Unable to be here. Id like to thank john carroll, our clerk, and sfgovtv. Mr. Clerk, do we have any announcements . Clerk yes, thank you, mr. Chair. Please make sure you silence your cell phones and electronic devices. Copies of documents and completed speaker cards should be submitted to the clerk. Items acted upon today will appear on the board of supervisors february 26 agenda. Chair mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call item 1. [agenda item read]. Chair mar this item was continued from the last g. A. O. Meeting on february 6 and is sponsored by supervisor matt haney. Supervisor haney, the floor is yours. Supervisor haney thank you, chair mar. Before i address a set of amendments that were going to be putting forward today, i want to say a few things about what this proposal is and also what a Navigation Center is. San francisco piloted its first Navigation Center in 2015. The model was dubbed more than a shelter and was carefully crafted to be ta shelter for people seeking housing. The idea for a central lobby for front line city agencies to bring individuals to shelters and housing has been circulating in city hall since supervisors toured a Navigation Center in philadelphia. They viewed as a way to address a critical gap in San Franciscos shelter system. That is, everyone refusing to use shelters. Not only looks or feels the same, but there have been pros that make them successful like Onsite Services, 247 access, allowing pets, partners, and possessions and focuses on getting individuals experiencing homelessness permanent housing. Onsite Services Include those offered on a roving basis typically involve Mental Health care, Substance Use care, assistance with housing, employment, and other services. Other dedicated areas include space for possessions, pets, and storage. Within a week, they are identified with a care plan and services onsite, and they get the help they need. 52 of clients exiting Navigation Centers from october 2016 to october 2019 had a successful exit to permanent housing, temporary housing or being united with family or friends through home ward bound. Over 5,000 clients were served by Navigation Centers in 2019. The first Navigation Center served 212 unique clients in its first six months. A vast majority, 94 , had been continuously homeless for more than a year prior to the stay. 76 of recent clients had no recent shelter history. Since the first pilot, nine Navigation Centers have served thousands of san franciscans not previously accessing shelters and services. People in Navigation Centers are often the first in line because they have been assessed and are in process. We need more to serve the 5,000 experiencing unsheltered homelessness every night. Despite the success, the city has only built shelters in a limited number of neighborhoods, concentrated in districts 6, 9, and 10. From unhoused san franciscans who clearly are lining up for these Navigation Centers and access their services. An astounding 82 of san franciscans support Navigation Centers in this parts and other parts of the city. Ive visited all of the current facilities, and heres what ive heard and learned. One, they are good for everyone, for people accessing services and neighborhoods, and we need more. Many of my colleagues have been trying hard to identify a site in their district for a Navigation Center, and in many cases, theyve been told no or received little support. The department and mayor should be working closely with every supervisor to meet the needs of Homeless Individuals citywide. Often the Navigation Centers come with little transparency to neighbors citywide, even the district supervisor, and that has to change. Ive heard concern whether november gas station centers of certain sizes might Navigation Centers of certain sizes might affect districts. In response, i have amendments today that allow for greater flexibility in meeting the needs of specific districts, if a Navigation Center is not adequate, another Transition Center that houses at least 30 beds will meet this commitment. I believe this will meet the commitment to end street homelessness and getting people in services and shelter that they desperately need. I want to be clear about this legislation in particular. This is not about fixing the entire homelessness response system. That is not what this legislation is. It is about setting a clear commitment and responsibility for each of us, for each of our districts for citywide temporary shelter and for clear citywide transparency. It is not to establish homelessnesses because that should already be the plan. While we work on mayor breeds goal on 2,000 new shelter beds in the next few years, i hope we can agree that homeless shelters and Navigation Centers need to be placed in every district. Existing shelter beds in San Francisco simply do not meet the growing need. While we ramp up the work of growing needs, we must be equally efficient about finding safe places for people who sleep on the streets now. I want to read these amendments and just say one last thing in closing. First, the and my colleagues have copies of these. This will change the 72 hours requirement for a comprehensive assessment to five days, and will clarify the storage be for active residents, changes the frequency to frequent Onsite Services and activities, clarifies that nav centers provide access to transportation, rather than directly responsible for physically transporting clients, changes requirements to daily activities. It strikes a requirement for operator to maintain contact for 60 days after exit. Clarifies that cities and communitybased organizations can make referrals to Navigation Centers. Adds a requirement that h. S. H. Develop guidelines for communitybases organizations to send clients. It changes the reference to that hot team to outreach teams associated with h. S. H. It adds an options, as i mentioned, for temporary shelters, including transitional housing, and stablization less than two years. It requires that the city departments submit a list of sites that can support shelters in 60 days, and a funding plan in 120 days. This is a commitment, and it is something that this supervisor and this board of supervisors collectively commits to. All of us every day are contacted by our residents about challenges related to homelessness. Each of us are constantly call h. S. H. , constantly calling 311. Ive heard each of my colleagues talk about this in different ways, and it is critical in that context that we have available shelters to get people on a pathway to housing in our city. Homelessness is not concentrated in districts 6, 9, and 10, but we will continue to step up to fulfill our commitment to our poor unhoused neighbors. We did not have a system where someone calls 311 in the castro and the haight, that the only opportunity we have to get that person in a shelter is to tell them to go to the other side of town in soma to get shelter. Thats unsustainable, its not fair, and it is not treating this as the true citywide crisis that it is. We can do better, and we must do better, and i think we can if we step up to provide access to services and of course housing, as well, all over the city. So with that, ill turn it back over to you, supervisor mar. I know that supervisors ronen and preston also have representatives who wanted to provide comment. Chair mar thank you, supervisor haney. Supervisor mandelman, do you have any open [inaudible] chair mar okay. So i guess i wanted to invite, i guess, representatives from supervisor peskins office to share remarks. Gener general Jen Schneider. Thank you. Im Jen Schneider from supervisor peskins office. We cannot agree more that permanent supportive and deeply Affordable Housing is the solution to the homelessness crisis. Its obvious, but its worth emphasizing. Nothing solves homelessness like a home. We want as much Affordable Housing in district five as possible, but right now, we have an emergency. Thousands of people are sleeping unsheltered every night with nowhere to go. And even assuming that we aal alall alall all unite behind a plan, its still going to take years. Supervisors, an unknown man died in our district just the other day. He was found, and the paper didnt write a story about it. A lieutenant told us about it. He was a wellknown man, he was 44 years old. That the ground patrol found him there on the ground. That the death wasnt suspicious, that it wasnt an o. D. Were new to this building, and i dont think im naive, but i hope we dont get to the point where someone homeless dies in a city and no one will care. On sunday, we are hosting a meeting to talk to our district 5 residents about a Navigation Center. Folks really want one in our district. The lieutenant who told us about the death are coming, as well as the Police Captains and more. People want a shortterm solution and a longterm solution, not one or the other. Its tragic to witness the homeless crisis for all of us. We in supervisor peskins Office Support the proposal, and we are proud to sponsor the legislation. Thank you so much. Chair mar thank you. Is there anyone else from our colleagues offices who wish to make some remarks . None . Okay. Well, i just well, i i i guess yeah, ill just share my remarks, and i guess ill just share my thoughts, as well. I agree that Homeless People in all neighborhoods should have access to dignified services and an access point to provide services and permanent housing. I want to thank supervisor haney for pushing this much needed legislation to the citywide strategy on housing. Over the past year, i have been working actively with the sunset community, including both housed and unhoused residents to develop solutions to homelessness in our district. Last month, we partnered in [inaudible] chair mar to identify potential sites for a Navigation Center, as well as a comprehensive plan to create new transitional housing, Behavioral Health services and permanent housing for those experiencing homelessness in district 4. As discussed in the last g. A. O. Meeting, i am introduced amendments today to strengthen the departments ability to abdecisiv act decisive in every district right now, including adding permanent Housing Options for formerly homeless persons with flexibility for piloting new models of care. Number two, requiring the department to conduct a faezibility analysis as part of establishing the fair share siteing criteria. Number three, allowing the department to offer another type of housing facility. I would like to add my own amendments, as well, adding some districts may not have parcels to accommodate Navigation Centers but may have sites feasible for shelters or transition facilities. A policy can establish vision, but a successful policy should allow us to achieve that vision. I believe with my amendments, we can pass legislation that is both bold and achievable. The unhoused residents of my district have asked for flexibility. In my house, constituents who support bringing Homeless Services to the sunset have asked for flexibility. At the same time, they are asking for accountability for the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. Since we are considering two sets of complex legislation today, i ask that we hear from supervisors, the department, if they so choose, and then Public Comment. It would be my intention to entertain motions to amend section by sex. I believe that the amendments that are being introduced today by supervisor haney and myself if adopted would be substantive, and for that reason, i anticipate this ordinance will be continued to the next g. A. O. Meeting. For members of the public, that means there will be another opportunity to weighin on the legislation and any amendments that we accept today. So unless there are objections from my colleagues, i would like to welcome nick minard from the b. L. A. Office. You presented at the last meeting, correct . Thats correct, but im happy to answer any questions about our report. Chair mar well, thank you for being here. And i would also now like to invite julie boyer from the department of homelessness and supporting housing to make a statement. Good morning, members of the government audit and the oversight committee. I am here today to read a statement into record on behalf of director kositsky. As h. S. A. Has informed Committee Members both verbally and in writing, i was unable to attend the committee today as i am speaking at the National Alliance to end homelessnesss annual conference. H. S. A. S Senior Management are also attending the conference to share San Franciscos best practices in learning with our National Partners and colleagues. We understand chair mars scheduling for today, and i apologize that neither myself nor an appropriate representative was able to attend to provide comments and answer the committees questions. We share with the committee our concerns with this proposes ordinance as its currently written in the hearing on thursday, february 6, and we look forward to continue working with the supervisors on this amendment. We appreciate chair mars amendments, but we know there is more work to be done. H. S. A. Looks forward to attending the next meeting. Thank you. Chair mar thank you, miss boyer. Is there a representative from the Mayors Office or any other offices that would like to make remarks . No . Great. Before we go to Public Comment, are there any further comments or questions from my colleagues . So why dont we move to Public Comment. I have two speaker cards submitted. Shelley carroll and francisco decosta. Other members of the public are invited to speak. Please lineup on the right side of the room. Mr. Decosta, you have two minutes. Yeah, i have two minutes. So i represent the first people, the ohlone. The spokesperson came up here and spoke to all the supervisors and told what she needs from all the supervisors, thats empathy and compassion. Now even before you make the amendments, they must be available to the public, not read to us at the last moment because at San Francisco, we have astute and stellar constituent taxpayers who understand amendments. Now, you may say we have 5,000, 6,000 homeless in San Francisco, we really have over 12,000, and Navigation Centers in every neighborhood is not the way to go. Putting people in small boxes is not the way to go. Now supervisors, you all know about the academy of Art University having thousands of units that it stole from us, rental units. Why dont we go over there, since we won the case . We need human beings to live in buildings with wraparound services. We dont need to have one single human being or our elders die on the streets of San Francisco. We do not know that. The legalese, he is a representative of somebody who came here who said oh, i was a representative of a committee, and i cant be here, San Francisco is corrupt. San francisco has lost its soul, so much so that the f. B. I. Is now involved in so many things, bringing up things that are hidden. You all clerk thank you. Next speaker, please. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, supervisors. My name is shelley carroll. I live in district 6, two blocks away from the Navigation Center on the embarcadero. I agree that Supportive Housing is what we need, but in the interim, i support Navigation Centers in general, and Navigation Centers all over the city. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. Calvin click from the San Francisco youth commission. We oppose this legislation unless amended to reinstate the hard need for a t. A. Y. Navigation center. I just want to reiterate that we are supportive of this broaden intent of this legislation to expand the model across this city, and we definitely appreciate supervisor haneys and supervisor prestons remarks. We agree it does not reflect well on the citys values if we remove the current mandate for a t. A. Y. Navigation center to be operated by the city, and there is good reason for the city being committed to address Youth Homelessness as a priority. I large a disproportionate number of people experiencing homelessness in the t. A. Y. Range, so if we support homelessness in that age range, we will be easing the burden on the alternate system and developing tools to better serve the population experiencing homelessness at large, so we believe we should not be backing off on our hard commitment to operating a t. A. Y. Navigation while such a Navigation Center still does not exist and will not for at least the rest of this year. We thank you for your consideration. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Supervisors, Brian Everett from district 5, for the coalition to end homelessness. We are in support of Navigation Centers as well as r. V. Centers. We are also in support of other transitional housing stopgaps to bridge when we actually have housing for folks. I do want to stay the Navigation Centers often end up being used for reasons of enforcement around them. Im always cautious when i see these things come up, because it gets promised to the residents, well, well create a clear zone or Something Like that, and its promising to your constituents that you cant deliver. The city does sweep people every single day and every single night, and they come back. It may not be the same people, but theres no place to go. Theres thousands of people that are caught outside the shelter system. So we support Navigation Centers, we support other transitional facilities, but we also want to make sure that this does not get used to promise housed people that their complaints will be responded to regarding unhoused people. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. My name is jordan, and lets talk about homeless shelters. Ive been in a conventional shelter in philly, and it was like a mini prison. I home that Navigation Center replace shelters, so thats good. Were a Housing First city, and i think we need to go further and that there should be housing for the formerly homeless in every district in the city, and they need to be in apartments not s. R. O. S, where people are treated like adults, not poverty pimps. Height restrictions should not matter in this regard. If the city wants to build a homeless shelter in lake merced or the marina, i think it should meet with approval, and no one should be able to cry boohoo and about how we lower Property Values in that neighborhood. We need to not focus on the interim things, but instead the permanent solutions. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Im with Community Housing partnership, and we are very supportive of Navigation Centers in every district. Its important that, like jordan just said, that we also realize that if we dont have housing exits for people in the Navigation Centers, then were just kind of spinning peoples wheels. If there was an earthquake now, we wouldnt have people to set up in each of the neighborhoods. The financial crisis and the gentrification crisis have affected our city, and we need to set up appropriately. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is shirley, and ive been homelessness. I just left, denver, colorado, and buried my sister and her son. Her baby boy is married to a woman that runs a homeless connection place. What they have is they have bought apartments, not this navigation system. It will not work. Im going to say it again. I lived in a tent. I was homeless for two years. That was almost 15 years. Im still struggling. Whats behind a navigation, that does not work. The place she works, they have bought apartment complexes, houses, homes, and they put them in there. They have social workers, everything. Its been 100 guaranteed, it works. They help people get jobs, they help people get on their feet, and they move on out. Theyre there for a period of time, and then, they move out. The money youre using for this, you can use it for homes and get the people in, and give them a certain amount of time, and i guarantee you it will work, but this is a waste of money. You can make some Navigation Systems for them to get from point a to point b, but this is not going to work. Its a waste of money. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. Im here to let you know that the towns nice and all of that, but theres a lot of things that go into this that would help also. Social workers, doctors, nurses, people who are there to help them find housing, get stable jobs, all those things are great things that should go into that if you should actually do it right because if you dont do it right, youll have the same problem next year and the year after that, and the year after that. So im thinking that if you consider our neighbors who are homeless, as mr. Haney has mentioned, we dont know what its like to be homeless. We dont know what its like to be trapped in a situation they cant get out, and every time you look around, theyre getti getting harrassed. You have thousands of People Living on the streets. You have left them hopeless out there on the street. Its a nice sound when you say youre going to have Navigation Centers all over the city, but if you dont have the way to set up properly, youre not going to have any solutions. Lets put people out there to help our people. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi, good morning. Supervisors. My name is dale seymour. I now chair the local homeless board for the city of San Francisco, so im not talking to you off wikipedia or google. I actually spent time in their life. This is the city of st. Francis. Arent we our brothers keepers . Arent we required to do something for folks on the street . Most people in this room cannot last two hours on the streets, but we have people that have been there 10, 15 years and somehow managing, so it is our responsibility as a decent city and a people of love that we talk to San Francisco we love everyone and were so liberal and were so get down, and yet, were fighting Compassionate Service for folks on the street. Spend one night out there, and youll know what im talking about. At least we can and i am not a shelter person. I dont believe we can shelter our way out of this crisis, but in the meantime, weve got to think of tyrone, weve got to think of sheela, whos out there tonight while we go to our warm homes, theyre out there. Weve got to do this on a citywide basis. This is not a south of market problem, this is not a tenderloin problem, this is a San Francisco problem. No one can say, theyre not in my district. What the hell you saying, not in my district . Everyones got to cue on this because weve got a crisis outside that we have not figured out how to do it, so in the meantime, we need these manufacture gas station centers. We need these Navigation Centers. Please navigate for these, and find these other supervisors, and ill go to them door by door and say [applause] chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good morning, supervisors. My name is lorenzo, and i am a Community Organizer with dndc in the tenderloin, peoples congress. Homelessness issue is in a crisis situation. We know that thousands of people are out there in the streets every night, every day, without you know, without housing. So so we also know that over the past three years, over 400 people died on our streets. So we need a comprehensive citywi citywide solution to address this problem because obviously, the Previous Solutions didnt work. We know that this is wrong. This is wrong, and it is embarrassingly wrong for a city that is, like, one of the wealthiest cities in the world to let these things happen to our neighbors. So i urge all of you to please support this, and especially the mayor, to build more housing citywide. Because this is urgent, and this is this should have been done years ago. We should not also stop on that, we should also think about providing services to them, because this is how they will be sustainable and build more housing citywide, as well. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Do we have any other people who would like to speak on this . Step forward. My name is liza. Im for Navigation Centers. The problem is we dont have people to help them. I went inside Navigation Centers and shelters, and they theyre deplorable. To walk in a shelter and watch 70 men of color watching t. V. Hurts my heart. Its like why arent we doing a group . Why arent we doing housing applications . Why arent we doing proactive things . We have 60 people waiting for beds, and we have 25 beds and two case managers. When are we going to realize that in order to help these people, we need to provide proper resources for proper growth so they can incorporate back into society. We need to differentiate between Mental Health and homelessness. Instead of building temporary places, why arent we investing in longterm housing for lowincome . Thank you. [applause] chair mar thank you. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel]. Chair mar supervisor mandelman . Supervisor mandelman thank you, chair mar. And i will be brief. Im just visiting the committee. Im glad to be here today because i want to hear more about this proposal, and i did watch the prior hearing. You know, i think that if i were the district 6 supervisor, i would absolutely be putting geographic equity in Homeless Services as among my very Top Priorities because there is not geographic equity in the city right now, and if i were a resident of the tenderloin or soma, i would be very frustrated about that. As the district 8 supervisor, i see the problem from a different perspective, which is we do have unhoused on our streets, and so far, it has been cost prohibitive and nearly impossible to find spaces in the castro that would be feasible in getting people off the streets. Im glad we were able to find the hummingbird site. My concern about this particular legislation, and i appreciate the amendments that have been brought forward, is that it centers Navigation Centers as the solution to homelessness, and as i think about homelessness and how it impacts housed and unhoused people in San Francisco, if youre an unhoused person in San Francisco, the solution is a home. It is a way to get into an s. R. O. , permanent Supportive Housing, coop, something that permanently gets you off of the street and into a best space. If you are a housed person, frustrated about the encampments that are outside your home, you want the fastest, cheapest way to get a safe, humane alternative for the people who are being forced to camp in your neighborhood. And although i believe that Navigation Centers are important, and particularly important for people who are reluctant to come indoors, there are a lot of people who are not reluctant to come indoors, and we are leaving those folks by the hundreds and even thousands some nights without a place to go. And although i take the point about this, you know, not addressing the whole panoply of things, i am concerned that it will displace resources from permanent Supportive Housing on the one hand and from more immediate and Cost Effective ways to get people shelter on the other hand. So where im looking for faster and more Cost Effective than what weve been doing over the last few years, i fear this is going to be slower and more expensive. To that end, i think the amendments that are being discussed will improve this and help the legislation be less impactful in a negative regard. But i remain concerned that tasking the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to tackle these goals in a sixmonth time frame when ive seen them tackle almost nothing in six months is unrealistic. Second, i think what constitutes the nav center is going to make it harder, more expensive, and slower to get these facilities up and running. So these are the concerns that i currently have. I will support the amendments today, but look forward to the conversation continuing. Chair mar thank you, supervisor mandelman. Supervisor haney . Clerk just a reminder in todays proceedings, please refrain from hissing, booing, or applauding so we can keep on track. Thank you very much. Supervisor haney thank you. I just want to thank everybody from the public who came out and for your thoughtful comments. I just want to respond to a couple of things that have been said. First, with the timeline, were going to meet the timeline with the hummingbird site and the site in district 3, and the other districts would have 36 months to build the remaining sites. I want to Say Something about permanent Supportive Housing. We absolutely need permanent Supportive Housing. We need it, and we need it fast. We just passed a 600 million housing bond. We passed an increase to the Office Development fee, which is going to bring in another 500 million, with a dedicated source of funding for homeless. We hopefully very soon are going to get money from prop c, which is another few hundred million dollars. We have thousands of units in the pipeline, and they absolutely need to come faster. If anybody wants to Work Together to ensure that theres a citywide commitment for that housing in every district, i will be the first to sign up to work on that with you. So lets do that. We need that, we need those exits, but lets be clear about what this is. This is also something we absolutely essentially need right now tonight. Many of the people who are going to be going into those housing exits, to that Supportive Housing, first need to be transitioned in a housing Navigation Center. They need to be in there tonight. Some of those folks will be able to qualify for housing in a certain amount of time, and right now, it takes a certain number of months for people to wait to be placed in housing. Other folks have other types of housing exits. In any case, our shelters are way over capacity to address the need that we have tonight, so i do find it hard to stomach that we have a situation where and i know, hopefully, supervisor mandelman, that your constituents are concerned about people housed constituents are concerned about people who are living in their doorsteps and on the commercial corridors, and youre call hsoc, and youre calling 311. What do you think is happening to those folks right now . They if we have opportunities for them to go anywhere, theyre going to shelters and Navigation Centers almost entirely in my district, district 9. So we do have a demonstrated clear urgent need for more Supportive Housing, and we have a clear need tight for more transitional shelter. And this proposal would fit perfectly with a proposal that also requires more permanent Supportive Housing citywide in every district, and i would support that entirely, but thats not what were doing here with this laemegislation. If we made this about permanent Supportive Housing, and we built, lets say, in district 1, where i know theres also challenging around homelessness in district 1, a 50unit permanent housing site, thats absolutely needed and required, and we should do that, but it doesnt allow us on an ongoing basis to address the urgent needs of getting people off the streets into temporary shelter, transitional shelter immediately. That would still leave district 1 without any transitional shelters tonight for people who need them, and i think thats a broken homelessness response system with massive gaps in it that will continue to leave so many people on the streets without a place to go. So i you know, i definitely support permanent Supportive Housing. I hear everyone, thats a critical essential support of the response system that needs to grow, but so is this, and thats why it was written as it is. And i think that for district 6 and 9 and 10, you know, ive built were building another two in district 6. The idea that other parts of the city i should say other elected officials in other parts of the city would continue to rely on sending folks solely to our district rather than stepping up and having that clear responsibility and mandate i think is very unfortunate and ineffective, especially when we know from what residents are saying and what polls have said that the neighborhoods themselves and the residents themselves want these services, want these transitional shelters in the neighborhood. They want them, so its really this building thats unfortunately behind the ball when it comes to stepping up and taking the responsibility to meet the demands of this crisis on our streets. So i i will im sure were going to go amendment by amendment, word by word, but i i support the amendments, and i appreciate the amendments that youve put forward, supervisor mar, but i i do not want to turn this into a a piece of legislation that requires permanent Supportive Housing in each district, though i would support that, too. So if you want to make this an and, or if you want to make a different set of legislation for that, i would complete to that, but i am also aware from the other coauthors that they feel very strongly that this needs to maintain the commitment to transitional, immediate shelters to Transitional Services onsite in the Navigation Center model. Lastly and this was said in the last meeting. You could have a parking lot in a district that is for 30 cars or r. V. S. They can be specifically focused on veterans or seniors or transitional age youth. They can be a hummingbird site for folks experiencing Mental Health or addiction. With these amendments, weve actually expanded it a lot more. So i think theres sufficient flexibility in here, and i would support the amendments you put forward, and i appreciate the work that youve put into these, supervisor mar, but with the exception of the piece around permanent Supportive Housing. Chair mar thank you, supervisor haney. Actually, just i wanted to see if we can just clarify one point that both you and supervisor mandelman, i think, referred to around the sixmonth time frame to create the first two Navigation Centers in districts without one. I think the b. L. A. Analysis, mr. Menard, you sort of looked at that and is six months a feasible yeah. Nick menard from the budget and legislative Analysts Office. We two have two Navigation Centers that are scheduled to open in the fall of this year, so assuming that timeline remains intact, they would meet the sixmonth requirement in the ordinance. Chair mar great. Thank you. That sounds good. And then, supervisor haney, one of your amendments is to extend, for the other nav centers to be opened, from 30 months, to 36 months. That sounds good. So yeah, i well, i actually, id like to move into the discussion about the proposed amendments. And again, supervisor haney and myself both introduced some proposed amendments today that i i guess are not necessarily i think a lot of them are complimentary and fine, and so but i would like to maybe i think process wise, its good to start with the section the amendments that are proposed for section 106. 31, requirement to open new Navigation Centers, because i think thats the section where there there theres some, like, sort of misalignment with the amendments were proposing. And i would actually, maybe i would just start off by saying that i support all of the amendments that youre proposing in the section with the exception of one, and thats in your new subsection d, other temporary shelters. So you know, so i appreciate the intent of that by allowing other types of shelters, you know, to be considered in fulfilling this you know, the nav center in every district. And so my the amendments that ive submitted, you know, are more are more descriptive of the other types of shelter and services that could be provided for the homeless homeless residents in every district. And and and i guess, you know so in i think were in agreement that other types of shelters if a Navigation Center are not feasible in a district, just that my amendments provide more description about what those alternative Shelter Services and services could be. The one significant difference that you highlighted is my amendments. Im also proposing that in addition to other types of transitional housing facilities, we also allow additional housing solutions, permanent housing to be considered in fulfilling the requirements of this legislation. And i i you know, i hear your points about how we need both, and the intent your original intent of this legislation with the focus on Navigation Centers and shelters and transitional housing to get folks living on the streets or unsheltered off the streets versus creating permanent Supportive Housing, but i think as you know, i i would i tend to agree with supervisor mandelman. And i think also what we heard from the department, from representatives at the last previous hearing and many of the speakers and the public that we have to kind of look at all you know, all of these these different strategies, and and and we need all of them kind of at the same time. And i think more more specifically, for some districts, like the sunset or district 4, you know, the built environment in the sense with its vacant homes and the more vacant parcels, it would be easy to find homes than a traditional Navigation Center. So i would like to start i would like to sort of propose for this section that we would accept all of the amendments that supervisor haney put forward except for the proposed new subsection d, in the section, other temporary shelters, and then accept all the amendments that i put forward for this section, which i think are would be complementary or work well with supervisor haneys amendments. Deputy City Attorney pearson, do you have any deputy City Attorney ann pearson. It might be simpler to take those two things one at a time and accept the amendments that have been introduced by supervisor haney with the exception of those made to section d, and following those, make a motion to accept the ones that you have suggested. Chair mar okay. Supervisor haney no, you cant clerk supervisor haney . Supervisor haney maybe my question might answer the publics question. So what we are going to do is take all of the amendments that i have proposed, except for the amendment that relates really to the type of shelters that would qualify, which would be 10 can you read the section that were and what well read it for the public. The motion that i heard articulated was limited to amendments that have been introduced to section 106. 31, and i understood the amendment to be a motion to accept the amendments that you have made, supervisor haney, to that section, with the exception of those amendments introduced to subsection d as an initial motion. Clerk just as for additional clarity, so we can make sure, there will be other later amendments proposed as we continue to go through this section 106. 1 through 106. 13, but for an initial point, im hearing the haney amendments, excepting for that subsection d, that first motion, from supervisor mar. Is that correct . Supervisor haney i thought you said be accepting them except for the ones in subsection d. Clerk thats right. Supervisor haney so thats different. Can we clarify which amendments that were talking about . Supervisor mar so i did think process wise, it would be good to start with section 106. 1 106. 31, and then, after that, we can go to the other substantive section, which is 106. 2, the operational requirement. But for now, i just think it would be helpful to focus on the the the proposed amendments to 106. 31, and i can am interested in making a motion to accept all of your amendments in this section, 106. 31, except for subsection d, because i think that the amendments that i introduced sort of expand on that. Okay. Supervisor mandelman . Supervisor mandelman well, im trying to figure out the overlay of the two amendments, because i think both supervisors have proposed to add flexibility, and i appreciate the additional flexibility that both are offering. I think that supervisor haneys legislation or amendment contemplates the possibility that a hummingbird could meet the requirements of this legislation by having the 30bed limit, and im not sure that i saw Something Like that in supervisor mars amendments, which i could be missing. Were quick reading up here, so im not sure. But if another temporary shelter includes something that has at least 30 individuals, im not im not sure if that was specifically done for, like, a hummingbird or something that catered to people with individual heightened needs. And im not sure a new homeless facility is defined as a nav center, which im not sure includes a hummingbird. It needs to have 150 beds or Something Like that. Theres some minimum that needs to be met to fit the definition of a nav center. So if we arent seaccepting supervisor haneys d, i would like to have some way to acknowledge shelters that are smaller for particularly good reason, like i think, you know, nav centers are, would be or hummingbirds are, would be included in the definition. Just a point of clarification in the process, and ill look to the clerk to correct me if im wrong. A motion has not been made with respect to subsection d, so if the committee were to vote to approve all of the amendments that are proposed to subsections a through c, it could move on and someone could make a motion as to the proposed amendments in subsection d. Chair mar yeah, thank you. I dont believe i made a motion, i just expressed an interest to make a motion. This is sort of complicated process wise. Supervisor haney well, i will move the amendment that i proposed to section 106. 31 with everything, with the exception of section d. Clerk everything on your text with a amendments that you presented on that section with the exception of subsection d . Supervisor haney yes. Clerk and moved by supervisor haney as a member of the committee. Chair mar great, and ill second that. Clerk okay. Would you like me to take a roll call vote on that or chair mar okay, yeah. I think we can do that can we take that without objection . Okay. [gavel]. Clerk so the motion is made to anticipate the amendments by supervisor haney to accept the textual amendments to subsection 1. Chair mar i then would like to make a motion to accept the amendments that ive introduced to section 106. 31 but with i think we can [inaudible] okay. Yeah but i would like to make sure that we address the point that supervisor mandelman brought up about acknowledging that the hummingbird place facility would serve this, as well, as a i think in my amendments it would be considered i think in my amendments, it would fall in a transitional housing facility with amendments. I think you supervisor mandelman mr. Chair, i think you could add other temporary shelters to the list of things that count as whatever the defined term is, list of homelessness facilities, and then have a definition of temporary shelter that basically mirrors yeah, i think that includes supervisor haneys language from d, i think. Chair mar mmhmm. Is it mainly the 30individual . Supervisor mandelman yeah, its an alternate type of temporary shelter that serves at least 30, but not limited to transitional housing or stablizati stabilization beds. That bill piece of d that has that would become part of new homeless facilities. Lets do your yours first, and then chair mar okay. Clerk can you restate your motion, please. Chair mar so i move that we accept the motions that weve introduced to 106. 31. Clerk would these override the amendments proposed by supervisor haney . Chair mar no, im proposing we do both, the ones that i and supervisor haney set, and then, my amendments in the entirety, i think they could go together. Clerk okay. You going to take a roll call vote on that . Chair mar yes. Clerk okay. Roll call vote on the amendments to 106. 31 as offered by supervisor mar. [roll call] clerk chair mar, there are two ayes and one no, with supervisor haney in the dissent. The motion prevails. [gavel]. Clerk thank you. Supervisor mandelman so its simple to do this now, so we can do this now or come back later. So the hummingbird solution, is to add a division of other temporary shelters that defines it as an alternative type of temporary shelter including but not limited to transitional housing, temporary, or shelter beds, and then, to add other temporary shelters to the definition in b1 of what is collectively new homeless facilities, so i would move that we do that. Chair mar i think thats good. Can i just ask a question. Why couldnt we include that under transitional housing facility . So youre proposing to add it as a new under definition as a fourth im sorry. I guess im just trying to understand why because under transitional housing facilities, i think that was meant meant supervisor mandelman i dont think hummingbird is a transitional shelter. Its a good model that helps people, but i dont think its good transitional housing. In a residential facility i dont think its a residential facility for Behavioral Health treatment, its a shelter with Behavioral Health treatment, so i think it does need to be separately called out. If theres discomfort with this, im also happy to work with work with the chair and to have somebody bring in the amendments next time were at the board or something, so either way. Chair mar okay. I think that sounds good. Supervisor mandelman okay. Then i rescind my motion. Clerk thank you. Chair mar all right. And then, maybe we can go to the other substantive section, thats 106. 2, Operational Requirements for Navigation Centers. I i would just move that we accept the amendments to this section, that supervisor manny has introduced in their entirety. Clerk do you have a second to that . Supervisor haney oh, second, yes, thank you. Clerk im hearing supervisor mar moving the textual amendments proposed by supervisor haney in their entirety. Do we need to take a roll call vote on that . Chair mar can we take that without objection . Okay. [gavel]. Clerk okay. Without objection. Chair mar are there any other amendments that i believe theres one amendment to the findings that hasnt been addressed yet. Chair mar oh, right. So that yeah, i did have one amendment to the findings stating that in districts that may not have applicable building, safety, or height requirements that meet the admin codes, there may be exceptions to transitional housing for persons experiencing homelessness. So so i would move that we accept that amendment. Supervisor haney can we take a vote . Clerk so on the motion to insert in the findings a new subsection i as offered by supervisor mar in his textual amendments, supervis amendments [roll call] clerk chair mar, there are two ayes and one no, with supervisor haney in the dissent. Chair mar thank you. Clerk the motion prevails. [gavel]. Clerk just a moment while i catch up. Chair mar and deputy City Attorney pearson, correct me if i am wrong, but weve dealt with all the amendments that have been introduced, and you can just deal with the other language thats right. I think youve proposed all the amendments, and we can work with your office to approve all the amendments that were proposed today and changes to the title, as well. Chair mar so again, thank you so much, supervisor haney, for sponsoring this important legislation and for pushing this discussion about expanding our services for the Homeless Population citywide to address the crisis on a citywide level. Supervisor haney thank you, yeah. Chair mar so well thisll be continued to the next i would i would like to move that we continue to the next g. A. On to. Meeting. Clerk the next regular g. A. O. Meeting will be march 5, 2020. Chair mar okay. Actually, since were considering scheduling a special g. A. O. Meeting that week because of the number of items, maybe we could continue this to the call of the chair so that we could schedule it clerk is that your motion . Chair mar yeah, so i would move that we schedule that to the call of the chair. Can we take that without objection . [gavel]. Chair mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call item number 2 oh, actually, there was a request to take one item out of order. Supervisor fewer requested that we take item 6, so mr. Clerk, please call item number 6. Clerk agenda item number 6 is a hearing on the citys preparation for the 2020 census. Chair mar great. Hello, supervisors. Good morning. My name is chelsea boylar from supervisor fewers office. We will be brief because i know that there are a lot of people here for item number 2. We didnt want to delay this hearing because census outreach is about to begin next month and is launching. But the intention of todays hearing on the 2020 census is to highlight the planning for the intensive undertaking for the census. Happens every ten years in San Francisco. We have a goal of counting all of our residents, especially those residents that are identified as hard to count for many reasons. To be counted is to have voice and power in our country. We rely on the census to define who we are. It ensures Representative Government at all levels. It is used to define congressional districts and provides the most complete data fosh research and policy planning in the public and sectors. As we head into the 2020 census, supervisor fewer is particularly concerned about how to ensure counting of children, noncitizens, limited English Speaking people, unhoused people, folks in Public Housing and more. We know theres a lot of work going into making this happen, so i am appreciative of you all taking the time to have this hearing today and appreciative for director of the Civic Engagement immigrant affairs, adrian tan, who is here to make a presentation, and then two community presenters, but hopefully, this item will be short, and thank you very much. Chair mar thank you. Supervisor tan . Good morning, supervisors, chair mar. Adrian pan, and im joined by my colleagues on the team, and we will breeze right through this presentation. A year ago we shared our initial thinking on the 2020 census and overcoming the many challenges to making sure that every San Francisco resident was accurately, fairly, and completely counted by the u. S. Census bureau during the 2020 census. We are asked today to we were asked today to provide an update on whats been done so far. So first of all, i want to thank you for your leadership on the board, and for president yee and supervisor fewer for keeping the focus on the 2020 census. Theres a lot going on in the city, but question need to get this but we need to get this done. Just the quickest recap on the census, census 101 is a count of everybody, and it happens every ten years. And why the census matters is about power, voice, and funding, as chelsea said. But more important, every person counted in San Francisco is worth about 2,000 in federal funding and resources each year for the next ten years, so the census will also impact our redistricting, our congressional representation, and the political voice. But if you think about just the money alone, thats about over the next decade, 17. 7 billion coming to our city, and we need that for all the essential services for our people. So i think that you are aware of the many, many challenges. Were not going to go through all of them. The census has been politicized, its been abused. Everything that youve heard, theres historic undercount, theres a lot of fear under our immigrant population, whether youre a long time immigrant or undocumented, all of the talk about adding the Citizenship Question has already done its harm and damage in making our people even more scared, and then, there are accessibility issues. Its the First Digital census, so we have language barriers. Were not sure if this is going to pose some risk or cybersecurity risk. Theres declining trust in government, especially in the last three years. I dont need to tell you that. Youre well aware of that. With every danger comes opportunity, so we look at this as an opportunity to mobilize the people of San Francisco. Its a call to action. Weve got to standup to hate and intimidation. Weve got to energyize the next generation, test the field for mass mobilization, and there are census Jobs Available that pay 30 an hour if we can get our people in the pipeline as quickly as possible. So now, im going to give you just an overview of the San Francisco effort. Its s. F. Counts for the 2020 census. And we say that every counts and needs to be counted. Despite what you hear from wilbur ross or the president or other people, yeah, our people count, and our focus is going to be on hardtoreach areas of the city. So what is s. F. Count . So this is a coordinated grassroots effort with a Broad Network of community arts, civic, education, labor, and faithbased organizations, to make sure that everyone in San Francisco is accurately counted in the census. Our goals are real simple. Increase the access, remove the barriers, foster trust because theyve got to at least trust us, and then motivate our residents, and there are different ways to motivate them. San francisco is the only county in the 2010 census to hit its goal of 73 in selfresponse, and thats our goal again this time. Its system bishs, and we have its ambitious, and weve got our work cut out this time around, but were not alone. Were doing outreach in every single neighborhood, doing relevant messages from trusted voices, boots on the ground operations, real Grassroots Community based organizations. And i have to give a shout out out, many of our community bases organizations are in the room based organizations are here in the room. They may be here for other items on the agenda. But we couldnt do the work without them, and you will hear from two of those organizations in a while, and making sure there are locations throughout the city, and making this a creative, inclusive arts based campaign. I hope its not going to be a representative not going to be representative of the u. S. Censusbased effort, but complementary. Were right in the middle of Community Outreach and education, and our Community Partners have been busy doing this since july of last year. The census goes live in march, and census day is april 1. But in between then, you know, people can jump online as early as march 12 to fill out their forms, which is what we hope most people will do, whether they need language assistance or need access to computer, were going to make that happen. On march 9, people can participate by telephone. They dont want to go online, there are other ways to participate. So finally, we did launch our San Francisco effort, s. F. Counts, with Speaker Pelosi and mayor breed on january 17. That was attended by hundreds of Community Members. Most of the 57 members of the San Francisco complete count committee, community leaders, grantees, labor and faithbased organizations, so it is game on for s. F. Counts, and im going to turn it over to robert clinton, our director of services. Good morning, supervisors. Thank you for having us. Just going to talk briefly about the things that weve done to make sure that our residents are being heard in the 2020 census. Children 05 were the most undercounted group in the 2010 census. Were making sure that everybody who is touched by this office is aware of the 2020 census. People experiencing homelessness are particularly vulnerable, especially in this First Digital census. Were working with the department of homelessness to distribute information, saying anyone can do the census and everyone should do the census. The Lgbtq Community, working with the office of transgender initiatives, working with the department of aging services. This is one of our outreach events, we have one of our superstar supervisors whos on screen there, also in front of us. This was an event at the Commonwealth Club that talked about the relationship between the Lgbtq Community and the 2020 census that went pretty well. Had some representation from our immigrant rights commission, from our leg aide. We had someone from the youth commission, as well. We are funding 30plus nonprofits who are doing census outreach and education work in their communities. They are doing work in language, they are doing work where people are at Different Community events, theyre creating bespoke census events, as well, and theyre spreading word about the census actively since last july. With the office of early care and education, they have Child Care Provider roundtables. Weve been at the last one, and the next one is on friday, providing information about the census in language to all Child Care Providers who are touched by this office. They all have received our census materials, they all understand how to help people to do the census, as well, so that is a really successful pard partnership. With h. S. H. , making sure they have bespoke materials, they are reaching out to people experiencing homelessness to let them know that the census is available to them, as well. O. T. I. , we are partnering with them in a number of days. They have a fellowship program, and their fellows are all being trained to give census assistance in spanish to people who are part of the Lgbtq Community. H. S. A. Has been one of our most important partners, and then with department of aging and adult services, we had a meeting last week that talked about the importance of our census for our aging and people with disabilities. We have a really robust complete count committee. Our census Community Partners are doing really fantastic work in the communities that they serve to tell people about the census, as well. Our arts based campaign is live. Youve seen some of the kiosks on Market Street that say come to your census, and theyre encouraging people to get excited about the census by using art. The interfaith partners have been great, and a lot of other partners, too. Weve done events in all of your districts, as well. We launched s. F. Counts, a soft launch, last autumn in the civic center commons. Were going to be at the Lunar New Year event this coming weekend. Supervisor mandelman was at the event we threw for the Lgbtq Community. We want to be out in the community wherever we can to tell people that the census is coming, 18 days away, and that they should shall be really excited they should be really excited to participate. My colleague, jamie, is going to talk about our communications. Good morning, supervisors. Im jamie richardson. Rober robert touched on this, but weve been focused on funding a hyperlocal campaign. The slogan is come to your census. Its provocative, its multilingual, and its funny, and the second phase of that will be multilingual bus shelters, bill boards, and more, including partnerships with local artists. Heres an example of some of these local kiosks. Theyre in chinese, spanish, filipino, and english, and all of the art on these kiosks are from local artists that are included in this active action. Not only are we doing outreach thats informational, but also provocative and gets people excited about doing the census. Our s. F. Counts communication strategy started back in the summer where weve informed people what is the census, why we do it, and so on. The toolkits are available to all of our nonprofit organizations, and anywhere we go, we make these available, with inclusive languages. Theyre available in spanish, russian, chinese, and filipino. Were on the second round of our outreach collateral to motivate people to action and participate in the census, and those will be in a lot more languages than the ones listed here . I want to share some Digital Tools that weve been building around the census. The first is working with the Digital Services team from the city and county doing census page, sf. Gov census. This is fully accessible, and its written at a fifth grade level, so its accessible to all of our residents. Weve also made an s. F. Counts website, sfcounts. Org. All of our census centers, and all organizations that have opted into this are providing census help starting in march where anyone in San Francisco can come to these organizations and say hey, i need help either accessing a computer to do my census or i need help in language doing my census or i just need some wifi, and i can do it on my phone right now. So all of these are available on our site. People can select the language that they need, and also by special needs, so theres a help for folks in the Lgbtq Community, for people that are unhoused, as well as a. D. A. Ak accessible locations. And theres an f. A. Q. Listed in spanish, chinese, and filipino. And weve been sharing all of our census outreach online in our social media counts which are listed there, and im going to kick it back to director pan. So supervisors in closing, we wanted to show this image and share why we chose to use an artsbased campaign for the people of San Francisco. This is different than other cities and counties, but we hope, you know, that they will adopt this too. So this gentlemans chamber is charlie, and he is a San Francisco resident. He was unhoused. There are thousands of charlies in San Francisco, and they all need to be counted and participate. And how we get charlie to come to a site and fill out a form that is only nine questions, but sometimes difficult for people to fill out is really the challenge to us. So we are using art to build the firstever San Francisco coalition for civic participation across arts, technology, philanthropy, and faithbased communities. We need every san franciscan to jump online march 12 and fill out their census form. Were going to provide the help they need, but theyve got to be motivated. We need to do it for our city, our family, our friends, our neighbors, and our communities. Thank you very much for your support, and we look forward to creating individual p. S. A. S with you and activating events out in your districts. I also want to give a shoutout to our Community Partners, and you will hear from two of them after you ask questions, or if there arent any questions, theyll be on desk. Youve heard hong may, and happy to answer questions or we can move to our Community Partners. Chair mar thank you so much. I think we can move to hearing from the Community Partners. Thank you. Thank you, director pan. Good morning. My name is hong may, and i represent chinese for affirmative action. Thank you so much for your leadership, and i want to thank president yee and supervisor fewer for calling the meeting on 2020 census implementation and inviting me to chair our work on census 2020. As you heard, we are in tminus 18 mode, going live on march 9. Chinese for affirmative action, c. A. A. , weve been working to tackle the appropriations for one of the most challenging federal census yet. We now know that there are three ways to fill out the census between march 12 and april 30. Online, by phone, and on paper, with language assistance depending on which method Community Members decide to employ. There will be a late submission, also known as the late response period, up to july 31, but we are working to make sure that all Community Members, hard to count or not, are filling out the ninequestion survey between march 12 and april 30 to make sure that our count is up and accurate. The nine questions on the survey does not include a Citizenship Question. It will not inquire about Sensitive Information such as bank account, citizenship, and employment efforts. I want to thank c. A. A. S Staff Members who have spear headed train the trainer workshops to train over 500 staff in the many neighborhoods to deliver 2020 2020 census messages. On that front, c. A. A. Has also set up a Technical Assistance hotline to troubleshoot during the implementation. The attitudinal barriers that arise from certain populations cannot be understated, some borne out of misinformation felt by people of color, immigrants, and marginalized communities. Untangling these from the access barriers, c. A. A. Has zeroed in on messages that first confronts confidentiality and Privacy Concern by reiterating that the census is safe and easy. Second, we are instituting a fraud and scam mechanism by provide Accurate Information so nobody falls prey to bad actors misusing the information. By completing the census, our communities can get a fair share in the coming ten years and help our democracy work again. C. A. A. Has partnered with s. F. Media services and we have received vibrant coverage since july 2019. We have also partnered with office of city engagement and office of immigrant affairs to put out census materials in traditional chinese script. C. A. A. Will publish accurate inlanguage and culturally competent content [inaudible] while march is right around the corner, and census 2020 quickly approaching, our work with local partners can help remove barriers can ensure that hard to count communities can participate in the census. We will be participating in s. F. Risings feed canvassing operations to inform and motivate hard to count communities and geographies to participate and offer mobile assistance in large scale events so that we are able to help hard to count communities complete the census on tablets on the spot. We look forward to working with you and collectively demonstrate our political courage to say we are here, were not going anywhere, and we count. Id like to invite my colleague, marian, to share her work. Thank you, hong may, for sharing your information. My name is Marian Elaine myers, and i am the Civic Engagement coordinat coordinator for s. F. Rising. We provide comprehensive census outreach and education to yu undercounted communities across San Francisco. Were trying to educate them and by focusing our outreach activity in those hard to count tracts, which include many neighborhoods in the southeast quadrant, including the bayview, excelsior, mission, o. M. I. , viz valley, and well also be spending operations to chinatown and the tenderloin. We spend last year planning our outreach activities and educating the community to dispel any concerns about privacy, the Citizenship Question, and many other concerns that they have. This march, well be sending over 50 canvassers throughout the city to make sure that residents are counting themselves in. Our outreach will take place in spanish, english, chinese, arabic, and filipino, among others. As you all know, this census has been politicized with the current administration, and it is the first online census. We want to make sure we close the digital gap by making sure that folks know how to access it online and also folks know what the exact questions being asked are, and that their information is secure. This is also our firstever time performing a comprehensive outreach using a voter Data Platform called p. D. I. , which will now give us information about all residents so we will be able to target all addresses and focus those addresses in the hard to count districts. We want to thank our Partnership Organizations for a complete count, and we look forward to working with you to make sure all san franciscans are counted. Thank you. Chair mar thank you so much. So thats the presentation . Great. Well, thanks thank you so much, director pan, and the ocaa team and all the Community Partners for leading this effort. Thank you, supervisor fewer, for calling the hearing and continuing to make this a priority here at city hall. Maybe we can go to Public Comment. Are there any members of the public who wish to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. So thanks again, everyone. Colleagues, can we file this hearing without objection . [gavel]. Chair mar thank you. Mr. Clerk, please call item number 2. Clerk agenda item number 2, resolution authorizing the department of Public Health to award a one time limited term grant to Edgewood Center for children and families for the purpose of maintaining the fiscal solvency of edgewood, in an amount not to exceed 350,000 for a period not to exceed 90 days, to commence following board approval. Chair mar the c. S. U. Is an unlocked 24hour Mental Health facility serving youth ages 517 with a team comprised of counselors, nurses, clinical administrators, and a psychiatrist available 24 hours a day. When children are referred to an age appropriate facility like c. S. U. , hospitalizations decrease. Children and families can access appropriate services from the c. S. U. , including acute intensive Services Provided onsite at edgewood. I am deeply concerned [inaudible] chair mar no matter their ability to pay. Without the c. S. U. , we are leaving many medical recipients without the specialty Mental Health services they are entitled to. I want to acknowledge the staff misconduct and why the department stopped placing children at edgewood last year, which has led us to this point. At the time, i supported the departments decision to end referrals upon the surfacing of the sexual abuse allegations. I welcome and encourage transparen transparency on this issue in our conversations today. We must put our Children First and problem solve together for their future. I have been working with d. P. H. And edgewood on corrective actions so that the facility meets our high standards of care and rebuilds the public trust so we can begin placing youth there again. Despite corrective actions and referrals from other entities that have deemed edgewood as safe, edgewoods action plan has not been approved. The agency is experiencing cash flow challenges due to lack of referrals and help from the city. Edgewood needs to remain solvent to complete the Community Action process. The onetime funding gives us an opportunity to save our one and last crisis stabilization facility for minors. Today, we will hear from the department, edgewood, the Third Party Consultant working on the corrective action plan, and the b. L. A. Before i begin with the presentations, would either of my colleagues like to make any remarks . Great. So we have four presentations today, and i would like to suggest we listen to all the presentations before we ask questions of the presenters and go into discussion as a committee. First, i would like to welcome greg wagner, chief Financial Officer from the department of Public Health. Thank you, chair mar, members of the committee. Greg wagner, d. P. H. As you mentioned 234 your remarks, edgewood has mentioned in your remarks, edgewood has been a community partner, and we request 350,000 to keep edgewood financially sustainable while we go through this process that youve referred to. As you mentioned, beginning in summer 2019, the city became aware of allegations of staff abuse of children at edgewood, and needless to say, that created significant concern by the city partners, d. P. H. , and h. S. A. , who use edgewood services. We, in response to these allegations, also, as you mentioned, in august 2019, froze placements collectively as a city in edgewoods Residential Programs and went into the process of working with edgewood on a corrective action plan that would remediation the safety issues and get us back into a place where we felt that it was safe and responsible to continue placements at edgewood. So in the intervening months, we, as a city, have been working closely with edgewood to talk through the issues and develop a court of action, and we agreed on a scope of a corrective action plan and are moving forward today with the request for this grant which would allow a period of time for edgewood, in consultation with the city as needed, to take those actions and also working with the city Going Forward on a longterm Financial Sustainability model so that we can work ourselves into a position where the financial concerns will not recur. As you pointed out, supervisor mar, separately and apart from the allegations that caused the cease in placements, we have been aware sometime in working with edgewood that there are financial concerns, and the fact that the city has frozen placements and therefore a reduction of funds to edgewood, edgewood has exacerbated that and put them in a difficult financial situation. We clearly want to get ourselves to a place where we can resolve the issues and continue placements, and we support fully this course of action. In terms of the mechanics of this action, the department of health does have the authority to enter into a professional Services Contract where we Purchase Services from edgewood, and we use that contract for our normal course of business, we do not have e the and thats the reason that we have requested and that you have brought forward this resolution, which would give us that authority to make the grant. The grant would include, as you also mentioned, a set of deliverables, including the collective action plan, a financial business plan, and would be paid over milestones as set forth in the grant agreement. So we are very hopeful about this process. I think both the city and edgewood are very committed to getting ourselves back into a place where any remaining issues are corrected, and we have a Comfort Level that we can resume services and also that we put ourselves in a position where we have a model that is financially sustainable for the city and for edgewood Going Forward. So we have our team here to answer any questions that you should have when you get to that point. Thank you. Chair mar thank you so much, mr. Wagner, and thank you to all the work that d. P. H. , h. S. A. , and the City Attorneys office have put into working this important issue. Next, id like to welcome lynn dulce, who is the c. E. O. Of edgewood. I was going to say good morning, but good afternoon. Im truly grateful for your support on behalf of the children and families we serve. You know, i know you know in San Francisco, nonprofits cant do our work alone and truly depend on the board of supervisors to make fair and measures decisions on behalf of your constituents. So as the chief executive officer for Edgewood Center for children and families, i am also a therapist, and i have served for 30 years in one way or another children and families in San Francisco. Prior to this position, i was the director of Public Health for San Francisco county. I cofounded the San Francisco department of Public Health trauma transformed trauma care curriculum that is considered a National Model for organizational change, and previously, i worked to advance and develop an a. P. A. , American Psychological association approved multicu approved multicultural program. I developed and oversaw outpatient Mental Health services and all services in the community. You may know that edgewood is the oldest nonprofit in San Francisco. We have served children and families in San Francisco since the gold rush. Through the world wars, San Franciscos coming of age in of 60s and 70s, crack, the racial crisis, and the challenges that are growing right now in our community. 90 of edgewoods work are done in the communities over the last 20 years, edgewood has served as the Training Facility for 1 of all child psychiatrists nationwide. Our partnership with ucsf extends beyond the school of medicine and into the school of nursing where we train Nurse Practitioner students who are interested in providing Psychiatric Health in under served communities. We have provided intergenerational family cancered care through our kinship support services, the very First Support services for grandparents taking care of their grandchildren before the state developed any care for these families. We keep children with their families in loving homes. When i learned about the devastating misconduct by two employees who cleared background checks and who were approved by the state to work in edgewoods residential Treatment Facilities, i fired them. I immediately set to work to fully understand the conditions at edgewood that led to egregious safety 3wr5e egregious breaches in the communities we serve. In order to ensure the safety of children in edgewood, we have made structural and procedural changes. Two months ago, in december d the california state licensing board closed all complaints against edgewood and issued our Permanent Operating license, something they definitely would not have done if they were at all concerned about the safety of children in our care. For over six months, my dedicated, talented and diverse team and i have worked with San Francisco county Human Service agency as well as the department of Public Health on a corrective action plan to ensure the safety and wellbeing of children in our care. The independent Consulting Team we hired per the countys mandate has submitted over 400 pages of documentation that addresses the countys concern for safety at Edgewood Center, and still, our publicly ensured youth and our families who are disproportionate lie African American and latinx have been denied to our services. Prior, children have had no disruption in services or treatment at edgewood. Specifically, without the Crisis Stabilization Service which is often the gate way to shortterm treatment, children as young as five and ad old as 17 are back to waiting for assessments in Emergency Rooms or being locked in units. I witnessed firsthand children waiting for Mental Health assessments in the emergency room and in the hallway in between the emergency room and the adult psychiatric emergency services, no place for children experiencing a psychiatric crisis. I think we all agree on that. My experience working with sfusd schools for children with Suicidal Ideation wait for hours in School Offices for someone with Decision Making power to come to assess them, someone who will tell them what the next step will be and where they will go. They are terrified, and their waiting increases their agitation as well as hopelessness. Six years ago, edgewoods crisis stabilization unit opened its doors. Led by director liz scilliado, it has been a place for children. Its a standalone unlocked pediatric setting where children and families receive immediate safety assessments and support by a highly skilled diverse Multilingual Team of professionals 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Im going to leave us with four takeaways today. The immediate safe concerns at edgewood have been addressed. There was no abuse alleged or reported in the crisis stabilization unit. The edgewood crisis stabilization unit funding needs to be secured today and into the future. The needs of our communitys most Vulnerable Children and families should always come first. The choice you make today will have a Lasting Impact on many, many young people and their families and in our community. Our prisons are filled with those who were once children left yun served, please do not fund the only c. S. U. For San Francisco youth. Lets put some focus on the need to build a sustainable system for children and families. I look forward to any and all conversations with the city and county and organizations who want to work with edgewood now and in the future. In times of crisis, we must come together to under the complexity of trauma and to collaborate, understanding what trauma entails, so that organizations like edgewood can prioritize education and healing for families. On behalf of the children and families we serve, thank you very much for your consideration today, and i look forward to questions later. Chair mar thank you so much, miss dolce. Next, id like to welcome john steinfirst with a Third Party Consultant working on a corrective action plan. Good afternoon. My name is john steinfirst, and a longtime resident of San Francisco, and by way of background, i began my career as a residential counselor, social worker, therapist, clinical supervisor, manager, a director, and c. E. O. , and interim of several agencies since my socalled retirement about ten years ago. For 20 years, i was the c. E. O. Of fred pinch youth center based in oakland with residential and Community Based services in california and as far south as san diego. I have a model consultancy practice with nonprofits and do Expert Witness work with attorneys, equally representing plaintiffs and defendants. Fred finch and edgewood are very similar in our mission and services, both beginning as orphan ages orphanages in the 19 century and emerging as family and Children Centers in the 21 century. I founded the Cypress Group several years. Carol schroeder, the retired executive director of the California Children and Family Alliance services. We contracted with edgewood in late september 2019 in response to the citys request to begin to look and assure by our study and assessment that youth who are referred to the Residential Programs at edgewood will be safe and who are served on the edgewoods vicente campus. We work closely and collaboratively with edgewood, the department of health and Health Services agency to complete a comprehensive top to bottom assessment of edgewood. Today, we are focused on edgewoods crisis stabilization unit known, as you know, as the c. S. U. To the best of our knowledge, based upon scores of interviews with staff and board members, after reviewing hundreds, maybe thousands of pages of documents, we have no evidence of any abuse or personal rights towards the children and youth served at the c. S. U. C. S. U. Has a rich staffing ratio, three staff to one child for 24 hours a day. Because of the acuity and Behavioral Health issues of those placed at the c. S. U. , ensuring the highest level of intense services. Despite a thorough review, no findings have been identified related at the present time to c. S. U. C. S. U. Leadership and oversight is strong, and the structure of the c. S. U. Facility is such that youth are visible to multiple staff excuse me at all times. In our february 10 meeting with city officials, the interim Behavioral Health Services Director emphasized how valuable their services are. The steinfirst group is a group of highly comfortable individuals saying that edgewood serves the most vulnerable in San Francisco, and that the c. S. U. Is needed by the city to serve those children and their families. Say with respect to you as the board of supervisors and to our city officials, we hope you will consider our thoughts and comments in your deliberations. Thank you very much. Chair mar thank you, mr. Steinfirst. Next, weve i just wanted to ask nick menard from the budget and legislative Analysts Office to share kind of highlights from your analysis on this item. Sure. Thank you, chair mar. So the proposed resolution states that it would authorize the department of Public Health to provide a grant of 350,000 to Edgewood Center for children and Family Services for a 90day period so that the organization may continue to operate. The grant moneys will be sourced from prior appropriations from the citys contract with edgewood, and as the presentation stated, they have sought board approval to issue this grant because the board doesnt issue grants for this purpose, so for that reason, we consider this to be a policy issue for the board. Chair mar colleagues, before we go to Public Comment, would either of you have any questions or remarks . Okay. Why dont we go to Public Comment. So i have a number of speaker cards that have been submitted. If you hear your name called, please step up to the right side of the room and step up to the microphone. Jessica anderson, kerrie kirby, chris bigs, chris rivers, michelle mcgriff, and nate lennox. First speaker, please. Hi. My name is jessica anderson. Im a resident of district 8 in noe valley. I have spent much of my life in San Francisco. I spent 25 years living in noe valley, and i have been working in San Francisco since the 70s. Im a banker, now retired. I urge you to allow for access for the c. S. U. For children who are relying on government funding for payment. This is absolutely critical. I also urge you to look at the delays that have been done in terms of ongoing financing, and also, the construction oriented financing that the department of Public Health is asking for, sort of pay as you submit. Its extremely difficult for any company, and as a lender, i know this to be true, for any company to survive, and for a nonprofit thats living on the edge all the time, it would make much more sense for everyone to get this resolved. It sounds like the state of california has given them a clean bill of health. Lets move forward. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. For give me. Im dr. Stewart butlare, and i was asked to go to the front of the line. Im regional director for Mental Health for kaiser permanen permanente. We have a longstanding relationship with edgewood. Weve continued to support the facility through its travails, primarily because of the transparency, the excellent care that they provide, as well as their plan of correction, which was very detailed. We continue to provide very substantial Case Management to assure ourselves of the safety of our patients and checked with the families of each of the patients that were there and discharged. About 20 of the patients who go to the crisis stabilization unit are kaiser kids. There are very few inpatient psychiatric beds in northern california. To give you a sense of it, from the oregon border to san luis obispo, theres about 20 patient beds, so these units are essential to provide crisis stabilization. They prevent suicides, which is the second leading cause, the second leading cause of death for kids ages 10 to 20. Its very crucial to have this type of support for children. There is no facility that provides crisis stabilization for ages 5 to 12 in the bay area, aside from this facility, and it is really a crucial program. I just wanted to point out that ooc oft oftentimes suicide is not the result of a psychosis chair mar thank you, doctor. [inaudible] chair mar yeah. Clerk next speaker, please. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker, please. My name is brandon carter. I had the privilege of being a resident at Edgewood Center for children and families for two years, from 1998 to about 2000, and also had the privilege of being able to work at edgewood as a team leader and residential counselor as well as in the schoolbased Service Program that edgewood provides. Ive also had the privilege to staff youth within the c. S. U. For brief moments of time. Im here to kind of just piggyback on the need for edgewood, what edgewood did for me, and why i feel like you dont take something off the board that is relevant and prevalent in the moment, and its something that we need. Its something thats ongoing. As ive heard many times, its one of the only services in the city that provides that acute services to the youth of San Francisco. Ive seen firsthand the work that is done there. I have i was at edgewood for three to four years, working as a staff member. Ive seen a lot, but well leave that out. I hate to hear that doors are being closed on youth or youth are being sent miles and miles away because we dont provide a certain service. I hope this pulls through, and i hope that edgewood is here for many years, and many youth are given the opportunity there, as well. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is dawn stickle, and im cochair of the juvenile Justice Youth association. Nancy rubin was the former chair of edgewood, until 2017 and has held a number of high level positions dealing with Psychiatric Services in the bay area. Edgewood as an agency has never backed away from the challenges. Rather, they have embraced the needs of the children and families unlike many such agencies in the state. Edgewood has never changed its mission or taken the easy way out. When faced with the current challenges of sexual allegations, edgewood did not back away. They immediately fired the employees, notified over 3,000 families and professional partners of the allegations, complied with all investigations, enhanced security practices over and above those required by the state, enhanced review and quality and on and on, like youve heard today. Im summarizing. I think its important to say San Francisco has not continued to work as a willing partner through this whole thing. As a former county health and Human Services director and a long time county manager, this is a surprise. Stri San Francisco worked with laguna honda and a number of other places, and we strongly urge you to work with edgewood in all the ways that matter. Maybe someone can read the rest of this letter. Clerk we will go to the next speaker who is in line for their two minutes. Thank you. Well start a new two minutes now. Yet the city has suspended admission since august 2019 to both the Residential Program and the crisis stabilization unit. Not only has this placed the agency under tremendous financial strain, but most importantly this policy by the city has deprived children and families of edgewood services. Children have been sent all over california and out of state. They are placed in adult hospital psychiatric facilities during crises. The city has created another crisis for our citizens, particularly those without means, by depriving them of edgewood services. Edgewood has been a loyal, steadfast partner for over 160 years. As new creative programming is being birthed for locking children up at juvenile haul, edgewood could play a key and pivotal role in developing new programming. I stand with my colleagues, imploring you to resolve this situation immediately. Your action to provide this bridge money is a first step in reopening the facility. This is an important next step. It must be done. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. My name is margaret broadkin. I have been an advocate for children since 1978. Edgewood is a treasure to this community. Theres maybe a handful of cities in the whole country that has a facility like edgewood with the resources it has, that its licensed, that is right in the city. They need to be our partners. We need to plan with them, we need to reopen the c. S. U. , we need to start referrals immediately, and its not going to stop there. This is a stopgap thing. We need to start a collaborative, respectful planning process with them, with h. S. A. , with d. P. H. , and with j. P. D. We think were going to plan alternatives for kids in the juvenile hall, most of whom have mental issues . How are we going to do that if were strangling organizations that have issues . Ive heard people say that oh, they cant manage their money. The amount that Residential Care providers get compared to what it really costs to do this is not reasonable. They have been amazing, that they have stayed in place, and theyve done it because of the generosity of their board and the amount of private dollars theyve raised. In the time ive been doing this work, i have watched Residential Care after Residential Care after Residential Care for kids close. We do not want to let edgewood close. Its a resource to us, its a treasure, and we need to collaborate together. And i want to say, were here because were frustrated. I feel like the citys been on a maybe well meaning but totally misguided crusade to make this to put crazy and bureaucratic demands im an lcsw in addition to being a child advocate chair mar thank you. Thank you so much. Clerk before we go to the next speaker, once again, for folks who have come in from the public for todays proceedings, please refrain from interrupting the proceedings by applauding, booing, hissing, or any other audible sounds that get us off track. Thank you. Good afternoon. Since 1851, edgewood has represented the best qualities of San Francisco, of a compassionate and nurturing response to the most Vulnerable Children and families in the community who have the least resources. Today at a time when the crisis stabilization unit is at risk, and most importantly, the children are unable to come to the crisis stabilization unit. I respectfully request that you approve this grant request so that we can continue the services that are so urgently needed. Thank you. Hello. Thank you for putting doing this taking this item under consideration today. My name is chris rivers. I work with greg on staff at edgewood. Ive been there three years, and i work with our Foundation Partners to Fund Additional services and needs in the organization. And over those three years, ive watched a rising tide of statistics, alarming statistics about teen suicide, those who faced untreated Mental Health in our country, and the c. S. U. Has continued to be a beacon of light for many children and their families. The work that i do works because its a Public Private partnership. I have many partners who want to continue to step up and provide tens of thousands of dollars to support the c. S. U. And the work that they do, but they can do it without your leadership. They cant do it without you standing up and saying you care about this facility because of what it does for the community. So i just want to thank you again for considering this, and i strongly encourage you to pass this 350,000 support for edgewood to allow us to continue to provide these Crucial Services. Thank you. Chair mar next services, please. Hello. My name is michelle mcgriff, and im a family partner at c. S. U. , and ive been at edgewood for 12 years now. Before the c. S. U. , there was the i worked in residential until the c. S. U. Opened, and so ive been there since it opened, and i just wanted to as a family partner, i wanted to touch on being a voice for the family. Since we dont have many families here, id like to be their voice, and i hope that you guys can find some empathy and compassion for the families that we serve. I have i came to the edgewood for being a client myself. The services there have helped i wasnt able to do it without them, so i know what the families receive at the c. S. U. , all of edgewood. I also work at the schools and in the Wellness Centers, and ive been told that because of us not being able to receive medical kids, the Wellness Centers now have to make appointments for the children, where that didnt happen before. And i hope that you guys will look at this and know that we are really needed in the community throughout the city. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is yolanda jackson. Im the director and General Council of the Bar Association of San Francisco, and im here representing our 7500plus members. We handle juvenile and dependency cases in San Francisco, and therefore, theres a legal matter that this all impacts, as well, which im here to talk to you about. So children and family and juvenile and delinquency and dependency court, the cases have to go through the court. Their advocates cannot effectively advocate for their clients unless families participate in these services. Children and families are denied due process of the law and their constitutional right to family if they do not have adequate access to services. Edgewood has been a pillar in San Francisco Mental Health since 1851, as youve heard, and their treatment are often an essential component of Court Ordered services. San francisco has had a foster home for many, many years, with 65 of our youth being placed outside of San Francisco. It is now common for our foster youth to be placed in fresno, stanislaus, and other counties, away from their families. I encourage San Francisco to seriously consider the bridge funding thats being requested and to continue to provide the critical funding for the services needed to go forward. We are unique in San Francisco that we have these services, but most importantly, were not chair mar thank you. Thank you. Chair mar next speaker. Thank you for having us here today, and considering this. My names carrie kirby. Ive been a member of the Edgewood Community for 12 years as an employee and have had the opportunity to work with clients both before, during, and after the c. S. U. Before the c. S. U. Existed in San Francisco, i spent hours with children in e. R. S. I waited hours of time with children in crisis while we waited for mobile services as an alternative. Ive had hospitals say our patients are too acute, no thank you. Without these services, our kids have nowhere to go, and i hope you consider this budget bridge. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is nate lennox. I also work at edgewood. Ive been there about 15 years. Like kerrie, i work directly with youth and families in crisis before the c. S. U. , and i worked with them during the c. S. U. , and it would break my heart, not be too dramatic, to go back to how it used to be. Ive sat with kids for days in the e. R. , ive sat with them while theyre strapped to a bed. Then i see the c. S. U. , and i see the amount of compatission and the amount of kindness and the amount of care they get, so the thought of losing that is a bummer. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker . Im lisa neves. Im the current clinical manager of the c. S. U. And ive been with edgewood for about ten years. Prior to edgewood, i worked in so many different facilities, agencies in the Mental Health field. As a manager, as you can imagine, we tend to get a ton of phone calls, and a lot of them not so happy from parents that are complaining about the services, not happy with the way things have gone with their children, whatever. And i can honestly say in my entire time being manager of the c. S. U. , i have received a ton of phone call from parents, but not one has been in any negative whatever. Ive sat with parents just for a very long time, and so i just am hoping that this can go through because, you know, in a nutshell, it does save the lives of people in San Francisco, and i just hope that we can reopen and continue. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. My name is natasha levine. We work with parents and youth and families across the city. One of the First Supports i always mention to parents in crisis is the crisis stabilization unit, and its highly utilized in our community and an extremely valuable resource. There are many parents here from our community. Many more couldnt come and sent in stories, so i would like to share some of them. Our family uses their services multiple times when our daughter tried to take her own life. The staff communicated kindly, were transparent about their process, had a highly skilled social worker to meet with us and made what is a horribly traumatic experience feel actually safe. The c. S. U. Saved our daughters life. Please consider saving it and expanding it so more can be saved. The c. S. U. Was the only place that the ucsf worker had to send my daughter while she was experiencing an issue. Within a couple of hours with the staff there, my daughter was smiling, telling them stories. She seem infused with enough hope to get through the night and begin healing. The last place any family with children want to end up is the emergency room. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you for having us here today. My name is martha ryan. Im the executive director and founder of the Homeless Prenatal Program here in San Francisco. Weve been in operations for 30 years. And i would say that 100 of the families that we serve, and we serve over 3500 families a year live on a budget of under 20,000 a year. Theyre all dependent on services from the city. But our kids, whove witnessed extreme trauma through their short lives cannot get into the c. S. U. Now because of the closure. I cant express more how important it is to provide this bridge funding, to provide a sanctuary and a safe place for kids to be and to get regulated and supported. Under the leadership of lynn dolce, i guarantee you, shell make it work. She did what she was supposed to do from the very beginning, and her very committed and illustrious career in San Francisco tells you she will, and it needs to work. On behalf of the most vulnerable families and children here in San Francisco, i urge you to provide the c. S. U. The bridge funding. Good afternoon, speakers. Im speaking here on my personal experience as a social worker. Many of our School Social workers are constantly consulted with our special team about students having Suicidal Ideation or thoughts of selfharming. The closure of the c. S. U. Has had a major impact on our most vulnerable students and families. The limited resources for youth who are having suicidal thoughts of suicide and selfharm. Our families end upbringing their child to Emergency Rooms, where the wait times are lengthy and staff are not always trained to work with our youth. The staff at the c. S. U. Are trained to work with our youth and families. For minors who dont qualify for involuntary hold, the c. S. U. Provides a safe place for our youth who are in crisis to stablize and to get support and resources they need to return home and back to school. Im asking you today to consider funding the c. S. U. As soon as possible for the safety and wellbeing of our students. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Good afternoon. My name is christina garcia, and im the regional director for Edgewood Center for children and families. Im here to read a letter sent by dr. Ken epstein, since he could not be here. Im writing in support of the continued funding for Edgewood Center for children and families. Ive been working with children and families in San Francisco for over three decades. During that time, ive seen great advances and great losses to our children, youth and family care. While appropriate focus has been placed on the wellbeing, safety, and sheltering of homeless adults, relatively little has been focused on building a sustainable system for children, youth, and families. The loss of edgewood would be another vital loss in this system. Having worked as a leader in both the public and nonprofit Mental Health system, drk i that San Francisco can effectively provide oversight to edgewood and can support the Safety Net Services they provide to San Francisco children, youth, and families. The defunding of edgewood c. S. U. , the only one in San Francisco city and county, would continue a sad tradition of choosing politics over children and breaches the countys obligation to meet the needs of children, youth and families in crisis. Please continue to fund the edgewood crisis stabilization unit. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is melic tota, and im the chief of finance and administration at edgewood. Ive been here five years. So i want to say, and its already been said, edgewood is one of the few surviving Treatment Facilities in San Francisco. This is in spite of the fact that Residential Programming is a money loser from an economic standpoint. Edgewood must maintain a 247 staffing for a full capacity program. While we are paid only for the clients there. This means a low economic risk for the client count. Besides the Community Benefits, the c. S. U. Was an opportunity to reduce our economic risk through a model that provided funds to cover the majority of our fixed costs despite the number of clients seen. Similar to an emergency room, we need to maintain the staffing to ensure that we can provide the appropriate service at any point in time. In the shortterm, this we need this bridge money of 350. However, please understand that the bridge funding will not be retroactive to january and february, which is when we lost our contract for the c. S. U. We also wont have access to all this 350,000 for up to 120 days. That means we now have to absorb these losses. We have been strapped for funding for years when we had to fund program gaps instead of funding for contingencies. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. Im cheryl. Im one of the nurses at the c. S. U. , and i just and ive been there over four years. Kind of what somebody else said, like, the nurses, we make less than half of a nursing job somewhere else, but were there because of the mission and what the c. S. U. Does. Its like im a twospirit native person who mixed blood who had been praying for years, and when i went into the c. S. U. And saw what we what we do there with the families and environment and the care we work with children and families who fear that theyre going to be separated from their parents and are suicidal. Theres a lot of kids of color we work with, and because of the gentrification in the city, theyre getting bullied or theyre very poor, and its a really safe place to stay and show up, and yeah, ive never worked as a place where the staff is so committed and cares about the kids. And its sad that the c. S. U. Right now is closed, and im hoping you guys hear all these people. All right. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Its lit cthese services ar. The district sfusd is trying to figure out how to fund and support Mental Health care services, and were in a budget crisis on the other side of the street. What can we do here to help support this is a great first step . Thank you. Lets move beyond this, as well. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is diana. Im a licensed clinical social worker. Ive been working in San Francisco for the last 30 years. For the last 20 years in Home Health Care and social work and hospital settings, but in some settings with teen who had Mental Health issues. I understand the role that c. S. U. S play in teens with Mental Health challenges. If any of edgewoods programs were to be defunded, it would be a huge loss not only to San Franciscos children and families, but to San Francisco itself. Im a more to a daughter who a little over a year ago went through a Mental Health crisis of her own and edgewood was there for us. The hospital and the c. S. U. Program were quite literally life safers. Without those two programs, my daughter would have bounced in and out of hospitals and 5150s. She would have most likely committed suicide. She wants to go back to edgewood, and that says everything. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon. My name is alan stewart. Im here to urge you to authorize this grant for edgewood so they can maintain the services for youth experiencing Mental Health challenges in the city. I speak to you as a resident of San Francisco with a teenager who is diagnosed with Mental Health issues, and i know firsthand that even with all of the provision at edgewood in place, already, theres a shortfall between the provision and the need. Theres already more demand than the capacity can support, and so were actually heading in the wrong direction. If we can strangle edgewood, were actually reducing the provision. We need to travel the opposite direction. I understand that the reason were in this situation is due to harm that was identified occurring to children at edgewood, but now, i would ask you to consider what is the greater harm . Because if you eliminate edgewood as a resource, youre imposing harm on hundreds of families in this city in the future. So what does that look like . Youre actually harming the child, so the child experiencing Mental Health issues, but youre actually affecting the entire family. Its everyone in the household, and so its siblings, its parents, its the entire household. The funding, i know, has been reduced to medical and other families, but if you defund edgewood, people who need edgewood will have nowhere to go to. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is dr. Kelly little and ive trained and worked as a community Mental Health provider in San Francisco for the last six years, including six months of training in a rotation with a d. P. H. Comprehensive Crisis Services. Im also a trauma representative for my current employer, and im here to voice my support for the funding of the crisis stabilization unit at edgewood. Its a Mental Health clinician who has firsthand experience of utilizing and witnessing the Invaluable Service edgewood provides to children and adolescents in crisis. The c. S. U. Is set up to provide services to children and families in a manner that promotes safety and stablt during a ti and stablity durg a time of stress. Their team is culturally diverse and able to offer multilingual services. Furthermore, in my experience training with mobile crisis, i witness the importance of a firmly established relationship between the mobile crisis team and the edgewood c. S. U. Staff, and time and time again, their staff provided a collaborative Trauma Informed Care and consultation. The working relationship between these crisis teams enabled a calming and dependable process to aid kids in crisis to get the support they need, and i believe that edgewoods well established c. S. U. Provides an unparalleled Crisis Service to the community at large, and it would be a gross disserve to defund this. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is patrick mahoney. Between 2000 and 2013, i served on the San Francisco superior court. Seven of those years, i spent dealing with juvenile and family issues, and so the significance of Behavioral Health services and the challenges that any judicial officer faced were first and foremost through my experience. Through that, i became ak waited wi acquainted with edgewood. Everything youve heard today in terms of the services, the care with which theyre delivered to children, the financial issues, are absolutely true. Id like to turn to Something Else in my experience. For eight years, i served as the chief trial deputy for the city of San Francisco. In that position, i viewed my role as a problem solver. After leaving the court, im presently associated with a National Mediation firm. What youve heard from margaret broadkin about what has transpired since these incidents reported, frankly, i join in her comments. I find how the city has preceded with this unbelievable, incomprehensible. What i would urge you to do is direct the departments to begin in a meaningful, clabstive process that brings the people around the collaborative process that brings the people around the table so that services are provided to the children asap. Thank you. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker, please. Good afternoon. Im julie tran. I work with the Bar Association of San Francisco. Im here to speak on behalf of those attorneys and also on paf of patty l behalf of patty lee, and she asked me to address you in her capacity as the chair of the working group to close the youth guidance center. I share everything that judge mahoney just said to you. Theres a reason you have so many c. B. O. S and stakeholders today, because of our frustration of the experience. I want to thank supervisor mar and mayor breed for coming to the rescue. The advocacy that weve undertaken in the last month or more have not been well served. I agree we need to solve this. The kind of transparency that edgewood has exhibited to every stakeholder in this room should be commended. We would kill for this kind of remediation, oversight, and accountability. They are to be commended, and as we move forward, we must support agencies like this so that we dont continue to use the criminal Justice System as a dumping ground for all the failed social programs and Mental Health programs. This is how it happens. When we start closing places like edgewood, we will fill our juvenile halls. So thank you, thank you for operating quickly at this point, and i really encourage you to adopt what judge mahoney said and bring everybody to the table. This has got to be solved. Chair mar thank you. Next speaker. Hi. My namesus teen king, and im a justine king, and im a clinical supervisor at edgewood. When a client heard about the c. S. U. Closing, she reached outaouai of concern to herself and others reached out of concern to herself and others that could be in this program. Im a 16yearold foster kid. Before foster care, i was in a longterm resident on edgewood, and i utilized the c. S. U. On two different occasions. Sadly, at 16, ive learned the harshness of the system very well. Despite this, ive been inqu inquisitive of the people and services they provide. Coming from a person thats been hospitalized, a person who at times did not have a warm place to sleep, a person who didnt have two loving parents picking me up and talking about my trauma with me, i know the difference between a safe and an unsafe place. [please stand by] im here today to offer unconditional support to the c. S. U. In edgewood. My jeblagency is partnered clos with the c. S. U. I cant stress this enough, they have been a critical and vital part of the safety net in this community for some of the most vulnerable young people and without it, our young people are less safe today. They offered tremendous support to our agency and our clients by providing the much needed stabilization services, the assessments, the treatment recommendations, and the referral to other services in this community. I would like to note this is an alternative. C. S. Ument performs an alternative. I urge you to offer the support to the c. S. U. Today. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hello supervisors. My name is patrick, im the Program Director of huckleberry house. What we focus on is really family crisis, reunifying kids who have run away, who have been kicked out of their homes and working through a family crisis. We were relieved at huckleberry house for seven years and we were relieved when the c. S. U. Was created because it closed this hole in services between the shelter like ours and can be traumatizing for a lot of reasons. Were relieved they were closing this whole huckleberry house, and we are not a facility for young people experiencing acute psychiatric emergencies. So what were finding is that as was before the c. S. U. Was created, in the interim, we are becoming the safety net for these kids and were not equip to do it. Were a Great Program but were not designed, staffed, and we dont have nurses for kids who are in acute psychiatric emergencies. So i seen first hand what happens to young people and their families when theyre falling through this hole in services and i think we would be remised if we didnt identify that these kids are predominately kids who are of low income backgrounds, black and brown kids in our community that are not Getting Services they so desperately need. Thank you for supporting and creating this funding. Thank you, next speaker please. My name is shelly and Court Appointed special advocate and is nima here with me. Im with the board of directors of huckleberry youth programs. I had two youths that have lived at edgewood and i also had to travel as far as iowa to visit the youths i have been assigned to and ive been a caseworker for. We have to do all we can to keep our children in San Francisco, their city of origin. C. S. U. In San Francisco is crucial to our youth. There is a foster home in San Francisco and to begin their relationship with the department of h. S. A. , we arrive to a temporary shelter, which does not bode well for our city or children. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. My name is cory, im a representative with teamsters 856. Im here to thank supervisor mar and mayor breed for introducing this funding to offer the Crucial Services to the children of our community here in San Francisco. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon, im a coordinator working for support for families with children with disabilities. She couldnt be here, shes taking classes at the college, so she couldnt miss her classes, but she wrote a statement i want to share. Im here as an old client from edgewood. I dont know why theyre deciding to shut down this facility, but im here to tell you why you should take this into consideration. I was severely diagnosed with major depression at the age of 11. From then on, i was diagnosed with ptsd. Edgewood was a place that helped me understand all of my diagnoses. I also found the skills to manage my symptoms. I was in and out of the hospital for eight years, and edgewood was one of the many and first places that i was hospitalized in yet every time i was at edgewood, it didnt feel like a hospital. It just felt like a place where i could rest and heal. Thats what edgewood was and i hope still is, a place to heal, a place where children and teens in emotional pain and distress can go to get help. To be completely honest with you, i hated going to edgewood, but it was because i didnt want to get better. After i was there, it was a different history. It was comforting to know that so many wonderful people wanted to help me. Edgewood was always a place for me. She really wants to get the support for other children and my child would not be alive if it wasnt for places like edgewood. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Good afternoon, im the reverend christopher chase and im a co director, cofounder of Brave Mission here in the city. We recruit and train volunteer mentors, mostly young tech workers to build community of mentors around youths who have spent time in foster care. Im here to talk about the heritage handed down. When edgewood was founded, it was founded of people of faith who felt a mandate from their god that they should seek the lost in their community, the most vulnerable, they should find the lost sheep, those who live in the margins and the church responded in a healthy way to that call and edgewood was founded and that mission of seeking those lost sheep, seeking those who are vulnerable, those who live in the margins has been continued over the 168 years in and through the work of edgewood. While edgewood is now just affiliated from the church, we are proud. Im a priest at the apis cal diocese here, to live out the mission of those founders to seek those vulnerable regardless of their faith or belief and tradition and i implore you to remember the heritage that was brought down and continue to built funding for a viable future for edgewood into the future. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hello, im a t. B. S. Coach at edgewood. I worked there for six years. Im one of the few people in here who still work directly with the families and the clients. I wanted to make two points. I think the pull out of the c. S. U. Closing, i felt it firsthand. Its disheartening and it doesnt feel good when you have to tell a family. Its just the crisis that happens after that as far as safety planning. Were dealing with acute families. I just want to reiterate about reopening the doors as soon as possible, and second i want to share a story without going into too much detail. I had a client two years ago, we worked at the homes with the clients. He told me i had a dream last night that i shot at my school. So that to me brought up all these red flags, so at that point, i worked with his therapist and we were able to get him the help he needed. I come to find out this kid had the intentions, the manifesto, and he was an angry child and very sick. So edgewood was able to stop that and we were able to work with the San Francisco School District to get him the help he needed. I think unfortunately, that will not make the news, the guy who decided not to shoot up his school. So, the fact that edgewood is doing really good work and please let us continue to do so. Thanks for your time. Thank you, next speaker. Hi, my name is anastasia. Im a c. S. U. Clinician. Ive been with edgewood for over five years. I work with the Hospital Diversion Program and the kinship program. I really wasnt planning on speaking so thank you for having us here. Of course, i decided to come up here and ive been in the United States for 20 years. 17 of those years, ive been working in the Mental Health field. I try not to call myself an immigrant. Im more of a citizen of the world. Everyone i had worked with in edgewood is an exceptional person, has been a personal hero of mine. I wanted to say, from the face of the c. S. U. Team, while being shut down so rapidly, we were in a personal crisis of our own while holding the crisis of the clients that still continue to come through the door. This is something we do on a daily basis. The amount of secondary trauma that staff experiences is tremendous. Thats why they are my personal heroes. They dont do this for the money, right . So again to be faced with the c. S. U. Closure was so devastating for the population we serve and the staff. You have to understand that once you break down the team, the team is so unique that you will have a hard time putting this team together. So im just representing the c. S. U. Team, the Hospital Diversion Team and edgewood and the amount of good the organization does is disproportionate with the scrutiny that has been happening. So, i just want to be the voice of the c. S. U. And say this is a very exceptional place and just commend everyone that i work with. Thank you. Supervisors, im dan, the executive director of juvenile and criminal justice. Ive been working in San Francisco. We worked with edgewood for that entire time period and as i can tell you, its one of the finest organizations in california. They do great work. Its not perfect, sometimes we all make mistakes, but they are well run organization, they serve a need. They fill a vital gap within the Service Delivery system in San Francisco. Lynn is a fine executive. I dont know why were here today to be honest with you. My suggestion, i have a feeling that the problem doesnt rest with edgewood and the problem may rest with the city bureaucracy. I think you need to do a deeper dive here to find out what happened and why were here today and its going to cost the city money in order to make up this gap that shouldnt exist. So, i support what youre doing and i also urge that we keep edgewood as the necessary part of our service continuum and keep them funded. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon everyone. My name is graham thomas, im a Program Director for larkin street services. Were been here since the mid 80s. Were always served youths and family facing trauma and i want to give 100 support to edgewood and the crisis stabilization unit. One of the things i had the privilege of working on is underage shelter. We partner with edgewood and the c. S. U. Regularly for all of the reasons you heard today so young people dont have to sit in hospitals that are designed for adults. They can go to edgewood and receive care that is family focused in a safe and stable environment. To close for today, i would say the beginning of your agenda today spoke about the Navigation Centers and addressing the needs of Homeless Services. Chair, im going to pause the speakers time for a moment. The committee has acted on agenda 1 and taken Public Comment on that item, so we will not take Public Comment on agenda one. If you want to reduce homelessness, you have to look at that at a youth focus. So many people homeless as adults start being homeless as youths. So to defund the c. S. U. , to defund the work of edgewood means you are aiding to the public problem of homelessness, right . So again, highly encouraging you to fund the c. S. U. , to do this for families in San Francisco and keep this Program Running because its absolutely, 100 needed. Thank you, next speaker. Hello, good afternoon. My name is julia and i am a nurse at edgewood c. S. U. I am also somebody as a youth that was hospitalized during a time of Mental Health crisis. Thats what makes me so passionate about this work. I believe it is a human right for everyone to have the least restrictive treatment during times of Mental Health crisis, otherwise people are further traumatized and it creates a negative cycle. Right now with the c. S. U. Closed, this is not happening. That is not okay. It is something that has to be changed before kids get more traumatized in hospitals. In fact, since the c. S. U. Opened in 2014, the number of cases of kids who have needed to have inpatient hospitalization has gone down by 50 . So, that is something huge and something we need to focus on. Thank you for having us here today. Thank you, next speaker. Hello, thank you supervisor mar and mayor breed for introducing this. My name is jill and im the dependency of our program manag manager. I was also a Court Appointed dependency for 15 years and i had the benefit of knowing lynn for some time in this capacity and also when she was the director of foster care Mental Health. I have absolute confidence in her leadership. The Court Appointed attorneys in San Francisco are absolutely supportive of edgewood and because theyre out there doing the work, they asked me to make some statements on their behalf. This is from, who has been doing dependency work for 16 years and before that was a deputy public defender. She said i had a child client that was first placed in a different residential setting. He ran outside and kicked in 17 windows, yelling and screaming and someone in the neighborhood called the police. Then she writes, bad results. I later learned that a deli delinquency was filed. He was later placed in edgewood. During a similar episode, a counsellor remained at his side, engaged in deescalation strategies. This is just one example of how edgewood has helped my 13yearold emotionally disturbed client from escalating into the criminal Justice System. I urge you to not only pass the bridge funding but create a financially sustainable solution for edgewood so they continue to fill this critical need in our community. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Hi, my name is may. I am a clinician. I work the night shift and i have been with edgewood for the past year. So i worked in the Behavioral Health field for several years and the c. S. U. Has been the most meaningful and impactful for me. Not only are we a receiving center for children in crisis, we help stabilized them and helped stabilize them, develop safety plans so they dont cause further impairments. Some of the things we do include links to Community Resources so they have ongoing support, facilitating conversations between children and parents who a lot of times children come to us and they are experiencing issues that theyre not telling their parents. We are the first person they tell, whether its gender identity, sexual orientation, whatever it is. We help with that conversation between children and their parents so it helps reduce their Mental Health symptoms. Im surprised with what we can do within a 24hour period another the c. S. U. I hope you consider that bridge funding to help us reopen. Without the resource, its a loss for the community. Thank you. Thank you, next speaker. Good afternoon supervisors, thank you for having us and thank you for taking the time for this. Im dr. Robin randall and i worked at edgewood for the last 20 years. Today, ive been asked to reexcerpts from a letter from nancy, a former employee of edgewood. She writes, im writing today as i am not in town for the hearing. I served at edgewood from 2001 to 2010 and then 2015 to 2017. Im also serving for 17 years as a senior manager at the department of Public Health. The vital Services Provided by edgewood will be heard at the hearing. 7 years ago, they opened the citys first and only emergency pediatric room to keep children out of adult psychiatric rooms. This serves children insured and uninsured. There is no other such resource in the city. When faced with challenges of misconduct by two employees, edgewood did not back away. They notified over 3,000 families and professionals about the allegations. The licensing body, child care licensing has fully cleared the agency. The neighboring counties and outside insurance agencies have reviewed all the corrective actions and continue placement in all of their programs. Edgewood has been a royal steadfast partner for over 160 years as knew creative programming is being birthed for a replacement of locking up children in juvenile hall, edgewood plays a key role in developing the programming, stopping all admissions, as well as depriving citizens of their services has been a travesty. I stand with my colleagues in imploring you to resolve this situation. Thank you, next speaker please. Thank you supervisors for having us here today. Im a 32 resident of San Francisco, with two children raised in the city. I have been a long time volunteer at edgewood and im on the board of directors. Edgewood center for children and families had an open door to the most desperate children for 170 years. Two of the earliest children advocates founded edgewood in 1851. It has a remarkable history of caring, counseling, housing, and saving the lives of our citys youths. Edgewood has not missed one day in 170 years of open arms for San Franciscos needest children. 170 christmases, 170 mothers day, and 170 years of no days off. We invite you to visit the edgewood campus and walk through the childrens cot ttagcottages we encourage you to see the caring units, the emergency facility for youths in the city and county of San Francisco. They have provided this specialized care to our most vulnerable youths with acute Mental Health issues. Why would you take that away . They had the foresight and compassion to open edgewoods doors in a time of need. Please do not shut the doors in a time of greater need. Refer children in need to edgewood. Edgewood is a treasure to San Francisco and our children. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker please. Supervisors today you heard many people come here and speak on topics very hard for you to listen to. Now, the skyline of San Francisco has changed drastically. Well its the people that bide the skyscrapers, we need Community Benefit set aside, just like you give 2 to the arts commission. 2 or 3 of the billions so that we can take care of our children and our youll youths and those organizations that cater to the children and the youths. We dont need to be rocket scientists. Now the Controllers Office monitors all the nonprofits. We have to have a mechanism where we have a leeway, where we have a commission or a committee that looks into situations like this where an organization that is wellknown falls on bad times and is given a helping hand. So, i know a lot about edgewood. They do good work, but also you all know, all of us know these times are difficult times. If you can help them, that would be a nice thing. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hi im the director to the crisis stabilization unit. I was hiding in the back. I just wanted to say thank you to everybody that showed up today. When we started in 2014, we were this idea and we wanted to reach as many people we could and the community and beyond. Today that shows me it happened. Please direct your remarks to the panel. Thank you. Thank you for your attention to this. We appreciate it. Thank you. Is there any other members of the public that would like to speak on this item . Seeing none, Public Comment is closed. [gavel] i just really want to thank all the Diverse Community folks who came out to speak today in support of our children and in support of these Critical Services at edgewood. You know, i have to say, supervisor haney commented to me, we were surprised how many people turned out to speak at this hearing. We expected this resolution to move forward and be adopted by the board, but i think all of your comments were extremely powerful and helpful in helping us to understand these issues and more importantly, the critical importance and unique role these services play, the crisis stabilization unit and the other programs at edge one anothered edgewood, and for me as a parent of a teenager and someone who has had a Family Member that received critical treatment and services at edgewood recently, i understand the importance of this on a personal level. I think just hearing all the testimony today and also working with lynn and the edgewood staff and also the i think just heari testimony today and also working with lynn and the edgewood staff and also the d. P. H. Staff has helped me to understand these Critical Issues much, much better. I know that the funding that is allocated to edgewood through this resolution is very important on a shortterm level just to allow the crisis stabilization unit to be reopened and allow edgewood the time that is needed to finalalize the corrective action plan to the satisfaction of the city. I also think from all of the testimony today, you know, clearly theres a lot more work that needs to be done to strengthen the partnership between the city and edgewood and to insure that edgewood is suppo supported and to be able to stabilize its programs for so many youth and children in our city that are facing Mental Health, acute Mental Health issues. So im very committed to continuing to work with all of you to ensure that we really stabilize these programs for the children and youths that have high needs in our city. I want to echo that and thank everybody for coming out. I got to know edgewood in some ways when i was a member of the school board and to absolutely essential institution for our city and so i understand and appreciate why you are all here and came out and im glad were able to provide some shortterm stabilization. Obviously the longterm sustainability and health and support of this institution cannot be more important and its great to see all the people that came out and shared the stories on how it has impacted your life and the work you seen and all the work you do. Thank you and of course ill be supporting this. Thank you supervisor haney. So i like to move that we send this item as a Committee Report with positive recommendation to be heard by the full board on february 25th, without objection. [gavel] thank you again everyone. Mr. Clerk, please call item number 3. Agenda item number 3, approving a lease m. P. U. Incorporated for the United States old 88 fifth street requiring a tenant to be responsible for all utilities and services, requiring them to be sorry, requiring them to be responsible for all utility and services, and 50 of rental fees, and 2,500 for ticketed events upon approval by the boa board of supervisors and mayor, with one year option to extend, adopting findings and making findings of the proposed transaction is in conformance with the general plan. I like to pass it to supervisor haney. Thank you chair mar. This proposed lease is a critical component of the citys overall work with the ultimate goal of fully restoring the landmark building. The Lease Agreement will help keep this important cityowned building maintained and active, and the work related to them as ultimate restoration continues. Under the terms of the proposed lease, it will be made available for a wide range of activities, includi . Clerk we are now back in session for the government audit and oversight committee. And the committee moved to forward all items to the board with a positive recommendation. Chair mar great. Do i have a motion not to disclose the proceedings held in closed session . Great. We can take that without objection. [gavel]. Chair mar and mr. Clerk, do we have any further business . Clerk we have no further business. Chair mar great. We are adjourned. It. 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