by Randy Shaw on October 17, 2022 (BeyondChron.org)
Prop C Increases Transparency, Oversight
Why does the San Francisco agency addressing homelessness have little public oversight? And why are “moderate” political groups wrongly claiming that imposing oversight over a massive bureaucracy reduces “transparency” and adds “red tape”?
I wasn’t planning on writing about Prop C. The need for its passage is so obvious. The Board of Supervisors voted 11-0 to put it on the ballot. That unanimous vote included the Board’s moderates, one of whom, Ahsha Safai, is the chief sponsor.
Prop C places a commission over the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH). Nearly all HSH programs were under a commission prior to Mayor Lee’s decision to move homeless programs long under Human Services and Public Health to a separate department. The mayor did not want to delay this shift until voters could approve a commission; so the public oversight associated with these programs is lacking.
Prop C corrects this.
No official argument against Prop C was submitted for the ballot handbook. The San Francisco Republican Party’s paid opposition argument claims “bureaucracies don’t increase transparency.” But the bureaucracy that lacks transparency is HSH. Prop C promotes transparency by installing public oversight both over HSH and its outside contracts.
You can be sure that if a ballot measure removed a commission from the Department of Public Health Republicans would oppose it for reducing transparency.
Republican endorsements in San Francisco usually help the other side. But I felt the need to push Prop C when I saw the slate card of Grow SF also went No on C. It’s reason? “More Red Tape Around Homeless Services.”
Oversight is not red tape.
Mayor Breed’s Opposition
What’s really happening here is that groups supportive of Mayor Breed want to join her opposition to Prop C. The mayor claims it will increase bureaucracy. It does nothing of the sort.
Prop C slightly reduces the mayor’s power to control how HSH operates. But Mayor Breed makes 4 of the 7 appointments to the new commission. She maintains control of HSH. The mayor opposed the commission when former Supervisor Matt Haney tried to get Board support to put it on the 2020 ballot; even strong backers of the mayor should recognize that she is wrong to oppose Prop C.
The Board of Supervisors lacks the time to examine HSH’s $600 million budget. We saw last June how HSH’s Director lays out the budget to the Board’s Finance Committee. The massive number of contracts under HSH along with the many city agencies that come before the committee left no time for supervisors to delve into specifics. Key budget details were not even available.
The type of budget inquires that are typically brought before commissions does not happen with the HSH budget.
Transparency? Nobody who knows the current system could believe that exists now.
No mayor likes to see their power reduced. But Mayor Breed need not worry. She appointed quality leadership to HSH and its making a positive difference. Prop C is not about problems with current HSH staff. Rather, it corrects a structural deficiency that weakens the city’s overall response to homelessness.
Only those satisfied with the current state of homelessness in San Francisco should oppose Prop C. And if you are satisfied, you must not go out much in the city.
Randy Shaw
Randy Shaw is the Editor of Beyond Chron and the Director of San Francisco’s Tenderloin Housing Clinic, which publishes Beyond Chron. Shaw’s latest book is Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America. He is the author of four prior books on activism, including The Activist’s Handbook: Winning Social Change in the 21st Century, and Beyond the Fields: Cesar Chavez, the UFW and the Struggle for Justice in the 21st Century. He is also the author of The Tenderloin: Sex, Crime and Resistance in the Heart of San Francisco
