Homelessness and supportive housing. Thank you all for joining us here today. As of today, may 4th, we have 1,624 cases of the coronavirus here in San Francisco and sadly, we have lost 29 people to the virus here in our city. And if you want more information, you can please visit datasf. Org covid19. Its or tracker with detailed information around testing and other helpful information by zip code that people may be interested in seeing. And today, i had a couple of things to talk about specifically, the new health order issued on friday by our county Health Officers and i really mention this on friday, but i think this is really exciting, that even though we still have challenges that exist, the ability to allow people to get back to work is so important. And construction in our city will be allowed, as well as outdoor businesses and today, i just want to express, again, my appreciation of the outdoor activities, outdoor businesses and how important it is to make sure that we start to gradually get back to business. We know our governor announced a plan that he will release on guidelines, as well as timing of when some of our Small Businesses, our book stores, small retailers can get back to work and i think its important that we provide some guidance. To be clear, the whole point of the Health Directive has everything to do with limiting our ability to be in contact with people so that we can avoid not only transmitting the virus or contracting it ourselves in the first place. And the ability to do that is critical, but we also realize there are a number of people out there that are struggling financially and if there is a way to accomplish the Public Health goal of keeping people safe with also allowing businesses to operate but to operate differently with certain guidelines, i think that we can definitely Work Together to achieve that goal and get to a better place. In fact, this weekend, i spent a lot of time in a lot of neighborhoods, all throughout the city, and actually, there was a flower shop on chestmut thachestnutopen and and availabe its considered an essential business. I dont remember being happy when i stood in line at a sixfeet distance and i didnt even care. I purchased flowers and i was so happy to purchase these flowers that in my house, i take them with whatever room i decide im going be in and thats the room that the flowers will travel in and its just, you appreciate things a lot more, but, also, i was so happy for the business that was able to open and when i looked around the area, i thought, with some of the retail businesses, why cant they do the same thing. They werent allowing any customers to come within their inside within their shop area. Its an outdoor flower shop and there was a divider up and a gate. And there was no way anyone was entering the business but the ability for people to stand in line and to purchase and get flowers was absolutely incredible. And the good news is, in in health order that was just issued, a florists are able to deliver flowers for mothers day and i hope many of will take this opportunity to either go online or call your local florist or put in an order for flowers, not just through this weekend for mothers day, but just in general because we want to continue to support that industry. We know flee market flea markete open again and youll see food trucks. Oftentimes, its one or two people working in these food trucks and they dont have the ability to manage a line and so, again, this goes into, you know, asking everyone to be supportive of maintaining your distance, wearing your mask and being respectful of one another so three cannot only continue to allow Street Vendors and all of these other great things, florists and gardeners, we want them to stay open and the only way tie lo we allow them to stan is when people follow the rules. As we look at other opportunities to allow nonessential businesses like our book stores and our Retail Stores where you can buy clothing or toys for kids or things of that nature, as we start to look at those opportunities, were going to be paying close attention to what weve already allowed. And if were not able to manage and maintain those wit with the distancing requirements, it will be difficult to start to get back to business. And so i just want to express my appreciation to all of the Small Businesses out there and, also, understanding that we know youre struggling and its going to be important for us to look at and implement new guidelines, but to also make sure that youre able to get back to business without compromising the incredible gains weve already made as it relates to flattening the curve, not reducing the curve. We still see the number of deaths go up and we still see the number of cases go up and we are by no means out of the woods on this, but we also recognise this there is a possibility to provide opportunities for Small Businesses to open safely with certain guidelines and we will continue to work with the governor and work with our Public Health officials to try and do it in a responsible way and we appreciate your patience and your cooperation. And, you know, again, as i spend a lot time in a lot of different neighborhoods all over the city just to get a feel for what was happening in the castro is by the beach and in other places, i did notice something really upsetting, and that is the number of people who were not socially distancing themselves at the deloris park. Deloris park continues to be a challenge because we know on nice days that is the place to be for so many folks. Its a great place, good energy, good weather and, unfortunately, again, we had a real challenge with people who were coming together in groups and not socially distancing themselves from one another and the work, the folks, our park rangers and other security, they had their work cut out. Were all adults here and theres no reason to send in any of our Law Enforcement or anyone to tell people what they should be already doing. And so, i bring up deloris park, because today is a nice day in San Francisco and our goal is to monitor deloris park within the next couple of days. And if we see that that behaviour has not changed, we will close of park and i want to be clear. This is the last thing i want do and we know that people need fresh air. They want to be out but if we continue to see that behaviour become problematic at deloris park, it will no longer be available. So im asking everyone to be cooperative and to make sure that theyre following social distancing. People are wearing their masks when appropriate do so so that we are able to continue to enjoy this incredible open space and, again, making sure that we do our best to enjoy open space within our own neighborhoods. And the other thing i want to talk about that i think is important is the fact that street cleaning has been a problem. And people are not moving their cars and what weve tried to do with the public, because there are certain people that may have contracted the virus and cant leave their homes, certain ederly people who, for whatever reason, cant move their cars and we were sensitive to that. But there are a lot abledbody people who are able to get up and move your car. And the problem that were having right now, a lot folks are not doing that, and at a time where we need to clean our streets the most, we dont environment luxury to allow this to continue. So, again, here is another warning. Not only will we start to implement ticketing around street cleaning, we will look at other ways in which we can address this particular issue if we dont see a change. So for those of you who are abled body and are not economic casick andget up and move your r street cleaning, im asking you do this. Or we will have no other choice to reimplement or ticketing procedures around street cleaning before this expires. Im counting on you to cooperate and to understand that there is a need to make sure that we keep or streets clean. And the fact is, we have people who are out there cleaning the streets, but passing blocks at a time because people are not moving their cars. And this is a real problem and its one that we cant continue to tolerate and so, were going to monitor the situation very closely around street cleaning this week and well have an announcement. If we think that nothing has changed to provide a plan of when we will be going back to ticketing. Lets involve making suri also t about our testing expansion for essential workers. As you know, what we are doing as we get the materials that we need and the Testing Capacity, we know that based on the tests that we do, whether or not we can expand those opportunities to more and more people, the ability to expand testing capacities is so important as we start to look at opening more businesses and reopening our city and having the ability to get people tested is so critical to that success. And today, we just want to announce that we are able to test all essential workers whether they exhibit symptoms or not. And this is definitely significant. This is a game changer here. The ability to allow Grocery Store clerks, our munidrivers and other people who are on the frontlines, our firefighters, Police Officers and nonprofit workers who were working with our Homeless Population in the shelters and if you are an essential worker and you exhibit symptoms or you dont significant symptoms, you still arexhibitsymptoms, you still ge. We want to encourage those who would like to be tested if you think youve been exposed or if you think you exhibit symptoms or not, please go to sf. Gov slash citytestsf and we have several locations were doing testing, including zuckerburg, San Francisco general, the Castro Mission health center, the Southeast Health center and maxine hall in the western addition. We dont want you to just show up but sign up and youll be directed to a specific location to be tested and this is going to make a world of difference in ensuring that we are aware and we keep the public safe, but i just want to remind people that just because you get tested, it doesnt mean that youre out of the woods. We still need you to socially distance yourself from folks. We still need to follow the order because you could be tested negative today and two days later come in contact with someone and later on be tested positive. So it doesnt mean that youre completely clear if you test negative on these tests. And this is a no means substitution for wearing your mask and socially distancing yourself from other people. The other thing this doesnt do is tell you whether you have the virus. If you think you have the virus and youve been in contact with people that might have or you exhibit symptoms, reach out and call 311 or check on the website i mentioned earlier. I also want to talk a little bit about our new testing policy at our Skilled Nursing facilities which you have probably all heard about already. Our goal is to try to focus on many of those congregate living settings where we know are the most vulnerable populations and starting this week, we will begin a new program to test all residents and staff at la goo la hospital and well be issuing a health order requiring yourself testing at the 21 private skillednursing facilities in San Francisco. So we are taking the lessons that we learned and responding to laguna honda and how we address that outbreak to make sure that we are supporting other nursing facilities in our city, whether we are directly responsible for it or not. Its important that everyone ensures the safety of not just the workers who work at these Skilled Nursing facilities but the patients, as well, who are amongst what we know are some of the most vulnerable when it comes to covid19 and this is really an incredible step forward. As i said, as our capacity increases for testing, we are going to continue to make sure that were focusing on areas where we know need it the most and prioritizing those areas. And i also want to be clear that any member of the public, whether you have insurance or not, whether youre documented or not, you can also get tested if you exhibit symptoms. So please dont let that be a barrier to your concern about your health. We are here to identify anyone who is covid positive so that we can proceed with either making sure that they are quarantined and protecting other members their families and that they have a place to actually quarantine. This is our priority, insurance or not, for anyone in San Francisco who exhibits symptoms. Again, you can visit our website or call 311. Ithe last thing i want to mentin is something that i am very concerned about and that is people, again, who ive mentioned before, people not Law Enforcement treating other members of the public like they are Law Enforcement. And we do not need people to get into alte altercations because y dont believe theyre following the direction of the Health Orders. So, for example, ive seen a lot of notices and a lot of concern that people have expressed about runners who are not Wearing Masks and the fact that that if you are running outdoors, youre not required to wear a mask. And i know that everyone thinks that run irs who are outdoors running should wear masks, but our guidance for who should and shouldnt be wearing a mask is coming from our Health Department is im asking you all to follow the guidance and, again, worry focus or yourself and what youre doing and make sure that youre wearing a mask, youre keeping your distanc distance and proteg yourself and families and please do your best to not try to inflict or police other people, especially when you are communicating the wrong message about what the order is or is not. That creates a lot of tension. That creates a lot of negativity is were all struggling with this and were all in the house and we dont want to be there. Im sure many of you have kids and youre children are driving you crazy right now and everyone is having a tough time. The last thing we need is people who think they are the Coronavirus Police and are here to tell everyone what to do. Because when you do that, it creates drama and it creates tension and we know that not everyone is following the rules. We understand that it has been challenging in some neighborhoods more so than others and that probably frustrates us all to no end. But i ask that you, again, focus on yourself and let us do our job to do us address the other challenges that exist, especially because in some instances, inaccurate information is provided as it relates to face covering. I want to focus on the fact that you can wear a mask or something that covers your nose and your mouth as a face covering. It doesnt have to be a mask. And you dont have to wear it when youre outdoors unless youre in line for an essential business. And so i just wanted to remind the public that i get that these are challenging times and all of us want to get out of this, you know, stayathome order as quickly as possible. We get through it by staying focused and following the Health Orders ourselves and second of all, we get through it by making sure that we are not engaging in really devicive and negative behaviour that can make this order prolonged or worse. And we are really in this together and what impacts one Community Impacts us all and we know that as great as San Francisco is doing, else those following the Health Directives, we know that not everyone is doing it, right. We know that there are some people who, for various reasons, are not following the Health Directive. And i know that in some cases, weve had businesses that the Police Department have shut down and theyve tried to implement social distancing in various neighborhoods, where we know we have problems and as we see the problems persist, well make adjustments. So i ask, again, for your patience, your cooperation, and i want to thank you all of you for continuing to support these Health Orders and just know that we are in a better place and we want to stay there and we are mindful of the need for so many people to get back to work because their livelilihood and the city is counting on it. We hopefully will have some better news after the guidelineses are issued to announce to get our city back even though it might be different when we open distances and restaurants and other places, we have to start somewhere. So thank you again for all of your cooperation. I would like to now introduce dr. Kolfax. Thank you, mayor breed. Im director for the city is county of San Francisco. Sadly, 29 people in San Francisco have died and i send condolences to their loved ones. 25,165 people as of today have been tested and an average of 9 have tested positive for covid19. We have made significant progress toward our goal of universal access to testing for all people in sanfrancisco and that is what i would like to focus on today. But first, i want to acknowledge that today is the first day of our new regional stayathome order for bay area residents. As we embark on the month of may, for some of us, it is with mixed feelings. While the data show that most people support ongoing and aggressive efforts to slow the virus, it is not easy for so many of us to do so. Believe me, i know. Not only because of how i feel at times, but because of the phone calls, the zoom meetings and emails and other communications that i get everyday. I share the frustration. I share the concern. And we are restless. It has been six weeks staying mostly indoors and as the weather grows nicer and summer becbeckons, people want to get outside and rejoin society. We miss our friends and family. , or coworkers and our normal live. We are anxious. For many people in San Francisco, the emotional and economic stress of the situation is continuing to build. For parents who are home schooling and workers with no paychecks, there are serious consequences to the shutdown. Yet, i feel and we also feel pride. San francisco has done a tremendous job and it is thanks to all of you that this crisis is not worse. We have built an impressive response infrastructure that was not there before and now we are using it everyday to continue to fight the spread of the virus and to protect our families, our community and our most vulnerable populations. And this could not have happened without each and everyone of you doing your part. And at the same time, we feel cautious. Even though we have made Real Progress as a community to slow the spread of the coronavirus, it is still here. It can still spread easily as it did a month ago and it will thrive as we let it. So despite our frustration, our concern, our anxiety, we must lead with firm determination. San francisco and the bay area, lets use the month of may to solidify or gains as much as possible. And we have saved lives, reduced harm and we must keep up the good work. Let me assure you there is reason for hope. As this new health order takes effect, i would like to point out some ways that life will get a bit better right away. Basically, we are opening the outdoors as long we can do it safely. And believe me, i find this personally welcomed news. Food trucks, flea markets, construction are back. We can send flowers to our mothers on mothers day because florists can deliver again. I highly recommend sending flowers to your mother. Speaking of flowers, plant nurseries, gardening and landscape businesses can reopen. Those are just a few things i am looking forward to with social distancing and face covering, of course. And as the mayor said, we are working very hard to find ways to continue to open more businesses and activities safely while sustaining the progress we have made. With guidance from the cdc, the state, and local health and business leaders, i am confident we will determine how and when opening responsibly and safely and as quickly can be done. Now i would like to talk about testing and reinforce the mayors remarks. Indeed, we have exciting news on this front. As San Francisco has announced, our vision, our goal is universal access to testing for all. To achieve this, weve continually expanded testing based on where the need is greatest and the availability of resources. First, we focused on testing people with symptoms, among travelers and outbreaks, vulnerable populations, case contact investigations and among essential workers. And we reached the point where we can test everyone with symptoms and respond to the testing needs of outbreaks. This was significant progress. So now, we continue to expand as the circl. As the circle keeps we can test people without symptoms. We added close contact without symptoms and then as the mayor said, last week we announced that all residents and staff of Skilled Nursing facilities would be tested, as well. Pout this ithis is a key vulnere population and it was key that we expand testing there as quickly as possible. Today, the mayor has announced that all essential workers in San Francisco are eligible for free tests, regardless of symptoms or exposure. The message is, if youre going to work during this stayathome order because youre an essential worker, you can get tested regardless of symptoms. Essential workers have been showing up everyday and they are healthcare workers, first responders, grocery clerks, construction workers, drivers, childcare workers and others who continue to leave their homes to serve our city during this challenging time. These essential workers interact daily with other people and cannot always easily maintain social distance by staying home. For these workers, they can decide when they want to test, but it is important for them to test immediately when they feel ill or have symptoms consistent with covid19. Or if they believe that they have been exposed to covid19 or if they are otherwise concerned and wish tested. No doctors note, no Healthcare Providers note will be required and the test is free. I encourage social workers who want testing to start with their own healthcare provider. We are recommending all private providers make universal Testing Available to essential workers. And this will be the best way for people to stay connected to care. And, also, starting today, essential workers can get tested for free at one of the two city test sf sites at the embarcadaro in soma. These two sites alone have the capacity to test 1500 people per day. The Departments Community test sites are also providing free tests at Southeast Health center, in the bayview, Castro Mission health center, mac c. Nmaxinehealth center and the. Appointments for these tests are Still Necessary in order to ensure social distancing and reduce lines. If you want to schedule a test, you can call 311 or visit sf. Do vgettestedsf for more information. Its good to now announce todayt all essential workers can be tested. Testing is a key component of our overall recovery. And i am grateful to the team ot the Health Department including the teams of dr. Susan philip and amy lockwood for expanding our Testing Capacity in an unprecedented, rapid fashion, to the port, especially port director Elaine Forbes and her team and the university of california San Francisco and our many other partners in the private Healthcare System and the community for pulling together to make testing more possible for people in San Francisco everyday. We will continue to build our testing program. We plan to expand testing to shelters and other congregate settings and expand testing options in communities that are most impacted by health despairties, inequality and discrimination. But remember, a negative test is just an assessment of your status at that time. , at that moment in time and it does not mean that you are immune. And it does not mean that you are protected. Testing is important. But it is just as important not to get sick or exposed to the virus in the first place. So please, continue to take precautions. We must all continue staying home, continuing to cover our faces whenever possible when we go out and continue to keep six feet away from people outside of our house holds. Holds. If we do that, when we do that, we are in for better times. Thank you. And it is my pleasure to introduce chief bill scott, a key partner in our covid19 response. Thank you, ill begin with thanking our mayor ron don breed and dr. Grant kolfax for their continued leadership during this challenging time. I would like to start with what happened over the weekend and ill start with, basically, reiterating some of mayor breeds points. Although were generally pleased with what were seeing as our city and people if sa in san fro continue to shelter in lace pla, weve seen issuing worth repeating and ill start with deloris park. We anticipated we would have more people out this weekend with good weather and weve had reef learelief and we put out me officers and more volunteers and work with other city entities. But deloris park and other popular parks in the city, we cannot let up. Now, it is ok to go to the park and be with members of your own family, make sure that you have your face coverings with you as the health order calls for. Whats not ok is to be in large gatherings or groups with people outside of your household and that is still not ok. And we are asking that you continue to social distance but what were seeing in deloris park and other parks is that people are having picnics in large groups and some of those groups go outside of the household. Were not at a point where were relaxed to that level yet. So i want to remind everyone of the mayors words, of dr. Kolfaxs words. We need to stay the course. If youre with members of your household, thats fine, but now is not the time to have large picnics or gatherings and even though the weather is congratulate and i know everyone have to stay the course and we have to do whats being asked of us by the medical professionals and what the data is telling us. And the data is telling us that social distancing works and face coverings will help to prevent the spread of this virus and we have to continue to do that. So please, were asking and again, i want to reemphasize, we had a team of officers that weekend dedicated just to address the issues at the parks. And we will continue to do that and well add officers as we need to to make surneed to makee course but we have challenges and we have to get through those challenges to stay safe and healthy. I think people in San Francisco take enormous pride to this point, but we have a long way to go and as dr. Kolfax and the mayor said, please, please follow the Public Health orders. Now, i want to again explain the San FranciscoPolice Departments posture on enforcement and what youve heard me say, the progressive compliance pathway and that begins with education and next, we ask for voluntary compliance and next we warn didnt if that doesnt work, we cite. And we have begun to cite individuals and that is an option of last resort and its not something that we want to do, but if we have to, we will. I think weve shown that, but please, again, were asking for voluntary compliance. This pandemic has been tough enough on us all to this point already and we dont want to make the situation worse is dont make it worse for yourself by not following Public Health orders. We know this is new for people and we also know in many ways that as we reopen and slowly and first of alllget back to normall be many questions. We expect questions and were happy to answer those questions and thats why we have Disaster Service workers out, assisting us and we give everybody a chance to understand a we knee to before going to a level of more aggressive enforcement. We would like to follow that model. We want people to get exercise and get some air and enjoy these great places in our city, but we have to do the right thing in order to be able to continue to do that. As far as our enforcement enfore up to 21 citations with 11 businesses and ten individuals. Weve also admonished 57 businesses and 45 individuals and as i said, there have been hundreds upon hundreds of informal warnings and education provided to members of the public and that will continue. As far as our crime this week, another week of reductio reductn property crime, down 24 and Violent Crime was up slightly and that includes several shootings at the end of last wednesdays press conference and we did have another shooting in the mission district, that,ism, unfortunately was hit and struck and was said to be a bystander. San francisco was working hard to do everything we can to solve that particular crime and bring that to a successful resolution, but we need your help. We need your help to report crime when you see it. We need your help if you see people that are out doing that type of violence in our community, call 911, please. Well be there to assist and to take action. If its a nonemergency or crime thats occurred, particularly a property crime thats already occurred, you can call our report number or our nonemergency at 415 5530321 or you can call 311 or use our website is make those reports online. We do have a call center set up to take reports which is allowing us to be more efficient in our use of resources. So please call us and report these occurrences as you see them. With that, i will end my comments and thank you for your cooperation and lets stay the course. First questions for you, chief scott. Chief scott, this is from dominick vacasa, San Francisco chronicle. Question has sf tv rendered any uptick in individuals or groups defying the stayathome orders . Well, what i just mentioned, dominick, is what were seeing and by and large, people are compliant. When i got the feedback from our officers, we had a detailed setup, just to work on this issue over the weekend and the feedback i received from the officers is that when they engage by and large, people became compliant they werent and so, were happy to see those results and thats why were out there. We expected to see more people out this weekend than we did. And thats why we stepped up our deployment. But people are compliant and there are some that arent and those, in the worst case scenarios, weve issued sky issd citations and we will continue to do that. If theyre not compliant, they immediate fall into compliance and that is what were seeing. Thank you, chief scott. The next questions are for mayor london breed. This question is from nbc. Governodoes San Francisco plan o follow to reopen on friday . I want to be clear, we are definitely going to be working with the governor on phase two of looking at what retailers can be open, but we well do that in collaboration with our county Health Officers so that we can ensure Public Health and Public Safety as we begin to implement opening procedures for various retailers. Were really excited about it and we want to see people get back to work, especially, but we want to do so responsibly. And the governor also said for places less heavily impacted by covid19, phase two would include reopening of restaurants with social distancing measures and other safety practises in place. Will San Francisco be able to reopen some restaurantses i rese city as early as friday . If not, has the city been able to renegotiate with landlords . Just to be clear, i would love nothing more than to open restaurants and to go to a restaurant myself right now. [ laughter ] more than anything. And i look forward to the day when were able to do that. But i want to be clear that whatever is decided as it retes relates to reopening efforts, we have to do so responsibly. So, for example, were talking about new guidelines for restaurants now. Were talking about new guidelines for gyms and other places. But can we say definitively that those businesses will be open this friday . No, we cant. But it is important that we rely on the facts. We rely on the data. We rely on the advice of our county Health Officers so that as we push to do these things, we do so responsibly . And we want to also give these businesses time to know exactly what is expected and, also, to know what are the things that they need to prepare for as they begin to reopen . Because one of the conversations was centered around whether or not they can have the capacity they once had . What does that mean for their workforce and getting people back to work . Its a little bit more complicated and the goal is to do it and do it responsibly whenever the opportunity presentresponsibly. Whenever thee the first one to make sure it is announced and what we need to do to ensure Public Health because of the last thing we want to see is the last time weve spent on this lockdown, we dont want to see the city go backwards in terms of numbers and things get worse. So i want to make sure that we are striking that balance. Madam mayor, the next is from joyce cutler, bloomburg law. How much will San Francisco seek from the state to back their lost revenues . Well, to be clear, we are going to do everything we can to get as much state and federal money as we can get. Because right now, what were doing in redirecting our existing resources to help manage and pay for this is very costly to our city. It is going to be a correctin ag factor and well do everything we can to get as much money as we possibly can from the state and from the federal government. We have received a payment so far that is just a fraction of the cost of what weve already spent, but were going to do everything we can to get every single dollar. The next question is from the associated press. Were entering the eighth week of the regional stayathome order and the tenderloin is crowded with tense people. What is your reaction to the lawsuit filed by hastings law to enforce social distancing in the tenderloin and how quickly do you plan on addressing the issue there . Lets just be clear. The challenges that people are experiencing in the tenderloin, the challenges with people who suffer in some instances from Substance Abuse disorder and mental illness, they dont just go away because theres a pandemic and i dont think its helpful that we have people who, unfortunately, are taking this route rather than trying to work with the city to resolve these issues. They are so coml complicated and frustrating. When you think about the history of homelessness, think about it, every mayor has tried to solve homelessness. And the fact its not as simple as providing housing. Housing is a critical part but there are so many people with complicated issues and Law Enforcement alone, social work alone, all of this which we invest money in supporting a lot of our Homeless Population, those things are a collaboration, a way in which we try to propose solutions and how we Work Together to do it. Easier said than done, but the good news is, this week, i think the end of this week, we expect to release blockbyblock plans, specifically targeted at the tenderloin and it looks at what we need to do to push for the social distancing, the pit stops and the wash stations and the handout amount. I mean, weve done these things over the course of the past couple of weeks consistently, but sadly, theres a real challenge in trying to force people who are exhibiting what is not appropriate behaviour during a social distancing period when were trying to keep everyone healthy. A Law Enforcement component is not the only thing that will work in this case. And so this detailed plan and what were trying to do in order to address the challenge of the tenderloin, im hopeful that it will work, because it is a challenge and it will continue to be a challenge but were doing everything we can and we have to make sure that the workforce of our city, that were asking to go out there, including our paramedics, our Police Officers and our Nonprofit Service providers and our Homeless Outreach time and our social workers, our healthcare professionals, all of these people on the frontline every single day, its important to mak make sure they are safe d protected. Because when theyre out there, you think its as easy as saying, here is a mask, can you please put this mask on. Theres a whole argument that occurs and a request, wait a minute, sir, can you keep your sixfeet distance. Just imagine being out there, trying to help someone whos, you know, lunging at you or who tries to spit on you or whos not following the order and all youre doing is try to help that person. So theres more to this than were going to be able to open up all of these hotel rooms and well able to clean up every block. The department. Public works, different folks who work for that department and clean the streets everyday, theyre out there everyday, especially in the tenderloin and people who are specifically picking up needles and cleaning up after grownup, grown people. People who are adults who should be cleaning up after themselves. So i get that Everyone Wants to see something different. I want to see something different, but were not housekeepers, were not babysitters. And were being treated that way. By people who have some challenges in some cases and some difficulties and some who are just downright defiant. So lets give the people out there who are putting their lives on the line some credit for the work that they have done and continue to do despite the disrespect that they get when theyre out there everyday. Thank you, madam mayor. The next questions are for dr. Grant kolfax. Thank you. It was mentioned last week that after the testing in the mission, random testing in the bay area would be done, as well. Can you provide more details . Are there any planned big testingests beintesting plannedn the mission. As we move through universal access, any essential worker in the city can get tested regardless of. Symptoms and for free is broadening of our testing. With regard to the mission study, its important to emphasize that this is a Research Project and that has been lead by ucsf in collaboration with Community Stakeholders in the mission as well as with the Health Department. That important work and the results of that work will help to inform the program, the discoveries of that research and will help inform our ability to strengthen our testing both in the mission, as well as in other communities at risk in San Francisco. And in conversations with the ucsf investigators, there are lots of ideas about how the work of that study could be done elsewhere in San Francisco and i know they are talking with a number of Key Community leaders and stakeholders about where that type of research could be done next, to again, help better inform the Health Departments testing strategies, as well as other provider strategies across the city. And so certainly were looking at that work and then were collaborating with ucsf researchers and other institutions across the bay area where research is being done in communities and extensive testing is done and how does that help better invest inform our programs moving forward to develop our culture of testing and to ensure theres universal accessing for testing for all in San Francisco. Thank you. The next question is for abigail kahn, homelessness and supportive housing. Mayor breed has said the homeless who come to San Francisco from other countries are not eligible in they are infected and the chronicle has reported there are people who have come to the stay hoping to be housed in hotels. How many people does the city believe come here for that reason . How will the city determine when a housed person is eligible . Thanks for the opportunity to clarify. I know theres been a lot of coverage around this. So generally speaking before covid19, we know that approximately 30 of individuals experiencing homelessness in San Francisco comes from not from San Francisco or where they became homeless was not San Francisco, which means 70 , which is the vast, vast majority are from here originally and became homelessnesbecame homele. Homeless folks are from here, or theyve been here a long time. What we know antidotally, we are hearing from people unsheltered on our streets right now is that they are not from here. So what is very important to me is that those individuals who tell our system of care, they were told to come here and get a hotel room, that they hear the message in a very clean way because i think its very important for us to be honest with our homeless neighbors, which is that if you were not known to our system before covid, meaning ar meaning you an our databases, then you are not first on the list for the unsheltered hotel rooms and this is not because we dont care about you. This is because there have been people who have been waiting here in San Francisco, known to our system of care for a long time and we are rapidly expanding our hotels and, in fact, weve opened more though s and we need to figure out where to start and the city has chosen to start with the people who have been here before the pandemic and waiting for ten, 20 years to receive support of this kind. Thank you. Thank you. The final question is for Mary Ellen Carol with emergency management. Your question is from San Francisco examiner. Question which School Facilities are safe for unhoused residents as urged by the board othe boardof supervisors . We have elemented mitigations to address this crisis. These include establishing 120 shelterinplace rv trailers for people experiencing homeless in district 10 and we have Ongoing Program of shelterinplace hotels for our unsheltered vulnerable populations and weve expanded our meal program for those living on the streets and weve also expanded restroom and handwashing stations throughout the city. What were doing now through the Emergency Operation center and in partnership with the department of Public Health, the Human Services agency and Housing Support homeless, were connecting individuals with the most appropriate solution. We are finalizing the evaluation of safe sleeping sites and plan to announce those sites and when they will be ready in the near future. Thank you, director. This concludes todays press conference. Adjourned. Shop dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their shop dine in the 49 with within the 49 square miles of San Francisco by supporting local Services Within the neighborhood we help San Francisco remain unique successful and vibrant so where will you shop dine in the 49 my name is jim woods im the founder of Woods Beer Company and the proprietor of woods copy k open 2 henry adams what makes us unique is that were reintegrated brooeg the beer and serving that cross the table people are sitting next to the xurpz drinking alongside were having a lot of ingredient that get theres a lot to do the district of retail shop having that really close connection with the consumer allows us to do exciting things we decided to come to Treasure Island because we saw it as an amazing opportunity cant be beat the views and real estate that great county starting to develop on Treasure Island like minded Business Owners with last week products and want to get on the ground floor a nobrainer for us when you you, you buying local goods made locally our supporting Small Business those are not created an, an sprinkle scale with all the machines and one person procreating them people are making them by hand as a result more interesting and cant get that of minor or anywhere else and San Francisco a hot bed for local manufacturing in support that is what keeps your city vibrant well make a compelling place to live and visit i think that local business is the lifeblood of San Francisco and a vibrant community announcer youre watching coping with covid19. Todays special guest is lindsey holmes. Hi, im chris manus and youre watching coping with covid19. Today my guest is founder and c. E. O. Of dispatch goods and former clinical profusionist at ucsf. She start add new initiative called project clean to provide alcoholbased cleaning products and Hand Sanitizers to atrisk bay area communities. Lindsey, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having me. Its lovely to see you. Tell us a little about your background and how dispatched goods of San Franciscos restaurant community. Sure. We launched, in october, weve been working on this for a little over a year. And we partnered with restaurants to provide them with a free reusable container system that could replace singleuse products. We partnered with yelp headquarters in downtown San Francisco and 10 Restaurant Partners as of february before covid19 hit and employees at our Corporate Partners could request the reusable containers when they were getting their lunch for takeout or if they were getting it delivered to their office. We then handled the pickup and dish washing. So, obviously the virus pandemic has hit and now youve had to pivot your company and i understand you lunched a new initiative called project clean. Can you let us know what the program is all about . Sure. So we basically when this hit, we asked ok, what we do we have and how can we help . We also noticed there was a gap in the supply for Hand Sanitizers to Certain Community members and individuals and we talked to a distillery about making Hand Sanitizer and, in true form to our mission, we decided i bet we could collect enough containers from the community that we wouldnt have to supply more singleuse plastic containers and we launched project clean and with that, we collected over 200 containers. Theyre spray squeeze bottles and working on supplying the cleaning products. What has the response been from the community atlarge and how have peopled help . Were donationbased and selffunded right now. We are buying basically the products at cost and is not charging us much for that. Theyre also just trying to cover our expenses and we had a little bit of donations coming in. But if you go to our website, you can either donate containers that you have, well come do pickup. Were doing it twice a week now. Or if you yourself need any of the cleaning products, you can fill out the form and request those as well. And then there is also a place to make a donation. So, where are you handing out the Hand Sanitizer right now . Were doing it in the same route as the dropoff route. So, the Hand Sanitizer will be finished today. So, tomorrow well be doing our first round of dropoffs and weve been contacted by Health Care Professionals who after they come home have nothing on their hands there. We have been contacted by retirement communities and contacted by physicians in their offices that they dont have anything and a individuals that just werent able to get the supplies because they were sold out so quickly. Basically during our normal pickup routes now, we will be doing the dropoff as well. That is fantastic. You know, i think that is a Wonderful Service you are providing, lindsey. Thank you so much for coming on the show and keep up the good work. Thank you so much, chris i really appreciate it. And that is it for this episode. Well be back with more stories shortly. Youve been watching coping with covid19. Im chris manus, thank you for watching. Shop and dine on the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do shopping and dining within the 49 square miles of San Francisco by supporting local Services Within neighborhood. We help San Francisco remain unique, successful and vibrant. Where will you shop and dine in the 49 . San francisco owes the charm to the unique character of the neighborhood comer hall district. Each corridor has its own personality. Our neighborhoods are the engine of the city. You are putting money and support back to the community you live in and you are helping Small Businesses grow. It is more environmentally friendly. Shopping local is very important. I have had relationships with my local growers for 30 years. By shopping here and supporting us locally, you are also supporting the growers of the flowers, they are fresh and they have a price point that is not imported. It is really good for everybody. Shopping locally is crucial. Without that support, Small Business cant survive, and if we lose Small Business, that diversity goes away, and, you know, it would be a shame to see that become a thing of the past. It is important to dine and shop locally. It allows us to maintain traditions. It makes the neighborhood. I think San Francisco should shop local as much as they can. The retail marketplace is changes. We are trying to have people on the floor who can talk to you and help you with products you are interested in buying, and help you with exploration to try things you have never had before. The fish business, you think it is a piece of fish and fisherman. There are a lot of people working in the fish business, between wholesalers and fishermen and bait and tackle. At the retail end, we about a lot of people and it is good for everybody. Shopping and dining locally is so important to the community because it brings a tighter fabric to the community and allows the Business Owners to thrive in the community. We see more Small Businesses going away. We need to shop locally to keep the Small Business alive in San Francisco. Shop and dine in the 49 is a cool initiative. You can see the banners in the streets around town. It is great. Anything that can showcase and legitimize Small Businesses is a wonderful thing. Hi, youre watching coping with covid19. Today im going to the Grocery Store. Now, im not an authority about the virus. Im just showing you what im personally doing. To find out the most definitive and uptodate information about the pandemic, i highly recommend the f. A. Q. Available at sf. Gov. Im taking a list and before i leave i put a sanitizing wind and pair of gloves into a plastic bag. Im wearing a mask and taking the smallest number of items with me. Just my car key, credit card, i. D. And the batching im not taking my phone with me. Even if i use it to pay, i either have to touch the p. I. N. Pad or sign the screen anyway. Im concerned about crosscontamination. I dont want to transfer the virus from my gloves to the phone and then to my face. Whin i get out of the car, i put on my gloves and get a grocery cart. The essential workers at my store are doing a great job. Theyre sanitizing every cart and limiting the number of shoppers. Having a cart can help you protect your space. In this store, there are two new science on the floor. Ones directional to encourage everyone to take the same route around the store. The second is to remind shoppers to maintain a safe distance from each other. When im done shopping and ready to pay, i stand in line at least six feet from the shopper in front of me. After unloading my car at check out, i go past the cashier and pack my own bags. That is one less person touching my groceries and less of a burden on the stores employees. I thank the cashier and leave the store. On my drive home, im careful not to touch my face. I leave my outside shoes on the porch and as soon as i get through the door, i wash my hands for at least 20 seconds. Next, i wipe down my debit card, i. D. And car key. And then i wipe down the front doorknob, clean the sink taps and wash my hands again. I wash my vegetables in cold water and remove the package aing from my proteins and other items. I leave the nonperishables in my garage for a few days unless i need them immediately. My refrigerated items get a quick winddown to be on the safe side and, of course, i wacker my hands again. Heres a quick recap of my visit to the Grocery Store. That is it for this episode. I hope you found it helpful. Roughly five years, i was working as a high school teacher, and i decided to take my students on a surfing field trip. The light bulb went off in my head, and i realized i could do much more for my students taking them surfing than i could as their classroom teacher, and that is when the idea for the city surf project was born. Working with kids in the ocean that arent familiar with this space is really special because youre dealing with a lot of fear and apprehension but at the same time, a lot of excitement. When i first did it, i was, like, really scared, but then, i did it again, and i liked it. Well get a group of kids who have just never been to the beach, are terrified of the idea, who dont like the beach. Its too cold out, and its those kid that are impossible to get back out of the water at the end of the day. Over the last few years, i think weve had at least 40 of our students participate in the city surf project. Surfing helped me with, like, how to swim. Weve start off with about two to four sessions in the pool before actually going out and surfing. Swimming at the pool just helps us with, like, being, like, comfortable in the water and being calm and not being all not being anxious. So when we started the city surf project, one of the things we did was to say hey, this is the way to earn your p. E. Credits. Just getting kids to go try it was one of our initial challenges for the first year or two. But now that weve been doing it three or four years, we have a group of kids thats consistent, and the word has spread, that its super fun, that you learn about the ocean. Starting in the morning, you know, i get the vehicles ready, and then, i get all the gear together, and then, i drive and go get the kids, and we take them to a local beach. We usually go to linda mar, and then occasionally ocean beach. We once did a special trip. We were in capitola last year, and it was really fun. We get in a circle and group stretch, and we talk about specific safety for the day, and then, we go down to the water. Once we go to the beach, i dont want to go home. I cant change my circumstances at home, but i can change the way i approach them. Our program has definitely been a way for our students to find community and build friends. I dont really talk to friends, so i guess when i started doing city surf, i started to, like, get to know people more than i did before, and people that i didnt think id like, like, ended up being my best friends. Its a group sport the way we do it, and with, like, close camaraderie, but everybodys doing it for themselves. Its great, surfing around, finding new people and making new friendships with people throughout surfing. It can be highly developmental for students to have this time where they can learn a lot about themselves while negotiating the waves. I feel significantly, like, calmer. It definitely helps if im, like, feeling really stressed or, like, feeling really anxious about surfing, and i go surfing, and then, i just feel, like, im going to be okay. It gives them resiliency skills and helps them build selfconfidence. And with that, they can use that in other parts of their lives. I went to bring amy family o the beach and tell them what i did. I saw kids open up in the ocean, and i got to see them connect with other students, and i got to see them fail, you know, and get up and get back on the board and experience success, and really enjoy themselves and make a connection to nature at the same time. For some kids that are, like, resistant to, like, being in a Mentorship Program like this, its they want to surf, and then later, theyll find out that theyve, like, made this community connection. I think they provided level playing fields for kids to be themselves in an open environment. For kids to feel like i can go for it and take a chance that i might not have been willing to do on my own is really special. We go on 150 surf outings a year. Thats yearround programming. Weve seen a tremendous amount of youth face their fears through surfing, and that has translated to growth in other facets of their lives. I just think the biggest thing is, like, that they feel like that they have something that is really cool, that theyre engaged in, and that we, like, care about them and how theyre doing, like, in general. What i like best is they really care about me, like, im not alone, and i have a group of people that i can go to, and, also, surfing is fun. Were creating surfers, and were changing the face of surfing. The feeling is definitely akin to being on a roller coaster. Its definitely faster than i think you expect it to be, but its definitely fun. It leaves you feeling really, really positive about what that kids going to go out and do. I think its really magical almost. At least it was for me. It was really exciting when i caught my first wave. I felt like i was, like it was, like, magical, really. When they catch that first wave, and their first lights up, you know their face lights up, you know you have them hooked. I was on top of the world. Its amazing. I felt like i was on top of the world even though i was probably going two miles an hour. It was, like, the scariest thing id ever done, and i think it was when i got hooked on surfing after after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and i signed up for the belowmarket rate program. I got my certificate and started applying and won the housing lottery. [ ] the current Lottery Program began in 2016. But there have been lot rows that have happened for Affordable Housing in the city for much longer than that. It was there was no standard practice. For nonprofit organizations that were providing Affordable Housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. Private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city weve been monitoring for some time since 1992. We did it with Something Like this. Where people were given circus tickets. We game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. At the same time, we started electronic applications systems. Called dalia. The lottery is completely free. You can apply two ways. You can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. If you a plo apply online, it wl take five minutes. You can make it easier creating an account. To get to dalia, you log on to housing. Sfgov. Org. I have lived in San Francisco for almost 42 years. I was born here in the hayes valley. I applied for the San FranciscoAffordable Housing lottery three times. Since 2016, weve had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. If you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. For some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. There is a Digital Divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. So we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in and get help. Along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and theres also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a firsttime home buyer workshop and a oneonone counseling session with the housing councilor. Sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before they shouldnt be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. They still might get a value for an available, Affordable Housing unit. We have a variety of Lottery Programs. The four that you will most often see are what we call c. O. P. , the certificate of Preference Program, the dthp which is the displaced penance Housing Preference program. The neighborhood resident Housing Program and the live worth preference. I moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. The neighborhood Preference Program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in San Francisco. The next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. You have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. All city sponsored Affordable Housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. Every week theres a listing on dalia. Something that people can apply for. Its a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. Lets say the lottery has happened. Several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. And how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. This particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. In my mind, i was like how am i going to win this . I did and when you get that notice that you won, its like at first, its surreal and you dont believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. Some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. They have key less entry now. They have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. Mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. We will Start Construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. We also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. And life happens to people. People move. So we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year. Best thing about working for the Affordable Housing program is that we know that were making a difference and we actually see that difference on a daytoday basis. Being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, its a wonderful experience. Its a long process to get through. Well worth it when you get to the other side. I could not be happier. [ ]