2.16.05
Care Not
Cash Fact Sheet
12/6/04
Proposition N, which was
passed by voters in November, 2002, cut public assistance payments (CAAP)
to homeless adult welfare recipients by up to 85% in exchange for services
offered by the city. It was implemented May 2004. We have been monitoring
the implementation through data gathering, surveys of homeless people, and
interviews with service providers.
The “At a Glance”
Summary Results are as follows:
60 – 80 Empty Shelter
Beds a night
•
Shelter beds for 895 CAAP recipients
• Housing for 291 (Recipients in housing as of 9.24.04)
• 1,350 Homeless People Losing Benefits all together
Result One: Care Not Cash Recipients Primarily Warehoused in Shelters
Under Care Not Cash (CNC),
the county may reduce the individuals check by up to $348 simply by
offering them a shelter bed. That bed is reserved for them up to 45 days
whether they show up to sleep there or not. Most Care Not Cash recipients
are offered shelter, not housing as promised in campaign literature.
Result Two: Shelter Instability and Empty Shelter Beds
This system results in 60
– 80 empty shelter beds a night (Shelter Directors Meeting 9-20-04).
Homeless people who are
not receiving CAAP, such as those receiving veterans or disability
benefits, those with earning and undocumented immigrants, can not access
CNC beds on a regular basis. If CAAP clients do not show up, their beds
can only be released for one night to others. (San Francisco Department
of Human Services). In a Coalition survey of 200 homeless people, 30%
responded they had been displaced from shelter due to Care Not Cash, on an
average of three different times. In a survey of 50 front-line service
providers, 52% reported that a negative outcome from Care Not Cash was
displacement from shelters. (Staff of shelters report 10.04)
There are now vacancies
almost every night at every shelter. Many of these vacancies are the
result of Care Not Cash bed reservations. Some shelters such as
Hospitality House never had vacancy issues prior to Care Not Cash
implementation. (Conversations with shelter directors)
Many service-enriched
shelters have seen the majority of their beds go to CNC. For example, at
Episcopal Sanctuary 144 out of a total of 198 beds are reserved for CNC
clients. At MSC South 231 of 340 beds are for CNC; at Hospitality House 15
of 30 beds are CNC; Next Door 100 of 280; Dolores Street 20 of 100; Ella
Hill Hutch 20 of 70 (Ella Hill being the only non-service-enriched CNC
shelter). (Obtained from conversations with shelter directors, case
managers and from DHS document: “Single Adult Shelter Overview”) At
Episcopal Sanctuary from 10-1-04 to 10-3-04, 65 out of 83 vacancies were
Care Not Cash recipients. (Correspondence with manager of Episcopal
Sanctuary)
The daily
grind:
One-night beds mean a daily trip to crowded resource center for an
assignment. This presents considerable hardship for disabled people, as
well as those many who carry their belongings with them. This causes
instability, anxiety, and there is no guarantee anyone will get a bed in a
shelter they can get to. (Discussions with resource center and shelter
directors and homeless persons who utilize shelters)
Late-night bed
assignments: These one-night beds are assigned at 8:30pm,
10:30pm, 11:30pm, and 12:30am. (DHS letter to Coalition on Homelessness
4-19-2004)
These times are too late
for many homeless people to access them, especially working people,
undocumented immigrants, seniors, women, and persons with disabilities. It
is also too late to access belongings stored at 150 Otis and too late to
secure a decent outdoor sleeping spot if no shelter bed is accessible. Our
outreach survey results indicate that this has led to an increase in the
number of people sleeping on the streets. According to a Coalition study,
64% of 200 homeless individuals surveyed reported that their shelter stay
had been reduced an average of 7 days. (Coalition on Homelessness Care
Not Cash Survey, November 2004)
Missed dinner,
services and medical care: People assigned one-night beds
often miss dinner and (if provided by the shelter) medical care.
(Discussions with resource center and shelter directors and homeless
persons who utilize shelters) Non-CAAP homeless clients who are
receiving outpatient treatment for substance use disorders or are on
waiting lists for residential treatment are required to attend meetings
daily. This obligation makes it difficult to go to resource centers in
order to be assigned one-night beds. (Conversations with Case Managers
at MSC-S)
Transportation
issues: Many one-night beds are located across town from
resource centers and two-way transportation is rarely provided, which
makes it difficult and dangerous for people to get to and from the
shelter.
Decrease in case
management: Shelters such as MSC South that were designed
as emergency shelters able serve fragile populations with case management
services are increasingly unable to do so because CAAP controls the
majority of their beds. As empty CAAP beds are released for one night
only, case management services are no longer possible. For example MSC-S
has seen a 30% decrease in case management beds. This leaves disabled
people, the severely mentally ill, and Spanish-speaking immigrants without
services they otherwise would be able to receive. (Discussions with
case managers at shelters and resource center staff)
Shelters who receive
private and public funding for case management services are seeing their
funding jeopardized as they are no longer able to meet their funding
requirements.
Empty beds not
being filled on site to shelter seekers: There is no
clearly recognized policy allowing shelters with empty beds to fill them
on the spot. Shelters may have vacancies and homeless people may be
outside requesting to stay there, but the shelters often believe they are
not allowed to fill the vacant beds without sending people to the resource
centers first. Shelter directors have expressed frustration over this.
Prior to Care Not Cash, these beds could be easily filled on the spot.
(Conversations with shelter staff and shelter directors)
Result Three: Undocumented Immigrants Displaced From Shelter System
Since CNC was implemented
there has been displacement of undocumented Latinos from shelters because
they are ineligible for GA or other CAAP programs and are excluded from
long-term shelter placements. ("El Tecolote" 7/20-8/10, 2004; Laura
Guzman, Director of Mission Resource Center)
Day laborers can not
access shelters due to their work schedule, as the one-night beds are made
available late at night and require successive trips during the day to
resource centers to seek shelter. There is insufficient bilingual staff.
Many English-language learners do not feel comfortable or safe at these
facilities. (Conversations with workers at the San Francisco Day Labor
Program)
Except for Dolores Street, only 2-3 culturally
and linguistically appropriate beds, if at all, are available for Spanish
speakers at the Mission Neighborhood Resource Center, and they are usually
gone by 7:30am. (Laura Guzman, Director, MRC)
According to a study
conducted by the Coalition on Homelessness, 44% of Latino immigrants
interviewed decided not to use shelters because of the biometrics system.
This results in more people on the streets. (SF Report on Biometric
Imaging Requirements to Access Homeless Shelters, January 2004) In
another survey conducted by the Coalition on Homelessness, 70% of
immigrants felt they had been displaced from shelter due to Care not Cash.
(SF COH Report 10.04)
Shelters serving mainly
undocumented Latinos have also lost beds to the CNC system. Dolores
Street’s has to reserve 20 out of its 100 beds (all those located at Santa
Ana Shelter). These 20 beds are now reserved for CAAP recipients. Shelters
that do have available one-night beds for non-CAAP clients do not have
bilingual staff. (Conversations with shelter workers)
Result Four:
Homeless Mentally Ill People Lose Critical Service
With these changes (including the resource center shelter bed access model
and bio-metric imaging for the purpose of detecting welfare fraud under
Care Not Cash) has come a major loss of services for people with mental
illnesses. First, attempts were made to change the Conard House contract
to fit into Care Not Cash, and then the Tenderloin Self-Help Center model
was changed without any assessment of how the community would be affected.
As a result, an important self-help center that serves over 200 homeless
people a day is being closed; their clients are de-compensating and will
be left without their support system.
Result Five:
Violation of McGoldrick Anti-Displacement Legislation
This legislation, which
had broad support at the Board of Supervisors, states that no shelter beds
shall be set side, reserved, or prioritized based on income source. The
current practices clearly violate this legislation, as many beds are set
aside for 45 days for CAAP recipients. The release of beds for one night
does not cure this illegality. It also creates unequal access in terms of
length of stay.
