City Housing Authority completes review of Father Joe’s Villages programs

The San Diego Housing Commission announced last month that one of the city’s largest homeless service providers had successfully completed a year-long service improvement plan.

The city’s housing authority wrote that Father Joe’s Villages addressed issues the nonprofit asked it to address, including complaints from clients about the Golden Hall homeless shelter and a long list of people denied access to the nonprofit’s services, which disproportionately includes black clients.

The housing commission praised the nonprofit for working with commission officials to make changes, including a significantly shortened list of people excluded from its services and improved handling of maintenance issues at Golden Hall. Still, several clients at Father Joe’s homeless shelter told Voice of San Diego that improvements are still needed.

Father Joe’s Villages declined to comment on the review process.

There remains uncertainty about the extent of the organization’s future cooperation with the city.

Father Joe’s — which currently provides about a third of the city’s homeless shelters — is preparing to close its city-funded, 350-bed Paul Mirabile Center homeless shelter program by year’s end to open dozens of non-city-contracted detox and rehabilitation centers on its East Village campus. The city also plans to relocate Father Joe’s 264-bed homeless shelter in Golden Hall by year’s end, creating uncertainty about how closely the service provider will work with the city in the coming years. The nonprofit also has contracts with the city to operate a 28-bed women’s shelter and a day center for the homeless in East Village.

Meanwhile, five current and former residents of the Golden Hall home described ongoing problems at the shelter in the City Hall complex in interviews with Voice, while a resident of the Paul Mirabile Center home said conditions there had improved in recent months.

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Father Joe’s Villages, long the region’s premier homeless service, received notices from the commission last February mandating changes to contracts for the Golden Hall, Paul Mirabile Center and Bishop Maher Center homeless shelters, as well as another for a permanent housing program for the disabled. The programs then served single men and women, as well as young adults and families. The city has since moved young adults and families out of the city-funded Father Joe’s Villages homeless shelters.

At the time, Debra Fischle-Faulk, senior vice president of the Housing Commission, described problems with the maintenance of Golden Hall’s housing and complaints from customers, as well as delays in contracting, problems with reimbursement requests and differences in housing suspensions.

Fischle-Faulk then wrote that the suspension rate at Father Joe’s was “significantly higher than other similar homes” and that black San Diego residents were overrepresented on the list, barring dozens of clients from returning for as little as 24 hours or a longer period that could be permanent. At the time, Fischle-Faulk wrote, 28 percent of the city home’s residents were black, but blacks made up 39 percent of Father Joe’s suspension list.

Casey Snell, interim vice president of the Housing Commission, praised Father Joe’s for his work on the issues previously raised in a series of memos last month.

“All conditions are now considered cured and further follow-up will be conducted as part of routine compliance monitoring activities,” Snell wrote. “We would like to thank you and your team for your hard work and for achieving all of your goals.”

The most recent available data from the city’s housing authority shows that three of the 12 former Father Joe clients on the suspension list at the end of March were Black, a proportion that roughly matches the percentage of Black San Diego residents living in city homeless shelters. Father Joe had 134 people on its suspension list at one point, a significantly higher number than other city homeless shelter providers. Father Joe said at the time that its list also included non-homeless services the company provides, including meals and day care, and that the company tries to minimize safety concerns for all of its clients.

Father Joe’s has since worked with the agency to remove clients from the barring list who have not used the homeless service system for at least a year, improve training for staff assigned to serve clients and conduct regular internal reviews of the barring list. The housing agency also hired Atlanta-based consulting firm Equity in Action to assist the commission and Father Joe’s in developing the barring policy.

The Commission concluded that Father Joe’s has since resolved the issues it identified, such as delays in contract fulfillment, problems with refund requests and the management of maintenance incidents. It also noted that more Golden Hall customers appear to be receiving information about the program’s complaint policy and that those who have been suspended have also been provided with details to help them appeal this decision if they so wish.

“Based on observations during the record review, clients who are immediately suspended will receive a document detailing the reason for suspension, the date and time of their appeal meeting, and the contact person (progressively first the manager, then the director),” Snell wrote in a June 3 letter to Father Joe’s.

Still, five current and former Golden Hall residents told the Voice they faced or feared retaliation for raising concerns about Father Joe’s program. Two said they were kicked out of the home.

Scott Bennett, 36, said he was at Golden Hall for nearly a year before he was suspended late last month after another client attacked him without cause. Bennett said Father Joe’s staff did not give him paperwork explaining his suspension, and when he asked if he could appeal the decision, staff feigned ignorance. The housing commission has required city shelters to give suspended clients paperwork explaining their suspension and telling them how to appeal the suspension if they wish.

Bennett said he did not take his belongings, including clothes, out of the home because he was afraid of what might happen if he did.

“I felt very unsafe there from the beginning,” said Bennett, who spent several nights on the streets after the incident. “I don’t know if I could have gone back in or even stayed outside.”

Father Joe’s declined to comment directly on Bennett’s situation in a statement, but defended its actions: “Per San Diego Housing Commission policy, all clients of Father Joe’s Villages housing have equal access to the appeals and grievance process. FJV investigates and evaluates all incidents. The health and safety of all our clients and FJV employees is our highest priority.”

Snell of the housing authority also declined to comment on Bennett’s allegations or whether the housing authority had contacted Father Joe’s after Bennett contacted the commission last week. But she noted in an email that the commission generally discusses issues raised by clients with shelter operators when it is made aware of complaints from people who do not follow up with service providers for fear of retaliation. She also wrote that the housing authority requires shelter operators to give those suspended the opportunity to appeal.

“Residential staff are expected to inform the client of the reason for terminating residential care and to explain again the process for appealing the decision if the client so requests,” Snell wrote.

Snell said the commission will implement new suspension and appeal policies at all city shelters over the summer. These include more detailed requirements for documenting and communicating suspensions, as well as alternative ways for clients to appeal disciplinary actions, including through the Housing Commission.

Bennett said the housing authority helped him move to another homeless program late last week and is also helping him appeal Golden Hall’s suspension, although he has no plans to return.

Nathaniel Pruitt Sr., 65, was still at Golden Hall as of last week and described degrading treatment by staff, overflowing shower drains, and conditions and food that do not meet the needs of people with health problems.

“I hate it here,” said Pruitt, who was too afraid to file complaints. “It’s depressing.”

But a 56-year-old resident of the Paul Mirabile Center home, who asked not to be named for security reasons, said conditions there had improved after a series of construction problems earlier this year.

She said the accommodation was cleaned and renovated and the staff were friendly to her.

“They’re trying different things and I think they’re trying to do better,” she said.

For now, Father Joe’s has told the 56-year-old and others at the East Village homeless shelter that, if they qualify, they can apply for a spot in the nonprofit’s addiction recovery program.

Both the Paul Mirabile Center and the Golden Hall shelter are no longer accepting new residents. The city and Father Joe’s have pledged that everyone will have a safe place to go when the shelters close. The nonprofit is expected to transfer its contract with the Golden Hall shelter to another location, but the city has not yet announced a new location.