Related Practices & Jurisdictions

Adding to seemingly ever-shifting paid sick leave requirements in different places, the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) has issued updated guidance under the San Francisco paid sick leave ordinance. The City approved the nation’s first paid sick leave ordinance in 2007. The new changes warrant attention from San Francisco employers, as they include a further limit on when employers may request a medical note for an absence and guidance on the use of sick leave for COVID -19 reasons. They also coincide with California’s enactment of a new supplemental COVID-19 paid sick leave mandate, retroactive to January 1, 2022.

Employer Verification of Paid Sick Leave

In San Francisco, as well as elsewhere, a common employer question is when they can request a doctor’s note from employees who claim paid sick leave. Typically, San Francisco has allowed employers to request a note in some cases. The OLSE previously issued guidance to San Francisco employers concerning this question: “Policies or practices that require a doctor’s note or other documentation for the use of paid sick leave of three or fewer consecutive workdays shall be deemed unreasonable.”

The new guidance now requires an absence of at least six days. The agency views policies and practices requiring a doctor’s note or other documentation for an absence of five or fewer consecutive workdays as “unreasonable.” Employers may require doctor’s notes or other documentation when an employee uses paid sick leave for more than five consecutive workdays (whether full or partial days). However, if an employee uses paid sick leave for COVID-19 reasons and is not under a doctor’s care, the employer shall accept the employee’s attestation of the need for paid sick leave pursuant to current Center for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

According to the OLSE, this updated guidance is temporary. The agency thus may revert back to its original position whenever the declared COVID-19 public health emergency ends, or the OLSE otherwise amends its guidance further.

Use of Paid Sick Leave for COVID-19 Related Reasons

During the COVID-19 pandemic, the OLSE issued guidance on when employees may use paid sick leave. In addition to the other permitted uses ordinarily allowed under the San Francisco ordinance, the OSLE added that employees may use paid sick leave in the following situations:

• Public health officials or healthcare providers require or recommend an employee isolate or quarantine to prevent the spread of COVID-19;

• A COVID-19 vaccination appointment or vaccine side effects;

• The employee’s business or a work location temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health order or other public official’s recommendation;

• Care for a family member getting vaccinated, experiencing vaccine side effects, or who is not sick, but whom public health officials or healthcare providers have required or recommended isolate or quarantine; and/or

• Care for a family member whose school, child care provider, senior care provider, or work temporarily ceases operations in response to public health or other public official’s recommendation.

Eligibility for Paid Sick Leave

Now, in addition, the OLSE’s updated guidance clarified who is not eligible for San Francisco paid sick leave:

• Employees who have been laid off by their employer are no longer eligible; other

• Employees who have reduced their hours or eliminated cannot use paid sick leave to compensate for such reductions or eliminations. Employees who remain scheduled to work may continue to use their accrued paid sick leave for any qualifying reason for any portion of their reduced and remaining scheduled hours they are unable to work for qualifying reasons.

take away

In addition to California’s new statewide supplemental COVID-19 paid sick leave mandate, employers in San Francisco should review their paid sick leave policies and practices to ensure compliance with the new local rules. Employers subject to state and local paid sick leave requirements must comply with both laws, including when local ordinances are more protective. Employers should consult with their employment law counsel to understand the legal requirements in order to assure compliance.

© 2022 ArentFox Ship LLPNational Law Review, Volume XII, Number 77

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Related Practices & Jurisdictions

While many employers are concerned with complying with the recently passed statewide COVID-19 Supplemental Paid Sick Leave, employers should also be aware of the interactions between regular paid sick leave and COVID-19 related absences. As such, employers are well-served to stay current on the latest updates for San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave Ordinance.

The San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) recently issued a temporary update to its guidance regarding San Francisco’s Paid Sick Leave ordinance and COVID-19. The following is a summary of the temporary changes made to that guidance.

Policies Requiring Doctor’s Notes

Under the temporarily amended guidance, policies or practices that require a doctor’s note or other documentation for the use of paid sick leave of more than five consecutive workdays (whether full or partial days) shall be deemed presumptively reasonableprovided an employee is using paid sick leave for a COVID-19 related reason and is not under a doctor’s carethe employer shall accept the employee’s attestation of the need for paid sick leave pursuant to current CDC guidelines and OLSE Rule 2.4, pertaining to potential abuse of sick leave. This change is temporary and only in effect for the duration of the COVID-19 public health emergency.

When the public health emergency ends, or upon a decision to revoke this temporary guidance, the guidance will revert back to the previous rule which stated that requiring a doctor’s note for the use of paid sick leave of three or fewer consecutive workdays shall be deemed unreasonable . The previous rule also stated that practices that required a doctor’s note for the use of paid sick leave of more than three workdays was deemed reasonable.

COVID-19 Related Reasons for Use of Paid Sick Leave

The temporary guidance sets forth several COVID-19 specific reasons for which an employee may use San Francisco Paid Sick Leave. Those reasons are:

• The employee takes time off work because public health officials or healthcare providers require or recommend an employee isolate or quarantine to prevent the spread of disease.

• The employee takes time off work for a COVID-19 vaccination appointment or vaccination side effects.

• The employee takes time off work because the employee’s business or a work location temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation.

• The employee takes time off work because the employee needs to provide care for a family member to attend a COVID-19 vaccination appointment, who is experiencing vaccination side effects, or who is not sick but who public health officials or healthcare providers have required or recommended isolate or quarantine.

• The employee takes time off work because the employee needs to provide care for a family member whose school, childcare provider, senior care provider, or work temporarily ceases operations in response to a public health or other public official’s recommendation.

Finally, the guidance makes it clear that workers who have been laid off by their employers are not eligible for paid sick leave. Employees also are not allowed to use sick leave to supplement a reduction in hours. The guidance states that leave is only available to use for qualifying reasons when an employee is unable to work a portion of their scheduled hours.

Jackson Lewis PC © 2022National Law Review, Volume XII, Number 66

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San Francisco’s liberal mayor declared a “state of emergency” to try to deal with the city’s “nasty streets.”

How did it get so bad?

Journalist Michael Shellenberger’s new book, “San Fransicko,” argues that it happened because of progressive ideas.

“The town I love is sick,” says Shellenberger.

He came to San Francisco when he was in his 20s to support social justice causes. He still supports those ideas, but “it just went too far.”

In 2014, California politicians decided to end mass incarceration.

It’s a noble goal. America locks up a higher percentage of its people than any other country. Jails are overcrowded. People in jail are more likely to learn to be better criminals than to be rehabilitated.

So California converted many nonviolent felonies to misdemeanors. People who steal less than $950 worth of items are no longer jailed. Proponents said this would divert money from prisons that could go to mental health and drug treatment programs.

But not jailing people who break laws had nasty unintended consequences.

Shoplifters steal right in front of security guards. Police look the other way. They know if they make an arrest, they’ll face hours of paperwork and the person arrested will just return to the street. Cars are broken into 74 times a day.

“None of us want mass incarceration,” says Shellenberger, who voted for the law to stop jailing people. “But that was a recipe for disaster.”

Because no one is arrested for camping on the street, San Francisco is now filled with tent cities that supposedly house the “homeless.” But most campers are the mentally ill and drug users who choose life on the street. They shoot up or light up in public, confident no one will interfere.

One crack addict said she stays in San Francisco because it is “more lenient.” In other cities, she said, she’d be in jail.

Other cities, like Miami, do treat the homeless differently. “They don’t let people use drugs in public, and they built sufficient homeless shelters,” says Shellenberger.

In San Francisco, new homeless shelters are blocked by progressive activists who argue that everyone deserves an apartment. Yet it costs $700,000 to build one apartment in San Francisco.

A few years ago, I made a video suggesting that the high cost of apartments was a major reason for San Francisco’s tent cities. California’s excessive regulation discourages new construction, so there’s a housing shortage. That keeps rental prices high and leads people to live on the street.

“It’s not true,” says Shellenberger. “If it were true that expensive places made for homelessness, why don’t we see large open-air drug scenes in Carmel? Why don’t we see large open drug scenes in many fancy neighborhoods? Homelessness is just a function of whether or not you allow people to camp in public or not.”

But if people are homeless, should the government arrest them? The Constitution gives us the right to peacefully assemble.

“People have a right to be outdoors,” I tell Shellenberger. “We don’t have a right to force them off the street if they aren’t directly threatening anybody.”

“We should defend those rights because that’s part of our freedom,” he replies, “but you don’t have a right to shoot heroin at the public park.” There need to be “consequences for people’s behaviors.”

After researching his city’s problems, Shellenberger decided he could no longer identify as progressive. “Progressivism has become the abdication of personal responsibility.”

I think it’s always meant that.

But now parts of San Francisco have become such a sewer that even liberal politicians have changed their positions. The mayor of San Francisco, London Breed, recently declared it’s time to end the “reign of criminals who are destroying our city!”

Not long ago, when protesters shouted, “Defund the police,” Breed cut San Francisco’s policing budget by $120 million.

Now she says her town will be “more aggressive with law enforcement … and less tolerant of all the bull(expletive) that has destroyed our city.”

Progressive ideas almost always end badly.

John Stossel is author of “Give Me a Break: How I Exposed Hucksters, Cheats, and Scam Artists and Became the Scourge of the Liberal Media.”

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San Francisco has guaranteed paid sick leave to all workers in the city for nearly 15 years. Now she wants to make sure the city’s 10,000 or so domestic workers have a real shot at receiving the benefit.

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors on Tuesday passed an ordinance creating a transferable benefits system that would allow workers to combine hours from multiple employers to count towards their sick pay.

What will likely be a mobile app is being developed to count hours and due dates and help workers and those who hire them make their arrangements, according to Hillary Ronen, the supervisor who introduced the new rule along with California’s Domestic workers has written coalition.

“Under current law, all San Francisco workers are entitled to paid sick leave based on hours worked,” Ronen told her fellow board members before voting 11-0 to approve the measure. “Although they have the right to paid sick leave, in reality very few domestic workers have access to this benefit.”

San Francisco law, which went into effect in February 2007, requires employers to provide employees with one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours worked. But the hours worked for different jobs could not be included in a single count, so working 15 hours for one household and 15 hours for another would not result in an hour’s sick time.

Domestic workers can work for up to 20 different employers each month, making accumulated paid sick leave unattainable. Additionally, the people who hire housekeepers, caregivers and landscapers may not even be aware of sick leave policies or how they operate.

The difficulties were particularly acute with COVID-19, so many Low earners continued to work even while they were sick because they needed the paycheck, according to work advocates.

The new regulation was welcomed Wednesday by Mujeres Unidas y Activas, or MUA, a grassroots organization of Latina immigrant women based in San Francisco.

“We hope that San Francisco’s portable power system will serve as a model for other cities in the Bay Area and for the rest of the state,” the group said. “Making bailout accessible is not just a matter of equity, it’s also part of our vision for the future of the domestic work industry.”

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United States:

San Francisco Adopts Sick Leave Policy For Domestic Workers – “First Of Its Kind”

January 03, 2022

Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton

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On December 14, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Directors unanimously passed a law granting domestic workers paid sick leave – the first of its kind in the United States. The regulation, entitled “Equal Access for Domestic Workers to Paid Sick Leave”, provides “portable” paid sick leave that enables people working for multiple households to purchase and consolidate benefits from, and on, multiple “hiring organizations” To access paid vacation they switch between jobs.

How will this work for domestic workers? According to the regulation, domestic workers are entitled to paid sick leave of at least one hour’s net wage at the regular wage of the domestic worker for every 30 hours worked. Both the hiring agency and the domestic worker are responsible for reporting the number of hours worked and the net wage rate to the “Paid Sick Leave System”. While the entitlement to sickness benefit increases in hourly units, the funds are not transferred from the hiring facility to the domestic worker until the domestic worker applies for the funds. In addition, the hiring agency is responsible for any withholding tax deduction or tax reporting obligations for the contribution at the time of transferring the sick pay.

This ordinance is expected to affect the approximately 10,000 San Francisco domestic workers who work in private households. A “domestic worker” in the sense of the ordinance is any person who is employed by a hirer or who has concluded a contract with a hirer for the provision of work or services in an apartment:

• Taking care of a child; to serve as a companion or the provision of other non-medical care or services to a sick, convalescent, disabled or elderly person;
• Cleaning, cooking, providing food or butler service;
• Gardening;
• personal organization;
• or providing other personal or domestic services at home.

A “domestic worker” also includes a natural person who lives at the personal place of residence of the user company as part of their employment relationship or contract. The ordinance defines a “hiring entity” as any person within the meaning of Section 18 of the California Labor Code, including officers or officers, who, directly or indirectly, or through an agent or other person, including through the services of a temporary employment agency or recruitment agency, or a similar organization that employs, contracts, or hires a domestic worker. Once it goes into effect, the program will be administered by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which has also been tasked with making it easy to create an app to track performance and transfer funds from a hiring facility to a domestic worker .

The regulation requires a second vote by the board of directors and the signature of the Mayor of London Breed before it comes into force. The regulation is expected to come into force in 2022 when these additional steps are taken. San Francisco domestic workers should consult their employment advisor to ensure they are complying with the ordinance once it goes into effect.

The content of this article is intended to provide general guidance on the subject. Expert advice should be sought regarding your specific circumstances.

POPULAR ARTICLES ON: United States Employment and Workers

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Related Practices and Jurisdictions

Thursday December 30th 2021

On December 14, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Directors unanimously passed a law granting domestic workers paid sick leave – the first of its kind in the United States. The ordinance entitled “Equal Access for Domestic Workers to Paid Sick Leave” provides for a “portable” paid sickness benefit that enables people working for multiple households to receive, consolidate, and distribute benefits from multiple “hiring organizations” To access paid vacation they switch between jobs.

How will this work for domestic workers? According to the regulation, domestic workers are entitled to paid sick leave of at least one hour’s net wage at the regular wage of the domestic worker for every 30 hours worked. Both the hiring agency and the domestic worker are responsible for reporting the number of hours worked and the net wage to the “paid sick leave system”. While the entitlement to sickness benefit increases in hourly units, the funds are not transferred from the hiring facility to the domestic worker until the domestic worker applies for the funds. In addition, the hiring institution is responsible for any withholding tax deduction or tax reporting obligations for the contribution at the time of transferring the sick pay.

This ordinance is expected to affect the approximately 10,000 San Francisco domestic workers who work in private households. A “domestic worker” within the meaning of the ordinance is any person who is employed by a hirer or who has concluded a contract with a hirer for the provision of workers or services in a residential building:

• Taking care of a child; to serve as a companion or the provision of other non-medical care or services to a sick, convalescent, disabled or elderly person;

• Cleaning, cooking, providing food or butler service;

• Gardening;

• personal organization;

• or providing other personal or domestic services at home.

A “domestic worker” also includes a natural person who lives at the personal place of residence of the user company as part of their employment relationship or contract. The ordinance defines a “hiring entity” as any person within the meaning of Section 18 of the California Labor Code, including officers or officers, who, directly or indirectly, or through any agent or other person, including through the services of a temporary employment agency or recruitment agency, or a similar organization that employs, contracts, or hires a domestic worker. Once it goes into effect, the program will be administered by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which has also been tasked with making it easy to create an app to track performance and transfer funds from a hiring facility to a domestic worker .

The regulation requires a second vote by the board of directors and the signature of the Mayor of London Breed before it comes into force. The regulation is expected to come into force in 2022 when these additional steps are taken. San Francisco domestic workers should consult their employment advisor to ensure they are complying with the ordinance once it goes into effect.

Copyright © 2021, Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP.National Law Review, Volume XI, Number 364

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On December 14, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Directors unanimously passed a law granting domestic workers paid sick leave – the first of its kind in the United States. The ordinance entitled “Equal Access for Domestic Workers to Paid Sick Leave” provides for a “portable” paid sickness benefit that enables people working for multiple households to receive, consolidate, and distribute benefits from multiple “hiring organizations” To access paid vacation they switch between jobs.

How will this work for domestic workers? According to the regulation, domestic workers are entitled to paid sick leave of at least one hour’s net wage at the regular wage of the domestic worker for every 30 hours worked. Both the hiring agency and the domestic worker are responsible for reporting the number of hours worked and the net wage to the “paid sick leave system”. While the entitlement to sickness benefit increases in hourly units, the funds are not transferred from the hiring facility to the domestic worker until the domestic worker applies for the funds. In addition, the hiring institution is responsible for any withholding tax deduction or tax reporting obligations for the contribution at the time of transferring the sick pay.

This ordinance is expected to affect the approximately 10,000 San Francisco domestic workers who work in private households. A “domestic worker” within the meaning of the ordinance is any person who is employed by a hirer or who has concluded a contract with a hirer for the provision of workers or services in a residential building:

• Taking care of a child; to serve as a companion or the provision of other non-medical care or services to a sick, convalescent, disabled or elderly person;
• Cleaning, cooking, providing food or butler service;
• Gardening;
• personal organization;
• or providing other personal or domestic services at home.

A “domestic worker” also includes a natural person who lives at the personal place of residence of the user company as part of their employment relationship or contract. The ordinance defines a “hiring entity” as any person within the meaning of Section 18 of the California Labor Code, including officers or officers, who, directly or indirectly, or through any agent or other person, including through the services of a temporary employment agency or recruitment agency, or a similar organization that employs, contracts, or hires a domestic worker. Once it goes into effect, the program will be administered by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development, which has also been tasked with making it easy to create an app to track performance and transfer funds from a hiring facility to a domestic worker .

The regulation requires a second vote by the board of directors and the signature of the Mayor of London Breed before it comes into force. The regulation is expected to come into force in 2022 when these additional steps are taken. San Francisco domestic workers should consult their employment advisor to ensure they are complying with the ordinance once it goes into effect.

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The San Francisco board of directors unanimously passed a landmark law on Tuesday granting cleaners, nannies, gardeners and other domestic workers paid sick leave.

The measure – the first of its kind in the country – would affect approximately 10,000 people in San Francisco who work in private households cleaning, cooking, looking after children, gardening, organizing themselves, or non-medical To provide care for disabled people or the elderly. With many women and immigrants, these workers tend to be poorly paid, supporters said.

“I think these people have been looking after the people of San Francisco for a long time, and it is time we took care of them,” said Supervisor Myrna Melgar. who sponsored the measure together with supervisor Hillary Ronen.

Melgar said her parents had housekeeping and other low-wage jobs when her family immigrated from El Salvador. Her parents couldn’t get sick, “otherwise there would be no food on the table,” she said.

Kimberly Alvarenga, Executive Director of the California Domestic Workers Coalition, welcomed the vote as “an important and historic step on the road to equal opportunities and access to domestic workers.”

The pandemic has exposed domestic workers to vulnerability, she said.

“When they got the virus, when family members got the virus, they had no choice,” Alvarenga said. “If they didn’t go to work, they weren’t getting paid. They were placed in an impossible situation where there was absolutely no economic safety net to support them. This ordinance will offer them a certain fairness so that in the event of illness they can take a day to look after themselves, children or family members. “

The measure entitled ‘Domestic workers equal access to paid sick leave’ takes into account the fact that many domestic workers may work for more than one household. It creates a transferable paid sickness benefit so that workers can get splinters of the sick leave paid from each employer and then pool them together. An employer would pay one hour of wages into the fund for every 30 hours a domestic worker worked.

Martha Garrido, 59, works for about seven to eight households in San Francisco cleaning and grooming the elderly.

“I hope the adoption of this regulation spreads across the country so that other domestic workers know it is possible,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter.

Garrido said she fell while cleaning and broke her arm earlier this year, but had to continue working because she needed the money to send it to her mother and four children in Peru. “We domestic workers, our families are often dependent on us,” she said.

To take effect, the measure requires a second regulatory vote and signature by Mayor London Breed. It would then be a few months before the city hired a private company to manage the benefit program.

The chronicle’s author, Mallory Moench, contributed to this report.

Carolyn Said is a contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle. Email: csaid@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @csaid

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Most employees in San Francisco (and across California) receive one hour of paid sick leave for every 30 hours they work. The San Francisco Board of Directors is now considering an ordinance that would expand the availability of paid sick leave for domestic workers through the establishment of a “portable” paid sick leave system.

The ordinance “Equal Access for Domestic Workers to Paid Sick Leave through a Portable System” would oblige every domestic worker employer, including individual households, to provide their workers with paid time off through a portable benefit system.

According to the current version of the proposed regulation, a domestic worker is a person who provides work or services in a dormitory and looks after a child; serve as a companion or provide other non-medical care or services to an ill, convalescent, disabled, or elderly person; Cleaning, cooking, providing food or butler service, gardening, personal organization, or other personal or domestic services at home. A domestic worker also includes a natural person who, as part of their employment relationship or contract, lives at the personal residence of the user company.

A “hiring entity” is defined as any person who, directly or indirectly, or through an agent or other person, including through the services of a temporary employment agency or recruitment agency, contracts or employs a domestic worker.

According to the proposal, a hiring agency provides paid sickness benefits regardless of the domestic worker’s job grade. The domestic worker would then acquire a paid sick leave entitlement in a manner similar to that of other workers, i.e. at least one hour of net wage at the worker’s regular wage rate for every 30 hours worked for the hiring company.

The paid sick leave entitlement would accrue in units of the hour, but the funds would not be transferred from the hiring facility to the domestic worker until the domestic worker applies for the paid sick leave allowance. The hiring agency would be responsible for any tax withholding or tax reporting obligations for the contribution at the time of transferring the sick pay. Hiring companies may not interfere with or refuse to exercise any right protected by this new regulation, nor may they take adverse measures against domestic workers who are exercising their right protected under this new regulation.

If passed, the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development would be tasked with developing and managing the portable paid sick leave system to minimize the administrative burden for the hiring facility and domestic workers. The system tracks the hours worked by each insured worker for a hiring institution and net wage rates, and calculates the accrued entitlement to paid sickness benefits. The system also coordinates the transfer of funds from one or more entities from which the right to paid vacation was acquired.

If passed, the regulation would only come into force in 2022.

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The city’s supervisory board passed the regulation on Tuesday and assured that around 10,000 domestic workers will be on sick leave. Also, government childcare issues in Rhode Island, debates over Georgia’s health proposals, a dangerous synthetic marijuana in Florida, and more are on the news.

San Francisco Chronicle: San Francisco Will Be First City To Require Sick Leave For Nannies, Cleaners, And Gardeners

The San Francisco board of directors unanimously passed a landmark law on Tuesday granting cleaners, nannies, gardeners and other domestic workers paid sick leave. The move – the first of its kind in the country – would affect approximately 10,000 people in San Francisco who work in private households cleaning, cooking, looking after children, gardening, organizing themselves, or non-medical To provide care for disabled people or the elderly. With many women and immigrants, these workers tend to be poorly paid, supporters said. (Says 12/14.)

In other US news –

The Boston Globe: RI child attorney sounds the alarm, says: “It’s never been this bad”

The Rhode Island child attorney sounded the alarm Tuesday, telling a state Senate committee that children in state care are not getting the services they need and are often being shipped out of the state. Jennifer Griffith noted that she and others had come before the Senate oversight committee two months ago warning of a growing crisis in the state’s Department of Children, Youth and Family. “When I tell you that the situation has gotten a lot worse and, frankly, dangerous, in the last 60 days, I’m telling you the truth,” Griffith said. “I’m telling you that we are at an extreme level of despair.” (Fitzpatrick, December 14th)

Georgia Health News: Georgia health proposals are pending official visits from Biden

A senior federal official in charge of negotiating Georgia’s high-level health proposals with Governor Brian Kemp visited Atlanta Tuesday to discuss maternal health and other issues. But Chiquita Brooks-LaSure, the administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, had no answers on when one of the half-million adults who are uninsured under current Georgia Medicaid rules might have a path to coverage. (Hart and Miller, Dec. 14)

Billings Gazette: Commissioners vote to return a question about the recreational pot to voters

Yellowstone County’s residents get another recreational marijuana vote. District commissioners unanimously voted Tuesday morning to put the question of whether recreational marijuana businesses can operate within the district back to voters in June. (Rogers, December 14th)

WUSF Public Media: Hillsborough health officials warn of counterfeit pot causing serious illness

The Florida Department of Health in Hillsborough County is warning people about a form of synthetic marijuana that causes serious illness. The agency has received several reports of people who smoked the drug, also known as a spice, and then developed a condition known as coagulopathy, which affected the ability of their blood to clot. Symptoms include bruising, nosebleeds, bleeding gums, and vomiting blood. (Ochoa, December 14th)

On the news of the Idaho and Maine housing crisis –

Idaho Statesman: Boise Org Announces Plan to House Hundreds of Homeless People

Boiseans may be familiar with Housing First programs that provide shelter for the homeless regardless of their background, sobriety, or mental health. Now local officials are planning to add more of these housing units over the next five years. More than 500 people and families in Ada district need such living space, according to a plan by the local animal shelter organization. Our Path Home organization is now running a fee to create the housing units to meet that demand – but it will take a lot of community commitment and money to make it happen. (Country, December 14th)

Bangor Daily News: Bangor residents call for a change in homelessness policy following deadly fire

The tragedy has drawn attention to the growing homeless problem in Bangor, with the hour and a half public comment period attracting activists, community service workers and current and former members of the city’s homeless community. (Marino Jr., Dec. 14)

This is part of the KHN Morning Briefing, a round-up of health coverage from major news organizations. Sign up for an email subscription.

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