Council Gets Evaluation on Social Service Providers

The West Hollywood City Council on Tuesday received a staff review of agencies the city contracts to provide social services.

The document reports the following trends in Weho in 2011-12:

• Access to social services by male community members (72%) far exceeded females (25%).
• Demand for shelter, housing and rental assistance programs exceeds supply.
• Implementation of the national HIV/AIDS strategy began to influence the provision of prevention and care services with an emphasis on Treatment and Linkage to Care (TLC).
• HIV positive community members progressing to an AIDS diagnosis reached its lowest level since data collection began. Concurrently, more community members accessed available HIV and STD testing services.
• The city received an increased number of contacts regarding community members with hoarding behavior.

One of the 24 contractors, the Saban Free Clinic, was unable to document its overall achievement for the year.

"The clinic was not able to document achievement of the outcome objective for this reporting period," the report states.

Councilman John D'Amico pointed this out prior to canceling his request for a council discussion on the agenda item.

"However the Saban Free Clinic's reporting got messed up, I just want to make sure we have a full accounting," D'Amico said.

Social Services Division staff assess contractors according to the following criteria:

• Participant feedback and client evaluation
• Quality, timeliness, and responsiveness of agency's communication with the city
• Participation in city-sponsored planning and coordination meetings
• Impact of staff or Board turnover

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