Shelter monitoring committee reports catch-up work; token and supply gaps highlighted

The Rules Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on July 9 received a delayed quarterly report from the Shelter Monitoring Committee that said the panel had fallen behind on inspections but has added staff and largely caught up.

Nicholas Kimura, chair of the Shelter Monitoring Committee, told the committee the report covers July–December 2014 and that the committee was ‘‘very far behind’’ during that period because it lacked quorum. He said the committee now has two Department of Public Health staff and nearly a full membership and that site inspections are back on track. ‘‘We were merely fulfilling our legislative duty to come here and present this to you,’’ Kimura said, adding the committee expects the next report to include new data and improved formats.

Kimura summarized a token-survey effort begun in the spring and said the committee had conducted about 50 surveys as of June 11. ‘‘A lot of people don’t even know they have tokens at the shelters,’’ he said, describing failures of awareness and communication about who is eligible to receive tokens for medical, housing or employment appointments.

Scott Walton, speaking for the Human Services Agency and representing Joyce Crum, director of housing and homeless programs at HSA, said individual complaints are routed to providers and addressed in a timely fashion even when the committee’s published report lags. Walton announced system expansions: a former women’s winter shelter at Bethel AME has been extended year‑round to add 30 women‑only beds, and 24 beds have opened at a Dolores Street site targeted to serve lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender residents.

Both Kimura and Walton described persistent gaps related to supplies and staffing. Kimura said standards of care in the administrative code require shelters to provide sheets, towels and toiletries but called the requirement an ‘‘unfunded mandate’’ in practice; Walton confirmed that shelter budgets were not increased to cover full linens service and that the city uses alternative approaches such as laundering multiple blankets daily at some sites. Walton also described transportation steps — monthly token allotments and a funded shelter shuttle system — while warning that tokens are targeted and a universal distribution would exhaust the city’s allotment.

Kimura said the committee collects vacancy and turnaway reports and noted that recent reports show roughly 58 empty beds on an average night across the system of roughly 1,190 beds; he said the committee’s policy subcommittee will study how vacancies are distributed and what is causing them.

The chair asked the committee to return in September with comparative data and recommendations about where the gaps are and what budget options might close them. The committee took the shelter-monitoring report as a committee report to the full board.