Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Public Safety Neighborhood Services Committee 20240712

June 11, 2020. Public safety and Neighborhood Services. Good morning. The meeting will come to order. I am afnay el mandelman. We are joined by supervisor stefani and walton. Our clerk is john carroll. Thank you sfgovtv for staffing this meeting and operations and it for lending support for this meeting and for everything you all do to keep us going smoothly most of the time, even in a pandemic. Mr. Clerk, any announcements . Yes, to protect Board Members and the public during the Health Emergency the board of supervisors legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. This is pursuant to various local, state, federal orders and directives. Committee members will attend through video and participate as if they were present. Public comment is available for each item. Cable channel 26 and sfgovtv. Org are streaming the calling number on the screen. Comments or opportunities to speak during the Comment Period are available by calling 415 4156550001. When prompted enter the access code. 145 1643769. Then pound and pound a second time to be connected to the meeting. You will hear the discussions. Your microphone will be muted. You will be in hi be in his senr listening need. Call from a quiet location. Speak clearly and slowly and turndown your television, radio or streaming device. Account for time delays and speaking discrepancies between live coverage and streaming. You may email me, john carroll, clerk of the Public Safety Neighborhood Services committee. John. Carroll at sfgovtv. Org. If you submit by email it will be part of each matter. Your written comments may be sent by u. S. Post office to city hall. 1 doctor carlton b. Goodlett place 94102. Items today will be on the june 23, 2020 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. Thank you, mr. Clerk. Could you please call the first item. Hearing to consider that the transfer of a type 20 off sale beer and wine Liquor License to michael biago. If you wish to comment call 415 6550001. Enter the access code 145 1643769. Press pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting and press star followed by number three to enter the queue to speak. If you have entered the queue for a later item, if you wish the remove yourself press star 3 and employee added later for one of the later agenda items. Mr. Chair. I believe we have supervisor safai here. This is his district. Would you like to say a few words . Thank you. I just want to say that this particular location is quite a wonderful hub for our community. This Business Owner started his career working in one of the pharmacies for a few decades, then was fortunate enough in the last decade to buy his own deli. It is a place that is in constant business, doing everything to thrive during this covid crisis, and in my time as supervisor we have not had one request for a beer and wine license. Our office worked with this applicant. We are in full support and we believe this will be an added benefit to his business and the community. I just wanted to state that and say he is a wonderfu wonderful wonderful operatetor and this will add another nice addition to his business. Thank you, supervisor. We have the officer here. Yes, i apologize for that. I hung up on myself. I am ready on now. Go ahead. The report for the ca beer ad wine. Zero protests or letters of support. They are in a low crime area. Census track 260. 01, a low saturation area. The station has no opposition. Approve with sales and service of alcohol berages between 8 00 a. M. And 10 00 p. M. Each day of the week. Two. Petitioner shall mon for the area monitor to prevent loitering of persons adjacent to the premise. The applicant agreed to both signed conditions. Thank you, officer samuelson. I dont see any comments from questions. We will hear from the applicant who is on the line. Yes, i am here. Would you like to share any comments, mr. Tufo . Like the great supervisor said. This would be a great asset to the business and community. We are a specialty store. We import a lot of things. I just think that i am porting a little beer and wine, normal Liquor Stores dont have would help the community. We are always asked if we can get a beer and wine license in the last 10 years. This is our opportunity. Hopefully, you will approve this. Thank you. I dont see any comments or questions from colleagues. We can open this up for Public Comment, if there is Public Comment on this item. Clerk. Operations will check to see if there are callers in the queue. For those who have connected through phone press star and three to be added to th added tt the beep. If you are watching on cable 26 or through streaming link or sfgovtv if you wish to access the meeting and provide Public Comment on this item call in by following instructions on the screen. 415 6550001. Todays access code 145 1643769. Press the pound symbol twice and star and three to enter the queue to speak. Any callers for item one . Yes, we have three callers in the queue. I will say a few things about Public Comment. Our speakers have two comment minutes speak into the phone. If you have written statements send a copy fo. Vice president joel koppel s. This is for the Liquor License for 4763 mission street. Caller, please go ahead. Not hearing the caller. Next caller. Your two minutes begins now. Doesnt seem to be anybody there. Next caller, please. Mr. Chair that completes the queue. Very good. Then i will close Public Comment. Public comment is now closed. I dont see any comments or questions from colleagues. In light of strong support for this transfer, we will direct our clerk to prepare a resolution finding the transfer meets it and i make a motion to forward the resolution to the full board with positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk can you please call the roll. On the motion that a resolution finding public convenience. Stefani. Aye. Walton. Aye. Chairman delman. Aye. Three ayes, mr. Chair. The motion passes. Thank you, mr. Chair and colleagues, i appreciate your support. Congratulations. Thank you so much. Mr. Clerk. I will call item 2. An ordinance amending the health code to authorize Overdose Prevention programs by among other things requires opps to obtain a permit from the department of Public Health, establishing operating standards, imposition of fines and penalties for violation of laws and establishing a process bitchy opps may appeal a fine or permit penalty, making a policy to deprioritize enforcement of laws prohibiting possession of illegal laws, amending business and tax regulations codes regarding appeals of opp permit decisions and affirming the planning departments determination. Call the Public Comment number for Public Comment. Thank you, mr. Chair. Thank you, mr. Clerk. Supervisor haney, welcome. This is your item. The floor is yours. Thank you so much, chair, and thank you for having me today for a couple items. I first want to thank the mayor and staff for partnering with us on a important piece of legislation. This is my legislation but i am coauthor with the mayor. I want to recognize the Safer Inside Coalition driving this for years and on the front lines without reach to Community Members most impacted, especially i want to thank lindsey from the Drug Policy Alliance an and allis and hr360d dph and eileen who you will hear from. They are part of the coalition and saved thousands of lives. They should be supported by all of us here. Drug Overdose Deaths are the most deadly epidemic in our city and in our country. Overdose prevention sites save lives, get people to treatment and reduce drug abuse on our streets. This is critical not only because of the Drug Overdose epidemic but we are also dealing with a pandemic of covid19 that makes this issue even more deadly. Overdose deaths increased from 259 in 2018 to 330 Overdose Deaths in 2019. These are not even final. The total number of people who died from overdoses in our city could be much higher. When you break that down that is nearly one person a day. It has increased in massive level over the last few years. This is absolutely devastating and what makes it more devastating is that these overdoses could be prevented. We know that each of these individuals who lost their lives had a future that was needlessly cut short. They had family and friends. We mourn them as we commit to fight this overdose epidemic in our city with a solution. Comprehensive numbers and data are yet to be released. Researchers cautioned covid19 will hit some populations especially hard. People with opioid and methamphetamine use may be vulnerable due to the drug on pulmonary health. They are more likely to experience homelessness and incarceration and these pose challenges regarding transmission of the virus. It is all the more important to take action on Overdose Prevention programs now in light of how many people are at risk or dying, and the covid19 crisis as well. This permitting process we have created with this legislation is the necessary next step to combating the opioid crisis. Legislation will allow the city and department of Public Health to establish permitting for Nonprofit Health providers to operate Safe Injection Sites. This is not radical. 100 prevention sites are in 65 cities around the world. No site halfs experienced an overdose death and they have transitioned thousands to detox services. It is time for San Francisco to implement this as part of a broader strategy to save lives. Being a bystander in an epidemic was not an option. It was not an option during covid19 and not an option during the Drug Overdose epidemic in the city. Overdose deaths are preventible. It can be reversed from the administration of naloxone that can be quickly administered by intramuscular injection. We know we can save lives. We have a responsibility to save lives. No neighborhood is immune. The impacts of these deaths on our streets weighs heavily on my constituents. All of us want to and deserve safe streets and thriving healthy connected community. As a city we have to boldly and compassionately address Drug Overdose head on. The last thing to underscore. We have to have a larger multi comprehensive strategy to address Drug Overdose and drug Overdose Deaths. This is one part of a larger strategy. This will not be enough on its own. It is a tool to help, to add to our ability to save lives. We also, you know, in this committee i have been in front of the committee 5, 6, 7 times about this issue. We declared a Public Health crisis on the streets calling for a plan to address drug use and Substance Abuse disorder. We started the Drug Dealing Task force, street Level Task Force to focus on the issues around supply. We have to respond urgently and as we are focused on covid19 we should acknowledge and focus and be prepared and relentless to address the drug use epidemic and Drug Overdose death epidemic on the streets which continues to be the most deadly crisis we face as a city. Overdose prevention sites are part of that solution. With that i want to introduce eileen from the department of Public Health which you all know well who will present on this legislation today. Thank you, supervisor. You make my job easier presenting because you are so well versed in just the crisis on our streets and the services. Good morning. I am eileen and i work at dpi in the Community Health equity and promotion branch. As a Health Program coordinator. I work with people using drug or experiencing homelessness. I appreciate being invited today to provide background on the evidence basis of Safe Injection Sites or Overdose Prevention or safe consumption sites. Same concept, several different names. Today i am going to provide background and Public Health evidence to support Overdose Prevention sites and how this legislation will help us move a step closer to providing this as another intervention or strategy in our toolbox. As supervisor haney mentioned, we have come before the board many times, and this timeline just represents the last several years after the task force that was convened by then supervisor breed, but aside from that the community had been working on Safe Consumption Services over a decade. The evidence is there and support there. I think that as i mentioned we have hit barriers because of legislation. Todays legislation is another step to bring us closer. As we know, there are an estimated 24,000 people who inject drugs in the city. People primarily reside in the tenderloin south of market, mission area, and what we are seeing now is just more fentanyl in the community. That is in addition to heroin and methamphetamine. They are using multiple substances. In the past they may have been just losing methamphetamine or opiates. Now it is more common that they are polysubstance users, and because of that we also have to just really see through our strategy. People who use drugs are at risk for unhealthy Substance Abuse, h. I. V. , physical and Mental Health conditions and premature death. I think by having another strategy or another tool in our toolbox such as Overdose Prevention sites we can help address that issue. This is a very busy slide. I am going to keep it really simple. We have seen an increase in opioid deaths. That is also because of fentanyl on the streets, and the dope project is still in the process of getting in their quarterly data for this first quarter. When we look at the data in january through march 2020, there were a reported 774 reversals this year. When we look at the same time period last year, we are looking at only 572 reversals. That is a significant jump, and i think that we need to keep on top of these numbers and we need to have other strategies to address what is happening in the community. I think many of us who work with people on the streets or people who use drugs are balancing that covid pandemic and drug use. Many on the streets are using more frequently because of the stressful time or people transitioning to shelterinplace hotels and using behind closed doors. One of our strategies is dont use alone. As we know, Harm Reduction is a policy. The reason behind that is recognizing there is not one strategy forever one we who uses drugs. We recognize that we work with people with respect and treating people with dignity as they move along to continuum, recognizing that abstinence is part of that. One person may be ready to make that step, i am done, i need treatment. Someone else may just start cutting down use and getting to where they are ready for us. It is really important for us to have that judgment contact with people and develop relationships so that when people are ready, we are there as a safety net and are able to transition someone into services, whether it is low Barrier Services or residential treatment. OveOverdose Prevention sites, te are several different models. What we focus on here and what supervisor haney referenced was integrated models. What that is is just recognizing that an integrated model including other services or referals to other services. It is an opportunity for someone to go use preobtained drugs in a safe sterile environment and have that connection to services, that connection to treatment and care when they are ready i think that is really important. As supervisor haney mentioned. There is over 100 sites throughout europe, sites in vancouver which i have been privileged enough to go visit. When someone is able to go into one of these sites afternoo andt treated with respect and dignity. The process of making change in their life is an smooth process and that is important. I know everyone has seen this slide before. We are lucky that we had alex on the Safe Injection Task force. He is part of the safer inside group. He did a cost benefit analysis what a safe consumption site, Overdose Prevention site, the cost savings in San Francisco. 3. 5 million in savings. That is for one site with approximately 12 booths. Hospital stays with h. I. V. Cases would decrease. There would be fewer deaths because there would be narcan on site to provide support and education. The proposed legislation supports Overdose Prevention sites. We know and we have talked about here for many, many years. As i said, we have said that because of barriers, legislation not supported. This is an opportunity for San Francisco to be a leader and to help add Overdose Prevention sites as another tool in our toolbox. This legislation would be very unique collaboration between environMental Health and community programs. We know the Health Community programs work and we know the community and partner closely with the community experts, the people on the ground every day providing the services. I think that as we discuss this today we need to really think through. Know this is the intervention that could stop anytime plus another step closer. Thank you very much. Thank you. Supervisor haney. I am curious about. I dont know if you have any i am not sure if you have data or and eckdates. I am curious how the overdose situation has changed, if at all, during shelterinplace. Are you seeing a spike . I can see different thre three theories. There was a theorie theory thate were under stress and using alone and bad things were happening because of that. Those pressures might have diminished. It seems like the population on the streets using may be growing right now. I was curious if there is anecdotal or data that sort of bears light or sheds light on what is happening out there in terms of opiate use and or meth use and overdose. I would be perfectly understanding if in the middle you tell me, supervisor, we dont know that. We have no idea. That is a great question. As i mentioned, the dope project is still compiling the data for this quarter, but we can say that anecdotally there is an increase for the months that have been entered thus far. January, february, march. We dont know april, may . No, there is a process of doing april and may now. I think that you raise really good points. One of the things we have been discussing is that there are fewer people on the streets. There are more tents and people experiencing homelessness on the streets. Maybe there is not as much activity as someone noticing, someone that may have overdosed on the streets. Again, that is anecdotal. I mentioned that one of the Biggest Challenges for us. It is great people are transitioned into shelterinplace hotel rooms, but it is also contrary to the message that we normally give to people. Dont use alone, use with friends. With people behind closed doors, that is really challenging. It is a matter every shifting messaging and saying, yes, socially distance, but dont use alone. How can you be safe . Good luck with that. Do we have data on overdoses in the shelterinplace hotels or safe sleeping villages in the last three weeks . Safe sleeping villages, no. The overdoses that have happened that i am aware of that have happened at shelterinplace hotels, that would be included in the data that is being compiled now. I will say that we are doing a lot of work in the hotels trying different be strategies. Okay, how can we make sure we get messaging out there . It is complicated. Thank you. Supervisor haney, did you have more thoughts or should we go to Public Comment . Public comment. Mr. Clerk, Public Comment. Yes, i think there are a number of callers on the line. Operations will check to see if there are callers in the queue. For those that connected by phone press star and three to be added to the cue to speak to this item. If you are on hold please continue to wait until you are prompted to begin at the beep. If you are watching on channel 26 or streams or through sfgovtv, if you wish to speak please call in by following instructions on your screen. I will add that speakers will have two comments. We ask you to state first and last name clearly and speak into the phone. If you have prepared a written statement, send a copy to the city clerk for inclusion in the official file. In the interest of time please avoid repetition of previous statements. 15 callers in the queue. Good morning. I am mary ann i am a senior staff attorney with Drug Policy Alliance. I express strong support for the ordinance as supervisor haney said we have been active participants in advocating for this life saving intervention in San Francisco and the state level. Overdose prevention programs are vital to our community in regular times. In th the covid 19 era they are more important. According to the office of National Drug control it is 16. 6 this year based on 30days compared to january through april last year. The chronicle reported those homeless died between march 30 and may 24th of this year. Only 14 people died last year during the same period. [ inaudible ] most of those deaths were likely Overdose Deaths. 30 year years of the Research Provides the value. Studies documented overdoses in the area decrease use of Emergency Services and reduced h. I. V. Transmission services. Overwhelming the infrastructure this is more important than ever. The public supports this and majority of voters feel they should open the Overdose Prevention sites. In the time of social protests and increased Police Activities they provide a safe haven for individuals unprotected and reduce burden on the police to address individual needs. Thank you. Thank you. Next caller, please. Good morning, supervisors and thank you so much for holding this hearing on important legislation put forward by may or breed and supervisor haney. I work for st. Anthonys foundation in the tenderloin. We support effective safe and compassion at Overdose Prevention. The values of community, healing and justice compel us to serve with dignity compassion and without judgment. Saint anthonys with other groups in the tenderloin is at the intersection of the Mental Health and covid19 crisis. Our client safety and Guest Services are doing prevention every day. Before covid we treated overdoses in the dining room. Now we are seeing the human cost across the tenderloin. The covid19 pandemic amplified the need for Better Services for those experiencing homelessness and Substance Abuse disorders. At the core the programs have and will save lives. They connect people with Substance Abuse treatment, healthcare and other avenues of support. People who use and have access to such programs are more likely to enter treatment and stop using drugs. This has played out in other countries around the world to provide the services. We know this will support the health of the community by curtaining hiv transmission and ensuring the streets are safe. San francisco has been willing to lead and take courageous steps to move or city towards justice. I ask Board Members to vote in support and do all they can to get the state the state senate s legislation this year. Thank you. Next speaker, please. I am patrish ania glance ton, small Business Owner and longtime resident in San Francisco. I come to you to ask you to consider not why to open a supervised injection site, but why not . I beg you, i compel you. My daughter was a horrible drug addict, and this kind of intervention would have saved her life so many times over. Until she got sober. I am thrilled to tell you she is now sober. She has graduated with a masters. She is successful and thriving. I think of so many times where that could not be. That might not be this outcome, and i really beg you to consider why you are not already doing this. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am the director of policy for the San Francisco foundati foundation. Thank you to supervisor haney and mayor breed for moving forward with this potential legislation. I want to say that San Francisco is foundation only. One of the cosponsors of the abc 62, and as i am sure everyone on the board of supervisors knows this state legislative session is unusual this year and many, many bills are getting postponed to next year. It is vital that the state legislation passes in order for this local ordinance to be utilized and to enable San Francisco to start opening Necessary Services. I want to echo the call to refer out to the state Senate Leadership and to the committee and make it clear how important this is for San Francisco. As other speakers have said the covid19 crisis for many of us highlighted how dire the situation is on the San Francisco streets for the unhoused individuals and especially those using drugs and the necessity of providing these types of services, we would be in a different place if we would have had these services in place and were age to provide Substance Abuse consumption sites. It would have been a core part of our response to covid19. Thank you for holding this hearing. Your time has expired. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. I am curtis. I am cochair of the tenderloin Peoples Congress and community activist. I am calling to support the measure to move forward with safe consumption sites or prevention sites. I agree with the other callers. It is so unfortunate we havent been able to get this done. A lot of lives have been lost since we began talking about this, and every day, every delay more lives will be lost. [ inaudible ] many overdoses have been reversed at safe consumption sites and lives have saved. It iit honestly, this is really about saving lives, it is about giving people another chance, giving people an opportunity to live long enough to make the change. I was a drug addict, iv drug user for many, many years. God helped me. Kept me alive long enough to make a decision and find the ability and resources to change my life. I know there are a lot of folks out there today dying too young and too early. This might save lives and change lives. This is just the right thing to do from a human standpoint. Thank you. Next speaker, please. This is lydia branston, the general manager at st. Anthonys, and i have also been working with the safer inside group for several years in the community at the tenderloin. One of the things we have done in the tenderloin is that this is something the community itself is asking for. Often times we hear push back from the city around having something in the tenderloin or put in the Community Without consent from the community. This is one of the things which the community as a whole, parents, employees of businesses, all of the Community Came together to say this is something we want and need. It is unacceptable for us as a community to standby and see people having to risk their lives while they are struggling with a Substance Abuse disorder simply because the laws dont permit us to help them the way they should be helped. My sister in law was on earlier talking about my niece. She is a beautiful woman who is accomplished and amazing whose life was taken from her multiple times by her drug use and reversed by naloxone. It doesnt stop her from contracting all kinds of different issues, medical issues because where she was using. Lets make this happen now. It is time. Lets do this. Thank you. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. I am paul harkin. I am the director of Harm Reduction services at 360. I thank everybody involved inputting this call on today and getting this to move forward. I have been hoping for safe consumption in the u. S. A. For 20 years since i came here. I worked in tenderloin for 20 years. There is nowhere that is more apparent that we need these things. I have seen what is going on at the treatment site where we have people entering treatment not quite ready and they have to be discharged because they are using on the premises. We need the bridge to help people not yet ready to abstain from using drugs but can use them safely in supervised situations. There are unacceptable things happening in the world. We can help unnecessary deaths. We know how to prevent overdoses. San francisco has done an amazing job of prevents overdoses. We have numbers that are unacceptable. This is the legislation when we implement the centers, improve the health and wellbeing of drug users and connected them to primary care. When i was in canada, there is no downside to these. Why are they not in existence. We have to move forward to help people and to save lives that are unnecessarily being lost. Thank you for your participation today. Thank you for your comments. Could we be connected to the next speaker, please. I am attica a member of the Youth Advisory Board and member of the h. I. V. Advocacy network. Thank you everyone for coming here to show your support. I am tired of hearing of my young friends under the age of 25. I am tired of hearing of deaths because of overdose. I am tired of walking through civic center and seeing people who need help, and i urge the board. I urge everyone who is listening to please help. I am tired of hearing the stigma from people who do not understand Substance Abuse disorders. I am tired of seeing people who need help being denied help. I believe that Overdose Prevention programs can help bridge the gap between someone who might be in pain to get help. I also ask the board to do everything that you can to get the state senate to pass ab362. Thank you so much. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Good morning, supervisors. I am and destone, Community Mobilization with the h. I. V. Advocacy network, Grassroots Group to improve the lives of those impacted by h. I. V. I am in strong support of supervisor haney and mayor breeds support. These are critical interventions to improve health and safety. They have been in use in many countries around the world for decades. They have been proven to prevent Overdose Deaths in diseases. We have 100 fatal overdoses in San Francisco every year. By opening these programs we can save lives in San Francisco. These programs will help us reach the commitment of getting the transmission to zero initiative and the goal to end the transmissions as well. Overdose transmissions are vital to improve lives. In the midst of the covid19 and overdose crisis we need to save lives. I ask the supervisors approve this legislation and do all that you can for the passage in the california senate. Thank you. [please stand by]. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next speaker. Please. Caller hi, my name is angela bearen and im a resident in the tenderloin and im not with any group. And im on the 500 block of ofarrell and i assure you that the body count is going higher and higher. Two bodies were pulled out from the building across street from me last week. And the covid virus has revealed what has been left on the street are these hardcore drug users that are incapable of taking that next step. And its not there when they need it. And thats when theyre getting hot and thats when theyre coming down from it. I never thought that in a million years that i would live in a neighborhood that i have nal oxoline in my backpack and i would have walked past and stopped for two Drug Overdoses on the street in just the last year alone. I believe that San Francisco is the right place for safe injection site. I think we need to put our first foot forward. I believe that the tenderloin needs it more than any other part of the city. And i give my full support to in support of this measure. And thank you for letting me speak. Clerk thank you for your comment. Next speaker, please. Caller hello, my name is paul breed. Im a resident in San Francisco, a constituent. And i first want to say that i appreciate the Safe Injection Sites. I think that theyre exactly what our city needs. When you look north of vancouver you see that their safe injection site his no deaths. And thats really something incredible to me. Over three million doses given and no deaths. Thats the first thing that i want to emphasize here. And the second thing that i want to emphasize here is how the behavior of the city is causing this crisis. So when we have the inconsistent attitude towards dealers, what that means is that the substances still get dealt on our streets and we have very little control over who does it, very little control of the supply. And we have produced this incredibly indiscernible . Now you look over at the entire genre catering to this lawlessness, that money is flowing into weapons and lawlessness on our streets. So the more legitimate we can manage to give people any relief, which i think that these are, it means that less of our capital and less of our citys money and less of our citys economic flow runs through the hands of our most lawless. I am much happier with a bar selling drugs which they do every day with alcohol. Every bit as toxic as fentanyl. Than i am with these children that have no idea of what the potency of the substances theyre selling on our streets. So while i appreciate this First Step Towards decriminalization and towards directing our police to a more clerk your time has expired. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, this my name is daniella and im a manager of Harm Reduction over at glide. Im calling on behalf of our organization to urge strong support and gratitude for aiding through this. We have already heard of a number of wonderful points today but i just wanted to share our perspective about how important it is to have a low Barrier Services to people who have been underserved. We know that people use drugs in our community, they have been underserved and have not been able to attain some of the things the Traditional Services and under the same models that we have been working under. So we just learned that having that just very entry level relationship with people, its just about saving their life. Thats enough of a kernel of respect and appreciation for each other to then build a relationship that involves access to housing, access to medical care, and we know through our programs here that reduces crime. Its just a wonderful gateway into so much more. You have Harm Reduction that is really a way of thinking beyond just instilled down to its very kernel of fringe access traditionally. So we wanted to mention also something that had not been mentioned which is about the drug supply in San Francisco right now and why this is a particularly dangerous time. And a time i think to act to save peoples lives. We know that the fentanyl supply and the methamphetamine supply in San Francisco is extremely inconsistent. And when people have inconsistent access your time has expired. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller, go ahead. Caller hello, yeah, hi. My name is dale seymour and i have been around this city for a long time. I know that the speakers on here work every day and i work with the supervisor and i work with and for the mayor. And i work with glide st. Knees. St. Anthonys. And as this thing has been going on for the last couple years i have advocated to include crack cocaine come this measure and everyone patted me on the back and said, yeah, dale, we got this. And everybody has lied. And the word crack has not even come up on paper or in anyones conversation today. Almost every one of you all have walked in last couple weeks on this black lives matter. Today youre showing me that black people do not matter because we have a very aggressive crack cocaine situation in tenderloin and you are all ignoring. Im asking the board of supervisors to delay this measure and to input some kind of action that includes crack cocaine in these amendments. And this resolution. Because, again, you ignoring us again. Tenderloin was the epicenter for crack cocaine in the 1980s, 1970s and 1 1990s. Even in the 2020s. And not one word has been mentioned today. Come on, havent you been watching the news lately on the injustice . This is part of this injustice again. You need to include the drugs that have taken over the black community and the tenderloin, crack cocaine in this, oidz im asking the board, no, no, no. Clerk thank you for your comments, mr. Seymour. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, my name is Andrew Reynolds im a hepatitis c manager at the indiscernible and born and raised in San Francisco. I support Overdose Prevention sites for San Francisco for any number of reasons. And i dont want to be redundant, but i dont think that it can be stressed enough that Overdose Prevention sites eliminate drug Overdose Deaths and they also reduce them in the surrounding area. The first one opened up in switzerland in 1986 and since that time we have well over 120 operating worldwide. And no one has died from an opioid overdose death. I also want to agree with the previous speaker and say that we really should include safer smoking spaces for individuals who dont inject drugs but are still at risk for Overdose Deaths and other medical complications. And, finally, i want to just reiterate what i already said. I think that the research is really important here. Is that as all of these wonderful individual Health Benefits for people who do drugs and Public Health benefits, reducing syringes and indiscernible and it does all of this while saving money. In the time when budget deficits are going to be a reality for us, this is also a costeffective intervention in addition to being indiscernible . For every dollar that the department of health spends it will save 2. 33. Its a winwin all around. I encourage the board to support this measure. Thank you. Clerk thank you, mr. Reynolds, for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller hello, my name is rose geriano. And, again, i dont want to repeat everything that was said today but to underline the importance of safe consumption spaces in San Francisco. In light of shelterinplace and covid and theres so many Overdose Deaths indiscernible . And that is completely unacceptable for the city of San Francisco. So i just wanted to say that really to do everything that we can to support this city opening up an Overdose Prevention site and getting a passage of 8362. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you, miss juliana. Next speaker, please. Caller hi, i am alex jeromegreen with st. Francis overdose challenge. I agree with the sites. I believe that San Francisco needs these sites to be open because overdosing is something that humanity should not have to deal with anymore. Racism is something that humanity should not have to deal with anymore. Theres a couple things along that line. When it comes to crack cocaine, please insert that in there as well because crack cocaine is heavily prevalent in the black community. And the black community really does need help getting off of crack cocaine. I support this 100 . Our Community Needs it. And i thank everybody who is helping to create this. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Caller yes, this is david elliottlewis, longtime resident of the tenderloin. I see firsthand the consequences of addiction and overdoses and i support the legislation and i applaud i applaud the legislation as its very brave at a time when the Current Administration is threatening to come in to San Francisco and arrest anyone who opens or operates a safe consumption site. As you know theyre looking for any excuse to attack us and this will give us one. I recognize that you may have to wait to get him out of office this november or the first week of january when the inauguration is, i hope that is the case. But lets move even if we cant implement this until january, which may be the case, lets move ahead with it. I support it strongly. Every death is a severe loss to the community. It creates reverberations of pain for everyone who knew the person who died. And anything that you can do to save lives we must do. Thank you for your time. Im signing off. Clerk thank you, mr. Elliottlewis. Next speaker, please. Caller im a health cli dmigz with the Law Enforcement assistant diversion program. And im a d. P. H. Employee. And im calling because i want to draw attention to the aspect of shame. People have touched on this already. But theres so much shame for people who are struggling with Substance Abuse disorders and a large part of that is how we treat people who use drugs and the conditions they are in. And from a clinical standpoint i really believe that having a safe Healing Place like a safe injection facility, creates a space where we can actually reduce that shame and that increases the likelihood that any conversations we have with people to span their options are going to be effective. And i want to also point out that i have worked in treatment in San Francisco for close to a decade now and we have a lot of issues with retaining people in treatment, with helping them to be successful. So having a space where people can come to treatment on their own terms and on their own timeline i think is absolutely critical to making use of the treatment resources that we currently have, which i dont feel that are being used to the best of their capacity. I also want to finish by saying that i also support including crack in the legislation. I think that is absolutely critical. And i want to urge you to vote yes on 8362. Thank you. Clerk thank you, speaker. Next speaker, please. Caller hello, thank you. My name is john mccormick. Im with the indiscernible coalition indiscernible and i wanted to call to make the connection. indiscernible and Police Brutality due to misconduct and unconscious bias with this proposal. You know, anytime that people have access to Harm Reduction strategies, and anytime that people have people have been using Harm Reduction strategies it means theres one less time that a cop needs to show up to somebody who is experiencing Mental Health issues who is completely untrained to deal with those Mental Health issues. So i just want to point out that these two issues are very related, right . Like very you know, anytime that a cop is called for someone with a Mental Health issue, thats a really big problem. And if we give people Harm Reduction services, then we dont need to see that happen. And then, finally, i wanted to follow up and talk about how we should have this all over the city and this shouldnt be specifically for the tenderloin. We should have it in castros and we could have safe consumption sites. And i think that with that 23 million that was redirected from the police commission, we could use some of that and i think that its great that we have, you know, one plan for the tenderloin but lets get this all over. Why stop with just one . We have Mental Health problems all over the city. So, yeah, thank you. Thats all i have. Clerk thank you, mr. Mccormick. Next speaker, please. Caller, please go ahead if your line is unmuted. Caller am i on, can you hear me . Clerk your two minutes begins now. Caller thank you. I support Safe Injection Sites for all of the reasons that the previous callers have said. Thank you for your consideration. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Mr. Chair, that completes the queue. There we go. Thanks, everyone. Then Public Comment is closed. Supervisor haney . Thank you. I could not agree with more than all of those comments. And im just really grateful, especially from all of the folks who called in, both who are on the front lines of this epidemic and the residents and the businesses, many of whom are in my district. I did want to bring up an important issue that was brought up particularly by dale seymour and i ask you to respond on that around i know that there have been conversations about this, about how to include drugs that are more likely to be smoked than injected, particularly around crack cocaine as well as the people who are smoking fentanyl as well. I know that we have a Meth Task Force and a meth plan. Can you speak about how the crack cocaine specifically and drugs that are smoked, about how were responding either through these safe Overdose Prevention sites or other strategies that relates specifically to those drugs . Thank you. Well, in 2017, when we had this Safe Injection Task force, the recommendations really focused on injection. And the Community Felt strongly that they should include smoking. And so our focus with the Health Department has always been along the lines of lets do safe injection first. But things have shifted and more people are smoking. And i think that that is something that when the Health Department and community and the leadership, the mayor and supervisors, get to a place of really talking about implementation, we need to talk about that. We need to consider that, especially as more and more people are smoking drugs. And to be clear on this legislation, does this legislation allow for that or prohibit that . Would it allow for a site that included some sort of safe smoking or interventions related to crack cocaine . I mean, personally im not a permitting expert. I work in community programs. But it seems to me that the legislation is really about allowing a space for Overdose Prevention sites. I see that as overarching. Yeah, that was my understanding as well that it would be up to implementation and it would be up to how the permitting happened. So if thats not explicit as the coauthor of this, you know, im committed to working with the mayor on this to and i think that it was her offices intention to include that. So if thats not explicit, we will make it explicit. And i will work with the mayor on that. I dont want to speak i dont know if sophia or somebody from the Mayors Office is here. I just want to make a last comment which i also appreciate. The folks who called in and who talked about the larger impact of the drug use on our streets and the drug dealing. And, you know, obviously, our main and overwhelming goal here is to save lives, but there are also very significant, very dangerous, very disruptive impacts that come with both street drug use and dealing that also must be addressed. And are, i believe, will be improved by this by this legislation as well as i hope as we have been calling for a much broader strategy. Thank you, chair mandelman. Chair mandelman thank you, supervisor haney. And were looking at this legislation right now and it seems that its written broadly and the definition of an Overdose Prevention program is a hygienic space, with supervised Health Professionals where folks over the age of 18 can use controlled substances and may consume preobtained drugs to reduce the harm of drug use. I dont think that theres anything in here that would proclude substances smoked rather than ingested. And i would think that in terms of finfentanyl there are drugs t are as deadly people do die from smoking fentanyl. And so i would think that for fentanyl it seems that this is if not explicitly contemplated, like the legislation has been written in a way to allow for some flexibility there. So it seems like that concern is addressed. But i supervisor haney, it sounds like hes willing to work with the folks as this moves forward. I imagine that the department of health is very open to that as well. Supervisor walton . Supervisor walton thank you, chair mandelman and thank you, supervisor haney. Again, i definitely think that this is good policy and i just wanted to reiterate the in fact we know that certain populations and communities, drugs that are smoked like crack cocaine, are still criminalized in certain ways. So its good do see that theres nothing prohibiting us from making sure we focus on opportunity to provide the same level of support for drugs that are smoked as well. So thank you for the policy. I think that its brilliant. I think that well Work Together to figure out ways to make sure that other drugs can be includ included. Chair mandelman great. I would like to be a added as a cosponsor. I feel this allows us to pilot some new approaches. I think that in general the war on drugs has largely been a massive failure and has had huge costs. I think that it makes sense to take a more Public Health approach to addiction, wherever and wherever we can. I think that certainly there are communities and places where there may be a role for continued enforcement. I think that dealing has impacts far beyond just the individuals who are engaged in the transaction. But i do think that giving people safe spaces where they can consume until theyre ready to do Something Different is a very good thing. So im happy to be on there as well. And if there are no more comments on this, i will make a motion that we move this to the full board with positive recommendation. Mr. Clerk, please call the roll. Clerk on the motion that the ordinance to be recommended to the full board of supervisors. Vice chair stefani. Aye. Member walton. Walton, aye. Chair mandelman. Mandelman, aye. Mr. Chair, there are three ayes. Chair mandelman great. Mr. Clerk, when you are ready call the next item. Theres so much to do now in the time of covid. Its hard on our poor board of supervisor staff. You do amazingly. Clerk agenda item 3 is the hearing on the citys plans to address the needs of the tenderloin neighborhood as it relate toss the covid19 Public Health crisis. Presenting on the eight main goals identified by the plan, how they were identified, and the timeline for implementation and the roles and responsibilities of the specific departments and staff working on the project. Members of the public who wish to provide comment should call the Public Comment number, the number is 1 415 6550001. Enter the access code and todays code is 1451643769. Press the pound symbol twice to connect to the meeting. And then press the star key, followed by the number 3, to enter the queue to speak. Mr. Chair . Chair mandelman thank you, mr. Clerk. Supervisor haney . This is your hearing, take it away. Thank you, thank you, chair mandelman and the members of the committee. I want to thank all of the folks in the public who are listening who i know that want to give comment and our presenters who are here with us, especially mary ellen, carol, who will be i think leading the presentation. I want to give some opening comments here. And i just want to say as we start this that this is not something that is at all personal. We respect the people who have been doing this work and the many responsibilities and challenges that you are responsible for addressing, of which this is one of them. And i work closely with these folks with this and many other issues. But i dont want to mince words at all about this issue. The community of the tenderloin is upset. Thats probably an understatement. They are furious. Theyre scared. Theyre angry at what is happening in their neighborhood. We are three months now into this plague hitting our city. And the tenderloin is suffering. It is more distinctly unsafe and unprotected than it ever has been. It is unusual for the board to hold a hearing on one specific neighborhood. But the things that are happening in the tenderloin are not just about the tenderloin. During a pandemic, if people become sick, if people are vulnerable, that affects all of us. It is directly related to our response to this pandemic as a city. And just this week the mayor in the board of supervisors meeting held up the tenderloin plan as one of the central pillars to our citys response during this pandemic to hom homelessness. So this should be of importance and, frankly, of anger and action from the entire board, not just from the supervisor that represents the area. There have been a set of articles that have come out, including one today and over the past number of months, that pretty much tell the story of what has been happening in this neighborhood for the last three months. One today, which was in hood line which is titled how San Francisco has failed the tenderloin or recently in mission local, critics rip city plan to address tenderloin encampments as doing little to shelter the homeless. Despite the citys promises the tenderloin has no streets and from kaw, the city takes action as the tents in tenderloin triple. And most recently on sunday, Heather Knight wrote a column in the chronicle which was a very painful read which is titled its devastating that tenderloin sinks deep into misery and no one is coming to the rescue. There are probably 30 more articles that have come out over the last three months. What has been happening in this neighborhood, what its needs are, the urgency of this crisis, could not have been made more clear to our citys leadership. And yet here we are. I want to say that this did not have to be this way. We did not have to have this be the narrative about our response to one of our most vulnerable neighborhoods, one of our most forgotten in many ways neighborhoods during a plague. The city could have responded swiftly. It could have responded with a real plan and action from the beginning. It could have listened to neighborhood leaders, it could have followed the legislation passed by this board and we could have had a very different narrative and we could have had a very different reality. Unfortunately, thats not where we are. We are in a place where as the headline article said, that San Francisco has failed the tenderloin. So the question that i want to ask and that i hope that guides this conversation is what are we going to do now . How are we going to address the needs of this neighborhood, its businesses, its residents . Over the past three months the residents, businesses, dozens of organizations have wrote opeds and have passed resolutions and have sent letters and people have stepped up. People have stepped up in the neighborhood and done impossible things. They have been there for each other. They have stepped up in Innovative New ways. St. Anthony i could go on and on and on. And they have asked for the city to join them in bringing about that change. Any sort of narrative that starts with the idea that people in the tenderloin dont want change, they are resistant to the change, it could not be farther from the truth. That is one of the most disrespectful things that i could imagine anyone saying about this neighborhood that is struggling and demanding protection. Since the outset of this crisis, literally since day one, people have been raising the alarms about the unique dangers to health and safety and putting forward clear concrete solutions. Nearly two months ago we sent a letter along with a dozen tenderloin organizations calling for a neighborhood plan and solutions to be implemented at scale immediately, including hotel rooms, washing stations and safe areas for camping and walking. A safety plan, and bathrooms and a field testing site. But these solutions were ones that we and others had raised repeatedly since the beginning. Despite the repeated calls for action, few of these things have been done. And nearly none done at any notable scale. So what has happened . What is our reality, not just the reality that i am sharing but the one that is shared with me by the residents and businesses and organizations every single day . Our neighborhood is suffering and more at risk than ever. Anyone who lives, works or visits here can clearly see that the conditions have deteriorated. The level of disregard for the people who live and work here has been deeply been disappointing and dangerous, especially because this is not surprising or new. The failures to ensure that people can safely shelterinplace and the tenderloin threatens the health of the people here and the Public Health of our entire city. I want to Say Something about what is happening here and the e. O. C. Plan. One, this is not something that is just an opinion. This is objective now that there are nearly quad ruleel the number of quadruple the number of People Living on our streets and unable to shelter in place because of the tents. And the city has moved at a glacial pace with a law passed to bring people who are living in our streets into readily available hotels. Thousands of people in our city cannot shelterinplace. In the tenderloin, the sidewalks are more crowded with tents more than ever before. And large groups of people are congregating on every bit of sidewalk that sent occupied by people and tents. There are large groups of people still congregating, often in some cases selling or using drugs and blocking sidewalks entirely. With no systematic effort to reduce this overcrowding. After over a year we finally had the tenderloin sorry after two months we finally had the e. O. C. Planned relief about a month ago. There are some good things in this plan and at least in concept and much seems to reflect the demand that the community have put forward for weeks prior. But, unfortunately, since the announcement of this plan there has not been significant improvements for the folks living in the tenderloin. I cant think of a single worker or Community Member or nonprofit who would call this plan a success. Some of the confusion as related to how to interact with this plan and what the staffing and process is. When my office would try to inquire about the plans and the activities and timelines we referred to someone else and we were told that theyll get back to us and no one is looking at the plans and the decisionmaking that is required for this plan. As said in the hood line article today it was a hot potato. Everyone pointed to someone else that demonstrates the opposite of a serious commitment to get this done. For weeks the tenderloin e. O. C. Plan didnt have a pertinent project manager, but rather a new manager rotated in every few weeks. It is my understanding that it is now under eowd, but even that is not entirely clear, even to eowd. But even more than the issue of processing and staffing and the actual deliverables have been atrocious. If this is a plan that were touting as a success story, as the mayor did at this weeks board meeting, we should be ashamed of ourselves. This plan would get an f, not just for the clear deliverables or the lack of clear deliverables and the time and input, but for meeting the very limited goals it set out for itself. We have a responsibility to protect the most vulnerable. We have the resources. We have the laws. We set up an entire coordination at e. O. C. To be able to do this. When you walk through the tenderloin you wouldnt know any of that. And that is something that is not coming from me, thats coming from my residents and the businesses or organizations, day in and day out, over the last three months. And they are here and we are here to ask, to Work Together, to ask to implement this plan to the extent that it is a plan and to deliver the solutions that this community has now been demands for three months. So i am now i know that we have a number of folks here. I believe what were going to do is to turn it over to mary ellen who i believe wants to do well on this neighborhood. This is not an attack on you. I am communicating what our experience has been and what this neighborhood has felt very strongly and loudly and has been written about nearly daily now by the press, reflecting the realities in this neighborhood. A neighborhood that i also live on hyde street. So with that, i want to ask you, mary ellen, to present on the plan and my commitment is to work with you however i can, and im sure that all of the people who are going to call in today will reflect that same sentiment. Because this is a neighborhood who not only wants change, but it has been demanding it. Chair mandelman miss carol. Good morning, good morning, supervisors. I appreciate the opportunity to be here today to update you on where we are on the implementation of a plan. So just to clarify, were not here to present the final product. This is a plan that is just a month or so in, and we are and its a dynamic plan that were working on every day. And i also just want to say that the plan is under it falls under the overall response of thcovid19 response. I have pulled it in both because it needs to be there. We have to respond within this pandemic. We are in unprecedented times and still in the midst of a Global Pandemic and economic crisis. By saying that i just want to also to be clear that it should never be not be clear who is responsible for this plan. This is a collaborative plan, we are all here, but as i have made clear the e. O. C. Is under me and i take a lot of responsibility for it. So well get into all of that and how the plan goes. Just a couple comments before i go into the presentation. When the pandemic hit, i being that its think that its good to give context of how it happened. We lost 77 of our shelter capacity due to the needs to social distance. That translates 1,400 shelter beds lost within the system. So we know that at least 5,000 people on a begin day are estimated on a given day to be experiencing unsheltered homelessness in San Francisco. So in order to tackle this we have implemented a continuing sheltering initiative. And ill talk more about specifically how those are brought to bear in the tenderloin. But overall, over 1,500 hotel rooms and trailers and safe sleeping areas have been added to provide for people experiencing homelessness and marginally housed folks and more is being brought on. So i will see if i can share my screen successfully. We did a run of this earlier. Go to screen two. Give me one second. All right. Can you see yes. Okay. You see the next slide, right. Let me just try this once more. Beautiful photo. Yes, we should all look at that and take a few deep breaths. All right. We could take a couple minute recess if you want to try to make it work. Yeah. You want to do that. Lets do a fiveminute recess if thats all right with my colleagues. All right . Clerk we can take a five fiveminute recess to begin no earlier than 11 48. Thank you. Chair mandelman im gaveling down, we are in recess. Chair mandelman im banging my imagination gavel and were back. Miss carol, would you like it looks like we have your slides up. Take it away. All ready to go, thank you. So im presenting on behalf of the tenderloin team and many of them are here with us today and will be available to answer questions. Well go through the presentation and then all of us are here and look forward to answering questions, hearing from you and hearing from the community. So were here to talk about the tenderloin plans there we go. So this is we started an assessment on april 22nd is when we did a blockbyblock assessment of the tenderloin. This is just a map that shows the results of some of that data collection. And it identified the blocks, the resource gaps and the other data points, many which ill go into more detail in the coming slides. The overview of the plans so we had a policy recommendations that came out of it. First of all, it was that this should be based on stakeholder engagement. This is by no means a city plan, a city idea. We bring our resources to it but we have been handinhand with our Community Partners from the beginning. And other policy recommendations were to address encampments, obviously, with safe sleeping alternatives. And to address criminal activity and drug use within the neighborhood. To enhance social distancing. To improve the pedestrian and the business access. And also to increase and improve sanitation. To provide food and water to enhance hygiene and safety. And also to bring it to the planned health initiatives. The Community Feedback that we were given, there was a lot, but some of the main kind of big three big ones is to look at this from a geographical focus. So to look blockbyblock even though the big neighborhood is very dense, very complex. And so we have committed to do that. To have direct communication with our Community Partners and ill talk more about how were doing that. And also that there should be flexibility. From the beginning we had said this is not like a bible. This is a very dynamic plan and honestly it changes and flexes as we move forward and as it needs to. And ill talk a little bit more about that too. So what about the Community Process . The tenderloin plan was actually born out of a Community Roundtable that the Human Rights Commission conducted within the e. O. C. Human rights commissioners played a very significant role in the overall Emergency Response both within the Community Branch and in our management branch. The Tenderloin Group first joined the citywide roundtable on april 10th and the e. O. C. Group the t. L. C. Im sorry the tenderloin e. O. C. Group first met on april 14th. And really the call for a neighborhoodspecific plan came from our Community Partners. These stakeholders are now part of six different working groups that meet weekly and theres a General Group that comes together on mondays. Heres a list of some of these groups. This is by no means exclusive and any group that is not already included is welcome to join. And thats part of sort of the flexibility and the dynamic process. There have been some confusion about what we call it a command structure. And that is because we are in Emergency Response. I am the director of the Emergency Department the department of Emergency Management. I should have probably mentioned that when i started. So i pulled this into the e. O. C. Fairly early and brought our unit in. And the task force within our operations in the e. O. C. , and they stress that all of the Street Operations indiscernible and so he is the lead for both the safe sleeping sites, the operations that go on. And also the neighborhoods. So our neighborhood planning lead is deana who is with lewd. Brandon davis is the lead specifically for the tenderloin plan. And then theres a project manager. Dan wu has been the project manager since the beginning. He is he is transitioning off at the end of this week. And he has done an incredible job. I just want to say a few words about that. Again, we are in an Emergency Response. Many of the people that you see on this chart, dealing with homelessness is not their primary or even street conditions is not their primary job. But we have expanded greatly the resources to bring to bear on this crisis that we now know exists for homeless and our street conditions. Having said that, one of the most knowledgeable people in this city, i actually worked for jeff over 16 years ago as a housing developer, with the Community Housing partnership. It just goes to show what comes around and comes around. Now jeff works for me. And jeff, obviously, is very knowledgeable about the tenderloin and the issues within it. And deana in particular has much experience working with street conditions, neighborhood plans, and homelessness. Were very grateful for oewd, to the airport, to folks from rec and park and all of the folks who have come to support us, including many of my staff from the department of Emergency Management. So now im going to get into the various sweeping the various parts of the plan that kind of are the category areas. Ill speak briefly about the plan and the progress and where were going. This is probably one of the most important things indiscernible with hotels. The big news here is that over the next three weeks well have access to over 300 hotel rooms that we can move vulnerable folks into. The plan excels, obviously it follows d. P. H. Guidance on best practices for health and safety and encampments in this pandemic emergency. It calls out to establish sites in and out of the tenderloin and to identify and move folks who are vulnerable into hotels. It calls on us it has a clear policy on how to deal with the tents within the neighborhood from a safety perspective. And also calls to implement a reencampment prevention plan. And this may you know, even for me we know that this may seem like youre not seeing it, but over 350 individuals have been relocated from the streets in the tenderloin into hotel rooms since the beginning of the pandemic. 18 im sorry, 180 jones was the site that was opened on may 26th. A small site. There are 16 tents, folks so 16 tents and 21 individuals have moved off the sidewalks into that site. Its a parking lot. And the fulton safe sleeping site was opened ma on may 13th with 110 individuals. The next steps so, again, we are in the process and jeff is as we speak working very closely on this with our Community Partners to move folks in. We have those number of rooms because we have converted some hotels into rooms specifically to address these issues. We have more hotels coming online in the coming weeks. We have also requested and fully expect that we will be extending the fulton safe sleeping site beyond june 30th. We are exploring safe sleep with tiny home expansion. We dont have concrete plans on that, but we have a prototype that is at the e. O. C. And were looking at ways in which we may be able to do a site like that. In addition, we need to establish reencampment prevention policies and plans because if we have a thousand rooms that we move people into, but we arent able to prevent reencampment, were never going to get to better conditions for the folks that are in the community. So regarding referrals, so i think that its probably more important to talk about who the partners are here. Obviously, safe sleeping sites generally speaking are meant to house individuals within their immediate geographic area. And so the outreach for those sites and theres a lot of very good reasons for that. And because, you know, we feel that people who live in the tenderloin, whether you live in a house or a tent, thats where you live. Thats your community. And the overview of these sites is conducted by the hot team. And then the hotel referrals work through the coordinated entry and Community Partners. So depending on which areas of the that were working in, these are a few of the partners that we have been working with. And our next steps what we have been doing. Jeff is having daily calls with providers and making sure that the community is aware of where the hot team is working so that we can work with providers to identify, locate and then to help to move those folks into the appropriate sites that will best work for them. Regarding health. And health is on the line too and theyll be able to answer more specific questions. But really importantly at the top of the Health Prioritization was getting testing for the neighborhood and medical outreach. So we were able to test that is a typo they thought i had fixed and thats not 16,000 tenderloin residents and the 1,600 tenderloin residents were tested at a temporary site for a twoweek period of time. And through Public Health, unsheltered Homeless Outreach program has done over 246 individual screenings, 55 for followup. And we continue to conduct Risk Assessment of individual encampments based on their density, their access to housing, etc. The next steps are that we will there will be encampment level testing starting next week and were in a current process of identifying, working with the community, to identify the best location and provider to do a permanent testing site in the neighborhood. Social distancing. So, again, the plan a real challenge in such a densely located or densely impacted neighborhood. And we know that when you walk through the neighborhood that theres many parts of it where youre not seeing social distancing. So part of the way that we obviously part of the plan is to try to implement to the best of our ability the social distancing and best practices. To do that we have been working with the service providers. There have been quite a lot of quite a lot of progress made in creating better ways that people can line up for their services. We have put in indicators just like you know, just like if you go to the store and theres an expert and you go to the line and you are implementing that throughout the neighborhood. And also to try to move encampments outside of the borders. You know, there was also in the plan can we get encampments outside of this very impacted neighborhood. So hot teams are out there every day working with people to implement those social distancing guidelines. We have implemented those visual markers. But probably most importantly we have hired 18 ambassadors through the downtown streets and they have been trained really on the tenderloin region and theyre out there on the sidewalks to help and to educate and to work with the community. We will be bringing on not doubling but well be bringing on about 10 more up to 10 more ambassadors and expanding that time. Right now theyre mondaythursday. But the next phase of this brings them on mondayfriday, and their work is for 10 hours. But ultimately weve got to get tents off the street. And the only way to do that is to get people into alternate housing. So it is a huge focus that we have been talking about. And for high gene, the plan was obviously to access hygiene stations and bathrooms, improve the access to showers and to distribute masks, hygiene kits, and other supplies. I was on the i have been part of the assessment. One of them was on april 22nd assessment date. And it was clear that there was a real lack of these facilities for people in many neighborhoods. And this is one area that you do see a difference when you walk around the tenderloin right now. And theres seven handwashing stations. Six of them are going 24 7 now. The h. R. C. Roundtable has distributed over 2,500 hygiene care kits. Thousands of masks. And many pamphlets with information that are culturally competent to get out to the community. In addition, there was gift cards that were procured in order to get people to do the tests, the covid19 test. So were working on improvements to improve our shower access, which is still lacking. And then additional restroom units to expand. And regarding sanitation, so the plan was clearly called out to include to improve sanitation and access to garbage and to mitigate the rodent issues. So they have been providing unsheltered residents with bags for this and they collect them. And steam cleaning has been coordinated with the tenderloin c. B. D. District and recology has upped runs for garbage within the neighborhood. The next steps are d. P. W. Is planning or is meeting with the tenderloin and the Northern Police stations to coordinate sidewalk and alley cleaning plans that include route and schedule. So that that can happen in coordination and to make sure that we get the sidewalks clean. Regarding food and water, we know that across the board for homeless folks when everything shut down it created a very intense food scarcity issue and it was worse than before and because people were going to restaurants. And theres a very robust seating and Food Security plan or operations that were very proud of. And we were able to leverage some of the work of that group. And so in addition one of the things that i noticed out there is that there was really nowhere to get water from the day that we were out there. It was a warm day. You know, there was nowhere for anyone to get Drinking Water. They have set up six Drinking Water sites. In addition over 300 meals are delivered through the meals in Place Program which brings meals to people who are living on the streets. And there is a small theres a food pantry that delivers groceries. Were continuing to work with the food bank to identify a better and larger location for that food pantry. Criminal activity and drug use obviously, both drug dealing but also fires are creating threatening environments for everyone that lives in the tenderloin. The plan is to follow the Police Guidance and to work with d. P. H. , obviously, on access to treatments. Sfpd has maintained our focus on preventing drug dealing and other criminal activities. And the street team is on the street and connecting people with services through d. P. H. The next steps, were working sfpd and sfsd are working in particular on preventing we have seen across the city a rise in encampment fires. And thankfully we havent had anything too horrific happen within encampments but in a neighborhood like the tenderloin, a small fire could be very devastating if it were to spread and its a dense neighborhood. This is the final slide for me. Pedestrian and business access. This is obviously very important and we have heard a lot about the plan that calls out to ensure neighbors have safe and are socially distant and i would add a. D. A. Entrances and exits. Theres a call to activate the open places and spaces for family recreation. And then to close streets and parking to facilitate some of this. You know, one of the hard things that i, you know, to not have access to playgrounds, that isnt because we cant they are prohibited under the health order based on covid19 so it really limits those limited resources that are even more limited now under this emergency. So the hot team starts doing, you know, they are out there and trying working with residents to get clear pathways. Theres been removal of the metered parking and added rails to get people more room for everyone. No parking signs, etc. And then, again, the Ambassador Program is also there to help to provide support and assistance in keeping the path of travel clear. On the next steps, m. T. A. Met with supervisor haney and a bunch of folks last week i believe it would be this week but n. T. A. Is looking at the closure of the north side of eddie, and to close turk. Then as we know that the additional sidewalk space will be required as in store retail and Outdoor Dining resume and there will be a need to make areas available within the tenderloin for those businesses. So that is the update on the plan. And we are all here and happy to answer questions about any and all of it. Chair mandelman thank you, director carroll. I had just a few questions that are sort of more general and then i know that maybe some of the other Community Members do, including chair mandelman. And then i wanted to open it up so that the public who have called in can give their comment and i have a much more detailed set of questions that ill do after theyre able to weigh in if thats okay with you, chair mandelman . Chair mandelman sounds good. Jus supervisor haney just soe general questions about the plan so that i understand. So you said that daniel wu was the project manager on the plan since the beginning . My understanding is that he came in about two weeks in, served for about two weeks and now has gone back to the airport. And if i was wrong about that, then i would love if you would clarify that. But in addition to that, can you clarify that the point if the point person or the main manager of this plan that is accountable for its success and outcomes and input is you or is it Brandon Davis . Im still having accountability challenge here. So the you know, i think that its also as you know when we first started this, we had nadia, and she was brought in as was the director stephenfield for pp. D. W. And they helped to coordinate and get it off off you know, get it started and to bring leadership to it. And as we expanded and the plan developed, we brought on more resources. So we are so what what happens within the e. O. C. Is that we are building, you know, were building the structure to respond to this. Since this emergency happened and things change almost on the daily, we have been building this structure to to address not only this issue, but the issue of safe sleep sites. So it was originally, you know, nadia and alerex, and daniel came on when we say project manager hes managing the project but isnt ultimately really jeff is the lead and should be able to answer any questions. From accountability, of course, this falls under the e. O. C. Which does fall under me. But as far as the lead as a high level you can always go to jeff. You can come to me. Project managers are there to create math, and create a work plan and figure out where the resources are. If you go back to the work chart you will see that we have one person who is just helping us with procurement of what we need. So its actually a whole team of people. And we brought deana in because we started with the tenderloin plan and then we added a mission plan and now well do a bayview plan. So we needed a manager to run those three things. So we have been building the infrastructure and bringing the resources on as weve expanded. Supervisor haney i appreciate that. And i will say, and i have told you this, that those are all very capable people and highlevel people in our city who have a lot of responsibilities. And i have a lot of respect for each of them each one of them. When i brought to them the issues related to this plan, or whether they were the ones who i should talk to about this plan more generally, all threw up their hands and pointed to somebody else. That was my experience from the beginning. And the and the challenge around that, and one thing that i really want to get clear around is that the narrative around this plan has been is one that it is it is continuing to take input and is a evolving plan, and it is one that is really deeply informed by neighborhood residents and businesses. How exactly should neighborhood residents, organizations, businesses, interact with this plan, provide input . I mean, i get asked all the time what is happening with the tenderloin. And i say, well, theres this plan. And they say, what are the goals of the plan . And i say, well, its just all there in the plan. And they say whats the time line some how are we ensuring that those goals are met. And im saying im not sure they have a timeline. And they say, well, who should i communicate with about this plan . And i say, honestly, if you can find out who this person is, i would like to know who that person is too. So if you could help us right now how would you answer that question from a resident, from a neighbor, from a business, who is frustrated, who is scared, and who is confused about what is happening here . Are there goals . Are there timelines . Are there metrics . And who can they work with . Right. So the goals that we laid i just laid out in the plan for each area, you know, what were the overall arching policy and what are the goals. The timelines are not attached to this. And i completely hear that. We its something that the project manager is working on for each area that we have, and we are developing this timeline. And some of it has to do with resources. And so, you know, honestly even this week the influx of resource that we have to bring to bear is greatly increased, meaning that were getting a whole lot of hotel rooms and spaces and suites within a short period of time so well be able to use that. But we arent were not going in in one week and pulling everyone off. Because think about it 350 people have come off the street in the tenderloin in the last two months. And yet the numbers keep going up with tents. So something is not something is not working well from that. I mean, we would even say that doesnt look like success. I mean, getting 350 people off the street is amazing and thats wonderful, but that doesnt if it doesnt if its not showing progress for the neighborhood, for people who are housed there, for the businesses there, then were not doing it right, supervisor. You know, we are we are in unprecedented times. This is not like this crisis wasnt here before. But it has been exacerbated in such a way. And so everything that we do we have to also do within the context of this of this Global Pandemic and this Public Health crisis that were in. And so, you know, i am very grateful to have jeffs leadership in this. And what i would say, any Community Group is welcome to the neighborhood roundtable. And we can provide that information. There are actually six different groups that theres one large group and theres six different groups that are dealing with different areas and theyre also set up by geographic areas. That is very open. So brandon can provide that information. I can provide that information jeff any three of us can about when those meetings are and how to connect to them. They are open. Im not sure that i answered your question . Supervisor haney so there are not timelines, at least ones that are public, to be clear . Well supervisor haney or goals that are are there goals that are that are more specific and tracked in any way . I know that there was some conversation about a tinder line dashboard that was discussed weeks ago. Is that live . Is that available . Where does that live for people to actually see . That is not live yet. That is being worked on. Supervisor haney why why did it take this long to create a dashboard like this . Again, you know, we i cant i cant answer that question directly. But we will we are working on it. I guess that i just also want to say that, you know, theres i have to contradict that nothing has happened. Actually, there has been a lot that has happened in the tenderloin since we started. And i understand that it is still not where we want it to be by any means. But there is incredibly we did testing, supervisor. With all of you. It wasnt perfect. But we got it done. Were doing encampment testing with d. P. H. Coming up and they can speak to that, and were working with your office and the community to bring in a permanent testing site. We have increased access to water. We have tripled the access to sanitation. D. P. W. Is coming in. You know, i think that for these specifics it would be helpful for some of my colleagues to answer some of the specific questions. Supervisor haney i just i do want to say that if something is announced and its put on the front page and theres a press release and you say that you have a tenderloin plan, people are going to expect that to be something they can interact with, something they can see, something that they can give input into, that has some level of accountability. And instead and, again, i know that some things have been done, but what they seek is what is happening on our streets. Thats what they see. And its not good. And it has gotten worse. And objectively so. And so if theres no dashboard, if there are no goals that are tracked clearly, if there are no timelines, if the staff person is playing hot potato indiscernible theres a lot on his plate. I dont know his exact title now. But, you know, when i asked him very early on, all right, the tenderloin plan, what are we doing . And he said, thats not me, thats not my thing. Thats what happened. And i am jut trying to get us to a place where for that resident, for that business, for that person who is frustrated that comes to me and says what is this thing and how do i see what its goals are clearly, and how do i interact with it and how do i give input and how do i participate, and where are we going on this we arent there. And its three months into the plague and a month into this plan and i dont see how we can be satisfied with any way where things are. Right. Supervisor haney yes, im not arguing that there are some levels of good things that have happened. So i just i want we need, we deserve those things to be figured out. Im going to pass it over to the chair and it looks like he wants to make comments. I want to open up for Public Comment before i ask some specific questions. If thats okay. Can i just can i just respond to the supervisor for a second . I definitely hear you. I think that is good feedback. But we need to do a better we need to do better communication about what we are doing and what weve achieved. I hear you on that. And we can prioritize that. I also want to say that there are many, many people from the tenderloin that we are that are in conversation with us, that are part our Community Round table, that are communicated with multiple times, definitely weekly, if not more than civi several times dug the week. And, you know, and so and we theres been progress. Its nowhere where we need it to be. And your comments are well taken. And as far as how we communicate how were doing and we have to do a better job of saying what were doing and to let people to know how to be involved in what we are doing, so thank you. Chair mandelman thank you, supervisor haney and thank you, director carroll. And supervisor haney and i do not agree about everything but i have to say that i feel alignment with him around this, indiscernible and around my concern that we havent, you know, that where we have responded really i think that quite effectively to the prior Public Health crisis that we have not figured out with equal clarity how were going to deal with this. Again, you are responsible for everything in the city and county of San Francisco, mary ellen carroll, and that is not fair. And somehow that goes to the accountability question that supervisor haney brought up. And i dont feel fair to beat up on you, and its not like you can wave your magic wand and make should go happen in the tenderloin or in the castro or the mission or any of the neighborhoods that have seen just an extraordinary expansion of folks on the street, living in really not great conditions and having really pr profound negative impacts on the surrounding neighborhood. So in terms of this particular plan, you know, i think that supervisor haney said this is a hearing on a specific neighborhood. But it is about a citywide issue. I think that what is working or what is not working in the tenderloin is to a lesser extent working or not working in basically the eastern half of the city. And even actually as i was over in sandy fewers in district 1 over the weekend, noticing, you know, proliferation of encampments unlike anything that i have ever seen in that neighborhood. So, you know, we have these intolerable conditions and what is paradoxical and im really hoping that your team is thinking about is the fact that your response to that is illuminating. You have moved i have counted 460 people, because i was adding the safe sleeping village and hotels and maybe its only 350 i dont know. You have moved hundreds and hundreds of people off of the streets over the last few months. And the conditions in the tenderloin, it sounds like from supervisor haney are worse. We in the castro are opening up the safe sleeping village. I am quite concerned that we will get to the end of this project and conditions will still be worse than they were two months ago. And so and not if not before the pandemic, during the pandemic, it feels to me that theres Something Dynamic going on where conditions are actually getting worse as we go through this. And i would love to hear your thinking am i misperceiving this . Is something happening where were getting more folks, more seriously addicted folks, on to streets . More collections of people that are in these neighborhoods that historically have been impacted but are more impacted than ever before . I feel like thats whats going on. And i was think about you know, i was looking at the plan and your survey was done in april. Very sensible. You come up you see whats going on and then you come up with a plan to deal with whats there. When we started down the everett safe sleeping village route we were looking at what was in the neighborhood then and trying to figure out how to address that, and yet the conditions over the last month, you know, it feels like each week that it is worse. I know that when we started with the sort of edict and not to disturb tents, we did that, and it seems that not only did we not leave what wasnt there in place, but it has massively proliferated seemingly beyond just what you would get from not taking more people into shelte shelters. So i am wondering if you have any insight on, you know, i have thoughts, ideas, you know, our point in time count tells us that we have 8,000 people on any given night but we all know that we have more like 20,000 people in the course of a year. Is it, in fact, if we did a point in time count in San Francisco right now, would we find that we have 11,000, 12,000 unhoused people on our streets . Or what is going on, i dont know, but it is horrible. I do want i think that it is important to hear from our i think that emily is on from h. S. H. To speak to that. The only thing that i will say from my perspective is that we also i have to repeat keep reminding us that were in very unchartered times. For instance, you know, we are now moving a number of our hotels to set up because we can. We didnt see the surge, right . And we never thank you, everybody. People didnt die in the hospitals because of this. We didnt see it even in our congregate settings. So, thankfully, though we cant take our foot off the pedal there. please stand by that is within our understanding how that will work. I dont know that we have been thinking or maybe we have been thinking about challenges for the unhoused. Does the tender lineman go to two times as many as we would through the traditional shelter because we have more people because more people are coming to San Francisco or something, i dont know. I dont know that the plans for unhoused population are as dynamic as plans for needing to surge our icu bed capacity. It sounded like you thought emily might have some things to say. Good afternoon, supervisors. Happy to try to respond to your questions. You know, the situation on the street is quite dynamic and evolving and different in each neighborhood. I think overall and primarily anecdotal as we have not done another pit count. We are seeing an increase in need. The reason for the increase in need, and these are based on conversations with folks on the street. Definitely not a hard science here, but we have seen, obviously, the change in shelter capacity as we limited shelter intake. We moved vulnerable out of shelter. Natural attrition of people leaving shelter, there is fear and shelters are not the safest for them to be. We have that component and slowing of home ward bound program. Fewer families are able to receive people while sheltering in place. In the last week or two we saw requests going up. We hope home ward bound will come back to line. That is 30 to 40 people per month that are currently things have been paused since march. We are very aware that most people experiencing homelessness were not housed with leases of their own and their own apartments before homeless. They were living precariously. That is much harder under shelterinplace order. Your extended families may not be as willing to have folks living with them. These are assumptions based on conversations with folks kind of just getting by prior to the covid19 crisis that are no longer welcome in the homes where they were getting by because of shelterinplace orders. We also anecdotally heard of more people coming to San Francisco because we have more Hotels Online for those with homelessness than any other jurisdiction. This is what we hear on the streets and it makes sense to me why we are seeing increases. The pause in encampment resolutions, i think, has allowed encampments to be more entrenched. As we bring people to the hotels we are going through the tenderloin and identifying the most covid Vulnerable People and bringing them in. We need to pair with resolution of the areas. Ensuring we are able to expand as we bring people in close down where they have been camping. That is a challenge. That is something we are working closely through the hot team because we want to make sure we are not picking every fourth person out of the tent and nothing is happening. We have to make sure the tent goes down and condense the footprint of the encampment. That is work to be done when it comes to placement. Not taking those comprehensive actions led to some of this challenge. I think not just tl but other neighborhoods as well. Absolutely. I appreciate the focus on the tenderloin because that is ground zero. That is if we dont fix it in the tenderloin we wont fix it in the rest of the city. If we do fix it in the tenderloin, we do appreciate it in the rest of the city. I think there is among the i dont know, dozens of city folks with some responsibility for this problem, growing understanding what is going on and consensus about what to do about it. Also, among the other points is really frustrating how diffuse authority and responsibility seems to be around all of these responses i think what my constituents expect is that we as a city will find situations for folks that they will not just birossed from where they are and left to their own to figure out where they go. Also san franciscans expect their neighborhoods not be campgrounds and that problem which we were experiencing throughout my first year and a half in office has become explosive and outrageous and upsetting and has to be addressed. In supervisor haneys district and almost every other district to a greater or lesser extent. Those are my thoughts. Thank you. I am sharing this. Supervisor haney, do you want to open Public Comment . Yes. I do want to say, and i am sure folks on Public Comment will share this as well. A lot of the issues we are talking about are throughout the city. In my district, many of the things we are talking about are true in parts south of market, civic center and your district as well. The reason we have this conversation about the tenderloin is because of the distinct needs recognized by the city and because of the tenderloin plan that has been released publicly that has been championed and was spoken about by the mayor in the board meeting. When asked for the plan on homelessness, she said tenderloin plan is a key part of that. I dont want people to think we are not thinking about other challenges in the city. The tenderloin is vulnerable and there is a plan released that the public, especially people in the neighborhoods deserve accountability around. A couple things. I definitely hear you and we have struggled with who is in charge before covid. Part of that is because this is such a complex issue that requires collaboration from many different areas. There is no one way that one person or one discipline can address this. The other thing to add to the coulconfusion to transition to e Healthy Center in april or some point around there, his coming to where his role is now i think was confusing to him and how it fit. That is why we brought it in. Director davis is on. I am not sure she can stay. This question of Community Involvement is really important. I would like to give her the opportunity to speak to it. If that is okay. Yes. Hi. I work for the city but at a lot of times people forget i work for the city. They think i operate more as a nonprofit. I am committed to grassroots organizing and hearing voicings. I try not to get involved in those other pieces. The Tenderloin Community said this is human rights, are you involved, engaged, what is the process . We had convened the Community Roundtable as a way for me to feel we were engaged to hear community voice. Different groups come in to talk about issues and challenges and ask for ways that we can support. The Latino Task Force is part of the Community Roundtable. There is a new initiative launched. We have been working with family relief as well as supervisor ronens right to recover. When the Community Members initially came from the tenderloin. They were invited to join the roundtable. Folks had ideas for how to engage. At no point in time i will say this is for me very Much Community led. I know supervisor haney you felt i was disrespectful in the process. Feel free to reach out. That was not my intention. Sorry i did not think you had been disrespectful at all. Some people communicated that to me. That was not the intent. That we were just my intent was to provide space, they came in. We had conversation. I never went out and said these are the people that should be here. I asked folks to share information. They said they wanted access and conversation with the Emergency Operations center. Mary ellen, carol and their team had conversations with other groups to open that up. I am grateful, supervisor haney for your advocacy and work and being able to support community in that process. I was grateful to be able to be engaged in a different way to build new relationships in the tenderloin to think about how to address this as a human rights issue. It is always very Much Community identified, community led. All i tried to do was to work to create space for Community Voices abi am great and i am grateful folks shared information. I was texting around some of the things that bubbled up that i want to circle back with your office on, supervisor haney, around families and young people and what that looks like for the summer. We made a request to dcyf to understand what programs are funded to support young people in the tenderloin. Responding to community. Sometimes front and center and on the elc plate and individuals who said there are 3500 children in the tenderloin, half have not come out of homes since shelterinplace, and we need to work on that. Always consider me a partner. Sometimes i forget about hierarchies and the politics and focus on being responsive to the person on the phone call. As they say in the church, charge it to my head, not my heart. The intention is to make change. Baby steps are better than no steps. Grateful to be part and elevate and amplify those voices. Thank you. I only heard positive things about your involvement and the involvement of your team, and i think part of the challenge i had is with the handoff from your involvement early on and your team moved on and figuring out how to continue to engage the community and broaden the set of people at the table. We didnt exactly figure out how to transition that effectively. Your early involvement and bringing in the community and listening to them, i only heard positive things from the people who were part of it. I would say in a lot of ways we serve a similar purpose. We may do it differently. We both seek to disrupt the systems, the system failures and injustice. That has been the key. I appreciate mary elleninging very kind. There are times that i probably over stepped or brought up questions that may be are not the most comfortable. They have been extremely responsive. I have not been in the fight as long as all of you have, but i have been grateful for the work with cotenderloin before but the ability to build capacity or have the city recognize their capacity to lead the care Ambassadors Program to connect people from the community. Yesterday Donna Hilliard shared in a roundtable meeting how impactful that was for them to take people from the community who have been formerly homeless to engage. At the same time i know dell is on this in another call as well. The main thing i would like to see happen is one of the things we havent really drilled down on that i want to amplify is that when we talk about the tenderloin the second largest population of black people, how many are homeless and unhoused. As we have these conversations that we dont lose sight of the disparities within that. What i struggled with as we have done the conversations i havent seen as many black voices speak up or be spoken for in the tenderloin. That is a struggle for me. As we keep looking at the gaps and make sure we also provide space for those authentic voices and not people speaking on their behalf to have space at the table. I may not always agree with what is put forth but it is not my choice. It is giving space for those Community Voices. I am grateful to be part of connecting those pieces and would love to say stay connected to see how to be helpful. My capacity at this point in terms of closing streets, Getting Hotel rooms is limited. I will do what i can and keep pushing. We need you to continue to stay involvedanticly around how we bring everyone to the table and black community and black residents. I hope you stay involved with this even if you cant close the streets yourself. I appreciate the work you have done on this and your team. Thank you. I think we will go to Public Comment now. I am going to do a little housekeeping. At 2 00 i need to go to a meeting. There is a memo from the board president that makes matt haney the chair of this committee at 1 45 p. M. He will sub for me. For clarity the gavel will pass to vice chair but supervisor haney can run the hearing. That is the way we will do it then. Thank you. We have Public Comment. You will each have two minutes. Please state your name clearly and speak into the phone. If you have prepared a written statement you are encouraged to give a copy to our clerk. You are encouraged to avoid repetition of previous statements. Operations is checking to see if there are callers in the queue. Please let us know if there are callers ready if you have connected by phone press star and 3. Please continue to wait until you are prompted to begin at the beep. The system will tell you your line is unmuted. For those watching on cable channel 26 or through sfgovtv if you wish to speak please call in by phone. The instructions are on the screen. Dial 415 6550001. Enter code 145 1643769. Press pound twice. Then press star and then three to be added to the cue to speak. Do we have the first speaker . There are 20 callers in the queue. Thank you, supervisors. I am gabby and i am the policy and planning manager. I am here standing in solidarity with the Tenderloin Community to speak to needs not exclusive to this pandemic. I hope we cannot only bring the Necessary Services our residents have been asking for but create long Lasting Solutions that will out live the shelterinplace order. It is obvious we need to come up with solutions for the crowdedness on the sidewalks and have designated areas for people to sleep. It benefits unhoused but allows housed residents to access sidewalks especially those disabled. This is one of the most pressing needs. Tents have drastically increased in the tenderloin. We are aware of the needs in the plan, but i would like to comment on one thing. I dont think the neighborhood has agreed on. I want to recognize the efforts in recruiting and hiring community ambassadors. I want to discourage officials in promoting increase in Police Presence if it is not necessary. I will end with one recommendation that is considered moving forward. Having one project manager dedicated to the tenderloin plan for the rest of the year. It is inefficient to have a project manager come and go. If we can have someone with experience to take on this plan for the months to come we can see change happen so much faster. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. I live on ellis street in apartment facing Willow Street which is probably one of the worst encampments in the tenderloin. I was listening very carefully to all of you. You all sounded great. You sounded like you are praising yourself and sounded like you actually had a good nights sleep. Let me tell you our reality. We have not had a full nights sleep in months. This encampment is there and many others since december. Never cleared. We cannot sleep because there is so much noise all day, all night. We see things i thought i would never see in my life. I have been living in San Francisco for 30 years. The city has fallen i in such a disgrace and shameful situation. I dont think gentle talk or steps are going to do anything. I can tell you that i dont just speak for myself. Many of my neighbors, we are desperate, tired, angry, disgusted with what we see. It is so difficult on us to live with those encampments. I can go on and on. I only have two minutes. I want to mention in the many emails i write to different authorities including the da and mayor. I have come up with quite a few suggests. It may sound extreme get all homeless off the streets. Not allow anyone to pitch a tent on the sidewalk. These people deserve so much better and we deserve so much better. You must organize for the you want to call it sleep safe sleeping villages or whatever. Cp owns a lot of property that they can designate areas in parks or whatever to have a safe area for people to pitch tents or they can have services, access to drug whatever program there is, medical care, mental care and all of that. The fact the city allows people to live on the street and allows people to refuse services is going to destroy us. Thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello, i would like to thank the supervisors for the conversation today. I am thomas a resident on inner richmond. Supervisor mandelman spoke with us. I am a resources analyst with the department of Public Health and Human Resources with the city and county of San Francisco. I worked there from 2018 to 2020. The city needs a person centered framework for addressing human needs. The notion we have a geographic miss match between people, water and restrooms is wrong. Our city is full of empty buildings with functional plumbing. When our executive branch uses the term tenderloin they escape the fact they are not providing service for human needs to the unhoused in our community. In the course of this hearing i heard troubling marks. Director carol says we are building the structure to respond. We have struggled with this issue who is in charge. Supervisor mandelman said it is quote frustrating how diffuse responsibility is. I want to know how many active city workers involved in managing and planning this response have completed the necessary training for Emergency Operations. This is distinguished from Disaster Service worker training. In fact if you look at the Disaster Service working training video, it is from 2013. The content is older than that. They include the welcome video from may or ed lee. This is a global crisis. It is inexcusesible the department of Human Resources and Emergency Management have been so flatfooted. Our city has 30,000 workers on the front lines dedicated to ensuring that our communities have the nest your time has expired. Next speaker, please. [ inaudible ] sa[ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] [ inaudible ] thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hi. I am stacy. I lived in San Francisco for 20 years, 19 in district 10. The problem of homelessness has always been here but it is out of control especially in the dee tendetenderloin. The residents of the communities did not have a say when they became inundated with tents. Why do we now allow them to have a say in communities . An earlier caller said we should not permit tent encampments on the street at any time, let alone with the virus transmitting by proximity. It i