Committee supports oversight for homelessness office
A proposal to create a commission to oversee San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing will likely move forward, despite concerns from Mayor London Breed.
While the proposed oversight commission could add more accountability and transparency to the city’s homelessness department, the mayor worries that it could also bog it down in other ways.
Still, the Board of Supervisors’ Rules Committee expressed unanimous support Monday for the idea of creating the commission, with a few changes to address concerns expressed by Breed and the department. After a second committee vote next week, the proposal will likely move to the Board of Supervisors later this month for a vote. If approved, it will then head to the November ballot.
The homelessness department, created in 2016, is one of the few major city departments without an oversight commission. The Fire Department, Police Department and Planning Department, for example, each have commissions that they report to. Department Director Jeff
Kositsky said Monday that he supports the intent of the commission but doesn’t think the extra oversight will “speed things up or make us more efficient.” In particular, he said the commission could slow down the approval process for certain contracts by two to six weeks.
“And I’m not saying that that’s a problem or not a problem,” Kositsky said Monday. “That’s just a fact that we would have ... another step in the process.”
But Supervisor Matt Haney, who is behind the commission proposal, said adding an extra level of oversight to a department in charge of tackling one of the city’s most pressing problems should be a nobrainer.
“No one has ever said the Rec and Park Commission makes it harder for safe and open parks. And I don’t think anyone has ever said that because we have an airport commission that planes won’t take off,” he said. “Commissions are a critical integral part of our city’s government because they are there to ensure that the job gets done.”
The proposal was amended significantly Monday to assuage concerns by the department and Breed, including removal of the requirement that all shelters and Navigation Centers must be approved by the commission during a declared city “shelter crisis.” Another amendment would require the board to create followup legislation to clarify that the existing committees that deal with homelessness will serve under the commission.
Breed remains wary of the commission’s impact.
“The mayor still has concerns that creating a new commission adds on more process and delays that will get in the way of delivering services for people living unsheltered on our streets,” said Jeff Cretan, the mayor’s spokesman. “She doesn’t want to slow down the city’s response to addressing our challenges with more bureaucracy layered on top of our existing homeless oversight committees and boards.”
The mayor said she will continue to work with Haney on these concerns.
The proposal has five board cosponsors: Supervisors Hillary Ronen, Shamann Walton, Gordon Mar and Aaron Peskin. Haney needs one more vote to place it on the November ballot.
Several community members expressed support for the commission at Monday’s Rules Committee meeting.
Del Seymour, cochair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board, said the board currently has very little power to influence policy. He supports the extra power that a commission would have to help craft policy and have a say on the budget.
“Our unhoused citizens have the right to be able to influence policy,” he said. “They can’t do that right now. We just don’t have enough power.”
Joe Wilson, executive director of Hospitality House, a nonprofit in the Tenderloin, said that while the commission may slow down some decisions, that’s not necessarily a bad thing.
“A commitment to democracy carries some risks,” he said. “But the alternative is that people don’t feel like they have a voice and feel like decisions are made without their input. And that’s worse.”