SAN FRANCISCO RENT BOARD
2002 GENDER ANALYSIS Update

Rent Board Collaboration on Citywide Policy

The Rent Board does participate in discussions concerning the development of more affordable housing. We are currently present in the discussions of the proposed $200 million dollar affordable housing bond measure, eviction control measures that retain tenants in affordable housing, either through legislative or policy actions. I must point out though, that we have a limited sphere of influence in that there are other departments in the City, such as the Mayor's Office of Housing, that have as their direct charge the development of affordable housing. We also have to be very conscious of expending our limited resources on issues outside of our immediate domain. As a fee funded department, most of our clients who pay for our operation are more concerned about their immediate needs to have disputes adjudicated and questions answered, which is our primary mission. Given our modest budget and the large client base we serve, we have a difficult enough time providing adequate and timely services our mission mandates. While we would like to be a major player in all housing issues, the fact is budgetary and client concerns are naturally limiting in this respect, so we must balance those activities that fall outside our stated mission with the immediate needs and concerns of our clients.

Data Collection

The Rent Board has been collecting gender data per CEDAW recommendations. We have modified our Rent Board web site in order to collect gender information. The web site contains a survey instrument which asked clients to rate our services. We are now able to gauge client satisfaction ratings by gender.

Our results to-date show that 25% of our clients using the survey were female, 44% were males and 31% declined to identify their gender. Of those identifying their gender, on a scale of one to five, women ranked our services with a score of 4.88 be while males scored our services at 4.93. Clearly the level of satisfaction with department services by both men and women is high, with little difference in the rate of satisfaction. Our staff has also conducted a personal survey of the clients they interact with over a two week period. Those results are as follows:

Male-51.2%
Female-48.5%
not sure-1.3%
Caucasian-52.7%
Black-8.1%
Hispanic-14.6%
Asian-20.6%
Filipino-3.4%
Other .4%

The figures shown here are the average of the staff surveys received (33% of staff). As we had speculated from our general experience, our client base very closes mirrors the general population and the San Francisco labor market availability. This is to be expected, given the large potential client base we serve, including tenants and landlords, which is at least 70% of the total population of San Francisco. We will continue to modify our other survey instruments and short forms where feasible or appropriate as we reprint those documents.

Housing Study Gender Study Issues

With respect to the CEDAW recommendation that the housing study should include gender as an issue, the task force members had already identified the issues that they wanted to have addressed in this study by the time the CEDAW recommendations had been issued. Unfortunately, gender issues were not raised by any members of the task force. I was able to include gender as a question in a survey instrument the consultant will be sending out soon. Should a future study be instituted and the Rent Board is asked to participate, we will certainly advocate for the inclusion of more this kind of information.

Language Accessibility Issues

Concerning the recommendation for the setting of goals for increasing language and accessibility at the Rent Board, we have proposed in our budget for next year a sum of approximately $85,000 in order to provide translation of most of our documents and forms. This year we will spend approximately $30,000 to update the recorded information we currently provide in both Spanish and Chinese. As noted in our report, Information to Go currently provides over 25,000 words in nearly 70 scripts which are translated in both languages. We are also proposing to fill a current counseling position left vacant this year due to budgetary constraints. We have identified the need for bilingual proficiency in Chinese and hope to be able to fill that position accordingly.

Work-Life Balances at the Rent Board

The Rent Board is one of the more progressive departments with respect to flexibility of schedule and work life balance issues. We offer flex work schedules, nine-hour, nine-day pay period work schedules, telecommuting and less than full-time employment when workload permits. Female and male parents are offered one year maternity leaves. We provide information to staff concerning services that deal with personal well-being and encourage staff to communicate their needs to their supervisors and managers on an ongoing basis. As well, our managers are sensitive to personal issues that arise with individual staff members and are often pro-active in offering assistance when appropriate.

Domestic Violence Training

The CEDAW recommendation to add domestic violence training to our violence prevention program is certainly worthy and we will do that when our next violence prevention training occurs.

Rent Board Issues

Budget

We had pointed out that there has been dissension about the Rent Board fee and the fact that tenants pay for the processing of capital improvement and operating and maintenance expense petitions and then have to pay the passthrough as well. There has been discussion in the community about sharing the costs, but nothing has changed as of this date. Resistance to funding the Rent Board by the landlord community is quite strong, with one landlord Commissioner likening it to having to buy the ammunition for one's own execution.

Workplace Environment

We have instituted several of the objectives to increase personal safety in the office. Administrative Law Judges do escort members of the public to waiting areas now and phones have been programmed to dial 911 automatically. However, we have not been able to do those items with a price tag given our budget constraints this year (two positions have been kept vacant in order to balance the budget this fiscal year). We are asking for a substantial increase in the budget this year that will allow us to accomplish these goals in the next fiscal year.

Conclusion

In conclusion, I believe the Rent Board is one of the more female/family-friendly departments in the City. While we have not conducted periodic traditional focus groups or done in-depth analysis about our client base, we have operated from what I think is a more beneficial viewpoint, which is to be conscious of staff and client needs on a daily basis. We have a culture of communication at the Rent Board and a reputation of service that reflects our communication. Whether it is a staff observation communicated to a manager, or an issue raised in a unit staff meeting, or a manager or supervisor getting feedback from a caller, counter customer or one of our various survey methods, we are constantly adjusting the sails on our ship to provide the most responsive and responsible service to all of our customers. Our track record in the department underscores our commitment to women's issues and concerns, be they staff or clients. We will continue to improve and build on these efforts.

(Joe Grubb, Executive Director, San Francisco Rent Board)