SF Slow to Enact LGBT Senior Report

Eight months after it received a detailed report on the needs of the city's LGBT seniors, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors has yet to enact any legislation based on its recommendations.

Gay Supervisors Scott Wiener (District 8) and David Campos (D9) in April had indicated that the first piece of legislation stemming from the 120-page report, titled "LGBT Aging at the Golden Gate: San Francisco Policy Issues and Recommendations," would be introduced within the month.

The first issues they decided to focus on is requiring all city departments to collect data on LGBT people, including seniors, and any service providers that work with seniors to train their staff on LGBT cultural competency.

In 2013 Governor Jerry Brown vetoed a similar bill regarding LGBT data collection statewide, while a state law that requires LGBT cultural competency training for health care providers takes effect January 1.

"In terms of all the recommendations, these were two very basic areas that we felt were important to address quickly," said Wiener. "It is hard to pursue thoughtful policy without having data, so it was important to get the data going."

Yet the drafting of the San Francisco legislation has turned out to be more complicated than local lawmakers were expecting. Wiener had told the Bay Area Reporter he planned to have it introduced by the end of 2014, but last week he said it would now be sometime in January.

"Drafting innovative legislation is never fast," he said. "As much as you want to get things done immediately, it takes longer than you think."

City officials did set aside a $220,000 two-year grant, at Wiener's request, to fund programs aimed at assisting LGBT residents, particularly seniors, wishing to sign up for affordable housing wait lists. It was one of the suggestions highlighted in the LGBT aging report, which called on the city to provide housing search counseling for LGBT seniors.

As for the delay with the legislation, it was partly due to Wiener's office wanting to speak to as many service providers as possible to learn how "things are working on the ground," he said, "so we are not just drafting legislation in a vacuum."

Campos did not respond to a request for comment for this story. In May he had said that his office was working with aging advocates on a "bill of rights" for LGBT seniors who are in long-term care facilities. He said he was also working on housing policy to address the needs of LGBT seniors.

In August, in a memo sent to the members who served on the task force that issued the LGBT aging report, Department of Adult and Aging Services special projects manager Tom Nolan indicated that "significant progress" was underway on the ordinance for LGBT protection in long-term care facilities.

Nolan, a gay man and former Project Open Hand executive director, also wrote that the Department of Human Resources had set aside funding for cultural competency training and that his department had secured funding for additional support for an ombudsman program.

Ahead of the supervisors taking up the legislation, Nolan also wrote that outreach work to various city departments and local agencies was underway "in preparation for collection of LGBT demographic information and cultural competency training."