Severely Mentally Ill Patients Given Eviction Notices at ZSFGH

For Immediate Release: August 21, 2019

From: (IFPTE) Local 21.

Contact: Jessica Bowker, jbowker [at] ifpte21.org,(415) 914-7363
Contact: Carlos A. Rivera, Carlos.Rivera [at] seiu1021.org, 415-378-2376

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WHAT: Rally and protest to stop the eviction of the severely mentally Ill at the Behavior Health Center’s Adult Residential Facility on ZSFGH’s Campus

WHO: Patients, staff, SF Board of Supervisors, and other public health advocates

WHERE: Behavior Health Center at 887 Potrero

WHEN: Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 12:30 PM. (Patients and healthcare workers will be available for interviews starting at noon.)
VISUALS: patients and staff picketing, holding banners and signs demanding City leaders take urgent action to not displace patients.

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Severely Mentally Ill Patients Given Eviction Notices at ZSFGH

Hundreds of healthcare workers, patients and public health advocates protest the shutting down of long-term mental health beds and displacement of the mentally ill

San Francisco, CA – Hundreds of health advocates, elected officials, patients and staff of the Behavior Health Center’s Adult Residential Facility (ARF) at ZSFGH will be protesting the eviction notices given to mentally ill patients living for a decade at 887 Potrero. The SF Department of Public Health’s (SFDPH) plans to displace severely mentally ill residents that are permanently housed at the Adult Residential Facility to make way for a Homeless Navigation Center with temporary shelter beds.

Currently, the ARF houses SF’s most vulnerable clients who have serious and persistent mental illnesses, and cannot live independently.

“These clients cannot prepare their own food, do their own laundry nor manage their own money. They also cannot manage their medications, without which they would return to suffering major psychiatric crises on a regular basis and would cycle through the city’s ER’s and psychiatric emergency room, said Jennifer Esteen, a registered psychiatric nurse at ZSFGH.

The DPH administration sent a letter informing Behavior Health Care workers that the adult population will be losing 42 beds, to only 13 permanent beds. In addition to residents being displaced, the SFDPH administration is also displacing city workers by outsourcing their work to an outside non-profit.

“As a Mental Health Treatment Specialist I am are very concerned about our patients’ welfare. Most of the patients have been served with notices to relocate from the Adult Residential Facility (ARF) which has been their longtime permanent home. We are worried that these at-risk clients could now receive reduced levels of care and suffer trauma and deterioration of their health as a result.” - Amy Wong, Mental Health Treatment Specialist at BHC, member of International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) Local 21.


WHAT: Rally and protest to stop the eviction of the severely mentally Ill at the Behavior Health Center’s Adult Residential Facility on ZSFGH’s Campus
WHO: Patients, staff, SF Board of Supervisors, and other public health advocates
WHERE: Behavior Health Center at 887 Potrero
WHEN: Thursday, August 22, 2019 at 12:30 PM. (Patients and healthcare workers will be available for interviews starting at noon.)
VISUALS: patients and staff picketing, holding banners and signs demanding City leaders take urgent action to not displace patients.

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IFPTE Local 21 represents more than 11,000 public workers in the Bay Area, including more than 5600 employees of the City and County of San Francisco. Local 21 represents a highly skilled and diverse workforce comprised mostly of people of color. It includes architects, engineers, scientists, planners, analysts, health care professionals, IT workers, and advocates who perform professional and technical service work in city departments focused on housing, the environment, healthcare, trans-it systems, public utilities, parks and other critical infrastructure.


SEIU Local 1021 represents nearly 60,000 employees in local governments, non-profit agencies, health care programs and schools throughout Northern California, including 20,000 in San Francisco. SEIU 1021 represents more than half of all workers employed by the City and County of San Francisco; registered nurses and other healthcare workers at the city’s hospitals, clinics, and jails; court workers, and nonprofit workers who provide care and support to the city’s most vulnerable populations.

Copyright © 2019 IFPTE LOCAL 21, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this advisory on behalf of thousands of Bay Area workers.

Our mailing address is:
IFPTE LOCAL 21
1167 Mission St Fl 2
San Francisco, CA 94103-1544

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