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Committee advances $300,000 SoMA grant to fund trauma‑informed services at Bessie Carmichael School
Summary
The Government Audit and Oversight Committee voted to forward a resolution authorizing $300,000 from the SoMA Community Stabilization Fund to pay for UCSF HEARTS trauma‑informed training and on‑site psychotherapy at Bessie Carmichael K–8; proponents said the work addresses chronic trauma among students, and a public speaker urged pairing services with housing solutions.
The Government Audit and Oversight Committee on May 15 voted to forward to the full Board a resolution authorizing the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to spend $300,000 from the SoMA Community Stabilization Fund to provide capacity building and trauma‑informed systems training at Bessie Carmichael K–8.
Sponsor Supervisor Jane Kim said MOHCD selected UCSF’s Healthy Environments and Response to Trauma in Schools (HEARTS) to deliver staff training, caregiver workshops and on‑site psychotherapy for trauma‑impacted students, noting a high concentration of youth from homeless families at the school. "We have to move in the direction of treating our youth and our families from the vantage of a public health response," Kim said.
MOHCD staff Claudine Del Rosario and Severin Campbell of the Budget and Legislative Analyst were available to answer questions; neither committee members nor the analyst raised substantive challenges during the presentation. In public comment, Misha Olivas, who identified herself as a summer resident and with United Players, described ‘‘open drug use, the mental health crisis, crime and violence’’ affecting very young children and urged committee support.
An unidentified commenter cautioned that services alone are not enough without affordable, permanent housing for the clients such programs aim to help, arguing that program participants often lack incomes sufficient to qualify for available housing and can return to homelessness after services. Chair Kim acknowledged that concern during the discussion and thanked the SoMA Stabilization Citizens Advisory Committee and MOHCD staff for negotiating the fund and bringing forward the item.
The committee recorded a motion by Supervisor Jane Kim to move the item forward with a positive recommendation to the full Board; the chair stated there was no opposition.
