Committee backs expansion of DPH homeless outreach team, forwards supplemental to full Board

Supervisor Mark Farrell brought forward an ordinance to appropriate a prorated supplemental from general fund reserves to expand the Department of Public Health’s homeless outreach team and add stabilization beds, telling the committee the HOT team currently fields “2 to 4 outreach workers on the streets at any given time” while an estimated 3,500 people sleep on the city’s streets on a typical night.

DPH Director Barbara Garcia and interim HOT director Maria Martinez outlined the proposal’s components: add two outreach teams (from three to five total), create 27 additional positions, increase clinical and case‑management skill levels, expand transportation and street medical capacity, and fund additional stabilization rooms. Martinez told the committee the expansion would raise the number of case‑managed clients from about 480 to roughly 800, and she cited an annualized additional operating estimate of about $6.3 million; she and other witnesses said the appropriation before the committee was a prorated amount to…