Since it’s inception, Project Homeless Connect continues to foster an unprecedented spirit of involvement from more than 17,000 volunteers whose sole mission is to help connect the city’s most vulnerable community to the essential city services and programs they need on the road toward self-sufficiency. What began as a local outreach effort of 250 city workers, has now evolved into a model program for more than 70 other municipalities nationwide. Notably PHC has gone global with Canada, Australia, and Puerto Rico now duplicating San Francisco’s homeless outreach model.
Mayor Newsom’s highly acclaimed outreach effort remains a critical component in addressing widespread homelessness in San Francisco. Connecting homeless and near-homeless citizens to vital services was a huge accomplishment for Project Homeless Connect in 2006. Data gathered for a 2006 “year in review “ of PHC reflects a successful homeless outreach program of which all San Franciscans can be proud:
In 2006
• 8,659 extraordinary individuals volunteered to help connect the city homeless to services and programs
• 9,738 clients participated in PHC
• 1,970 individuals received benefits assistance (SSI, Food stamps, GA)
• 1,142 individuals were screened for employment opportunities with 39 successful hirings through Safeway, CBS Outdoor, and SF Department of Human Services.
• 1,735 individuals received medical care • 1,036 individuals received legal assistance
• 560 individuals received methadone treatment
• 1,096 individuals received dental screens
• 520 individuals received mental health and substance abuse services
• 99,089 lbs of groceries were given away by the SF Food Bank
• 73 individuals were reconnected to family or friends through the City’s Homeward Bound Program
• 902 individuals were assisted off the streets and provided with shelter and housing
Greater public/private involvement also continued to gain momentum as the outreach program went into its second year in 2006.
• Grand Central provided 849 free voicemail subscriptions
• FedEx and Sprint Nextel connected 4,835 clients to friends and family through mailings and phone calls
• Lenscrafters distributed more than 1,000 pairs of eyeglasses
• SMG Catering provided 10,196 lunches
• Levi Strauss & Co., and Deloitte Consulting distributed jeans and shoes to 5,000 people
• CSAA assembled and distributed 7,300 hygiene kits
Project Homeless Connect is a key component of Mayor Newsom’s 10-year plan to abolish homelessness in San Francisco. For more information or how you may volunteer, please visit SFConnect.org.
On Saturday, February 10, at 10:00am, Mayor Gavin Newsom will join San Franciscans for a substantive policy dialogue about the City’s new anti-poverty initiative, Communities of Opportunity.
The February 10 townhall will be held in the Bayview/Hunters Point community at the Whitney Young Child Development Center at 100 Whitney Young Circle.
San Franciscans from our neighborhood can talk in-depth with their neighbors, the Mayor, other elected officials and community leaders on critical issues including public safety, economic opportunity, education and housing – the core components of the Communities of Opportunity.
You can find more information about the Whitney Young Child Development Center at:
-Trent Rhorer, Executive Director, Human Services Agency
Our city was once considered as having the most pervasive homeless problem in the country. Today our city is looked upon as a model for the rest of the nation in how to succeed in the challenge of ending chronic homelessness. In an effort to continue the city’s successful homeless outreach, and as a way to measure and refine the effectiveness of our housing programs, the Human Services Agency (HSA) will be conducting a city-wide homeless population count. This bi-annual count will be conducted on Wednesday, January 31, 2007 from 8 p.m. to 12 a.m.
You are invited to join in with hundreds of volunteers who will fan out across San Francisco counting people living on its streets. For the first time ever, the City’s goal is to cover the entire geographic area of the City and County of San Francisco. In the past, the count has focused on predetermined areas where the homeless are known to congregate. On the same night, the City will also conduct a census of homeless persons living in shelters and other city sponsored programs to help establish a more comprehensive accounting of the extent of homelessness in San Francisco.
Mayor Newsom also encourages any interested individuals to get involved with the homeless count. He agrees that an accurate count of our homeless community is essential to determining the effectiveness of our homeless outreach efforts. The Mayor also acknowledges that we have a long way to go toward ending chronic homelessness in San Francisco but this count offers evidence that we are on the right track.
Along the same lines this count helps us refine our plans to address homelessness in our City, and analyze the effectiveness of current programs. This will be our most ambitious count to date as we are covering the entire city and coordinating extensively with other City agencies as well as the community.
-Dwayne Jones, Director, Communities of Opportunity (COO)
The buzz and initial success of Communities of Opportunity (COO) is growing. Since the beginning of the administration, Mayor Newsom has dedicated his political and personal attention to some of the most challenging issues that plague our beautiful city: better government, homelessness, clean streets and now, persistent poverty.
COO is an innovative partnership between the city of San Francisco, philanthropic organizations, and residents, to revitalize struggling neighborhoods of our city. The pilot phase is in the Southeastern section of the city, with full rollout citywide in the near future. It is a new system that fundamentally does two things:
1. Link the efforts of the city, philanthropy, and the community together to ensure residents have easy access to the services they need – regardless of what city department or nonprofit provides them.
2. Connect residents to genuine opportunities created by the economic development occurring in their community and citywide.
For decades, residents, city staff, and political leaders have discussed, lamented, surveyed and analyzed the issue of poverty, particularly the intense concentration of poverty that exists in the Southeastern part of the city. This area of the city harbors every hallmark of chronic urban decay: crime, unemployment, poor health, deteriorating housing, poor education and a fragmented social service system. Our volumes of yearly disparity reports affirm the reality that the current system simply, is not working.
Communities of Opportunity (COO) is a new innovative initiative that pushes rhetoric aside, directing real action and resources toward the systemic causes of poverty: physical environment, education, health, economic development and social networks. There was a time in our city when few were disconnected from the services and opportunities they needed to get ahead. Families could access and understood how to navigate the prosperity grid. Attendance at local schools usually resulted in quality education, job training led to good jobs, business corridors flourished; families purchased homes and other wealth building assets. San Francisco was a place of genuine opportunity for all.
- Chris Vein, Director, Department of Telecommunications and Information Systems (DTIS)
In his 2004 State of the City Address, Mayor Gavin Newsom outlined a vision of the future – a future where no San Franciscan was to be without the basic building blocks to personal economic freedom. Those building blocks include access to the internet and a computer. For the past seven months, a team of City employees and consultants have been negotiating an agreement between the City and EarthLink to make Mayor Newsom’s vision a reality.
On Friday, January 5, the City finalized an agreement with Earthlink to provide universal wireless internet access at no cost, making San Francisco the first and largest major city in the country to offer such a service. Google has partnered with Earthlink to provide the 300 Kbps free tier of service for use by all residents, businesses and visitors.
With the help of the private sector, the City will soon be able to deploy and maintain this infrastructure at no cost to the taxpayers, while allowing those with the technological expertise to maintain service. With the finalization of the deal, the agreement now goes to the Board of Supervisors for review and approval.
This agreement marks a significant change from the more typical hotspots or hot zones where WiFi access is available in proscribed areas – something that is currently available in many cities and municipalities. San Francisco’s initiative seeks ubiquitous connectivity anywhere, anytime – an especially difficult challenge in a city renowned for its hilly topography – and at no cost to users. The terms of the agreement protects privacy and security of all users, and provides consumer choice through open access.
Universal free wireless is the anchor of Mayor Newsom’s TechConnect initiative that focuses on Digital Inclusion by creating access and providing hardware, content and training for residents without the benefit of real time, consistent access to technology.
