April 23, 2003

LAST NOVEMBER, San Franciscans sent a clear message about one of the most serious public health issues affecting our city: homelessness. Despite this public outcry for increased services, San Francisco is on the verge of eliminating a historic community resource that homeless and poor people depend on for survival.

As many as 15,000 people live on the city streets, thanks to insufficient housing and a lack of services supporting permanent exits from homelessness. Unfortunately, next year's city budget threatens to decimate the limited resources homeless people do have.

One such resource is Central City Hospitality House's Tenderloin Self-Help Center – the only multiservice drop-in center for homeless people in the downtown area. It's slated to close this summer, as a result of public health cuts currently proposed in the budget.

Hospitality House, a community organization that has worked to alleviate the causes and effects of homelessness since 1967, provides drop-in emergency survival services, food and clothing, support groups, shelter, employment services, and artistic access for homeless and poor people who come in from the streets. By providing diverse forums and accessible space, these programs address the basic, tangible needs and the intangible, private effects of poverty, fostering roads to self-sufficiency for more than 10,000 people a year.

The core of these programs is the Tenderloin Self-Help Center, a drop-in center open 12 hours a day. City budget cuts that take effect July 1 reflect the elimination of this program's $567,000 contract. Without the Self-Help Center:

• Ten thousand homeless and poor people each year will lose access to rest room facilities, hygiene supplies, respite from the streets, emergency food and clothing, crisis intervention counseling, and telephone and mail services.

• More than 200 people a year will no longer have individual and group counseling services directly targeting substance use and mental health.

• More than 500 people a year will lose access to bilingual counseling and support groups, including groups focused on the needs of transgender individuals and Latinos.

• More than 150 people a year will not have the resources to access housing and benefits for which they qualify.

• More than 60 poor and (mostly immigrant) seniors and families each week will not receive free groceries.

• More than 50 formerly homeless people each year will not be able to access nonprofit employment opportunities and staff development programs, which are crucial to helping people gain stability and increase their economic security.

Cutting basic, preventative services means a higher price tag for the people of San Francisco. Without access to the Self-Help Center, our most vulnerable residents will be forced into the city's more expensive service-delivery systems, such as San Francisco General Hospital, the police and fire departments, and the county jails. Eliminating cost-effective services in an effort to balance the budget today does not serve the city in the long run or the short run.

We understand the city needs to make painful decisions in order to close the budget deficit. However, we urge you to join with us in sending a clear message to city hall: eliminating frontline services at Hospitality House is not the answer to the budget crisis.

If you have been connected with Hospitality House in the past 36 years or are concerned about the devastating effects this loss of services will have on our community, take action! Call the mayor and your district supervisor. Speak out at the Health Commission and the Board of Supervisors Budget Committee meetings (go to www.sfgov.org for more information). Call Hospitality House at (415) 749-2113 or visit www.hospitalityhouse.org. Hospitality House saves lives! Don't cut us out!