Audit finds coordination, data and contract gaps in city'run street teams; departments outline fixes and a dashboard timeline

The Budget & Legislative Analyst (BLA) performance audit of San Francisco's street teams, presented to the Government Audit and Oversight Committee on March 21, identified seven key finding areas and 20 recommendations for improvements in planning, goals and performance metrics, data sharing, contract oversight, resource referral capacity, staffing ratios and team dynamics.

BLA analyst Dan Goncher summarized the scope: the review covered 11 street teams managed by four departments (Emergency Management, Public Health, Fire, and Homelessness & Supportive Housing) and audited fiscal-year data from FY2017'18 to FY2021'22 with updates through June 30, 2022. "Our report includes 7 finding areas and 20 recommendations," Goncher said. The audit found rapid expansion of street teams without proportional increases in planning, coordination or data capacity, inconsistent public messaging about team functions, at least eight different data systems with limited interoperability, and uneven contract monitoring by DPH (including one contractor performing work without an executed contract for more than 18 months, per the audit).

The audit quantified resource-referral problems: between June 2022 and March 2023 a requested resource (for example, a shelter bed) was unavailable on average 13% of the time, or about five encounters per day, and in 84% of those cases lack of shelter capacity was the cause, the report said. The BLA recommended regular reporting to the Board, establishment of interim data-sharing practices that permit aggregate and specified client lists, strengthened contractor oversight including midyear reviews for new contractors, and prioritized funding to add 1,075 new shelter beds consistent with HSH's Home By the Bay plan.

DEM Executive Director Mary Ellen Carroll and coordinator Lauren Bell described steps already underway: legal frameworks to enable limited cross'department information sharing, DEM serving as a coordination backbone, partnerships with the Mayor's Office of Innovation to braid datasets, and plans for a collective dashboard and front-end user tools to give front-line staff operational visibility. Bell said the city aims to produce an initial dashboard in Q3 if data integrations proceed on schedule and committed to regular reporting on progress toward BLA recommendations.

DPH and HSH representatives addressed contract-monitoring backlogs and staffing problems. DPH said contract monitoring reports for fiscal years identified in the audit have been completed; DPH attributed delays on one contract to concurrent IT and Epic rollout requirements and cybersecurity/insurance review processes but said the barriers have been resolved. HSH reported improved staffing performance for the HOT contract following a new agreement with Haluna Health (staffing occupancy reported at about 86'to9% across outreach and case management). Fire Department representatives explained which street teams have authority to initiate psychiatric holds and how those holds feed into conservatorship pathways.

After department testimony and questioning, Chair Preston moved to file the hearing; the committee voted unanimously in favor and the motion to file passed. Departments said they will return with progress reports and data products as they implement the audit's recommendations.