From: Brandi Nuse-Villegas
To: Clerk
Subject: Public Comment, Police department
Date: Wednesday, June 5, 2024 8:32:58 AM
External Email: Use caution with links and attachments
The city claims on the Mayor’s Proposed Budget: “Homeless Assistance Response Team (HART) The HART Unit oversees the compassionate response of the City toward the unsheltered community, which includes facilitating outreach, service provision, and housing navigation.”
However,other than the HOPE team, HART shows no compassion and impedes our unhoused from these very goal, earning the title of “Heartless team” by anyone with experience of this team, providing no services themselves and using their power to deprive people of their belonging, safety, and dignity:
The HART Team generally displaces people who have nowhere to go. Where do people go? The HART team throws away people’s belongings that people want and need to keep. This includes living essentials like tents, blankets, clothing, medications, water, and food. This includes purses, backpacks, and phones that they have refused to let folks have that might include IDs, money, documents for housing and work, etc. this includes irreplaceable items like ashes of family members, photos, sonograms, and other keepsakes.
Everyone has shared that they throw away everything often.
The HART team has also thrown away belongings that working people need for their jobs.
Over the years, people have told me that the HART team has throw away work tools, work clothing, their bicycles they need for transportation, etc.
They have refused people keeping their belongings even when it's ready and easily moved. I have heard and seen instances when the officers could’ve given someone their backpack, purse, or phone and they refused. They don’t give adequate time for those with physical and mental disabilities create stress for everyone that is often debilitating.
They do not store their belongings. People have told me that they have asked and been refused.
In addition, The HART Team claims that they are keeping areas clean. However, we have seen over and over that they will take the needed belongings of the unhoused but leave trash behind on the streets.
Dignity is lacking in how they treat people in word and action.
They aren’t solving the issue of encampments. The sweeps don’t minimize the number of those who are homeless, just forces them to have to find another place to be.
The budget says that the goals of HART are:
To protect, assess, and connect unhoused persons and families with permanent housing, resources, and a pathway out of homelessness. The HART team is not protecting but endangering our unhoused in many ways, from taking away survival supplies, including during life-endangering extreme weather. And potentially pushing them into more dangerous places and situation, especially those who are particularly vulnerable.
Only the HOPE team is trying to connect them to services. • Promptly resolve the quality of life issues affecting residents and businesses.
Their work is a temporary fix. If the city is impeding people from getting off their feet, they are simply kicking the can down the street.
• Reduce and manage street homelessness by providing compassionate, responsive, lawful, and effective outreach.
Their actions are impeding people from getting into housing, holding a job, or any other actions to move forward, as they take people's documentation, phones, paperwork, work clothes and equipment, and as one man succinctly needed, if they have to start back at square one getting food, clothing, blankets, etc to survive, If they have to go back to replacing the ID cards, documents,phones needed to connect, over and over again; if they need to replace work clothing, work tools, their mode of transportation that, the HART callously throws out, and are losing jobs because of it, they are delayed from the process of housing and work and homelessness is not reduced.
HART’s action are violating human rights, policies, and the city's homeless plan The actions of the HART team violates human rightss and the city’s own policies and homeless plan.
It ISN’T effective.
The budget says that the Core Values of HART is
• Affirming human dignity. The HART team is showing anything but this. The way they have treated those unhoused is like they are trying to break people’s will and spirit.
I ask that, especially in light of the deficit, that the money used on HART be spent on services and programs that would help and not harm and support the city’s goal to reduce homelessness. We need to continually to development and assess a multi-faceted approach to address this complex issue, including the asks of the housing coalition. We need to continue to be housing first and keep adding and funding affordable housing so those on the streets and shelters have a place to go. We need to fund the EPP and enact rent stabilization to prevent people from losing their housing. We need survival resources made available year-round across the city including water stations, access to bathrooms, and sanitation assistance. We need oversight for all services to our unhoused to ensure they are effective and that people really are being protected and treated with dignity. We need a lived experience board to learn from our unhoused community, just as the FMCOC is doing. We need well-managed safe lots, with small numbers of occupants in each, to protect community members by creating a safe space to stay while working on housing and service throughout the city. We need warming centers to be funded throughout the winter. We need allocated dollars to fund an oversight mediation board composed of advocates and unhoused community members for the shelters.
We need a robust job placement program, including at shelters. There are more ideas that would help that those who unhoused can offer as solutions. We need to work together and truly uphold the dignity of all residents.