it gets crucial to fill these positions. the other question i have can you speak more about the ro victims being removed from the shelter and not getting service for 30 days? what inspired that rule? >> happy new year. joyce crumb department of human service so i will speak to the issue around domestic violence in our shelters. it's probably been a rule at least for seven years

that i managed the family shelter with my staff, but the impetus around that rule is that when a victim is a victim of domestic violence and they're living in a congregate setting it puts everyone else at danger, so i must say that the way it was couched that when it occurs that they're all dismissed from the shelter we work hard with our domestic violence providers making sure that the victim is given hopefully either a voucher through the db program or we work with our voucher program that has a hotel and motel rooms that can house generally the woman, so let me speak how it is. it is general the woman

that is the victim in domestic violence. what we really try not to do is put anyone on the streets so the shelters work closely with the victim to have them reach out to family members, or someone they can go and spend the night with. in regards to the meeting that was held it was a meeting held between our family shelter providers and the d v provider world and i don't know if you're aware they have less beds for domestic violence victims than we do in our family shelters so they're at capacity so what they needed to do is meet quarterly to come up with a protocol so that when it does occur in the shelter that they can then reach out to the domestic violence provider to make sure or to try to facilitate a place for the family to go when it occurs, and yes they have to be out for 30

days just to make sure that the whole group of people in a particular shelter is free from danger. >> so what you described is a nice attempt to mitigate the worse situation possible. i guess my question then is has it worked for the most part? >> for the most part it has worked. i will look back to my program staff. have we had any incidents within the shelters or within the last year or within the six months of this report? >> [inaudible] >> correct. >> [inaudible] >> well, if you could think of further strengthening how do you help that situation we should go

forward with those suggestions. >> exactly, and i know beverly is working very hard to see if she can expand her domestic violence program to include more units of housing for victims to go to. >> when the chair was reporting about the tokens this was something that was brought to the rules committee over a year ago or at least when i went to visit the shelter, and it sounds like we haven't gotten too far with finding a solution for that. >> well, the solution -- bottom line is always going to be additional money. we only have a limited budget to buy tokens so we do have a token policy that we layout why tokens are needed, and from the downtown area to the bay view

the policy is they will get one to go there and one to get back into town. a policy around medical appointments or job interviews where they can ask for a token, so tokens aren't just readily available for everyone. it has on to be a reason why they're getting a token so if you're going out to the bay view and mother browns is a drop in center. it's not a shelter, so they do allow individuals to sleep in chairs out there, so the premises is they're not coming from the downtown area to go out there and sleep in a chair, but if they asked they should be able to get a token. >> i thought what i heard was that oftentimes the program runs

out of tokens? >> well, i think in this report it just referred to united council not having tokens on site. the other shelters do have tokens on site and they're given out monthly at the shelter director's meeting so it was just one reference in this report six months ago that united council didn't have tokens. >> and giving the tokens at the beginning or once a month but by the end of that month do they still have adequate tokens? >> yes, they have them available or if they need more they can always get more. >> can i ask the committee to do a survey of these -- specifically about tokens? i would feel better about it if they have adequate tokens. and would you be able to come back to us or give a report in three

months? >> [inaudible] >> okay. thank you very much. those were my questions. >> okay. >> supervisor campos. >> yes. thank you. happy new year to you. just going to a couple of points we discussed earlier with the chair -- chair camara. on the language funds, the $10,000 accessed -- i don't know if you could speak to that. >> if the funds were put into a contract it would definitely come to hsa to our shelter providers, so let's step back a little bit. our shelter providers do have access to language services, but what you have to realize and both the family and the single adults -- more so on the family side because they're there a little longer, right, so they're there for three to six months in the