Transcripts For SFGTV Mayors Press Availability 20240713

Necessary resources needed to implement the components of the legislation and to secure rooms and also take into account the fact that federal and state funds may be available to support the services mandated by this legislation. Supervisor peskin did a good job of touching on all the major points why this appropriation is important. And i just wanted to share my voice in support of this appropriation. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Any other comments from supervisors . Supervisor peskin has made a motion to continue this item and i will make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair as we are in close communication with him and his staff. So id like to make a motion to continue item number 7 to the call of the chair. Could i have a roll call vote, please . On that motion. Walton aye. Mandelman aye. Fewer aye. There are three ayes. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Now lets vote on item number 6. We heard Public Comment on that. And so id to make a motion. I mentioned in the beginning, the Budget Committee did not have a financial deliberation on this or there wasnt a judgment that we could actually vote on because this is an urging resolution, so there is not a fiscal act for this particular item. So i think that we should supervisor haney, i think that really you should follow up with the b. L. A. With what you mentioned and i think its a good suggestion, but i, you know while i appreciate this, the goal and i did want to also say, yeah, our first line workers are getting us through this. It is tremendous. It is unselfish. It is generous. It is a gift the work they do. However, because of the emerging resolution, i want to caution them also, were going to be discussing difficult budget decisions that will impact the boards priorities and its not responsible extendi funding for services while major cuts are for others. Having said that, there is urging resolution. But i do want to get this out of committee so the full board has an opportunity to vote for it. Id like to make a recommendation to move this out of committee to the full board with no recommendations. Could i have a roll call vote . On the motion. Walton can you repeat the exact motion . Supervisor fewer id like to make a motion to move this out of Committee Without recommendation to the full board . Supervisor walton aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor fewer aye. Your ayes are three ayes. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Colleagues, i want to thank you for your patience today. And also want to thank our listening public for the patience and the glitches. We apologize, were trying to get better at this and we will continue to try. I want to thank i. T. Staff and our clerk and sfgovtv for being so accommodating also. Madame clerk, any other business before us today . There is no further business. Supervisor fewer were adjourned. Thank you, everyone. Good afternoon and thank you for your patience. Im mayor london breed and im joined by the department of human sources, trent roher and department of housing, the police chief, bill scott and youll be hearing from some of them in just a moment. As of today, we have 1,490 cased of those reported in San Francisco with chinatow covid1d sadly, we have lost 23 residents in our city. You can find out more information at datasf. Org covid19. Our tracker with a number of details around neighborhoods, of around race and ethnicity and other information on this tracker that we will continue to update. In addition, there is information on this tracker, as well, regarding our hotel rooms and the number of hotels rooms that are available and also occupied by Homeless Individuals, our Public Health and our Public Safety workers and so lots of great information on the tracker. Today, as im sure you know, that the Area County Health officers announced Additional Details regarding the stayathome order which has been extended through the month of may and the new guidelines include outdoor businesses, the ability to open outdoor businesses, like fle fle marketd hiking and fishing and golfing and these are things that can be done through social distancing and its just providing additional opportunities for people to not only have some flexibility but to get back to work and speaking of getting back to work, theyve provided the opportunity for construction to resume in our city. Thats all construction projects. And this is really great that we are at this point, but i want to be clear that we have a long way to go. And the work that the Economic Recovery Task force is doing to work with the department of Public Health, to provide guidelines for various industries as we look into the future and reduce the curves and get back to the lives we know and love, we know there will be real changes. Our goal is to work on what those changes might be and to provide guidelines in advance so that so many of our businesses in San Francisco are prepared when we are able to resume business. And i know that this will be a gradual undertaking and we appreciate, again, your patience and your cooperation as we deal with this very challenging time. Im committed to not only getting through these next few weeks, but also making sure that we are able to provide you wail a little more guidance, a little more certainty and understanding about exactly what could potentially be available. We know that so many of you are anxious to know that if you are able to go back to work, what will happen with schools, what will happen with children, what will happen with ederly parents or exposure for yourselves and those are the kinds of things we want to make sure we have the answers to as we gradually begin to reopen various sectors in our city. So again, thank you for your cooperation and thank you four r your patience. I want to talk a little bit about how excited i am that construction is able to resume in San Francisco. It not only means opportunities for the people who are working in this industry, to go bac baco work and again, there are guidelines that are been put in place to keep workers safe, but it provides the opportunity to continue what we know important construction work around housi housing. Housing production is necessary because even though were in the midst of a Public Health crisis, we are already experiencing a huge homeless challenge. And the need to make sure that we are not stopping Housing Production because of what will be needed on providing us the ability to move forward and to make sure we have this muchneeded housing. Its so important to move forward and so, we know that this has been a problem in our city and its something ive been pushing for, this challenge of providing housing and the issues around homelessness because of this crisis could potentially get worse and this is why its so critical that we continue to build housing and so, im excited about this and i know that this will make a real difference in our city and in the bay area. Housing shortages, as we also know, lead to higher costs and higher housing costs leads to more people becoming homeless. From this population, they cannot just stay at home, because they dont have a home. We see playing itself out all over the city with the number of tent encantments and so far weve placed almost a thousand people and s in hotel rooms whie been an incredible logistical challenge and continues to be. But as weve talked about before, we need hotel rooms for frontline workers who are out there, working every single day, essential workers who are putting their lives on the lines because we dont want to risk them in affecting other people and their families. In addition to securing and staffing hotel rooms, were creating alternative shelter locations, including 120rv 120 v trailers at bayview and Hunters Point. This will provide a safe place for people who are homeless in the southeast part of the city. And i want to be clear that these rvs will serve the bayview, Hunters Point community and trent roher will speak more in detail, but the hotel rooms we are provides are for people who were homeless in San Francisco before this crisis. The rvs that we are providing in the bayview Hunters Point are for the bayview Hunters Point community and we are only going to serve during this crisis and i want to be clear because ive heard a lot of conversations, a lot of talks and a lot of feedback from people out there on the frontline, where people are showing up in San Francisco from other places and asking where their hotel room is. Thats a room problem for me because again, we have a real challenging problem as it relates to homelessness as it is and i want the message out loud and clear that the people who are already in our system of care, we have a coordinated system to help and if you were no in the system in thnot in the beginning, we will not prioritize you for the resources that we have available. You will not be prioritized over them. So i want to make that loud and clear. Only people who are currently in a homelessness system of care may qualify for the rooms and at bayview Hunters Point or other folks in the coordinated care system may qualify for the rvs and trailers we have available. No one from other cities should be coming to San Francisco, expecting theyll get prioritized over the people who are here. And to be clear, we are going to have we have enough challenges with trying to provide services and support to our existing residents and we are most likely not going to be able to serve everyone as hard as we are trying to do exactly that. So i just want to be clear so that we can make sure that that word gets out because sadly, that is what we see happening and playing itself out on our streets. And what i want to also talk about is density and crowding and how theres a National Conversation around the fact that places that are more dense, that have a lot of housing are places where there are real challenges with the virus. In San Francisco, in particular, we have been able to not necessarily reduce the curve but keep it relatively flat as a result of the work that we have all done together, but we also know that the lack of housing, the inability to have places for people to live where they have their own bathrooms and their own kitchens and theyre not sharing these congregate Living Spaces and more importantly, we know that the cost of living has made it difficult for families who are living with one or two families and extended Family Member exposs and those are thes of environments that make it possible to spread the virus quickly and the conditions that people sometimes live in are very challenging and this is, again, why the need to build more housing and to have more opportunities for people to not be in units where there is crowding or overcrowding is important, especially during a pandemic as we can see. Weve also seen how our lowincome communities have been hit harder, in part, because people in those communities are often forced to live with multiple roommates or other Family Members in the same unit. And this is what i moon b mean e housing impacts, the fact were not building enough faster is having a tremendous impact on our city. Although in comparison to other cities, San Francisco is relatively flat. I mean, we are the second densest city in the country. Yet, we have not experienced, you know, close to the impacts that other cities who are far less dense than we are have. So i wanted to spell the myths of the need to not produce more housing as a result of this pandemic. It is a serious need in our city executive wanand i want us to co move in this direction. Its one of the reasons why i, along with the president of the board of supervisors, norman yee, we moved forward the balance bobalboaresident projec. This will create permanent jobs and 1,100 new homes with 50 , which will be affordable right next to city college. There will be housing for teachers, for families, for lowincome residents. There will be a great new addition to the neighbor near Public Transit and near city college and this is absolutely incredible and this is what we need to do. And its really why i am very surprised and extremely disappointed that the board of supervisors yesterday decided to continue the mission rock project, the mission rock project which provides 1,200 homes, 40 of which are affordable and 14,000 construction jobs and over 10,000 permanent jobs. When were thinking about what is happening with this pandemic, we cant wait around to move these projects forward. People have lost their jobs. Over 60,000 people in San Francisco have filed for unemployment and we anticipate that 40,000 more will. We cant stop our economy. We cant stop moving forward. People are going to need tack as to Employment Opportunities and people are going to need places to live. So it would be interesting to hear exactly what the reason is for why this very important critical housing and jobs project was delayed by the board because this does not help our city move forward. Finally, i want to talk about the support we announced yesterday for workers. In San Francisco, we have a law that requires employees who dont provide insurance to pay into a fund that gives workers access to funds for health spending. And you think the citys bureaucracy is challenging, i mean this program which is meant to help workers and the challenges that they have had in maneuvering this system has made it difficult for them to access money that theyre entitled to. And were not just talking about a few dollars. Were talking about in this particular case, 138 million. Its just sitting in healthcare accounts and because of restrictions and bureaucracy, its too hard to spend and yesterday, we were able to announce what we did to fix it and i will tell you this is something weve been working on for a long time. And thanks to the city attorneys office, the office of economic and workforce development, some people from labor and other great minds, we were able to come up with a really great solution so that we can get the hands, the money from this account directly into the hands of the people who need it the most. And so, we are going to do just that. Every Single Person who owns one of these accounts and there are over 100,000 accounts, will now be able to access this money and we will make it easy and quick for them to get it. This is really something that will help tremendously with what some workers and in many cases, these are the workers who have most likely been laid off from work and could use what could amount to anywhere on average 1300 per person. So im really grateful to all of the people who worked on making this resource available. As we deal with this real challenge around Public Health, simultaneously, we must ensure that the things that we are able to do and provide, we need to do it. People need to work and theyre going to need jobs when this is over. People are going to need to have places to live. Were going to continue to need to deal with the challenges around homelessness and so, this will be very difficult and require some very difficult choices. An estimated 1. 1 to 1. 7 billiondollar budget deficit is nothing to sneeze at. So as we are making decisions today, we have to be mindful of that and what that means to the success of our city and the future. The success of our economy in the future. And those are the reasons why these housing projects are so critical, the Job Opportunities that they create are so critical, our work to support, our existing residence, including our existing Homeless Population and to not increase that significantly is so critical. Its why we have to draw the line somewhere because we dont have an endless pot of money available to serve everyone who needs it and that is going to be our challenge as we go into the future and make the decisions we need to make around Public Health and safety and our economy, its important that we do everything we can to support our existing workforce, to support our existing homelessness population and to get through this pandemic together. So with that, i would like to introduce dr. Kolfax is not with us, but dr. Philips from the department of Public Health will be providing an update. Good afternoon, im dr. Susan philips. Thank you, mayor brisked. Breed. Today there are 1,497 San Francisco residents with confirmed cases of covid19. And a total of 23 people in San Francisco have died. I send my condolences to their loved ones. Mayor breed also begins her remarks with these numbers as a way to honor those who have become sick and those who have died. But also an and important reminder to us all. Even though we have made tremendous progress as a community to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it is still here and can spread as easily as it did a month ago and will thrive if we let it. We announced when the stayathome order expires sunday night, a new one will take effect. That will last through the end of may, giving us time to build the systems we need to support or recovery. I know this is hard. I greatly appreciate the sacrifices everyone in San Francisco and the greater bay area have been making. When we think about the family and friends we are missing, we must remember, they are the people we are protecting by staying apart. When we think about the jobs changing or lost, we must remember or economy would Face Even Greater setbacks if we did not slow the spread of the virus and we are slowing the spread of the virus. We have saved lives. We have to keep it up. Our goal is not changing. We want to slow the spread of the virus and see San Francisco and the bay area recover. Imaginesince january 21, we havn responding to the coronavirus our top priority. Since february 25th, when mayor breed declared a local emergency, we have mobilized the entire city to slow down this deadly threat and to keep our Health System stable and ready to care for all who need it. Since march 16th, when 7 Million People in the bay area joined the fight, we have stayed home to protect one another. Today, we renew our commitment to the fight. We will continue staying home, continue covering our faces when we have to go out and continue to keep six feet away from people outside of our households. Yet, we will also make a few minor modifications when the order takes effect on monday. The new orders allow for some lowerrisk outdoor jobs and activities to resume. For example, as the mayor said, all construction may start again as long as each project follows the safety protocols in the order. Certain outdoor businesses can open and that means nurseries and gardeners, for example and it does not mean that a restaurant can open its outdoor patio. We can get outside for exercise and the city has closed roads in Golden Gate Park and mcclarin park to make that easier but we cant share equipment, whether thats a playground or basketball or have physical contact with anyone outside of our households. While San Francisco and the bay area keep up the good work that has gotten us this far, here is how we at the Health Department and City Government will prepare for the future. We will continue to follow the science data and facts. We will continue to build out the Public Health infrastructure to support a gradual reopening and eventual recovery. We will watch a state level to track our progress and these are the questions well be asking. Number one, is the number of patients in the hospital with covid19 decreasing or staying flat . Number two, do we have enough of the critical personal protective equipment, ppe, for all of our healthcare workers . Number three, are we expanding our testing capability to meet the need, especially for people in vulnerable populations . Number four, do we have the capacity to investigate every case of covid19 to trace each persons close contacts and to isolate and quarantine the people that need it . And number five, is the total number of cases of covid19 in San Francisco and across the bay area decreasing or staying flat . As we expand testing, we expect the number of cases to increase at first as we are doing more of this testing. Well be looking at the rate of positive cases to help us gauge the spread in the community and once weve billed out our full Testing Program and have increased access to testing, we then will be looking for the cases to flatten and go down. Weve been laying the foundation for recovery from day one and testing is really an important part of that strategy. We have expanded testing from when we first began testing in our Public Health laboratory on march 2nd and well continue to increase testing in San Francisco. To date, weve collected close to 18,000 test results and expanded testing criteria as supplies permit. Today, we are able to test anyone with any symptom compatible with covid19, as well as people without symptoms we find through Contact Tracing and investigations. The next steps in our expansion of testing will include People Living in congregate settings and healthcare workers and were working with the zuckerburg initiative. Theres Research Underway that using testing to help us learn about the prevalence of the virus in our communities. And three recently announced or even started projects will test residents in the mission, a random sample of the pay area and healthcare workers. Each of these will provide important data and insights to help us see a clearer picture and make wellinformed decisions. We are also getting ready in other ways. We are learning everything we can about this virus, developing more sophisticated responses to outbreaks and training a small army of contact investigators. Were working with the Human Services agency and the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to provide safe housing in hotels and shelters for people experiencing homelessness with and without covid19 and we must continue this focus on our vulnerable populations as they will remain at highest risk from the virus as we start to open up. That means people who are over 60 or with certain Chronic Health conditions and we must continue to prioritize them and People Living in congregate settings, such as longterm care facilities, homeless shelters, sros and jail. As we look ahead to our renewed stayathome order, let keep these Vulnerable People in San Francisco in mind and remember that the virus exploits longstanding inequities and lets Work Together to protect everyone we can. Thank you for continuing to stay home, for staying six feet apart, for covering your face when you go out, for washing your hand frequently. S frequently. Together theyre make a big difference and were making a big difference. Lets use the next month to get these habits engrained so we can open as safely as possible is ill now turn the podium over to chief scott. Good afternoon, everyone. Again, i would like to thank our mayor, london breed, for our outstanding leadership during this time and our director of health and his Leadership Team including dr. Philip for their leadership. We continue to staff to help prevent the spread of covid around the city and our officers are out in parks and some of our more popular spots and they will continue to remind people about social distancing. In some cases, we provided Face Coverings to help people to comply with the Public Health orders. Weve received complaints regarding alleged violations of the Public Health orders and they are taken seriously and investigated. Were finding, as ive said in previous preferences, that the majority of people in San Francisco are cooperating and complying wi with the health ors but we have cited individuals who have flouted the order. We have 19 citations that weve issued, up several citations since we spoke. The breakdown is ten businesses and nine individuals and weve admonished or weve issued 86 warnings and as ive stated from, those incidents in which we have taken reports. That breakdown is 52 businesses and 34 individuals. You can visit our covid19 website on the sfpds website to learn more about the enforcement protocols. We continue to use a path of progressive plans and that means education, asking for voluntary compliance, warnings and citations when necessary. We work with director cheryl davis, with our hrc and other Community Advocates in trying to get the community with us to help spread the covid19 virus, to help prevent the spread of the covid19 virus. And that has been largely effective. We want to continue that path and again, when you see our officers out there, we will be engaging with the public and well do everything that we can on this weekend and moving forward to help prevent the spread with this latest renewal of our Public Health order. Were glad to work with the community and i would like to specifically thank, again, dr. Cheryl davis and many of the other Community Stakeholders who have been working withs. Were still seeing decreases in crime overall, 19 decrease in Violent Crime and 34 decrease in property crime this week and a 23 decrease in overall crimes which equates to 142 fewer crimes. But we have had some issues that i want to point out to the public because were going to need the publics help to make sure that number one, we look out for each other. Secondly, when you see crimes, we need you all to report crimes. A couple of things i want to make note of, yeartodate, we have two homicides above where we were last year. We have 14 homicides year to date and we were at 12 last time this year. A disturbing trend that were seeing is weve had four ederly victims robbed, some at gunpoint, over the past 11 days. These are all women and they were all robbed of their purses and this is just simply unacceptable. So i ask all of you to please lets look out for our most vulnerable population, our ederly and our city and lets not have this happen to our most vulnerable population. And these folks were, in some cases, thrown to the ground and a couple of them were at gunpoint. Our victims were ages 85, 69, 70 and 84 and thats simply unacceptable. And we have enough challenges in our city with the covid19 pandemic and this is just that we cannot tolerate. So look out for your neighbors, report crime when you see it, call 911 when you see things that look suspicious, text 911 when you make the call but we need these crimes reported, but we have to make sure that we dont have people in our city victimized. Weve also seen a couple of shootings that are very concerning, including one overnight in the bayview Hunters Point area, where over 100 rounds were fired. Now, nobody was hit, thankfully, but this is, again, unacceptable. Our investigators are working hard to make sure that we try to solve this crime and put these folks where they belong and that is in jail. But we cant allow this type of violence in our cities and although crime in down, we have challenges we need to tack example we will need the publics help in working with us to keep our communities safe. Weve continued to investigate reports of burglaries in our city and as ive stated in the preferences, crime overall is down but weve seen an uptick in burglaries, particularly commercial burglaries. Our officers have been on patrol, and weve made arrests and to date, weve had 34 instances of books where additional challenges of loots have been adding because these burglaries occurred during a Public Health emergency. I want to again thank the District Attorney and his office for working with us on that. This weekend, moving forward, tomorrow, thursday, and through the week, i want to remind everyone that if you have to travel, travel only when its necessary and essential. Act responsibly and maintain a social distance of six feet. Please wear your Face Coverings and we will again be out in the hot spots this weekend and well enhance that deployment this weekend to make sure were educating the public, but also for those people that arent complying, we have to go to a more aggressive nature on making sure we get compliance on social distancing and the wearing of Face Coverings. So well be out and about moving forward as we have been, but well step it up a notch. I want to thank all of the people in San Francisco and people who come to our city to work and to visit, for their compliance up to this point and we want to continue to keep the momentum going and to prevent the spread of this virus and flatten the curve. So again, i ask for voluntary compliance but know that the San Francisco Police Department is out there. Were go tokin go go to be engae need your assistance to make sure that we stop the spread of this virus. Again, i want to repeat, the Crime Reporting numbers as i close, for those individuals who have a nonviolent or crime that has occurred where you dont need Immediate Police services, call 415 5530123. Or you can utilize the 911 or the San Francisco Police Department website to file a report or to request a report. Again, thank you all for your cooperation and lets keep our momentum going so we can stop the spread of this virus. Good afternoon, im the executive director of San Franciscos Human Services agency. As ive spoken about before, the Human Services agency role in the Emergency Response includes provision of mask care and shelter. From the onset of this crisis, our mayor and the city agencies have prioritized safeguards for populations who are most vulnerable to the coronavirus, including our homeless residents. Were following the latest guidance from Public Health experts to minimize exposure for those who do not have adequate housing, to safely shelter in place and to ensure that there are enough beds in our hospitals to treat patients with covid19. And to this end, we focus not own on improving the health and safety, as ive said before, inside our shelters and navigation centers, but moving individuals who have heightened risk due to age or Underlying Health conversations from our shelters, streets and hospitals into hotel rooms. San francisco continues to adapt to the needs of out residents and adhering to the Public Health guidance at a pace weve never seen before. Im incredibly proud of the achievements of our city workforce, our public agencies and under the leadership of the mayor to provide thousands of hotel rooms to some of the most vulnerable residents. With the addition of the alternative Housing Program dashboard, to the citys open data attacker, the publi trackee better insight for those in need at this difficult time. As of today, we have 2,741 rooms under contract at 19 Hotel Locations throughout San Francisco. The city has moved over 950 people from shelters, the street or hospitals into Hotels Thanks to the careful guidance and coordination from the department of Public Health and Supportive Housing. I want to emphasize and to clear up any misunderstanding that the city continues to implement or hotel plan and we continue to bring hotel rooms and other Housing Options online to meet the needs of these vulnerable populations. As i said, we have 2,741 rooms cutely under contract and wcurre have 2,153 rooms. Its important to note that these are all in a negotiation stage and at different stages of the negotiation and some are farther along than others and from our experience, we know that even if we move far along in the negotiateds negotiationss we cannot come to an agreement. The mayor mentioned pier 94 and the trailers and recreational vehicles that we are going to activate. And i want to provide an update and detail on that today, as well. In march, as the city continued to strengthen this response to reduce the spread of the coronavirus, we announced the leasing of recreational vehicles to provide indoor spaces for Homeless Individuals to help protect them from covid19 and to help protect the surrounding communities. The city is now operationallizing a temporary shelter using these lease recreational vehicles to new resources provided to us by californias office of emergency services. 29 recreational vehicles and 91 trailers arrived at seawall lot 344, known as the backlands of pier 94, to provide indoor shelter for Homeless Individuals living on streets or in shelter in district 10, including the Bayview Community and southeast sector of the city. I want to give a huge thank you to the port of San Francisco commission for approving our landuse agreement for this critical need last night in a unanimous 50 vote. Following the assessment of several public lands, the city selected this location for the rv and trailer deployment because it provides land management, utilities and rent relief through a partner city agency. , adequate ac acreage and a direct benefit to people in neighboring communities which i want to speak to now. Weve come to understand that across the nation, people of color and lowincome communities have been hardest hit by the coronavirus. Sadly, we know these disproportionate impacts are found here in San Francisco. Weve heard from dr. Kolfax and the department of Public Health that locations in the city that are most affected by health despairties, income quality and social racism are the most affected by the pandemic to date. This data trend of positive cases in our communities of color demonstrates the citys ongoing focus on equity and efforts to support vulnerable populations during the coronavirus response. During yesterdays port hearing, the Port Commission president characterized district 10 as ground zero for the coronavirus in sanfrancisco. This district has the second highest rates of those experiencing homelessness in the city, more than 1800 people and the majority of which are living unsheltered. We hear the communitys call to bring forward Immediate Solutions and strategies to address these inequities. The new shelter location will provide temporary housing resource for at least 120 individuals in the eas in the st sector of the city. We will prioritize those aged 60 or older or Underlying Health conversation making them extremely vulnerable and susceptible to covid19. By prioritizing people experiencing homelessness, the shelter site will not only prevent people from getting infected but help to reduce the spread of coronavirus in the community. The temporary shelter site plan for pier 94 will be developed and managed by the Human Services agency, the department of Public Health and the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. It will include 24 7 site monitoring and security, asle well as meals and animal care. Were drawing on the expertise to implement screenings that will continue to protect the guests from the spread of the coronavirus. Similar to our leased hotels, we want to provide people with what they need to shelter in place. While the location does not have any immediate residential neighbors, were approaching the development of this temporary shelter in a responsible way, addressing the safety and Health Concerns of the surrounding port tenants and the supporting community. I want to express our sincere gratitude to our partners, at the port for preparing the staging area and the utilities and all of the trailers and rvs have been delivered and are on site now. We anticipate the shelter being ready to accept guests next week and will operate throughout the duration of San Franciscos declared health emergency. Weve said before that are our capacity to contain the coronavirus and flatten the curve to stop the spread depends on the ability to protect all people in San Francisco, to acquire compassion from every Community Across San Francisco to step up and take action. This shelter is an important part of the larger city efforts that we continue to implement to provide equitable, temporary Housing Solutions for vulnerable populations in need during this stayathome order. Ill now be available for questions. We will begin the q and a questions with dr. Roher, and this is from the San Francisco public press. Question is there still a plan to lease 700 hotel rooms for First Responders and covid19positive Homeless People in San Francisco . As i said in my remarks, the city continues to implement the plan that we announced seven weeks ago. I dont know and im not aware of an announcement that went out that said we were ceasing this plan, despite comments in the community. We continue to implement this plan. Weve brought online over 2700 units and our negotiation with 14 hotels, totaling over 2,000 hotel rooms. Question can you provide an update on reaching that goal and a timeline for filling these rooms . Its difficult to project a timeline. Each hotel has to be negotiated individually and sometimes the owners are local and sometimes on the east coast and sometimes international groups. Each contract has provisions unique to the hotels and its difficult to estimate the time for negotiation. In addition, weve said before once the hotels are under contract, it tables takes a nuf days to secure the appropriate staffing, supplies and then to move individuals in the rooms. And so i cant give a definitive timeline on when we will reach our goal of 7,000, but i can say is that we have brought on, as i said earlier, 2741 rooms, at 19 Hotel Locations and our negotiation with 14 other hotels, totaling 2,153 rooms. Its also important to note that the response to this pandemic requires multiple Housing Solutions. In addition to the hotel rooms, i talked about the 120 rvs and trailers and we have 643 beds at congregate sites to provide places to shelter for folks who have passed through their theird phase and theyre now no longer infectious and well be placed in congregate shelters and we are planning for sites, for covidpositive individuals who need more intensive supervision and medical support in a congregate setting. The next questions are for mayor london brisked. Breed. Madam mayor the first question is from kathy novack. Question imgrant and undocumented workers are calling for my assistance beyond the 5 him thousand from givetosf for 200 gift cards. Will more help be available for more undocumented communities. We have identified around 6 million for undocumented people who have been laid off, as well as many of our lowincome families and we havee working on philanthropic support and what we have done to make Resources Available from the state. We know some may not qualify for benefits and that its important to provide the resources and we definitely plan to. The next question is from sf chronicle. Question the board of supervisors is exploring legislation for sanctioned encantments in the city. Are you open to the idea . Why or why not . So we have already begun exploring locations for sanction ten encantments in the city and we want to make it clear that our priority is for the people, the Homeless People who have been in San Francisco before this pandemic and the priority has been our hotel rooms, dealing with our challenges, with our shelters and focusing on our vulnerable populations, the trailers that we Just Announced today. So moving full speed ahead in trying to make sure that we are meeting the need and in the process, we have identified a number of locations that we are seriously considering and as soon as we are able to get those up and running, wel we will. The next set of questions for dr. Susan philips, the department of Public Health. Questions for the chief . No questions for the chief. Your first question is from mission local. Question why does the city have the capacity to do 4,300 tests a day, but its only doing 700 or so . Why not use the unused capacity to test at congregate living places . Thank you for the question and opportunity to elaborate. We think testing is an important component of our moving forward as we outlined in the five indicators that well look at. So while we do have 4,300 test Slots Available in our laboratories that we directly work with, both at our Public Health laboratory, at the clinical laboratory, the San Francisco General Hospital and with our partners at ucsf, we need to match that test with collection supplies. So we need to get the specimen from the patient, take it to the laboratory to be run in that capacity and both numbers have to match. Until last week, we were having real challenges with our supply of testing specimen collection materials to do the tests. That has improved and so now we are more able to ramp up testing. So one of our main goals is to increase that number, the 700 number that was cited, that you cited is higher than it had been a week ago or days ago and so were heartened by that and we need to continue to increase that. So now we recommend that people can access testing for a wide range of symptoms that are compatible with covid19. They also should access testing if they speak with one of our skilled investigators and are told they may have been in contact to a person with covid19. So with both of those expansions, we are anticipating that testing will increase. We are also focused on trying to ensure safety for populations in congregate settings. Testing is one part of that, but not the own part, there is a lot of prevention work our teams are doing in those settings. But expanding testing to those sites is a priority. So you will see the numbers reported of tests completed go up over the coming days or weeks. The next question is from wilson walker, kpix. Question in regard to the city testing well below current capacity, do you think people in San Francisco are aware of the testing opportunities now offered by the city . Great, yes, again, another Good Opportunity to reinforce and clarify the importance and the increased access that were promoting now to testing. So its only been within the last week that we have increased or expanded the symptoms that were qualified from testing and weve brought online more testing capability within the city. I want to remind people that testing may also be quite available through their own providers. There are private providers in the city that have access to testing and the ability to get those results back in much faster time than true even a few weeks ago or months ago. And so that is important to understand and continue. The city expanded options for testing, including our city test sf sites which are important for people to know about. Theyre located in two places and one is at piers 30 and 32 on the ebarcadaro and so ma at seventh and brandon streets. People can gone online through sf gov and sign up to have testing there without requiring providers authorization if theyre not able to easily access the test in any other way. People experiencing any of standpoints osymptoms with covit opportunity to get tested and this is a Good Opportunity to make people in San Francisco aware that resources are available to them in addition to their routine care at their provider. The next question is from joshua sabatini. Question under the health order, can the citys golf courses open as early as next week and are people permitted to play tennis under the new health order, as well . The answer for golf courses is yes. People are able to utilize golf courses and those can be open under the new health order next week. For tennis and other sports that utilize shared equipment, even though people are able to maintain their fisca their physl distance, theyre sharing the ball and that would not be allowed. Question there appears to be confusion over whether summer camps are allowed under the new health order. Are summer camps allowed . So childcare provision or Recreational Activities such as summer camps are allowed to provide childcare for workers doing essential work, including under the broadened definition of these orders. Ithey cap cap allow for cleanin, Face Covering and groups with dedicated caretakers and teachers so the answer is question but there are caveats to keep people safe. Question how will the city enforce safe distance orders on construction sites. Through the department of building inspection. Question is the city presuming workers coming down with covid19 were exposed on the job. So for people who develop covid19 and tested and are positive, we interview every single one of those people as part of our Case Investigation and Contact Tracing work that you heard as another pillar of the work that we need to build up and be ready to do as we loosen the shelterinplace orders further into the future. We would be interviewing people and through that answer view, we woulinterview, wasthis a resulte exposure or Community Exposure and we would do further investigation before assuming it was or was not. Question can you please explain why some outdoor businesses, like flea markets, have been cleared to open while restaurants with outdoor seats have not . Yes, and i want to remind everyone that the orders are regional orders and thats really important because as all of the orders have been taking this regional approach ensures that we have the best possible outcomes since we cross the county line so often. This was by the health officers. For flea markets and other Outdoor Markets such as that, the transaction can happen with relatively small amount of contact and the seller and buyer can wear masks the entire time. For a restaurant, even if they were able to do spacing of the patrons, space them out, its very difficult to maintain spacing for the server, for the actual restaurant employee. And in addition, in order to eat, sit down and eat at the outdoor space, people are removing their masks and that combination of risks to the workforce and the risk potentially to other patrons with having masks removed was the reason that restaurants, outdoor spaces were not allowed under the new order. To follow up, what progress has been made to determine Additional Health code regulations for restaurants when they do reopen. Yes. So i think that that will be in progress over the next month and there are steps that restaurants and other businesses can take now and many have adapted their models to really focus on takeout or delivery, but there are models put in place to think about spacing for patrons when that is allowed for ways in which the weight staff and other restaurant workers can be kept safe. So there will be more guidance and information to come specifically to restaurants. Thank you, dr. Philips. The next question is for dr. Abigail kahn, homelessness and Supportive Housing. Question is the rvs will be reserved for the bayview Hunters Point area, what resources will be offered to the Homeless Community throughout the area. I think you heard a part of this answer from dr. Roher from the services agency. I want to underscore, because a part of the values of the department of homeless and Supportive Housing are to be as honest as possible with people experiencing homeless and i want to underscore while unsheltered Homeless Individuals are on the list to move into hotels and we are working as fast as we possibly can to stand up more hotels, those resources are limited and standing up hotels is a significant piece of work. And so, what i want to underscore is that while we know all people in San Francisco and vulnerable residents are really suffering, its really important that those who have been in San Francisco and who have roots in San Francisco and known to our homeless response system, these individuals have been waiting for ten years on our streets to get help and these are the individuals that we will be looking for. When we do have rooms available. And we are looking for vulnerable individuals based on age and medical conditions as weve discussed many times and we need all of our counterpart sister communities to be doing the same kinds of work and we know that they are. We talk with them twice a week and we know that hotels are a part of the plan for all of the surrounding areas. And so, if youre experiencing unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco and youre not from here or known to our system of care, you are not going to be able to move in quickly to a hotel room in San Francisco. Thats part of the honest city thahonesty thati need to provid. Its not that we dont want to help you. It will take a tremendous amount of time and we need you to return to your Home Communities and get the resources there. So we will be placing people in our system who are known to our system who are vulnerable. To the specific question around gegeography. Are they in our system and have San Francisco roots and where are they located . This is similar and we know where people are experiencing homelessness and know where its increasing. Its increasing in the bayview, and increasing in the tenderloin and hence our focus on the tenderloin to move people from that community who have been unsheltered in that community historically into hotel rooms and we will be looking at impacted neighbors across the city with the same lense. Thank you. That concludes or questions for that concludes or questions for at present. I never can tell whether its preston opeskin. Peskin present. Clerk present. Commissioner ronen . Commissioner ronen present. Clerk commissioner safai. Supervisor commissioner stefani . Walton absent. Yee present. We have quorum. Commissioner peskin for you have any announcements . Clerk yes. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda via telephone by calling 888 2045984. Enter access today 2858465. Not sure if its showing up on the screen. But then follow the system prompts. Once you join, youll be able to listen to the meeting as a participant. When you wish to speak on an item, dial 10 to be added to the queue to speak. Each caller will be allowed two minutes to speak. When your two minutes are up, we will move on to the next caller. Calls will be in the taken in the order in which they are received. Best practices are to speak slowly, and turn down the volume on the speaker. Please allow for a 30second lag time during the course of the meeting. Commissioner peskin thank you, madam clerk. I move on to the chairs report. Colleagues, this month, amidst all of the incredible difficulties that transit is facing locally, regionally and nationally, im very pleased to share some good news on the funding front. Last week the state Transportation Agency awarded 160 million to bay area transit and rail projects, including funds from muni, bart and the Water Transit Authority. These funds come from the states transit and inner city rail program, which advances projects that reduce emissions, while addressing highpriority mobility gaps. Specifically muni will receive 40 million in funds to improve reliability and travel times for the jade line and mline, as well as 1. 1 million for project developments in the systems. Bart will receive 111 million somebody needs to hit mute. All right. Thats better. Bart will receive 111 million to implement pits transbay court capacity program, consisting of vehicle purchases, train control and maintenance facilities, that will enable bart to increase service to 30 trains per hour in each direction. And carry an additional 200,000 passengers per day. And the Water Transit Authority will receive 9 million for a new Ferry Service between downtown San Francisco and mission bay. The vessel and related charging infrastructure will provide a critical 2. 6mile link between mission bay and our downtown. We are, of course, very grateful to the state for making these investments and i want to appreciate secretary kim and his team for recognizing the central roles of muni, bart and bay area ferry to connect our region and director chang and i had a very good meeting with secretary kim several months ago. And congratulations to all of the agencies on receiving these grants. And thank you to our state delegation and staff, who supported these applications. I look forward to working on each of these projects with all of you to make transit more reliable and resilient. And with that, colleagues, i conclude my remarks. Is there any Public Comment on the chairs report . Clerk chair, there is no Public Comment. Commissioner peskin okay. Public comment is closed. Next item, please. Clerk sorry. Hard time getting unmute button there. Consent agenda. Items 48 comprise the Consent Agenda. Item has 58 Board Meeting and no being considered for final approval. The remaining items are considered routine. Staff is not planning to present on these items, but are prepared to present. Oh, im sorry. I read the wrong item. Item 3 is the executive directors report. This is an information item. Commissioner peskin thank you, madam clerk. Director chang, the floor is yours. Thank you, chair peskin and commissioners. Ill begin my report with the continuing federal response to the pandemic. Of course, Congress Last week passed the paycheck protection program, previously funded for 349 million. And transit operators, however, continue to strug well the covid impact on their revenues and ridership. On april 22 bed, the m. T. C. , metropolitan transportation commission, on which commissioner ronen sits, approved a strategy to distribute the bay areas 1. 3 billion share of the federal cares act relief funds for the transit operators. This includes immediate allocation of 780 million via formula to address the shortterm revenue losses, including 197 million to sfmta, muni, 251 million for bart, and 49 million for caltrain. Sfmta has sent a letter to the m. T. C. Commission and executive director theresa mcmillan, which im included in the report. This requests m. T. C. Distribute future funding, according to equity issues and allocations that considerations that were not adequately addressed in the first transfer of funds. So thats something that we continue to track with m. T. A. Staff. M. T. C. Directed staff at the time to establish a transit Blue Ribbon Panel to make recommendations for future funding from the cares act. And to provide guidance for transit operators to ensure that regional connectivity is maintained with a focus on equity. And this really means ensuring that transitdependent communities and essential workers are able to maintain access to jobs and transit. Were working with the commissioners to provide input to this process. On the federal front, again we continue to work with Partner Agencies to identify and advance San Franciscos priorities for future potential relief packages or infrastructure bills. Additional nearterm relief needs include state and local governments, of course, which include state and local departments of transportation, transit systems, which will continue to need funds and support beyond the initial cares act three. And also the toll agencies of the nation, who are seeking 9 billion to replace lost user fees. On the longrange front, our latest understanding is that congress will likely not take up any infrastructure legislation until they reconvene in june. In the meantime, we are tracking whether they opt for a shortterm extension of the current fast axe, a full multiyear reauthorization of the transportation bill, or a onetime economic stimulus bill. So in any case, the drastically reduced gas tax receipts will exacerbate the issues, which were already quite dire, presenting continuing challenges about the debate over how to fund longterm infrastructure investments. Moving over to again the tircp grant funds award that the chair Just Announced. Were so pleased that the bay area did well this cycle. We want to congratulate all of the project sponsors. We want to also thank our state delegation and several staff amber and michelle for their work with the Mayors Office and all of the sponsors on this effort. We did coapply with funds with the water emergency transit authority. And are pleased that the electric ferry was awarded and hope that we will be able to build on that for the taillefery service in the future. Turning to local issues. Our Team Continues to coordinate with partners on tracking the revenue for the t. M. C. Tax and developing guidelines to administer the revenues once they do come in. I will note theyve come lower than precovid. Due to the impacts, however, of covid we do expect revenue to be much lower and for that reason we would like to propose that we bring this item for the board later in this year. And well work with chair peskin and yee and others of you to carefully consider the revenue situation and perhaps program the fund at the end of 2020, when we have a much Bigger Picture and reflect this in the new midyear budget we plan to bring in june and the annual budget later this year. We have, however, in the meantime been engaging with key stakeholders, such as the sfmta, the department of Public Health, the Pedestrian Safety advisory committee, the bicycle advisory committee, and all of the variation advocate organizations and Community Groups on the guidelines for how the program might be structured and what the process would be for eligibility and the like. So again we look forward to bringing that all to you later this year. Turning to project delivery. Pleased to share, of course, that caltrans has made tremendous progress. Youve seen this in the news. They were able to accelerate this project by three months, during shelterinplace. Took advantage of the lower traffic levels and we do want to appreciate that theyve been able to keep the public well informed. The detours are going very smoothly. We want to thank caltrans for expediting the work and sfmta and california Highway Patrol for keeping speeds safe through the area and managing traffic. So thank you again. For folks interested, a live web cam you can see the 24 7 operations here. Please visit 101alemanyproject. Com to have a look at the project in realtime. Caltrans, began repaving the northern section of state route 1, presidio. This was friday the 17th. Work will continue to be done through late may, most days of the week. This is again between lincoln and lake street. So for more information, please also refer to the caltrans website. Finally, on management and the administration issues, we continue to closely monitor the revenue streams. And estimates of the city and with other Partner Agencies to assess the short and mediumterm financial impact. The revenues received last week, as far as the sales tax reports for february, indicate that revenues were unaffected through the first two months. But, of course, we expect that significant decrease to show up in the march through these through months, now through the end of the year. A final amendment towards 2020 budget for your approval in june, as long as with the results of our review of bart program and fund program priorities, as chair had requested. So to coordinate with the city and county of San Francisco, well present the annual budget later this summer. In the meantime, we do maintain a Strong Financial position that were meeting the cash needs of our sponsors. And with that i will conclude my remarks. Thank you. Commissioner peskin thank you, madam executive director. Is there any Public Comment on item number 3 . Clerk chair, there is no Public Comment. Commissioner peskin okay. Public comment is closed. And now you can read the Consent Agenda, madam clerk. Clerk thank you, chair. Item 48 comprise the Consent Agenda. Items 58 were approved at the april 14th Board Meeting, and are now being considered for final approval. The remaining items are considered routine, staff is not planning to present on these items. But are prepared to present if desired. If a member objects to any of the consent, items may be removed and considered separately. Just a reminder that Public Comment will be available for item via telephone, by calling 888 2045984. Enter access code 2858465. Then follow system prompts. Theres a 30second delay, so please dial 10 as soon as you hear the item called in order to speak on that particular item. Please remember to turn down your Television Volume when commenting. Commissioner peskin thank you. Before i ask for a motion, madam executive director, could you just please speak to the new special condition on item number 6. Yes, certainly chair. Commissioner peskin . We yes, certainly, chair pesk. Including the requirement that the allocation funds for both their allocation and our portion of the appropriation of these funds, prop k funds would only be spent in accordance with the citys l. B. E. And i believe 12b and local hire requirements. Commissioner peskin thank you, ms. Chang. Is there any Public Comment on item number 4 . Clerk yes, chair, we do have a member of the public. Commissioner peskin okay. First speaker, please. Dont forget to press 10. Operator you have one question remaining. Clerk welcome, caller, you have two minutes for your Public Comment by which starts now. I apologize. Im for item number 6. Commissioner peskin we already had Public Comment on that item last week. We did receive your comment by email. And that is in our possession. But Public Comment on that item was taken at our last meeting. Caller thank you. Commissioner peskin thank you, mr. Lebrun. So with that, Public Comment is closed. Is there a motion to move the Consent Agenda . Moved by mandelman. Commissioner peskin is there a second . Commissioner yee yee. Commissioner peskin on that motion, a roll call, please clerk for the Consent Agenda. Commissioner fewer . Fewer. Commissioner fewer . Aye. Clerk commissioner mandelman commissioner mandelman aye. Clerk commissioner mar . Commissioner mar . Aye. Commissioner peskin aye. Clerk commissioner preston . Commissioner preston aye. Clerk commissioner ronen . Commissioner ronen aye. Clerk commissioner safai . Commissioner safai aye. Clerk commissioner walton . Commissioner walton . Aye. Clerk commissioner yee . Commissioner yee aye. We have approval. Commissioner peskin okay. Those items are finally approved. Could you please read the next item. Clerk yes. Item 9 is reprogram 197,500 in Transportation Fund for clean air funds from the San Francisco municipal Transportation Agencys fiscal year 2016 2017 alternative fuel taxi Incentive Program to San Francisco department of the environments fiscal year 2018 2019 Emergency Ride Home Program. This is an action item. Commissioner peskin thank you, madam clerk. I just want to start by thanking our staff for their collaborative work with the department of the environment. Thank you to ms. La ford and to our executive director for that work with the air district and thank you particularly to tyrone jew, who helped facilitate this collaboration. And thank you to commissioners walton and haney for making this small thing happen. With that, ms. La ford, would you like to present this item to the commission . Good morning, commissioners. Anna la ford, Deputy Director for policy and programming with the Transportation Authority. Im going to pull up my brief notation and then i will invite Charles Sheehan, from the department of the environment, to make some remarks about the program. At the april 14th Board Meeting, the board and in particular commissioner haney requested that staff explore ways to help essential workers, who are facing challenges getting home from their jobs, particularly at night. Due to recent Transit Service reductions, due to covid19. And since the meeting, we have been working with the department of environment and the San Francisco municipal Transportation Agency to develop a proposal to expand the existing Emergency Ride Home Program, that the department of the environment has been operating for many years. This provides taxi rides. The proposal is to provide additional taxi rides for essential workers, who are not able to take transit home, due to service reductions. Now by way of background, the Transportation Authority has been funding the Emergency Ride Home Program with Transportation Funds for clean air funds since 2009. These are funds that come to the county for programming for projects that have clean air benefits. And so what we are proposing to do is to expand the program. The program at its core is to encourage people to walk and bike and take transit and take sustainable modes of transportation to get to work. And that if there is an emergency, it provides a taxi reimbursement for a ride home for these workers. And the proposal is to expand this existing program during the covid19 emergencyrelated Transit Service reductions. And it is a proposal that responds to the needs of the special workers. And it will also provide air quality benefits, which is one of the goals of the Transportation Fund for clean air. It will incentivize trips to work and help transit riders say on transit during this time, rather than becoming drivealone park commuters. The way that we are proposing to fund this expanded Emergency Ride Home Program, for essential workers, is by reprogramming funds from the sfmtas alternative fuel taxi program. This is a grant that provides a financial incentive to taxi companies, to replace their clean replace their taxi vehicles with clean air vehicles, by providing an incentive, a rebate to the taxi companies. This grant, from fiscal year 20162017 will expire on octobe. A remaining balance of almost 200,000 that we would reprogram to the the department of environment Emergency Ride Home Program. And it will still, as you can see from this slide, this proposal will still leave 250,000 available to the m. T. A. For its taxi program. Sfmta is very supportive of this proposal. It continues to support the taxi industry and its essential workers. And i also wanted to note that we have been working with the air district staff and have provided them with various different elements of information about our proposal and we have modified the Program Proposal in response to some of their concerns. And we they now think that the proposal is reasonable and will work with us over the coming weeks and months to monitor the program, as it proceeds. And with that i would like to i would like to invite Charles Sheehan from the department of the environment to give his presentation to go into detail on the program. Commissioner peskin mr. Sheehan. Thank you, chair. Commissioner thank you, chair peskin. Over the past week, weve been working extensively to put together this Program Proposal. I want to thank alex and minutehoe park from the department of the park. Of course, mike and anna from sfmta and, of course, the air district for their partnership and collaboration. Im going to pull up my screen here. Lets see here. Okay. Everyone see those slides . Commissioner peskin yes, we can. So for nearly ten years, the emergency ride home has provided commuters in San Francisco a guaranteed ride home from work, in case of an emergency. The goal of the program is to help commuters feel confident in sustainable commuting options, which encourages them to leave their cars at home and allow them to feel safe and secure that an emergency ride to go home, to go to the doctor is available when they need it. The user pays the cost of the ride up front, and then submits a reimbursement request after the trip. And then during this time of shelterinplace, the Program Remains available only to essential workers and retains the same purpose. Because of covid19, as many of you know, the transit options that many commuters rely on have been significantly curtailed. Muni service has been curtailed, bart service has been curtailed, but essential workers still need to get home after work. To support them were proposing an expansion of the Emergency Ride Home Program and we are proposing to call it the essential worker ride home program. This resource will assist essential workers and frontline staff, that are struggling to get home after work late at night, due to transit reductions. As was noted earlier, we are still expecting commuters to take sustainable transit options into work and the goals of the program remain the same. Reduce emissions, and offer that will reliable ride during unexpected times. The program is going to leverage the ready established framework for the existing emergency ride home, which is managed by the department of the environment. The new expansion differs in eligibility requirements, reimbursement allocations and has additional verification processes. To maximize the number of people who can be served by the program, we are limiting the number of trips to ten taxi rides home per month and up to 70 per ride. The calculation is based on a 12week program budget, using the average cost of a oneway, offpeak taxi ride to the east bay and assumes that not every trip will reach that 70 limit. Although challenging to predict demand and usage, based on the budget and parameters, we anticipate the program could subsidize an estimate 71 to 100 essential workers per week. Ill talk a little bit about eligibility requirements. All employees, as noted, must be working for essential businesses in San Francisco as classified by the city of San Francisco. Trips must originate at the employees work location and end at home, a transit stop that will take them to their home or the location of their parked car. Trips to work will not be covered by the program. Trips must be taken during hours when or at locations where previously available transit options are now unavailable. Tricks, of course, must made via official taxi. We will also ask people, who request reimbursement, to certify that they used the sustainable mode to get to work and we will screen out employees who have access to transportation benefits or systems that their current employers offer. Verification and processes. Were going to follow the existing and wellestablished system used for the Emergency Ride Home Program, with some additions to account for essential worker verification. For example, the application will ask about personal and employer information, which will be reviewed for eligibility by s. F. E. Staff. Once approved, participants can begin to use the program and submit weekly reimbursements. And, of course, each request will be reviewed for Program Compliance by s. F. T. Staff and once approved, a check will be processed and sent to participants. As you can see, our budget is 197,500. And most of it is going to reimbursements. Im going to dive a little deeper into this slide, because we went back and forth with the air district on budget, on funding, and making sure we can make the program last. And make it available to as many essential workers as possible. Because we do want to make sure that it is a 12week program. And we want to be mindful of our sustainability goals and the need to make sure again we cover as many people as possible. And we worked hard over the past two weeks on this point. So to that end, during the preapproval process, we will cap the number of applications at 70. And put others on a waitlist until we can properly assess the applications and the data that we have. 70 is based on the maximum use projection of the budget. Remember ten rides per month, 70 per ride. The Application Form is going to capture information about the perspective applicant, how theyre going to use the program, how much theyre going to use the program. And we can make calculations based on those projections. With that refined usage data, well be able to forecast better and make program adjustments, if we need to stretch funds or if we need to make sure that more people are eligible and are using the program. And if we have to, we can potentially lower the maximum reimbursable amount. We can lower the amount of reimbursements that can be submitted each month. We can restrict the timeframe to after 9 00 p. M. And before 8 30 a. M. All are tools to make sure that we can meet our 12week goal. Were proposing the launch on may 1 of the and the program will be reevaluated and modified, based on the following. Potential updates to transportation schedules, availability of program funding, and the possibility or the potential for the removal of the shelterinplace order. Any decision to extend or discontinue the program will be made in consultation with sfcta staff. We have a plan for marketing and outreach that were going to turn on right away. Were going to feature it on the department of the environments website, as well as other city websites, sfgov, sfmta, sfcta, oewd, the department of Human Resources. Were going to share Digital Marketing materials, essential businesses, nonprofits, Community Partners. In addition, were going to work with the department of Human Resources for a citywide communication for staff, so make sure essential workers, working for the city, know that this program is available to them. Our colleagues at sfmta will lead outreach and education for the taxi industry. And at the launch of the program, well have bilingual staff ready to assist customers needing assistance chinese and spanish. And while theyre doing that, were working to translate our web page, our Application Form, and our reimbursement request form. And well make those available as soon as possible. Im happy to take any questions you may have. Commissioner peskin thank you, charles. Are there any questions from members . I think i see a number. Commissioner haney, thank you to you and your staff for your work on this. As i mentioned in my opening remarks, commissioner haney, the floor is yours. If this program is a success, there are other sources of additional funds that we can hear a little bit more from our sfcta staff about. With that, commissioner haney. Commissioner haney thank you, chair peskin. I first want to thank the sfcta, especially anna and mike and the department of environment and their staff, charles. This is just wonderful to see such immediate action and creativity on putting this together. And i want to thank Courtney Mcdonald in my office, who i know worked very closely with all of you. This is something ive been hearing a lot about, particularly from nonprofits, homeless shelter and s. R. O. Staff. So i really hope that we are getting the word out to them specifically. And that were connecting them with different opportunities. Kind of in line with what chair peskin just said there, i think that we im sure with many things in our city right now, recognize that there is a much greater need for this. And the question of how much of that need were going to be able to meet is always going to be something that, you know, were going to grapple with. I am really excited that we would be able to meet the need of about 100 people a week. Obviously i think wed agree that probably the need is much bigger than that. And so i noticed the program said sort of looked at a 12week period. One of the questions that i had is, is that for the purposes of estimation or is that really kind of where were putting the cap on use and for that reason paced on that, were able to serve 100 people . And why did you choose that amount of time, as opposed to being able to serve more people, for example, over the next month, when we know the shelterinplace order will be into effect, for sure the next eight weeks. Because were spreading it out for 12 weeks, seems like were able to serve less people than if we chose a shorter length of time. Commissioner peskin ms. Laforte, i think i saw you raise your hand. Dont forget to unmute. I cant figure out the chat feature. I can unmute. The estimation of 12 weeks is really to make sure that we are consistent with the air quality and Emission Reduction standards, that are required for utilizing Transportation Funds for clean air funds for this program. So its its really its like the sweet spot of where we can make this project cost effective. If the demand is overwhelming, there are actions and the project is cost effective, we have additional Transportation Funds for clean air funds that we could explore, putting on to this project. We have an open call for projects right now, to program the countys share of funding for fiscal year 2021. The funds could potentially be available on july 1. There is also the option there is the additional, you know, taxi grant that may or may not need to utilize all of the 250,000 that remains. The fleet is very clean. This does continue to support taxi workers and the taxi industry through this other program. So we have options to explore, if demand is overwhelmingly high, in order to continue the program. Commissioner peskin thank you, ms. Laforte. Commissioner haney. Commissioner haney thats fantastic. As i understand it, based on the level of applications that we get, for the program, we could assess whether to grow it. If, for example, weve got 1,000 people who would qualify, who apply, we could make some decisions here as a board and in partnership to potentially expand the program. Am i hearing that correctly . Thats correct. Commissioner haney and i just also want to underscore, this is a really important thing for our taxi industry and our taxi drivers, who are really struggling right now. And i hope that we can make sure that theyre aware of this. That we can partner with them closely and that we are able to get them, you know, muchneeded money coming in as well. Thank you again so much. Really appreciate it. Commissioner peskin thank you for those questions and answers. Commissioner yee. Commissioner yee thank you, chair peskin. So maybe its the limitation of the funding, but im also thinking that people may have night shifts, for instance, are struggling with the same issue and reverse. So what was the sort of thinking behind not allowing those people to have night shifts, to be able to utilize this program . Or have you thought about once this is up and running, and its running smoothly, you would expand to that population . Does anyone have an answer. Commissioner peskin ms. Laforte. Thank you for the question. It is one of the confines of the grant program. We have to at the county level, we can move funds between existing projects. And so we can take funds from the taxi Incentive Replacement Program and put it on to the emergency ride home. Im assuming that you were asking about giving rides to work . Actually let me just confirm. Commissioner yee yes. Okay. So that would be a significant change to the existing program. And so we would not have been able to react so quickly. I mean, our motivation was really just to get the funds to this project as soon as possible, to provide these benefits to essential workers and shelterinplace existing. We can certainly explore a new project for providing emergency rides, essential rides to work, emergency rides to work, in light of the Transit Service reductions, if that is, in fact, the other mode that a person would have taken to work, was an alternative, you know, sustainable mode of transportation. So well need to explore it, make sure that its cost effective. Make sure that the air districts calculations pencil out. Thats definitely something that we can explore. Commissioner yee thank you for your answer. You know, i would like you guys to actually explore this possibility, if possible. Thank you. Commissioner peskin i think we all agree. Thank you, commissioner. Commissioner yee . Commissioner preston. Commissioner preston thank you, chair peskin. And it really seems like a great program. I really want to commend commissioner haney and mr. Sheehan for moving this forward. I think that its really a crucial investment in essential workers and also number our taxi drivers, who are really struggling during this time. So thank you for all of your work on that. I had a couple of questions. One, when will it start . And when will the first folks actually be able to utilize this program . Do you want me to take that . Sure. I can take that. Charles sheehan, San Francisco department of the environment. Were proposing to launch the program very shortly, on may 1st. Our website is going up as quickly as possible. I dont want to get ahead of my web team, might be today, might be tomorrow. And i think as soon as technically feasible well open up the kind of preapproval process as well. And so were on a rapid launch timeframe. Commissioner preston excellent. Thank you. And then im encouraged to hear also that there may be additional Funds Available if the demand is high. And so im wondering if just in the next in our next meeting, if that if we could get a report or if thats too soon. But im not sure how many weeks it will take for it to come into focus, whether the demand is exceeding the amount of money set aside or not. Hopefully either you know, maybe at the next meeting we would get a report back on that. That would be great. Commissioner peskin ms. Laforte. Yes, commissioner preston, acknowledging your request. We can certainly work with charles and his staff to bring a report back. What you will see are the likely the registrations and the applications for those in the program. Folks have 20 calendar days in order to submit a reimbursement request from the date of the actual trip. We might not see the reimbursement request data. But we can report back on a regular basis how the program is being utilized. Commissioner preston great. Thank you. Mr. Sheehan mentioned plans around outreach and looking forward to getting those. I want to encourage you to share with supervisors any way that we can help get the word out about this program, particularly folks that may not be in the usual networks. For example, Grocery Store workers, others who are harder to reach. I think district supervisors may have more reach into getting the word out about that program. And just one last question. Im curious how, if at all, how this interacts with some of the private t. N. C. Company efforts that i think have been are similar, for example, lyft and perhaps others are rolling out programs that are similar in some ways, working with nonprofits to provide some transportation for essential workers. And what im wondering is particularly with nonprofits that are, you know, contracting with the city, whether theres been any thinking just about trying to encourage folks to use this program and support our taxi drivers, as distinct from some of those private efforts. I dont know if you can speak to that. So this is Charles Sheehan, San Francisco department of the environment. Thank you, commissioner preston. Right from the start, we included sfmta in our conversations, because theyre kind of our contact, our liaison with the taxi industry. And we kind of reviewed safety protocols with the taxi representatives from sfmta, what the taxi industry was doing in this time of this pandemic. And it became very clear that the regulation that the safety protocols, that are being undertaken by the taxi industry, made it clear that they were the best choice for this program. We have when we talk to our Community Partners, you know, nonprofit businesses about essential workers, i think were going to be reminding them that this program is for taxis. The taxis are regulated by the city. Theyre taking safety precautions. And if they want that reliable ride home, after work when theyve taken a sustainable mode, this is their best choice. And i think thats kind of as far as weve gone on that topic. Weve definitely taken that into account, some of what you mentioned, why the taxis are the best opportunity and the best choice for this program. And for essential workers. Commissioner peskin and colleagues, we have from the sfmta the director of taxis kate teran is on this is in this meeting. Ms. Tern anything youd like to add, subtractor comment on . Well, thank you, commissioners. Happy to be here. Be in your presence, in this interesting new style we have. And i think that was a great description of the taxi industry. Were very excited to support this effort. It supports essential workers on both sides, taxi drivers and workers going to other work locations. I would also add that taxis are a cleanair fleet. So 96 of our taxi fleet is clean air. And thats another important point here. So it aligns very well with the grant requirements overall. And for the cleaning requirements for taxis, we are able to push out information to our taxi drivers. Weve trained the taxi drivers. Weve put together a training video on how to clean. Weve provided taxi drivers with p. P. E. And so weve provided a lot of support for the taxi drivers. Around were thankful to be part of this program expansion. Thank you. Commissioner peskin thank you, ms. Tern. You reminded me that i authored the legislation to make the entire taxi fleet clean air over a decade and a half ago. So there you go. Anything else, commissioner preston . Commissioner preston i just wanted to say that the i think that this is a crucial time. In fact, a very good time for us to be emphasizing the value of highly regulated industry in our taxi fleet. There is always an argument around different modes, public versus private and the level of regulation thats appropriate. I think right now i think we should be making as strong of a case as we can to Community Partners around using our regulated taxis. I think part of that means making 100 sure that we are getting the masks, the hand sanitizer, the equipment that taxi drivers need, so that folks know when they get in a taxi, they are getting in a safe week, as opposed to getting into a vehicle operated by appear private entity, with different standards. And i also i want to make sure that when we look at the numbers, that were not assuming the low level of demand, if the situation is that some of the private entities are more aggressively speak seeking to have that market. Theyre obviously entitled to do their thing as private entities and try to get ridership and set their standards. I think this is really an opportunity for us to invest in our regulated taxis, to encourage the public to use regulated taxis and im really looking forward to opportunities to expand this program. Thank you again for all of your work on this. Commissioner peskin thank you, commissioner. Let me go back to my little chat list. Next up is commissioner fewer. Commissioner fewer yeah, thank you very much, chair peskin. Mr. Sheehan, have you partnered at all with any of our essential workers that are very, very low income, i mean that are in home support folks. Also many of the workers who are not englishspeaking. And i actually think that when you listed the outreach and it actually was inadequate. I think for you to update the website, i think were assuming thats very middle class, quite frankly, to get information out. Im wondering if we are targeting also people who are very low income and we know that this crisis has really hit hard lowincome folks and people of color. So are we prioritize being at all around means . Thank you, commissioner fewer, for that question. We are trying to do all that you had mentioned. You know, were ramping up outreach kind of as we speak. Through city resources, through the citys Emergency Operations center, to answer the first part of your question, looking at employees that are working at Skilled Nursing facilities, Residential Care facilities. Because we have a lot of those listed, so we can easily target. At the same time to make sure were working with nonprofits, those that cater to lowincome communities, that have residents or customers that work here in San Francisco. You know, at the department of environment, we do have many of those Community Partners established. We are going to work through them to get this word out. Ideally we want this program to be available for those who need it the most. And were going to be trying to target that way when we work with our Community Partners or nonprofit partners and so on. Commissioner fewer okay. So were not giving any preference to folks who qualify for our reduced muni fares or anything like that . Have we also partnered with the unions to get the word out, level 6 that represents all of the grossly clerks, 2015 that represents all of the inhome support care workers. So just wondering if weve done that . Not yet. Were just kind of beginning the outreach today and tomorrow. The unions are definitely on our list of organizations to reach out to. They have excellent networks. In terms of your first part of your question, we took a look at means testing in making that a part of this program. We didnt see any adequate models that we could easily replicate. And a number of other questions came up about what level of income and how do you assess and verify income. And so we did ask ourselves these questions as weve gone back and forth between sfcta, air district staff. We werent able to include it in the program yet