That he saw this has an emergency in the same way that i do and we were working hand in hand on this issue to make it to make a difference and make it better. This is absolutely an emergency of the highest order. As a matter of fact, theres a hepatitis outbreak in los angeles that is spreading into the streets that could easily come to san francisco. There are people dying in fires that are started in tents on the streets and moving to other tents. I dont know what else could be a greater emergency. If were not in every single building and every single district with every single ounce of political will we have all working to solve this issue, as a crisis, and in an emergency fashion, then we are failing to do our job. So i absolutely could not disagree with you more, supervisor peskin, and will not support a continuance of item 57 and only reluctantly out of respect for supervisor kim will support a continuance for item 56. Councillor breed thank you. Supervisor tang. Councillor tang i agree with supervisor ronen in this case. And per the budget analyst report, without this Emergency Declaration, the work will continue 12 to 18 months to complete and with this Emergency Declaration, we can shorten that timeline 7 to 13 points. I agree that i consider it an emergency in our city right now. Theres not a day that goes by that i dont think that any one of us are not badgered by our residents in the city about the homelessness issue. I would be supportive of the items moving forward. Councillor breed thank you, supervisor tang. Supervisor safai . Councillor safai thank you, madam president. Yesterday we had an extensive conversation about the situation. I agree with supervisor ronen. There is no debate that this is an emergency situation. Its an everevolving, daily emergency. Its not a situation that we can take lightly. But i think were dealing with two Different Things. I hear a couple of Different Things from supervisor kim and i would like to ask her to clarify them. One, theres a concern about Community Process and input and definition of how some of the space will be used. I think weve had extensive debate about where the office of department homelessness and Supportive Housing is going to be located. We had that debate about south of market. Weve agreed with the budget and legislative Analyst Recommendations that over 21 million for a lease in that part of town when a building is currently owned, which this body before myself and supervisor ronen and a few others were on this body voted to purchase. We were in that purchase phase. So are we debating about Community Process . Are we debating about the need to bring this building on line in an emergency fashion . And i think theres no debate that there is an emergency situation to bring this building on line. 9 times out of 10, as you know, and weve had this debate extensively, i defer to the District Supervisor. In this situation, i feel this rises above because this is a matter of creating a department, streamlining it, putting it under one house and providing services described in the Committee Hearing yesterday that would allow for the Homeward Bound Program to have participant access showers, laundry, if there is interviews, interviews that need to be conducted on site, i understand that. And i believe that the District Supervisor supports the housing offices there. I would like to hear that. But i also believe that there is no debate in this chamber that the homeless situation in this city rises to an emergency level and i understand and i would love to hear from the department. I, too, took a step back when i saw the declaration of emergency, but what was explained in committee is this would allowed for a savings of anywhere between 4 to 6 months and in this situation given the emergency, that seems appropriate for this particular matter. So is there someone from the department of homelessness here or maybe even the department of public works that will be performing the work and why the Emergency Declaration and would the it would mean to the situation . Councillor breed one section. Supervisor safai, supervisor kim would like to separate first. Councillor kim i would like to separate 56 and 57. 56 is using the declaration of emergency to build an office space for department. That is unprecedented. I dont know when this board has ever declared an emergency to build offices for a department. And to be very clear about what weve had on site. Whats been told to the tenderloin neighborhood over and over is that it will be office space for department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, not a Navigation Center. Thats why i want to separate the two. I want to concur that there is a declaration there is an emergency on our streets today and while i was concerned that i didnt get a headsup that we would be moving forward with the two Navigation Centers, one in my district, as an emergency, i do agree that we are in a state of emergency today and, in fact, supervisor cohen and i introduced a resolution in 20 2016 declaring a state of emergency for homelessness. Weve want to see our centers come on line as quickly as possible. Ive worked very closely with hsh and the director about ensuring that we find a space where women will be prioritized, understanding that as we talk about the environment for women in this country today that it is a daily reality that if you are a woman sleeping on the street that Sexual Assault is a part of your life. Its not a question. Its a fact. And i cannot stand knowing that as a representative of the city that we are allowing women to get raped and sexually assaulted on our streets. So i just think that the two issues are separate. I have a lot of questions both as a policymaker about using a declaration of emergency for an office space and im glad to hear specifically on that issue. I want to separate items 56 and 57 in terms of using that vehicle. On a separate note, there was Community Issues about what was communicated and what would be freud of provided on 440 turk. I support having an access point on site with showers and laundry services. I think thats something thats very basic. But out of respect to the neighborhood that i represent that felt blindsided, i think through a continuance to january 9 will allow us to have that communication and i plan on moving this forward in the beginning of the year. I just want to make sure that people understood the distinction between the two items. Councillor breed thank you for that clarity. Supervisor safai, did you have any further questions . Councillor safai i have questions from the department. What i understood from the hearing is part of the Emergency Declaration for the offices is that 20 of space is designated for uses that would provide services, shower, laundry facilities, and we have on the record that the department would come back with a detailed plan. They admitted that there was some disagreement with some members of the community. They did talk about having multiple, large meetings that hundreds of people had attended along with outreach to multiple groups. But i will allow them to say that on the record, but i would like to have an explanation on the record why the Emergency Declaration in this instance for both the 440 turk and the other locations. Director kasitsky. Director of homelessness and Supportive Housing. Background on the sites. In july of this year, we began a discussion about opening up a Resource Center at 440 turk street, which would have had offices for about 40 of our staff and would have primarily served as a Resource Center where individuals experiencing homelessness can come in and get access to services, showers, a place to sit down, a meal, etc. We received a fair amount of pushback from the community and had a meeting on august 3 in which approximately 75 were in attendance and heard concerns from the community and a preference that a Resource Center not be opened up at that site due to the fact that there were other Resource Centers in the community and concerns about the level of Services Already in the neighborhood. At a second meeting on august 15, we returned another Community Meeting with like 75 people in attendance and presented the plan that we are pretty much presenting today. During that plan, we presented to the community, we did explain that we would primarily be office space. And rather than a Resource Center, it would serve as an access point or the front door to the department where people coming in to get Services Like homeward bound, to get qualified for housing, to get certified for things like shelter plus care, to get into our coordinated entry data system, we would make all of that information on that site and when people had concerns or experiencing homelessness, it would be the one place that people would say, go to 440 turk street, and well be able to provide you at least get you into our system. We felt that since many of our clients coming in for the programs need access to showers and laundry that we would have a small shower and laundry facility available. As you mentioned, supervisor safai, homeward bound that connects people with friends and families, we make connections and make sure theyre financially and emotionally able to accept the folks back in their lives and put them on a bus and get them home. Prior to that, we need to make sure that folks clothing is clean and theyve taken a shower and we wanted those Services Available on site. After that meeting, we held approximately 10 Community Meetings with resident associations, with Community Benefits districts and with business groups, explaining what our plans were and also held a meeting in which mayor lee was in attendance. I believe that was september 25. So our plans have been the same since august 15 weve done our best to communicate with the community as well as your offices about moving forward on this. We understand there are concerns about being showers and laundry facilities. Weve heard the concerns loud and clear, we dont necessarily agree with them. I also want to be clear that this will not be a dropinn center or Resource Center. The community was clear this is not what they want. People coming to the building are people coming in to do business with the department and not off the street. We committed security inside and outside of the sites. And spending a lot of time gathering information from folks. That was the Community Process and this is where we landed. The question as to why this would be an emergency as supervisor ronen so eloquently put and many of you also echoed in agreement, homelessness is a great emergency and crisis. And everybody treats this as an emergency to people experiencing homelessness. Its critical to the strategy that the department has developed that we have a Central Access point for services. I think its important to our strategy of coordinated entry that we open up this facility and i think its an emergency that because we have not done the best of jobs for the past years, we have amazing programs and nonprofit providers. Were trying to build a homelessness response system that makes sense that requires Access Points that are available to people experiencing homelessness that requires us to work in a coordinated matter. Were spread over five different buildings and its created a lot of challenges for the department. So i do believe that were currently facing an emergency in the city and around the state and around the country around homelessness. And i do believe that opening up of this site as quickly as possible is an emergency, that it is critical that we move as quickly as possible in opening up these facilities as well as Navigation Centers and any other site to serve the 7,500 people currently experiencing homelessness in the city. Councillor breed supervisor kim . Councillor kim is it correct that the board of supervisors and the mayor allocated funding for the office space at 440 turk in june, 2016, for the fiscal year 2016 2017 budget . Yes. Councillor kim if this was such an emergency, why are we doing this 1 1 2 years later . It just if were going to use a declaration of emergency, we should have used it in july, 2016, one year, six months ago. I have a hard time that we allocated money 18 months ago and now were put against a wall saying, its an emergency to build all of this office space. I get the Navigation Center. Im not going to debate the need for beds, particularly as the rain and the cold comes. Its very cold already right now. Im just not understanding that. Second point, i went to both meetings at the end of july and beginning of august. It is true that there was mention that hsh was considering shower and laundry facilities on site, but one of the frustrations that the community had at the end of the meeting is they didnt feel they got a clear proposal. At no point, do i remember hearing an access point that would be rfpd out to a nonprofit. I think those are two Different Things. What i heard in the august 15 meeting is that because there would be an hsh office there that naturally people who are searching for services would come on site and you would, of course, want to provide some Emergency Services on site. What im hearing today is different from what i heard a few months ago. I think that while i support this, i dont want to say that i dont i understand the need for that i dont see what a threeweek continuance will do providing that additional time to respect the neighborhood that were moving into. So i think, supervisor, those are good points and just to speak about what happened in june, 2016, and why we didnt immediately move forward. As you know, we were creating a new department at that time. And had many, many staff vacancies and, frankly, struggled to get the vacancies filled and in many ways are still struggling to get our vacancies filled and get the department fully stood up. So, frankly, we prioritized getting staff on board, getting settled, and we needed to continue the daytoday duties of the department. He maintain housing for 9,000 people a year and outreach to 6,000 and so, frankly, trying to provide services that need to be provided on a daily basis and trying to start a new department and trying to come up with a new strategy for the department. It was in many ways like trying to build an aircraft while it was in flight and 30 of your mechanics are still on the ground. So we were not able to, not because we didnt want to, but not able to prioritize opening up the facility. When we did move forward with a proposal and started to look at the site, we saw that there were other issues that we had not uncovered in june, 2016, including the fact that the building at 50 ivy street will be closing in the next couple of years and had a better idea of what our office needs were and presented an alternative to the board of supervisors and it was not accepted, and then needed to adjust and came one a proposal with feedback from the board of supervisors and the community. Councillor kim when was item 56 introduced . If you dont know, i can tell you. It was introduced on october 31. About 1 1 2 months ago. Again, its an emergency and a declaration of emergency is heard 6 weeks later . That doesnt sound like an emergency to me. I will defer to my colleague councillor kim item 57 was introduced two weeks ago. What has changed between june, 2016, and today that makes it an emergency now . If it was such an emergency, we should have been working very quickly to open these offices over the last 18 months. I, again, referring to my previous answer. I agree. However, we had to prioritize other issues relating to getting other issues off the ground, hiring staff and ensuring that the services we provided on a daily basis were going uninterrupted. Councillor kim are you providing all of these Services Today with all the employees youve hired up . Yes. Councillor kim i still dont understand what makes it an emergency. Honestly, it sounds like what a department normally goes through. Actually, what you went through is very normal, the fits and starts of starting a department, putting it together, but then the department comes to us and building their office space is an emergency. Im wondering what differentiates you and other departments . I dont believe that anything does, but i think that the difference is this is not just about our office space. Its about creating an access point, critical access point, for people experiencing homelessness in a single place where people on the streets and needing to find access for services to get into the coordinated entry system to be able to access homeward bound and our expanded problemsolving or prevention and Diversion Services is critical. Councillor kim how many Access Points are there in the city . Two, and were rolling out our new strategy of coordinated entry and Access Points for families. There are two Access Points existing for families and a third to be opened up in the mission district. Were going to be rolling out Access Points for the Adult Population during the next month. And essentially, what were doing now, is having the hot team out in the streets trying to enroll kwem into our coordinated entry system. With 4,000 people on the streets and no clear places for individuals to go to, i believe that this, again, in my opinion, warrants an emergency. We need to have this space for individuals to be able to come to to get access to services. Councillor kim im just a little disappointed by the response only because hsh spent so much time sending emails and coordinating meetings, emphasizing that the access point was a very minimal part of what was going to be put in the tenderloin neighborhood and the neighborhood fought to get the office to move in and then add your request you said, but because we know some people will come, simply because our staff are there, we want to be able to provide some services. Really, that was always put as a comma or a it just wasnt a significant part of what 440 turk was about. And now you are telling me it is such an integral part of 440 turk that it requires a declaration of emergency. So i feel like im getting a completely different answer that what ive been hearing from the end of july until even yesterday. Well, i mean councillor kim so its integral or not integral. What is it . Its certainly not a comma. Everybody all of the staff at the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, our mission is to help people exit homelessness as quickly as possible and providing services on site wherever our offices are and you would agree that when we are serving a population that were not in offices behind an ivory tower, but accessible to the public, where we have services that the public needs and that our clients need, which is, again, why we are proposing having showers and small laundry facilities for our clients that come into our offices to do business with us that need those services. Councillor kim i agree with you. I just feel a little misled right now, because i was told that the office was the primary purpose of the site and that any Services Provided were just, you know, the minor consequences of it being an office that people would know that staff serving our Homeless Population would be in. It was complete news to me that there would be an access point yesterday with an rpf that would go out to a nonprofit organization. I thought that all the Service Provided would be by your staff, not by nonprofit workers. So i feel like theres been a lot of miscommunication and, colleagues, i request a continuance on item 56. Councillor breed thank you, supervisor kim. Supervisor sheehy . Councillor sheehy when will the building be operational . If you were to move forward with the emergency resolution, construction would begin on january 12 and the building would be open within six months. Councillor sheehy what happens to the work that people are doing as theyre moving . Its my experience, when people move, you are reorganizinreorga right at a time when you look at item 57, which i know the mayor was determined and i share his determination and i do share strongly the feeling that there is an emergency. Well, that there is an emergency on our streets today. There was one yesterday. And what im im very eager to start acting, through the chair, on the urgency next to me, is overwhelming, but i feel like two things are going on at the same time. Giving people a card were going to house them the most expedient places, and where is that . Commission commissioner ronen, my district and your district. Im just saying that i am concerned that it would not allow us to have more input. When i think about the Navigation Center that we opened up just in junejuly of earlier this year, we have no idea where the data is. Thats why i requested a meeting on the introduction center. We dont know anything, other than it feels good to be able to say hey, we opened up a Navigation Center, and were moving down the road. Okay. But at some point, we need to start to look at the data, and so im concerned about giving this Emergency Declaration because it allows certain emergency contracting provisions that again, i think would have an adverse impact on the quality of life of the people that live in district ten, the people that have been more than tolerant, more than generous and shouldering their responsibility as a resident of this county, and accepting the resources and accepting the bids that are needed to do our part to address this homeless crisis. So this director, this is where my concerns are. I understand that you sin the last time we spoke, you introduced a date in the language, saying itll only be itll only be what . Itll only be declared an emergency until now in september or february 15th of 2018. I dont know. I mean, i just im just uncomfortable, and im uncomfortable because of the way largely because of how the department of homelessness and this goes before your tenure, director. I dont want to make this personal. This is definitely before you came on board, but it has been the administrations policy to move first and ask questions later, or apologize later. They allocate the money, but it takes a long time to get forward, so this is where i am uncomfortable. If you like, you can speak to it. If not, you can just take it take it and internalize it. Its up to you. Thank you. Well, i just wanted to just as a to clarify, i believe the sunset provision is in item 57, not in item 56. Item 57, which i know will be heard next, has the sunset 56 really just focused on 440 turk, and again, i would just echo what supervisor ronen said earlier about the fact that we are experiencing an emergency on our streets. We all see it every day. My staff and i see it. I think even more acutely with the people who are out, trying to assist and to get indoors. And i also just want to add that i do think that we do have data emerging, and i think we just saw with the release of huds report with homelessness rising in every single city on the west coast. In most cases, double digit increases, and terrific hsan f has managed to have a slight reduction. I dont think we should be celebrating a point count until the number is zero. I think that is in part due to the opening of Navigation Centers and permanent and Supportive Housing. Thank you, madam president. I have no other questions. Can you, supervisor cohen. Supervisor yee . Supervisor yee thank you, president breed. So we had this special will you jet committee on monday which i guess constituted an emergency meeting, and so this particular item, we actually passed it out of committee with no recommendation. And i made that recommendation to do this, and it was supported by both my colleagues that were at the Committee Meeting. And but for me, i supported it for two reasons one of them being that i wasnt real clear if this really constituted an emergency in regards to what with the intent that most of this was supposed to be Building Office space out. And that the thought may be since were here, we should do maybe create an access point which has some logic to that. And when we talk about this 40 years, this was supposed to be an office space, and its an emergency, it didnt seem correct to me. Maybe if that was the only thing i was concerned about, i could have supported it, but the main reason i thought i couldnt support a positive recommendation and to send it out to committee with no recommendation so that we could actually have this discussion was, you know, i wasnt comfortable with how this was put on the agenda with almost no notice to the community. And it was just odd to me for all the passion that we have in the community on this issue one way or another, that we ended up only having basically two people from the community th community that showed up for the meeting, and my office had not had a chance to have a conversation around this. I wanted to get a chance to listen to the community and make sure that what you were stating at the Committee Meeting in terms of the outreach there was outreach, but what i also heard from one of the two persons that came was but we never heard anything after the outreach about what was the conclusion or what was going to be done so that maybe because continue to giv give input. So im just going to let you know why i supported no e recommendation, and i will be supporting a continuance of this mainly because of the second part. Which is i think we need to you know, the city departments in general, gentlemen in the hallways, they dont do a good job in outreach. It sounded like you did a great job in the initial outreach, but no follow up. So i want to give, in the next few weeks, give the community an opportunity to respond. President breed thank you, supervisor yee. Supervisor safai . Supervisor safai thank you, madam president. I just want to say that i know that supervisor kim and i tried to talk this through yesterday. It was in in all fairness, it was very last minute, and we were trying to make an asinformed decision as possible. What i have heard here based on the questions from supervisor kim, i walk away with more confusion, and there isnt really a strong argument that ive heard for the Emergency Declaration and then, the plan, and i tried to come up with a solution yesterday directing a department to come up with a formalized plan on the space. I didnt hear anything about a nonprofit operating the space as an access point yesterday. Maybe i missed that in the presentation, and you might have said that. I very you very well might have, and there was a lot going on, but i would say that based on that information, what i was trying to do and again, just for your consideration, was that the department would we would allow this to move forward because i think that the what ive heard here today is that we would be up and running, supervisor sheehy, as well, that wed be up and running in june. Whether we spend the next three weeks packing or the next three weeks preparing for the holidays, and thats just a reality of where we are right now, getting out on the street and getting people out on the street working on this issue. I think what we havent heard definitively, is if we havent done this Emergency Declaration, how much are we looking at. And i understand what the resolution was about, and theres a sunset clause in there, but id like maybe the department of public works, mr. Edgar lopez can come forward, and we havent really heard that. Removing the sunset clause i think supervisor kim and i tried to talk through the 20 thats not office space would be used for, we asked the department of homelessness to work with the community and come up over the next month or so or two to define how that space would be used, working with the District Supervisor, so we did get that on the record and that was the plan. But now, im hearing when different arguments as to what the plan might be, and thats okay. But theres a Community Outreach of the definition of the space thats not office, and then theres an Emergency Declaration. So if we were not to do the Emergency Declaration mr. Lopez, what would that mean in terms of the project scope and how much additional time would that add to this particular location . Good afternoon, supervisors. Edgar lopez with public works. Our agency would be the one who would be implementing the work doing the tenant improvements at 440 turk street. If you were to approve this resolution, it would expedite the amount of time it takes to procure contracts, implement the design. We estimate it would save any from 17 to 30 months, we would mobilize as early as january 12th to start abatement of Hazardous Materials while design is being completed and run lots of Different Things in parallel. So if for if this gets delayed, were losing day by day, and if we were not to do it through an Emergency Declaration, again, it would add seven to 12 months to the construction schedule. Supervisor safai from when that was awarded so it would have to be a bidding practices. Yeah. We would have to go through a bidding process. Supervisor safai so i would ask the district chair to maybe she can say exactly what her prerogative is. What i was trying to do in committee yesterday was the idea that the department would spend the time working with the community, coming and your Office Coming up with a definitive plan on the nonoffice space but allowing this Emergency Declaration to go forward with the hope that we could expedite the process to get the Office Located and up and running. I dont think theres any did he debate that this is where the office is going to be. I was not on this body when the money was funded and allocated, and so that i maybe there was in that process, but through the chair i would like to see if theres any compromise, but if not, i would defer to the supervisor and support that continuance. President breed supervisor kim . Vice president brandon before i respond to that question, i wanted to bring the question about the department of public works back up, and just when i heard you say that you would save seven to 12 months, i think it would be important for you to explain what is involved in expediting a project and why we dont do it every single time. Be happy to. Supervisor, the way we would envision delivering this as fast as possible is to award a design build contract to a builder who would take the early design that weve done at public works, work with oursub krooz to our sub contractors because the sub contractors would be doing the design, the trade work. They dont need to have a fully designed set of plans, so they in essence take our concept, do enough work to get a building permit, and they begin to do their work quickly and theyre responsible for guaranteeing a schedule because they own the design and the construction on a guaranteed price. Design build construction. Design build. Vice president brandon why donwhy why dont we do this every single time . We dont have the authority to do that on an every single basis. And why is that . We have to do a full set of drawings, put it out to bid. And this is the only reason we can expedite by six or seven months, just because we turn it into design construct. No, because were bypassing a competitive process. Right. Were bypassing a competitive source contract and going to a sole source contract, something that this board raises a number of concerns about because we want to make sure were getting the best price and the best services. Thats why we use a declaration of emergency in limited cases, and i just want to quote the administrative code. The specific definition of an emergency is quote, as a sudden, unforeseeable and unexpected occurrence. So when this board of supervisors and the mayor approves millions of dollars to rehabilitate 440 turk in june of 2016 and it is a state of emergency, sudden, unforeseeable and unexpected, i expect we could make this declaration in june of 2016 or july of 2016 at the latest. And i i think its not simply enough that its designed build construct, which is great. I think we should do that for everything, but that were also doing a Single Source contract, which this board consistently raises kerps about it, and when we do utilize it, it is in rare circumstances that we feel that it is necessary to move a project forward. I havent heard a single argument today as to why an office space for a department deserves this type of vehicle. Now, well have three weeks to talk about it. Its possible that i can be convinced to continue to use this as a vehicle, but honestly, i would love to save six to seven months on everything that we do in the city. I think its an emergency that were not building more protected bike lanes right now. I would love to save six or seven months on all of those projects. I would love to declare a declaration of emergency on everything the city does, but we dont do it. So if were going to do this and not that, i think we need to develop a real distinct argument as to why this case specifies for that. So thank you, that was my response to the department of public works, in response to supervisor safai, though, i really want to appreciate that you came to me yesterday to talk to me about finding a way that we can move forward with a compromise. When i was first alerted to this item yesterday morning, even though it was introduced on october 31st, and no one failed to come to my office and tell me hey, were introducing a declaration of emergency to build an office space on 440 turk. I got an email sunday at 6 30 p. M. I was on a flight coming back from austin, and i didnt see it until monday morning. I was just told that we want to move forward with 440 turk. These are the specifications we want to see. I said great. I like the shower, i like the laundry services. I didnt hear about an access point, i didnt hear about an rfp nonprofit. Im incredibly disappointed by this process. Im incredibly disappointed that for six weeks, no one told me it was an emergency. I mean, im just im getting really frustrated right now by the process that this has gone through, and this was an 18 month delay from when this board allocated to put hhs in a singular department because we all agreed that this group needed to be a unified group of Public Health services, hhs and hh hha. So if this was an emergency 18 months ago, i just cant move forward with this today. President breed thank you, supervisor kim. Supervisor farrell . Supervisor farrell thank you, supervisor breed, and thank you, supervisor kim. I appreciate all that youve said about learning some new facts along the way, and i definitely want to be supportive of you as a District Supervisor for a continuance. Through the chair, understanding your thought process, i understand that also working with this department, i understand that theres stranger emergency things here. I was with you when we allocated the funds a long time ago, but i do think its something that should be built ultimately. Just through the chair, its something over the next few weeks, you work with the community to see if you can get there. I would be frustrated if im in your hsus, as well, and i want to be sure that this is moving on down the line to vote on it hopefully in a positive manner three weeks from now. Supervisor kim i would just like to say again president breed supervisor kim. Supervisor kim oh, im so sorry. Through the president , my apologies. At no point yesterday did anyone mention a declaration of emergency. I learned about it finally when i got home at 9 00 p. M. Last night, and i finally read the item. I just cant tell you how frustrated i am about the lack of transparency throughout this whole process. Colleagues, i ask for your support on item 56 and would love to pass item 57 in the next one. President breed all right. Seeing no other names on the roster, supervisor kim has made a motion to continue this item to the meeting of january 9th, 2018, and it has been seconded. Madam clerk, on the item, please call on the motion, please call the roll. Clerk [ roll call. ] clerk thank you. There are ten ayes. President breed this item will be continued to the meeting of january 9th, 2018. Madam clerk, next item. Item 57 was recommended as 5i78ed with the same title. Its recommended authorizing a declaration of emergency and authorizing department of works repair facility pursuant to administrative code 660 subsection a and the director of the department of homelessness and support of housing to contract for Homeless Services and to offer such services to protect the Health Safety and welfare of individuals affected by homelessness. President breed supervisor ronen. Supervisor ronen yes, colleagues. I wanted to speed ak for a mom about the difference a homeless shelter made in district nine. I think we opened up a District Center working with dpw in about two months, and it has reduced the number of People Living in tents in the mission district. When we started and right before we opened up and counted the tents, we were around 200, and we got down at one point to 30 tents, and theyre now up hovering around the 60, 70 area. But what also came with the Navigation Center was, i think, an unprecedented amount of resources. Resources from dpw, from the hot team, from the police and from the department of Public Health behind the scenes, but i think it in the future, id like to see the department of Public Health at the table itself. And it really was that that joint effort, everyone working together, that made the difference, and so im as frustrated as supervisor cohen and kim with the fact that most, if not all of the Homeless Services in the city, with very few exceptions, are in our three districts. It its frustrating. Its not fair, and ive always fought and will continue to fight for more resources for our districts that are dealing with the bulk of the city problems. But i think we need a shift in our understanding of Navigation Centers, and instead of seeing them as such a burden, seeing them as a real opportunity and as something that very much improves the safety and atmosphere and wellbeing of a neighborhood. And i think that we always talk about Navigation Centers in such a negative way, all citing, not in my neighborhood. And that just happens in the experience in the mission district, and it has to be done very thoughtfully with Additional Resources. But when its done that way, its made a huge improvement in our neighborhood, so i just want to caution us against, you know, speaking so negatively about Navigation Centers. Theyre an assess to this city. And i also wanted to say that we have an over 1,000 person waiting list every single night for our shelter system in san francisco. So this this myth that the people dont want to be housed indoors is a myth. We just dont have enough beds, and so we need more Navigation Centers throughout the city, and of course, the three Navigation Centers that the city is currently working on, once again, one is in district 6, one is in district 9, and one is in district 10, no big surprise there. But they are in areas where Homeless People are living. Theyre near freeways. Theyre in more industrial sections of the city, and thats what neighbors often ask for us to do, is to place Navigation Centers there. So as i said, im very nervous because it was mayor lee that was pushing this project, and he really saw the urgency that ive seen, and we were working on it together. And i hope that his passing doesnt end this work, and its something that i deeply fear. The way that Navigation Centers are talked about negatively in this city, that scares me because we truly, truly have an emergency, and the only way to fix it, the only way to get people off the streets is to find another place for people to be. There is no other way to fix it. We cant arrest our way out of this problem. We cant push people off a cliff. Theres just no other way. And so i just want to ask all of my colleagues here, please please, even though we wont have barely in the Mayors Office pushing this forward, please continue to work with me to push this forward. Because this work cannot go backwards, and im very fearful of that right now. And the last thing thi would s its something i want to delve in more, and supervisor kim, you really moved me in your talk in expressing your frustrations is despite the fact that we created a department of homelessness to stream Line Services and have them under one roof, that really hasnt happened completely. We have all of our Behavioral Health beds, all of our Substance Abuse beds, under the control of the department of Public Health. They dont talk very regularly or coordinate at the level that i believe they should be coordinating with the department of homelessness so that if you want to get help for someone today, there was a front page article on the chronic will that was eclipsed by the tremendous tragedy, but ive been working with everyone in the city that will listen and an intern in my office to try to get a woman on the streets, alice, off the streets, and indoors and housed. Its a struggle to even figure out where the beds are and where the beds are, and who s working with who, and who can share information, and its something that im going to be working very closely on next year. But i, first and foremost am appreciative that were having this conversation on a day that i feel very scared about and just want to reiterate one more time, please, weve got to get more Navigation Centers open. Weve got to get them up, open all over the city, and weve got to get people off the streets indoors and have services. Thank you. President breed thank you, supervisor ronen, and we all feel just as strongly as you do about moving forward and getting these Navigation Centers open and getting so many of the folks off the street and housed, so we appreciate your passion and your work that youve done on this particular issue, so thank you. Supervisor kim . Supervisor kim thank you. I just wanted to bring director kosiczsky up. I wanted to make sure that we were being good neighbors, and i know supervisor ronen certainly fought for those Additional Resources at 1515 south vanness, and i wanted to hear and reiterate that those resources would be committed to those two, as well. I cannot commit resources from other departments, but i can certainly commit to 1515 south vanness continuing to work with the Police Department and the department of Public Health to ensure that not only the needs of the residents of the Navigation Center, the residents who live around the Navigation Center, and the residents are met. One of the things we discussed is bringing in an organization such as downtown streets that are bringing job training to the residents and are cleaning up the environment around the facility. Just a couple of days ago, i was touring the site with supervisor cohen and two of the downtown streets residents had recently found housing or people who were engaged in their job training program, so i think this model has worked very, very well at this site, not only in terms of keeping the area cleaner, but also in terms of providing services to the residents. So we certainly can move forward with that model and are certainly committed to providing the same level of partnership that we had with the opening of 1515 south vanness center and continuing to work with the police and public works. President breed thank you, supervisor kim. Supervisor peskin. Supervisor peskin thank you, madam president. I was just going to make two comments. One is actually sitting with the city attorney. The emergency determination section of the administrative code is actually kind of a little weird because it has two different definitions. One of an actual emergency and then, actually where there was a drafting error or not gives the board of supervisors wider latitude, it appears, in declaring an emergency, so im going to step back a little bit from my earlier statements, but i do want to send a message to the department, which is and i think a lot of this is a function of two things. One is theres an imperative to hurry up, and one is a department that doesnt know the ways of government. Youre seeing some of that dynamic as work here, because in the words of supervisor david campos, who was a stickler about not waiving competitive bid and not going to sole source contracts because those things actually evolved over time to have fair bidding processes and to end up in many cases with the lowest possible bid and price to the city, so i want to push you guys in that direction as much as you can over time. Because this emergency, which we all know is an emergency, has been a perrenial emergency for a long period of time. So start planning ahead, start putting those things in the hopper, start the competitive bid, and you wont have these 45 minute hearings over something that should take five minutes, for what its worth. President breed thank you. Seeing no other names on the roster, clerk call the roll. Clerk [ roll call. ] clerk there are nine ayes and one no. President breed the resolution is adopted. Madam clerk, please call the next item. Clerk item 58 was considered by the land use and transportation ct
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