Fair Shelter Initiative Hearing On July 14

If passed by voters, the Fair Shelter Initiative would amend Care Not Cash by taking the word "shelter" out of the definition of housing. Photo by Luke Thomas.

By Ralph E. Stone

July 7, 2011

Supporters of the Fair Shelter Initiative are urged to attend the Rules Committee Hearing on July 14, at 1:30 p.m., in Room 263 at City Hall.

The Fair Shelter Initiative would amend Care Not Cash by taking the word “shelter” out of the definition of housing and ensuring that people in need of shelter, regardless of their source of income, will stand on equal footing. In other words, a “shelter” would not be considered “housing” under Care Not Cash.

Care Not Cash or Proposition N was passed by voters in 2002 and was promoted as a means to increase mental health, substance abuse treatment and housing in exchange for County Assistance Program (CAAP, previously known as GA) benefits. Under current law, the $422 allotted monthly to homeless people enrolled in CAAP is reduced to $59; the rest is redistributed to city-funded shelter services through a fund managed by the Human Services Agency.

About 500 homeless people receive welfare benefits per month, according to agency figures — almost 8 percent of 6,455 homeless people the city counted in January. However, over one-third of 1,100 beds in the single adult system are dedicated to Care Not Cash recipients for 90 days at a time, and on some nights, those clients don’t use the beds. Veterans, seniors, disabled, and those receiving no income are excluded from the Care Not Cash shelter preference program. Usually, they must reserve a bed on a daily basis.

Care Not Cash has resulted in an inequitable shelter system where homeless people spend hours trying to get a bed, when those reserved beds often go unfilled. Over 40 percent of shelter beds are set-a-side but only 14 percent of homeless are on Care Not Cash.

The Fair Shelter Initiative aims to ensure equity in shelter bed distribution and keep housing and other benefits associated with the Care Not Cash Program.

Ralph E. Stone

I was born in Massachusetts; graduated from Middlebury College and Suffolk Law School; served as an officer in the Vietnam war; retired from the Federal Trade Commission (consumer and antitrust law); travel extensively with my wife Judi; and since retirement involved in domestic violence prevention and consumer issues.

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