Lawsuit accuses S. F. of discriminating against disabled homeless people

[EFerrari]

Erin Allday, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, August 27, 2008

(08-27) 11:58 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- San Francisco's city's Care Not Cash program discriminates against disabled homeless people, according to a federal lawsuit filed today by a Berkeley-based group.

The lawsuit claims that the city's homeless program "blatantly discriminates" against disabled people who receive federal benefits and therefore can't use Care Not Cash services, which include the ability to reserve shelter beds.

"The core problem is that people with disabilities are absolutely excluded from that program," said attorney Sidney Wolinsky, the founder of Disability Rights Advocates, which filed the lawsuit.

"If you're not in Care Not Cash, you can't make a reservation for a bed, and you're thrown into this Byzantine system where every day you have to stand in line and try to find a bed," Wolinsky said. "It becomes survival of the fittest, and disabled people lose and end up sleeping in alleys."

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/08/27/BA7312JCNI.DTL&tsp=1

Read the lawsuit:

http://www.dralegal.org/downloads/cases/Homeless/Complaint_Filed.pdf

SHAME OF THE CITY:

http://www.sfgate.com/homeless/

[KamaAina]

1. Many, if not most, homeless people have disabilities

not just in SF but nationwide. I can personally testify to this; the office from which this post originates is conveniently located between the two branches (men's, and women and families) of the city's only large private shelter, and I see people using wheelchairs, etc. all the time. This does not even begin to address (invisible) psychiatric disability.

From the lawsuit itself:

A 2007 survey reported that 50% of individuals in the San Francisco shelter system self-identified as having a disability that year. According to the San Francisco Plan to Abolish Chronic Homelessness, 30-70% of the City's homeless are disabled. Some observers put that number closer to 80%.

The real kicker is the way Newsom set up Care Not Cash to exclude anyone who is ineligible for General Assistance ("welfare"). What bonehead advised him on this? Even I, 2,400 miles distant, could have told him that most potential Care Not Cash participants receive some Federal (or, in CA, state) benefits besides just GA. :dunce: It's the flip side of the dilemma facing recipients of benefits who wish to work for pay: if they earn too much, they lose their benefits. :eyes:

Mahalo (thank you) for this, sfexpat! I have far more expertise to bring to bear in this area than in our previous discussion about neighborhood groceries; the office in question is that of a nonprofit that specifically serves people with disabilities, where I serve as policy analyst. One wonders what our sister center in SF (there are over 400 nationwide) is doing about this.

edit: italics

[EFerrari]

2. You wouldn't believe the horrible freeper deluge at the website.

It's like they're all on crack. They love beating up on vulnerable people. :puke:

[KamaAina]

3. Wow! We get millions in pay? Awesome!

Now I can fly up there first-class and stay at the Four Seasons, that they all seem to be obsessed with! :sarcasm:

Well, there's fifteen minutes of my life I'll never get back... actually, one of the knuckledraggers gave me an idea. Why not have Gary Danko (or equivalent celebrity chef) do a meal using the ingredients available to a shelter or soup kitchen? Maybe even get it on the Food Channel? Of course he's not going to be doing it every day, any more than Martha Stewart personally designs the stuff for Kmart and now Walmart, but it'd have to be better than the swill served there now.