Ella Hill Hutch Community Center employees don’t know if—or when—they will be forced to close their shelter for homeless people. As of two weeks ago, the staff were bracing for a June 29 closing date, but no final decision on the Center’s fate has yet been made, said shelter manager Trina Johnson. This comes in the wake of the March 31 closing of Buster’s Place, the city’s only 24-hour resource center for homeless people.

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Last night, on San Francisco’’s freezing streets, blond, fresh-faced Shaun Fausz rested aching knees after trudging the piers all day seeking work on boats.

52-year-old Robert, a witty, intelligent African-American, lay under open sky.

Disarmingly intelligent Shalako Brooks curled on hard concrete fighting insomnia with only vodka to help him sleep. He can’’t return home. A crack addict lit his single-room occupancy hotel room on fire. At 8:00 a.m., he had to use the Department of Public Health bathroom “when people were shooting up and passed out in toilets.”

Wheelchair-bound elders waited for dawn sitting in the frigid dark. Women walked all night evading predators.

These and 160 other unhoused men and women were victims of a cruel April Fool’’s joke. The safe haven refuge where they sat all night in chairs was locked and dark.

At midnight March 31, Mayor Gavin Newsom closed for good Buster’s Place, San Francisco’’s only 24-hour non-medical drop-in center.

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Friends:

As you know by now, Buster’s Place closed yesterday at 5:00. We went there to witness the closure and what we found was quite distressing.

Background

Buster’s Place, which served approximately 150 people a day and 700 people annually, appeared on the Mayor’s mid-year budget cuts. Over 90 individuals stayed at the center each night, sitting in chairs. As many who use the center are disabled, and have nowhere else to go, this put them in grave risk.

The City responded only part way, by opening up 150 Otis (but a day too late as it was closed last night when people were put out of Buster’s Place), which cannot stay open year round has only 40 chairs and will serve only men, and must close down every nine months. It is set to close in June. The City offered up another center called Oshun for women, but it was already at capacity.

Appeals to the Mayor for mercy went unanswered.

Last Night 5:00, March 31

At least 20 people were filed out the door. Four of them were in wheelchairs. Many were elderly. Not one that we talked to had anywhere to go.

There was no one from the City. Not one person—no homeless czar, no HOT, no DPH—to assist them.

Many filed over to 150 Otis to try their chances at a bed in the CHANGES system for the night.

The shelter had not opened yet.

There were TV cameras everywhere.

One woman we talked to was in a wheelchair and looked to be in her early 90s. She was rolling slowly away, and said she had somewhere to go. When we asked her where, she clearly had no idea and was very confused. She had nowhere to go, and we did not see her in line at 150 Otis, where, her being female, they would not have given her a number to hold her place in line anyway.

Another couple had a woman in a wheelchair and her husband to care for her. Of course with the loss of Buster’s there is nowhere for them to be accomodated. She needs his care, and they cannot split up. No couples are housed in our shelters, and a room was never forth coming.

These are just a couple examples, and there are dozens more.

Once people had numbers, they were allowed to return to Buster’s to wait for a few more hours as they could not wait at 150 Otis.

We called DPH, and they were going to send HOT team out, but we have little faith that many were placed anywhere for more then one night.

The Struggle Is Not Over

We have a court case on Wednesday that may help. We still have a budget process to bring back 24-hour low-threshold health/hygiene-based drop-in to the city, but already we can say based on last night, the personal impact on human beings was devastating.

After two years of hard work by the Coalition on Homelessness and its allies, the Board of Supervisors voted nine to two to pass groundbreaking legislation creating standards in the shelter system. The legislation, sponsored by Supervisor Tom Ammiano and co-sponsored by Supervisors Mirkarimi, Peskin, and Sandoval requires, among other things, that shelters maintain their facilities, ensure that there are clean sheets, towels and blankets, supply nutritious food for the residents, and provide training for staff.

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In mid-March, Shaun Fausz, 25, blond and fresh-faced, left his aunt’s house in Pasco, Washington. Walking to Portland, Oregon, he spent the last of his money on Amtrak fare to San Francisco seeking work on ships. He stumbled onto St. Anthony’s. Directed to Buster’s Place, he showered and slept all night in a chair. Shaun sat talking to me among 100 or so homeless people, mostly men, quietly conversing or dozing at Buster’s Place Drop-In Center at 211 13^th Street.

“I work on boats. Before Pasco, I lived in New Mexico. There is nothing but desert,” he said wryly. “They had no need for a deck hand.”

Shaun discovered here that to work he needed a merchant mariner’s document—a Z-card—which costs much more than he has.

Though his knees were sore from walking, he already had three job interviews. “Once I get that Z-card, I’ll be making all kinds of money again.”

Hearing that the Mayor’s proposed budget cuts will close Buster’s Place on March 31, Shaun observed without this safe haven, “I would probably be sleeping on the streets and end up with that $79 fine I can’t afford. It would put me deeper in debt and make me homeless longer.”

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Imagine this: You are a woman and have been beaten and traumatized by the people who are closest to you, the people at your own home. You work up the courage to flee and seek out a shelter in the city so that you can rest, clear your head, and take your first step to beginning a new life. On the second day in this shelter, you ask for a towel so that you can take a much needed shower. The response from the shelter staff? “This is not the F-ing Hilton!”

This is not a fictional story: this is a testimonial from Ms. Rogers, one of countless people who are either homeless, have experienced homelessness in th epast, or advocate for better policies regarding homelessness, who stood up before the Board of Supervisors on Wednesday, February 20, to fight for legislation that will set up long-overdue Standards of Care within the city’s shelters.

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Ari Burack and Luke Thomas of FogCityJournal.com covered Wednesday’s rally and hearing for shelter reform here. Check out their story!

Watch the story here.

This week’s Bay Guardian carries a look inside San Francisco’s shelter system from under-cover reporter Amanda Witherell. (Be sure also to check out Amanda’s and intern Bryan Cohen’s blog coverage of their experiences.)

Building on Witherell’s coverage, the Guardian also ran an editorial supporting some serious positive changes in the shelter system.

The public hearing for groundbreaking new legislation that will bring us further toward ending abuse and ensuring sanitary conditions in City-funded shelters has been rescheduled from Wednesday, January 30. The probable new date is Wednesday, February 20, but watch this space for updates.

We will hold a rally on the steps of City Hall at 12:00 noon, and then the rally will be inside in Room 250.

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