August 24, 2007
Tenderloin Housing Clinic Update: Things Still Kind of Awkward and Uncomfortable
Firings! Lies! Non-lies! It's so fucking exciting!
A few hours after our post last week about Jeff's cameras in the THC's Seneca Hotel, we caught word of some firings. OMG did we get someone canned? Well, no. As it turns out, two folks were terminated at a different property (here's the job posting for their replacements), but it wasn't related to the cameras. Whatever the real reasons are for the firings, they cannot possibly live up the wildly salacious rumors floating around about them. Alas, we can't verify any of the SHOCKING gossip, so we'll have to leave it to your fevered imaginations to speculate wildly in the comments. If there's a lesson here, it's probably that when so many of your staffers are former clients, the rumors about them are bound to have a messy foundation.
So what's going on with the cameras? When last we checked in, the THC said that the city attorney told them the cameras were illegal; and then the city attorney said, "no we didn't." OMGZ! The THC are such LIARS!
Well, actually, no. It was just a case of different city lawyers giving different advice without consulting with each other. Jeff told us that the city's latest story is that his cameras ARE illegal: they are revealing the identity of welfare recipients, which is apparently against the law because God forbid taxpayers see all the drug dealing that they're paying for.
But wait. Is Jeff revealing the identity of welfare recipients? Jeff doesn't know for sure who's getting public assistance and who isn't. Only the city and the THC staff know for sure which residents are on welfare; so if anyone's revealing identities, isn't it them? What is Jeff revealing that you couldn't see from just glancing in the windows? We can point at a girl on the bus and say "I bet she's got the clap," but unless we're her doctor (we're not), the accusation is only credible if you're the kind of Gullible Gus who believes everything he hears.
Oh and PS, the THC has security cameras of their own. Of course, they don't put the footage up on YouTube ... which we think is a damn shame.
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ah that's almost close there..AS I understand it, it's illegal for THC itself to reveal the identity of it's welfare clients, but not me. I mean, it wasn't illegal before, but now it is because they took over the building. This in itself might be violating rights I had previously.
In fact, just changing a terms of lease in the middle of a residency is itself illegal..
And it is true. I have no idea of knowing which, if any people are welfare clients..Don't know the name or room number either, so if somebody gets hurt, then there's no other way
Typical THC stuff. Why are people so shocked that they would lie?
All pimps lie.
Poverty pimps lie.
Mary Elizabeth Inn Board members and staff lied to residents and the city for YEARS! Including lying about their zoning, and classification as an SRO.
All the city did was help them cover up all the lies..So the city does not look bad, and the Housing first program looks like a reasonable solution.
Bottom line, they will attempt to deny all the rights they can to tenants because they can. Tenants are poor, and too disorganized to bring about real change.
When I have attempted to get to get a refund for SHIA clients there, as they were charged for food service illegally, according to the DHS's own contracts, I am treated as a loser, a drug user, or just plain crazy.
Despite having a real full time job, and many volunteer responsibilities.
I guess being poor mean all those things now...
Except that they didn't lie.
Thanks for turning me on to bluoz.com. It's a great public service, I think.
well, ok...strictly speaking it wasn't the city attorney that was dealing with this, it was Department of Human Services
If I didn't know better (and maybe I don't), I'd say that THC is attempting a little real-life retcon here.
Though hardly surprising, if so. While human services nonprofits are generally dysfunctional from the top down, the client-run organizations seem to have some of the biggest issues. Refer to Walden House and the suicide of Alfonso Acampora at the height of a fraud investigation.
This sounds like the illegal wiretapping thing. We're accusing you of leaking secrets to the press but we can't tell the court what the actual secrets are because that would be revealing the secrets. By confirming a denial we are denying a confirmation. Anyhow, it's totally legal to shoot video and pics of people if they are in public space.
Don't you just hate it when someone says "I know something you don't know" in that singsongy tone of voice? I'm not connected to the "right" people so I don't have a clue what the rumors are about the staff. But I would like to know. Especially since so much of public funding supports the THC. Perhaps it shouldn't.
I would also like to know why the City Attorney is providing legal counsel for the THC. I thought they had their own attorneys. When I wanted to know whether something being done by a neighbor was illegal they wouldn't tell me; they advised me to seek private counsel.
Unless there is something identifying the people in the video as being on welfare how is one to know which of the people shown is on welfare. I think it is a biggoted notion to assume that everyone who lives in a "south of the slot" residence hotel is on welfare. Long before it was cool to live in SOMA I had an apartment on Stillman Alley simply because it was cheap and I was employed at the time.
Lawyers lie too. That's why we have judges.
Unfortunately nothing is going to get better without legal intervention against the city's public slumlords.
Yeah! Let's put cameras EVERYWHERE! How about one looking at the front door of every house to catch all the drug dealing/crimes that might take place! Yeah, fuck privacy! They're public areas, right? The sidewalk is public just like a hallway.
I think we should definitely assume that all people on welfare are drug addict, thieving animals who don't deserve any rights to privacy or anything else. And if YOU are the one person who isn't a drug addict thief who has YOUR privacy violated, well then that's tuff shit in our free country.
It is your RIGHT to be surveiled the moment you walk out your door.
Let's give up everything in the name of fear. There's no other way to accomplish safety.
There's no other way to retain our values AND be safe.
Oh, look, someone else has discovered sarcasm. Careful, don't overdose.
Almost all lawyers are thieves in my book ... everyone one of 'em. Not to generalize (ha!) Medical insurance is important, education is important, but one of these days, it'd be nice to toss out the ambiguous bologna that make up our current laws and get some plain english and common sense for the 21st Century up in there.
just posted a clarification on my blog
http://www.bluoz.com/blog/
there's a clue in there Matt
Why has Jeff lived there for years? Isn't this type of last-resort housing supposed to be while you get back on your feet? If he can buy cameras, a computer, and internet access, why can't he move to somewhere decent?
it's rent control, that's why6 I'm still here after all these years. If I was paying what the current residents pay now, I wouldn't be here. For the same price, I could get a regular apartment.
and just a reminder, they did lie. They did not go to the city attorney. The city attorney did not give THC advice on this, and they didn't give me advice either. And I did not tell Sfist my cam was illegal. The cam is not illegal. Videotaping public areas is not illegal, especially when documenting abuses that the taxpayers pay for