Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Public Safety Neighborhood Services Committee 20240713

Good morning, everyone. The meet willing come to order. Welcome to the may 28, 2020 regular meeting of the Public Safety and neighborhood committee. Were joined by vice chair Catherine Stefani and supervisor shamann wallton. Our clerk is john carroll. I want to thank corwin cooley at sfgov tv for staffing this meeting as well as i. T. For lending their support to todays matter for all that you are doing to keep the board of supervisors running smoothly in these strange, virtual times. Mr. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Yes. Thank you, mr. Chair. In order to protect board members, City Employees and the public during the covid19 health emergency, the legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. However, members will be participating in the meeting remotely. Public comment will be available for each item on this agenda. Both San Francisco cable channel 26 and sfgov. Org are streaming a Public Comment callin number across the screen. Each speaker will be allowed two minutes to speak. Comments or opportunities to speak during the Public Comment period are available via phone by calling 4156550001. Once connected and prompted , enter the access code. Todays access code is 926116335. Then press the pound symbol and then press the pound symbol a second time to be connected to the meeting. You will hear a beepful after you hear the beep, stop and listen to the meeting, wait for Public Comment to be announced on your item of interest. When Public Comment is called for your item of interest, dial the star button followed by a 9 to be added to the speaker line. When you press star and then 9, you will hear, quote, you have raised your hand to ask a question. Please wait to speak until the host calls on you. End quote. Following this you should wait for your turn to speak. When it is your turn to address the committee, you will hear, quote, your line has been unmuted, end quote. This is your opportunity to provide your Public Comment. When your time ends, you will be muted again. Everyone must account for time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television, your radio or your streaming device. Alternative, you may submit Public Comment in either of the following ways. You can email me, my name is john carroll, im the clerk of the Public Safety Neighborhood Services committee. My email is john. Carroll sfgov. Org. If you submit Public Comment via email, it will be included in the legislative file as part of the matter. Your written comments may also be sent by u. S. Postal service to our office in San Francisco city hall, the address there is 1 dr. Carlton b. Goodlettplace, San Francisco, california 94102. Finally, items acted on today will appear on the board of supervisors agenda of june 9, 2020 unless otherwise stated. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, mr. Clerk. Can you please call our first item . Agenda item number one is a hearing to consider the premisetopremise transfer of a type 21 off sale to selma wines and spirits incorporated. Doing businesses east cut traders located at 301 howard and will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this hearing should call the Public Comment number, 4156550001 and enter the access code 926116335 and press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Thank you. First up, well hear from our a. L. U. Good morning. I am here. Hello. Good morning. Good morning. Are we ready . We are ready. Give us our report. All right. You have before you a p. C. N. Report for east cut traders. They have applied for a type 21 license and, if approved, this would allow them told operate as an offsale general premise. There are zero letters of protest. Zero letters of support. They are located in plot 238, which is considered a highcrime area. Theyre in census track 615, which is considered a high saturation area. Southern station has no opposition. A. L. U. Recommends approve value with the following condition. Number one, they should actively monitor the area under their control in order to prevent the loitering of any persons on their property as depiktsed on the form and should be noticed that they had agreed to the above listed conditions. All right. Thank you, officer sammondson. I believe we have our applicant on the line as well. Yeah. This mr. Ammana . Yes, sir. You can make any remarks youd like to to the committee. Yes. Thank you so much. I dont want to take too much of your time. But im applying for a 21 under soma wines and spirits and weve been doing business in soma since 2006. This is our third location. Wed love to assist the market with [inaudible] and groceries. No protests. I would like to get this thing done so we can hopefully, by the time the city opens, we can start with a recovery. Any questions, ill be able to answer. I dont see any comments or questions from my colleagues, but thank you. Caller thank you. Mr. Clerk, you can open this up for Public Comment. My the instructions that i have around Public Comment are a little different i think from what i heard you say. At this point, do we have any folks in the queue . Mr. Chair, operations will check to see if there is there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers that are ready. For those who already connected to our meeting via phone, please press the star button followed by 9 to be added to the queue to speak for this item. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin at the beep. For those who are watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link on sfgov tv, if you wish to speak on this item, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. Dial 4156550001 and enter the access code. Todays access code is 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice and then press star and then 9 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have any callers who are connected for this agenda item . Operator mr. Chair, there no callers wishing to speak. Great. Then Public Comment is closed. Colleagues, my understanding is that supervisor haney is supportive of this item moving forward with positive recommendation and given that, i will move that we do forward this to the full board or i will ask that our clerk prepare a resolution binding that this license will meet [inaudible] necessity and then i will move that we forward that to the board for rel daysing andic that without objection. We [inaudible] on everything. Well be taking roll call vote on everything, please. On the motion to forward resolution finding public convenience or necessity for this service premise, vice chair stefani . Aye. Member wallton . Aye. Walton, aye. Chairman mandelman . Aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Great. The motion passes. Mr. Clerk, when youre ready, please call the next item. I do have a lot of paper im shuffling. Agenda item number 2 is a hearing to consider that the transferer if of a type21 offsale general beer, wine and distilled Spirits Liquor licenses to safeway incorporated doing business in andronickos Community Market located at 375 32nd avenue with an alternative address on clements will serve the public convenience or necessity of the city and county. As before, members of public who wish to provide Public Comment, call 4156450001, enter the access code of 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Again, well hear from the a. L. U. Officer . Ok. Andronickos has applied for a type21 license and there is one letter of protest, zero in support. They are in a lowcrime area. Theyre in census track 427, which is considered a high saturation area. Richmond station has no opposition. A. L. U. Recommends approval with the following condition. Petitioner shall actively monitor the area under their control in an effort to prevent the loitering of persons on any property adjacent to the license premise as depicted on abc 235 form and should be noted on april 24, 2020, the approximately cants agreed to the above listed conditions. Great. Thank you, officer. And i believe we have the representative of the approximately applicant on the line as well. Mr. Zuckerman or ms. Hager . Good morning. Justin zucker. Ill keep it brief. Safeway andronicos reestablish add Grocery Store at a vacant building that was previously a fresh and easy. We want to add Liquor Stores to ensure the viability of the Grocery Store while also providing the neighborhood with a convenient onestop shop for food, household supplies and beverages. Were available for any questions that the committee may have. Great. Dont see any questions. And so we can open this up to Public Comment. Ms. Clerk . Mr. Clerk . Thank you, mr. Chair k. Operation will check to see if there are any callers in the queue. For those who have already connected to our meeting via phone, please press the star and then the 9 key to be added to the queue to speak to this item. For those already on hold, please continue to wait until you are prompted to begin at the beep. For those watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link on sfgov tv, if you wish to speak on this item,members of public who wish to provide Public Comment, call 4156450001, enter the access code of 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key, followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have any callers . Operator mr. Chair, there are no callers wishing to speak. All right. Well close Public Comment. And colleagues, i believe that supervisor fewer is supportive of this item moving forward. So i think we can direct our clerk to bear a resolution, determining that this license will serve public means and necessity and i will make a motion that we send that resolution forward to the board for positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. On the motion to forward a resolution finding public necessity for this proposed service premise [roll call] mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Thank you. Its great to see a good union Grocery Store going back into that space. Not that that had any bearing at all on the vote that we just cast. Mr. Clerk, can you please call the next item . Yes. Agenda item number 3 is a resolution supporting the nonviolent activists facing prosecution in Sonoma County over their attempt to expose the conditions of animals in factory farms. Members of public who wish to provide Public Comment on this resolution should call the Public Comment number. 4156550001 and enter the access code, 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Ms. Mcdonald, youre from supervisor haneys office to present. Yes. Thank you, chair mandelman and good morning, committee members. On behalf of supervisor haney, thank you for hearing this resolution today. And id also like to thank the animal control and Welfare Commission for passing this resolution and requesting that the board adopt it. I believe you all have received an email from the commission expressing their support. A similar resolution was passed by the Berkeley City Council earlier this year and simply urges that Sonoma County d. A. To dismiss charges against nonviolent activists. Many of whom are San Francisco residents who were investigating the confinement and conditions of commercial animal operations. In order to share evidence with state regulatory agencies to enforce state law. San francisco has a very long history of protecting Animal Rights, including becoming the largest city to ban fur sales in 2018. We prohibited pet stores from selling dogs and cats not obtained from Animal Rescue organizations in 2017 and have supported numerous Animal Rights bills at the state level over the years. Aye also like to close by thanking the activists with direct action everywhere in compassionate bay for their advocacy and should you have any questions about this resolution, we also have a representative from the organization, john fronmeyer on the line to answer. Thank you and i hope we can count on your support. Great. Thank you, ms. Mcdonald. I dont see any comments or questions from colleagues. So we can open this up for Public Comment. Thank you, mr. Chair. Operations, well check to see if there are any callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are any callers that are ready. For those that already connected to our meeting via phone, please press star and then 9 to be added to the queue. For those already on hold in the queue, please continue to wait until youre prompted to begin at the beep. For those watching our meeting on cable channel 26 or via streaming link or through sfgov tv, if you wish to speak on this item, please call in by following the instructions on your screen. That would be by dialing again 4156550001 and enter the access code 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice and then press star and then 9 to enter the queue to speak. Do we have any speakers for this item . Operator yes, i do have one caller in the queue. Before you do that, i will just say a few things about Public Comment. Namely that speakers do have two minutes. We ask that you state your first and last name clearly and speak directly into the phone. If you prepare add written statement, youre encouraged to send a copy to our city clerk, mr. Carroll, for inclusion in the official file and in the interest of time, speakers are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements and we can hear from our first caller. Caller can you hear me . Yes, we can hear you. You have two minutes. Caller thank you. Thank you. Good morning. Jordan davis. Im speaking to you today as a san franciscan asking you to support the resolution pending before you. Im a proud Animal Rights activist and what my comrades were doing were not only morally right, but allow under state law [inaudible] for sick and dying animals and yet these brave individuals are being prosecuted by a district attorney. Its really getting hot out there and i know that everyone listening would smash a window to get a dog out of a hot car. Why cant we extend that right to rescue pigs, sheep and cowsle. We must also consider this a covid19 crisis which has upended the world was caused by animal exploitation [inaudible] investigation exposes and rescues animals from. I urge you to pass this, but also take a step further and with collaboration [inaudible] push for policy initiatives that prevents animal abuse and cancel animal [inaudible] for the animals, for our health and for our environment. I would also encourage good modeling for city leaders and urge you to stop buying, wearing, using, needing animal products. Its not only cruel and inhumane but are the reason we cant be there in person. Thank you. Thank you. Do we have any further anymore callers . That completes the queue. Then Public Comment is now closed on this item. Colleagues, any comments . I dont see any. And if there are none, i will make a motion that we send this resolution forward to the full board with positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. On the motion to forward this resolution to the full board with a positive recommendation [roll call] mr. Mandelman, there are three ayes. Motion passes. Thank you. Mr. Clerk. Mr. Clerk, please call our next item. Agenda item number 4 is a hearing on suicide, Domestic Abuse and Family Violence during the covid19 pandemic. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this hearing should call 4156550001 and enter the access code of 926116335. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and then press the star key followed by the number 9 to enter the queue to speak. Thank you, mr. Klo erk. Mr. Clerk. Vice chair stefani, this is your hearingful thank you for introducing it. The floor is yours. Thank you, chair mandelman and good morning, supervisor walton and to all those on this call. Im glad were having this hearing today. You know, from the onset of this pandemic, one of my foremost concerns was the impact this crisis would have on the Mental Health and wellbeing of all of our residents. Particularly of those who are in already stressful situations. At the onset, i also sent out an email to all of my constituents and everyone on my list about basically saying, you know, theres no shame in admitting that this is going to be very difficult. Especially for those who suffer from anxiety, depression, those who are in recovery. You know, anything about addiction. Those who need to deal with their addiction often go to 12step meetings and those meetings keep people sober. They keep people on track. They keep people out of isolation. And right now people arent able to meet like they once did. They can meet on zoom. But it is very difficult for people at this time and, you know, a lot of people that are trying to get sober at this time is really difficult. And i just want to recognize that its ok. It is ok to have anxiety. It is ok to be depressed and it is ok to suffer from addiction and want to get help. I called this hearing on suicide and Domestic Violence during this covid19 pandemic because i am extremely worried about the real human consequences of sheltering in place. And like i said, i just really want to recognize that these are extremely hard times and it is ok not to be ok and i feel like so often in society, we have this idea that, you know, you cant handle the heat, get out of the kitchen. Where really if you cant handle the heat and youre in the kitchen, ask for help. Thats ok. This toxic masculinity where men dont get to show their emotions and they dont get to ask for help like they should be able to. When you look at what is going on in our country right now, the fact that we lost 100,000 americans in just a short period of time, all those people are connected to so many families. And its hard, especially for people who are sensitive to see that news and see the reports of who we lost and not to feel that and not to have that tug at your heart. We know that one in nine san franciscans are, you know, fellow citizens and unemployed. We have an 11 unemployment rate. We are absolutely worried about peoples livelihoods. People who started their small businesses, their restaurants, were worried about the recovery. So many people are worried about how they will put food on the table for their children. We are also worry about the benevolence we cant see. Ive shared with people before that i have a dad who lived in merced who suffers from dementia. And i havent been able to see him since march 1 and that does take a toll on me and that is ok. Were in a Political Climate right now where we have leaders who think its ok to be cruel to one another. We have leaders who are not setting a good example of getting through this crisis with love and dignity and understanding that people come to issues with different experiences. We see how our president behaves. And i think the totality of all that and how it affects people and when youre isolated and cant be with your friends and family like you once could takes a toll. Again, it is ok not to be ok. When i look at what is happening with Domestic Violence, i was extremely alarmed to hear that the Domestic Violence report that cases of Domestic Violence, intimate Partner Violence and child abuse are increasing across the city. San francisco Suicide Prevention reported that they have seen a significant increase in the acuity of callers that require immediate emergency intervention. I have notifications from our chief of the Fire Department and notifications that we get about suicides that have happened in my district at a rate that i dont normally get those notifications. They also report seeing a 22 increase in the firsttime in firsttime callers in the first month of the shelter in place order. And overall they have serious concerns that a larger spike is in our future. Im really extremely concerned about this and San Franciscos [inaudible] rebuilding their lives after the orders are lifted. I believe we should do what we can to understand this issue afternoon to prevent the residents from harming themselves or others. Today we are fortunate to have with us Beverley Upton from the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium and we also have Emberly Cross from the cooperative Restraining Order Clinic to answer questions about the course. Theyre here to report on what theyre seeing in the field and to give us insight into how we can better serve those who are in distress. I also want to thank my aide annie mullen who has been there every step of the way on this issue and who helped bring this together, im very fortunate to have the staff that i have and i want to recognize this hard work. And with that, id like to turn it over to lanai. Im sorry. I think i its ok. Lina. Hi, everyone. Thank you for having me join you this morning and share with you some issues that were starting to see at San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institute. Im going to upload the figure out how to do this now. There we go. If it looks like youre getting it there. Did i get it . Closer. Hows that . Can you see it now . Can you bring that to full screen . Yep. Looks good. Ok. Thank you. Ok. So, im going to start here. So were going to talk a little bit about suicide and Mental Health in the covid19 era and were just at the beginning of this era, really. Im the interim director at the San Francisco Suicide Prevention and ive been there for the last year and a half. As we transitioned and merged, let me tell you a little bit about that. Were going talk a little bit about San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institute and then do an overview of suicide trends in San Francisco over the last few years and then well talk a little bit about suicide and Mental Health in the covid era and then some considerations and recommendations to consider for the future. I just wanted to give this fun fact that, you know, bernard mays came from england and actually started the first hotline in San Francisco in the country and, you know, he was also one of the founders. So,San Francisco Suicide Prevention Felton Institute provides 24 7 emotional support to those affected by any kind of crisis, including individuals that experienced Suicidal Ideation. And last year, i think several of you know that we merged with Felton Institute to really try to bring the Community Response to suicide in a broader clinical continuum of Mental Health and social services. So, while Suicide Prevention is about 56 years old and felton is 130, feltons the provider of the largest outpatient Mental Health services here in the city. And we felt like it would be a really good bridge to not just work with people kind of at the sort of tail end of their Mental Health. But were at the beginning of their Mental Health crises but to try to figure out how do we create a better continuum of services. And felton has really been able to modernize operations staffing and infrastructure to enhance our Program Capabilities already with you know, we had to go remote almost immediately when covid hit and didnt have that infrastructure place so we were able to do that, also with a partnership with a couple other companies and then text and chat capacity. Weve been wanting to do that for many years and now were able to. So what do suicide trends look like in San Francisco . As you can see, this is coming out of the department of Community Health Needs Assessment last year that was released and this is sort of rate of suicide across different ages ethnicity groups as well as sort of suicide is the 12th leading cause of death in San Francisco and, you know, completion is much more common amongst men than women and the average age is 51 years old and we do see the highest rate in the [inaudible] neighborhood. So, most likely amongst the lgbt community. But it is widespread across the city. You know, looking atle usufc high school and middle school survey, you know social isolation is often a precipitating factor to suicide and some of these concerning trends already in the environment because young people actually are at highest risk of attempting is that 13 of sfusf High School Student and 20 of middle school have considered attempting and of course that goes up for lgbtqisfusg students up to 32 to 40 considering and we see lowincome s. F. Residents at three times more likely to experience serious psychological distress. So i think these are concerning trends because, within the and well talk a little bit about within the covid but i want you to hold those data points. What does San Francisco Suicide Prevention do . We have 24 7 hotline. We do some peerled Grief Support groups and we also do a lot of outreach in the schools because of this sort of concerning trend, particularly in sfusc schools and we also do some education in the community as well. And with the police. So this is what we saw last year. We answered over 82,000 calls last year and that was a real spike from the Previous Year of 56,000 and were not really sure what that was attributed to, other than what i think supervisor stefani kind of talks about just sort of this real negative environment that increases anxiety for many of the callers and increased depression. But you can see here we have four different lines that we work with and h. I. V. 24hour line actually, even though its called the night line. It is the only one in the country. A drug relapse prevention line and then our crisis line. The other is an access after hours line that we work with department of Public Health to answer their off hours. And this is kind of the primary reason why a lot of people call in and just see and on the Community Education side, you know, we serve about 6,000 units and we were in 40 sites. And a lot of those sites do we do see a lot of young people calling in into the hotline once we do a one or twohour presentation. And this is sort of a referral the referrals we offer, how many people are trained but you see that we also do a lot of work with the police and 911 to make sure that we have a partnership and that police are also trained in deescalation techniques when theyre out there. So, what have we been seeing once shelter in place got put in . I mean, whats interesting and this is sort of been a trend actually nationally. Were not unique around this. Definitely in the bay area is that we actually saw a significant decline in call volumes. And we dont understand this trend but the kind of the general bay area has really experienced this, theyre separate lines for each bay area county. So i think thats just kind of interesting for us to understand why there is a reduction. But, on the other hand, we do see this increase acuity. In other words, people that are planning to have solid plans to harm themselves have gone up from one to three per month to one to three per week. What we do is we coordinate with emergency services, either the police or 911 and have to go in and do an intervention with the caller. Like the caller sometimes are actively already engaged in harm, i. E. taking a bottle of pills or, you know, standing calling and standing like on a highway entrance or bridge or Something Like that. Two, within 24 hours they could actually act on their plans. So thats what that acuity means. The good news so that is kind of the hard news that weve seen. The good news is that of even though we have reduced call volumes, were seeing that 22 of new callers wasnter reports of Mental Health, anxiety and relationships are asking for some support and theyre new callers because we do get a lot of repeat callers on our line, you know, just to be able to kind of make it through the day. Or some of them call, you know, once a week or Something Like that. Weve seen an increase in Behavioral Health referrals so people are seeking based on maybe new anxiety, old anxiety that has been triggered or even substance kind of struggles that theyre really asking for support. And i think that is really good news. The other bullet when i speak spoke with a physician that works over at cpmc whos on our board used to be on our board, he was saying that some of the challenges they are facing in their with folks that are have Suicidal Ideation is the medical supply chains have really been disrupted with covid19 and so theyre having access without supply chains to keep patients stabilize who have suicide ideations. So, just to wrap up, you know, like what are some considerations that were seeing and sensing . I think in this Rapid Response period, while were in shelter in place and for the last eight weeks and obviously well continue to monitor like how many people do talk about covid and dont. We are kind of recording that. You know, i think it just requires this increased or sustained support that needs to stay in place, right . For san franciscan we merging Health Issues and who are the new vulnerable individuals, right . Supervisor stefani talked about 11 being unemployed now in San Francisco and really seeing even from the Fire Department recorded increased suicide attempts or success in district 2 and i think were starting to see some emergence of new vulnerability. We might not have seen before. And i think during the recovery phase, like i am glad that the mayor has included in the recovery bond, you know, some health and Mental Health resources. But i do think that expanded services at every level, not just at our hotline level. But obviously at difference stages, sort of entry to sustainability of people with chronic mental issues. You know, the systems already beyond capacity. So, and, you know, like i said in the slide, how are we going to be preparing for higher need and opportunity to intervene . And covid19, weve been really lucky with great Public Health and leadership, all of your leadership to sustain, you know, kind of a minimal impact compared to, say, other cities across the country. But i do worry about as covid19 does continue to have second and third waves, what is that impact going to be on peoples Mental Health and griefrelated. So i will stop there. Thank you. And heres our number. So, i think this is a very important number. You can call 24 7 if you feel like you need support of any level. Thank you. Hi. I just have a few questions if i could follow up, chair mandelman . Yeah. Absolutely. From the data that you presented, we can see that suicide doesnt impact all community equally and im wondering if youre aware of any risk factors that work well that identify potential suicide or suicide ideations in others and what are the most effective ways to reach those people before they goat their breaking point . Mmhmm. I mean, i think having a broad array i think to support Mental Health, you need that broad array, multiapproach to like between hotlines, between on the ground programs, you know, that the communitybased programs and then for acute, i think it is having making sure that there is enough hospital beds, you know, available. So its a spectrum of intervention. I dont think theres just one thing that is going to solve this. Housing is key. To support folks to organize around if theyre homeless to organize around wellness and structure seings. So, i think we cant just look at this has a sort of onestop solution that Mental Health over the years, you know, stress and anxiety builds and really if you look at it from an equity lens, a Racial Equity lens, a lot of these issues are longterm that really start throughout the [inaudible] level. So it is a whole system solution. I believe. In terms of sort of differences across different age groups and race ethnicities, i think there are solutions that communities are trying to really foster just that there is help out there. 50 years ago when this hotline was started, you know, dont forget how ncaaing tiezed Mental Health is. So i think in different communities, the stigma of Mental Health still is real and i think the stigma of suicide is still very real in our society. There is a lot of shame around it and i really appreciate how you opened up the session to say that there isnt any shame around asking for help and that someones always out there to help. Thank you. Thank you for that. And you also mentioned social isolation can increase the risk and we know were all doing a lot more isolating now and in the foreseeable future, we really dont know. Another thing with isolation for anybody who knows anything about the disease of alcoholism and addiction is like people say your disease wants to get you isolated. Your disease wants you to be alone, your does wants you to drink and take that drug. Weve seen reports of the drinking you know, theres jokes that people are drinking their way through this and it has me concerned that isolation tendency for addicts anyway and then being forced to isolate. The compounding of that is creating a whole new sense or threat for those who suffer from the disease of addiction and im wondering if you have any suggestions about new creative ways we as a city could reach out to those who are suffering during this period of increased isolation and especially those who are, you know, suffering around a disease that tells them to isolate anyway and in that isolation often does end up in relapse or in often times suicide. I think that is why these lines are so critical because part of our work is a drug relapse line to really kind of reduce that isolation and i think a lot of providers, like in the Mental Health and social services arena are really thinking creatively around how to sustain their touch points through telephone and video calls to really keep that isolation down of people that they are in touch with. But i think we as a society are really trying to figure out how do we sustain that social touch in a way we never have. Because i think social media can only go so far. Its the telephone or video calls seem to be more higher touch. And i know this is an issue really also for seniors, particularly as they really arent super isolated to stay safe and i do i have heard of a lot of senior programs really doing concerted efforts around as they do somehow shift into food delivery. They do personalized notes or phone calls to those seniors to try to really reduce the isolation. But i do believe this is a societal question that we all have to understand and figure out together. I appreciate you bringing up seniors, too. I created a Virtual Phone Bank where we recruited 60 to 70 volunteers just to call about 7,000 to 8,000 seniors in district 2 to say heres someone to talk to you. Do you need someone to help you with your medication and your groceries. But, you know they really appreciated just even having someone to talk to. I think that is something that we could explore in the future, too. And just one last question around the economic stress that so many are under and im just wondering what kind of interventions have you seen that help or that can help those experiencing that kind of economic distress and if you think there is anything that we can focus on in that category. I mean, i think the recovery pieces, the sustained support around any kind of economic intervention to offset the unemployment stress is going to be really important. Along with supporting folks safety. Right . Like i think there is i do know several people that have been unemployed and they are balancing sort of that need to be safe. They have young children, too. So theyre concerned about their own safety and how do they get back into employment. That wont put them at risk. I think those are some considerations but i think the city is going to have to really think about in the Recovery Plan how do we make sure that the already vulnerable dont fall into more vulnerability and i think the new vulnerable. How do they you know, how do we support their daytoday. The physician that sees the Psychiatric Service there, he was saying he was expecting when shelter in place and as covid does kind of cycle in second, third, fourth whatever waves that we are going to see more covidrelated kind of emergencies. Right now he doesnt really feel hes seen that flow of patience. And the rfrn i spoke on cpmc, partly because they get a lot of the folks that attempt jumping on the Golden Gate Bridge and they havent really actually seen any change in their wards yet. But he said generally when we have these crises, weve seen an uptick. Just like later. Not immediately. So i think it is going to be i think were going need this [inaudible] and never have been in this level of isolation before. Right. Thank you, colleagues. Do you have any questions . I believe supervisor walton does. Thank you so much, supervisor mandelman, supervisor stefani. I think supervisor stefani really touched on most of what i wanted to ask in terms of risk factors but also what do you think members of. Board of supervisors and policymakers can do to help with the prevention side, particularly during the crisis and even as we cold out of covid, knowing that theyre going to be larger impacts on people that are going to add to the stressors in their lives. Yeah. Good question. I believe that definitely really thinking about your own district and sort of some of the needs that youre seeing to really make sure that our number is widely available and accessible. And i think kind of in the thats sort of more of a short term kind of opportunity but i think longterm, you know, were going to need to have an expanded strategy because there is kind of new types of anxiety emerging. And i think there is also some resilience also emerging. I dont want to say its all negative. Right . Maybe for some theres less social isolation because everybody is at home. Thats what we kind of wonder about with the reduced call volume. Maybe with the reduced call volume also on the flipside, maybe people dont have the luxury of being able to call because there is not as much space to call. You know . I think what we need to worry about in the city, at the city level, i feel, is to make sure that we do not gut the Mental Health system as budget cuts come down the pike. And social services, right . I think its all related to housing, food, survival is what we kind of saw in this immediate social isolation phase and then how do we support and sustain, you know, the Mental Health wellness, like that physical wellness will be equally important. But figuring out how to expand the budgets. And really support, like i said, the existing vulnerable already and then the new vulnerable. Thank you. Because i know also just from information from homeless advocates, for example, we see increase of how deaths right now during this time period thats right. Versus last year. We dont know all of the reasons behind that. I just want to do what we can to try to decrease obviously any tragedy that we can so thank you so much. Thank you. Vice chair stefani . Great, thank you. And with that, id like to have Beverley Upton from the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium present. Good morning, supervisors. Can you hear me ok . Yeah . Very good. Thank you. Im joined by my colleague, Emberly Cross from the kao i. Restraining order clinic that i thought could help me with some of the legal questions that might come up today and some of the questions that have come up in the past about Domestic Violence and the courts and how cases are moving forward. So i want to take this opportunity to thank em bherly cross for joining me. I also want to thank the Public Safety subcommittee for bringing this hearing and certainly supervisor stefani and the wonderful andy and sam for helping us get where we need to be with the new tools that we all have. Thank you so much. And andy, my heart is with you. Thank you so much. We also want to thank supervisor stefani and the unanimous vote of the board of supervisors on the resolution, reaffirming the board support of direct services, not only Domestic Violence but Sexual Assault and stalking and trafficking. That was a great way to help us move forward in the new reality of covid19. We want to thank you. Ill just do a quick overview, kind of precovid and how the community is set up, some grounds, some background. Well do a lick on the individual services. Well talk a little bit about the criminal Justice System and then well just touch on some work that the Family Violence council is doing. And, again, sam bennett is our representative for the board of supervisors at the Family Violence council and im honored to be a cochair there. So it was great to meet remotely for our first time last week and to have sam on that call. So, most of you know me. Ill try to be as brief as i can. My name is Beverley Upton. Im the executive director of a 17member Domestic Violence consortium. The San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium. Im so happy to be in my 19th year. The members of the Domestic Violence consortium have Domestic Violence programming at their core. In addition to the 17 agencies, we probably have another 30 or 40 brother and sister agencies that do Domestic Violence work, certainly worthy, but of the consortium, our members are primarily Domestic Violence agencies. When we look at whos doing Domestic Violence work in San Francisco, again this is who we see as the front line. Of course, as supervisor stefani has mentioned, just like suicide issues and other issues, they pop up everywhere. Right . Of