Homeless death form?
Still waiting for a response to the inquiry below. The Newsom administration has apparently stopped counting the number of homeless that die on city streets every year, but we need that number as one way to judge the progress the city is making to combat homelessness in SF.
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007
From: Rob Anderson
Subject: Homeless Death Form
To: health.commission.dph@sfdph.org
Public Health Commission:
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 2007
From: Rob Anderson
Subject: Homeless Death Form
To: health.commission.dph@sfdph.org
Public Health Commission:
Back in May, 2005, the Board of Supervisors passed Ordinance 120-05 asking the Public Health Dept. and the Public Health Commission to develop a Homeless Death Form. Has this been achieved? I'm particularly interested in trying to determine the number of homeless people who die in the city every year. Are these numbers available by counting the number of Homeless Death Forms filed with the department every year?
Regards,
Rob Anderson
Labels: City Government, Gavin Newsom, Homeless Deaths, Homelessness
posted by Rob Anderson @ 1:36 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
Newsom is jerking us all around. Millionaire-playboy-speculator-hobnobber-bigwig
What did we expect?
I disagree. Overall he's been good on the homeless issue. But there's apparently been a deliberate decision to downplay homeless deaths in the city. It isn't the only way to judge how well we're doing on homelessness, but it's still an important one.
What is the solution to the homelessness problem. Or what solutions do you support? How would you suggest the government spend its resources to fix this problem. Is it a supply issue? Do you think social medicine would help the homeless death toll? What about people who choose to be homeless as a form of resistence? Have you ever been homeless Rob? Any homeless peers?
ps - I thought of you when I almost got run over the other day riding my bike to work.
Actually, I think the Newsom administration is putting programs in place in the city that will help us at least deal with it over the long haul. The city is now using a "housing first" approach: Get the chronic homeless off the street and into a hotel room or an SRO. Then deal with the issues that got them on the street in the first place, whether it's drugs or psychological problems. And buy a bus ticket home or wherever they have someone on the other end for as many of the homeless as you can. There are a number of posts in my archives on the homeless issue in SF. In fact, I was writing about homelessness before Gavin Newsom put Care Not Cash on the table almost five years ago (check out my 2004 campaign website, which you can access via this blog. See in particular, "Letters on Homelessness").
You should read a recent post below entitled "City Progs Lay an Egg on Homelessness," with particular attention to the mayor's numbers on homelessness at the bottom of the post.
My impression is that homelessness as a lifestyle is pretty rare. Almost all of the people you see on city streets have severe drug or psychological problems.
Riding a bike in the city is just plain dangerous. Why risk your life just to get to work? Get a Fast Pass for $45, and you will be able to get around on Muni very well. Don't believe all this crap about how bad Muni is; it's a pretty good transit system.
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