Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Land Use Committee 20240712

[gavel]. Chair peskin good afternoon and welcome to the San Francisco land use and Transportation Committee of the board of supervisors, joined by acting vice chair dean preston, soon to be joined by actual vice chair ahsha safai. Our clerk is miss erica major. Miss major, do you have any announcements . Clerk yes. In accordance with Governor Newsom executive order declaring a state of emergency starting the covid19 outbreak and mayor london n. Breeds proclamation declaring a local emergency issued on february 25, 2020, including the guidance for gatherings issued by the San Francisco department of Public Health center, members of t officer, aggressive directives were issued to reduce the spread of covid19. On march 17, 2020, the board of supervisors authorized their bhoord and Committee Meetings to convene remotely and will allow remote Public Comment via teleconference. Watch the sfgovtv website at www. Sfgovtv. Org to stream the live meeting or to watch meetings on demand. Members of the public are encouraged to participate remotely via detailed instructions on participating via teleconference. Members of the public may participate by phone or may submit their comments by email to ericamajor sfgov. Org. All comments received will be made a part of the official report. Chair peskin thank you. Would you please read items 1 and 2 today. Clerk item 1 is ordinance amending the Administration Code to establish the social Housing Program fund for the acquisition, creation, and operation of affordable social housing developments, and item 2 is an ordinance amending the Administration Code to establish the covid19 rent resolution and relief fund, to provide Financial Support to landlords whose tenants have been unable to pay rent due to the covid19 pandemic. Members of the public wishing to make Public Comment may call the phone number streaming across your screen and enter the meeting code. Chair peskin thank you. And it is my understanding that supervisor preston would like to continue these items one week. Supervisor preston yes. Chair peskin okay. And weve been joined by the actual vice chair, supervisor safai, so supervisor preston, you youre demoted to member of this committee at this point. So just so that we are clear, the agenda next week is remarkably long, so i would ask your indulgence, supervisor preston, either to continue this to the call of the chair, or if anything falls off of the next agenda, we could get it on or alternatively, i could schedule it for the meeting in two weeks. But weve got a super hairy, fivehour probably fourtofivehour agenda next week. So what is your will, sir . Supervisor preston well, so my concern is we will be introducing amendments next week which will require further hearing. We are trying to move the funding from the upcoming ballot measure, so i you know, our hope through the meetings that were having with stakeholders is that we are hammering out issues before next week, but it would be our hope not to have a marathon meeting on monday, but i would say we are sensitive to the timing on this. Chair peskin and thank you for your sensitivity to that. It sounds like youre going to be introducing amendments that are substantive that would require a continuance. To the extent that proponents of these items could comment once it comes to the committee for a full consideration, cosoe can make next mondays calendar as efficient as possible given the number of items that we have, lets continue it to next week for that. Lets open it up for Public Comment. Clerk yes. I dont know why you have to put social in front of everything, but i think public sounds better. I yield the rest of my time. Chair peskin hello. Next speaker, please. Hello. This is anastas anastasia iovannopoulos, district 8 resident. Thank you for continuing this for letting us look at them and moving them inform a future meeting where theyll them to a future meeting where theyll be voted on. Chair peskin is there any further comment on item 1 and 2 . Clerk that concludes the comment. Chair peskin if theres knox, supervisor preston would like to continue these items for one week. That motion made by myself, the chair. A roll call, please. Clerk on the motion as stated [roll call] clerk you have three ayes. Chair peskin next item, please. Clerk item 3 is a resolution supporting california state proposition 21, keep families in their homed on november 3, 2020 ballot. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on item number 3 should call the number streaming on the screen. Thats 4156550001. Enter the meeting i. D. 1469569029. Press pound, and pound again, and press star, three to enter the queue. Please wait until the system indicated you have been unmuted and provide Public Comment. Chair peskin thank you. This item has been sponsored by supervisor ronen and cosponsored by supervisors preston, haney, walton, and myself. Is there a representative from supervisor ronens office . [inaudible]. Supervisor safai i cant hear anything shes saying. Oh, no. How is this . Chair peskin much better. Thank you for allowing me to speak today. This item is a resolution supporting california state proposition 21, keep families in their homes, on the november 3 ballot. Prop 21, when passed, will significantly amend the california civil code section now known as the costa hawkins rental act and rename it to the rental affordability act. Specifically, what it would do is allow local governments to adopt local rent ordinances with exceptions for housing and condos owned by natural persons to own no more than two singlefamily units, and it would allow local governments to prohibit landlords from proposing more than 15 rent increases in one year in the city. While anecdotally, there are stories of rents dropping due to covid, the rents are still out of reach for many. A minimum wage employee would have to work 57 hours a week to cover average rent if they didnt spend a single penny on food or anything else. 44 of san franciscans are still spending more than 30 of their income on their rent, with a disproportionate amount of those being african americans. [inaudible] it has distorted our Housing Market into becoming just another commodity for corporate speculators [inaudible] longterm commitment and investment. Two years ago, this board formally endorsed proposition 10 through resolution offered by supervisor pesk kin. Prop 10 was disputed statewide after some of the nations largest rental corporations spent 60 million on a cynical and misleading ad campaign, but a majority of san franciscans voted in favor. The california secretary of state website reports that the California Apartment Association has already poured nearly 28 million into the californians for responsible housing measure. The measure is a balanced approach to allow cities the flexibility to consider local Community Housing needs and legislate appropriate protections. On behalf of supervisor ronen i ask you to support today to move it forward a Committee Report. Chair peskin thank you, miss bynard, for a thorough presentation. Supervisor preston i would just like to thank miss bynard for bringing this forward, and the resolution in support of thenproposition 10. I think its really i just want to add, you know, its very important that folks understand, when were dealing with these state measures, is all were seeking to do is takeoff the handcuffs that are, right now, on our city when it comes to addressing rising rents and a history of gentrification. Whether its the ellis act, costa hawkins act, things were created because of real estate special interests and significantly restrict us as policy makers in the city and county of San Francisco to extend protections to folks who are struggling. So weve seen that balance in the state and power give a little bit in the context of the pandemic, where we had seen the State Government willing to give us a little more power. San francisco peskin, you led on the commercial eviction protections, where the governor said in the pandemic, that as a city, we could do more than what we would be otherwise allowed to do. But i think this prop, proposition 21, really gets at the heart of not just whats going on in the pandemic, but beyond. Are we going to be able to protect folks from highrent evictions or not . And will we have the choice . And right now, that choice is made by the Renters Association and the State Government, and this would return the power to us so we can craft some protections. Its narrow in scope, as miss bynard pointed out, as there were fewer things that were controversial than in the former version. I just want to say i fully support this. I also hope the entire board sends a unanimous and strong message that we as a city are behind prop 21, and it will give us power to address those things. It does not dictate how we will address those powers. You can bet that ensuring protections for renters in San Francisco will have to come back through this committee with a full opportunity at Public Comment before those changes can be made. Chair peskin thank you for those comments, supervisor preston. Supervisor safai, anything that you would like to add . Supervisor safai yeah. Can we have a conversation at what happened at the state level and in that conversation . I think assembly man david chiu did something. And i think it would be good to get on the record the differences put out theres a little conversation put out, but whats different between previously and this time. The ballot went down in large part because there was a lack of understanding of how, talking about bringing rent control to singlefamily homes and how that played into a statewide conversation. I think thats removed this time, for sure. Supervisor preston talked a little bit about smaller Property Owners, but i think it would be good to get some of the main differences on the record and what was talked about at the state level. I know that the governor signed the ability to control rent statewide, but im sure that for many places, thats still not enough in peoples minds, so i just wanted to get that on the record, as well. Chair peskin thank you, supervisor safai. Before i turn it over to supervisor ronens aide, miss bynard, let me offer a few things. It gets into the state exemption over what has historically before the purview over local governments such as our own, and costa hawkins significantly changed that, and weve been struggling with that for a long time. What is profoundly frustrating about this is prop 10 did not need to be on the ballot, and prop 21 did not need to be on the ballots. Had the democratic assemblies not taken the steps to return these conversations to local governments because whats happening in San Francisco is very different than whats going on in fresno, and we all have to wrestle with that on a local level. This has been a profound failure by the state legislature because it is under so much pressure from lobbying. Even though we are still under democrat super majorities in both houses, they are still under pressure from the statewide rental industry. Yes, prop 10 did not succeed. Prop 21 has made some adjustments. I want to express some profound disappointment in the democratic majorities in both houses that have failed to actually made modifications to costa hawkins, which was enacted by the state ledge lay tou legislature, and they can amend to return power to the cities, if they want. With that, if you would like to respond, miss bynard, to supervisor safais questions, the floor is yours. I think the two that he brought up about the two described, those are already in the records. With record to assembly man chius a. B. 1482, a. B. 1482 limits the state increase in rent to inflation plus 5 , which is quite high. Its great for places that have none have no rent control, but its very high, and its very high controlled with San Franciscos rent control ordinance, so the potential, again, as supervisor preston was mentioning, what what the passage of prop 21 would do would be to allow this back to the local legislation process legislative process, and for this city and this board of supervisors to be looking at whats appropriate for this city and the rental market here, and not to defer to, you know, what has been kind of a safety valve for places that have no rent control but really is not the solution for San Francisco. Chair peskin thank you, miss bynard. Why dont we open this up to Public Comment. Are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this item . Clerk thank you, mr. Chair. We have six listeners, with five in queue. If you can queue in the first caller . Yes. Im, quite frankly, appalled by this resolution. The board of supervisors, in my opinion, has no place here. If you want to support something on the ballot, go out and vote for it on november 3. You know, chair peskin was complaining not complaining, but pointing out that next weeks meeting is going to be, what, like five hours . Dont waste your time on resolutions that do absolutely nothing. You say that San Francisco supports this . You will see that on november 3. This is disgusting. I yield the rest of my time. Thank you. Chair peskin next speaker, please. I will not even waste my breath responding to that. Thank you. This is theresa flandrick, senior and disability action. I am calling in support of this resolution. We did vote on prop 10, and the majority of san franciscans did want and need this back then and need it even more so today. Again, having local control so that we can do what we need for our residents, for our city, just as other cities should have that same right. So i hope that all supervisors will support this unanimously . It is about time, so thank you so much for bringing this forward. The champions of actually taking care of san franciscans as well as the small Property Owners who are also san franciscans, i really like that that is part of this ordinanc,. So thank you again. Chair peskin thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello, chair peskin, vice chair safai, and supervisor preston. This is jeremy shaw, d5. I think this is a modest compromise solution to afford some rent control. As an aside, this title of this resolution is supporting keeping families in their home. Id like to point out that the chair has to the committee has to the call of the chair resolution [inaudible] and i would like to urge that you take that matter back up. Thank you. Chair peskin thank you. Next speaker. Supervisors, this is lorraine petty. [inaudible] im calling in support of this very important resolution. Im in support of [inaudible] keeping families in their homes. I think this is a fair and measured proposition. This extends to local jurisdicti jurisdictions the ability to craft protections and improve current protections for tenants. [inaudible] and in other loc e localities [inaudible] wildfires, lost incomes, the racial and social injustice, and particularly the effects of the rampant speculation and dislocation. Prop 21 goes a long way towards [inaudible] id also make a nod to the brilliant legal minds of [inaudible] thank you. Chair peskin thank you. Next speaker, please. Hello. This is anastasia ionnapoulos. Id like to ask every one of you to support this resolution. We need this throughout the state. This is fair to do to Property Owners, and i think the only people that are opposed to it are the big money people. Thank you for introducing this resolution. Chair peskin thank you. Are there any other members of the public who would like to testify on item number 3 . Clerk that concludes the queue, sir. Chair peskin seeing no other members of the public for Public Comment, Public Comment is closed, and i would like to make a motion to send this item to the full board with recommendation as a Committee Report for hearing tomorrow. On that item, madam clerk, a roll call, please. Clerk on the motion as stated [roll call] clerk you have three ayes. Chair peskin all right. The item has been sent with recommendation as a Committee Report. Is there any more business before this committee . Clerk theres no further business. Chair peskin we are adjourned. [gavel] welcome, City Attorney herrera. Good morning. Thank you to mayor breed, chief scott, supervisors peskin and haney for joining me this morning to highlight our collective commitment to combating an all too familiar problem. Open air drug dealing in the tenderloin. Were all created to solutions to make sure we combat this epidemic that is taking control of the tenderloin neighborhood. This morning, my office sued 28 known drug dealers, file. They do not live in the tenderloin, but sell deadly drugs there. The drugs that are fueling the drug crisis in our streets. This is to stop the brazen drugdealing that has plagued this neighborhood. Last year alone 441 people died from drug overdoses in the city and the tenderloin had the highest overdose mortality rate of any neighborhood in the city. Enough is enough. These injunctions are carefully crafted to simultaneously safeguard a defendants due process while targeting with precision, the problem of drug dealers coming from outside the area to prey on tenderloin residents, housed and unhoused. This prevents the 28 named defendants from entering the tenderloin and part of the adjacent south of market neighborhood. Roughly from van ness to ellis and geary to mission. The tenderloin would become a protected zone and these defendants, none of whom live in the tenderloin, would be allowed to go there unless they had a lawful legitimate reason to be there. Were focused on the predatory repeat dealers selling the most dangerous drugs, including those leading to the most deaths. We have rigorous criteria. He or she was arrested at least twice for drug sales or possession of drugs for the purpose of sales in the tenderloin in the past year and a half. One of those arrests must have been in the last nine months. Both of the arrests must have led to either criminal charges by the District Attorney or a motion to revoke probation. The drugs involved were fentanyl, heroin, cocaine or methamphetamine. And the defendant is not a tenderloin resident. Has been given the opportunity to present their defense in court at a hearing and the court finds there is sufficient evidence to warrant the injunction. In other words, an injunction is issued if the need for it is proven in a court of law. Demographics or Group Affiliations were not considered when putting together these lawsuits. Violations of the injunctions will have civil and criminal consequences. Violations carry Civil Penalties of up to 6,000 per violation. Perhaps just as important, violations can also be pursued as misdemeanor crimes and subject to the defendants immediate arrest. An arrest leads to the search and confiscation of drugs or contraband a person has in his or her possession. These actions are aimed slowly at criminals coming to prey on the people of the tenderloin. We know who the predators are and we will not allow them to victimize tenderloin residents. Our message to these dealers is simple. If you come to the tenderloin, youll be arrested and your drugs will be confiscated. This is not a silver bullet. More needs to be done, including drug treatment options, expanded Mental Health and a focus on major narcotics suppliers, but this gives one more tool to the Law Enforcement to help keep the tenderloin residents safe. We need to stop this neighborhood from being used as the open air drug market. Our goal is to keep the dealers out of the tenderloin. The kids, the parents, the seniors, the workers, the Business Owners of this neighborhood have suffered enough and deserve nothing less. The tenderloin has the highest concentration of children in the city. It also has the highest number of Overdose Deaths and that is not acceptable. Once the pandemic improves, the kids of the pandemic deserve to be able to go to the school, playground, go see a friend without being caught in the middle of a drug deal or a person overdosing on the sidewalk. This wont solve the problem, but its a step work taking. I hadnt to thank the hardworking men and women in the San Francisco Police Department. Their diligence laid the ground work to put together this creative approach to public safety. I want to thank the team in my office that worked hard to come up with a way that will deal with a longstanding problem. I also want to thank our mayor for her tremendous support and leadership during this incredibly challenging time for our city, as well as supervisors peskin and haney, for their commitment to combating this problem. With that, i would like to introduce our mayor, london breed. Mayor breed good morning, everyone. Thank you, all, so much for being here today. I want to begin by thanking dennis has rare kerrera and the Attorney Office to deal with one of the Biggest Challenges in the tenderloin community. Not so long ago we set down a path to address what we saw as a significant increase in homelessness and tent encampments in the t. L. And we made a lot of progress. Over 400 tents removed with over 600 people. Were now down to less than 30 tents. And we drive around the tenderloin, we walk around the tenderloin, and you would think that nothing has ever happened there. That no progress has been made. You see hundreds of people on blocks throughout the t. L. Who are dealing drugs openly, in broad daylight. You see people pushing strollers, mothers, who have to go out on the streets to go around the drug dealing and the drug using and the challenges that exist there. I grew up in this city. I grew up not too far from the tenderloin in the western edition. And the tenderloin has always had its challenges, but it has never been worse. It has never been worse. And we cant do this work alone. We need to make sure that, yes, we address the challenges that exist with people who struggle with addiction. This is why im fighting so hard to get Safe Injection Sites open. Why im fighting to get expanded Mental Health support, because those of you who have family members who suffer with addicti addiction, you know how challenging it is to get them on the right path. We have to do more as a city to provide alternatives. And then we know the challenges that exist. The people who are being trafficked to sell drugs on our streets from other countries. The folks who are coming from other bay area cities because they know San Francisco is a place where they can make a lot of money. San francisco has become the place to go to sell drugs. It is known widely. And that has got to stop, because there has to be consequences. Look, i understand there might be financial challenges, but the fact is, we cant tolerate what we see happening in the tenderloin or any other neighborhood in our city. People have got to be held accountable for the destruction they are causing to these communities. And when we talk about destruction, were talking about the people who are dying in record numbers from drug overdoses right in the tenderloin. This is a commonsense solution to a very, very complex problem. And i really want to, again, express my appreciation to our City Attorney, Dennis Herrera, for not only putting together a unique plan, but for caring about this issue in the first place. And i want to thank him for working with the San Francisco Police Department to actually use data to inform this decision. We know that there is a lot of work to do. And we cant continue to let the tenderloin be the breeding ground for all that is problematic and challenging in our city. Its going to take helping with homelessness. Its going to take drug treatment. Its going to take supporting lowincome families and people who live in that community. And, yes, its going to take holding the people who are holding this community hostage with the rampant drugdealing that is completely devastated this neighborhood. We have to do better and we will do better. This is a step in the right direction. And im looking forward to seeing the results of this work. And i want to thank all those who have been involved and supportive of this issue. And we have got to get the job done and thats what this is about. With that, i want to introduce the police chief of San Francisco, chief scott. Good morning. Thank you, mayor breed. First, i want to start off by thanking our mayor london breed for her relentless leadership when it comes to this issue. As the mayor stated, this problem is pervasive and i also want to thank our City Attorney Dennis Herrera for an innovative strategy that really gives us a much better opportunity to turn the corner on the drug dealing in the tenderloin. I would like to thank supervisors peskin and haney for their support and leadership on this issue. Youll hear from them as well in a second. The men and women of the San Francisco Police Department and those say sign assigned to the tenderloin, have been working very, very hard to address the rampant drugdealing in the tenderloin. During a recent threemonth operation to focus on narcotics dealers, the tenderloin officers and the narcotics detail officers arrested over 267 individuals for drug sales. 267. And although that number may sound high, its just a drop in the bucket. Our officers seized over 144,000 in u. S. Currency and a combination of over 7,000 grams of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and other drugs. 210 of those arrests had prior arrests in San Francisco and 55 of the 267 arrests were in violation of courtissued stay away orders where they were prohibited from the area where they were selling drugs. 58 of those arrested live outside of the city of San Francisco. Now our efforts to combine or combat narc sales in the tenderloin are ongoing as of today. And todays announcement of injunctions filed by our City Attorney will help us address the concerns and complaints of tenderloin residents and merchants. And those complaints come pouring in daily. These dealers prey on a vulnerable population and contribute to the drug degradation of the quality of life who work and live in the tenderloin. These injunctions give Law Enforcement officers another tool in our tool kit. Violators face up to a 6,000 fine, misdemeanor arrest and officers can potentially seize money and drugs along with other contraband. With the combined efforts in the drug treatment and other Public Health strategies, we hope to have a positive effect on the quality of life in the tenderloin area. As was stated by the mayor i cant emphasize this enough we have to do more, we have do better and we will do better. We cannot and will not further tolerate drug dealers coming into the tenderloin from wherever theyre coming from throughout the bay area to ruin our community. The injunctions will make coming back to the tenderloin have more serious consequences. And, drug dealers, if youre out there watching this news conference, know that your actions will not and cannot be tolerated any longer in the city and county of San Francisco. With that, id like to turn the mic over to supervisor aaron peskin. Thank you. Supervisor peskin chief, thank you, City Attorney herrera, mayor breed, for what is truly a creative solution. This is not a silver bullet. It must be coupled with Mental Health services, with drug treatment, with the addition of sorely needed Affordable Housing in and around the tenderloin. A year ago supervisor haney and i went to a meeting together just up the street in the tenderloin wherein we witnessed an individual who was literally dying of a fentanyl overdose. We were able to locate some narcan and that individual is alive today, but that should not be happening on our streets. This is not only a creative solution, but it is one where City Attorney herrera has crafted it very carefully in conjunction with my office. Has done so in a way that honors the civil rights of individuals in our community. It is structured fairly and will be supported by the board of supervisors. I want to thank the City Attorney. Were going to make a difference in the tenderloin. And if this works, this is a model that be exported to other parts of San Francisco because when you look at those 441 deaths, it is true a disproportionate number of them are in the tenderloin, but those individuals who are preying on weak individuals in our community are not just operating in the tenderloin. And if this is a success, i look forward to working with the City Attorney office, the chief of police and mayor to export this model to the rest of the city and county of San Francisco. We are available for questions and comments. Thank you, supervisor peskin. Well begin with the q a portion with City Attorney herrera. The first set of questions are from kate wolf. The aclu and other Community Groups have said injunctions like gang injunctions used in the past dont address root problems and violate peoples civil liberties. Can you address how these injunctions will be different from those . One thing you heard uniformly, both from the mayor, from supervisor peskin and from the chief of police, this is part of a has to be part of a comprehensive approach that focuses on drug rehab, Mental Health and the like. So there is no doubt that we need to also get the root causes which are contributing to our problem. However, this is different from gang injunctions. This is not based on affiliation or status, it is based on going after individuals who have been known to engage in criminal conduct that has been charged by the District Attorney and arrests by the Police Department for known activity that has occurred in the tenderloin. The fact of the matter is, we carefully crafted this to make sure it was based on conduct, not on status or affiliation. And there is also the opportunity for if people have a legitimate reason to be in the 50square block area, the protected zone, courts, city hall, have all been exempted from the limitation of movement. So this is very different from gang injunctions. I think it is something people need to be aware of. This is based on conduct, not status. And demonstrable conduct from individuals who dont even live in the tenderloin and 27 of the 28 dont even live in the city and county of San Francisco. Thank you, City Attorney. The next question is from joe with bay city news. Why would civil injunctions be used instead of criminal actions if the city knows who the dealers are . Its another tool in the tool kit. Certainly, there are criminal penalties that can accrue, but the fact of the matter is, if someone is going to suffer a financial penalty of a significant dollar amount, that is something that dissuades individuals from engaging. With respect to these injunctions, you have two tools, a criminal sanction as well as a civil sanction which did not occur previously. This encompasses the whole tenderloin, where something that the chief referred to earlier, the stayaway orders in other criminal cases were designed to be with respect to one particular corner or block. It was not nearly as comprehensive as what were seeking here today. Thank you, City Attorney. That concludes todays press conference. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. Good evening. [speaking foreign language] to this years latino Cultural Heritage month celebration. Im the cultural curator, San Francisco native, and im honored to be your mc this evening. We would like to take a moment to acknowledge the native people of this land, also known as San Francisco. We are in their sacred space, and we honor and thank them for allowing us here. Also, while