Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Land Use Committee 20240713

Quarantine rooms are not able to do it in their current living situations, that they are offered hotel rooms. Question the numbers for laguna honda have not risen for some time. Is it safe to say that laguna honda is out of the woods . Answer i would not say that. I thought this was good news that we havent had a detective error for some time. But this is the largest if not one of the largest nursing facilities in the United States with over 750 residents. We have staff there working to take the best care of our San Francisco residents who need the best care. We are being vigilant and have extra staff to assist us. We are ting we can and hope not only hope, but taking the actions necessary to slow the spread of covid19 in laguna honda as in elsewhere. I dont think we can say conclusively that we are out of the woods. Question have any of the residents been moved out facility . Answer of those diagnosed with covid19, there are several residents that have been moved out. Im pleased to say they have returned to laguna honda and are in good condition. Question are deaths at longterm care facilities, such as at Central Gardens, included in San Franciscos overall covid19 death count . Yes, they are. How many total people have died in longterm care facilities . Answer we have 113 cases in longterm care facilities. I dont have the number of at the times specific to those areas at this time. I also want to correct one pace is the resident has an address near the facility. Question casa casada is criticizing the city for moving slowly on testing cases at their s. R. O. S. Is the government now testing everyone in these environments and making more measures . Answer we are testing people with any symptom or if they are a close contact of a covid case, articles regardless of their symptoms. Were not at universal testing yet, but were increasing our ability to test more people. I understand people are very concerned, as i am, and people are fearful and scared. Its a scary time. Basically, the data are that on april 13 the Health Department confirmed the first case of covid19 at a in a residence of casa casada. On april 15, after a case investigation, a second resident tested positive. Based on that and further investigations, we performed testing on site of all residents on april 19. We moved all residents and have closed the facility for cleaning. So we were responsive. We were following the investigation as we do across the city when there are outbr k outbreaks like this and we were as responsive as we could be. Thank you. Our next questions are for director stewartkhan. Question regarding plans for the citys unsheltered Homeless Population and possible safe places for them to go, two weeks ago today we were told that details on those plans would be provided in the coming days. What happened to that planning and those forthcoming details . Answer thanks for the opportunity to revisit again all of the steps taken around the unsheltered population and to speak to the potential for safe sleeping sites in San Francisco. So as i shared on wednesday and so i will be briefed today, immediately as this outbreak became evident, the healthy streets Outreach Center caused the removal of any tents and pivoted immediately to providing education, access to care and services, and resources for People Living unsheltered in our community. We are aware that many of the policies that have been taking to help People Living in congregate settings have made things even more challenging for People Living unsheltered. That is a difficult reality that we are facing. Those of us out and about in the community see there are many highly vulnerable individuals. We continue to take those steps he here. We are working on all of the steps for very specific and impacted neighborhoods, such as the tenderloin, the bayview, and the mission communities, where we see more density of People Living unsheltered. We need to care and balance People Living unsheltered and the basic needs for everyone living unsheltered in those communities. Safe sleeping is still absolutely part of the conversation. Im not sure what the timeline was that youre talking about, but i know its under deep discussion by many. The issue here is one of resources, and not necessarily Financial Resources, but rather that the very people who can help support safe sleeping sites are the same people who can open hotels. It doesnt happen one and then the other or one faster than the other. We need to look at all options for people experiencing homelessness. Right now we are focused on moving people unsheltered directly into hotel rooms, which is the safest place for them to be when they are vulnerable to covid. And we are simultaneously evaluating safe sleeping sites across the. R city. Thank you, director. That concludes our questions for todays press conference. [ ] good afternoon and welcome to the land use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco board of supervisors for monday, april 27, 2020. I am the chair of the committee i aaron peskin joined by vice chair staff fieand dean preston. Ms. Major, do you have any announcements . Yes, mr. Chair. Due to the covid19 Health Emergency to protect board members, the board of Supervisors Chamber and Committee Room are closed. Members will be participating in the meeting room only as if they were physically present. Public comment is available for each item on channel 26 and sfgovtv are sharing the number on the screen. Each member is allowed two minutes to speak. Comments to speak are available via phone by calling 888 2045984. The access code 3501008. Then press pound and press pound again. Dial one and 0 to be added to the queue to speak. While waiting the system will be silent. It will notify you when you are in line and waiting. All callers remain on mute until their line is open. Everyone must account for timely days between life coverage and streaming. Call from a quiet place. Speak clearly and slowly and turndown your television or radio. You may submit Public Comment by emailing me. If you submit Public Comment it will be included in the legislative file. Written comments may be sent through the u. S. Postal service to city hall. Thank you, ms. Major the let me thank our backup house staff brent and john and all of the folks from the Clerks Office for doing the incredible work that you have been doing since the shelterinplace and Virtual Meeting started at the board of supervisors. Madam clerk, could you please read the first item. Item 1. Ordinance amending the planning code to create the occupancy residential use amending the code to clarify the existing law regarding enforceability and controls to conduct a study to analyze the impact of the units in the city and firm appropriate findings. Members of the public who wish to comment should calm 888 2045984 access code 3501008. Bless one and zero to line up to speak. Colleagues an supervisors. This is the seventh time it has been to the committee. It is a long road and very complicated. I am not the first supervisor to deal with intermediate length occupancy or corporate rental issues in San Francisco. It dates back to the 1980s and days of Karen Callanan and later at the end of the 1990s with supervisor mabel tang, and we were actually scheduled to have this hearing right when the covid19 crisis went into effect the last set of amendments were adopted on march 9th and as you will both recall, based in a large part on the comments of supervisor preston with regard to land use entitlement project that occurred at the board of supervisors last tuesday, i felt it important to bring this back and get it passed once and for all. I really want to thank my chief of staff who has done the hard policy lifting. We introduced this last year in october. It has been before the Planning Commission twice, and i just want to give you a brief recap. We have met with countless stakeholders from the tenants community, from the short term or the intermediate length Occupancy Committee that comes in a variety of different buckets. Here in short is what the legislation i will remind you although i know you are both familiar does. First, clarifying the law around the prohibition of corporate rentals in rent control Housing Stock with very specific tailored exemptions we have discussed that are subject to earlier amendments. As the legislative digest says, that was already part of chapter 37 of the administrative code but not as clear as it could have been. This will clarify that. We are creating the middle bucket of housing not covered by price controls but covered by tenant protections and creating conditional use process. That planning will have two years to approve up to 1,000 conditional uses for permitted ilos, intermediate length occupancy units based on the cry criteria the Planning Commission and stakeholders offered as guidelines previously adopted in amendments. We are directing the Controllers Office to direct what future controls we undertake as the board of supervisors to regulate and evaluate and monetize future ilo development. I want to thank a host of different organizations ranging from the tenants union, housing rights committee, the tenants association. San francisco apartments association. Senior disability action. Eviction defense, asian law caucus. Local two and representatives of the industry that have met with myself ranging from sander to zoos and any other number every sent entrants into the ilo field. We have also, as i think i joked at an earlier meeting, i dont think i have ever introduced in my 20 years one piece of legislation that has activated every single lobbyist in San Francisco, but i also want to thank them for their time and the suggestions that we have made in part as amendments in february and in march. Then finally, i probably should have started with this. I want to thank my cosponsors, supervisor preston and supervisor fewer who have both been fierce advocates around this issue and around tenant protections and affordable housing. Supervisor safai raised some very good questions about defi defining the 25 cap for less than 10 units. We have long since adopted those, and that is now very clear in the legislation. That will not be subject to Zoning Administrator interpretations and appeals of interpretations. Thank you, supervisor safai. As to buildings of 10 or more and Owner Operator to establish the ilo can do those and for buildings with more than 10 dwelling units, 20 of those units may be permitted as ilos until we deal with the results of the study up to 1,000 unit cap. We have heard from planning and the Planning Commission at several earlier hearings. I did ask Robert Collins from the rent board to be on the line in case we have any questions for him. Finally, i am aware that the San Francisco day school who we met with has expressed interest in some amendments. Because this has been kicking around so long, i do not want to entertain those amendments today because i do not want to kick this can further down the road. I am open to considering amendments and cleanup legislation in the months ahead. I do not want to be in a position to rerefer this to the Planning Commission or to further delay the legislation, but you have my word that we will certainly entertain be reasonable amendments to this, i think, quite important piece of legislation. With that i would like to turn it over to my colleagues for any questions. I am going to press on the chat to see if your name is on there. Supervisor would either of you preston like to add anything or have questions or comments . Thank you, and i do want to talk about the issue you just raised about the San Francisco head of School Michael walker was in touch with our office as well. That is here in district 5. They are looking at some faculty rental of two Small Properties they own right near the school. As you noted they had questions about application of the ordinance. Before i get into that, i want to recognize and thank you, chair peskin, for your work on this ordinance for really talking with such a broad range of stakeholders. I want to thank the bla for the report to lay a Strong Foundation to deal with as much data as we could in terms of shaping the proposal. This is extremely important. I will note. I talked on other issues in committee about my background working as tenant rights attorney for a long time. This issue in a different form has been around a long time looking at the effectively the conversion of a lot of property to different forms of corporate rentals with everyone banking their head against the wall how to tackle this. This is not a problem that is new in the last year or two years or since there was a new website to facilitate this. This is a longstanding issue, complicated to address, and i want to commend you for all of your work in, hopefully, being on the verge of bringing this home to law. I did want to ask around the issue with day school. I certainly do not want in any way to slow this down and fully respect the need and agree with the need to move this forward and if cleanup is necessary, i will do that separately. I am curious for the City Attorney or the chair to address when the situation, my understanding the situation is a rental by a school. To a faculty member, and i think there is a possibility that can be for less than a year if the person leaves employment, basically. They would then be able to use that unit for a different faculty member. That seems like a reasonable request from the school. I am not sure if that is prohibited. I have been trying to wrap my brain around whether that requires an amendment or not. I was curious to hear the City Attorneys view or chair peskin as the sponsor here whether you have any thoughts on the application. The schools are struggling to maintain teachers and wants to offer the units to those struggling to be in San Francisco. I am curious if either to chair peskin or to the deputy City Attorney pearson whether the ordinance would preclude that kind of rental. Thank you for that question. I will take a nonlawyers run at that. In many ways what you just said is akin to the provisions under chapter 37 of the administrative code as it relates to on site Property Managers who have units as a term of employment. Deputy City Attorney seemed to think that was also the case here, and i dont want this to be about one particular school. I will keep repeating the outfit that hired a lobbyist who has been calling all of us. My understanding it is very different when it is a term of employment as opposed to what is set forth here in the ilo ordinance. I will defer a real answer to competent council, ms. Pearson. Deputy City Attorney ann pearson. It would make it unlawful to use it as a nondent use. Nontent use is defined as renting to corporate entity or housing for ones employees or licensees or independent contractors. I do think that to the extent that the concern is raised if schools want to rent housing to their employees and to condition occupancy on continued employment as a teacher in the school, that it would be prohibited by the current draft. It makes exemptions, one of which pair peskin noted which was an exception which they are providing to the employees as condition of employment to assist with maintenance or management of the building. We have made that exception for those types of employees. To address the issue you have raised here, you could make a similar exception for the employees of schools who are providing housing for their teachers. Thank you. Through the chair, would such an amendment require this to go back to planning or delay in any way the proceeding or is that the type of amendment if we were to desire to do that we would be able to do here without delaying the process . That amendment would be to the administrative code. Would not require referral back to Planning Commission. It would not require a continuance. Would that be the language at section 37. 9f 3d 3 where in the d would be submitted where an organization with tax ex emstatus under 26 united code section 501 c3 or 4 providing access to unit for the mission to provide housing . I think that is where we would propose to add the language to address this. The language you could add would be or in furtherance of the primary mission of education by providing housing to teachers. That does not require referral and could be adopted today . Thats right. All right. Mr. Chair, just so we dont think it is about one school. I got a call from the representatives of the school that straddles mine and supervisor yees district. They have housing for teachers they were concerned would not bible to access under this ordinance. I favor that amendment as well to help out. I am sure there is more than just two educational institutions that would be providing housing for teachers to further the mission of education. Sounds good. Do you have any other comments . Actually not on that issue. If we are in agreement, can we ask the City Attorney to come up with language we could do between now and when this goes to the full board so we can addd adopt that. They may have dapted drafted something simple. I am happy to read the proposed language now. As chair peskin said on page 16 at line 21. Amendment to subsection cfd an organization with taxexempt status is providing access to provide housing, or in furtherance of the primary mission of education by providing housing to teachers. Now that i know this does not require a continuance or referal i am entirely happy to adopt those 10 words. Great. I make a motion to adopt those. Would you like Public Comment . Yes. I still have comments and questions before we do that. We will hold that motion subject to Public Comment. Supervisor safai, the floor is yours. I want to commend you and your team and the interested parties that helped you work on this. This probably dates back to your first time on the board of supervisors. It is years in the making. This is a monumental lift. I just want to commend you on that. I appreciates you incorporating the clarifying terms of dwelling units impacted. One question. It is silent on units of size one to three. I wanted you to talk about that so i understand it clearly. Hold on one moment and i will get the appropriate language. Basically, you can do ilos in one, two, three units. A four unit building would allow one ilo. Eight or nine units two allow two ilos. I just didnt see it. Maybe i have the outdated version. You inkorporated in one through three are okay . If you look at the fourth legislative digest, you will see that is set forth in the fourth legislative digest. I am looking for the exact spot. At the march 9, 2020 Land Use Committee hearing legislation amended to clarify the three buildings nine or fewer dwelling units. Ilo units not permitted. I said it reverse. Buildings three or fewer. Four and nine you can have 25 . That would be one in a four and two in an eight or nine. I apologize for my misstatement. Okay. Still not permitted in three or less . Correct. Okay. We had a few people that came that day that actually had two Unit Properties and they had spent money to incorporate those into their buildings, and i know we had an open conversation about that. What is it . Are you finalized in terms of your position in terms of three or less . That is our a. D. U. Policy which is very clear a. D. U. S we want to incentivize not for Short Term Rentals or for intermediate lent occupancy, permanent housing. That is Housing Stock that lends to longterm membership in a community. That was my thinking. I apologize more my earlier misstatement. I see that. I think is that right. I think that in many ways we have put legislation forward that says we want to encourage a. D. U. S. What i was saying for the ones that are i dont know how many there are. If there are a handful of people operating in that space i guess i had landed on the two or less. If they were operating are they going to be nonconforming, have to stop i wonder if there was consideration for that. After the effective date, 1a ilo occupancy ceases because they are intermediate length, the new tent would have to have a lease of a year or longer. Okay. And remember these are relative to the four to nine they are principally permitted. No conditional uses required. I got it. Thank you. Other than that i think we have done everything we can to make this a really great piece of legislation. I appreciate the amendment for the educational institution. Thank you. If you have no additional comments has we open this up to Public Comment . Seeing no objection, we will open this up for Public Comment. Are there any members of the public to testify on item one . Checking to see if there are callers in the queue. There are three callers. You have two minutes beginning now. Yes, i am andrew long. I am an owner occupier of a three unit building. I have a problem with this legislation. This is a solution looking for a problem. These intermediate tenant sees are not a problem at all. In the past i had tenants that requested sixmonth leases because of hard times, because they werent sure how long they were able to stay in the bay area after september 11th. I rented out places on six months to give flexibility and peace of mind rather than forcing a 12 police. Some stayed a long time and some didnt. Students only need a place nine months. You are creating a situation only offering on a 12 polic 12 r the lease. I dont see the point of the legislation with people offering something less than 12 police. 12 month 12 months. These are empty units. Regarding the this is going to cause fewer units to be offered actually. As far as noticing in advertisement and marketing. That is off putting to people. Rather than having in the advertising, loo look at the disclosure about rent control in the lease similar to ad1482 rather than in every marketing piece of information. That is it for my comment. You have not already done so press one and zero to be added to the call. Next caller, please. You have two minutes to speak starting now. Good afternoon. This is mike walker. Head of the San Francisco day school. I want to thank all of the supervisors and specifically supervisor peskin and preston. I am overjoyed that the amendment passed. I want you to know you just made a group of teachers very happy. I can go to the staff and offer apartments to two teachers. Had a statement prepared to thank you so much for your attention for what you just did for the city. Thank you. Thank you, mr. Walker. Next caller, please. Linda trap man. [ inaudible ] Short Term Rentals like a hotel. [ inaudible ] i am not sure how well you protected the rentals. [ inaudible ] when i went to washington, d. C. There were apartments for three or four months or Something Like that on that basis. You know, it is troubling. They are part of the building and instead of the lease for six months for Something Like that, what they do is make it impossible for people to come. I am not in a position to make good comments. I havent had a chance to discuss it. You know, i just want to make sure you dont grandfather in buildings in some way. If somebody is grandfathered in they had nothing as a right. The fact they rented the place and leased it doesnt mean they have an investment to use. [ inaudible ] thank you. I am allen mark. I have a two unit building and i live in one of the units and i do a rental in the other unit. This legislation the way i understand it is proposed would be a big detriment to people looking for hotter term housing short term housing. My primary tenants rent two to six months. They are doctors for Short Term Research studies or traveling nurses working at various hospitals or people divorcing where one of the parties needs to immediately move out of their house on a short term basis. People coming for surgery who need a short term two to three month recoupperation period. I am wondering where all of these people are going to go who dont want to stay in hotel rooms. Thank you very much. Thank you, caller. Do we have another caller . You have two minutes to speak starting now. This is gary briggs, a member of the San Francisco Apartment Association and also member of the San Francisco association of realtors. I am in opposition of this legislation for a lot of very good reasons, some of which have been discussed, others havent been. I live in an Owner Occupied building. We have a lot of people that are seeking rentals for short term, sometimes it is because they are looking to relocate, and they are only needing the rental for three months then monthtomonth, which we allow them to do. They can find more permanent housing. They are searching the neighborhoods they like best. We have traveling nurses. They only need a place for two or three months then their contract is extended. There are a lot of reasons that people seek Short Term Rentals, and it is a natural process. By denying this processor limiting the number of rentals, doesnt make sense. To make owners go through a c. U. To collect their rental units short term is more bureaucracy. That makes no sense. Why would you have owners go through that type of condition to try to get a unit so they can continue to do what they have be denning . I have been doing. I urge you to seek input and guidance from the San Francisco association of realtors and Apartment Association. In the current straight this is not something that they signed up on or have all of the. There are no more callers wishing to speak. Thank you to the members of public who testified on this item. I just want to offer to a number of the speakers some high level suggestions. One is that if you want to engage in the short term rental business and you qualify under chapter 41a of the administrative code, you can rent a unit out as a short term rental and people are welcome to do that under a piece of legislation that the board of supervisors passed and was then enacted into law. The broken leases and i say this as a small land lord my selfs there is nothing the required a landlord to go after a tenant who has moved out short of the term of his or her lease. Finally, i want be to say one of the things that is really important in this legislation is the fact that this differentiates between natural people ancho and and the core people. That is long overdue. In many cases these are not rented out by people. They are rented out by corporations, United Airlines who uses units as Revolving Doors for flight attendants instead of using a downtown class a hotel, i have watched buildings in my district that have been hollowed out that used to have a steady longterm community that now neighbors dont recognize neighbors any more. This has been exploited by a number of online platforms, many of which are actually from San Francisco as we speak. I appreciate the words from the San Francisco day School Supervisor safai made that motion earlier subject to Public Comment. We can take that without objection. Is that okay . No, i am sorry. We have to call the roll. Madam clerk please call the road on supervisor safais motion. Supervisor preston. Aye. Affisee. Aye. Supervisor peskin. Aye. Three ayes. On the item as amended can we send this to the full board with recommendations without objection . A roll call, please. On the motion as stated supervisor preston. Aye. Supervisor safai. Aye. Supervisor peskin. Aye. You have three ayes. Next item. Ordinance of the planning code in if urban mixed use district all office uses prohibited except a special Financial Service or medical Service Allowed as conditional use on the ground floor when primarily open to the general public on the client oriented basis. Members of public should call 888 2045984. Access code 3501008 and one and zero to speak. This item was brought to us by supervisor ronen. Her staff amy joins us now. I think is working on some amendments that might not be ripe for introduction today. The floor is yours. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. Legislative aid on support of supervisor ronen. This planning code amendments were to promote new housing and uses in the citys neighborhood specifically this legislation was permitted use on the upper floors and would allow neighborhoods serving offices on the ground floor. No change to any other uses including arts and Light Manufacturing as well as housing which continue to be permitted. The legislation was heard last week at Planning Commission. Several recommendations came out of Planning Commission, and on behalf of supervisor ronen i request today a one week continuance to consider the recommendations and to come back to you with amendments next week. Thank you. Are there any members of the public who would like to testify on item number two which we intend to continue for one week and will be subject to Public Comment next week as well . Is there anybody in the queue. We are checking for callers in the queue. Two callers. Press one and zero to be added. If you are on hold please continue to wait. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, supervisors. Corey smith on behalf of the San Francisco Housing Action coalition. This has been a topic when this has come up in previous discussions and hearings, and we just want to continue to reiterate our grandfathering for this piece of legislation. Having the rules throughout the process is critical to creating certainty and more uncertainty in the Development Process to add to the overall cost of building housing in a significant way. Specifically requesting a grandfathering clause for projects with this piece of legislation. Thank you. Is there another caller . You have two minutes to speak. Good afternoon. Representing the project sponsor for 200 harrison. 2300 harrison. We are asking for a grandfathering clause. We understand it is continued to allow revisions. We hope the grandfathering clause is one of them. We will hold comments today. We respectful lie ask for grandfathering so 2300 harrison can go through normal appeal processes. Instead of the legislation introduced after the first approval. We look forward to the next time this comes up and hope you will include a grandfathering clause. Thank you. Is there another caller . Hello, you have two minutes starting now. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors. I am amad principal of the associates architects. Offices in the umu district. I have been here for 15 years. Heard of this accidentally. I will leave most of it to next week. We have moders december 8,000 square foot building proposing adding 4,000 square feet of office. I am located there. I humbly as the previous caller said as well ask for you to make a provision for grandfathering projects submitted. We spent a year with the neighbors and negotiating with planning in preapplication with neighborhood associations and we spent a great deal of money on this. I really appreciate the sentiment behind this, but i love my neighborhood. I love the vibrancy in the daytime as well and i dont want to see it go away, but most important i would ask for a grandfathering clause even if you adopt this legislation, please give us the opportunity to continue with our project. Thank you very much. Next speaker. This is colin, senior advice adviser with the housing coalition. This is a project of importance 2300 harrison. I wont listing the many benefits. Two things. If the legislation is for the project the city would preserve offices legal nonconforming use and surface parking lot for many years to come. Is that intended . If the city rejected 3. 5 million fee at the time it is facing a budget blood bath . I believe the legislation would be approved with an amendment to allow grandfathering. In my 15 years of land use legislation i am not aware of a proposal affecting Housing Production didnt include one. I would commend supervisor peskin for the times he has incorporated grandfathering in earlier proposals. The principal is this. Not fair to change the rules when a project sponsor has for several years been in good faith followed the rules and done everything asked of them. The reasonable expectation of getting project approval. I would say that i dont think the sponsor is asking for special treatment of concessions rather requesting what is customary and part of the previous land use legislation before you. Thank you very much. Next caller. I am john. I am one of the sponsors of the project at 2455 harrison street. I agree with the other callers on the need for a grandfathering clause. This would adversely affect the project we have put the Financial Resources in since 2018. The change of the code would be unfair. I disagree with some of the statements or perceptions as it is currently written. As it was introduced by supervisor ronens office, she referred to the code allowing office use on the upper floors. As it stands it is only allowed on the second floor. I could go on and on. I will speak more next week. I certainly support the grandfathering clause. I think that it needs office space and there is a demand for it. To promote more housing we should look at increased height restrictions. That is all. Next caller. Two minutes. Thank you. Assistant director for the regional council. I want to make sure we express our support for the commissions recommendation to add a grandfathering clause to the current ordinance. I want to make sure that the commission is well aware the partners are in support of that amendment. I will save my comments for next week. Thank you. There are no further comments. Seeing no other members of the public for Public Comment. Public comment is closed. If there is no objection, colleagues, we will continue this item one week to next monday. Seeing no objection, that will be the order. We have to do a roll call. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Motion to continue to may 4th Committee Supervisor preston. Safai. Aye. Peskin. Aye. The meeting is adjourned. Thank you all. See you all tomorrow. Valencia has been a constantly evolving roadway. The first bike lanes were striped in 1999, and today is the major north and south bike route from the Mission Neighborhood extending from market to mission street. It is difficult to navigate lindsay on a daily basis, and more specifically, during the morning and evening commute hours. From 2012 to 2016, there were 260 collisions on valencia and 46 of those were between vehicles and bikes. The mayor shows great leadership and she knew of the long history of collisions and the real necessity for safety improvements on the streets, so she actually directed m. T. A. To put a pilot of protected bike lanes from market to 15th on valencia street within four months time. [ ] valencia is one of the most used north south bike routes in San Francisco. It has over 2100 cyclists on an average weekday. We promote bicycles for everyday transportation of the coalition. Valencia is our mission fits our mission perfectly. Our members fall 20 years ago to get the first bike lane stripes. Whether you are going there for restaurants, nightlife, you know , people are commuting up and down every single day. I have been biking down the valencia street corridor for about a decade. During that time, i have seen the emergence of ridesharing companies. We have people on bikes, we have people on bike share, scooters, we have people delivering food and we have uber taking folks to concerts at night. One of the main goals of the project was to improve the overall safety of the corridor, will also looking for opportunities to upgrade the bikeway. The most common collision that happens on valencia is actually due to double parking in the bike lane, specifically during, which is where a driver opens the door unexpectedly. We kept all the passengers the passenger levels out, which is the white crib that we see, we double the amount of commercial curbs that you see out here. Most people arent actually perking on valencia, they just need to get dropped off or pick something up. Half of the commercial loading zones are actually after 6 00 p. M. , so could be used for fiveminute loading later into the evening to provide more opportunities or passenger and commercial loading. The five minute loading zone may help in this situation, but they are not along the corridor where we need them to be. One of the most unique aspects of the valencia pilot is on the block between 14th street. We worked with a pretty big mix of people on valencia. On this lot, there are a few schools. All these different groups had concerns about the safety of students crossing the protected bikeway whether they are being dropped off or picked up in the morning or afternoon. To address those concerns, we installed concrete loading islands with railings railings that channel channeled a designated crossing plane. We had a lot of conversations around how do you load and unload kids in the mornings and the afternoons . I do like the visibility of some of the design, the safety aspects of the boarding pilot for the school. We have painted continental crosswalks, as well as a yield piece which indicates a cyclist to give the rightofway so they can cross the roadway. This is probably one of the most unique features. During the planning phase, the m. T. A. Came out with three alternatives for the long term project. One is parking protected, which we see with the pilot, they also imagined a valencia street where we have two bike lanes next to one another against one side of the street. A twoway bikeway. The third option is a Center Running twoway bikeway, c. Would have the two bike lanes running down the center with protection on either side. Earlier, there werent any enter lane designs in San Francisco, but i think it will be a great opportunity for San Francisco to take the lead on that do so the innovative and different, something that doesnt exist already. With all three concepts for valencias longterm improvement , theres a number of tradeoffs ranging from parking, or what needs to be done at the intersection for signal infrastructure. When he think about extending this pilot or this still this design, theres a lot of different design challenges, as well as challenges when it comes to doing outreach and making sure that you are reaching out to everyone in the community. The pilot is great. It is a nobrainer. It is also a teaser for us. Once a pilot ends, we have thrown back into the chaos of valencia street. What were trying to do is incremental improvement along the corridor door. The Pilot Project is one of our first major improvements. We will do an initial valuation in the spring just to get a glimpse of what is happening out here on the roadway, and to make any adjustments to the pilot as needed. This fall, we will do a more robust evaluation. By spring of 2020, we will have recommendations about longterm improvements. I appreciate the pilot and how quickly it went in and was built, especially with the Community Workshops associated with it, i really appreciated that opportunity to give input. We want to see valencia become a really welcoming and comfortable neighborhood street for everyone, all ages and abilities. Theres a lot of benefits to protected bike lanes on valencia , it is not just for cyclists. We will see way more people biking, more people walking, we are just going to create a really friendly neighborhood street. [ ] [ ] my familys starts in mexico in a small town. My parents are from a very, very small town. So small, that my dads brother is married to one of my moms sisters. Its that small. A lot of folks from that town are here in the city. Like most immigrant families, my parents wanted a better life for us. My dad came out here first. I think i was almost twoyearsold when he sent for us. My mom and myself came out here. We moved to San Francisco early on. In the Mission District and moved out to daily city and bounced back to San Francisco. We lived across the street from the ups building. For me, when my earliest memories were the big brown trucks driving up and down the street keeping us awake at night. When i was sevenyearsold and im in charge of making sure we get on the bus on time to get to school. I have to make sure that we do our homework. Its a lot of responsibility for a kid. The weekends were always for family. We used to get together and whether we used to go watch a movie at the new Mission Theater and then afterwards going to Kentucky Fried Chicken. That was big for us. We get Kentucky Fried Chicken on sunday. Whoa go crazy so for me, home is having something where you are all together. Whether its just together for dinner or whether its together for breakfast or sharing a special moment at the holidays. Whether its thanksgiving or christmas or birthdays. That is home. Being so close to berkley and oakland and San Francisco, theres a line. Here you dont see a line. Even though you see someone thats different from you, theyre equal. Youve always seen that. A rainbow of colors, a ryan bow of personalities. When you think about it you are supposed to be protecting the kids. They have dreams. They have aspirations. They have goals. And you are take that away from them. Right now, the price is a hard fight. Theyre determined. I mean, these kids, you have to applaud them. Their heart is in the right place. Theres hope. I mean, out here with the things changing everyday, you just hope the next administration makes a change that makes things right. Right now theres a lot of changes on a lot of different levels. The only thing you hope for is for the future of these young kids and young folks that are getting into politics to make the right move and for the folks who cant speak. Dy mind motion. Even though we have a lot of fighters, theres a lot of voice less folks and their voiceless because theyre scared. Mayor breed is joined by the director of Public Health, grant colfax. The director of the department of Human Services, trent noor. Todays numbers for the number of people who are infected by covid19 here in San Francisco are at 1,340. Sadly, we have had 22 people who lost their lives to the virus. As a reminder, you can find the full dashboard of information at datasf. Org covid19. There is a lot of great information on the number of people who have been infected by zip code, race, and other information that members of the public expressed interest in. As a city, we have mobilized to combat this Public Health crisis. Weve been focusing on our frontline responders, our healthcare workers, and our essential employees and what they need to protect themselves. These are the people who are of course our healthcare professionals, our first responders, and people who are actually our essential city workforce. The folks who are driving the muni buses, the people who are managing traffic. The people who are providing the Grocery Store clerks and others who continue to support the city as we deal with these real challenges. I want to be clear that from the very beginning we knew that it was important to ensure that we were protecting the people that we expected to show up to work in their various capacities. The sad reality is what weve had to deal with around a lack of coordination on the federal level around p. P. E. Has made it really very challenging. Today i want to talk just a little bit about those challenges and what weve faced as we continue to provide the resources necessary to try and protect our workforce, but i want to start by and i want to start by thanking the city administrator naomi kelly and her team and the office of contract administration. Because of their efforts, we have been able to purchase 15 million pieces of p. P. E. Thats the n95 masks, general masks, the gowns, and the other personal protective equipment necessary to keep people safe as they work and as they support our population of people who sadly may be hospitalized due to covid19. The gloves, the gowns, the surgical masks, and those the face shields. And weve received donations from our give to s. F. Program and we truly appreciate the contributions. Our governor, the state, has provided us with 1 million pieces of p. P. E. So we have really been very diligent about getting access to p. P. E. To make sure, as i said, our frontline workers are protected and people have what they need to provide essential services to the city. You hear the conversations that take place not only here in San Francisco but all over the state. The fact that we have declared a state of emergency even in San Francisco as of february 25 of this year, the fact that we have been struggling to get access to p. P. E. Even before then and this has been at the forefront of every conversation that every city has had, expressing a strong need for this personal protective equipment. Yet again, and this is no excuse, but the challenges we continue to face as a result of a coordinated response from our federal government has really put us all at a disadvantage. In fact, i want to talk a little bit about some of the challenges that weve had. Weve had issues of our orders being relocated by suppliers in china. For example, we had isolation gowns that were on their way to San Francisco and they were diverted to france. Weve had situations when things that weve ordered that have gone through customs were compensated by fema to be diverted to other locations. Because again we know that everyone is dealing with a very serious challenge. Even when weve been fortunate enough in some cases to see p. P. E. Get through customs, weve had situations where those items have been taken and put out on the market for the highest bidder, putting cities against cities and states against states. It has been really, ive got to tell you, one of the most frustrating things to deal with. The fact that during the height of this pandemic were still having a conversation about p. P. E. Is it really does blow my mind and it is nothing that has been more frustrating. Because when we talk about the need to get back to opening up our cities and our country, one of the most important things we need is to make sure that people have what they need to protect themselves. That we have p. P. E. And that we have swabs and testing kits so that were able to test more people. So we are i want you to know that we are working tirelessly on this. We are pushing for Creative Solutions to get what we need. In fact, ucsf through their generosity in providing San Francisco general some additional equipment has been amazing. And Dignity Health and having access to their suppliers. Weve all locally here in the Hospital Community have been working together to get everything that we need because we know how critical all of this is now as we go through this and as we have this shelterinplace order. But what happens when we start to look at ways and solutions to get our cities back on track and to get our cities open, its going to be necessary even then because its going to take us a while before we get a vaccine, which means testing and p. P. E. And having not only sufficient supply, but access to get sufficient supply will be critical to the future of this city. We wont give up. We will continue to do what we can to access the equipment and supplies that we need. Dr. Colfax talked about our efforts to expand testing, which is something that we will continue to ramp up. As he mentioned on wednesday, the bottleneck we face right now is often due to the lack of the basic swabs and not necessarily the testing capacity. So we just wanted to make sure that as you hear about some of these challenges that youre aware of why they are challenges. I know it seems as though it should be a lot simpler. We have the money to purchase the p. P. E. Why cant we purchase the p. P. E. . The fact is it is clearly complicated. You hear mayors and governors talk about this on a regular basis. We are getting as creative as we can to get what we need to support our city. In many instances, we have been fortunate beneficiary of the generosity of flex port and facebook and sell force and others who continue to be incredible partners in helping to advocate for and get access to p. P. E. To help our cities move forward. So i want to thank them. I want to just talk a bit dr. Colfax will get into the testing and the p. P. E. And some of the things we need to do that are critical to Public Health. Also in addition to the Public Health crisis that we are in the midst of, there is another crisis that has emerged and that is the economic crisis. The fact is this has been a long time for people who have no other means of access to money. This is a long time to be out of work and to figure out what were going to do. Its one of the reasons we felt it was important, despite whats happening with access to unemployment, to have Resources Available so that people can get food through give to sf and to provide support for our Small Business community. In fact, weve been able to add another 1 million to the Flexible Grant Program that we started a couple of months ago to provide some initial assistance to our Small Businesses. And we will continue to raise private dollars and look for other resources to help support our Small Business community. As we think about the future and what this means, we set up a Recovery Task force a couple of weeks ago. They are going to be convening today to talk specifically about where do we go once we reopen. Even as we look at whats happening with other states that are opening now. As far as im concerned, we dont want to move that quickly. We want to make sure that we have systems in place to protect people. This is going to require an approach where we are working hand in hand with our Public Health professionals. When we look at various industries and we analyze what could be done in order to protect people to allow those industries to move forward, we want to make sure that we are thoughtful in our recommendations, but we are also getting the support and the clearance from our Public Health experts to move in that direction. We know that this weekend is coming up. Today is a Beautiful Day in San Francisco. This weekend is going to be a beautiful weekend in San Francisco. And i want to really take this opportunity to caution people about wanting to get back to things that are more familiar. I know your kids want to play with their friends. I know you want to see your friends. I know so many of you want to have interactions with one another in person rather than over the phone or online. I want to just say that we hear about San Francisco and how great San Francisco is doing all over the world and were being used as an example of how to manage this situation right. But i want to just remind you, we have 1,340 people who have tested positive with the virus. It is estimated that about 12 of the people weve tested overall have the virus, which means that theres a possibility clearly that there are others who are asymptomatic in our community that have the virus and have the ability to infect other people. What we dont want to see on nice days, on days like this, out in the communities and infecting other people. They dont have a mask and not social distancing and going back to the habits that are familiar and engaging with one another and not socially distancing and getting comfortable and complacent. And then a week from now we wonder why our numbers from shot up from 1,340 to 2,000 or more with even more deaths. This is what is at stake. As good as it might seem, the situation were in now, the numbers are still going up. The number in i. C. U. Have gone up. The number of people who are who have passed away continues to rise. That means that now more than ever we cant give us and we have to move forward. I know as i say, i know i say every time we have a press conference i know its hard. I know its hard, which is why its important that as we are talking and convening in our economic Recovery Task force, we are developing ways to make recommendations to the department of Public Health of things that we could potentially make available to the public. So next week well have some more announcements about that, but the goal is we definitely want to work with our Public Health experts and our various industries to figure out are there things we can do. Because the reality is and people are asking about this, will the Public Health order get extended. The likelihood that that will happen is very likely. What that means is another few weeks or even a month of asking you all to comply and to remain at home as you continue to follow the social distancing orders that we put forth. But what it also means is an opportunity for us with our economic Recovery Task force to start to explore ways in which we can make some things available that are currently unavailable to all of us. So it is a process. Because how we reopen is going to be important to ensuring that we do it responsibly so we dont go backwards. We also have to make sure that we have enough of the p. P. E. And the testing necessary so that if we do decide to allow a particular industry or something to become available that were able to deal with that, that we put the appropriate requirements into place of social distancing and we also have the appropriate p. P. E. So that theyre able to protect themselves. And, more importantly, we have the testing and we have the capacity in our hospitals necessary to deal with a surge at any time. Its a process. Its a process that requires patience. Its a process that requires resources. So i want to thank the people in San Francisco especially for just supporting the process and being responsible and helping us through this pandemic because it is important that as many of us as we possibly can, that we comply with this order and that we continue to do our very best to stay at home, go out and get fresh air if we need it, and keep our distance from people when were outside. The mask does not mean that you can come closer to people. It means were asking you to wear a mask to protect yourself and to protect other people, but were still asking you to keep a distance of 6. The mask does not take the place of social distancing. I also just want to say i also heard of a number of situations where people have been walking and theyre not wearing a mask and theyre just outside walking and theyve had people make comments and threatening comments in some particular instances. I want to be clear. We are not asking or requires that people wear masks when theyre out walking their dogs or taking a walk or theyre doing their jogging or maybe riding their bike. Were asking when you are at the Grocery Store or in line at the Grocery Store or at the gas station or in line at the gas station, at the pharmacy or in line at the pharmacy. Any facility where you are in contact for the most part in line with other people, thats when were asking you to wear a mask. I also want you to reiterate if youre not a police officer, please dont ask like you are a police officer. We have Police Officers to police our streets. What we dont want to have happen is the continued animosity towards someone who appears to not be following the directive and an altercation occurs and tension occurs and it goes worse. More than ever, we need people to be understanding and nicer to one another. We need goodness and we need kindness. We need you to focus on you. We need people to focus on the fact that they and their family should be complying with wearing a mask or keeping their distance. We dont need people to police other people because that could turn into an even worse situati situation. We understand it might be frustrating to see someone violating the rules, but again i guarantee you if you are following the rules and doing everything that you can, you are setting the example. Others will follow and well be better off for it. I appreciate if we all continue to do our very best, we all continue to put some goodness and positive energy out there in the universe. This is challenging for all of us. It is difficult for all of us. None of us is immune from the physical and emotional impacts that this is taking on our city. I want us to remember that and do the very best we can as we weather this storm. Thank you for your cooperation and understanding. If there is any information youre looking for, please feel free to check out our website, sfgov. Org. Or call 311 if you have any concerns or need help or support or food. Please call us. We really are in this together. What impacts one person in our Community Impacts all of us. Thats why its so critical. We have been in this situation for some time now. Now is not the time to give up. Now is the time to rollup our sleeves and just keep it moving and do the very best we can because what we want to do is look back on this pandemic and be proud of what weve been able to do here in San Francisco to protect and to save lives. Thank you again for your cooperation. At this time, i would like to introduce our director of the department of Public Health, dr. Grant colfax. Thank you, mayor breed. Good afternoon. Im dr. Grant colfax, director of Public Health for San Francisco. I would like to express my gratitude and thanks to the mayor for her leadership and the work shes done with regard to to ensuring that our frontline workers, our teams throughout the Health Department, and the patients who we care for has had access always to the necessary personal protective equipment, the p. P. E. , according to c. Dc. Guidelines for them to be safe and for our patients and their families to be as safe as possible. The p. P. E. Continues to be an issue. Our supplies have sometimes gotten quite low, given the challenges across the city, across the region, across the nation. Its taken tremendous amount of work. I just want to express gratitude again for ensuring that people have consistently and had and always have had the p. P. E. That they need that is necessary and in accordance with the science, the data, and the facts. Today i want to provide you with the facts and the effects of the coronavirus in our community. Even as we continue to make progress as we flatten the curve, we continue to see impacts on our most vulnerable population. The story here in San Francisco, the data and facts condition to tell the story here in San Francisco and will always guide our response. Today there are 1,340 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of coronavirus. Of these, 134, or about 10 , are people experiencing homelessness or living in s. R. O. S. That is, unfortunately, a large proportion. We also know, as we have said from the beginning, that older people and people with Underlying Health conditions are more vulnerable to covid19 and are at greater risks for bad outcomes, including unfortunately, death. Of the people who have died of the coronavirus, 21 of them were over 60 years old and all 22 had Underlying Health conditions. This is consistent for what we know about who is most at risk. So even as we expand testing, add capacity to our healthcare system, and watch the number of hospitalized patients closely, we know that many members of our community remain at risk of significant harm from the coronavirus. And as we move forward in our response and look at the next steps in terms of reopening, we will continue to protect those most vulnerable populations. We simply must do so. One of my chief concerns and a top priority for the Health Department is mitigating the outbreaks that are occurring in the Homeless Population, longterm care facilities, and other congregate living settings. This is a challenge not only within San Francisco, but across the region and indeed across the nation. In San Francisco, we will continue to work diligently on these settings where the virus presents the greatest threat. In the last few weeks, we have responded to several outbreaks. These are unfortunately, but also unfortunately not surprising. Outbreaks are part of the pattern of this pandemic and they are happening in every place where the coronavirus is spreading in the country and again here in our community. The virus looks for opportunities where people are gathered together. For example, across california there are 258 Skilled Nursing facilities that have reported one or more coronavirus cases among residents or staff. Here in San Francisco, the department of health staff called every Skilled Nursing facility in the city several times a week to check on the covid status of residents and staff. We hold weekly calls with them to provide education on infection control, prevention, and outbreak preparedness. From the start we have published guidelines for longterm and residential facilities that are uptodate with c. D. C. s and the states latest information. We want to support these institutions to be as prepared as possible. When there are outbreaks in congregate settings, we take immediate action based on evidence and c. D. C. And state guidelines. In San Francisco there have been outbreaks at laguna hospital as well as other facilities. We have responded in each situation based on the evidence. We have supported the organizations with contact investigations, testing, and screening. We have provided masks and other personal protective equipment as required. We have imposed quarantines and, in some cases, temporarily closed facilities for deep cleaning and evaluation. We have moved residents to hotels or medical care settings dependant on their needs. All of this work has been done in collaboration with local, state, and federal partners. And in particular, our partnership with the state is highly relevant with the longterm care facilities in the city because the state has overnight on their licensing and responsibility for inspecting them to ensure that they are complying with state guidelines. And i would like to point out that we have outbreaks that have been minimized due to advance planning and quick responses. At laguna honda hospital we asked for experts from the Disease Control center and the state to come in early to support our response. The c. D. C. Remains on site and continues to help and advise our efforts. To date we have had 19 positive cases at laguna honda hospital, 15 among staff and four among residents. And laguna honda hospital is one of the largest, if not the largest, Skilled Nursing facility in the nation with over 750 residents. Is of the four residents who tested positive for covid19, all are in good condition. We have not had a new resident case since april 7, which is an indication that our aggressive efforts undertaken with c. D. C. Guidance, to isolate, quarantine, test, and screen for now have been effective. The c. D. C. Recommendations we recommended at laguna honda are now being and will continue to be applied to protect staff and residents at other nursing home facilities across the city. In our jail system we took aggressive steps to protect inmates and staff. We expanded Jail Health Services to include testing and quarantine of all new bookings that are housed in jails. This allowed us to identify two asymptomatic and related cases of coronavirus to date. This practice combined with enforcing social distancing protocols and masking of all staff has likely prevented an outbreak so far. The two confirmed cases will be released and there are no known cases of covid19 at this time in the county jail. Now, of course this could change and the situation in laguna honda could change rapidly as well, but my point is that we are establishing very specific protocols and taking very specific action and being flexible in our response based on responding to the very specific circumstances under which these outbreaks in vulnerable populations occur. We will continue in partnership with other city departments, community members, and other stakeholders that oversee and in some cases run these institutions. Most recently, on wednesday this week, we confirmed a second case of coronavirus at the Division Circle navigation center. Three weeks after the first case was reported there. We are currently conducting a contact investigation, as we do for cases we discover. At this point, it is unlikely that the two cases are linked, given what we know about the virus. Testing of the 59 remaining guests and staff is underway. At Division Circle we moved swiftly and after the first case, in partnership with h. S. A. And h. S. H. To relocate Vulnerable People out of the center and to isolation and quarantine and shelter in place, hotels. So the population there has been reducing lowering the risks. These examples reflect why it is so important to prioritize vulnerable populations in these settings from the start, people over the age of 60, people with comorbid conditions. Here are some of the steps that we have taken to protect vulnerable populations. You know about the efforts to mitigate the spread of the virus, to slow the spread of the virus in the community. Canceling large gatherings, requiring face coverings, and issuing the stayathome order. These actions are about protecting vulnerable populations as well as of course our entire community. We have also issued health orde orders restricting people from visiting longterm care facilities and residential facilities. We have required cleaning of s. R. O. S. We have worked in partnership with the Human Services agency and the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to increase social distancing and other precautions and shelters and to move people into hotels. Outreach teams continue to go out every day to communicate with people who are living on the streets and to provide them with resources and information. For people experiencing homelessness, living in s. R. O. S, or in crowded conditions, we are fortunate to have options like isolation Quarantine Hotels to relocate people safely. As of today, thanks to the partnerships with the other department, 864 people who are over 60 or who have chronic illnesses or Underlying Health conditions have been moved to hotels. And it is very important to realize that in all of these settings we have been able to test everyone who has shown symptoms, all close contacts of confirmed cases. And when mask testing was warranted, we have been able to carry that out. I am proud of this work and grateful to the staff of truly, compassionate, worldclass experts who have been working around the clock since january to accomplish these efforts. And yet, i know and we know that outbreaks are likely to continue as long as the virus is here in our community. I want to ensure you that we are doing everything we can to reduce the spread of the virus, protect vulnerable populations, and healthcare workers and first responders. We need all san franciscans to keep doing everything you can to protect them as well. That means, again, stay home, cover your face, practice physical distancing. You are not just protecting yourself. You are contributing to the Overall Health of the community in making it a safer place for people who are most vulnerable to the virus. You are literally saving lives. And i want to reassure you that we are planning for the future. Our ability as a community to return to a new normal will rely on everyone continuing to do their part. It will rely on a system to respond to outbreaks, increase testing, have adequate personal protective equipment, and have Contact Tracing to slow the spread of the virus. In San Francisco, i know we can do this and we must do this together. I thank you all for your ongoing hard work and effort to keep San Francisco safe and to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Thank you. Director abigail stewartkhan of the department of homelessness and housing will now make some remarks. Hello. Providing safe places for people experienci experiencing homelessness to isolate, quarantine, or shelter in place is a top priority for the department of homeless and Supportive Housing, the department of Public Health, and the entire city. Additionally, the city is working to expand testing citywide with a focus on vulnerable communities, as dr. Colfax just shared in detail, including people experiencing homelessness. As we expand testing capacity, we know that we will need more places for people experiencing homelessness who test positive for covid19 to go to isolate, receive care, and to recover. So that end, h. S. H. , in connection with our partners, are opening new facilities. Youve heard about this. To date weve opened five shelterinplace hotels as well as multiple Quarantine Hotels with more planned rapidly. This has been incredibly hard and incredibly a critical expansion. I want to share a story of a voicemail i received from a colleague of someone who moved from the streets to the inside and said he hadnt been near a bed in over many years and that he was going to sleep for 24 hours to try to recover and not get sick with covid. He offered thanks to my colleague and all of San Francisco for this place to be safe. Additionally, were expanding congregate capacity to meet this need. We opened s. M. C. South as postcovid congregate shelters for people experiencing homelessness who have tested positive for covid19 and no longer need medical attention and have cleared their isolation period. This week as dr. Colfax reminded us, a second case of covid19 was confirmed at the Division Circle center. We had already completed shelter equilibrium, meaning the vulnerable individuals had been moved into our shelter in place sites. Through thorough and immediate contact investigation has led us to test all remaining guests and staff and all guests of the center are being transferred to isolation and Quarantine Hotels. Given that this shelter will very soon be empty, it will be reopened as a shelter for people experiencing homelessness who have tested positive for covid19, but who do not require hospitalization. As we expand testing, we anticipate we will have more people who are asymptomatic and living with covid and who will need a resource like this one. In its revised capacity, Division Circle will function similarly to existing isolation and quarantine sites, with onsite department of Public Health support, 24hour staffing and security, meals, and social services. The shelters and hotels do not increase risks for the surrounding community and neighbors, both because we know that many are positive in all of San Francisco and because guests are educated and supported on how to best care for themselves and will remain in isolation in care for the course of their illness. The mayor, the department of Public Health, the Police Department, and all of the city have and continue to implore every san franciscan to practice precautions, such as staying at home, physical distancing, covering your face and nose, and washing your hands. These are important for all of us. Thank you to the partners that have made these expansions possible to open hotels and congregate facilities, including the department of Public Health, Human Services agency, the Emergency Operations center, and all of the exceptional nonprofits who are stepping up to provide that support. Thank you. We will now have remarks from chief William Scott of the San Francisco Police Department. Thank you, director stewartkhan. Good afternoon, everyone. As always, i will start my remarks by thanking our mayor london breed for her leadership and dr. Grant colfax. Their leadership has been instrumental in getting us through this challenging time. I want to again thank the people of San Francisco as well. It was for gratifying for this 4 20 people stayed home and did not come to the parks to celebrate 4 20. I want to thank everyone for working with us on that and your efforts are actually making a difference and saving lives. We are seeing that the vast majority of the public is committed to stopping the spread of covid19. We have had people and businesses who have been warned continuing to flout the order. To date we have 17 citations that have been issued by San Francisco Police Officers. That breakdown is eight businesses and nine individuals. Weve admonished 73 people where incident reports have been taken and, as i have stated previously, there have been hundreds upon hundreds of informal warnings. For the most part, i want to thank the people of San Francisco for complying by and large when officers interact with them. From the outset of the original Public Health order in midmarch, the San Francisco Police Department has made it clear that our focus is voluntary compliance. Enforcement has been an option of last resort and that has been ultimately largely successful in those times when we have had to do that to get compliance. We will continue to use a progressive compliance pathway which starts with education, asking for voluntary compliance, warning, and citations if and when necessary. You can use the covid19 website on our web page to learn about our enforcement protocols, our Department Policies and notices are posted on our website. The purpose of the Public Health order is not to arrest or cite, but its about promoting the health and welfare of our communities and our cities by preventing the spread of the virus. As ive said before, we are here to help. We want to get through this situation in a way that does not make this situation worse for the people of our city. As the mayor said and i will reiterate it, we all have a personal responsibility to help stop the spread of this virus. The people we are working with is Human Rights Commission under the leadership of executive director sheryl davis. The h. R. C. Is providing Community Stakeholders with face coverings thanks to the mayors gift to s. F. Campaign. We are out with commissioner davis and Community Stakeholders issuing face coverings today as we speak. We were out in the Bayview Community yesterday. We want people to know we understand how difficult this is and there are people in our city who are having a very difficult time most people are having a difficult time through this. There are people who dont have access to face coverings. We want to do everything we can as a city to help those who need help. Thats why were out helping, to make sure people have what they need to stay safe and healthy. This is enabling the city to help those vulnerable populations and will go a long way towards preventing the spread of covid19. We see today is a Beautiful Day and the weather is nice and we expect that to continue into the weekend. We know there are people who want to exercise and get fresh air and enjoy the nice weather. If you are going to leave your homes, please follow the advice of the Public Health officials. Maintain a distance of at least 6. Wear face coverings when youre waiting in line or shopping as the mayor has emphasized and dr. Colfax and his colleagues have emphasized. As the weekend progressing, youre probably going to see a large group of people out. Be respectful and mindful and do the rest for the people you love. Our volunteers are working with our work program. We will be out in the parks promoting the educational information and reminding people to keep the distance of 6 and wear your face coverings. Again, our goal is to help and gain voluntary compliance. Now i want to shift to crime. No update from our wednesday press briefing. Weve had an increase in 18 by Violent Crimes. Weve had a 31 decrease in property crimes over last week. That was a decrease of 154 fewer property crimes. Weve had a 25 decrease in our total part 1 crimes, which is a decrease of 142 total part 1 crimes. Weve had some burglaries and vandalisms as i have reported, and we want the public to be sure we are still out there. We have made several arrests on burglaries in our city. We want to thank the Attorneys Office to add the charges of burglary and vandalism during this time of a state of emergency. Despite our drop in overall part 1 crimes, i want to highlight that we are taking this issue very seriously. And i also want to highlight and remind people about driving. The california Highway Patrol has reported that theyve seen an 87 jump in violations of people driving more than 100 mph. That is completely unacceptable. We want to remind people that this pandemic does not give anyone the license to drive in a reckless and dangerous manner. Please slow down. We know that the streets are easier, but please slow down. We have not had any focus on the deaths since this pandemic started and we want to keep it that way. Personal responsibility, as the mayor stated, we all have a personal responsibility to do what is needed, that means driving at lower speeds. Those folks who are conducting their travel in a safe way, we thank you and hope everyone else does the same. The slow Streets Program has also been rolled out. Please done down. You have to share the roads with pedestrians, bicyclists, and people who are going to be out enjoying the weather and trying to get fresh air and exercise. So please again slow down. As a reminder, we also want to encourage everyone to report crimes. If you see a Violent Crime in progress, please call 911. If the crime has already been committed or its a property crime or a crime you dont need an Immediate Response you can call 4155530123 or you can also call 311 or utilize our sfpd website to make a police report. Also, i want to reemphasize the message about scams and not having the public falling for scams. Unfortunately during this very difficult time there are people who will take advantage of the situation and take advantage of you. Normally they focus on vulnerable populations such as our elderly. We know that the federal trade Commission Says they have received four times the complaints about Identity Fraud this past mant than the three months prior. The f. B. I. Has seen scams online selling things that dont exist. This can take the form of robo calls and people coming to your door. People claiming to be with the centers for Disease Control and our own department of Public Health. Nobody will be coming to your house from our department or the centers for Disease Control and asking to get into your house. Please dont let them in. If you get an individual like that knocking at your door or ringing your doorbell and you think that is suspicious, please call 911. We will respond. Weve heard of this before and we dont want people victimized. People that you know and love, know that the scammers are out there. Please beware. If you believe you have been a victim or are experiencing an online scam, you can call or email the federal train station commission. Their number is 8773824357. I want, i want to wish everyone a great weekend. As a reminder, please social distance, stay 6 away, wear your masks, and lets stay the course. Thank you. Thank you, chief scott. We will begin the qanda portion with questions february dr. Grant colfax. Question our first question is from christian captain. Can the San Francisco department of Public Health provide more details about the four deaths at central garden . Answer so the state is leading that investigation. As i had mentioned earlier, we are working very closely with Central Gardens and the similar institutions across the city, ensuring that they have the most uptodate information, that they have their resources, including p. P. E. , the training materials. I cant comment specifically on those four deaths. Question we understand the California Department of Public Health is spearheading the issue, but is San Francisco launching an investigation . And are other longterm care facilities facing similar risks . Answer so longterm care facilities across the country, including here in San Francisco, are facing risks. As we have said from the beginning of our response, this population is particularly vulnerable. We saw that in the outbreak in the nursing home in washington state, in kirkland. I think the important piece here is we need to ensure were following the best guidance possible with regard to c. D. C. And the state. In terms of how we protect residents and staff, we have Infectious Disease experts consulting with us and with other Nursing Homes with regard to doing the best we can to prevent and slow the spread of the virus in these Nursing Homes. There are vulnerabilities here. We are taking Lessons Learned from the outbreak at laguna honda and the input and expertise from the c. D. C. To apply those lessons to ensure the nurses have every opportunity and the resources they need to apply those guidelines to protect their institutions. Question are all residents at casa casada being tested and how many will be moved into hotels . Answer so as of everyone there has been moved to or has been offered an alternative place to stay, and that includes isolation and quarantine at various sites, depending on their conditions and needs. As of april 23rd, 71 residents and staff were tested. 22 residents and two staff had tested positive. So the bottom line is we have offered testing to everyone. We have offered alternative sites to everyone. People who have tested positive have been offered isolation and quarantine sites if they have not been able to find alternatives to isolation and quarantine. Question how quickly does d. P. H. Notify s. R. O. S of cases . Answer so we notify the person as quickly as possible in a way that maintains the privacy of that individual. We notify the s. R. O. Owners or managers that there is a case. We obviously have to be very thoughtful as how thats done to protect the confidentiality of the case. But we are in Constant Contact with s. R. O. S. We have a task force making sure that they have the information they need, that theyre applying cleaning policies to their hotels. If people who need testing and have access to timely testing. And if they need isolation and quarantine rooms are not able to do it in their current living situations, that they are offered hotel rooms. Question the numbers for laguna honda have not risen for some time. Is it safe to say that laguna honda is out of the woods . Answer i would not say that. I thought this was good news that we havent had a detective error for some time. But this is the largest if not one of the largest nursing facilities in the United States with over 750 residents. We have staff there working to take the best care of our San Francisco residents who need the best care. We are being vigilant and have extra staff to assist us. We are ting we can and hope not only hope, but taking the actions necessary to slow the spread of covid19 in laguna honda as in elsewhere. I dont think we can say conclusively that we are out of the woods. Question have any of the residents been moved out facility . Answer of those diagnosed with covid19, there are several residents that have been moved out. Im pleased to say they have returned to laguna honda and are in good condition. Question are deaths at longterm care facilities, such as at Central Gardens, included in San Franciscos overall covid19 death count . Yes, they are. How many total people have died in longterm care facilities . Answer we have 113 cases in longterm care facilities. I dont have the number of at the times specific to those areas at this time. I also want to correct one pace is the resident has an address near the facility. Question casa casada is criticizing the city for moving slowly on testing cases at their s. R. O. S. Is the government now testing everyone in these environments and making more measures . Answer we are testing people with any symptom or if they are a close contact of a covid case, articles regardless of their symptoms. Were not at universal testing yet, but were increasing our ability to test more people. I understand people are very concerned, as i am, and people are fearful and scared. Its a scary time. Basically, the data are that on april 13 the Health Department confirmed the first case of covid19 at a in a residence of casa casada. On april 15, after a case investigation, a second resident tested positive. Based on that and further investigations, we performed testing on site of all residents on april 19. We moved all residents and have closed the facility for cleaning. So we were responsive. We were following the investigation as we do across the city when there are outbr k outbreaks like this and we were as responsive as we could be. Thank you. Our next questions are for director stewartkhan. Question regarding plans for the citys unsheltered Homeless Population and possible safe places for them to go, two weeks ago today we were told that details on those plans would be provided in the coming days. What happened to that planning and those forthcoming details . Answer thanks for the opportunity to revisit again all of the steps taken around the unsheltered population and to speak to the potential for safe sleeping sites in San Francisco. So as i shared on wednesday and so i will be briefed today, immediately as this outbreak became evident, the healthy streets Outreach Center caused the removal of any tents and pivoted immediately to providing education, access to care and services, and resources for People Living unsheltered in our community. We are aware that many of the policies that have been taking to help People Living in congregate settings have made things even more challenging for People Living unsheltered. That is a difficult reality that we are facing. Those of us out and about in the community see there are many highly vulnerable individuals. We continue to take those steps he here. We are working on all of the steps for very specific and impacted neighborhoods, such as the tenderloin, the bayview, and the mission communities, where we see more density of People Living unsheltered. We need to care and balance People Living unsheltered and the basic needs for everyone living unsheltered in those communities. Safe sleeping is still absolutely part of the conversation. Im not sure what the timeline was that youre talking about, but i know its under deep discussion by many. The issue here is one of resources, and not necessarily Financial Resources, but rather that the very people who can help support safe sleeping sites are the same people who can open hotels. It doesnt happen one and then the other or one faster than the other. We need to look at all options for people experiencing homelessness. Right now we are focused on moving people unsheltered directly into hotel rooms, which is the safest place for them to be when they are vulnerable to covid. And we are simultaneously evaluating safe sleeping sites across the. R city. Thank you, director. That concludes our questions for todays press conference. [ ]. Working for the city and county of San Francisco will immerse you in a vibrate and dynamic city on sfroert of the art and social change weve been on the edge after all were at the meeting of land and sea worldclass style it is the burn of blew jeans where the rock holds court over the harbor the citys Information Technology xoflz work on the rulers project for free wifi and developing projects and insuring patient state of at San Francisco General Hospital our it professionals make guilty or innocent available and support the house Senate Regional wearout system your our employees joy excessive salaries but working for the city and county of San Francisco give us employees the unities to contribute their ideas and energy and commitment to shape the citys future but for considering a career with the city and county of San Francisco i view San Francisco almost as a sibling or a parent or something. I just love the city. I love everything about it. When im away from it, i miss it like a person. I grew up in San Francisco kind of all over the city. We had pretty much the run of the city cause we lived pretty close to polk street, and so we would in the summer, wed all all the way down to aquatic park, and wed walk down to the library, to the kids center. In those days, the city was safe and nobody worried about us running around. I went to high school in spring valley. It was over the hill from chinatown. It was kind of fun to experience being in a minority, which most white people dont get to experience that often. Everything was just really within walking distance, so it make it really fun. When i was a teenager, we didnt have a lot of money. We could go to sam wongs and get super soup for 1. My parents came here and were drawn to the beatnik culture. They wanted to meet all of the writers who were so famous at the time, but my mother had some serious Mental Illness issues, and i dont think my father were really aware of that, and those didnt really become evident until i was about five, i guess, and my marriage blew up, and my mother took me all over the world. Most of those ad ventures ended up bad because they would end up hospitalized. When i was about six i guess, my mother took me to japan, and that was a very interesting trip where we went over with a boyfriend of hers, and he was working there. I remember the open sewers and gigantic frogs that lived in the sewers and things like that. Mostly i remember the smells very intensely, but i loved japan. It was wonderful. Toward the end. My mother had a breakdown, and that was the cycle. We would go somewhere, stay for a certain amount of months, a year, period of time, and she would inevitably have a breakdown. We always came back to San Francisco which i guess came me some sense of continuity and that was what kept me sort of stable. My mother hated to fly, so she would always make us take ships places, so on this particular occasion when i was, i think, 12, we were on this ship getting ready to go through the panama canal, and she had a breakdown on the ship. So she was put in the brig, and i was left to wander the ship until we got to fluorfluora few days later, where we had a distant florida a few days later, where we had a distant cousin who came and got us. I think i always knew i was a writer on some level, but i kind of stopped when i became a cop. I used to write short stories, and i thought someday im going to write a book about all these ad ventures that my mother took me on. When i became a cop, i found i turned off parts of my brain. I found i had to learn to conform, which was not anything id really been taught but felt very safe to me. I think i was drawn to police work because after coming from such chaos, it seemed like a very organized, but stable environment. And even though things happening, it felt like putting order on chaos and that felt very safe to me. My girlfriend and i were sitting in ve 150d uvios bar, and i looked out the window and i saw a police car, and there was a woman who looked like me driving the car. For a moment, i thought i was me. And i turned to my friend and i said, i think im supposed to do this. I saw myself driving in this car. As a child, we never thought of police work as a possibility for women because there werent any until the mid70s, so i had only even begun to notice there were women doing this job. When i saw here, it seemed like this is what i was meant to do. One of my bosses as ben johnsons had been a cop, and he i said, i have this weird idea that i should do this. He said, i think youd be good. The department was forced to hire us, and because of all of the posters, and the big recruitment drive, we were under the impression that they were glad to have us, but in reality, most of the men did not want the women there. So the big challenge was constantly feeling like you had to prove yourself and feeling like if you did not do a good job, you were letting down your entire gender. Finally took an inspectors test and passed that and then went down to the hall of justice and worked different investigations for the rest of my career, which was fun. I just felt sort of buried alive in all of these cases, these unsolved mysteries that there were just so many of them, and some of them, i didnt know if wed ever be able to solve, so my boss was able to get me out of the unit. He transferred me out, and a couple of weeks later, i found out i had breast cancer. My intuition that the job was killing me. I ended up leaving, and by then, i had 28 years or the years in, i think. The writing thing really became intense when i was going through treatment for cancer because i felt like there were so many parts that my kids didnt know. They didnt know my story, they didnt know why i had a relationship with my mother, why we had no family to speak of. It just poured out of me. I gave it to a friend who is an editor, and she said i think this would be publishable and i think people would be interested in this. I am so lucky to live here. I am so grateful to my parents who decided to move to the city. I am so grateful they did. That it neverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr the annual celebration of hardly strictly bluegrass is always a hit now completing itself 12 year of music in the incredible golden gate park. This is just the best park to come to. Its safe. Its wonderful and such a fun time of the year. There is every kind of music you can imagine and can Wander Around and go from one stage to another and just have fun. 81 bands and six stages and no admission. This is hardly strictly bluegrass. I love music and peace. I think it represents what is great about the bay area. Everyone is here for the music and the experience. This is why i live here. The culture out here is amazing. Its San Francisco. This is a legacy of the old warren hel ment and receive necessary funding for ten years after his death. There is a legacy that started and its cool and hes done Something Wonderful for the city and were all grateful. Hopefully we will keep this thing going on for years and years to come. This is thursday, april 23, 2020. I will again enter the following comments into the record that on february 25th, 2020, the mayor declared a state of emergency ey related to the covid19. Since that declaration, the county Health Officer issued a stateathome order followed by the governor of the state of california doing the same. Furthermore, the mayor and governor have issued emergency orders suspending select laws applicable to boards and missions making it possible to hold this Commission Hearing remote