Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Land Use Committee 20240713

In the mission, 22 residents tested positive for the multiple requests and it took six days to get everyone tested. We dont want to see this happen again. So having said this, at the heart of this matter for me is the basic idea of taking care of people. Constituents who are living in dangerous situation and bottom lines, and being our sisters and brothers keepers. Putting folks in hotel room where is they can be isolated and properly quarantined to protect them and others who have it, and to safely shelterinplace is what we need and thats why i support this legislation. It saves lives. You have 16 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. Hello. I am hi. Im cochair indiscernible and a longtime tenderloin resident. And im calling today because, you know, i live in an s. R. O. In the tenderloin and i have been here for a lot of years and i have to say that looking at the infections and this is frightening. Were finally getting indiscernible . And the s. R. O. S are not like other apartments. They need to be treated differently. And the residents here are a vulnerable population, a significant portion of them that live in the building and near me in s. R. O. S, the disabled and those with underlying medical conditions. So they need to be moved out of this and into safer spaces. And it needs to be done quick because the infection is spreading in the community. indiscernible and we need testing in the s. R. O. S, by the way, but thats separate. And we definitely need to provide protection. And you know that once somebody leaves that place its more expensive to house someone than to keep them in their housing so we need to do everything to keep people in their existing housing. But we need to make available rooms in the shelterinplace hotels so that we can do this. And its not healthy and its not safe and, honestly, its a choice for the city. And so, please, for the folks that are in danger and we need your help. So thank you, supervisors. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next caller, please. You have 14 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes. Hi, this is r. J. Sloan and i work as a private s. R. O. Hotel organizer with central city s. R. O. Collaborative. I would just like to acknowledge the hard work of everyone who sponsored this emergency legislation. I am sure if you were to design a residential setting in which a Global Pandemic could spread rapidly, that you would design a tenderloin s. R. O. Hotel. A small unit, a shared bathroom, and a shared kitchen, and a shared common area, and tiny little elevators. This would be the perfect setting to spread a virus like the coronavirus. So i think that we need to not only consider this emergency legislation now, but in the future, i think for new building sites, we need to consider absolute requirement that bathrooms to be inside every apartment. I also would like to throw out the idea of housing as health care. I think that if people are housed and use the Emergency Services far less and, therefore, costs and the Health Care System less if they dont use Emergency Services because theyre housed, we ought to consider housing as a Health Care Cost and bill it to medicaid. And to start to think outside of the box. And i hope that you will pass this emergency legislation. Its just the beginning. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. You have 14 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Yes, good afternoon, sarah ogolvie, im a resident and calling on behalf of the action, a coalition lead. I want to commend supervisor peskin as well as supervisor haney and ronen on creating this ordinance and passing it timely. S. R. O. S are a really good example of the difference between overcrowding and densi density. As somebody who experienced homelessness and moved into a transitional s. R. O. For a period of time, i can definitely attest to the fact that i know several families living with small children, two or three of them, in units that are basically the size of maybe two walkin closets or smaller. You know, theyre sharing common areas and they really represent the big reason why n. B. Action is pushing for more affordable units, especially in key sites like the balboa reservoir. I really hope that along with passing this legislation that the board will continue to look at Affordable Housing sites or sites with mixed use. And to consider putting these families and their children into these upcoming available and affordable homes. We really need more units like those in the city, rather than singleroom occupancy rooms to house these families. And so i want to thank you for looking here and looking ahead to leadership in Affordable Housing as well as more housing throughout the city. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. You have 14 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hello, i am kim ospero, and i live on the corner of leavenworth and golden gate, and a home that was renovated in 2012. I have a small bathroom in my building and still have very small quarters. I see that the way things have been, closed down, that the people are still with ptsd, with Health Issues that need to go to seek doctors and we are told that we cant go to doctor offices and that we have to see them over the computers. And 80 of the people in our building dont have a computer. What will i do with us . I have been homeless and i have been blessed to put in this place but its not a good living condition. There are many buildings in this area that are promised to become s. R. O. S. Where is humanity in that . You have got to support us. We are the people that you are there to support. Do not let us put us on the street and were going to not become only worse but people will die. And is that worth the money that you may save on not helping us . Please, do not leave us out on the streets. I have been there. And it is not safe. It is unfair that that money does not get used for what it is supposed to be used for humans. Not things and not the police to corral us and to move us someplace else because were not wanted in the spot that we are in. We need your protection. Not your maybe we can do this and maybe we can do that later. We need it now. We not only need more s. R. O. S but we need your protection. Thank you. You have 13 questions remaining. Hi, can you hear me . Clerk hi, yes, sorry about that. Yes, you have two minutes to speak starting now. Hi, my name is indiscernible and i live in an s. R. O. And i also am a Community Organizer with the Community Organization partnership. And we have s. R. O. S and also buildings considered s. R. O. S and they have bathrooms and its still settings where people are sharing kitchens and bathrooms. Apparently where i live i share kitchens and bathrooms with about 19 other people. So you can imagine that in order to go to the bathroom, in order to go to the building, and to go out to get fresh air, i have to touch multiple objects that others have to touch. Theres been quite a bit of debate whether we should have those doors opened or closed because were literally feet from each other and breathing each others air. Especially those that have to deal with the air wells, and its really important that people have access to the testing because right now our Community Health care is limited by discrimination and poverty. So people knowing that they have access to testing, have access to health, and its going to do a lot for our community to have a safe fashion on that. And the resources during this outbreak are limited and so the information is super crucial in helping people to understand the scope of the pandemic individually. So for people to take the action Wearing Masks and to take better action in washing their hands and being safe for others, its going to take the city prioritizing people that are living in s. R. O. S. Theres a lot of fear and apathy right now and i feel that could be caused if we had information. Clerk thank you. You have 13 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Your two minutes begins now. Hi. Hi, i am indiscernible and part of the s. R. O. Family and a collaborative. And with a lot of the cases happening right now in San Francisco, many of the families are very concerned with their safety and possibility of exposure to their neighbors because of the shared bathrooms and the cooking area. This is why we think that the support for this legislation to have extensions in the s. R. O. S. So we ask you to please support this legislation, thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. You have 12 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes beginning now. Hi, this is jennifer bosch, and i am the director of the coalition on homelessness and im calling to support and thank supervisor peskin for this legislation. You know, one of the things that we know about this virus is that folks that are in conagre congre living are exposed and how much the virus and the particles spread really quickly when you flush a toilet, for example. There is really transportors and theres often very poor ventilation. A lot of unhealthy housing already in place that has done damage to folks that are living there who probably already have very Vulnerable Health situations in many cases. A lot of elderly people and a lot of folks who because of severe poverty and destitution have had their health compromised. So its really important to highlight this population and to and also as mentioned, is made up primarily of people of color and workingclass people and what we know about this virus also is that it has disproportionately hit communities of color very hard. This is linked to poverty and i think that for s. R. O. S thats really the housing that is the most in terms of the market, has the lowest price range in the city. So all of this in mind, it really is a strong shout out and support for this legislation. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you for your comments. You have 11 questions remaining. Supervisor peskin thank you. Next speaker, please. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes. My name is good afternoon, supervisors. My name is p. J. And i am a counselor at sound camp. Sound camp provides services to families and workers living in s. R. O. S with finding work and assuring they are safe. The workers that we serve are very concerned with the issues at work and at home. Some of them are essential workers and they are very concerned that when they go to work they are already exposed to the public. And usually when people go home you would think that they would feel safe but thats not the case for workers who are exposed to this and the neighbors do share essential spaces. And s. R. O. Residents are extremely low income people of color. Seniors, immigrants, people with disabilities. By not addressing the serious safety concerns and the city is once again turning to the members of the marginalized areas and second class. They deserve dignity as residents of San Francisco and should have the same opportunity to shelterinplace and to quarantine as all other san San Franciscoians. And thank you, supervisor peskin, for bringing forward this legislation which is really an extension of the voices of the workers who are residents living in the s. R. O. S. So we ask you to please support this legislation. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. If you wish to speak please press 1, 0, to line up to speak. Caller, you have two minutes. Yes, this is laureen from district five and a member of the senior and disability action. Im here supporting items 2 and 3. Clearly we have learned by now in fighting this coronavirus that the health of all of us depends on everyones ability to shelter in place. S. R. O. S, we know, are congrgate settings and residents are Vulnerable People. You know that many are seniors and people with disabilities and people with underlying medical conditions and now that theres talk of opening up lets not let down our guard. We have heard that its spread within the s. R. O. S and lets not ignore this major segment of San Franciscoians. Those who remain vulnerable and are urgently deserving of our highest regard and all protections we can give them. Saving lives is our responsibility. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. You have 10 questions remaining. Clerk thank you, caller. This is Public Comment for items number 2 and 3. Linda chapman, a member of the housing collaborative. And also captain of an action team which supports protecting s. R. O. S as Affordable Housing for elders and disabled people. Im speaking though from the perspective of the knot hill neighbors. This is one of our major Housing Resources and theres thousands of s. R. O. Rooms on knot hill. And im a Property Owner and three buildings are s. R. O. S. Im not too concerned about the c. D. C. Building across the street from me and im sure that its well taken care of. But they are privately owned buildings. And our members and the knot hill neighbors for many years, including our heroes, lived in some of these s. R. O. S. And many of those have been turned into expensive housing for whatever, you know, which needs to be stopped. The coop where i live and i was an owner, we had s. R. O. Units for rent, a number of apartment buildings on knot hill have too. And you have already heard the concerns about the congregate settings and so i wont repeat that. But i would say that looking forward you could have a kitchenette, that allows people to cook in their rooms and to be placed wherever possible and that would be a good way to encourage it. The rooms that we had rented had it. And the building on the corner from me have some rooms that have that also so it reduce this is situation going forward. But theyre very close occupancy as you know, and i guess when i think about it, you know, i could be in danger because of all of the s. R. O. Rooms on my block if people begin to develop coronavirus there. And im running into them all the time. So, obviously, this is important for many perspectives. The people whom i worked with at Social Security lived in s. R. O. S and the person at church where i went and at the two universities that ive attended and they lived on s. R. O. S on knot hill. And so they have middleincome working people who dont need a large apartment that are living in these s. R. O. S too. You have nine questions remaining. Clerk thank you for your comment. Hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak and this is Public Comment for item number 2. Hello, caller . I was waiting for number 4. Clerk oh, okay. Were going to return to that item a little later in the meeting. So you can just well go ahead and mute you. Okay . Thank you. Yes. You have eight questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, Public Comment for items number 2 and 3. Hello, my name is teresa flanderick, and im calling in to support and to thank especially supervisor peskin with this legislation. Both numbers 2 and 3 are so important to the entire city of San Franciscoian residents. And so i wish that this had happened actually long ago. And im really thrilled that we have much more data right now. And i also commend the work on gathering and insisting. So, yes, please, please, lets make sure that all supervisors support both items 2 and 3. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. This is Public Comment for items 2 and 3. You now have 7 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Thank you, madam clerk. Im with chinatown c. D. C. I think that the residents and the advocates have done, done egregious work talking about what is needed and why this legislation is needed. Ill just add a simple thing which is that that its really a microcompany of what makes San Francisco great. Residents and families and seniors all live together in very cramped spaces and, you know, make a communal living. And, therefore, we as a city have an absolute mandate to protect them. To protect their communities, just like we protect communities in fancy apartment buildings. This legislation is needed. Testing is needed. Contact tracing is needed. This is a collaborative work put together by supervisor peskin and his staff. And the s. R. O. Advocates and the individuals that are s. R. O. Residents that put their best thinking together and they came up with these recommendations. So were really excited that were here today and that we can get this passed hopefully out of committee today and at the full board tomorrow. I want to thank her for all of the work that shes done with all of us and everyone who has supported this legislation. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. You have six questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. You have two minutes and this is Public Comment for item number 2 and 3. This is anastasia anopolis and im with the tenancy union. This is very well put together, supervisor peskin and haney and ronen. Its very comprehensive. And you must realize that s. R. O. S are congregate settings and places where shelterinplace and social distancing is not possible. When an s. R. O. Resident goes to the doctor, the doctors dont know that s. R. O. S exist. So they send them home to selfisolate. S. R. O. S are not places that you can selfisolate. So, therefore, i support moving them to solitary hotel rooms. And to recover there. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next speaker. You have five questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, this is Public Comment for items 2 and 3. Hi, this is sa sarah short ad im with the Community Partnership leadership. And we have hundreds of units where we have residents and staff, and were really, really concerned about their safety. And so were extremely pleased that supervisor peskin has put forth this legislation. Our residents are vulnerable by nature. And they tend to be disabled, and seniors and folks with longstanding medical conditions. And you combine that with the fact that theyre sharing bathrooms and kitchens in a congregate setting its just a recipe for disaster that the city does not want to see. Unfortunately, we have been starting to see some outbreaks. And if we dont do something soon, well see more coronavirus cases rip through these hotels. I also want to say that this legislation was born out of some real challenges that the organizations like ours and other housers have faced. That is that the providers have not been notified when theres been cases in their hotels and so the residents and the operators do not have the opportunity to contain the virus, and clean properly and to make sure that quarantine is happening. Also testing has not been properly done when there have been positive cases of other residents in the building. There have been cases where people have been told to shelterinplace and quarantine, rather, after testing positive in an s. R. O. Room which does not work. And so weve seen a lot of problems on the ground and weve had trouble getting a good response from the department of Public Health, unfortunately, and yet were well aware that this could be a very large crisis that impacts far more than just the s. R. O. Residents, but the community at large if these buildings start to you have four questions remaining. Clerk thank you for your comments. Hello, caller, this is Public Comment for items 2 and 3. Hi, my name is evan with the s. R. O. Collaborative. Thank you supervisor peskin and for your attention to the s. R. O. Issues. I regularly see s. R. O. Tenants who are living in fear. They are scared to use their shared spaces, fear theyll contract covid. Could you imagine living in fear to even use the restroom in your own place of residence . And each time i have this conversation i have been saadly unable to tell them the program from the city to protect. And these protections are overdue. On top of the concerns about covid in their buildings, many have fears about addiction. Many tenants are on a fixed income and were barely making rent in the first place. If you are on a fixed income you cannot show the decrease in income due to covid. Further, the current language is not clear enough for protections. The city cannot say that taking covid seriously will protect people. And the population needs our continued attention. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Hello, caller this is Public Comment for item number 2. This is Colleen Rebecca and i work at Tenderloin Neighborhood Development corporation. And we also support this legislation because s. R. O. Residents face barriers to preventing infection from covid19 that other housed San Francisco residents do not face. And they need policies to protect and to support them during this pandemic. Health starts in our community and Health Starts in peoples home. This legislation is necessary because as we have seen as this pandemic has unfolded over the past couple of months, a onesizefitsall approach leaves residents who share bathrooms and kitchens out of a real chance for prevention. And out of a real chance to recover from an illness in an environment that is safe for them. And our policies really have to mitigate the structural inequalities that exist that created this discrepancy that have already resulted in, you know, Different Health outcomes for our lowest income members of our communities, for People Living in s. R. O. S, and our seniors aging in place and people with disabilities and formerly Homeless People, families. And the immigrant population that makes our city run. So we are really grateful to supervisor peskin and the board for this legislation. It is necessary. And we need to mitigate some of the structural inequalities that are affecting s. R. O. Residents and creating Health Disparities that are not in their favor. So thank you for this legislation. And we support it. Clerk thank you, this is Public Comment for items 2 and 3. Hello, caller, you have two minutes. My name is Felicia Smith and im a tenant organizer at an s. R. O. Building in the tenderloin. Im calling in support of 2 and 3. And im going to tell you why. About two months ago, i had bornial pneumonia and went to emergency in an ambulance. They immediately put me under quarantine and they thought that maybe i had the virus. And thank god i did not have the virus, it was just bronchial pneumonia and they sent me home and told me to selfisolate and i did. And two weeks later we had to go to another s. R. O. Building for our food bank and i got some inside information that someone had died over there with the virus. And im like we shouldnt be going there then. And because of because of this, i called my supervisor at central city and it was, you know, we were not going to go over there. So i stood outside in front of our building and i stopped people from going over there. This is why we need this. Theres not enough communication. We have 60 plus rooms in this building and we could have gone over there and every single one of those froze and thats not how to stop this thing. We have to have some communication. Because people have to go to other s. R. O. Buildings and im lucky that i had my own bathroom, so thats cool. But other people dont. When you have to go someplace to pick up your food or whatever, you need to know is it safe for me to walk into this space. There could have been an extra 60 people with this virus if it hadnt been for my inside tip. This stuff and i know that theres regulations and i worked in the medical field for 20 years i know about the regulations, that theres nothing wrong with saying that the virus is here. But we have no you have zero questions remaining. Chair, that completes the queue. Supervisor peskin thank you to the members of the public for your comment. And, colleagues, the items are back in our hands. Madam clerk or there we go it looks like we are back. So colleagues a number of things. First, and i believe that youre in receipt of these and i would like to make a number of nonsubstantive amendments starting at page number 6 at line 14 to set some time parameters. This is item number 2. Insert the words as soon as feasible but not more than 12 hours after receiving such confirmation. At the bottom of page 6 at line 24, similar language that says insert as soon as feasible but not more than 12 hours after receiving such confirmation provided necessary to all s. R. O. Residents who occupy or access parts of the Residential Hotel that has been occupied or accessed by people who may have had exposure to covid19 within the prior 14 days. And to all workers who access the same areas to provide service on site. And then make a corresponding change on page 7 at lines 19 through 20 by striking the language that says the city shall provide face coverings to residents and Residential Hotel employees who lack face coverings because thats in the aforementioned amendment in the top of page 6 the bottom of page 6 and the top of page 7. So i would like to make a motion for those nonsubstantive amendments madam clerk, those indeed are nonsubstantive and approved by your office, is that correct, miss pierson . Yes, chair peskin. They are nonsubstantive. Supervisor peskin thank you. So id like to make that motion. Madam clerk, call a roll on those nonsubstantive amendments. Clerk on the motion as stated to amend item number 2, supervisor preston. Preston, aye. Supervisor safai. Safai aye. Supervisor peskin. Peskin, aye. You have three ayes. Supervisor peskin thank you, madam clerk. And, colleagues, i dont know if you have any comments, but i have had i would like to say i had somewhat productive conversations with representatives of the mayors administration and the department of Public Health yesterday, sunday, reaching well into the night and ending at about 10 00 p. M. And there are some additional amendments that are still being discussed that have yet been approved as to by the City Attorney that would not be substantive, that i think that the community that we just heard from may be okay with. But they have not been yet approved by the City Attorney. So what i would like to do is to send both of these items with recommendation as Committee Reports to the full board of supervisors. And if in the intervening 24 hours that we can land on language that can be approved as to form and as acceptable to the community primarily and the department of Public Health. Secondly, i will make those amendments at the full board of supervisors tomorrow, may 19t 19th. If that is acceptable, supervisor safai and preston. Sounds good to me. Sounds good. Supervisor peskin all right, sending item 2 as amended and item 3 as it stands with recommendation as Committee Reports for a hearing tomorrow, may ninth at the full board of supervisors. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Clerk on a motion as stated, supervisor preston. Preston, aye. Supervisor safai. Safai, aye. Supervisor peskin. Peskin, aye. You have three ayes for item number 2, recommended as a Committee Report and item number 3. Supervisor peskin now to item for four and open up Public Comment for that item. And i profoundly want to apologize to members of the public and thank you for your patience. This item was supposed to be heard last on our original calendar but due to general manager of rec and park Phil Ginsburgs schedule we had to hear that at the beginning of the meeting. And supervisor fewer, the primary author of this legislation, asked after Public Comment that this item to be tabled given the arrangement that she has managed to negotiate with rec and park. And our department of real estate. And with that why dont we open up Public Comment for item number 4. First speaker, please. Clerk staff is checking to see if theres callers in queue for item number 4. Yes, i do have a number of callers and ill queue the first caller. Clerk thank you. You have eight questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, this is Public Comment for item number 4. Good afternoon, supervisors. I am margaret o sullivan, a native San Franciscoian. And im opposed to moving the homeless into Golden Gate Park as part of the sentence. I support senator fine signs idea to use ultimate space such as the Port Authority land and other public spaces such as schoolyards and closed down gyms. The concept should be to provide cover, comfort, meals, a cot and then on to more supportive services. I am grateful that supervisor fewer, rec and Park Department head ginsburg will look to catalog available places for housing them. Thank you. Clerk next speaker, please. You have nine questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. You have two minutes to speak. This is item number 4. Hello. My name is trish robins and i thank you supervisor peskin. Im 100 for getting unhoused people off streets and out of the doorways which are not a good place for anyone to live. And its a safe site. And my concern is with thousands of homeless that are moved to public parks, how would it be possible to immediately hire enough qualified people to provide 24 7 oversight . And how would they be empowered to settle any level of ineinevitable issues. And it would be a terrible 150year anniversary present for Golden Gate Park. I would like to thank the general manager Phil Ginsburg for working with supervisor few or this delicate issue. Also i am in support of legislation to what we discussed today and thank you for this public forum. Supervisor peskin thank you, next speaker, please. You have 10 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is alice savior and im in district 7. Im calling today because im concerned about the health and wellbeing of our seniors, children and families who are possibly would be exposed to things like syringes or feces for those not housed in buildings. Theres the tal palace that seems to be a solution to housing the homeless during this covid19 emergency. I urge you to please house the homeless in available indoor shelters. And not in squares like Golden Gate Park. Thank you so much. Clerk thank you for your comment. You have 11 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, this is Public Comment for item number 4. You have two minutes to speak. Yes, my name is martha ersfeld. And i believe that all parks are our backyards, and the city doesnt have backyards. And i want all of the supervisors to think carefully and to come up with a longtemple plan foterm plan for this project. And i would like them to consider the city college site. Im very concerned about what i have seen happen in the southeast corner of Golden Gate Park with encampments in the past that have become sites indiscernible and im urged though it sounds like Golden Gate Park is not being considered, that you consider to not consider any area that is opening up this site for a tent site. You need to keep that part of the park safe and open for everybody. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. You have 13 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, this is Public Comment for item number 4. You have two minutes to speak. Yes, hello, my name is zeke lareldo, and i live in sunset. And the proposal to allow for a place for Homeless People in public parks in San Francisco is will have massive negative consequences. And it strikes me as odd that, you know, that this problem has been with us for about 40 years now. And its now, you know, with an emergency, that the supervisors propose an emergency issue to solve this issue. I think that most people who live and play by the rules that are proposing and, however, all it takes are a few of these mentally ill and drugaddicted Homeless People to destroy our parks and harm our children and endanger our neighborhood residents. It is not okay to allow tent parksites in our camps. And they need places that do not endanger our neighborhoods or our children. We live in the sunset and over the past 18 months weve had our cars broken into four times and our house twice. I have been shopping at walgreens and witnessed Homeless People walk in and steal products with impunity. The employees are in danger and throw their hands up in futility. They ken cant do anything. You call the police and the cops cant do anything. So inviting more Homeless People into the parks it is playing with danger. For decades homeless and unsheltered people have been coming here for free food, for drugs, for needles and for money. I think that if we advertise, if we put them in the Golden Gate Park this will become an advertisement for people to come and to live in the Golden Gate Park. I think that its a massively bad idea. There are plenty of alternative locations that you have 13 questions remaining. Clerk thank you. This is Public Comment for item number 4. Please press 1, and 0, and line up to speak. If you have already pressed 1, and 0, please continue to wait. Hello, caller, you have two minutes. Hi, this is katherine howard. I support protecting our vulnerable populations but im also very scared about the impact of this legislation on our parks. Not just immediately, but into the future. Our parks provide the people of San Francisco with the opportunity to experience nature. As our cities become more and more dense, people turn to the parks to reestablish that connection. Wealthier people may be able to retreat outside of the urban area but for the average resident this is not an option. And its also a habitat for wildlife and habitat is being destroyed across the world. As wildlands are lost, some plants and animals find homes in our city parks. However, this ordinance has no mention of habitat or wildlife or the nature in our parks and how theyll be protected. The language of finding a park as this sets a bad precedent. And it opens the door to losing our parks completely. Over the years more and more buildings and paving have been add to Golden Gate Park. If we follow this to logical conclusion, eventually all that will be left are a series of buildings and roads with a few trees here and there to imagine us of what was once parks. Any new park policy that changes the uses of our parks should be discussed in a public forum with an analysis of the potential impact on our parkland. And an evaluation of the additional alternatives for meeting the needs of the homeless. Therefore, i strongly support tabling this legislation. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Again, if you would like to speak, press 1 and 0. If you are there already, please continue to wait. Next speaker, please. You have 19 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. You have tw two minutes to spea. Hello, caller. You have 20 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. This is Public Comment for item number 4. Hello. Clerk you have two minutes. We can hear you. You have two minutes to speak, maam. Hi, i am sarah harris, im a resident of district 5 and im in support of supervisor fewers ordinance. And while im grateful for a compromise to table this time with a promise of prohibitin prs with possible sites it does make me nervous based around the fact that we have been in an emergency shelterinplace for months now. And actions taken to protect our health and population have not met the needs and the needs of our population are just as important as any resident in San Francisco. Historically the parks in San Francisco have been used to respond to different medical emergencies as well as environmental emergencies. And our Homeless Population deserves supportive shelter situations where they have access to nature and access to grass and protection from the environment. Just like anyone else would. When i see the encampments set up in the Asian Art Museum or the one in fulton, im extremely alarmed that were putting people in parking lots and caging them in, that is not a solution. And i am hopeful and i appreciate seeing that this alliance is going to be at the site and im excited to see what that would look like. And i urge as we look for these sites that we look for sites with a humanbased approach where were really respecting all residents of San Francisco. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have 19 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hello. I agree with senator Diane Finestein, that Golden Gate Park is not the answer. The city has other resources such as the closed down parking lots and fort mason and the giant and warriors parking lots for example. And theres many more. These places can be temporary and they can be cleaned up. Golden gate park cannot be temporary. Once people live and use drugs, needles and paraphernalia that will remain for years to come. This will become the new normal and you will not get people to move out. Quite the opposite. News travels fast. And Golden Gate Park will become the largest homeless park in the country. Regarding the article in this weekends examiner, we are not misinformed and we know that you have good intentions for this to be temporary. But i ask you what happens when shelterinplace is lifted . Who evicts homeless from the parks . What will the punishment be when people are asked to leave these camps and they dont. Where will they go . They will not leave the park willingly and we all know that the Police Departments hands are tied. So what is the exit plan . There is no shortage of compassion from the city, but we do lack people solving real problems. Please, for the children of the city and the neighbors of the park, dont allow this to happen. I live half a block from Golden Gate Park and over the last couple years my daughter and i have been yelled at and cursed at and things thrown at us and theres been offleash dogs and i have called 911 a number of times. Two of which were for Homeless People that had started fires in the park. One they lit and fell asleep. The other was arson. Weve had our cars broken into three times and our house once while we were home. All of this will not officially allow them to live in the park and can you imagine what will happen when they are allowed to live you have 19 questions remaining. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. This is linda chapman. Im speaking from experience as an organizer with a local, the national right organization in for poverty and later as a sociaSocial Security administran the tenderloin. You know, this is just a tragedy. I wish that people had heard the special hearing of the Government Oversight Committee where there was no press present. Practically nobody knows. There werethere were 15,000 hots empty and 11,000 were considering with the city to use them for this purpose. I believe that it was supervisor peskin who reported that 40,000 a night was spent for rooms that were being held empty. And they were being held empty and others were not being leased because of the decisions of the bureaucrats in charge of homelessness and housing. And what do they say now because they made the Decision Just like in the Welfare Department in buffalo when i lived there. They could refuse food and they did. You know, they were so superior. They made their decisions. Based on the same kind of thinking that you would read about and blaming the victim, a popular book at this time. But they knew best. And the people were less than human. You know that they were dealing with. Just like these people are treating people who are homeless. There is no excuse for anyone to be on the street. In the 1970s we had the same kind of population. It was our job at Social Security and the job of people at g. A. To see that they were not on the streets. You know, if people were getting benefits, they lived in hotels and they paid for them. Or they got a room an at someboy elses place. If they couldnt manage their own money which is the case of some you have 18 questions remaining. Clerk thank you. Caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hi, indiscernible and im part of indiscernible and i wanted to support this legislation. We need to get people into safe shelter as fast as possible. When we think about this population and the hearings that we have about them, we spend a lot of time listening to the concerns of people who live nearby the at t operator, linda blog would like to speak at some point during the call but her line is muted. Did you want me to open up her line at all . Or not at this time. She can get in the queue. You can keep her muted. If she wishes to speak she can wait in the queue and i will meet with her when its her time to speak. Very good, thank you. Clerk i apologize caller. Well restart your time mr. Theo gordon . Yes, listening. So clerk continue. And let me pick it back up. We need to get these people housed in tents or hotels, whatever we can do as fast as possible. If youre a health risk and its cheaper and better to put them in tents and hotels than in i. C. U. Beds if they get sick because they cant shelter in place. And also just speaking about the voices that were hearing today, like, we all use the parks and we all understand that its not ideal to have this. And however, when we have these hearings, we dont hear enough from the actual people who will be benefitted by these sites. The people who are on the streets right now who are at huge risk to themselves from contracting covid19. I think that we need to think about who doesnt have the opportunity to call in to these hearings. You know, progressive cities think about the most unfortunate and they dont overemphasize the voices of the most privileged. So, please, think about who we can help today and then how to do that as fast as possible. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. This is Public Comment for item number 4. You have 16 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Good afternoon, my name is cynthia and im calling as a resident of district nine by the park. And on behalf of the indiscernible where i work by Golden Gate Park and im calling in today to demonstrate support for the safe sleeping site legislation and to ask for support for the exploration of the use of the rec and park property. While Public Comment today has been about the parks the legislation is about recs and park property in general which includes parks and parking lots and golf courses. A number of encampments and tents have grown, 1,200 across the city and while the city tries to identify solutions, rec and park, you have a responsibility, especially as you all account for 15 of the citys property. As we try to find Solutions Like for renters and s. R. O. S, and the unhoused neighbors, we need more space. We need creative solutions. Thats why we are asking, supervisor, that you look at all possible pathways during this Health Crisis and addressing the unhoused residents. While hotel rooms should be a priority we have a lot of outdoor sites on cityowned property that could be used to mitigate this crisis and this disaster right now. I would like to see actions for our unhoused neighbors, especially in the midst of this pandemic. And please i ask for the safe sites. I be that its being tabled but we still support it. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Again, this is Public Comment for item 4 on the agenda. If you have not already, press 1, 0, to line up to speak. Your line will be silent until your queue to speak. And just please wait until we get to you in line. Thank you. Next speaker. You have 19 questions remaining. Clerk hi, caller. You have two minutes to speak. Hello, my name is kim ostero and i live in district 6. Having been a homeless person and now living in an s. R. O. And i am sickened by the fact that i hear more of not in my neighborhood and yet i have seen people already on this issue. And being on the sidewalk is not acceptable, and being not in the parks is acceptable and they are not building more s. R. O. S, where are we supposed to go . Why are you making property more important than human life . Where else do tents belong than in a park . And we can still work together, since our Mental Health have been closed down, yes, our mentally ill are on the street more and more. So what do we do, push them aside and not build housing specifically for them . This is unacceptable as Human Behavior. Instead of calling in and saying that the park is not suitable when it is, please come up with a better situation. If we cannot get the housing built, we are being told that s. R. O. S are going to be built and they are not. I have been watching this profile being empty for five years straight. What human excuse is there for that . We talk about building housing and yet we never do it. We talk about not wanting tents on our parks and send to to another state. Every state has this problem. You people need to wake up, open your eyes and accept the fact that you have a problem and it needs to be addressed, not pushed off to somebody else. Yes, parks need to be opened up to people. That is how humans started, out in the wild. Thats where were being pushed back into, and we should be allowed to occupy that wild yet again. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Again, if you pressed 1, and 0, please continue to wait. Next caller, please. You have 20 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Thank you, my name is curtis mathford and im calling you know, indiscernible and i have been listening to calls today and i have to say that im really upset. And i share the last callers frustration. People are starting to sound this is about parks and this is about the behavior of homeless and those people, and those others and its really unacceptable language that people are using. I get frustration. And you cant be on the sidewalk and i understand the challenge. But were talking about people, real human lives. And were in the middle of a pandemic. In 1906 with the San Francisco earthquake and fire, and the people went to Golden Gate Park for refuge and they set up tents and the city rebounded and we had all of this support. The fact of the matter is that this is a pandemic. These are humans and human lives are at stake. As long as the folks are not able to shelter somewhere more safely, your life and everyone listening to the calls is in danger because you cant control an epidemic in the conditions that were under. Folks need a safe place to shelter and we need to be able to provide that for them. And, listen, this is really upsetting to me. O im going to suggest that they think about their privilege and use this time in their shelterinplace in their comfy homes and instead of worrying so much about the park and start evaluating yourself and asking yourself what are your values because people are going to die on our streets. If you dont want to share your park with other human beings. And i cant understand it. I hope that you will support this legislation. Thank you, supervisors fewer and peskin and im glad that were looking at other sites around the city. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker. This is Public Comment for item 4. If you pressed 1, 0, please continue to wait. You have 18 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have tw two minutes to speak. Thank you. Im a resident of 94212 and i see emotional upheaval on how people are heartless because they live next to the park and i they dont want to have this beautiful gem of this city which is really not designed and never was to be a home for people who are houseless. Most of these people need help. They dont need a home because if they were given a home they would use it. They need help, and the kind of help they need the city doesnt seem to have a plan for. They have a plan for so far is to find a place to throw them. Thats not a park. Thats heartless. You would a solution . I recommend that you get a benchmark on other cities that manage it and know that the best place is not in the park because thats a public use space which can be endangered by some of these folks. 41 of them who go into emergency psychiatric help. These are not people who are capable of keeping a job and keeping a house. They need help. Theres no question. So, please, take into consideration the housing around this park and the people who live here and whose children have been scared. My wife will not go in the park alone because on at least three occasions in the last two months have been startled by an individual who is really not in their right mind. It is not their fault. But the housing in a park, which is beautiful, and then its just a trash area and no one is cleaning it today. This is a Health Hazard in the park that is about to happen. I use this park regularly and the reason that i live here in San Francisco and commute is because of this park. But i am a heartless person . Its a shame that we we like to shame people who are thinking about the real problem. Which is that these people need help. What they dont need is a tent encampment. You have 18 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. You have two minutes to speak. Hi, sarah ogolvie. And im calling in support of this ordinance today. Theres over 7,000 existing homeless residents in the city and at this time theres not enough supporting Housing Units for them to shelter in place. And many residents of shelters and Navigation Centers have been transitioned into hotel rooms, but supervisor fewer acknowledged at this hearing today that the costs associated with putting every homeless person in a hotel room for the duration of the pandemic was unrealistic. The park is an available resource that can be safely be staffed to meet the needs of the residents who will be placed there. The city officials are smart enough and imaginative enough to come up with an exit strategy solution. But they need to reduce the transmilingtransmission right ns immediate and great. Please support and pass this legislation. Clerk this is Public Comment for item number 4. You will have two minutes to speak. Next caller, please. If you havent already you have 17 questions remaining. Hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. indiscernible . Clerk hello, caller . indiscernible . Supervisor peskin caller, next speaker, please. You have 15 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. This is item number 4 on the agenda. Thank you. My name is mark and on behalf of a dozen of my fellow neighbors here in district 1, and many in intergenerational households, i show opposition for Golden Gate Park for homeless individuals. I live one block from the encampments that have sprung up and i can tell you with 100 confidence that this increased the risk of virus transmission to hundreds ever m of my neighb. There are chronically homeless for five or 10 years or more and i know several of them personally and i observe their routines daily. The people in this small encampment are not maintaining sanitation with the handwashing stations or the portapotty that the city has provided and not social distancing or following guidelines. While all of my neighbors are following the shelterinplace rules and remaining isolated, as everyone listening right now knows that these Vulnerable People cant or dont follow the same rules. And their risk of contracting covid is clearly much greater and higher than housed residents in our neighborhood. So while id love this encampment to be migrated elsewhere for the health and safety of my neighbors, if we envision a small sample as a representative of a larger encomp campment in Golden Gate Park heres what well be doing putting a covid time bomb in the middle of the most used public space in the entire city. I was in Golden Gate Park yesterday and it was packed. Everyone from all of the bordering neighborhoods poured from to use their public space, families, kids, grandparents and picnickers and all maintaining distance. And unless you envision building a biodome over this encampment you have no way to not introduce a higher risk, and with high risk people and behaviors in a camp directly amongst so many residents. So, you know, look, i get that the homeless are at risk for covid, but dont go with solutions that put more people at risk. The residents of the Richmond District oppose encampments in Golden Gate Park to protect the health of themselves and their neighbors. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you for your comments. This is Public Comment for item number 4. And press 1, 0 if you would like to speak. If you already pressed, please continue to hold. Next speaker, please. You have 17 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes. Yes, my name is joe wilson, calling for hospitality house. Im happy to support supervisor fewers legislation, the Emergency Response to parks. I have to concur with a few of the other callers in terms of some the commentary, but i guess that it points out typically during a crisis mode that you see some of the best Human Behavior and you see some of the worst. So this is clearly no different. I do think that at least one guiding principle here is the principle of democratizing the public assets, and making maximum use of the Public Resources during an unprecedented Public Health crisis. And, you know, were encouraged by general manager ginsburg, at least his willingness to talk through some specifics. I hope that continues. I do think that though some of the commentary has been disturbing that its absolutely necessary to get these comments out in public because i think that is probably at least one opportunity to address some of the stereotypes and the biases that were all carrying around with us. And i also believe that we do have a collective responsibility to act quickly and to act intelligently and to act responsibly to make sure that we are marshalling all of our resources during a Public Health crisis. I just say as an aside for, you know, 140 years the statue of liberty has been a magnet for america. And i suppose that we could have the statue moved elsewhere if were no longer as welcoming as we thought that we once were. But i hope that we have the opportunity to reconsider. You have 16 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hello, can you hear me . Clerk yes, we can hear you. You have two minutes for Public Comment. Thank you. Thanks. You know, i will say that all options are on the table. The act of doing this is not. But there is a possibility that they could put this in the park. And, you know, you people you politicians, you are smart. You know indiscernible even the assessment, the assessment of this idea is very bad, its very bad. My son indiscernible you know, my son is small and you make this your retirement project. And he writes i speak five different chinese languages and you mess with my park and i mess with your passion projects. You mess with my parks and i mess with your passion projects. I support the you mess with my parks and i mess with the other policies. Byebye, thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. This is Public Comment for item number 4. You have 14 questions remaining. Clerk you have two minutes to speak. Hi, another mark from supervisor fewers district. Im not a fan of the safe sleeping site proposal. A couple items. First, relating to the shelterinplace hotel rooms, earlier in your presentation, supervisor fewer, and basically saying that the federal reimbursements will be closed down soon. And paraphrasing that hes not on board with the Health Crisis. And it was just cheap and not needed. And my question relating to that though is how many hotel rooms has San Francisco been able to procure . And what is the utilization rate of them . Were underutilized and people are forced into shelter, what is the park going to how will you force to shelter in a park . Is it true that temporary residents are provided alcohol and drugs and cigarettes at no cost to them . And will that continue into the park plan . Second, saving lives during a pandemic is a priority. But the Parks Department has to the first week of june to reply with the proposed plan sites for use within the park. Until that time, we know at least three unplanned tent sites on the district 1 sidewalks that are allowed to operate without the safety controls that are in the park system. How can you the board of supervisors protect both the residents who live next to these sites and the tent dwellers who occupy them from contracting the virus . And most important, what is the forecasted timeline for temporary use of the parks and parking lots . When does it end . I mean and somebody mentioned before what is the exit strategy. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. This is Public Comment for item number 4. Please press 1, 0, if you are waiting to speak. Please continue to hold. Next speaker. You have 14 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Next speaker, please. You have 15 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hi. My name is sarah sentilis and im a resident of district 4 and i voted for supervisor mar. I have been writing him and not getting a reply to my letters of other solutions. So i just have one question why is it inhumane and discompassionate and unsafe to put the Homeless Population in the palace . What is so wrong with that . Why are you so gung ho about putting them in the park . To me its more safe, you know, its more compassionate and dignified to put them inside of a stadium, when there are emergencies around this country. So thats my one country. Your you so gung ho about putting them in the park and hotels as opposed to a huge stadium or trailers . Okay, thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. This is Public Comments for item number 4. Next caller, please. You have 13 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller. Hello. Clerk you have two minutes to speak. Sorry. My name is Michael Shanahan and a dress dent of district 2 and i am speaking in favor of the proposed legislation. You know, we have a moral responsibility to make sure that all of our neighbors are housed during this pandemic and its still true now. Especially we know and have seen before that the state of our health is only as good as the state of our most vulnerable residents. And putting people who dont have homes where they can have sanitation and they are able to be safer, making our city safer overall. A few things that i want to make sure and i think we just went through indiscernible and operation in the city sites. We need longer term funding for emergency shelters and for the Health Crisis. And the truly longterm solution is Supportive Housing. And it is something that i hope that everybody on this committee and you are thinking about how do we house people for the long term. Especially these are the things they would welcome, you know, people who are calling in, what are the ways to make sure that people who are unhoused that are in our neighborhood. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. You have 12 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. My name is marnie. Supervisor sandra fewer, your own newsletter stated that Golden Gate Park had areas that would be perfect for safe sleeping sites and that you were working on legislation and now you claim that you were misnsmged. Thats unfair. Senator Diane Finestein opposes encampments in Golden Gate Park and she believes that theres more viable alternatives i agree. And its easy to secure and to keep clean, and theres ample room to set up tents outside a safe distance apart. Utilities are already there and there are multiple bathrooms and kitchens on site. In addition, the buildings and the meeting areas would be ideal for supportive services. Its also near both muni and art. And theres a large lot at 74 mission rock owned by the port. Both of these choices are much better than city parks. I grew up in the 1960s and i recall when the hippies took over the park and it was no longer a safe place for families and it took over eight years to clean it up and we shouldnt repeat the same mistake. By the citys own me rest micks, 95 of homeless have drug adduce and they use emergency psychiatric services. And theres a direct cor core correlation between tent encampments and breakins and Drug Trafficking and profit diewgz. And its rampant in the encampments and the dealers are going tenttotent and police have been told to stand down. Were supposed to believe that you can keep the park and the neighboring areas safe . Thats unrealistic. The addicted need medically supesupervised drug treatments d not tents. Its eye avenu naive for those h psychosis to wear masks. And folks are not following guidelines. The same thing will. You have 12 questions remaining. Clerk caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hello, caller. Next caller, please. You have 11 questions remaining. Clerk he hello, caller, this is Public Comment on item number 4. You have two minutes to speak. Hi, thank you very much. My name is brandy markman and i live in the Richmond District, district 1. I lived in rich plon richmond f0 years and i can see the park from my window. Im very much in support to this legislation and kudos to supervisor fewer. I know that it took bravely to put this forward and im so proud that you did. Im really saddened by parents using their children as reason why we cant consider our parks as part of the solution. Im a parent of an 8yearold. What i find to be most frustrated about being a parent in San Francisco is how to explain to my son that though were a very wealthy city, so many people have to live on the street because of our horrible economic divide. During the earthquake, the sky didnt fall when we put homeless San Franciscoians in Golden Gate Park. And i really dont appreciate when, again, back to using children as an excuse, and i actually had my son leaving the room when this when i had my phone on speaker because of some of the vile things that people were saying about Homeless People. I just want to remind everyone that are listening that one out of 25 of our students are homeless. So, please, remember that when youre doing Public Comment. Also this is based in science. I mean, obviously, hotels should be the first line of homes for people in need. But its no critical they be in safe places and not on the sidewalk. In late march my husband and i both had covid symptoms. We were not able to get tested but we had doctors tells us that its extremely important to try to keep ourselves safe. And so it is backed by reason and science. And supervisors, i hope that you can turn off some of the awful noise and do the right thing and support this legislation. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Again, this is Public Comment for item number 4. Next caller, please. You have 11 questions remaining. Clerk you have two minutes to speak. This is martin calling. Im horrified and appalled by the dehumanizing language by our unhoused neighbors who right now during a Global Pandemic are having to face the hardest time ever faced in their life. Whether its due to addiction or losing a paycheck and losing their housing and this incredibly expensive city or the litany of other reasons that people are homeless. Like the recent caller said, one of the 25 San Francisco schoolchildren are homeless as well and they need a place to stay. We have been in this housing crisis for more than 40 years. We have refused to build enough housing to house our vulnerable population. We do not have enough Affordable Housing and enough housing period. So for people to call in now, i want to ask you where were you when we were fighting for a Navigation Center . Where were you when we were fighting for more housing all across San Francisco neighborhoods . And not just the east side of the city where so much poverty is concentrated because we totally ignored building any Supportive Housing on the west side where supervisor fewer and mar are. So i want to applaud that for taking steps to try to figure out how we have people unhoused right now to have a safe sleeping spot during this pandemic. And i urge supervisor mar and fewer and all of the supervisors on the west side of the city to figure out how to build more Affordable Housing in the city. Because its not enough to just build it in soma and the mission. We need more sites and more permanent housing and we need it now. So for everybody who is using dehumanizing language, shame on you. Do something about the problem. Thats all. Clerk thank you for your comments. Gain, this is Public Comment for item number 4. Next caller, please. You have 10 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, thank you so much for waiting. You have two minutes to speak. Thank you. Good afternoon, supervisors, corey smith on behalf of the San Francisco Housing Action co coalition, here to support the legislation by supervisor fewer and supervisor mar and i thank them for their leadership on this. We feel this is a predictable outcome due to the underbuilding of housing in the city for the last 30 or 40 years. And this sort of Emergency Response. We absolutely think that it is appropriate given the circumstances. And i think that for people that have are both supporting and opposing this legislation, i think that doing so and understanding the status of the Current Situation and putting that in context versus what this proposal is, i think that it is an opportunity for us to improve what currently is happening on the streets. Like many of my neighbors in district 5 were seeing more tents on the sidewalk. So i see this as a positive alternative because, a, social distance is not practiced right now. But when youve got a city sanctioned facility that does have the services and does have all of those things that people were saying that are unavailable right now, those situations will help people and actually get people off of the street. And the one comment that was made by a previous speaker and i do want to reemphasize this and were talking park and rec and the land and the value of it, and what is available. This is not a proposal to in a couple days to put something in a field in Golden Gate Park. This is an evaluation of what is out there and if something makes sense and if we can work with the community in a right way, this is a logical shortterm solutions. And it makes sense in the near term. Thank you. You have eight questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, thank you for your patience. You have two minutes to speak. Always happy to be patient. This is r. J. Sloan and im not calling in today to further this item as an s. R. O. Tenant advocate. Im calling actually as a humanitarian. So what i would like to do with my two minutes of Public Comment, and im sure that philip glass would support me, id like to stay silent and i will close out my two minutes with a word or two. Id like all of you to consider and your precious children what you want to be remembered for as a human being when this life is over. Ill close out my two minutes when its nearly done. Consider your humanitarian value, folks. Id like to be silent for a minute. Clerk hello, caller . Yes, im here. Im using my two minutes for some contemplation. Clerk oh. Ill close my time out when its nearly over. So i hope that all of you that refuse to look at the homelessness of fellow human beings will consider your humanity before your life is over. Thank you. Clerk thank you. You have seven questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, thank you for your patience. You have two minutes to speak. I live in district 9. I wholeheartedly support item number 4. This is the First Step Towards establishing safe spaces. I look forward to seeing unsheltered people at least having a safe place to live in a tent. That is the very least that the city can offer to our neighbors who are experiencing homelessness. In our Current Situation, people who live in their tents are told to move their tents from one place on the sidewalk to another place on the sidewalk. Even as i speak this is happening. There are lives that are already challenging and are rendered even more unstable by constantly being forced to move. My preference is for everyone to live indoors. But until that happens, this legislation is important. It addresses it begins to address the needs of our homeless neighbors. By the way, i am an elementary schoolteacher and i want our children to see what it looks like when everyone in a city comes together to help each other. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please, you will have two minutes. You have five questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hi. My name is denise donaldson. Thank you, board of supervisors. Im from district 5 and im for housing the homeless. But i oppose this. I oppose allowing the homeless to live in tents in the parks. San francisco needs to wake up. We are a wealthy city. Were such a wealthy city. And we have avoided this problem for years and we are avoiding addressing this problem for years. And its now time to really solve the problem. The homeless are a vulnerable population and they need to get out of tent encampments. As die a Diane Finestein reports for moving people indoors. No one would oppose putting people in tents in union square, or in central park in new york city. These people need help. They need homes. They need s. R. O. S and they need mental facilities. Thy dont need tents. Tents wont solve the problem. During this pandemic, San Francisco, lets really solve this problem for real. Its time for a paradigm shift. This is it will take a pandemic. Lets not continue to do more of the same. No more tents for encampments for Homeless People. Lets give them homes and walls and ceilings and toilets and bathrooms. No more tents. Putting people in tents in a park is not a solution. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. You have four questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. This is item number 4. Hi, my name is jill maxwell and im from district 2. Earlier on in this broadcast i was glad to hear that theres dialogue going on between rick and clark and the supervisors for the suitable site for these encampments. But i would like to register my concerns about putting up emergency tent encampments specifically in Golden Gate Park. I really dont think this is a suitable location. As some of the other callers have said, we dont even know how long the shelterinplace and the pandemic will last. What does temporary mean, and how much infrastructure do we need to set up . And how do we wind that down . What is the exit strategy . And another question would be is how would you enforce social distancing, how could that happen . And, i mean, most importantly to me is that at this time every neighborhood is in critical need of access to our parks. And im worried about the negative impact on other City Residents and visitors when visitors come back in terms of safety, sanitation and drug use. So i think that proper siting of encampments is really something that is important to consider. And in the long run encampments are not really a very good solution but i recognize that we might have to do that for a small amount of time in the city, but, please, not in our gyms or parks. Clerk this is item number 4 on the agenda. If you have not already, press 1, 0 to speak. For those on hold, continue to hold. Next caller, please. You have three questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, thank you for holding. You have two minutes . Hello my name is june and im in district 5. Im in great, great, great support of supervisor fewers ordinance. A few things that i just really wanted to highlight about this process is that, again, this is not a this is not a permanent solution, its a temporary solution to the complete inaction on the part of the city to house our homeless or house our homeless. And we have currently had hotel rooms sitting open and so maybe building these encampments is a great step towards getting people into housing. Its something that needs to happen and cant just be pushed off until we have housing. Another thing to consider is that when we look at the stanion site that will be opening up later this week we have the Homeless Youth alliance who has worked in this community, worked to provide services, to provide training, to the Community Members about the training to provide training to folks around safety, to provide training to folks around or just to provide art and services for people. Those are thats an organization hiring to get people into these encampments and to be working to be helping out with this movement. So we have people available and ready that have real knowledge and real care about this population. We have people in our Homeless Population who are wonderful allies and completely resourceful people who can help to make this an organized encampment that is safe and good for everyone. I think that there has also been hesitation on the part of houseless folks to work with the city because theres fear. Theres people feeling that theyll be put into cages and put into parking lots and things like that. I think that since having the park as a place where people can safely organize and to build encampments shows that were not going to just came the cage ther put them in a place you have four questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes. Hi, my name is nancy de stefanos and a resident of district 1 and im a supporter of supervisor sandy fewers legislation. I want to remind the supervisors that this legislation only asks for a list of spaces by rec and park, and a list of spaces and a list of spaces from the real estate agency. It doesnt mandate that folks are going to be camping in Golden Gate Park or this or that. So i think that is a real jump on the part of the folks that are calling in opposing it. I want to say that those who have quoted Diane Finesteins opposition, i was the lawyer for the homeless in 19882 along with the folks from old st. Marys housing committee. Weemp noticing more and more we were noticing more and more homeless on the streets so we asked for a meeting with the mayor. Five of us went into dianes office and told her the story of how hospitality house was about to close and all of these other places where there was no space for the homeless. And she said, im sorry, im sorry, gals, this is i dont see that. This is not going to happen. Well, the next day at the board of supervisors we had a hearing on this issue. 200 priests, ministers, nuns, advocates, all social Services People came and addressed the board of supervisors. The next day she announced in the chronicle that she had gone out in her limo and never seen so much homeless in her life and that shed give money to keep hospitality house open and start looking at shelters. So those folks here who quote Diane Finesteins opposition to this legislation, i have to remind you that, supervisors, you know that diane is not your guide on this legislation. She was always the developers best friend. So lets not kid ourselves. You have three questions remaining. Qoik. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak. Hi, i live in district 5. I would support homeless encampments and the parks nearby and diverse park in the square. I think that parks are great for enjoyment, but housing should be a human right. And we should give people a safe place to live before we give amenities to people who already have the luxury of having a home. With covid19 theres so many people who are losing their jobs, and losing their homes, that we need to support everyone and to give everyone a place to live. And also add to the previous callers comment that Diane Finestein was not a great mayor for San Franciscos housing, under her tenure, the city added so many Office Buildings and jobs without any effort to add more housing. Especially to the west side. So housing should be a human right. Housing should be provided for all. And we should not preface peoples ability to have a place based upon our concerns about their drug use or other vices which may or may not be imaginary. Because people are people. And thats just it. So thank you very much. Im in support. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next caller, please. You have 2 questions remaining. Clerk hello, caller, you have two minutes to speak and this is Public Comment for item number 4. Hello, this is diane mason and i live in the sunset district and i vote. I am against consideration of putting any tent encampments in any city park. I kind of take offense at people who are in favor of putting housing in the parks by saying that people who are against this are dehumanizing homelessness. We are not dehumanizing homelessness. No one has said that were against putting people in housing. Were just saying that there are better places to put housing and encampments without putting them in parks that are for use by all citizens of San Francisco. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Again, this is Public Comment for item number 4. If you have not already, please press 1, 0 to line up to speak. Next speaker, please. You have one question remaining. Clerk hello, speaker, thank you so much for waiting. You have two minutes. Hi, my name is indiscernible and im with the coalition on homelessness. And i am in support of this legislation but, frankly, i find it ridiculous that we even have to have this legislation. You know, were a couple months into this already and it was just last wednesday that they created the first space where people can actually exist on our streets legally. And, you know, were not advocating for people to be in tents. What were advocating for is housing. But right now were also in a Global Pandemic. And so we need to be responding like its a Global Pandemic. And we need to get people into hotel rooms. But short of that, the least that we could do is to be giving people some type of protections and attention when we are doing that. Yes, i will continue to support providing even a minimal amount of protection. But people need to understand that there arent resources available. Not only you couldnt even get on the wait list, theres a thousand less shelter beds right now and theres no options for people. Im encountering people on a daily basis in tears and just begging for somewhere to get a little refuge during this crisis. And theres nothing for them. Nothing. And so its really strange, this whole conversation is really strange and talking about Golden Gate Park and theres a lot of assumptions being made and a lot of people did not even bother to read the legislation before they get upset about it. But we have the civic center that is sitting empty while the Law Enforcement is pushing people down to that area and then finally as of last wednesday, we created some space and all it is is asphalt. This is you have zero questions remaining. Mr. Chair, that completes the queue. Supervisor peskin thank you, and thank you to all of the members of the public for your Public Comment and, again, i apologize that we had to hear this out of order at the beginning of the meeting, given the general manager ginsburgs schedule. And, clearly, this is a hotbutton issue. I would like to make a few highlevel observations, and, again, sincerely thank everybody for your patience in the change in the schedule. One of the things that i wanted to start with is ill associate myself with the words of mr. Joe wilson who said that moments like this bring out the worst and the best of all society. But i do want to say that as a longterm member of the board of supervisors that the board has really been trying to deal with the issue of the impact to our homeless and most vulnerable communities as expressed repeatedly first through a resolution and subsequently through an ordinance with regard to housing our unsheltered people in hotels during this pandemic where we have tens of thousands, almost 40,00,000 underused hotel rooms in San Francisco. And im very pleased that we can now go to the data dashboard and actually look at those and we can see how many are used by frontline workers and what are empty and how many are used by vulnerable homeless persons and what our total number of hotel rooms are. Which as of today is 2,056. We not by the boards advocacy, but by the administrations own numbers expected to be at two or three times the number of approximately 2,000 by this time. And so i i mean, a lot of people i have heard saying that they support alternatives, but the board actually has come up with an alternative and its something in large part reimbursed by fema and the state. So i just wanted to put that out there. I also wanted to hark back to the 1906 earthquake where parks were used, Washington Square in the corner of the city that i lived in and represent was actually used for housing in the wake of the 1906 earthquake and fire. Those were housed people that became unhoused. But when it comes to the notion of unhoused people having alternatives, whether they are safe camping sites which the board has supported at the urjens of th supervisor mandelm. And whether its the use of hotel rooms. Were all in this together. And i think there are a number of alternatives short of putting folks in public parks. Which, by the way, i dont think what supervisor fewer and marr originally intended. As we heard earlier the recreation and Parks Department controls 15 of the land mass in our very dense 50 square miles where people call the 49 square miles but its actually 50. 2 square miles in the city of San Francisco. And its not all parks. And it includes parking lots and the becomthe back of house facid it includes yards i dont mean playground yards but yards that we could use for alternative housing. So i wanted to say this and i really appreciate the comments of nancy and ill mention her last name we just recently spoke and i associate myself with her comments. And with that supervisor safai had to leave. Supervisor preston oh, supervisor fewer is back. Supervisor fewer, the floor is yours. Supervisor fewer thank you, colleagues, for hearing this item. We have left the determination of which sites would be siewtdablsuitableto the generale rec and park because we realized that he knows best his own facilities and what theyre being used for. I hear people say about the park, and i want to say also is that the reason that i originally had mentioned the park is that theres a disaster and emergency site designated by the city and county of San Francisco in Golden Gate Park and thats why i mentioned it. But then again i want to say this is that it is not my determination nor the determination of any of the sitting board of supervisors. General manager ginsburg has that discretion of who where to put these sites in accordance with the Public Health guidelines. I wanted to also say to the folks that came out today for Public Comment that i have great empathy for unhoused folks in San Francisco. I agree that i think housing comes first and that we need to really look at a longterm plan for housing unhoused folks in San Francisco. They have been living on our streets long enough and its time that we do something personally. I hope personally that the city and county of San Francisco will take advantage of this recession when many, many hotels in San Francisco will be up for sale and hopefully we can turn them into permanent Supportive Housing for these people who have been on our streets for so long. I want to thank everybody for coming out today and having public testimony. And i want to really thank general manager ginsburg and also the director for having the willingness to come to the table and to also submit lists of available land that we may use during this horrible, horrible pandemic. And hopefully we can save lives. Again, colleagues, thank you so much for hearing this today and thank you, everyone, who came today for Public Comment. Supervisor peskin thank you, supervisor fewer. And i really appreciate the fact that you were able to forward this piece of Public Policy without the vote of the board of supervisors. And i thank you work working it. Supervisor ginsburg, do you have any comments . Thank you, chair peskin. I just spoke earlier when this was first called and i want to reiterate my appreciation for fewer and for supervisor marr for moving this forward and to general manager ginsburg and director penick for working with the supervisors to get us to the point where theres some agreement here. I also just want to in response to some of the comments and in thinking further, really to reiterate that it is my hope and i think that its shared by my colleagues that those who head departments, those who have land under your purview that is currently vacant or underutilized and not just here in the city, but also at the state level, please advance some ideas to help us to move forward. And i just want to recognize that myself, many of my colleagues, are fighting every day to try to convince folks to use land for safe sleeping areas, to make hotels available. And i will say with all due respect to a lot of folks who control property in the public sphere that it shouldnt be this hard. This city, we can do much bigger things when we set our minds to it. So whether you are the state department of Motor Vehicles that has a huge lot in my district, or you are in credit to the School District which has themselves and on their own initiative put forward the idea of using their land, there is not a shortage of space of hotel rooms that are vacant, of lands for us to create safe sleeping sites. There is plenty of land. And not every step forward should be such a battle or a fight during this time. So i just really want to encourage those who have available and underutilized land under their control to step up during this moment as i know that manager general manager ginsburg and director penick are doing in their conversations with supervisor fewer and marr. But it goes beyond them. And the callers and the commenters i think that have spoken very persuasively and eloquently about the times that were in and the need for bold action because folks are living on the streets, folks are human beings and nobody wants tents as a preferred solution. But these tents in a space that is supervised and in a place that is safe and in a place with access to bathrooms and handwashing facilities, basic services, is run by folks with the competence to work with folks who are homeless. That is a huge difference from being in unsanctioned encampments that are unsafe and unhealthy on the streets. So, thank you again supervisor fewer for your leadership on this. Supervisor peskin thank you, supervisor preston. So i would like to move the motion that supervisor fewer requested to table this item number 4. Madam clerk, please call the roll. Clerk yes. On the motion to table the matter, supervisor preston. Preston, aye. Supervisor safai. Safai, aye. Supervisor peskin. Peskin, aye. You have three ayes. Supervisor peskin the matter is tabled and this committee is adjourned. Its great to see everyone kind of get together and prove, that you know, building our culture is something that can be reckoned with. M