Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Budget And Appropriations Committee 20240712

Comments during Public Comment are available by calling 4156550001, 1451400281, then press pound twice. When connected, you will hear the meeting discussion, but you will be muted and in listening mode only. When your item of interest comes up, dial starthree to be added to the speaker line. Best practice is to call from a quiet location, speak slowly and clearly, and turn down your radio or television. In the alternative, you may email me, linda. Wong sf. Gov. Finally, cantonese and spanish interpretation are available. Chair fewer thank you, madam clerk. Will you please read item number 1. Clerk yes. Hearing on the budget for the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development including an analysis of changing over the last decade. Chair fewer thank you very much. We have mohcd director eric shaw with us today, and then, after his presentation, we will hear from our budget and legislative analyst. Thank you very much. Sorry about that, madam chair. Im sharing my screen right now. Chair fewer sure. That is not correct. Had to switch computers. Chair fewer is it more convenient for us to hear from the b. L. A. First . Yes, yes, maam. I apologize for that. Chair fewer okay. If you wouldnt mind, a b. L. A. Report on item number 1, please. Just loading my slides on. Okay. Good afternoon, chair fewer, members of the committee. Dan goncher from the budget and legislative analysts office. Chair fewer excuse me. I think this is the wrong topic. Hi, you are correct. I am so sorry. Chair fewer i think we saw that one last week. So sorry. Yes, let me pull up the correct slides. Okay. Here we are. So here are my slides for the presentation for our analysis of the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development. As you may remember from last week, for each of the four reports that we are providing for the budget and appropriations committee, we have been asked to provide a breakdown of the divisions within the department, including information about the purview of each division and program, the tenured look back of budget and f. T. Es for the department by division, and the total amount contracted out of each division in the last ten years. In addition, we were asked to include impacts of covid19 pandemic, including specific policy questions, which i will go into in a few minutes. So mohcd is made up of four functional divisions. This include finance and administration, Community Development, Home Ownership and market rate, and housing. In addition to these divisions, mohcd administers the hope s. F. Program, which is the cross Sector Initiative to rebuild four large Housing Developments in the city. The finance administration definition manages the financial Human Resources and technological resources of mohcd. Community Development Works with Community Based organizations to provide services to city residents, such as city services, hiv aids housing, and support services, Service Management and Case Management housing counseling, and neighborhood support. As part of this division, the department is responsible for administering major federal grant programs, including the cdbg and housing opportunities for persons with aids program. The Housing Division monitoring and manages the citys Inclusionary Housing Program where housing remains accessible and affordable for people it is intended and whom required to serve. And the Housing Division invests in Affordable Housing projects, including new construction asing as acquisition and rehabilitation of public and private housing stock. Further, this Division Guides and coordinates the citys housing programs and policies, with responsibilities to the financing of Affordable Housing and expenditure of significant federal, state, and local funding. Over the last ten years, we have gone through money changes, including the development of the San Francisco Development Agencies residual operation, including 125 million in assets and a budget of 13,000,010 fulltime positions. Mohcd continues to manage assets. Mohcd also assumed oversight responsibility for the San Francisco Housing Authority last year at the request of the u. S. Department of housing and urban development. Mohcds budget increased by 2 million to fund 17. 83 million f. T. E. S that were added as place holders for the transition of the Housing Authority. The number of affordable units exclusive of Home Ownership has increas increased from 8700 to 23,000 in fiscal year 201011. The number of Home Ownership units increased from 1600 to 4400 in the last ten years. Community Development Grants to c. B. O. S have increased from approximately 10 million to over 60 million in the current year. Further, there have been at least seven significant new sources of funding set up over the last ten years, which are listed on this slide looks like i might have lost control. Looks like the mohcd slides have been put up. Chair fewer yeah. Madam clerk, are you able to assist with this . Clerk yes, i can give that a try. I will continue speaking in the interest of time here. Okay. So so as i was saying, over the last ten years, there have been at least seven significant sources of funding set up over the last ten years. These were in addition to the Affordable Housing fund, which was set up in 2002 for collector fees pursuant to rarus planning code sections and used for various housing or housing code linkage fees, typically used for gaps in rental housing. Chair fewer excuse me for a moment, mr. Gonchar. This is the slide, i believe, madam clerk, for item number 2. Clerk my apologies. Chair fewer thats okay. Mr. Gonchar, do you think that it is necessary for you to have the video or do you think that you its okay for you to explain it with im so sorry about our technology here. Yeah, i can explain it without the technology if you want. Chair fewer yeah, mr. Gonchar. Please continue with your report. Thanks. Okay. All right. Sure. So all of these organizational changes are reflected in the growth of mohcds growth and staffing budget over the last ten years. So the offices current year total adopted budget is 317 million. This is up from about 8 million in fiscal year 201011. While the current year approved totalled 317. 2 million, its important to be aware that as of april 13, supplemental appropriations totaling almost 93 million and additional Expenditure Authority granted to mohcd added 132 million for a total of 561. 3 million in new Expenditure Authority since june 30 of last year. Combined with 173 million of funds carried forward, mohcd had 1. 3 billion total. Much of these funds are restricted in use for federal and state guidelines, bond restrictions, and the a. E. O. Clearly represents only a portion of the mohcds operation. The departments currently total year fund budget is 151 poin 151 . 5 million. This is up almost 100 fold from 1. 5 million in 201011. The departments total fulltime equivalent position in fiscal year 201920 are 131. 4 the current year allocation for the Affordable Housing function is about 241 million, about 47 of which comes from federal fund support and eraf surplus. The current year Budget Allocation for mohcds Community Development function is about 67 million, approximately 39 million or 58 of that comes from the general fund support. Over the last ten years, this function experienced Significant Growth totaling 65 million. And between last year and the current year, the budget increased 68 just in that oneyear change. Direct general fund support of grants to Community Based organizations has driven much of this increase. In fiscal year 201920, similar to Affordable Housing function, Community Development function budget growth including eraf surplus funds of about 18. 6 million. The Homeless Services function is entirely made up of mohcd grants to communitybased organizations for the local operating Subsidy Program which pays the difference between the cost of operating Supportive Housing which houses formerly homeless persons and all other operating revenue. At the current, these grants are 100 reimbursed to mohcd by the department of homelessness and Community Housing. If you look back at the last ten years, the one notable area where there has been contracted services is for the formation of dahlia, the online housing portal which began in fiscal year 201516. Approximately 6 million was spent on professional Service Contract with two vendors for the development of dahlia. Funding for Affordable Housing related grants to communitybased organizations began in 201314 with the establishment of the Housing Trust fund, these are typically for eviction prevention and housing counseling and totalled 52. 3 million in the current year. According to the department staff, the primary impact is covid19 on Department Services has been a partial slow down in Housing Development with materials and supplies more difficult to obtain. Additionally, the Community Grant process to award funding to Community Based organizations han been placed on hold has been placed on hold funding funding and priority decisions to be made by the Mayors Office. There are no direct impacts to revenues, however, mohcd anticipates that developers may ask for a deferral of amortized loan payments since the developer revenue is supported by tenant rent. The board of supervisors is considering a package of covid19 emergency relief policies for Affordable Housing owners that could reduce annual loan repayments to mohcd by 16 million. Additionally a slow down in office spaceresidential construction may reduce future inlieu fee revenues. And now, for the policy question portion of our report, there were two policy questions. One was to provide more information on the Decision Making process for Community Development grants to c. B. O. S, and the second policy question was to provide more information on the Decision Making process for the allocation of funding for housing projects. For Community Development grants and c. B. O. S, mohcd funds a variety of Community Based services, which includes eviction prevention, legal services, and Housing Services for those living with hiv aids. They also issue reports throughout the year or in the fall for federally funded fall capital grants. Fiveyear funding cycle r. P. Allocations to specific areas are categorized into different strategies and given an estimated delivery range. While fundings in the current r. F. P. Appropriated from mohcd while funding in the current r. F. P. Is funding from mohcd, it also included other funds. In paendix two, it provides the scoring and relation details. Of note, while the first scoring round provides for participation from Community Members with expertise in the related areas, the scoring process heavily relied on mohcd staff and mohcd and the city main control over the funding decisions. Draft funding recommendation for the fiveyear cycle that is to start on july 1 were made public on january 15. A review of the funding recommendations by our office found that our estimates were not necessarily in the allocation range in the r. F. P. Which are included in appendix one of our report. A public hearing was held on february 4. The Public Comment period ended on february 21, and negotiations of grantees were expected to occur during april of this year, with construction to start may 1. However, the director of Community Development reported to our avenues that the Mayors Office requested that the notification be delayed due to covid19 and uncertainty around the Budget Office, Funding Availability, and input received at the public hearing that was held on february 4. The director of Community Development reported to us earlier this week that he has not received final approval as to a revised timeline or funding levels for these grants and c. D. O. S. The second policy question was around the Decision Making process for funding of housing projects, and what weve learned is mohcd has developed a pipeline of projects that allocates the funding either to specific projects identified by geographic location or to general programs or development phases. These projects are specifically named unless a project has not been identified for a Funding Source because of specific constraint. The pipeline provides a financial forecast for the projects and includes estimated balances, revenues, and uses for the current year and for two years out. Some restrictions provide for additional processes that include oversight and assistance ensuring the funds are appropriately expended. Typically, the development or housing rehabilitation funding is made available through a notice of Funding Availability or through r. F. Q. S or r. F. P. S, processes that are public and competitively bid. Additionally, the citywide Affordable Housing loan committee, an advisory currently comprised of the director of mohcd, ocii, h. S. H. , and the Housing Authority, holds Public Meetings to review and make recommendations to the mayor. This committee specifically reviewed loans for predevelopment or gap availability housing. Mohcd ensures that these restrictions and opreviews are open to the public. Funding and allocation decisions must be made in terms of the scope and size of programs, funding allocations and populations served, project timing, delivery and funding methods, ability to leverage other financing, and more. All according to mohcd staff, the office works with members of the board of supervisors, the mayor, and Community Stakeholders when considering the allocation of funds to housing projects. Further, mohcd staff notes that the office may pursue direct acquisition when a Market Opportunity arises and there is funding available. Outside of the restrictions on certain funds as detailed on pages 23 and 25 of our report, mohcd reports that local funding decisions are based on one, the availability of Funding Sources, two, the timing of application and awards of other leveraged Funding Sources, and third, the projects development timeline. During the board of supervisors review of the fiscal year 2020 throu through 29 Capital Funding plan last year, on may 11, the Capital Planning Committee Approved a resolution formally incorporating Affordable Housing into the fiscal year 2022 through 2031 capital plan, and the resolution was received and assigned to the budget and finance committee on may 12. While mohcd seeks approvals from the board of supervisors through the Housing Development phases and provides reports due to city ordinance, the quarterly reports do not provide details how the funding came to mohcd for approval or how the approval has been made. The recommendation to the board of supervisors is the board of supervisors should consider amending the administrative code to require mohcd in its quarterly reports on Affordable Housing development to include details regarding how developments have come to them for approvals and how approvals have been determined. That concludes my presentation. Im available for questions if there are any. Chair fewer thank you very much. Colleagues, anyone have any comments or questions for mr. Gonchar . Seeing none, im sure youre going to get questions later. I think that we should have mr. Shaw now give his presentation. Thank you very much. Good afternoon, chair fewer and members of the board of supervisors. I think my presentation is loading right now. Reply name is eric my name is eric shaw, and i am the director of the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development. It is not loading. I apologize. Chair fewer do you need assistance with yes. And i apologize. Im on a new iphone, but if the clerk could assistant. Chair fewer madam clerk, are you available to assist today . Clerk yes, i believe i have a copy of the presentation. Chair fewer so, mr. Shaw, if you could speak to the presentation. Yeah, i will speak, madam chair, for time. So this is just my opening slide. So im pleased to be here today to show the accomplishments of the past year. Slide two. Our Mission Remains focused on San Francisco and a central focus to building strong housing communities. As we close the year, mohcd has, with the Mayors Office, worked to close the gap in the pandemic of covid19. Under mayor breeds direction and leadership, we are working with urgency to ensure that our practices and investments address distinctive needs of black san franciscans. This is the context in which i provide my remarks. Mohcd invests in projects and partnerships that facilitate in new and affordable rental housing and works with residents to realize Home Ownership. We assist the city in obtaining Affordable Housing stock. We protect vulnerable residents from legal and economic shocks that could impact their ability to remain housed, get rental assistance through eviction programs, and we empower communities through our cultural districts and Community Programs and more specifically to opportunities close to home. We continue to work with a Broad Network of Community Based partners to protect vulnerable residents to create an inclusive and equitable city. Mayor breed and i share the same vision that the construction of Affordable Housing and strong preservation of existing Community Partnerships is and will continue to be more important than ever. Ive spent the last eight weeks interacting with Community Partners and meeting with supervisors to understand perspectives on mohcds work. Mohcd is divided into four divisions. This past fiscal year, we had a total of 131 fulltime employees, of which 17. 83 are temporarily place holders for San Francisco housing support. 56 of our departmental budget is dedicated to multifamily housing grants and loans to nonprofit partners to build new Affordable Housing and acquire and preserve affordability in existing housing. Another 22 is granted to our c. B. O. Partners to provide a variety of services to our citys most vulnerable residents. Mohcd is said to achieve the goal set forth in 2014 to preserve or construct 10,000 units of housing affordable to lowincome households by 2020. As of march 31, 2020, we have achieved a new or preserved count of 9,744 units, with exactly 306 homes on target to be completed by the end of 2020. We currently have 23,551 affordable rental units across 377 projects and 1,583 inclusionary rental units as well as 2,831 inclusionary rental home units. There are 133 projects that are 100 affordable in the pipeline, totaling 11,725 units. Of that, 9,729 units are family housing, 1,929 units are set aside specifically for senior housing, and 1,806 homes will become permanently Supportive Housing for households that were previously unsheltered. The Mayors Office of housing and Community Development has accomplished much over the last 12 months. Id like to highlight a couple of achievements that exemplify how we responded to the communitys needs. With the increase in applications, we are working with our housing [inaudible] to continue using mohcd built a salesforce database that we began using in early 2019 to track specific reasons that prospective applicants did not qualify for specific housing across all race and demographic. Weve been able to track the effects of state, local, and federal eligibility requirements that are barriers to applicants. We also have monitored leasing activities for compliance. As part of our Racial Equity action planning, we are turning own materials from leasing agents to encourage culturally appropriate behaviors. Mohcd celebrated the first new homes at home s. F. S sunnydale site at 1491 sunnydale avenue, parcel q, and Casa Adelante at 136 shotwell. Rosa parks apartments, alice griffith, and mission morris. 1064 to 1068 mission, and sunnydale block 6. Our preservation efforts of the small sites program, r. A. D. And home s. F. Have led us to target acquisitions with expiring affordability restrictions. Over the last year, we celebrated preservation and acquisition of a number of small sites, including the acquisition of the first small site in the sunset, the third site in the richmond. Additionally, our down Payment Assistance Loan Program and teacher next door initiatives have made it possible for longterm San Francisco residents to become first time home buyers. Our portfolio consists of 40 buildings with 392 residential units and 30 commercial spaces. The pipeline includes 17 prospect sites with 315 residential units and 14 commercial spaces. We have provided 3 million small sites capacity payment grants to go directly towards funding for staff and nonprofit organizations as well as 450,000 for nonprofit initiatives. Our current partners are listed within the slide. Next slide, please. Under slide 10, over the last over the last year, there have been major developments over the last year, there have been major developments in each of the four hope s. F. Project areas. In alice griffith, 344 new affordable home units have been completed with an 82 retention rate of former housing residents. The first Public Housing replacement homes at sunnydale parcels have opened. Potrero block b is sent to break ground in 2021, as well as hunters view phase three. In january 2020, landmark legislation went into effect that provides former hope s. F. Residents with the right to return to their communities. The mohcd designed legislation gives them the priority of return to revitalize Public Housing replacement unit at the sites from which they moved once all hope s. F. Residents have had the right to return in. This ensures that theyre entitled to retain the same placement within the city. [inaudible] and continue the conversion of Public Housing units to section 8. Of the vehicles for mohcd to acquire and develop land is through a nofa project. Districts 1, 2, 4, 7, and 8, and we reenld accept cited c into the mohcd pipeline a number of ways. Nofv, direct acquisition or surplus sites. The total time can typically run from five to six years. Projects receiving funding in the order they are added to the pipeline, and each potential project undergoes a feasibility assessment. Our predevelopment and Gap Financing for each project is programs based on the availability of funds and statutory restrictions tied to different fubding sources. Each funding decision we make undergoes a vetting Decision Panel which is comprised of staff or multiple city partners. It then goes positive approval befoapproval goes for approval before funding action. We also recently acquired two properties, 1550 south vanness and 1939 Market Street via direct acquisition. Our Community Development work is grounded in a fiveyear consolidated plan which serves as the application for a number of federal Funding Sources and providing additional context for mohcds work. The final 2024 kconsolidated plan is the result of dedicated engagement as well as review of 50 Community Needs assessments and other City Department developments reports. The analysis also pulled secondary data where appropriate to contextualize the findings. Two new objectives are communities of color are stablized and to eliminate racial disparities. The following target populations were identified extremely and very lowincome. Households with barriers to access opportunities, households at risk of displacement, households experiencing a legacy of displacement. Households that are most likely at risk for displacement [inaudible] all Community Development grants are tied to the consolidated plan and other policy legislative guidance. Our cbbg, e. B. G. Are oversaw by nine Service Members on a board of Community Development and oversaw by the mayor and board of supervisors. Capital project and public space r. F. P. S, board and mayoral enhancement r. F. P. S, and then 2025 Community Development services r. F. P. , with funds coming from c. B. G. And others. Next slide, please. Our Grant Funding process is thorough and starts by issuing an r. F. P. Whose priorities are established through Extensive Community meetings and constituent focus groups. Each model is reviewed and scored by fewer unique reviewers. Each proposal is going to be evaluated with how closely it aligns with our targeted path. Preliminary funding recommendations are approved by the Citizens Committee on Community Development. Finally, preliminary recommendations are published and a public hearing is held to receive public and oral written comments before we submit our recommendations to the mayor. We fund and facilitate the administration of eight cultural districts in partnership with the planning commission, oewd, and arts commission. [inaudible] next slight, please. We also have a variety of subsidies which subsidize rents of buildings for formerly homeless households. Last year, we operated a onetime 5 million allocation for seniors at 1296 shotwell, and we have a balance of funds for future housing projects. Our eviction prevention work is also essential to our Community Development programming. During the First Six Months of implementation of tenant right to counsel, 1,088 households facing eviction received services, and over 700 remained in their homes. We have also [inaudible] as well as 2 million in tenant counseling, outreach, and education to 1,020 households. We have invested nearly 950,000 in tenant landlord mediation that serves 950 households. Mohcd aithanks you for all you leadership and support. We appreciate the opportunity to share your accomplishments and future plans for continuous improvement. This concludes my presentation. My team and i are able to address your questions at this time. Chair fewer thank you very much, mr. Shaw. Colleagues, any comments or questions for mr. Gonchar or mr. Shaw . You know, i think that we have had people waiting for Public Comment for this item, and theyve been waiting for a while, so lets take that. Madam clerk, if you dont mind, public item on item 1. Excuse me . Supervisor mandelman looks like walton might have a comment. Chair fewer oh, yes, supervisor walton, would you care to comment now or after Public Comment . Supervisor walton thank you, chair fewer, i will wait for Public Comment as you said, people are waiting to speak. Chair fewer president yee, would you wait for your comment . President yee i will wait. Chair fewer okay. So we will take Public Comment. Madam clerk, are there any people in the queue . Clerk yes. I just wanted to mention that there is a special item number 2, scheduled for special order item, item number 2, scheduled for 2 30. Chair fewer okay. How does this work . Clerk yes. Ive been informed that the Community Members who would like to speak on item number 2, they are aware this meeting is going longer than expected, and we can proceed with item number 2 after this item is acted on. Chair fewer okay. Thank you very much. Lets take Public Comment now. Clerk yes. Item number madam chair, operation is checking to see if theres any callers in the queue. Operation, please let us know if there are callers ready. If you have not already done so, please press starthree to be put in the queue. If you are already in the queue, please wait until you are called for Public Comment. Mr. Moderator, are there callers up for Public Comment . Operator yes. There are 11 callers in the queue. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is [inaudible] and im the workers Rights Community center, serving filipinos in the community and all throughout the city. We have a client who we initially served for Unemployment Insurance needs but with a thorough Needs Assessment found that she was concerned about accessing food, paying rent and going outside safely as a senior in the high risk population. She was not alone in her concern for her basic needs. Many others were facing the same problem, and we had to complete reassess our organization to address the immediate issue. Almost every aspect of our work takes longer. We have to spend more time with Community Members and student, help them recover, build resiliency and thrive while they themselves have less time to engage due to the pressure of making ends meet. Furthermore, we know this economic crisis will have longterm effects on the vulnerable population with lower employment perspective, need longterm selections into the community. It is important that the city keep whole black and indigenous and people of color populations in the city. Thank you for your time. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hello, supervisors. My name is [inaudible] and im on the housing rights committee. Before this virus hit and now that its going on, we still need Public Outreach for these tenants. Tenants often dont get basic information that they need unless outreach comes to them. It is important for us and many of our partner groups to focus on high risk of displacement. It is also important in these times to continue tenant rights counseling as tenants often given correct information. Landlords sometimes trick them. Sometimes even landlords lawyers tell tenants they have to leave, write them letters in languages they dont understand, or with hope s. F. Properties or others, repairs not made, no matter how many tenants ask for them over and over, and basic calculations over what rent is owed in the past or in the present is often badly calculated, and tenants need help navigating that system. We are part of a network of tenants Rights Groups that do this kind of important outreach and counseling. We really want to make sure that these services continue. We cant even begin to get to mat joert of tenants who need these services. Majority of tenants who need these services. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller . Hello, supervisors. My name is david wu with soma filipinas Cultural Heritage district. Mohcd must take the leads from the organizations on the ground doing the workday in and day out. One proven way to do that yet is underfunded and underresourced is acquiring existing rent controlled buildings. This strategy must be expanded and done directly with Community Based organizations and tenants in impacted communities. Mohcd must support and provide resources for the creation of neighborhoodbased nonprofits who can do this type of work. There also needs to be a meaningful and expanded result of community planning. The dynamic of a toptodown Community Development and Community Stabilization must be referenced. Mohcd must invest in communities, providing resources for them to engage in the Community Development process. These are the types of strategies we are looking at, and we look to all City Departments for support in these efforts. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you for your time. Im with the San Francisco coalition for help and wellness, specifically with the black Led Organization coalition, and what i would like to say is thank you, first, to supervisor walton, supervisor fewer and supervisor ronen responding to our letter, dehad noting that we have equity for blackLed Organizations in this budget process. We would also like to say that no one else, including the mohcd, has responded to us at this point with over a week since we wrote the letter. I understand that director shaw is new, and i understand that you inherited im going to use the colloquial bit of a mess, but i need you to. We will not fight over money, and we will not allow money and funding to divide us any longer. We want this Budget Office and committee to hold accountable the following questions. What percentage of funding goes to black Led Coalitions, what percentage of rent assistance goes to black renters or what percentage specifically goes to black Led Organizations. At this point, we can only attribute this to antiblackness within mohcd, so i respectfully ask that you investigate this, and you do not allow this to continue. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hi, supervisors. My name is alex, and i am the director of Mission Language and Vocational School. I would like to start by saying that im in solidarity with the black coalition who came before the mohcd demanding more income and help for black communities and black led agencies. Black lives matter every single day. The Mission Language and Vocational School was not recommended for funding, and even though weve served as a hub, we are training now essential workers in the health care industry. I would like to thank the supervisors ronen and walton for attending our mission Food Distribution hub during covid19. We continue to each online and virtual classrooms during the pandemic. Some of the some of this training comes from the mohcd Computer Training Program which is required, a required course for the medical assistance and hospitality certification programs. The grant of 50,000 allows us to open an Access Center for youth and those coming out of the justice system. Were asking that mohcd continue to meet the recommendations. L. V. S. Has recently won our building back, and now more than ever we need the city to continue to support these comments. I want to end my comments with black lives matter, and i really hope that mohcd takes that into account. Thank you. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next caller, please. Good afternoon, supervisors. This is director of soma filipinas and filipina Cultural Heritage district. I want to acknowledge the point that mohcd has placed for decades in partnering with Community Groups to support new and innovative models for community preservation. 15 years ago, soma group selected mohcd to be home for the soma stabilization fund, and we also picked mohcd to be the Home Department for different cultural districts across the city. Today, were proud to work with eric shaw and were very hopeful that under his leadership and with his background in Community Development and recovery, the community will have a recovery strategy. We hope that other communities that were also recommended for cuts will be made whole. For example, the Filipino Community, there were over 300,000 in cuts recommended in the mohcd fiveyear r. F. P. As you know, the Filipino Community is the community who faced great displacements and we have lost half of our population as we have been priced out of the shopping market. Vital to our survival is the Community Organizations that provide cultural and inlanguage access. Clerk thank you for your comments. Next speaker, please. Hi. Good afternoon, supervisors. Im emma lee, and i am the director of San Francisco rising, and we are a Community Alliance made up of eight organizations. And just testifying today because as the other speakers have already mentioned, the pandemic is hitting communities of color the hardest, and before the crisis, asian, latinx and black families are more likely to be evicted and face disparities than white families. We hope that a Just Recovery will take an equity lens in funding recovery programs for these communities that have been historically marginalized, such as communities of color, the Lgbtq Community and other communities that have been hit hard by covid, such as unhoused residents and people with disabilities. We stand in solidarity with people who lead the black community and black organizations that need to be funded in this moment, especially when the whole population is taking to the streets to demand justice for the murders of george floyd, breonna taylor, and others. We urge that cuts made across the board the board will hurt communities of color the most. Clerk thank you for your call. There are approximately six callers in the queue. Please queue in the next caller. Good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you. My name is georgia, and im the executive director of third street youth clinic. First off, i just want to thank our folks on the line who have really been standing with us in solidarity. Lots of love and peace to you all. It really means a lot to us. Couple of things i wanted to highlight is that we are wondering what strategies will mohcd be implementing to increase the rates of black applications for Home Ownership. Of the 9,000 applications received, only 11 were approved. 12 of the 16 latinx folks were accepted for housing. This is unacceptable, and according to the 2019 pit count, over 30 of the Homeless Population in San Francisco is black, and 18 of them are latinx folks, yet they cannot get housing from the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development. We are looking for answers, we are looking to work with director shaw and staff around making sure that mohcds policies and strategies will be steeped in equity. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hello, caller . Hello. Thank you for holding this meeting. Im with soma filipinas. [inaudible] we are very concerned that even before the pandemic, there were already proposed cuts for mohcd towards filipino organizations. [inaudible] clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hello, caller . Hi. My name is lenna, i am still in my unit because tenant right groups came knocking on my buildings door, when my landlord, one of the largest San Francisco landlords in the city was trying to get us out with misleading information and even harassment. At risk tenants are tricked into moving out if they do not get the correct information, and that is why i believe that outreach is very, very important. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Good afternoon, supervisors. My name is katrina, and im an attorney at the Filipino Community center. I am born and raised in district nine. With the covid19 pandemic, s. C. C. And other organizations had to make drastic adjustments to be able to work remotely. Every day, we conducted wellness checked over the phone to continue Case Management and recording. While learning news we hear traumatic stories of sheltering in place with abusers, homelessness, racial discrimination, severe food insecurity. As the only filipino district in neighborhood with the largest concentration of filipinos in San Francisco, we set up programs that did not exist before. For example, this is not being met with the same support by city agencies. Neighborhood organizations have been historically underresourced, and this is being brought to light even more in this pandemic. Cuts made across the board will Impact Communities of color the most. We count on the city and mohcd for standing side by side with us to fight trauma during a time like this. This is not the time to cut funding for programs that have been proven to strengthen us which needs to sustaibe sustai with growing investments by mohcd. Clerk the speakers time has expired. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hello. My name is keyonna, and im a volunteer with the San Francisco Housing Authority for almost two years. Its now more important than ever to help tenants at risk of evictions. They provide counseling for folks across all different types of housing every single type of housing in San Francisco to Public Housing, s. R. O. S, and many of the other groups that others have mentioned. During my time as a volunteer, ive seen evictions be prevented because of the counseling provided by the housing rights committee. We already have this pandemic, and if more people end up unhoused, that will increase the deadly effects of covid19. To all the supervisors, please keep in mind that the budget is a moral document, and it will reflect who or what you all prioritize, and it will affect the future elections. Please put our black lives services and Community Groups at the forefront. I also stand in solidarity with everyone whos spoken so far, and please help us as they are the reason for many of our black, lgbtq, and just everyone in San Francisco. Theyre the reason that theyre taken care of. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hi. This is jackie white calling. I am the former head of the San Francisco American Red Cross. I was with the American Red Cross for ten years. I was Public Affairs manager at kpix, and ive worked with a number of nonprofits over the years doing consulting work. One of the things that ive seen over the years working with various organizations is theres been limitied funding, so i stand with the San Francisco black Led Coalition saying do not cut funding for them. The minimal percent that theyre asking is not sufficient. There should be more, and i think you should look at historically what has happened to the black community over the years as it has been ravaged by a lack of proper funding, and that needs to be corrected. They need to be brought up to parity. They need equity, and there needs to be help now. When you look at 9,000 applications and only 11 approved, we need to ask why and what steps can be implemented to keep this moving forward. I commend you, i thank you for the opportunity to speak, but i do think action needs to be taken moving forward and then a retrolook at what was kept from the black community, and that reconciliation should be achieved. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Hi. Im sarah susa, and i work at nlvs Housing Services, assisting monolingual residents in the mission district. [inaudible] for job search for thousands of immigrant families. Our home is essential and, you know, we have complied with other requirements. I am asking you on behalf of our organization to not take this asset from our community. We also stand with the black community to make sure that there is equitable costs in terms of funding allocation. Thank you for this opportunity to speak, and i hope that you reconsider and give us the grant that we need to support our community. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. So my name is francisco decosta, and ive been listening to many of the comments, and i just want to talk about history. That at one time, the army, the department of defense built a lot of homes, okay . And most people who had jobs and lowincome families had good housing till that housing was turned over to the San Francisco housing with the intent of deferring maintenance and ruining the housing. Now they talk about 30,000 homes we built aon Candlestick Point and very contaminated land. What i want yall supervisors to do, i say again and again, is to do a needs of assessment. Theres no history of the housing, and youll just follow what the Developers Want to do, and now, we have families living on the streets of San Francisco in tents, and people are dying. And yall are just beating around the bush, having Public Comment, that people are saying things because you want some help or some you know, they want somebody to solve them, but not you, supervisors, you will not be able to solve it, let me tell you, because you cannot do a Needs Assessment. Thank you very much. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hi there. My name is dina mendoza, and i represent [inaudible]. Prior to the budget, our budget was cut by 38 . [inaudible]. We wish that tenants in the tenderloin and the mission remain houses. [inaudible] so we can continue to do this work. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller, please. Hello . Clerk hello . Hello. My name is [inaudible]. And im the clinical coordinator for the english technical school. Many students have shared how the Technical Assistance program has changed their life for the better. It is important that we continue to change the lives of the future generation. [inaudible] especially now in light of the hardship and the pandemic. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Next caller. Hi. My name is najeeb crawford, and i am the director of community foundation. Im calling because im concerned how the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development are prioritizing and funding their actions. We all know that the black Community Came to San Francisco in the 50s and 60s en masse and built amazing communities for themselves in the bayview and the fillmore. Because of programs like urban renewal, red lining, and other government sanctioned programs, our communities were stripped from us, our housing was stripped from us. Ten square blocks of fillmore was bulldozed, and the community was forced to live in highrise housing projects built to temporarily housing until the housing was rebuilt and we could move back into the community. That never happened. We have young people finding themselves on the floor in the tenderloin in s. R. O. S. We have thousands of black people thats been impacted by San Francisco housing policies, waiting for years for housing justice, and it seems like the mohcd, its not even on your radar. You know, we have Certificate Holders that are expired, not transferring to their kids, or their kids kids. So now im asking that you prioritize and move it forward; that you make a concerted effort to rehouse the thousands of people that have been unhoused because of San Francisco housing policies. Thank you. Clerk thank you. Operator madam chair, that completes the queue. Chair fewer thank you very much. So now i think in the queue, i have supervisor walton. Supervisor walton thanks so much, supervisor walton. It took a second to get my ipad straight. The first thing i want to start off by saying, i would never pit communities of color against each other or districts against each other, but there are decades long of complete disregard to black communities and black organizations by mohcd. This has been happening since my days at the cherry hill resource center, and we still see the antiblack sentiment at the department as the budgets come through and were trying to make sure we budget all communities in San Francisco. I think that things will change on mohcd and not just on the Community Development side of the house, but on the housing director side of the house. Do you have a breakdown of your housing by race, gender, ethnicity, etc. I do not. I and im im supervisor walton, first of all, thank you very much for your question. I cant say im new many times, but i need to consult with h. R. If were just allowed to aggregate by that, by race and by ethnicity, but i will confer with my h. R. Consultant and get back to you. I do have the total number of staff by division but not gender or race. Supervisor walton thank you very much. If you could please get that to us before next week, before our next tuesday board meeting, that would be great. Also, i do understand that you are new, and a lot of the antiblackness and racist history of the department do not fall on you, but you should have staff here that should be able to answer some of the questions that will be forthcoming. What ethnicity or race would you suffer the most from evictions or from defaults on Mortgage Loans . I can i will ask my staff. I did get statistics, though, that 80 of African Americans that were served by eviction defense had successful were successful in not being evicted. I will find out the other numbers on the other things, but i am trying to find out the specific numbers for our programs and the impact on African Americans. If one of the members of my team happen to know that, could you please share that with the supervisor . Hi. Brian chu here from the Mayors Office of okay. We can continue. When he comes back on, we can get that to you, supervisor. Supervisor walton okay. Thank you. How much exact eraf money do you have in your budget from 20192020 budget and your proposed 20202021 budget. Benjamin mccloskey on my team can answer that question. Hes the chief administrator chief operating officer. Benjamin . Hello, supervisor. Benjamin mccloskey, Deputy Director for finance and administration, mohcd. Im going to address our 2021 Budget Proposal first because thats a little bit easier. The were not currently assuming any eraf in our 2021 Budget Proposal due to uncertainty at the state level about whether or not thats going to continue. Theres continuing conversations between the mayors Budget Office and the Controllers Office how to approach eraf in the upcoming budget cycles. With regards to our eraf for 1920, almost 175 million. Supervisor walton and out of that 175 million, it all still remains . No, sir. Approximately 40 million of that was used by the mayors Budget Office as part of their rebalancing proposal for the current fiscal year. Supervisor walton but you didnt use all of the resources at this point . Oh, we did use them, yes, sir. Theyre all allocated to different projects, and these different projects are in various stages of spending, but other than the 40 million or so that we gave back as part of the rebalancing effort, those are all in motion. Supervisor walton thank you. Director shaw, if we look at slide 16, looking at your third bullet athe third bullet, it talks about your plan, and the whole slide is about Grant Funding process, but the third bullet talks about priorities being aligned to the plan, and the agencys path performance and fiscal help. What have the department done and i know there are people on here that may be probably able to give a better answer to this if there is an answer to this, but what have the department done to ensure that agencies led by people of color are provide with opportunities to build capacity and infrastructure . So i i can answer that and follow up if you have additional. So in addition to as i shared this on the last slide, in addition to the investments that we made in organizations, we also have several pieces, and in some instances, those services are available to orpgss who alorpg organizations who may not be grantees. If there is resources around management, if there is around budgeting and Board Development i believe that there are four or five programs that served smaller that are specifically receiving Technical Assistance and capacity work. I believe almost all of them are run by executive directors of color, but he can provide additional clarification for that. Theres a Technical Assistance and a Capacity Building piece that we have in addition to the funding that we give out. Supervisor walton and after you work with these organizations, do you make it a point to make sure that they receive resources as a result of the Technical Assistance that you provide for them . I think thats a great question, and ill ask brian to follow up. I think im not sure how the scoring system takes into account organizations that received assistance from a Capacity Building assistance. So brian, can you provide some assistance on for organizations who receive assistance of organizational building capacity for us . We do make that into account when we look at the overall capacity of our organization. I think our department has intended to have a larger number of small organizations that have smaller budgets, african ad voe cas african advocacy and some of those organizations. We have shifted the funding for some of those groups because we recognize that federal funding is not always the best, so weve moved general fund to their portfolio, and weve also assisted them in helping them find a fiscal agent. Weve assisted some of them with finding that fiscal agent so they can focus on their program, then while we work with the fiscal agent to move them towards their own financial independence. Supervisor walton and then looking at the same slide, bullet four discusses establish base on race equity, and i wont dive into everything, but do you consider 2 of the resources of a 40 million plus million budget going to black organizations Racial Equity . No, and i think we are looking at other actions. I think we recognize that, and we are working to not only make those investments now but also learn from learn from this new program how to better make sure we provide resources to black Led Organizations. I think that just also in the Racial Equity piece, its not just the black Led Organizations piece but specifically enhancing the outcomes and the number of black residents served is the space that were looking at as well in that space. Supervisor walton well, definitely serving black residents is one indicator of serving them well and making sure that theyre served culturally appropriately. Yes, sir. Supervisor walton and within the communities that they reside in is also an important piece and an important indicator of success. We know the budget went from 10 million to 50 million over the last ten years, and i noticed that sizeable amounts of Home Ownership counseling and rental funding and counseling going back into communities. Going back to my earlier question of which ethnicity is most impacted from evictions or defaults on Mortgage Loans, i was expecting the answer to being black folks. Why do we have Home Ownership counseling and rental funding counseling, but not one black Led Organization im just not saying fund black Led Organizations, im saying we have some of the highest negative outcomes here in San Francisco in several categories, and yet we are not proportionately funded. We talk about these resources when were addressing the Homeless Population, when were only about 5 or less than 5 of the population but makeup about 40 of the Homeless Population. This is not just about Racial Equity across the board, its not equity as a whole. There are not enough funding going to black organizations if we look at the negative outcomes that have been going to the community. An additional 1 million in funding when you gave out 40 does not begin to address the issue. How do we ensure Racial Equity and antiracism Going Forward . So i can answer that question, and this cause this has been one of the fundamental questions for me, and hearing the comments from you, speaking closely with the mayor and hearing from Community Organizations that this is an issue that is a priority for everyone. I think, once again, that im sharing that even with the even with the 1 million to black Led Organizations, we can continue to figure out ways to invest in that, but its also a need to sort of figure out where the gaps are in these fundings to black Led Organizations. Were working on how to enhance communications. Were looking at increasing the diversity and making sure we get the proper training for our community. I think ive shared with you in a conversation that weve already had some initial conversation along with the Human Services commission around the equitable evaluation framework, which is a new framework being done by National Funders specifically grounded in community knowledge, Community Outcomes and a Racial Equity lens in evaluating evaluating Program Success and programs as a whole. But this really is a a priority for me and understanding the Strategic Direction not just in terms of operations but also in terms of communication and Capacity Building, to really to get to this space. Its a priority for me as a new director, and i know its a priority with you and the mayor. Were working with director davis, the human right commission, to make sure were getting the appropriate data to make the shifts in practice. And i assure you they will be substantive shifts in practice to be responsive to the distinct needs to the black community in community. Supervisor walton thank you. I appreciate you bringing up the Human Rights Commission work, because this question is specific in terms of are you thinking maybe the resources that the Community Development division that mohcd has, maybe they should fall under the racial Rights Commission or the Human Rights Commission so that we can get true funding equity allocations for the future 1234. Future . Well, i think we need to continue to look at our policies and practices. I know they have an ear to the ground i am relying on them with my staff to get a better perspective. Theres a specific expertise around how the programs work, and so i think once again that working with the Racial Equity and Human Rights Commission to understand issues that may impact the ability to access services, but its looking at how Community Preference is resulting, we know that for a number of African Americans who city of assistance were trying to evaluate the efficacy of these programs. I do think that the office of Racial Equity needs to be involved and help us understand how to increase the efficacy of our programs to increase the efficacy of programs for black communities and black people. Supervisor walton [inaudible] continued disproportionate of funding going into the black community. This is not the first time that this happened. This happened for nearly two decades, and so with that said, you just mentioned the expertise you had, but that expertise has played a major and funding role in those organizations. I must point that out to you. Supervisor, i just wasnt to add that that comes from a place for me, as well. With my staff, those are conversations that were having, about understanding best practices and if we need to consult with other institutions that are dealing with this work to make sure that we can appropriately examine our practices, as well, and make sure theyre responsive. Supervisor walton and my last question is has the mayor approved this budget that youve submitted so far, 20202021 . So weve submitted we submitted we had project guidance thats been submitted to the mayor with proposed cuts, but i think if youre referring to the grants per se or are you referring to the budget and the city as a whole . Actually both. No. So the mayor has not introduced the mayor has not introduced the budget for Going Forward. I believe that happens in august, and then, we are still continuing to work with her office on the grant the finalized amounts for the grant. Supervisor walton thank you. Thank you, supervisor. Chair fewer yes, now supervisor president yee. President yee thank you, chair fewer, and thank you, supervisor walton, for your line of questioning, and thank you, director shaw, for your presentation. And so i know that supervisor walton said was his priority and a few other peoples priority in looking at the equity lens in your grant making, and it is a priority for me, also, so just to echo the course here. If im asking questions that you might have answered, sorry. You did present a lot of stuff. I did. President yee so part of part of probably, the crux of my questioning and i think supervisor waltons questioning is i never could figure out the Decision Making process thats behind the Community Development grants program priorities. It constantly shifts, and even when we do addbacks to support your organization to do community work, whether its in any of our districts, it might start off that way in a year, but then, i find out years later, that that addback that should be ongoing, it ended or it shifted priorities, and a few years later, we really dont know what happened to the money. Thats one example of where we see shifting around, and then, theres no explanation. So can you sort of address this issue a little bit . Yes. I am going to im going to defer to director chu, but i think that, president yee, even in this presentation, it is about communication, as well, and how we communicate the spending of the funds, and the initial presentation or iteration of this presentation, we had sort of lumped add backs into one space that says additional r. F. P. S and additional distributions. So in that instance, the integrity of specific investments and specific policy direction i think gets lost in the communication with the funds still being oriented. I can tell you, i think so brian and benjamin can share, we are any expended funds are based on the policy or legal requirement thats in the budget, but brian or benjamin, if you want to answer the president s question. Sure, i can answer that, president yee. So our Current Practice has been when we receive the list of add backs and mayoral enhancements usually at the end of june, beginning of july, we then consult back with the board member that we feel is probably connected to that add back. Then, each august, we put out a very discretionary r. F. P. That specifically lays out the intent of the add back with both the language of the add back as informed by the background that the supervisor themselves gives to that. It is an open procurement process, as you know, its competitive process, and what weve done, which is different from other departments, is we request that that initial add back be added in into our general fund budget. We can do it that way, and we have maintained that same purpose for the entire fiveyear period of our consolidated plan so that it lines up with ourover all funding. So, for example, an add back that was given to us back in 2015 is very likely to have been maintained with us for the past five years, so if there was an occasion where there was a lack of clarity on that, we can address that, but we do have very significant communication with the supervisors office, and we do main that i know th maintain that through the course of that period. President yee okay. I believe part of your statement is really true because thats whats happened, when we do add backs the first time around, that you make sure you have clarity and in terms of what the intention was. But the other piece, as years go by, im not clear that happens. I wish i could give you a clear example, but i hear statements of oh, that funding, what happened to it . Its certain that out in the community, thats the sort of noise that we need to Pay Attention to, and you need to check to make sure that thats not actually happening. The other thing around housing, i guess, what is your plan for the continuing housing fund, the money that we got from eraf, and knowing that that might be in danger, do you have any plans for that or how youre going to adjust . Yeah. Im starting to have either lydia ely, whos the acting director, or benjamin mccloskey. I know in that instance, it cannot be used for something else, so i think we continue to have a significant we can always have more pool of money for investments and Affordable Housing. And then, i think that the nez shifts that had to happen through eraf or other cuts, we were able to adjust and adjust based off of other funding pools, but director lydia, if you want to add, or benjamin, if you have additional clarification . Sure. President yee, i think the the biggest new Funding Source thats going to be assisting our Housing Development is the 600 million Affordable Housing bond that was approved last november. We are in the process of working with the office of Public Finance and the City Attorneys Office to determine when we can issue the First Issuance of that bond, but that is a very significant Funding Source for Housing Development, and its honestly the only reason we were not able to have significant budget challenges related in the Housing Development realm related to the rebalancing in the current fiscal year that happened with regard to the eraf was because of the existence of the 2019 Affordable Housing bond. And then, i think, as youre aware, the board has asked the Capital Planning committee to include Affordable Housing in the capital plan. So our hope is that the Affordable Housing becomes an ongoing and regular consideration before the voters, and that as one bond is exhausted as we identify additional needs, a new bond would be considered by the voters. President yee well thank you for that answer. Whats whats the thinking behind it . Yeah. I think the easiest way to understand the the budget balances that carryover from year to year is to recognize that Housing Development in San Francisco in particular takes a long time, and even just if you think just about the construction phase of a project is easily 18 to 24 months, and so even if we released money on july 1, and we start spending it on a froj that begins on july 1, were not going to spend all of that money in a 12month period, so its going to carryover to the next period. The bond measure that my colleague, benjamin, just mentioned, you know, as an example, to answer your question, has dedicated category, so out of the 600 million, for instance, that the voters have approved for our use, we have certain categories in which to spend, so we have Public Housing, we have new construction, and we have preservation, just for instance. Furthermore, we have other Funding Sources that are generated by the private development around the city. Often, they are restricted geographically or by use. We get federal moneys thats similarly limited and constrained by regulation. To some extent, its a matching game where projects that we have in the pipeline, we need to fully fund. We need to use all these sources jishsly a sources judiciously and keep the projects moving. We president yee thats how you determine it, right . The paw on the item. These days excuse me for that. These days, we are often issuing notes for an r. F. P. For the city or that has come to the city for Surplus Properties or surplus lands. We have also land dedication, which, as you all know, is mechanism by which private developers fulfill their inclusionary requirements, so they give us land, and we like to develop that land. And all through these projects, were assessing feasiblity. We dont want to spend too much on particular project. In the last few years, the state has issued a number of nofas and r. F. P. S, a number of new funding programs under governor newsoms leadership, that were constantly trying to match those Funding Sources with our projects and see where we can leverage additional Funding Sources and have more money for more city projects. When we do issue a notice for an r. F. P. Or r. F. Q. , it includes Committee Members and always includes city members, and then we select the developers, and after that point, we make a recommendation to the mayor for the selection, and we get the ball funding to get preliminary funding for the project so they can start the important redevelopment work. President yee you say in the r. F. Q. , the Community Members are involved often, and when i made that suggestion for laguna honda hospital, surrounding area for laguna honda, there was some comment that no, we dont do that. Is that something thats welcome or is it something that we need to constantly, like, push back and say no, we need Community Members to be part of the process . I mean, i think were open to it. As you know, many of our projects are controversial, and there are folks in community that dont always welcome the project or have the same vision for the r. F. Q. , so i think we just have to do it judiciously and carefully. Not to say that we dont welcome healthy argument, but we try to do it by consensus. We try to find folks that are invested in the projects future success and are excited by the project Going Forward. President yee okay. Im not too sure that were talking became thing, but for that particular project, id like to see it as a regular thing, actually. I asked for two members from the community to be involved in the process, to actually be part of this Interview Panel and Selection Process and the developer, and there was no controversy. They were all just part of the team, so you could build more trust with the community that, in fact, we end of the day, is this good enough. Certainly, and weve done it before. Certainly, the City Employees participate, and they do many, many hours of work, and they can ask volunteers to do that, as well. President yee its hard to ask, but weve got to ask it. People care, they volunteer. What are we talking about . I mean, thats what we do. We all volunteer. Sheesh. Chair fewer president yee, are you done with questioning, because i see supervisor ronen in the queue. President yee yeah, i have a few more, but go ahead. Chair fewer okay. Supervisor ronen . Supervisor ronen i dont want to cutoff president yee. I actually have a similar version of a question, so maybe you can finish up because i very much agreed with everything you had to say. Im wondering and this is sort of a similar question to president yee, how decisions are made specifically on timing and use and selection of awardees for nofas, r. F. P. S, and r. F. Q. S. And the reason im asking this is very similar in line to what supervisor walton and president yee were saying is often times, it feels like the same Large Developers get awarded and selected time and time again, and im just wondering what mohcd is doing to improve capacity in smaller organizations led by black and brown folks so that theyre able to compete with the large, Nonprofit Developers who are awarded pretty much every single contract. This is news to me, but members of the community are on these panels, as well. I had no idea. Ive never heard of that before, so that just i would love to hear more about that, as well. So supervisor, there was 3 million in capacity rebuilding money that was just awarded to smaller, communitybased developers to support staffing, process reform, and build the capacity of those respective organizations. Supervisor ronen sorry. Not to interrupt you, but i believe that was supervisor fewer who insisted was that you, supervisor fewer . Chair fewer yes. Supervisor ronen who insisted on that money. The board of supervisors this is before your time, obviously, but the board of supervisors has had to intervene to make that happen. Sorry. Okay. Well, no, no, no. So i mean, i think theres two cases on that. I think theres a healthy relationship between the Mayors Office and your constituents which include these sponsors to find those spaces. I think that in addition to that, the conversations ive had, i think ive had a chance to talk to almost all the small developers, that they are also sharing the fear theyre working with each other to build each others capacity to build a team, and then, i think in talking with some of the larger developers, i think the staff can weighin on that, weve been trying to build capacity with some of the smaller organizations, larger organizations, to get the larger r. F. P. S. Its not a process that happens overnight, but i think its happened with the mayor, that weve invested the funds to make sure that that partnership is substantive. So i think ongoing, ill maybe share with you that i want to work closely with each of the respective smaller organizations just to understand what theyre coming from. I can tell you that even in the eight weeks that ive been here, ive gotten four calls with four deals. I know that the mayor is pushing four more density in all spaces, so those are conversations that my team and i need to have with with these respective organizations. I would just say that you know that the Deputy Director for housing is also open, and this is an expectation that i have in hiring them around establishing a substantive relationship and understanding not just the pipeline but the strategic relationship of respective organizations and where we have resources. If i may jump in just to add to supervisor ronens question, i think a lot of the funding programs, like the Tax Credit Program that we rely onto build our projects requires a certain amount of experience for the developer to have under their belt to be competitive, so our strategy has really been to try to invite kind of a joint venture, a partnership agreement, so weve done that in some cases. Theres been projects, like the corner of 24 and harrison, casa d de la mision, they partnered with the neighborhood center. Bernal probably would not have been able to be competitive on their own, so we do kind of try to encourage that. We could do more, i believe. Sometimes those partnerships hamburg happen organically because a missiondriven organization wants to get that going, and they dont have the funding inhouse. But i do think we could get that going and something that we just dont encourage, but that we get moving forward. Supervisor ronen thank you. That is very true, and i appreciate all of those partnerships. I think the continuation of all of those partnerships, the money that chair fewer put in for project funding that organizations want to put together but dont have the funding will help. I think some of the frustration that you help us from and from you, director, being brandnew, it comes from a history of decisions being just lacking transparency. There was a failed effort to put a measure on the ballot, a charter amendment, to create a commission over mohcd so that there was some transparency in how decisions are made in determining these projects. But it failed, and so i think that having more transparency as you leave this organization is going to be an important step as you lead this organization is going to be an important step as you move forward, but i did appreciate what you had to say. Thank you. Thank you. Chair fewer president yee, did you have a few more questions . President yee yeah, i wanted to shift gears a little bit. This is about the local operating programs subsidy loss. Do you know that comes mostly from general funds and it fully covers the gap between the tenants, what they can pay and what the rent is . Whats your thinking now in trying to because i think that that number, if you were to continue serving the same people, will continue to grow, which means that there will be some intention to try to get that money from the general funds. Have you ever had any discussions about that . So president yee, the loss program that youre highlighting is one of the key ways that we are able to provide permanent housing to people who are leaving homelessness. It is the way to, in our Affordable Housing portfolios, as we build those projects, whether they are for formerly housing or a percentage are, its the only way we can make the building workout because the tenants, being formerly homeless, have extremely lowincomes and cant even afford the affordable rent that the building is required to have for the tax credit regulations. And so as we youre correct. The only real exit strategy options that are easy, one is creating more units for formerly homeless people, and the second would be something that we did successfully a few years ago, which is mentioned in the e. L. B. L. A. Report, whic working with the San Francisco Housing Authority to access federal vouchers that can be applied to those units and those buildings. And once we apply the federal vouchers to those units, then it takes away the burden from the general fund. The challenge in that is that theres not vouchers to go around at this time, but perhaps at some point in their future, there may be an to use some of those vouchers from the Housing Authority to relieve general fund expenses. And president yee, the first option is not an option. President yee i was going to say, what are you talking about . I will put that on the record. I agree. [inaudible] and secondly, the mayor and i signed off on the heros act, and there were other requests for vouchers and other that came out of there. So thats why we said there may be future funding that comes out of this. Its why weve asked at the state level and federal level for specific. President yee yeah. Lets push the state as much as possible because they havent done much. If i may add another response to that again, this is lydia ely. There are other subsidies through the continuum of care, called the spectrum of care, and we are ambitious to bring those in every year so we dont have to fund as many lost units. As benjamin mentioned, a few years ago, we converted about 400 lost units to section 8. In the heros act, weve asked for another 1200 vouchers. Theres also going to be a hud note this fall for more section 8. Our authority is negotiating with hud as to whether those are developer based or tenant based. Were working on housing vouchers for homeless veterans, and were putting those into projects whenever we can, so were always looking at ways to take the pressure off of developments whenever we can because theyre so constrained. President yee i hope we can do that because what weve seen what we sorted through last year when we created the s. O. S. Program, the senior operating subsidies for the same reason th, that basically lot of seniors cant even qualify to get the Affordable Housing at what is it . Whatever a. M. I. 50 of the a. M. I. Because theyre below, and they eventually will become homeless, so its a cycle that we need to stop, and im actually hoping that we can find some Funding Sources to pull that a little bit this year. Its going to be tough, but i think its probably money well spend because at the end of the day, you probably are going to spend more if you dont do it. And so then, i wanted to ask the question, we asked for looking at whats in the pipelines for our senior housing, and at the time, nobody really knew or at least it wasnt organized in a way that it could be presented, so we asked for a way to study it or to assess it because we made the argument last year, a substantial portion of the Affordable Housing bond to go towards seniors because we realized weve been lacking in that area for quite a few decades, actually. Is there any plans of looking at the pipelines . I can check on that, too. I know weve made some initial investments in that, as well. I think one of the things that i raised when i first got here was a change in the theory change of the office, and making sure we have an alignment in that theory, as well, just an alignment for the Community Development side, as well. Were we able to generate a list on that . Well, i can tell you that the three r. F. P. S or nofas that we issued, one was laguna honda. President yee yea yea some of the bond funds that were approved by voters in the fall, and 42 geary was approved as a senior site, so two of the fee. So we are understanding the need to push forward as many senior projects as we can. We can look quickly at the pipeline and get you what will be planned in the shortterm, the next two years and get it to you as soon as we can. President yee okay. Appreciate that. One more thing. The b. L. A. Report indicated that theres a couple policy decisions that we can chew on, i guess. A lot of them are decisions made for funding for Community Housing grants, and then, the last thing as an option, which is, you know, consider amending administrative code to require mohcd, in its quarterly reports on Affordable Housing and development, to include the detai details regarding how developments have come to them for approval and so forth. So when i already had a preliminary look over this report, i already asked my start to start looking into this, whether we needed to pass any legislation to make this happen, so my question to you, director shaw, given these recommendations, the best way, in my mind, to sort of atddres these issues is for you to do it sort of as a matter of practice, and then, can you have a little bit of control on things that get reported and so forth. Otherwise, were going to sit, you know, on our computers and makeup a lot of things for you. Thats definitely not an option. Im coming at this with fresh eyes, which i think is hopeful, but how does this piece fit in with this piece, and its really about how do we communicate information to yourself, to the Mayors Office, and the public, as well. I saw those recommendations in my draft, as well, and so noted. President yee would you forward those onto my office so were sort of confident that this is going to get taken care of, otherwise, well do it. Maybe you would agree that we need to do it through legislation. Thank you, chair fewer. Chair fewer thank you, colleagues, for your questions and comments. I had one question about the awards. Will there be reductions, and will there be reductions across the board. We heard that 15 reductions and oneyear contracts instead of fiveyear contracts. Is that true . So yes, i think there will be oneyear contracts. We have been looking at three things in picarticular. Covid did affect our ability to ma and then finally, the mayors been clear about this, and i said in my remarks, that we are taking a hard look at organizations and their outcomes, their Racial Equity outcomes, and so i think as my staff and i look at those, to really make sure we have the alignment, were trying to make sure theres two things. That we have the appropriate investments to advance in Racial Equity, and then were also putting the appropriate conditions to ensure that were meeting the outcomes for that. So im pushing on that right now, but yes, therell be one. We are trying to make sure we have the cuts that there will be cuts, and third, that we are making sure that the cuts do not exacerbate existing Racial Equity issues that weve seen and have been discussing in this hearing. Chair fewer but so are they going to be awarded this friday . Because what weve heard is that its been held up for months, and the funding deadline is july 1, which is just around the corner. And as you can imagine, all of these nonprofits are sort of in limbo. So are they going to be awarded this friday . They will be i cannot guarantee that, but they will be were working our best to make sure that theyre awarded before the end of this fiscal year. So this friday, i cant guarantee that because were still doing the final consultation with the Mayors Office and doing our analysis around Racial Equity. But we have but our team sorry, chairman. Chair fewer but its been held up for months now, and if we think that the funding will start july 1, its just next week, so were coming up to this deadline, and i think nonprofits have been waiting to hear, and so i think its a little disturbing to hear that this is wednesday already, and that next monday, the money is supposed to be available to them. Its a little unfair to the nonprofits because theyre figuring out their budgets, too. And then, i also want to say on the housing side, that personally, that i have found that there is little transparency about and communication about why the funds dont go out. So when i met with the director of housing, the funds, oh, they havent gone out. So what is the hold up, and why is there no transparency . It seems as though and the b. L. A. Report also mentioned is that theres a lot of discretion in the Decision Making at mohcd, and also, just about the transparency. So i know you just got on board, but i just want you to know that this has been an ongoing issue, and i just wanted to bring it to your attention. And also, the b. L. A. Had a recommendation of quarterly reports, and would you be open to this recommendation . So i believe its you that called the hearing, and you invite me, so i will accept the invitations that you extend. But i think once again, president yee has taken a hard look at the recommendations in the b. L. A. Report, and if we need to adjust those, adjust how were communicating that information or put in additional information, then i have a commitment to do that, as well, to make sure we have as much transparency and communication on our end. Chair fewer yeah. I just wanted to say that its frustrating. Eventually, i called the mayor myself personally, and she says shes going to look into it, and then, it doesnt happen. So i would say that it is frustrating, and it is also i just dont understand i see that supervisor walton has a comment or question. Supervisor walton thank you very much, chair fewer, just a brief statement. I just want to make sure that director shaw knows that we have a Healthy Group of Strong Developers here in San Francisco, so i want you to know, and im pretty sure youve had conversationed already with a lot of our Nonprofit Developers, but we do rely on that force, and they are ready and prepared to do a lot of those that we have here in San Francisco, so i just wanted to make sure that i put that on record. Chair fewer thank you very much. So colleagues, anymore comments or questions . In closing, i would say that i would like to you know, we are going to have mohcd come back during the full budget process, so i would like to file this item, please, item number 1, because we will have the Department Come back when we discuss this. So i make a motion to file item number 1. Could i have a second, please. Supervisor ronen ronen, second. Chair fewer thank you very much. Madam clerk, please, a roll call vote. [roll call] clerk there are five ayes. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Now, madam clerk, two hours later, my apologies. Sorry this went so late. Is can you please read item number 2. Clerk yes, item number 2, hearing on the citys funded programs for Job Development focus on vulnerable population, specifically homeless and formerly incarcerated residents. Members of the public who wish to call Public Comment on this item should call 4156550001, meeting i. D. 1451400281, then press pound, and then pound again. To request to speak, press starthree and you will be added to the queue for Public Comments. Chair fewer this was on our list of topics precovid, but it feels like this is a pressing topic given the urgency of our housing crisis in the midst of this pandemic. Ive been concerned that we have been writing off Homeless Individuals as unemployable. We must deploy strategies, and its concerning that our outreach efforts have not historically included referenced to [inaudible]. We have a previous presentation today from the b. L. A. , h. S. A. , the office of economic and Workforce Development, and the office of employee collaborative. Lets start off with fred russo from the b. L. A. Thank you. Thank you, supervisor chair fewer and members of the committee. Should i go ahead with the presentation . Chair fewer yes, please. Okay. Is the slide appearing . Chair fewer no, we cannot see them. I have just shared my screen, so if you are not chair fewer okay. Madam clerk, do you have a copy . Clerk yes, i believe i do. Chair fewer okay. Would you please assist the b. L. A. . My apologies. Chair fewer should we go onto another speaker first . Caller, should we move onto the first speaker or clerk yes. Chair fewer yes . Here we go. Thank you very much. So linda, ill just ask you to advance the slides, then, is that correct . Clerk yes. Okay. So im going to present a quick summary of our work on workforce delivery programs targeting homeless and other populations. This was prepared for you, chair fewer, and distributed yesterday. The first question that we were asked to address is is there a link between homelessness and unemployment that we can add to sort of set the context for this topic . So heres some results from the point in Time Homeless count that was sent in in 2019. You can see the top reasons for the homeless. Lost job was the most frequent response. And then, on the panel on the right, the question was what are the top obstacles to permanent housing . Rent was number one, but next on the list was no job and no income. So we can conclude, and i think the survey bears out the link between homelessness and unemployment. Next slide, please. The survey also asked some questions of the chroniclealal homeless. It amendme while they identified job loss also as a primary reason for their homelessness, a higher ranking issue was substance addiction, at 24 of the respondents, and then, the job issue was lower right. So its clearly an issue for all homeless, but it gets more complicates complicated is our conclusion. As identified in the first slide, issues like substance addiction or Mental Health issues or physical Health Issues also affect the homeless at large, but more pronounced for the chronically homeless, and well come back to this issue a little bit later in the presentation. Next slide, please. The quick snapshot of the workforce Development Services program in San Francisco. This is from fiscal year 201819. There are 294 programs citywide, so its a very wide ranging and diverse set of serves. A program generally represents a contractor, but in some cases, theyre provided by 17 departments were involved. There was a budget of 150 million for all of these programs in fiscal year 18 19. The budget amount was under spent about 85 of that was spent overall. Unfortunately not all the Services Planned were provided. The office of economic and Workforce Development conducts an annual inventory of all the programs and one of the data points collected is the number of participants. There were 26,142. A footnote on that is that it doesnt represent individuals the way the data is collected. So a single participant could enroll in several classes or programs and be counted as three or four participants, even though its one individual. The program itself is authorized by chapter 30 of the admin code. That designates the office of economic and Workforce Development thats responsible for planning and coordinating the program citywide. They have a board that they report to, the San Francisco workforce investment board. They provide overall policy, direction, and the planning and coordination. Importantly, they do not have authority over the other departments, but they can provide resources, information, and this inventory that i mentioned that they conduct every year is a great compilation of rich information, although it has limitations and i will talk about that in a minute. In 2014, the admin code was amended and multistakeholder Alignment Committee was created consisting of key departments that provide workforce Development Services and other stakeholders. Their role was to create a five year plan and annual updates that would help coordinate Services City wide and increase the effectiveness of the program. So that plan was created, is in place, and updates have been provided every year since then. Could you go to the next slide please. This is one of the results of the annual inventory conducted by oewd. This is one of the key questions that supervisor fewer asked for this report, how many are there in the programs across the city. The number reported here is 1,736. Thats out of the total reported of 26,142, so about 7 in total participants. All these numbers, same caveat as i mentioned a couple minutes ago. They dont represent unique individuals, so for the homeless participants, its likely less than 1,736 because we assume that there are some participants who are taking more than one class or enrolled in more than one program. If you could go to the next slide. The other thing this information shows is that concentration of Services Provided to the homeless, this graphic presents a little bit more easily to see. The services are concentrated for homeless and the Human Service agency, the office of economic and Workforce Development and the department of youth and their families. Thats where most of the participants are recorded and most of the homeless participants in general are concentrated there. If you could go to the next slide. So, there are limitations to this data that i just presented, one is what i said already. Its over the number of unique individuals, there are duplicats