TL Health. You know, that first traffic light at the top of the rise after you come through the dogleg behind UN Plaza. That crowd of folks milling about or sometimes standing in line on the right hand side have probably been TARC clients, to one degree or another. Except that last June, Continuum HIV Day Services and Tenderloin AIDS Resource Center were all rolled into one TL Health Clinic. I’m often running across folks I know from around town down there, and now that they’ve axed McMillan Drop-In Center/Buster’s Place, it’s one of last places I can wash my hands before I eat after spending an evening recycling around Downtown. Now it’s on the Mayor’s chopping block as fat to be trimmed from the City’s deficit-laden budget.

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At a special meeting in the Ella Hill Hutch Community Center on June 10, Joyce Crum of the Human Services Agency (HSA) tried to assure over 20 homeless people that the shelter’s June 30 closing was not the City’s decision.

Before Crum referred them to Homeless Outreach Team members to get them wait-listed at other shelters, the director of HSA’s homeless and housing division told them that City budget cuts played no role in the closing—Ella Hill decided not to renew their contract at the end of the fiscal year.

Crum also said Ella Hill’s board of directors decided in February to get out of the shelter business—and it was solely their call.

Or was it?

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In 1933, when over a million Americans were homeless, President Roosevelt’s New Deal made their economic and social well-being a Federal responsibility. In 2008, an estimated 3.5 million Americans will live without housing; homeless children in school number more than 900,000 according to the Department of Education. Ironically, in this election year—which marks the 75^th anniversary of the New Deal—neither major party nor presidential candidate has acknowledged a Federal responsibility. It is time that they do so.

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Imagine a place where you can go and be provided with connections to job opportunities, mental health services, substance abuse treatment, and social services of various types. Public Defender Jeff Adachi says of the proposed Community Justice Center, “If you have something of quality to offer, people will come.” Only two tiny catches sit within this mirage: in order to “come” you must get arrested, and the services you have “come” to receive have all been cut in Mayor Gavin Newsom’s ruthless budget.

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Morality is a term that’s been co-opted by those in the US whose politics tend to do the greatest harm to the most people. Those of us who are queer, who struggle with addictive substances, who are broke and on the dole—those of us who are not the successful or the pure by this society’s standards—are denied access to moral judgment. We are burdens on society. We are corrupters of youth. We are the fallen. On June 5, religious leaders representing Jews, Friends, Catholics, Buddhists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Methodists, Muslims, Pentecostals, and Lutherans sent the political leaders of San Francisco a very different message: “One’s moral compass always points toward compassion. These religious leaders are far from alone.

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Congratulations to homeless people in Fresno for their recent court victory. See more here (28 kb PDF).

Mayor Newsom released a budget today that will terminate critical health and human services, while pumping up salaries for police by 25% and adding many new high paid patronage positions into his own administration.

Some highlights of the devastating impact of the budget include:

1. Closure of Ella Hill Hutch Shelter, which serves up to 100 people every night in the Western Addition.
2. Closure of Caduceus Outreach Services, a mental health treatment and wrap-around support program for severely disabled homeless adults with co-existing addictive disorders.
3. Almost total elimination of SRO Families United program (66% cut) for families with dependent children living in hotels.
4. Cut of 22% to residential substance abuse and mental health treatment programs budgets.
1. Removal of support from Conard supportive housing program for severe psychiatric disabilities.
2. Closure of Cortland Acute Diversion Unit for individuals in psychiatric crisis.
3. Loss of 12 out of 24 community-based medically-supported detox beds.
4. Many more residential cuts yet to be determined.
5. Cut of 30% to all outpatient substance abuse and mental health treatment.
6. Almost total elimination of STOP treatment program.
7. 1,600 people will lose psychiatric treatment through Private Provider Network.
8. Closure of Tenderloin Health, homeless multi-service center in the Tenderloin serving over 300 people a day, 16,000 unduplicated people a year. This program provides health services, HIV case management, HIV prevention, mental health services, harm reduction work, improving quality of life by getting people out of rain, hygiene kits, bathrooms, snacks, crisis intervention, and 30,000 shelter reservations a year.

What Can We Do?

Protest Newsom’s proposed budget!

Where:

The Bellaire Tower building—home of Mayor Gavin Newsom (1101 Green Street, at Leavenworth Street)

Bus 45 (Leavenworth/Union stop), Bus 27 (Leavenworth/Jackson stop), Bus 12 (Pacific/Leavenworth stop).

When:

Wednesday, June 11, 6:00 p.m.

The current hot trend in addressing homelessness in the United States’ cities is, once again, to remove panhandlers from downtown corridors. Lately the Bush administration—through its Interagency Council on Homelessness—has lauded Denver, Colorado and its ten-year planning process for coming up with one of the 20 “Major Innovations” this year. This major innovation that President Bush is so enamored with? Have people put change in old parking meters that the City then collects for the United Way, rather than giving alms directly to people who are panhandling.

Clearly another case of “Mission Accomplished!”

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Some day soon take yourself a stroll from Berkeley’s Sproul Plaza down the east side of Telegraph Avenue. Thread through students and shoppers past a couple of blocks of funky bars and stores. Soon, you will come to Rasputin Music, the flagship of nine Bay Area music outlets. There, in the windows at 2401 Telegraph, you will encounter a colorful experiment in “counter-education.”

Rasputin offers window displays featuring Japanese internment camps, disability rights, Black Panther history, and, as of this writing, homeless art.

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