Background
The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD), Office of Economic and Workforce Development (OEWD) and Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) invite you to join us for an online public hearing. We would like your input on the Draft 2022-2023 Action Plan and the Draft Substantial Amendment to the 2021-2022 Action Plan to incorporate the Allocation Plan for the Home Investment Partnership-American Rescue Plan (HOME-ARP) program, both of which include funding recommendations for fiscal year 2022-2023. This public hearing is part of the annual process to receive community input on funding recommendations and in accordance with the City’s Citizen Participation Plan for federal funding.
Public Hearing
Three online webinars, one in English and Filipino, one in Cantonese, and one in Spanish, will be held simultaneously. Please register for the one that meets your needs.
Date and Time of Public Hearing:
- Thursday, April 7, 2022
- 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.
Register in advance for a Zoom webinar:
- English and Filipino meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_XLGejbrDQwqRWSnZM-g5IQ
- Cantonese meeting: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_WbiUdrwuSB60013GXnccRA
- Spanish meeting: https://zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ixklOl4PSTK1o9hJEDQU-g
PLEASE NOTE: After registering, you will receive a confirmation email from Zoom containing information about joining the webinar.
About the Action Plan
The 2022-2023 Action Plan will be the third-year implementation plan under the 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan. It outlines community development and affordable housing strategies and priorities that will be supported with the following four federal funding sources and other funding sources administered by MOHCD during the program year that starts on July 1, 2022 and ends on June 30, 2023: Community Development Block Grant (CDBG), Emergency Solutions Grant (ESG), Home Investment Partnership (HOME), and Housing Opportunities for Persons With AIDS (HOPWA).
The estimated amount of funding the City and County of San Francisco will receive from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) for 2022-2023 is as follows: CDBG – $18,887,307; ESG – $1,590,749; and, HOME – $5,161,731. The City and County of San Francisco will receive $7,041,373 in HOPWA funding for San Francisco and San Mateo Counties. Please note that at the time of this notice, the 2022-2023 funding amounts for the four federal programs have not yet been issued by HUD.
The purpose of the Substantial Amendment to the 2021-2022 Action Plan is to incorporate the HOME-ARP Allocation Plan. Funds were appropriated under the federal American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 for the HOME program to provide homelessness assistance and supportive services. The City and County of San Francisco will receive $18,707,742 under the HOME-ARP program from HUD.
CDBG, ESG, HOME, HOME-ARP and HOPWA funds will be used to support the following five objectives, which are described in San Francisco’s 2020-2024 Consolidated Plan:
- Families and individuals are stably housed;
- Families and individuals are resilient and economically self-sufficient;
- Communities have healthy physical, social, and business infrastructure;
- Communities at risk of displacement are stabilized; and,
- City works to eliminate the causes of racial disparities.
Public Review
The Draft 2022-2023 Action Plan and the Draft Substantial Amendment to the 2021-2022 Action Plan will be available for public review and comment from March 28, 2022 to April 26, 2022. The draft documents will be available electronically on the MOHCD website at https://sfmohcd.org, OEWD website at https://oewd.org, and HSH website at http://hsh.sfgov.org on the dates listed above.
Members of the public who wish to provide feedback on the draft documents, which include funding recommendations, may do so at the April 7th virtual public hearing or by submitting written comments to gloria.woo@sfgov.org. The deadline for receiving written comments on the preliminary funding recommendations is April 26, 2022 at 5:00 p.m.
If you have questions, please email Gloria Woo at gloria.woo@sfgov.org.
Community Needs Assessment for Survivors of Violence
Background
HSH is committed to improving access to safe homeless and housing services for survivors of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking human trafficking, and other forms of violence. The Community Needs Assessment will allow us to gather critical input, perspectives, and data critical to developing policies and practices aligned with the needs of survivors.
Desired Outcome and Goals
The desired outcome of the Community Needs Assessment is to ensure that survivors can safely access housing. To that end, the Project’s goals are:
- To improve survivor access to housing
- To increase survivor safety, choice, and privacy in receiving services from the Homelessness Response System
- To improve coordination between Victim Service Providers and the Homelessness Response System
Project Values
The Community Needs Assessment will be guided by the following values:
- Centering the rights, voices, and experiences of survivors: Using a collaborative design process, the project will identify barriers survivors face to safe housing. This includes partnership with survivor-led organizations, extensive survivor interviews and listening sessions, and 50% survivor membership on the project’s advisory body (which is to be co-chaired by a survivor).
- Using an intersectional lens in all project activities and in assessing data and findings: HSH and project partners are keenly aware that survivors’ multiple issues and identities combine to create additional challenges to accessing and retaining safe housing. These include income disparities, housing discrimination, impacts of historical trauma, and systemic racism. The project will center the experiences and needs of LGBTQ+, immigrants, diverse genders, nonnative English speakers, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), people with disabilities, and other marginalized groups.
- Employing Radical Listening and humility: In seeking to understand and center the perspectives of survivors, emphasis is placed on creating a safe space, listening deeply, and asking thoughtful follow-up questions to ensure people can share their experiences fully and are heard with empathy and without judgement.
Project Elements
The Community Needs Assessment will use the following strategies:
- Stakeholder Interviews: Conversations will be conducted with key contributors to San Francisco’s response to survivors. Questions are aimed at gathering input to paint a picture of challenges survivors face in the current homelessness response system to create a foundation for more detailed mapping and planning.
- Survivor Listening Sessions: Co-facilitated bysurvivors, these sessions will bring forward a diverse representation of survivors’ voices. Survivors will be compensated for their time and offered de-briefing support and connections to resources. Learning about survivors’ experiences both within and outside of systems response, what worked and what didn’t, and what change they believe is needed is critical to creating a meaningful response. If you are a survivor of violence and would like to learn more about participating in a listening session click on this link https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/SFSurvivorListening
- Safe Housing Working Group: With strong survivor representation (up to 50%), this ad hoc committee will meet monthly throughout the duration of the project. Co-led by a survivor, the Safe Housing Working Group will advise and advance the project recommendations.
- Online Safe Housing Survey: The Survey will collect information from survivor-facing organizations to assess policies and practices and alignment with best practices. Key areas include safety, confidentiality, assessment, access, training, housing protections, trauma-informed approaches, and survivor-centered strategies.
- Data Analysis: An examination of available quantitative data will provide another look into the current system. Data points include: demographics of survivors currently accessing the Homelessness Response System (gender, sexual orientation, race, ethnicity, age, household type); what programs survivors are currently using (coordinated entry, emergency shelter, transitional housing, permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing); and outcomes for survivors as compared to others accessing services.
Project Timeline
- September 2021 Kick off with project partners
- June 2022 target completion date including completion and dissemination of Community Needs Assessment Report
Community Needs Assessment Report
HSH and its project partners will produce a report summarizing the Community Needs Assessment activities, its findings, and recommendations for improving survivors’ safe and equitable access to homeless and housing services in San Francisco. Recommendations will help provide the basis for next steps in areas to include:
- Updates to the San Francisco Coordinated Entry Written Standards as they relate to survivors’ access to the Homelessness Response System
- Development of Homeless Management Information System (HMIS) protocols to safeguard survivor information
- Improved coordination between the Homelessness Response System and Victim Service Providers in serving survivors of violence and connecting to local resources.
Project Contact
- For more information regarding the Community Needs Assessment for Survivors of Violence please contact Elisabet Avalos at elisabet.avalos@sfgov.org.
- If you are fleeing or attempting to flee a life-threatening form of violence – including but not limited to domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault, stalking, and human trafficking and are in need of assistance please call or visit an Access Point. Access Point staff will work to quickly connect you to survivor-specific resources as well as the services offered by the Homelessness Response System. For more information about survivor-specific resources click here: Violence Against Women Prevention and Intervention Grants Program
Project Partners
HSH is partnering with the subject matter experts below to undertake project activities:
- Homebase: Homebase’s mission is to build community capacity to end homelessness, reduce poverty, and foster thriving, inclusive communities. Homebase partners with public, non-profit, and faith-based sectors to identify barriers and key resources, refine their ideas and goals, and design scalable solutions.
- Focus Strategies: Focus Strategies is a national consulting firm based on the West Coast dedicated to helping communities improve efforts to end homelessness through community-based planning informed by local data and national best practices, including the design and evaluation of Coordinated Entry Systems.
- National Alliance for Safe Housing (NASH): NASH is a national Technical Assistance provider that aims to create a culture where safe housing is a right shared by everyone. NASH works in alliance with advocates, survivors and leaders to improve coordination between victim service and homelessness systems.
- NASH’s partners, Voices of Women, a survivor-led community organizing program working to revolutionize domestic violence policy, and Shobana Powell Consulting, advocate and survivor consultants specializing in the intersection of human trafficking, trauma and systemic oppression, also bring deep expertise to the project.