Healthy Streets Operation Center Local Homeless Coordinating Board February 27, 2020
Purpose Our goal is to improve the condition of San Francisco’s public spaces while enhancing connections to social services. Our plan is focused on addressing the behaviors of individuals, some housed and some homeless, that lead to unsafe, unhealthy and unclean conditions in public spaces. We will do this by improving our existing collaboration and maximizing the use of available resources. Our work is in support of the many efforts designed to address the underlying causes of these behavior such as poverty, homelessness and unmet behavioral health needs. However, the focus of this initiative is street conditions.
Success in 2018 December Service Requests January 2018 % Change 2018 Homeless-related requests for service 12,223 requests 8,243 requests -33% Average call response time 123 hours 90 hours -27% Citywide Tent Counts July 2018 January 2019 % Change Tents/structures Approx 560 Approx 340* -40% Sites with 6+ tents/structures 17 sites 2 sites -65% New Services & Shelter Expansion 2017 - 2018 Temporary Shelter Added 691 new beds Permanent Supportive Housing Added 390 new units Behavioral Health Beds Added 99 new beds
Challenges in 2019 (HSOC Data) • Large tent encampments increased from 2 encampments in Jan 2019 to 15 in Dec. 2019. • Tents increased 31% from January 2019 to October 2019. • Inhabited vehicles increased 24% from April 2019 to October 2019. • Only 8% of San Franciscans surveyed believes homelessness is improving.
Independent Research Study Preliminary Findings: Success in 2018 • Unhoused people interviewed by researchers noted the shift to a more positive engagement with city and nonprofit workers. • City staff and nonprofit workers reported better collaboration with other departments/organizations. • Of the 1,376 client engagements via HOT, ERT & MDHOP: • 65% accepted placements (60% shelter, 5% medical) • 35% did not accept assistance • Approximately 58% of the clients who accepted shelter placement did not exit the initial placement directly to the streets. • Approximately 25% of the clients engaged have been permanently housed, roughly the same rate we see from our shelters or other programs.
Independent Research Study Preliminary Findings: Challenges in 2019 • Of the 650 clients placed into HSOC shelter beds, 619 (95.2%) returned to the street, based on HSH data. In 2018, just 58% of HSOC-placed clients returned to the streets. • Of the HSOC encounters, only 2.4% of police encounters and 17% of homeless outreach team encounters resulted in a service connections. • The overall rate of client engagement by homeless outreach teams (HSOC and non- HSOC) dropped from 85% in 2018 to 69% in 2019.
Barriers to Success 1. Inconsistent strategies 2. Insufficient resources 3. Lack of trust among partners 4. Unequal buy-in from participating departments 5. Unclear staffing and accountability structure 6. Insufficient standard operating procedures 7. Lost focus on re-encampment prevention 8. Insufficient data utilization 9. Unnecessary legal barriers 10. Lack of community support 11. Lack of a communications & education strategy 12. Insufficient incentives for clients 13. Inconsistent efforts to connect people to services 14. Challenges implementing a services-first strategy
Next Steps 1. Expand and improve the interagency collaboration 2. Align programs and consolidate meetings to improve efficiency 3. Improve service connections 4. Develop a communications and education strategy, including a volunteer engagement strategy, including: • Educating the public • Communicating with clients • Training City staff • Volunteer engagement strategy
Next Steps 5. Refresh HSOC charter and operations plans 6. Develop and implement a re-encampment prevention plan 7. Develop a data strategy, clarify metrics and launch a dashboard 8. Define geographic priorities/zones and develop a sustainability plan 9. Develop a two year plan to achieve our long-term goals
HSOC Data Dashboards Local Homeless Coordinating Board February 27, 2020 Controller’s Office
HSOC Dashboard Overview www.sfgov.org/scorecards/hsoc Designed and organized to tell the story of HSOC: • Intake : How HSOC receives information from the community • Tent Count : Where people needing engagement are staying; where HSOC should focus its proactive efforts • Street Engagement : How HSOC partners engage individuals on the street, showing a collaborative and multi-departmental approach • Service Connections : How often HSOC partners connect individuals to a needed service • Neighborhood Conditions : A tool to assess the array of objective and subjective conditions within each neighborhood to support HSOC prioritization Next Steps: • Redesigning and building out interactive web pages, launching end of March • Continuing to develop new data to measure the impact of HSOC
Encampment Resolution Team Update Local Homeless Coordinating Board February 27, 2020 Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing
Encampment Resolution Team • Dedicated staff from the Homeless Outreach Team conduct outreach to people living in encampments of 6 tents or more. • ERT issues written notices, including the date of the resolution (at least three weeks in advance). • Over at least three weeks, HOT outreaches to the site with support from DPH (when available). • HOT offers people placements into navigation centers, shelters, problem- solving, and /or Homeward Bound (depending on availability).
Encampment Resolution Team • HOT conducts coordinated entry assessments or connects people with access points • On resolution day: • HOT can make additional placements • Public Works removes debris • SFPD provides public safety support
Encampment Resolution Team Encampment Resolution Team Data: March 2019- January 2020 ERTs Total People Total Tents Shelter/Navigation Center Placement 25 479 153 74
Update on Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team Local Homeless Coordinating Board February 27, 2020 Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing & The San Francisco Municipal Transit Agency
Vehicle Triage Center The Vehicle Triage Center (VTC ): • Provides up to 30 parking spots for RVs and vehicles • Managed by Urban Alchemy • Provides 24/7 security and site management • Individuals residing in vehicles can connect through: • HSH’s Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team (VERT) • 311 • Access Points • Clients are both Housing Referral Status and Problem Solving Status
Vehicle Triage Center: Data 26 vehicles in the site • 90 % of clients are HRS • • 10% of clients of PSS 19 of which are • RV/Camper/Bus 7 cars • 39 people • Site is full • 8 vehicles in the queue with • 9 people on the waitlist
Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team • Dedicated staff from the Homeless Outreach Team conduct outreach to people living in vehicles in areas with a high concentration of inhabited vehicles. • HOT distributes flyers with service information and date of resolution (at least three weeks in advance). • Over at least three weeks, HOT outreaches at least three times per week with support from DPH’s street medicine team (when available). • HOT offers people placements into navigation centers, shelter, Homeward Bound, and/ or the Vehicle Triage Center (depending on availability).
Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team • HOT conducts coordinated entry assessments or connects people with access points. • 72 hours in advance of the resolution SFMTA notices all vehicles in the area. • The majority of vehicles noticed move before the resolution. • On resolution day: • HOT can make additional placements • SFMTA will enforce the 72-hour notices • Public Works removes debris
Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team Vehicle Encampment Resolution Data: March 2019- January 2020 VERTs Total Total Shelter/Navigation Vehicles Towed People Vehicles Center Placement 12 172 153 17 7
Role of the SFMTA in HSOC • SFMTA is involved in HSOC primarily to support the work of the Vehicle Encampment Resolution Team: • Before a VERT resolution, SFMTA posts 72-hour notices on the vehicles. • SFMTA enforces the 72-hour notices on resolution day. Vehicles are only towed on resolution day if they are not moved. To date, SFMTA only towed 4.5% of the vehicles marked during a VERT. • SFMTA checks vehicles for outstanding citations and out of date registrations.
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