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Supervisors advance response to civil grand jury report on homelessness after public testimony
Summary
The Government Audit and Oversight Committee moved forward a response to the civil grand jury—inding on homelessness after hearing departmental briefings and public testimony calling for inclusion of homeless voices and attention to youth and mental-health needs.
The Government Audit and Oversight Committee advanced a formal response to a civil grand jury report on homelessness after staff briefing and public comment.
Gabe Cabrera of the Office of the Legislative Analyst told the committee the resolution requires members to register agreement or disagreement with specific grand jury findings and associated recommendations, citing findings numbers 1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 and 10 and recommendations 1, 2 and 9. "The resolution has the findings and recommendations as stated," Cabrera said, urging the committee to indicate concurrence or dissent with those items.
Public comment stressed the human impacts. Francisco DeCosta, director of environmental justice advocacy, said thousands of people are sleeping in cars and that children and youth are especially vulnerable. "We need to be sensitive mostly to our youth and our children," DeCosta told the committee, and urged officials to include spaces for homeless people to "express themselves" when designing responses.
Committee members acknowledged departmental efforts. Committee members thanked representatives from the Human Services Agency, the mayor—s office, the Department of Public Health and other agencies for submitting responses to the grand jury. A member of the Commission on the Status of Women raised reservations about computerized tracking systems and urged safeguards to protect confidentiality for victims of domestic violence if tracking is implemented.
With no further public comment, the committee closed comment and proceeded under a prior motion. Supervisor Maxwell moved to advance the committee—s recommended response incorporating the legislative analyst—s guidance; the committee approved moving the response forward by consensus, with no roll-call vote recorded. The item will return for continued oversight and any further committee direction.
The grand jury report under discussion is titled "The homeless have homes, but they are still on the street," and the committee asked staff and affected departments to continue coordination on the response and to incorporate the privacy and service-access concerns raised by public commentators.
