TO: HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL FROM: Mayor Mahan
Vice Mayor Foley
Councilmember Kamei
Councilmember Campos
Councilmember Tordillos
SUBJECT: SEE BELOW DATE: October 24, 2025
Approved Date: 10/24/2025
SUBJECT: Coordination of Homelessness Activities Audit Report
RECOMMENDATION
1. Accept the report and the Administration’s response.
2. Direct the City Attorney and the City Manager, in collaboration with the Office of Racial and Social Equity, to review existing protocols and training materials regarding:
a. Reasonable accommodations for unhoused people with disabilities engaged in advance of and during encampment abatements, Oversized and Lived-In Vehicle Enforcement (OLIVE) activations, and other relevant interactions; and b. The collection, storage, and retrieval of personal belongings encountered during encampment abatements, OLIVE activations, and other relevant interactions.
3. If the City Manager and City Attorney determine that additional training is needed for contracted service providers and City staff who frequently engage with unhoused individuals on reasonable accommodations and the handling of personal belongings, direct the City Manager in collaboration with the Office of Racial and Social Equity to provide such training.
BACKGROUND
The City Auditor and his team have identified opportunities to clarify outreach procedures, strengthen oversight of contracted service providers, and meet the City’s performance goals.
Despite resource constraints, the City Administration continues to make progress in reducing unsheltered homelessness through targeted engagement and service delivery, and we are grateful for the efforts of all departments in responding to the homelessness crisis. We appreciate the City Auditor’s work and recommend acceptance of the report, its findings and recommendations, and the Administration’s response.
As the Housing Department, in collaboration with other departments with direct-facing roles, develops the protocols described in the Administration’s response, we find additional COUNCIL AGENDA: 10/28/2025
FILE: 25-1112
ITEM: 3.3
HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
October 24, 2025
Subject: Coordination of Homelessness Activities Audit Report
opportunities to clarify procedures and ensure a shared understanding – from City staff, service providers, and unhoused individuals – of certain rights and responsibilities.
Individuals with disabilities are entitled to reasonable accommodations to ensure equal access to programs. According to data provided by the Housing Department, from May through the end of September 2025, the City engaged 200 unhoused individuals, 85 of whom requested a reasonable accommodation. Of the 85 requests, 7 (or 8%) were approved, and 78 (or 92%) were denied.
This suggests that there may be opportunities to clarify what a reasonable accommodation may include and who is entitled to an accommodation.
Location Date Total
People
Engaged
Number of People
Requesting RA
Number
Approved
Number
Denied/Declined
Julian/Coleman May 8th – May
22nd, 2025
6 6 1 5
Penitencia/Jackson
to King
May 7th- May
14th, 2025
10 10 2 8
Coleman & Taylor
Encampments
May 21st- May
22nd, 2025
1 1 0 1
Hedding to 880 May 27th – June
16th, 2025
24 11 0 11
Taylor To
Hedding
May 30th – June
9th, 2025
29 13 0 13
Tully to
Umbarger
June 24th – July
2nd, 2025
30 6 0 6
Los Lago East
Bank
July 2nd – July
23rd, 2025
32 5 0 5
Columbus Park July 16th – August
8th, 2025
36 25 4 21
Las Lagos West
Bank
September 23,
2025
32 8 0 8
TOTALS 200 85 7 78
We recommend that the City Manager and the City Attorney review existing procedures and training materials to ensure that reasonable accommodations are being provided where appropriate, while maintaining clear guidance to prevent misuse of the process. The newly hired Disability Affairs Officer in the Office of Racial and Social Equity, the City’s ADA Coordinator, and the City Attorney’s Office all should contribute to this effort and help ensure that this information is communicated appropriately and consistently to relevant staff, contracted outreach workers, and unhoused people engaged during outreach efforts.
Finally, only 6% of stored personal belonging are reclaimed by unhoused individuals. 94% of these stored belongings are disposed of. During the audit, the City Auditor reviewed PRNS'
HONORABLE CITY COUNCIL
October 24, 2025
Subject: Coordination of Homelessness Activities Audit Report
encampment abatement procedures and noted that BeautifySJ discloses on its abatement notices that a resident has 90 days to retrieve their belongings from a City facility. However, unhoused people may still not be aware of how to retrieve their items, face barriers that prevent them from reclaiming their belongings, or may not be taking advantage of opportunities to retrieve their belongings. We recommend that the City Manager and the City Attorney review existing procedures and training materials to affirm that the process for handling, storing, and retrieving belongings is low-barrier and communication protocols remain clear and consistent. We acknowledge that reclaiming personal belongings from impounded vehicles is different from the process used to retrieve items collected during encampment abatements. The protocols and training should ensure service providers and unhoused individuals are informed about how personal belongings are treated regardless of how abatement occurs.
We thank the City Auditor’s Office, the City Administration, and the City Attorney’s Office for their important work in addressing the homelessness crisis and identifying opportunities to improve coordination.
The signers of this memorandum have not had, and will not have, any private conversation with any other member of the City Council, or that member’s staff, concerning any action discussed in the memorandum, and that each signer’s staff members have not had, and have been instructed not to have, any such conversation with any other member of the City Council or that member's staff.