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Human Services Agency outlines reforms to speed benefits, reduce foster‑care stays
Summary
HSA Director Trent Ruhr told the Board of Supervisors’ budget committee that Medi‑Cal enrollments have surged while eligibility staffing lags, CalFresh penetration remains under half of eligible households, and a new Project 500 will target 500 of the city’s lowest‑income families with cross‑agency services. Ordinance changes and an evaluator RFP are planned.
Trent Ruhr, director of the Human Services Agency, told the Budget and Finance Committee on May 4 that San Francisco’s recent growth in Medi‑Cal enrollments and other safety‑net programs is putting strain on local eligibility and service systems. "Since we began implementation in January of '14, we've now reached more than a 120,000 cases," Ruhr said, and he warned the Medi‑Cal case load has grown far faster than staff capacity.
Ruhr said the Medi‑Cal case load rose roughly 174% while eligibility worker staffing increased about 28 percent, creating long phone wait times and high abandoned‑call rates. He said the agency will propose in June a budget to add eligibility staff for Medi‑Cal and CalFresh and to accelerate business‑process changes that allow a single worker to determine eligibility for…
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