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DESCRIPTION:1/16 Press Conference Rally: Non-Profit Workers Press Conference Against 
 Corruption/Malfeasance/Retaliation & Against Genocide in 
 Palestine\nNon-Profit Workers Press Conference Against 
 Corruption/Malfeasance/Retaliation\n& Against Genocide in 
 Palestine\nJanuary 16th 2024\n474 Valencia\n11:30 AM\n\nThe growing union 
 busting and illegal attacks on non-profit workers in San Francisco will be 
 exposed in a press conference. Hundreds of millions of dollars are going to 
 these non-profits without any real oversight by the City and County of San 
 Francisco.\nNonprofits have stolen the struggle for human rights from the 
 people as their anti- worker ideology creates obstacles between the people 
 and the government. The existence of nonprofits since the 60s has kept the 
 community and workers from fighting for human rights from our government.  
 Those human rights are the right to decent housing, the right to 
 healthcare, the right to childcare and the right to safe and good paying 
 jobs.\n\nWorkers from Companeros del Barrio, and Tenderloin Neighborhood 
 Development Corporation (TNDC) are standing up for workers rights and to 
 denounce the misuse of city money by Centro del Pueblo, TNDC and all 
 nonprofits. The Nonprofits are not accountable to the community or workers 
 and are pitted against city workers as cheap labor.\n\nWe are uniting to 
 demand an investigation into the misuse of public funds, not holding 
 required public board meetings, denial of workers rights and the wrongful 
 termination of employees. Non-profit workers will also be protesting the 
 continuing genocide against Palestinians by the Israeli government which 
 has been financed by billions of US dollars. While services are being cut 
 back for homeless and social services with layoffs at TNDC the US 
 government with the support of Democrats and Republicans is spending 
 trillions on the war machine yet workers are without healthcare.\nSpeakers 
 will be calling for all non-profit workers in San Francisco funded by 
 public funds to be folded into public service jobs with the same wages, 
 benefits and conditions of public workers.\n\nSponsors:\nCompaneros del 
 Barrio\nWorkers For Justice At TNDC\nMothers On The March\nRevolutionary 
 Workers Front\nUnited Front Committee For A Labor Party UFCLP\n\nTNDC 
 Non-Profit Workers & Residents Protest Firings & 
 Discrimination\nhttps://youtu.be/RQY8OPl--Gg\n\nSF City Workers Against 
 Firings Over Vaccine, Attacks on Civil Service & 
 Outsourcing/Privatization\nhttps://youtu.be/lNsnZM4Uads\n\nS.F. 
 investigates homeless shelter operator — the latest nonprofit under 
 scrutiny\nhttps://www.sfchronicle.com/sf/article/providence-foundation-homeless-shelter-18596169.php\nBy 
 Maggie Angst\nJan 10, 2024\nThe San Francisco Department of Homelessness 
 and Supportive Housing sent a series of “correction action” letters to 
 its contractor, the Providence Foundation, to address deficiencies, 
 including not reaching target occupancy levels at the Oasis Family Shelter 
 at 900 Franklin St.\nThe San Francisco Department of Homelessness and 
 Supportive Housing sent a series of “correction action” letters to its 
 contractor, the Providence Foundation, to address deficiencies, including 
 not reaching target occupancy levels at the Oasis Family Shelter at 900 
 Franklin St.\nStephen Lam/The Chronicle 2022\nSan Francisco is 
 investigating the operator of a nonprofit homeless shelter for alleged wage 
 theft and other labor law violations, the latest social services provider 
 to wind up under scrutiny as city officials call for more accountability. 
 \nPat Mulligan, director of the city’s Office of Labor Standards 
 Enforcement, said his agency launched the investigation into the Providence 
 Foundation of San Francisco in December after receiving complaints from 
 employees.\nSan Francisco pays Providence millions of dollars annually to 
 operate a homeless shelter with a navigation center as well as a storage 
 facility for homeless individuals, a housing subsidy program and the Oasis 
 Family Shelter.\n\nMulligan would not provide details about the complaints 
 made against Providence, citing the active investigation, but documents 
 obtained by the Chronicle shed light on the allegations. \nAccording to a 
 Dec. 6 letter from the city’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive 
 Housing, Providence employees have alleged that the nonprofit failed to 
 accurately pay employees for their time worked, used hiring practices 
 marred by nepotism and violated city policies at a family shelter it 
 operates. \nThe investigation into Providence joins a slew of recent 
 scandals and crises involving nonprofit contractors that San Francisco 
 relies on to help meet the needs of its homeless residents and those 
 dealing with mental illness or substance abuse. \nMore For You\nNew S.F. 
 plan to mandate audits of city nonprofits with billions at stake\nAn 
 individual rests in a tent outside of the Civic Center Inn in the 
 Tenderloin district of San Francisco, Calif., on Monday, June 5, 2023.\nCEO 
 of troubled S.F. nonprofit is dismissed amid accusations of financial 
 mismanagement\nGwendolyn Westbrook of The United Council of Human Services 
 holds flowers as she speaks after being presented with an award by San 
 Francisco Mayor London Breed honoring her service while on the steps of 
 City Hall in San Francisco, Calif. Monday, November 15, 2021.\nWithin the 
 past year and a half, one nonprofit’s cash flow problems placed dozens of 
 drug treatment beds in jeopardy, and another substance abuse treatment 
 provider, HealthRight 360, temporarily suspended intake because it was 
 short-staffed. The city also barred an embattled nonprofit that provided 
 meals and other services to homeless individuals, the United Council of 
 Human Services, from receiving city funds because of its poor standing with 
 the state and alleged improprieties. The city referred that case to the 
 FBI. \n\nSan Francisco legislators have recently held hearings and proposed 
 new legislation to demand greater oversight and accountability by city 
 departments of these nonprofits. It’s an issue that could also impact 
 Mayor London Breed’s reelection race, where voters will be more focused 
 on the city’s use of public funds. \nThe Providence Foundation is the 
 nonprofit philanthropic arm of Providence Baptist Church, a fixture of the 
 city’s historically Black Bayview-Hunters Point community for more than 
 six decades. Providence’s executive director, Patricia Doyle, did not 
 respond to multiple calls and emails from a reporter. Instead, the 
 nonprofit’s attorney, Donald​ Sullivan, said in an email that 
 Providence would “not be making a statement at this time” and that all 
 future inquiries about the foundation should go through him. 
 \nProvidence’s alleged labor law violations are the latest in a string of 
 problems the city has faced recently when working with the nonprofit.\nThe 
 Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing sent a series of 
 “correction action” letters to Providence over the past year 
 instructing it to address myriad deficiencies. \nThose issues include 
 overspending city contracts by hundreds of thousands of dollars, hiring for 
 positions not approved in the budget, failing to maintain compliance with 
 federal and state contracting requirements, and allowing beds at a family 
 shelter to sit empty. \nWithin the past year, the city’s homelessness 
 department placed Providence on a corrective plan to address empty beds at 
 the city’s 59-room Oasis family shelter at 900 Franklin St. and referred 
 the nonprofit to the controller’s office financial management coaching 
 program for stronger fiscal oversight. \nDespite the added measures, 
 problems persist. \nProvidence leaders have repeatedly shown up late or 
 skipped meetings and failed to provide critical information and paperwork 
 to the city on time, according to corrective letters obtained through a 
 public records request. \nJohn Pelissero, director of government ethics at 
 the Markkula Center for Applied Ethics at Santa Clara University, said the 
 nonprofit’s alleged disregard for addressing compliance issues identified 
 by the city “raises good questions about why the City of San Francisco 
 would continue to contract with Providence.”\n“Contracting is a 
 necessity for most city governments, but the city still has to provide 
 effective oversight of their contractor,” Pelissero said. “If not, then 
 the public will lose trust not only in that contractor, but in the city 
 government and its officials.”\nEmily Cohen, a spokesperson for the 
 homelessness department, said the city’s diligent corrective action 
 process and compliance efforts should “give the community some solace 
 that the city takes very seriously our monitoring 
 responsibilities.”\n“We really are trying to wrap around this 
 organization and provide them simultaneous support and accountability,” 
 she added.\nProvidence rapidly expanded during the pandemic and was one of 
 the first nonprofits to agree to operate the city’s shelter-in-place 
 hotel program for formerly homeless people. But with that fast growth has 
 come challenges, Cohen said.\nAs early as December 2022, records indicate 
 the homelessness department alerted Providence that it did not maintain the 
 active registration status required to receive grant funding through the 
 federal and state government.\nAfter repeated and unmet requests from the 
 city to resolve the matter, the department warned the nonprofit that it was 
 in jeopardy of losing its federal grant funding. \nTo prevent fallout for 
 clients, the department agreed in May to update the nonprofit’s contract 
 and replace the grant funding with money from the city’s general fund. 
 Providence, which never obtained the necessary active grant registration 
 status, avoided losing any funding through that process, according to 
 Cohen. \nThe homelessness department around that time reported that 
 Providence was on track to overspend three shelter program contracts by 
 nearly $1 million. Cohen said city employees worked with Providence to 
 restructure their budget and cut costs, but it still overspent by more than 
 $400,000 last fiscal year. The city used funds from Proposition C, a 
 business tax earmarked for homeless services, to fill the budget gap. 
 \nFive months later, in October, Providence was continuing that pattern, 
 overspending and billing the city for unapproved expenses. For instance, a 
 corrective letter from the homelessness department states that the day 
 after it approved adding a new position to one of the nonprofit’s 
 contract budgets, Providence attempted to bill the city for the salary 
 retroactively back to July. \nBy December, the homelessness department was 
 reprimanding Providence about new issues — this time focused on personnel 
 complaints. \nProvidence staff informed the city that the nonprofit 
 deprived them of holiday pay and didn’t pay them accurately for time 
 worked, according to a Dec. 6 letter. \nStaff further alleged that they 
 were forced to forgo breaks due to inadequate staffing levels and that the 
 agency declined to expand its workforce despite available 
 funding.\nEmployees at the Oasis Family Shelter told the city that 
 Providence is failing to follow internal complaint procedures and the 
 city’s rules around shelter complaints, “leading to misinformation 
 being provided to the shelter guests when trying to access client advocacy 
 services,” the letter states. They also alleged that the Providence 
 director of operations, Kenisha Roach, recorded video and audio of 
 confidential meetings between clients and staff. \nThe Oasis Family 
 Shelter, which temporarily shuttered at the start of 2023, was purchased by 
 local nonprofit St. Anthony Foundation and reopened in April. Providence, 
 which ran the shelter previously, continued to operate Oasis under its city 
 contract. Since the reopening, the shelter has failed to reach the city’s 
 target occupancy level of 90% or more. In July, occupancy dropped to a mere 
 41%, according to city data. The city’s homelessness department began 
 conducting biweekly meetings with Providence last year to remedy the 
 situation. \nSome of the empty beds were explained by room repairs and 
 staffing capacity issues, according to Cohen. As of December, Providence 
 had reached 88% occupancy at the shelter.\nThe homelessness department 
 ordered the nonprofit to initiate an independent investigation of the 
 complaints, create a hiring plan and assist with scheduling a listening 
 session with Oasis shelter guests, among other requirements. Cohen said 
 that the city is working with Providence “to ensure full 
 compliance.”\nProvidence’s failure to come into compliance with the 
 city’s fiscal policies could lead the controller’s office to give the 
 nonprofit “elevated concern status.” As of December, four nonprofit 
 city contractors had the designation, which mandates that they receive 
 additional management and fiscal oversight.\nCohen said the city hopes that 
 added enforcement will not be necessary in the case of Providence.\nReach 
 Maggie Angst: maggie.angst@sfchronicle.com\n 
 https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2024/01/12/18861904.php
SUMMARY:Press Conference Rally: Non-Profit Workers Press Conference Against Corruption/Malfea
LOCATION:San Francisco Non-profit workers from Companeros del Barrio\nMothers and  
 Workers For Justice At TNDC and others will be speaking about terminations, 
 corruption and attacks on non-profit workers and the need for them to be 
 public workers. They will also speak out against the genocide against the 
 people of Palestine and the trillions that the US is spending on war while 
 people in San Francisco and the US suffer.
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2024/01/12/18861904.php
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