This group is a bunch of thieves they charge the maximum amount of section 8 for every one of there sro rooms. They don't tell people that they can take there voucher and get out of the high crime area. They try to keep people in the sro's so that they get almost 3000 dollars a month for each one of the closet size rooms that they force people into by not assisting them to navigate the rental process to get a nice apartment.
And for those who finally get approved for section 8 who are knowledgeable and persistent enough to escape being forced into an SRO. They send people from there scattered housing unit to come and put you under a microscope untill they find reasons to try to get you evicted so that you have to then take your voucher to one of there sro's so they can get the almost $3000 every month while putting the renter in a space no bigger than a walk in closet with no private bathroom, mice and roaches.
Anyone with a section 8 voucher who reads this needs to know that they can get a huge 1 bedroom with a bathroom and a kitchen and some even have washers and dryers in unit. You can rent any apartment in San Francisco you don't have to go to the sro. The apartment building I live in has a pool and a huge gym. Don't let the people Frome Episcopal community services force you to give them more government money to use for paying there friends and family for work they don't actually do.
I work at ECS, and they are truly making a difference in our community. ECS is always innovating and testing new ideas on how to best provide for our city's residents experiencing homelessness or with low incomes. The organization is a great public and private partner with the end goal of helping homeless and very low-income people every day and every night obtain the housing, jobs, shelter, and essential services each person needs to prevent and end homelessness. ECS does SO MUCH for our city's most vulnerable residents. I am privilege to do this work every day!
I emailed the review above that I posted yesterday, March 28, 2016 (Easter Monday) to all of the Next Door/Episcopal Community Service of San Francisco staff who were listed as of yesterday, March 28, 2016 (Easter Monday) on the organization's official website. I received a few bounce-back emails that indicate that neither Next Door, nor Episcopal Community Service of San Francisco have updated their respective directories since staff have left. I also received a pro forma 'vacation response' email from a staff member on medical leave directing people trying to get in touch with her--the staff member on medical leave-- to call people associated with the San Francisco Winter Shelter program, which program stopped about two weeks ago on March 15, 2016. That is not just further indicia that things are not kept up to date, but also an indicia of public funding and responsibility for any failings of the San Francisco Winter Shelter program.
Most significantly, although the email that I note above went out around ten a.m. Pacific Time yesterday, March 28, 2016 (Easter Monday), by 4:25 p.m. Pacific Time, I had heard nothing back in the way of a return email from any shelter or Episcopal Community Service of San Francisco staff. And as of this morning, Tuesday, March 29, 2016, I have still not received any responses.
Last night at the shelter, in fact, no staff said anything to me. However, the woman in bed 51 who has psychotic tendencies came back well after shelter curfew of 7:00 p.m. Pacific Time around 10:20 p.m. and came over to my cot and shoved me. In other words, I was battered at the Next Door shelter at 1001 Polk Street on the same day that my negative review appeared.
Is the shelter and is Episcopal Community Service encouraging this sort of behavior? Are they responsible, then, for my being battered and for nothing being done about what I reported by email to both Next Door shelter and to Episcopal Community Service of San Francisco? The police were at the door of the shelter when I came back around 4:40p.m. Pacific Time yesterday, March 28, 2016 (Easter Monday). However, they did not ask to speak to me and they certainly did not curtail the battery that occurred hours later. What is going on in San Francisco in shelters to allow all of this?
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This is an edited review of that posted circa 9:15 a.m. Pacific Time, Wednesday, April 13, 2016:
Does Episcopal Community Service/s of San Francisco have any real guidelines for who stays at its homeless shelters and how long they stay there?
Apparently not.
At Next Door homeless shelter at 1001 Polk St., which is run by Episcopal Community Service/s of San Francisco, clients are apparently allowed to miss four nights in either a ninety day period or per month, i.e. a thirty day period, and still have a bed. This is not at all explained to new clients during the mandatory one p.m. Thursday new client orientation sessions.
Moreover, most clients who miss coming back to the Next Door shelter for four nights in a row know that they are forsaking their bed. However, the rules and protocols are so lax at Next Door homeless shelter, that certain clients get away with being away for four nights in a row and still get their assigned beds.
Other clients at Next Door homeless shelter--even, as was recently the case, one who had missed only one night and who had missed curfew on another night--each of which owing to a hospitalization--will be booted from the shelter at 1001 Polk St. Right after a hospitalization? Yes.
The current 'inhabitant' of bed 51 on the fourth floor was not only allowed to threaten numerous times the inhabitant of bed 50 and to batter the occupant of bed 50, but also was allowed to come back after missing four consecutive nights and to retain her bed. She did this even though the Next Door shelter staff installed a one night occupant in her bed during one of these nights.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, guess what? The occupant of bed 38 on the same floor and right in the vicinity of bed 51 was kicked out right after she only had only the above two mentioned 'infractions'--missing one night and being late on another because of a hospitalization.
She was literally made to appeal the decision for her immediate removal from the Next Door homeless shelter with a hospital identification wrist band still on her wrist from re recent hospitalization; and was also made to do the instant appeal after five p.m. Pacific Time, i.e. after any arguably responsible staff were present who had made the decision to terminate her stay.
How is it that a batterer who continually harasses those on the fourth floor like the current occupant of bed 51 is allowed to stay even when she misses four consecutive nights and comes back after curfew routinely, but a recently hospitalized occupant gets booted out even though she demonstrably only had minor 'infractions' owing to her hospitalization?
You will have to ask Episcopal Community Service/s of San Francisco and the taxpayers who pay into the San Francisco shelter program, as well as the Episcopal Diocese of San Francisco and any of Episcopal Community Service's donors and board members. There appears to be no good reason, except for being sloppy and the continual toleration of things that are illegal.
Jeanne Tanner
Review from Guidestar
Next Door Shelter at 1001 Polk Street in San Francisco, CA is part of Episcopal Community Services in San Francisco, CA and is not a model shelter except as a model of illegality. Do not stay here. Lots of illegalities. So many, in fact, that one wonders why board members want their names mentioned here on Guidestar.org[.] After all, I have pierced the corporate veil here in this review and all board members and others associated with not just the board, but also with the Episcopal Church and the Church of England, have personal liability for what I report here and for other illegalities at the Next Door shelter.
This shelter lets men stay on women's floors and they also let animals, specifically dogs, that are not service dogs into shelter sleeping areas.
The staff at Next Door also don't follow their own protocols for not having food on the floor--the fourth floor of Next Door has a lot of shelter guests eating and drinking things like sandwiches, candy bars and soda pop.
They should follow their no food policy because they have a serious bug infestation problem in the 1001 Polk Street building and are supposed to be spraying for bugs at least once per week. They also have an illegal hate speech rule that boots people out on the street if they say "n__ger" one time. However, if you call someone a "be_ner" if they are Latina or Latino or if you call someone "white trash" or "white b_tch" if they are white or are perceived to be white, then nothing happens.
Also, they allow black women to scream and to threaten each other on a nightly basis without calling the Department of Mental Health or the police.
What they do if you are not black and are not having any medical problems, however, is call 911 and then the San Francisco Fire Department paramedics will come and evaluate you. They will take you to the hospital, but when they pass a transgender prostitute who solicits them--firemen--right on the corner of Polk while they are on their way for an emergency call, they won't have the transgender prostitute taken away for anything.
Late in the afternoon of Monday, March 15, 2016, which was the last day for the Winter Emergency Shelters to be open, guess what? The "HOT" team had outreach staff interviewing people outside this shelter who were actually staying there. Where should they have been? There were plenty of people who stayed in the subway that night as long as they could and who were clogging up the nearby Civic Center/United Nations BART Station. There were plenty of people in the Winter Shelter program who were not on the 311 waiting list for a ninety day bed. So why have public resources been wasted in this manner?
The Next Door shelter is part of Episcopal Services approximately twenty million dollar budget. The firemen and the HOT team personnel are part of San Francisco City and County budget funding. The Next Door shelter also has Medi-Cal intake staff on its second floor, so it is also probably getting public funding. Why do the taxpayers allow all of this to go on?
Last night, the evening of Easter Sunday, i.e. March 27, 2016, a woman in bed 51 on the fourth floor threatened multiple times to smother the woman in bed 50 on the fourth floor and called the woman "white trash." The staff did nothing. Would the San Francisco police show up if the woman in 51, who arguably has some psychotic tendencies, actually did follow through on her threat to smother the woman in the bed right next to her?
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Does Episcopal Community Service/s of San Francisco have any real guidelines for who stays at its homeless shelters and how long they stay there?
Apparently not.
At Next Door homeless shelter run by Episcopal Community Service/s of San Francisco, clients are apparently allowed to miss four nights in either a ninety day period of per month, i.e. a thirty day period, and still have a bed. Most clients who miss coming back to the Next Door shelter for four nights in a row know that they are forsaking their bed. However, the rules and protocols are so lax, that certain clients get away with being away for four nights and still get a bed, while others--even, as was recently the case--who have missed only one night and how have missed curfew on another night--each of which owing to a hospitalization--will be booted from the shelter at 1001 Polk St.
The current 'inhabitant' of bed 51 on the fourth floor was not only allowed to threaten numerous times the inhabitant of bed 50 and to batter the occupant of bed 50, but also was allowed to come back after missing four consecutive nights and to retain her bed. She did this even though the Next Door shelter staff installed a one night occupant in her bed during one of these nights.
Meanwhile back at the ranch, guess what? The occupant of bed 38 on the same floor and right in the vicinity of bed 51 was kicked out right after she only had two infractions--missing one night and being late on another because of a hospitalization. She was literally made to appeal the decision to have her leave with a hospital wrist band still on her wrist from the hospitalization; and was also made to do the instant appeal after five p.m. Pacific Time, i.e. after any arguably responsible staff were present who had made the decision to terminate her stay.
How is it that a batterer who continually harasses those on the fourth floor like the current occupant of bed 51 is allowed to stay even when she misses four consecutive nights and comes back after curfew routinely, but a recently hospitalized occupant gets booted out even though she demonstrably only had minor 'infractions' owing to her hospitalization?
You will have to ask Episcopal Community Service/s of San Francisco and the taxpayers who pay into the San Francisco shelter program, as well as the Episcopal Diocese of San Francisco and any of Episcopal Community Service's donors and board members. There appears to be no good reason, except for being slopping and the continual toleration of things that are illegal.
Review from Guidestar