2009 2008 2007 2006 2005 2004 2003 2002 2001 2000 1999 1998 1997
ANDREA SHORTER
President
KAY GULBENGAY
Vice President
NICKY CALMA
Commissioner
KAY GULBENGAY
Commissioner
DORKA KEEHN
Commissioner
JING XU LEE
Commissioner
CAROLENE MARKS
Commissioner
ANDREA SHORTER
Commissioner
EMILY MURASE, PhD
Executive Director
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COMMISSION MEETING MINUTES
Members Present Staff Present
Vice President Kay Gulbengay Administrative Analyst Laura Marshall
Commissioner Dorka Keehn (via phone) Policy Analyst Anu Menon Vice President Carolene Marks (via phone) Policy Analyst Jill Tregor
Commissioner Katherine Munter (5:20 pm) Grants Administrator Carol Sacco
President Andrea Shorter
Excused: Commissioner Nicky Calma and Commissioner Jing Xu Lee
I. CALL TO ORDER/AGENDA CHANGES
President Andrea Shorter called the meeting to order at 5:07 pm and welcomed all present. In the interest of time, she proposed amending the agenda to have the Executive Director's report at the end of the meeting.
Action: To approve the amended agenda. m/s/c/ (Munter/Marks/Unanimous)
No public comment.
II. APPROVAL OF MINUTES
Action: To approve the minutes from September 24, 2008.
m/s/c/ (Gulbengay/Munter/Unanimous)
IIII. CONSENT AGENDA
All matters listed hereunder constitute a Consent Agenda and are considered to be routine by the Commission on the Status of Women. They will be acted upon by a single roll call vote of the Commission. There will be no separate discussion of these items unless a member of the Commission so requests, in which event the matter shall be removed from the Consent Agenda and considered as a separate item. Members of the public may speak on each item listed on the Consent Agenda.
A. Resolution Marking the 30th Anniversary of Women Organized to Make Abuse Non- Existent, Inc.
B. Resolution Honoring the 2008 Recipients of the Silver SPUR Award
C. Resolution Marking the 35th Anniversary of San Francisco Women Against Rape
D. Resolution Honoring San Francisco 311, 2008 Recipient of Ebbies Award
E. Resolution Honoring the Fillmore Heritage Center, 2008 Recipient of the Excellence in Business Award
F. Resolution Honoring Norma Hotaling, 2008 Recipient of the Cheyenne Bell Leadership Award
Action: To approve the Consent Agenda.
m/s/c (Gulbengay/Munter/Unanimous)
Roberta Toomer, Executive Director of WOMAN, Inc.and staff thanked the Commission for recognizing the agency's 30 years of service, during which WOMAN, Inc. has helped over 200,000 survivors.
IV. REPORTS
A. Health
Commissioner Marks reported that she continues to work with a group of African American women who will be releasing a brochure educating younger African American women on the importance of cancer screenings and other health resources for women.
B. Justice & Courage
Policy Analyst Jill Tregor reported that the trial of murder suspect Tari Ramirez concluded. He was convicted of 2nd degree murder in the domestic violence homicide of Claire Joyce Tempongko which carries a sentence of 16 year to life in prison. District Attorney Kamala Harris committed to ensuring that any parole hearing Mr. Ramirez may have will be followed closely by her office and include impact statements from the family.
C. Women's Human Rights Treaty
Senior Policy Analyst Ann Lehman reported that staff continues to meet with companies engaged in the Gender Equality Principles Initiative, including Google which just joined.
Department staff will be meeting with the Mayor's Budget Office to discuss inclusion of gender budgeting principles for the next budget cycle.
D. Violence Against Women (VAW) Prevention and Intervention Grants Program
Grants Administrator Carol Sacco reported that the contracts have been completed for the next funding cycle. Executive Director Murase thanked Ms. Sacco for her diligence in completing those contracts.
E. Girls Committee
Commissioner Shorter reported that she met with Department staff to discuss the quarterly policy roundtables for girls services providers, the first of which will be held on November 18.
Dr. Murase reported that the Department of Children, Youth and Their Families (DCYF) released a draft of its 3-year needs assessment report that did not initially have data desegregated by gender. This oversight will be corrected in a revised version of the report which should be released in the next couple of weeks.
F. Language Access
Executive Director Murase reported that, as a direct result of the Justice and Courage Audit, the Office of Language Services has organized free Spanish classes for criminal justice personnel. The Board of Supervisors approved a grant from the Zellerbach Foundation to expand language access services. Dr. Murase recognized Ms. Tregor's work in collaborating with the Office of Language Services on the grant proposal.
G. Family Violence Council
Executive Director Murase reported that the Family Violence Council just celebrated its 1 year anniversary. Dr. Murase thanked Beverly Upton, Kathy Baxter, and Mary Twomey for co-chairing the Council. The next meeting of the Council will be held in January.
V. OLD BUSINESS
A. Violence Prevention and Education Services for the Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender Communities
Grants Administrator Carol Sacco reported that based on input from the VAW Review Panel, the VAW Funding Committee has developed a recommendation for the Violence Prevention and Education Services for the Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender (LBT) Communities Grant under the VAW Prevention and Intervention Grants Program for the 2008-2011 funding period. A total of 3 applications were distributed, but only 1 application was received.
Action: To approve the $50,000 funding allocation for the LBT Violence Prevention and Education Services to Communities United Against Violence.
m/s/c (Marks/Shorter/Unanimous)
Commissioner Marks stated that she was pleased that the Department would be funding this underserved community and recommended that the Department send out a press release acknowledging funding Community United Against Violence.
VI. NEW BUSINESS
A. Women and Public Housing
1. Presentation by the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) Henry Alvarez, the new Director, explained that there is a new sense of openness and reform under his leadership. The SFHA serves over 6,000 families in the city and currently have 7,400 units for Section 8 clients. The Hope VI project is working to improve public and affordable housing opportunities and living conditions through modernization, reconstruction, innovative revitalization proposals and implementation programs, development of financial strategies, and aggressive pursuit of legislation and funding opportunities. There are 1,000 Hope VI units and, of those units, 70% are occupied by families headed by women. Mr. Alvarez provided race based data on the current status of all units maintained by the SFHA. SFHA follows the Violence Against Women (VAW) Act and works to keep families together with the limited resources available.
Mr. Alvarez reported that 50% of the units maintained by the SFHA are occupied by disabled individuals or elderly individuals and that the clients that they serve earn an annual income of $10-12,000 a year. Many clients are on Social Security, child support or some type of public assistance.
Mr. Alvarez welcomed the offer by community agencies and service providers to work together in collaboration and meet with him and the SFHA staff to continue to serve vulnerable population such as domestic violence survivors.
Dr. Murase extended the resources of the Department to provide Mr. Alvarez with technical assistance for conducting a gender analysis of public housing.
President Shorter thanked Mr. Alvarez for attending meeting and stated that she would like to have a follow-up presentation that will have specific data on women and girls.
2. Presentation by Bay Area Legal Aid .
Bay Area Legal Aid Staff Attorney Minouche Kandel discussed policy recommendations forwarded to the Housing Authority that will better serve survivors of domestic violence. The recommendations were as follows:
1. Permit "Rent Freeze" and wait list placement even after tenant has vacated the unit.
Often domestic violence survivors must move from their housing unit for safety reasons, before they can complete the required documents to move or before another unit can be offered to them. The SFHA can continue to charge rent for a unit that is no longer being occupied and if the rent is not paid the tenant will then be evicted or can be removed from the priority transfer waiting list. It is important for low income domestic violence survivors to be able to maintain their position on the priority transfer list without paying rent for a unit that is not safe for them occupy.
2. Provide Section 8 to domestic violence survivors on the priority transfer waitlist
Currently SFHA does not provide conventional housing tenants who need a priority transfer with Section 8 vouchers however they have the option to do it.
3. Create and InterCounty transfer policy
Often clients would like to transfer to other public housing units and there is currently no process to enable tenants to transfer from one public housing unit to another.
4. Ensure organizations managing SFHA must accept priority transfers from SFHA
A SFHA resident may be approved for a priority transfer, but rejected by development managers or private property managers due to strict eligibility criteria imposed. Ms. Kandel suggested having the contract that development managers and private property managers sign state that they will abide by same eligibility requirements set for other city services.
5. Broaden the priority transfer policy to include all low income housing providers receiving City funds
Currently tenants who are seeking to move immediately due to domestic violence are moved from one SFHA development to another. Often people remain on the priority transfer list for many months and possibly over a year because they do not wish to relocate from one violent situation to another. This option along with the previous recommendation would allow for a quicker transfer time.
6. Restore the Domestic Violence "Point Person" at SFHA
Having someone in this position will ensure that domestic violence survivors who are receiving other community services have someone advocate for this critical population.
Ms. Kandel suggested institutionalizing a system of receiving feedback from clients and services providers to efficiently serve domestic violence survivors within the SFHA system.
3. Presentationby La Casa de las Madres
Clair McCullough the Safe Housing Project Coordinator with La Casa de las Madres works with subsidized housing sites and private housing sites providing counseling services, workshops, out reach support and case management consolations for survivors of domestic violence. Many of the clients she serves are afraid of vacating an unsafe housing situation in fear of loosing their housing all together. Many have put in a priority transfer order however that often takes months and possibly over a year to have another unit available. Some clients often fear that they will loose their housing because their batterer has their name on the lease. Victims of domestic violence no longer receive priority points when applying for SFHA assistance which causes them to continue to live in an unsafe situation or look for housing elsewhere. The Safe Housing Project which is newly funded by the Department provides outreach to public housing residence of the services available to them. Ms. McCullough stated that she hopes to work in closer collaboration with the SFHA to better serve their clients.
VII. EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS REPORT DISCUSSION
A. Executive Director's Report
Explanatory document - The Executive Director's Report discusses the work of the Department according to the 5 principles of the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) Ordinance: Implementation of Women & Girls Human Rights, Right to Adequate Standard of Living, Right to Bodily Integrity, Right to Adequate Healthcare, and Human Rights of Girls to Education and Social Services.
Dr. Murase was pleased to report that100% of Department staff members donated to the Combined Charities campaign raising over $1900 this year. Dr. Murase thanked Carol Sacco for her continued work coordinating this project for the Department as well as the first annual cell phone drive.
VIII. PUBLIC COMMENT
Beverly Upton, Executive Director with the Domestic Violence Consortium, thanked the Commission for funding CUAV and hopes to continue to collaborate with the Commission to advocate funding for domestic violence victims and survivors. Ms. Upton welcomed Mr. Alvarez from the SFHA to attend the next Family Violence Council meeting.
IX. ADJOURN
Motion to adjourn the meeting in memory and celebration of the life of Claire Joyce Tempongko. m/s/c (Munter/Shorter/Unanimous).
Meeting adjourned at 6:55 pm.
The ringing of and use of cell phones, pagers, and similar sound producing electronic devices are prohibited at this meeting. Please be advised that the Chair may order the removal from the meeting room of any person(s) responsible for the ringing or use of a cell phone, pager or other similar sound-producing electronic devices.
Explanatory documents: For copies of explanatory documents listed in this agenda, and other related materials received by COSW, please contact the Department on the Status of Women at 25 Van Ness Ave, Suite 130, San Francisco, CA 94102; phone: 415-252-2570, fax: 415-252-2575. Also, to the extent possible, documents will be available on the COSW website at http://www.sfgov.org/cosw.
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