Transcripts For SFGTV Mayors Disability Council 31717 20170320

Good afternoon, everyone and welcome to the Mayors Disability Council meeting friday, march 17 here in city hall in room 400. I want to welcome our new councilmembers and later up in the agenda we will tell you about themselves and their background. So right now, lets start with the introductions. Good afternoon and welcome to the Mayors Disability Council meeting today here at city hall. City hall is accessible to persons using wheelchairs and other assistive mobility devices. Wheelchair access is provided at grove van ness and mcallister street via ramps. Wheelchair access at the polk street good entrance is provided via a wheelchair lifts. Accessible listening devices are available at our meeting is open captioned. Sign language interpreted. Our agenda are also available in large print and braille. Please, as that for any additional assistance. To prevent electronic interference with this room sound system, and to respect everyones ability to focus on the presentation, these, sounds [inaudible] your cooperation is appreciated. We welcome the publics participation during Public Comment. You may complete the speakers card available in the front of the room or call our bridge line at 1415 554 9632. Where a staff person will handle requests at to speak at the appropriate time to the Mayors Disability Council meetings are generally held on the third friday of the month. Our next regular meeting will be on friday april 21 2017 from one4 pm here at San Francisco city hall in room 400. Please, call the Mayors Office on disability for future information or to request a commendation at 1415 554 6789, voice, or by email at mod at sf golf. Org. As a reminder to all our guests today to speak slowly into the microphone, to assist our captures and interpreters. We thank you for joining us today. We are going to proceed with the roll call. Thank you welcome new councilmembers. Texas only be here here madrid here sassouni present, smolinski here, williams here. Thank you, duncan welcome again to our councilmembers. The we are going on to action item 2, which is reading of the agenda. Agenda item number one, welcome, introduction and roll call. Agenda item number two, action item reading and approval of the agenda. Action item number three, agenda item number three, Public Comments. Items not on todays agenda within the jurisdiction of the mdc. Each speaker is limited to 3 min. Agenda item number four, information item. Introductions of new councilmembers. Agenda item number five, information item, cochair report disability Disaster Preparedness Committee Report. Agenda item number six, information item. Report for the Mayors Office on disability. Agenda item number seven, information item update on the dignity fun. An overview and update of the dignity fund past as proposition i on the November Ballot which enhances funding for services for seniors and adults with disabilities in San Francisco. The presentation will cover the implementation, funding allocation process, the oversight and Advisory Group provider group, and how you can learn more and get involved. Presentation by melissa mcghee, Program Manager for the dignity fund, department of aging and Adult Services, and rejob link, member Dignity Fund Coalition. Public comment is welcome. Agenda item number eight, San Franciscos rental assistance demonstration that program. The city of San Francisco in collaboration with the San Francisco Housing Authority, and virtually every other city agency is implementing the rabbit. This is a federal program that creates publicprivate partnerships to address significant financial and physical challenges at the San Francisco housing authorities to curating housing sites. Presentation by erin carson, construction manager, Mayors Office of housing and Community Development and [inaudible] Deputy Director of physical axis, Mayors Office on disability. Public comment is welcome. Break. Council will take a 15 min. Break. Agenda item number nine, information item. Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Services and an overview of the San Francisco Paratransit Program. A presentation about the impact of the decreasing number of on the road accessible taxis as well as an overview of Services Provided through the San Francisco Paratransit Program. The citys complement 388 Paratransit Service. Topics that will be covered include Program Eligibility requirements as well as both ada and on ada Transportation Services available to seniors and individuals with disabilities. Presentation by Jonathan Chang, paratransit coordinator San Francisco municipal transportation agency. Public comment is welcome. Agenda item number 10, information item. Get around. An overview and background of get around as well as information on get around and city car share joining forces. This information will include an update on city car shares access mobile vehicles. Presentations by carissa wolinsky, get around San Francisco city manager. Public comment is welcome. Agenda item number 11, Public Comments. Items not on todays agenda within the jurisdiction of the mdc. Each speaker is limited to 3 min. Agenda item number 12, information item. Correspondence. Agenda item number 13, escutcheon item, clock councilmember comments and announcements. Agenda item number 14, john mintz. Adjournments. Thank you, donna. Will now proceed with item number three under Public Comments to items not on todays agenda within the jurisdiction of the mdc each speaker is limited to 3 min. Do we have any speaker cards that have requested at this time . [inaudible off mic] thank you. So we will close Public Comment at this time. Thank you. This is when the new councilmembers become stars. So we are going to go on to information item number four, and we will make introductions for our new councilmembers, and they are just want to talk a little bit about themselves and why they were interested in joining the council and so we will start on my left, and id like to welcome our Councilmember Alex madrid. Hello. [inaudible] on a residence in San Francisco and this is my first time being in the [inaudible] and im very excited to be onon this council and a little bit about myself is that i went to berkeley and i have a physical disability called Cerebral Palsy and im very interested in physical accessibility employment accessibility. Thank you. Thank you. I like to welcome Councilmember Helen smolinski thank you hello everyone my name is helen smolinski. I work as a civil rights attorney from was 10 years for the local Lawyers Committee for the civil rights and im now a s stayathome mom for twins, sixyearolds. One of them my daughter was born severely disabled both physically and mentally. Shes confined to a wheelchair and is in a local Elementary School here in the city. In elementary a Public School here. My family and i have lived in the city for over 25 years and i am here because i wanted to help bring the voice of the families of disabled kids to this august group. Well, welcome councilmember smolinski. Next i like to introduce Councilmember Jim blacksten. Welcome. Thank you very much. I am jim blacksten. I am live and work here in the city and county of San Francisco. This is my Second Time Around in the city of San Francisco. I love your back in the 80s. Then i moved to the peninsula and came back in 2002 and so this is my Second Time Around. I have a passion to give back to the disabled community a lot of is what men done for me. People have helped me along the way, advisory, guided me, directed me, so i want to give up some of that back and thats really why i am here am i just to stir. To listen to you to what your needs are and what your concerns are. I am blind. Im involved in the blindness community with several different organizations. As i told the group here in San Francisco the other night, theres two points in my life that are important. First, is when i learned how to use a cane in every day living skills. At the orientation sensor for the blind, this goes way back and in the 70s. The second thing of note in my life is when i got a guide dog. As i say, went to the dog in 2009. So i got some guide dogs for the blind. I was going to retire this year and get a second one in october. Just for your note, i also served on the metropolitan Transportation Commission policy Advisory Council representing people with disabilities in San Francisco. So this fits in really nicely. But to dovetail [inaudible] very much. I also have a [inaudible] Health Insurance license on very muchyou know it all comes together. I much interested in the Health Insurance arena and as you know, thats a big topic of discussion right now. So thats who i am and look forward to getting to know you. Thank you. Welcome councilmember blacksten. To my right, welcome another new councilmember ms. Kate williams. I dont need to reintroduce myself as Kate Williams and im employed by the lighthouse for the blind visually impaired in San Francisco. I manage a program called employment in version. We have recently moved from van ness just got a half a block from here 20 just at 1155 market. We have a wonderful new facility. It happens to be in the same building with the Mayors Office on disability is located. [inaudible] come and see our new facilities simply a marvelous space. We do have that open for people who went to the whole Community Meetings or organization meetings. You are welcome to call and we can accommodate you with that. So as i said my position is employment. I do have a passion, especially for my visually impaired, and assisting them in securing employment. It is something that i just live to do that and we have had a phenomenal success in our program. We have a 43 placement rate right now. But we are not stopping. Were going to make a dent in that unemployment figure in our community so as i said, my position is there. My heart is in the disabled community. I have not been a member of the disabled community [inaudible] with vision must it happened later in my life so there were many years that i wasnt part of this Committee Community and am now belonging to many organizations, that represent the disabled community, i cannot tell you what pleasure and joy it is to serve on this council so that i can become more intimately involved with all disabilities because were all one part of a big community. Im happy to serve. Thank you. Welcome Councilmember Williams. Donna . Okay. I would like to welcome our new councilmember, her name is working sassouni and to pleasure to have her here today. Shes going to tell us a little bit about herself. [inaudible off mic] okay. I will be brief. I like to proceed with the agenda before the next agenda item can hello, my name is working sassouni. I work for the San Francisco Public Library and i been there since 2001 so right after september 11 actually. So i was in new york actually and so i have been living here actually since 1999. So im very focused on communication access in the community. And thats it did on the keep it short and sweet. Thank you and welcome councilmember sassouni. Is the screen okay now . It was kind of flashing on our monitors. I believe so but control we still do not access to the bridge line. Again, welcome new counsel numbers. We are going to go ahead and proceed to information item number five, which is a cochair report and then the Disaster Preparedness Committee Report which i will do but before i get started as part of my culture report, i want to make a quick announcement and closure. As you probably noticed the former cochair chips appendage is not with us today. He is no longer with the council. I was hoping that he would reach us today it is he on possibly be a bridge line . Okay so i was hoping we would hear so we get a chance to acknowledge him publicly. So anyhow, he returned his resignation about a month ago. Hes gone on to the Dignity Fund Oversight Advisory Committee. So he will definitely be missed and he sat by my side here for five years. He was my friend and mentor. It taught me a lot about hiv and the dignity fund and so many things in the Disability Community and he will be sadly missed. I know some of you had an opportunity to meet him because we were doing interviews with the new councilmembers, so he assisted me with that process. So he had some great things to say about the councilmembers and about your background, your strengths, your leadership abilities and i am very very excited as i sit before to have you here. He will be missed and i wish he was here today so i could acknowledge and thank him again but i wanted that to be mentioned for his tireless effort in being here and going to the changes and transitions with the council and i know he is [inaudible] what we will hope to achieve together. Moving forward. In fact i can hardly contain myself. Its the first time ive seen so many bodies for years. Its not a mirage. You are really here. So i want to go ahead and acknowledge him. The next thing i am going to go on to is, im going to read the Disaster Preparedness Committee Report. The dpc met on friday, february 3 year at city hall in room 421. The were representatives from city departments and Community Based organizations were in attendance to include, department of public health, department of Emergency Management, rebuilding together, neighborhood and speed of the network and others. The first item on the agenda was a presentation by daniel [inaudible] Neighborhood Empowerment Network that is the city office tasked with providing neighborhood resilience and Emergency Planning for neighborhood and residents were seniors and people with disabilities. The idea is that through a network of relationships, neighbors will be aware of and able to help each other in times of disaster and more effectively before city resources are able to be dispatched. It was a robust discussion among the group about ways to collaborate and some issues that should be paid attention to, such as mapping, Accessible Facilities for community helps, developing culturally componentcompetent excuse me programming to engage neighborhood residents with disabilities, etc. The following presentation was from rebuilding together a volunteerbased organization that provides free home repairs to low income seniors and disabled residents. The ability to provide service is based on income eligibility as they discuss the connection between the services that they can bring to disabled residents and disaster resilience such as screen bookshelves to the wall, repairing shaky stairwells, etc. They also talked about a new grants based program that provides disability related modifications to select residents such as door whining, chairlift installation, wool and shower modifications, etc. They wanted the groups help to disseminate information to folks would benefit from this work. Finally, we suck letter from the department of Emergency Management introducers up as the new lead planner and the point person for planning for access and functional needs asn. She introduced her a event Coordination Group that includes , [inaudible] dph, Human Service agency, whose task is to understand what each Department Draws or has already in place regarding people with disabilities in disaster situations, and try to coordinate all the efforts and identify the gaps in planning response and resilience. The meeting concluded with a discussion about creating a tabletop exercise for the ddp participants and defining additional issues to work on over the year. The next meeting of the ddp seat will be held on april 7, 2017 from 1303 30 pm in room 421 here at city hall. If you are interested in Emergency Preparedness and disaster response, for people with disabilities, please, join us. We welcome your participation. Thank you. Now we will going to proceed to information item number six. Which is a report from the Mayors Office on disability. Hello. Good afternoon everyone. Welcome especially to our new and returning councilmembers. Its very much a pleasure to see everyone here today and im glad to be here as well. As was mentioned earlier in the meeting, i am nicole bohn the director of Mayors Office on disability which i have been since january 23rd so relatively new but settling in well. Ive a few things id like to share today but some highlights over the 78 weeks. So i will proceed with that. So, first i like to say a special thanks to Deputy Director [inaudible] who was interim director from april 2016 and also Deputy Director joannafor providing Additional Support and keeping things running. Im very pleased to be here and very thankful for all the work that both of them have done. So, thank you very much for that. A little bit about myself. I have been in the field of disability to Disability Services and advocacy and compliance for 20 years. Mostly in Higher Education although i did some early work in outpatient treatment programs counseling. Most recently, for the past eight years, previous to my position now, i was being overseen taxes and compliance efforts at San Francisco state. In terms my educational background, ive a masters degree in counseling and also a master of fine arts in writing. Some of my personal passions around the needs of san franciscans with disabilities include but of course not limited tothese are kind of my mother things that i feel very strongly about some of which youll hear a live it more about todayaffordable accessible housing them access to accessible technology, access to employment and technology within that employment and safe and accessible transportation. What im going to do next is talk briefly about things that are happening in each of the belfort areas of the officers charged with which include architectural access, programmatic access, disaster emergency and resilience planning, and of course support for the Mayors Disability Council. Then, i will close with a few more things that we are moving forward. So first, with architectural access, in addition to the continued compliance review of the rental assistance of roman project, which you hear more about today, modwill be involved in reviews during the roll out of mayor lees hope sf initiative. According to the mayors press 27 february, just to give you a little context for this initiative, hope sf is a Community Driven partnership with the residents and is being implemented by the Mayors Office and Housing Community development better known as moh cd. Bidding transformation of the citys roads distressed public Housing Community and moh cd according to the press release, anticipates more than 500 million to support the successful redevelopment of sunnydale and potrero hill with next 15 years. Once completed, these communities will be mixed Income Service communities. Available to more than 3000 low income and middle class families. Moh cdmod will be involved in helping with the compliance review of thoseof those projects. Moving on to programmatic access oone of the charges that mod is charged with is to provide oversight of the ada coordinators for all varsity departments. So our annual spring ada coordinators academy is underway. This academy covers everything from communicating about disability to the reasonable accommodation request process, to accommodations solutions by disability and its academy were very proud of. We are also in the midst of our every customer counts training, which is offered to the General Services agency and this training covers some of the same thing that i mentioned above. It was very popular and soughtafter training for our City Employees could i really want to commend the mod staff for their work in that area as well. In terms of disaster resilience and Emergency Preparedness, i anticipate that this will be an area of recuperation and anticipated growth of the Mayors Office on disability. So far weve had key meetings and intersections over the last several months in this area with the department of Emergency Management, sf fire departments, Neighborhood Empowerment Network among many others to discuss how disaster resilience and emergency preparation impact people with disabilities in San Francisco and to talk about whats going to be done. Finally, as i mentioned earlier, we are very pleased to have in terms of our support, to you as the Mayors Disability Council, representation from across the Disability Community prism and we continued to support this diverse representation moving forward. Just a few more things i would like to announce. An update is part of our report. From at the federal state and city engagement level with the Mayors Office on disability. First at the federal level, the section 508 guidelines for websites and other information and Communication Technologies have been officially refreshed and adopted at the federal level. I am happy to say that the Citys Department of technology is in the process of obtaining their compliance guidelines to reflect these changes as we do our work in this area. Also, Mayors Office on disability [inaudible] regarding the accessibility of city machines on both the hardware and Software Level in anticipation of new voting machine adoption in an up coming election cycle. Thats to be determined. So we are excited to help with that process. Then, another announcement i like to highlight is that Mayors Office on disability has worked with the Public Library regarding the incorporation of accessibility opportunities as part of Digital Inclusion link which is coming up may 18may 8 two the 13th and i critically want to highlight the tech expo, which will be from 10301 pm on may 9. So that concludes my report would this month could think you very much. I also want to welcome you to the first Council Meeting with us. Thank you. Thank you. Okay. You will now move on to the agenda to number seven. Information item. Update on the dignity fun. I would like to welcome our presenters list of magee and the rejoplin. Thank you for coming before the council today. The thank you much for the invitation to come today. Thank you we have a powerpoint we we as people to move through it quickly so this time for questions. So i am a rejoplin, my day job is a Community Living campaign but ive also been active with the Dignity Fund Coalition so i will tell you look at more about that in joining me today is i am Melissa Magee Program Manager for the dignity fund at the department of aging and Adult Services. Its very exciting to be here with you our first meeting. So welcome to everybody. We hope to have the opportunity to come back and give you an update as this rolls along. How do we get it up on the screen . Is there a magicparty me [inaudible off mic] its already up. There we go ask and you shall receive. Thank you very much. So many of you may have heard about the dignity fund. Was a measure that was put on the ballot this past november. It was the work of the Dignity Fund Coalition which was a broad crosssection of senior and disability groups labor groups, community organizations, and such and through their collective efforts and fund raising and a lot of outreach to measure passed. The mission of the Dignity Fund Coalition is bigger than just that one ballot measure. Because i want you to know that we will be around for a while even though the measure passed. [inaudible] ensure that seniors and adults with disabilities are able to live with dignity and independence and choice in their homes and neighborhoods through policy changes and through sustained funding of services and support. The purpose of it was really to make sure san franciscans were 60 and older, or those, living with a disability are able to secure and use communitybased services and support the necessary ability to age in their own homes and communities. Another way to say all that is to make real the civil rights to choose to live in the community. So as the Dignity Fund Coalition began we had to make a case where the funding could San Francisco total population is over 80,000 folks. About one out of every five is an older adult were a senior. The number of adults with disabilities as in another 40 [inaudible] make up about 25 of the citys population. Thats over 200,000 people. The numbers are growing. So we want to step up as a community and figure out how we were going to prepare for this future. And as you will see is the coalition was developed, we wanted to think probably to make sure that nobody was left out and we will be working throughout to ensure that but as we started our early meetings, we were sure to include veterans with disabilities, older adults who are aging with hiv or dementia,. The upper port, those who need services are not eligible for many things and really have to figure out how to pay for outofpocket or go without. So the legislation, really, requires youll be glad to know, that the planning is done in partnership with thewith the Mayors Office on disability and will will be back. So now let me turn it over to melissa to talk a little bit about the legislation does. Thank you marie. Okay, so the key elements of the legislation are that the dignity fund creates additional dedicated funding to expand services and supports, and it protects the baseline amount of 38 million in existing services from future cuts. Then, each year it adds to that objective amount of money. The funds are targeted to home and communitybased services and specifically, alternatives to institutional care. So there are specific categories that are outlined in the ordinance in the legislation, and those are home and communitybased care, food and nutrition programs, consumer and caregiver education, empowerment and support, community and service centers, self advocacy and legal services, health and wellness promotion, and outreach and planning. So one of the big parts of the ordinance and legislation is the creation of the Dignity Fund Oversight and Advisory Committee which you were reference to. We are very happy to have a chip on our committee. So the role of the oac as its called, is to monitor and participate in the administration of the dignity fund. So true to its outlets and Advisory Committee to the department of aging and Adult Services. So the also, the response was of the oac are outlined in the legislation and it includes the things listed good outcome objectives for service, evaluation of services and data systems, a process for making funding decisions, Program Improvement and capacity building, Community Engagement and planning and evaluating [inaudible] fund and use of the fund as a catalyst for innovation. In fact in the legislation is visibly refers to a percentage use for innovative programs. So thus far, we are in process to the oac has held four meetings so far. In the legislation the oac has to meet six times a year and they have met four times in the past four weeks. So theres a lot to do up front and they have meetings scheduled for the next three weeks and then the first monday of the month. The meetings are open to the public. If anyoneanyone can attend remote public dropbox you can see everything thats going on. Right now, the oac has two goals. The first goal is really to get the committee of to speed, develop infrastructure and that sort of thing. At the initial meeting, we provided history of the dignity fund review the legislation and make sure everyone had the Charter Amendment and the implementation legislation. In orientation [inaudible] a presentation by our planner on Community Needs data and then identification by the group of other Data Information they would like. An understanding of the [inaudible] contracting process because all the funds will go through the regular process. Developers of bylaws and setting the regular meeting schedule. So they took care of those things but the other really important goal right now, is to work with the oac and dos to identify priorities for the initial 6 million in funding that will be added to the fund july 1. So we have used our current Needs Assessment community input. Weve had requests for proposals from the community committeebased organizations how to use allocate the initial funding. This year is a little different. In future years it will be a conference of Needs Assessment that will become pleaded, which will include gas analysis, and from that we will develop a service an allocation plan. So this year is a little different the way we are collecting the information. Then the other thing that the legislation provides for is a Service Providers working group and this is a group of people who are currently providing services, whether currently contracted with dos or not. This group will inform the oversight and Advisory Committee on Funding Priorities Community Needs, policy, development, and that sort of thing and we arewe are just startingwe will identify the cultures next week and we will get that group going. But it will be a broadthe goal is a broad crosssection of all Service Providers. Open to the public. Its a body that encourages widespread participation so we are really trying toworking hard to draw in people or not current contractors so that the community is well represented. So there is a slide on our timeline. The dignity fund passed on november 8. The controller certified the baseline funding in february, february 24. Actually, the same day the mayor signed the implementation legislation. Turned out to be the first meeting of the oac. I was kind of nice. By the end of march beginning of april, the executive director will submit our proposed Service Allocation plan to the mayors budget office. June, the budgets released and our hope is that we will get a lot of this funding out being used by october. Or so. Marie will just and our presentation. So holy bilby questions. If it is clear that melissa really is the person who is responsive enough for the mentation within the department of aging and Adult Services and the coalition kind of steps to the back backup band but also to say that the dignity fund will absolutely wonderful is really kind of a drop in the bucket in terms of what is needed for folks. So we want to be sure, especially now, do we have such a challenging federal administration, that we are here to stand with folks and make sure that we are as creative as possible. Not just with the good news that funding is protected in some ways here but its only the city dollars in dos that are protected. Discretionary dollars. So theres a lot more work to be done to make sure that the goals of the coalition are met to really help people age in place here and to have the support they need for Community Living. So either questions for either me or for melissa . I like to open it up for councilmembers. Any questions . Councilmember madrid you mentioned the [inaudible] do you guys work with [inaudible] the Homeless Population . So it could include people who are the poorest of the poor. I think the intention though is to be able to reach up a little bit as well. Many of you have heard of the Community Living fund. That was a previous effort to try to make funding a bearable for people so that they could choose to come out of institutions were avoid going there in the first place. The level for that is 300 of the poverty level. So that is about 28,000 a year. We know theres a lot of folks who are struggling in the city here who work their whole life were even able to kind of have an income thats a little bit higher but once they start needing longterm care they are really stuck. Thank you. Tonsil member smolinski thank you for your presentation. Quick question. To what extent if any do you partner or allowing for partnering with the state . With state funding or anything like that was this San Francisco money for San Francisco projects and residents only . Yes, it is general fund money for San Francisco residents only. So we make a point though of looking at knowing what we get additional funding from the state or federal matches in that sort of stuff so we are trying to make sure we are aware of that as well and the oac. Theres other ways we can leverage additional money. I was a bit apartment has a strong history of looking for opportunities to leverage money so even with the Community Living fund which i mentioned, the way that they are able to keep track of where the services go allows them to claim the medical dollars. So some additional money comes into the pot because they are creative in that way, and i note as these new Services Come online and only 6 million in the first year, that will allow the department again to look for opportunities to leverage with other city departments or with the state and federal government. While the federal government i dont hold that much opening to the state thank you councilmember blacksten thats a great presentation. Ive a strong interest in the arena of providing longterm care. Thats part of the business that im working with peer can you tell us how the longterm care relates to what you are doing and when the funding that you would have available, when that would start to come become about . Sure. So the concept of the fund was to include some items that are really related to prevention and wellness and then to stretch all the way to the other and to really help people again, who would otherwise been institutions really struggle to have the ability to stay in their own home and community. So that was the first part of the question. The second was when do the dollars yes this is just getting started. I think its great what you are doing, soi know the Oversight Committee is just getting going. When do you expect to have some of the funding available for these different areas . I think[crosstalking off mic] so we hope to haveso the money is a lot available july 1 but theres a process by which we have to go through identify the providers and such but our hope is to move as quickly as possible and have money actually writing services by the end of october. Okay. So july 1october that is great. Thank you. I think as we knew this money was becoming available there was a temptation to say well lets do some more planning and lets really step back and make sure its used in the best way. I think we are still doing that but when we started at the coalition we put together a list of 48 million worth of needs and so, wherever the 6 million goes, is coined to fill an important need. So better to get it out the door as soon as possible and then as melissa said, in the future we will go be a much more substantial planning process. Other questions . Councilmember smolinski yes actually i have a question. With the financing, exactly thedo you consider what people with specific disabilities or is it wide ranging array of disabilities . Can be a person with [inaudible] disability . How do you make the decision with the allocation of funds looks like . Senior citizens of great of course, but there are f and deaf blind and individuals for example and they often are stuck in home and they may have a lot of needs for like 20 years and they have two fight in order to get these services out in the community. So im just wondering exactly how to make assess ability easier . I understand for Senior Citizens but for people with medication disabilities, with deafness, with deathline it can be a different matter. I am just wondering if you can consider that in this process . So speaking from the Coalition Point of view, it is really the intention of this process and through these new dollars to surface some of the issues and individuals who have kind of been hidden in i know that the department at this point with director sheree mcfadden, as mentioned over and over again she thinks its a time to balance the funding within the product to include more for adults with disabilities who are younger than seniors. When the department was created, that funding wasnt made in place even though the responsibility was expanded. She has also spoken over and over again about reducing isolation so i know that the key thing as theyre looking at some of the possibilities. It will be sort of an open competitive process, and the expectation is that many of these existing Service Providers who work with deaf and hearing committees or visual impairments or blindness, will step in and say, we note that there is a need and this is the way that we can fill it. It could be a range of services, everything from chance rotation two meals, too many of the kind of issues that melissa talked about. Do you want to add . Okay. Does that answer your question . [inaudible off mic] thank you. Excuse me Councilmember Williams thank you very much for your work congratulations and very eager to read more about your program. Im wondering if some of the services could be provided by our community, for instance like a lighthouse. Are you going to be reaching out to us to see we can participate perhaps even with Free Services . So you mention the lighthouse. Marie and the coalition actually reached [inaudible] asked for people to submit proposals or ideas bernies face on the community and we actuallywe have received to from the lighthouse in fact. So we have received a wide range of proposals. I think the coalition has done a wonderful job of really trying to reach out to the community, not just the people that dos currently works with, but reallyso we hope toyou know, its as much money as it is but we hope to serve as much as many people as possible. Thank you so those interested in learning a little bit more, as most melissa mentioned, the group thats in charge of implement in this meets and now every money and those are Public Meetings and folks can come and participate. The other thing is that we do have a website among the coalition does. It is up on the screen here tomorrow but i didnt yes, it is or will be. If some magic happens. But it is sf [inaudible]. Org. Sf dignity fund. Org. If you go to that site youll see when the next meeting is and youll get some of the documents that are then referred to today. The original legislation, the Needs Assessment that we did in the beginning, there are pictures and other kinds of stories about the legislation and what we did to get it passed. Also, if you would like, i can send the link to the dropbox if people are interested. Donna you can decide if people want to look at it. Marie mentioned the dignity fund. They have the Coalition Website and they are using it now for the dignity fund but hsa is right now in the process of redoing the website and will be a landing page specifically for the dignity fund. So hopefully in the next month or two we will have that also. Im going to open questions of two staff . Any questions of staff . Through the chair, thank you melissa for being here and if you dont mind mayor read the information the next meeting so that everyone can get it . The website is www. Sf dignity fund. That is sf dignity fund. Org. Next in his april 26 from 2304 30 pm, a 25 howard st. Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I like to open up questions for Public Comment to this presentation. Any Public Comment cards . Anyone on the bridge line at this time . Questions for presenters, comments . Okay. Im in a goahead and close the Public Comment. They do so much for being here and he wasnt a standing invitation to come back. Thank you very much thank you. We are going to i can Great Questions you councilmembers. Thank you. We will move onto information item number eight which is the San Francisco rental assistance demonstrationrad program. I like to welcome our presenters erin carson and [inaudible]. Thank you for being here today. Good afternoon cochair and members of the council. This afternoon erin and i would like to report on the city Successful Partnership with Us Department of housing and urban development. Transforming Public Housing for 8000 low income san franciscans. A number of the citys Public Housing properties are currently being rehabilitated as part of [inaudible] 2013 plan to reenvision Public Housing along with huds rental assistance demonstration program, or rad, rat. The rehabilitation involves the conversion for Key Properties with 1000 422 units in phase 1. In another 14 properties with 2066 units in phase 2 which we transfer to communitybased nonprofit ownership. Resulting in one of the biggest ever conversions of the Public Housing portfolio in the country. The limitation of the first component of this Transformation Plan will provide 250 units with upgraded [inaudible] for residents using mobility devices and another 150 units with new communication features for the hearing impaired in addition, other units will receive adaptable units to my that will features excuse me and townhomes at grade will receive [inaudible]. Phase 1 projects commence construction november 2015 and are scheduled to be completed towards the end of the year. While phase 2 commenced last september, and the projected construction schedules range from 1632 months. The total revocation value for both phases is approximate 650 million. The citys commitment to the preservation and improvement of the lab dated Public Housing extends well beyond the substantial Financial Resources invested in these buildings. It encompasses the unprecedented support of multiple city agencies including but not limited to the Mayors Office on housing and Community Development, the planning department, building department, health department, Human Services agency, department of environment and of course, Mayors Office on disability together, these agencies all are contributing resources and expediting the conversion under the tight deadlines. In addition to innovative financing mechanisms, the city is also leverage the talents and experience of its accomplished Affordable Housing developers to preserve repair, and renovate homes for San Franciscos lower income residents. Transferring these properties from ownership and management to the San Francisco Housing Authority, to communitybased nonprofit management provides substantial new Financial Resources available to repair and renovate these properties. This one for qualityoflife of Public Housing residents to better housing conditions, Supportive Services at each site and improved accessibility through the construction period and beyond. With that, im happy to hand over to erin carsons lead construction manager for the Mayors Office on housing and Community Development. Thank you. Thank youthanks for having us here. The opportunity to talk about the Exciting Program and as mentioned, its an incredible collaborative effort that has occurred over the last actually, about four years from the start of bad when we started this effort and we apply to hard to know where weve actually finished i think about four of our phase 1 properties. Theres really really lovely and i encourage anyone who wishes to view them we would be happy to give you a tour. I had a brief presentation just to give you a little bit more of information about it. Okay i just want to give you a little background on this. As you may know, the Housing Authority is very large agency that provides housing subsidies to almost 28,000 residents, and their current totalwere original total Public Housing units were 5003 and 72 units. With an average Household Income of 40,639. That means that there rental unit cost is very limited and that means that the amount of money that goes into repairing and maintaining their housing is also very limited, and as you know the federal government has continuously reduce the amount of money they provided over the years, which means hes Housing Units are aging overtime and becoming even more and more dilapidated. So as i said, we have aging buildings many of us were built in the 50s and 70s, through the 70s. Theyve significant deferred maintenance. We started working on this project, we were given reports of 270 million in immediate need spirit that was actually severely underestimated. Then, 50 million in accruing Additional Needs every year at the time. At that point in time they were receiving 5 billion a year in Capital Budget so as you can see, it was just a losing effort. In 2012 Housing Authoritys declared troubled by hud and they were being threatened withwhipping taking in and mayor lee call for revisioning of their entire program. Which included 72 different organizations and over 100 participants went through a reenvisioning process over a number of months. We all agreed that doing nothing was not an option. That this is an incredible asset for the city of San Francisco to house our lowest income residents could many of which were born and raised here. And that these buildings, if they continue to decline at that rate, we would simply lose that housing the people who live there would become homeless. So the steps that we decided to take was to pursue rat. So the priorities of the Rabbit Program for the city established that we would ensure longterm affordability of these units. That the new owner ownership in Property Management would be experienced, nonprofit, and forprofit partners who understand how to manage and develop Affordable Housing. That they would repair or rehabilitate these properties and that they would be serviceable and incomplete concert also serviceable condition for at least the next 20 years and they would stabilize the operating income as well as the operating expenses, and they would also provide Onsite Services to the residents had not been receiving with the Housing Authority. As mentioned, just a brief overview phase 1 is 1422 units, phase 2 is another 2066 units could for about 3003488 between the two faces. We had 14 buildings in each phase. 20 of the properties are senior and disabled residents. And eight our family or mixed housing. So once we started to establish priorities for the rehabilitation, we prioritized the following. The building envelope, which is of course the roof, windows and water intrusion because we had a lot of mold. We had a lot of issues with water intrusion. By safety, of course we had buildings that do not sprinklers or fire alarms. Then of course accessibility was our top priority as well and we work closely with mod to figure out how we could meet this very challenging goal of providing accessibility in units that are very old and constrained. Our fourth was to improve the common spaces and amenities and lastly we did want to improve the units in the homes that people were living in because they have been neglected as well over the years. For the accessibility priorities, we want to make sure of course first of all we have passive travel through the entire building. So that all the entries would be accessible to most of our entry doors now have automatic buttons on them. That we have Accessible Community rooms, community kitchens, laundry rooms, outdoor space, services spaces, and of course the elevators would become dependable because they have been as you probably have heard in the news, they have a lot of challenges with our elevators as well. So in phase 1 we had a minimum of 5 per mobility units and then in phase 2 are mobility units increased to a goal of 10 except where was technically infeasible to do so. Im sorry, 2 for communication units that increased to 4 in phase 2. The challenges we had for this project were that many of our properties are not very steep sites. Many of the totality of the buildings we had townhomes that were walk ups. With bathrooms on the second floor. Then, structurally, we had Tall Buildings that were concrete and they were constrained in terms of the without objection doors, the size of the bathrooms, and things like that. Of course, we have a limited budget and as i said earlier, we have an estimate of 270 million in cost. It was actually when we started construction in phase 1, it went up to 670, and right now, we are hovering just less than 800 million for two phases. So it is a lot of money and the city of San Francisco is committed 100 million of that and the rest of it is leveraged through permanent debt as well as tax credit equity. Im not sure why my photos are not loading. There we go. So this gives you an idea of the topography challenges that we had peered this particular picture is of westbrook, i believe. So very steep sites. A lot of stairs down to the building could really, challenging. We did address this for a number of units with cramping but at some point the ramping became just physically impossible to place between the public right of way and the building itself. So its very difficult and extremely expensive to achieve. That gives you another idea of the differential betweenyou consider retaining wall on the right side of the building and on the left. Sorry. I was a town hundred that was two stories. Here, you can see concrete walls that 1880 pine st. Theres really no opportunity to make that corridor wider and to give you the clearance you would want for the door. But we did have some amazing wonderful solutions and outcomes. We have most of the properties have brandnew kitchens. This is an example one. This is not one of the mobility unit kitchens, but it gives you an idea of the quality. Thats what look like before. So, great improvements. Here is robert banother before and after this account so again not a mobility kitchen. Here is an Accessible Community kitchen. Its not really completed in this picture, but you can get an idea of now the residents have an amenity that they can all access and utilize for parties or events or whatever, and it is really an amazing amenity that they did not have before. Then, even in units where we were not able to do a full upgrade to a mobility unit, when we did anything to the bathrooms in terms of the shower surrounds, we always added back grab bars so we are improving whatever we can. Things like rubber hardware in the doorway, grab bars, wallmounted sinks. Just to improve accessibility even if the entire unit wasnt perfect. That shows you another unit before and after. So incredible improvements in terms of access and safety for the residence. So i just want to conclude before we open up to questions. We have been very successful in terms of ensuring the longterm affordability. The protected residents who live there. And we have real but targeted these buildings and units to create billy Accessible Community space , communities that are really inviting and will be longterm easily more maintained. They are safer for residents and we will be retaining this a amazing asset for years to come. We do appreciate the cooperation that we have been able to have with the Mayors Office on disability. They have really been helpful in helping understand how we can improve the work and also all the limitations that we face. So we appreciate that and i think its really resulted in a wonderful set of outcomes. Thank you. I would like to open up questions at this time from councilmembers . Okay. Thank you. So Councilmember Alex madrid ive two questions. One is, [inaudible]. Are you guys thinking of section 8 . That is one question. The second question is, [inaudible] in the bathroom and kitchen. What do you think about doing more rolling chairs for more accessibility for showers in the bathrooms . So as aron mentioned, the 5 mobility of the units with mobility features to a large extent comply with a current code requirements. So if there were showers and bathtubs in those units, then those would comply fully with both the California Building code requirements for showers and bathtubs as well as the ada requirements which were large extent are similar. Was that your only question . Similarly im thinking of the rolling chairs. Likewise, with the shower compartments, the Rolling Stones with a folding seats, those were provided in some units. It was left to the discretion of the Property Managers as far as which units would receive those accessible showers and which ones would receive bathtubs. Yes we did ashley do some rolling chart im sorry did not bring any pictures of that. I should clarify, because my pictures dont really do it justice. There are the delete ability units and those are fully compliant. We took down walls and did everything we had to do to make those compliance. We did have request for some rolling showers i think we are doing probably more of them in phase 2. But, yes, they are very difficult to do especially in a concrete floor and things like that. But that is what we are doing in many of the buildings in phase 2 in particular. That was really generated by request from residence in particular, saying thats what they would really like so than the Property Management came to their designer and to us said and we would like to do this good so we did do that. To your first question about section 8 vouchers, whether Mayors Office of housing for townhouseim not really resent the Housing Authority. I dont have any information really, under section 8 voucher program. Im sorry i cant answer that. Any other questions from councilmembers . Just raise your hand. Councilmember blacksten i am impressed with the work eight youve done. Wow, two different phases were always aging buildings. Thats incredible. Ive got two questions. Now it sounds like youve gone through phase 1 and phase 2 and im glad its only 800 million and you reachedit could have been much higher. Are there plans for getting into phase 3 this year, and if are you at liberty to give us information about that . The other thing i wanted to raise, i had my home office at the paramount. San francisco. The paramount is a high rent, highend rent, building, and so it falls in a different category than what it sounds like you been serving. I have my home office there. I understand how of the 500 units that 100 of them have been designated as Affordable Housing. Now, they been doing a lot of renovation in that building which is great because it makes you look better. Theyve got 24hour service for concierge and now, my concern is that this. I understand they are supposed to renovate, i think its, its the kitchens of most of the units of the 400 units that are not Affordable Housing but the ones that are, i have heardnow i dont know how accurate this isthat no renovation of kitchens. For Affordable Housing units. So, i just pass that along to for your information. Any comments you have would be appreciated. I can tryim sorry this is erin carson again i can try to answer that could forsake my cousin thought of the Mayors Office of housing because its not publicly funded work in the paramount. That would be something that is tightly committed to and im not really sure the process they went through. Yes but there are funded by ai think therefore double housing by a bond. Maybe that does fall out of your area. Yes, again if its a taxexempt bond funds, thats not consider public funding and therefore, it doesnt fall under our purview and i suspect it wont under mod as well. So unfortunately, im sorry i dont have any information on that. As far as your first question about phase 3, there is into phase 3 in terms of rad itself. We areasmention we started grabbed phase 1 in november 2015 and we are [inaudible] bad phase 2 and were in the middle of the throws of all the fun early supper we find out everything thats even worse than we thought it was. So we are not done yet by any stretch of the imagination, and we put our difficult projects in the phase 2. So we are still in the thick of that one. However, i do want to let you know that there is also what we call hope sf and that was the cities effort under gavin newsom as mayor, where the city decided to backfill the loss of hope six funding from the federal government in about 2002. So, we have hunters view which is Public Housing and it is now in its phase 3 of complete redevelopment which means demolition, all new infrastructure street sidewalks, lighting, those buildings are now nearly complete for that replacement of the Public Housing cured we are now in the middle mouse griffith. A smaller project for hope sf is another huge redevelopment project. We are starting to sunnydale redevelopment hope sf as well as potrero. So i would consider some regard that is phase 3 but does a brandnew construction they will be fully compliant with all codes because we have that opportunity to build him correctly right of the ground. Councilmember sassouni yes i do have a question as far as how it is concerned. People who live in hard and they rent sometimes it happens there are rent increases. So i was wondering about the hud policies. As far as rent increase did for example for person who is not working, but or if they are working sometimes they feel like theyre hud rental increases they are unable to keep up with what it is. Whether or not it is remodeled, just heard people talking. Thank you for the question. Im not an expert on this but i can tell you that as far as the attention of housing and retention of our residents, the Rabbit Program is basically has the same rules as the original Public Housing which is that 30 of your income goes towards rent. Whether your income is coming from work were not from some kind of supportive assistance program. That 30 does not change. So there are rent increases, but it really is always good to try to your income unless you get to a certain point where your guests or income they call it. That becomes a little more challenging, but for the lowest income residents, that should not be changed. Thats how the program will continue to work under the Rabbit Program. They are receiving im sorry i want to clarify, too, the way that the operating budget now works, is that thethat hud and Rabbit Program took that relatively small amount of capital money they were providing to the Housing Authority, another spreading got into the rental subsidy. So the rental subsidies from the government to the Property Management has increased even though the tenants rent has stayed the same. That is how they are making these properties now work better. Where we are rehabbing them so that more efficient and better shape than we are getting a little more in rental subsidy from the government. Councilmember smolinski thank you. I am curious and this is coming at it from the other entry i live in the richmond district. Every block i walked down a neighbor is doing every model. Myself, we just completed one a few months ago. To what extent if any, does the city offer an incentive for homeowners to make their homes accessible. . I asked that because we need to put in elevator for my doctor we needed to put in a rolling shower. We got pushed back about well, you know, youre going to get the assessment your property taxes are going up, etc. But i thought, well look, we are creating something of value in the Housing Stock. We couldnt find a home in San Francisco that was accessible to the extent we needed. Another we created this,. It made me think more broadly be on our own situation that that might be something to think about, especially now that given what we built the rolling shower, we talk, what are we doing. This is so unusual in a contractor was like, you know what these are very popular these days, whetherits in vote. Its very stylish now to have these type of showers. So i am thinking this could be a winwin for the homeowner and the city. Youre getting this increase in accessible Housing Stock. So i am pretty sure the mayors cost of housing and Community Moment doesnt have a program that addresses that, and from what i understand, and i see my colleague [inaudible] who is signaling should have something to add right after i stop rambling. [laughing] we areour office does get a lot of calls from residents here in San Francisco like yourself, are interested in installing some kind of accessible accessibility feature into their homes and the questions revolve around assistance with going to the planning process and the permitting process, and we provide Technical Assistance to the best of our ability in that regard. Joanna, would you like to add to that as well . Thank you. Through the chair, afraid i dont have much to add other than the fact that some folks who meet the adult income eligibility, which is pretty low, actually, the building together with finance some of those things. Some cities have developed a fund, but given the cost of housing in San Francisco, this will be a great opportunity for advocacy around, you know, incentives and stuff like that. It also made me think, helen, that as we are talking about aging in place, and sustainability of people staying away from institutions and living in their homes, it sounds like you might want to bring this concerns to the dignity fund as well. To look at those ways of tying in families or people with disabilities who are rehabbing their homes to make them more affordable. See if there is like tax incentive or something that can be worked out so they can [inaudible]. Theres a lot of ways to combine those efforts in the process of try to keep people in their homes for as long as possible. Thank you for that joy in a. We agree as well that it wasnt a disability issue. It was also an aging in our home, and we have created something that both seniors and disabled community can have in the Housing Stock for long time. Thank you. Any other comments or questions through staff . Through the chair, thank you. Karen, this is been a year coming. Thank you so much for being here. Literally, almost a year. I do of questions. One is are the rabbit projects available through the [inaudible] housing portal where people who have accessibility that need housing can look for these particular sites . Width you know i am just nowsorry erin carson againim now understanding it now but i dont know but i believe it would be. It shouldit should be. Spears although you off because apparently, nicole knows but i do have a second question. So when you say that housing is being turned over to nonprofits, is thatis there a vetting process . How does that work . Do nonprofits say i want that townhouse or how does that work . Thats a good question. Thank you. When we started rad we identified the properties that Housing Authority had that would work with rad and we found these 20 buildings spread all the way across the city. Then we establish what we called clusters or groups of these buildings that we thought made sense sort of as first regionally in the city where a where Service Providers were serving the same buildings or could serve the same buildings things like that. Then we issued rfps. The nonprofit sponsors at that time, they responded. They knew werethey created partnerships with local cbos in each region in order to serve the properties, not just in terms of this rehabbing the bowman Property Management site but the Services Side as well. So thats how they were selected and weve got some really interesting and creative and hardworking teams. Thank you. In response to the question about david and for those of you dont know, dolly it is in ireland portal that moh cd is developing to how to search for below market rate housing opportunities and i have the opportunity to meet with the Web Developer team on dahlia good to three weeks ago and start to talk about the different kinds of teachers that we willthere on the dalia patil right now, and the ones working towards development. So very still in thein the beta phase what they call the beta phase of the dalia portal, which is really testing out the baseline search features and there is an opportunity to request accessible housing right now, as part of the application process, and we do foresee, as the site develops, it has more and more content that you will be able to search for accessible housing as well and we are in the process now of talking about the kinds of features that folks will want to sort by. Mobility, units, can medication units, etc. Thank you, nicole. You are welcome. Thank you, staff. Excuse me i the question through the chair. Sorry you are not off the hook yet. [laughing] thank you, guys for this amazing presentation. Even though i work right next door [inaudible] i dont get to see the big picture. But, actually, my question is a little more administrative than that. I know that rad is sort of its own entity and the office oversees some of the code compliance around construction but actually commit the client or tenant has a complaint with the property manager, who does the property manager report to . Who oversees those communitythose communitybased organizations that provide services . Thats a very good question. It depends on the question or the concern. Often i get calls from you. And you will again. [laughing] it depends on what the question or the concern is. Our nonprofit sponsors are pretty good in terms of intact, with rad i should tell you as well that each month we received a report from our projects whether they are phase 1 or two and it gives us an overview of the progress and talks about you know, rent collection or whatever and services and what events they have had. But one of the other things they report on every single month, is the number of requests for accommodation at reasonable accommodation in the number of reasonable, they should request that have been accepted or fulfilled. So i feel that they are pretty responsive and aware that that is their mission and their requirements. But there are times when people make a request and is denied and then they raise it up the chain and it depends on sometimes they will come to you, i imagine. Sometimes i get a call. Its not very common that i do. Sometimes they will go to our dir. Or assistant dir. Enables sort of fish it to the right person. But that is pretty much how we oversee these projects and we come in the city we are putting in a lot of money we have a very long relationship with these buildings and a residence, so we are fairly on top of these things and the nonprofits know that. That is great. I mean, i understanding that 23 calls that we get about a disagreement with the property manager is like one of hundreds reasonable accommodation request but sometimes in our expense, where we worked with some of the nonprofit Housing Providers that work for contract for the city through the Human Services agency or whatever, with dph, and sometimes we do see that some of the contractors not necessarily have a thorough understanding of housing, disability rights kind of law and sometimes they are news communications. So im interested in those cases. How do those situations get mediated . You made it sound like from your perspective, its actually the Mayors Office on housing and Community Development that is the overall oversight so we should we be referring people to you guys . I know, you love that question. Through the job off the hook all of it because erin and i utilized have actually worked on a couple things and i think part of it is sort of determining whether something is reasonable or not and what we work on. But i found in my correspondence with erin, and sort of the person at the Community Based organization once i sort of understood the process, it got resolved fairly quickly. So, i think it is more of a problem solving than it is a grievance sort of issue. It can be solved at that level you know our office is all for that. People have been very responsive in my experience. Honestly, i think that the Mayors Office on disability, the one that has the most knowledge, of course so i actually would always defer to mod in these incidents. Im nowhere near an expert on fair housing and those things. I know veryi know enough to be not very helpful analytic dangerous. [laughing] i try to steer them to the correct area but in my experience has been that once you explain something to them or be process that sort of started out a little further, most of the time, i have seen a successful resolution, but i would have to defer to the lawyers for anything that went beyond the normal day to day. Thank you. I would just add to that, when asked do they receive any kind of training from moh cd on how to analyze and accommodation request . Not from us. [inaudible off mic] at this time i want to open it up to any Public Comment. Any speaker cards at this point . Anyone on the bridge line . Okay. I like to think our presenters. Thank you for being here today. Im going to go ahead and ca information item number nine. Wheelchair access Taxi Services and an overview of the San Francisco Paratransit Program. I like to welcome a presenter Jonathan Chang. Thank you for being here today. Thank you for having me. Powerpoint, please. Control room can we get thethere we go. Thank you. Sorry. Thank you for having me here today my name is Jonathan Chang paratransit court, nader at a 78 essential services and i am here to provide in or you of the as of Paratransit Program as well as discuss the decline in wheelchair [inaudible] for the taxi service. If we can pull up the powerpoint . So what is paratransit . Paratransit is paratransit was required with the passage of the american with disabilities act in 1998 which required all cities and governments with a Public Transit agency of the Transit System to provide complement three Transportation Services for individuals who are unable to access fixed route system. In San Francisco we provide access to both taxi and then service. There are Program Requirements for the Paratransit Program. Including old ability, people must qualify for paratransit restrict eligibility basis. They have to show that there are conditions to prevent them from accessing the fixed route system. In addition, the service area Paratransit Program paraTransit System must mirror those of the fixed route system. So since unique covers all San Francisco so does the Paratransit Program. In addition, the Paratransit Service must cover within three quarters of a mile of the fixed route bus line. So since muni goes to [inaudible] and around lake merced, paratransit also serves northern San Mateo County as well as treasure island, and since muni goes to [inaudible] on the weekends, paratransit also provide service to [inaudible] on the weekends as well. The Service Hours for every paratransit and must mirror those of the fixed route system. So since muni operates 20 a day seven days a week, three and 65 days a year, so does the cities Paratransit Program. Individuals for our bank service must make a reservation at least one day in advance and to make a reservation must be seven days in advance. The laws allow us to charge twice the fixed route adult fare. However in San Francisco we dont do that. We charge the regular adult fare which is currently 2. 25 for our band program. I want to provide a brief outline of how are Paratransit Program is structured. Work in Accessible Services department which is under the sf mta division of taxis and Accessible Services. We oversee a paratransit broker [inaudible] and zapt oversees the delivery of Transportation Services to our 13,780 notable writers. We provide three modes of transportation. A taxi mode, in which there are 22 providers should we provide a google ban service which provides Group Transportation two groups of seniors and people with disabilities who attend primarily day programs such as adult Adult Day Health centers or go to a adult day care or nutrition programs could we also provide the traditional sf Access Service which is its traditional ada Paratransit Service which is widely used around the country. Helping the department oversee that program is paratransit core neighboring counsel. This is a committee comprised of paratransit consumers, senior and disabled advocates, residents from communitybased organizations, and members from government agencies. We hold Committee Meetings about every six weeks as well as monthly meetings to focus on specific transportation mode. So we need quarterly to talk about taxi service. We meet quarterly to talk about the sf Access Service and we meet cordially to talk about the group then started this committee is very active in the governmental policy as well as providing feedback in terms of the Service Quality of the cancer patient Services Provided to our program. Sf mta does contract out to a broker, transdev to provide the daytoday management of these paraTransit Systems. They are responsible for monitoring Service Quality. Theyre also responsible for the 88 bulge with the certification process. As well as all fare media sales including sales of fan tickets and the voting of taxi and car value. They also do subcontract some of the Transportation Services out to other providers. And they are i would say there are Staff Members who do with the customers and any feedback they provide about the service. So in order to qualify for paratransit the app can you show theremust show how the condition affects their ability to use the fixed route system. In order to qualify, they have to be the one of three criteria. They must either show how the conditions prevent them from getting to and from the nearest bus or rail stop. They may show how theiror they must show how their condition vents them from boarding, writing or disembarking in accessible vehicle. The third way they can qualify as of the fixed route system is inaccessible. For example, if theres a wheelchair user and they need a lift to get onto the bus, but the bus does not have a lift, then they qualify for paratransit. Everyone who wants to qualify for paratransit must complete an application estimated to be as a Paratransit Office. The Paratransit Office has a 21 days to come up with a final determination about their eligibility for Paratransit Services. Within this 21 days, the office request more information the client and maybe at some for an in person interview with may contact the persons dr. To have them verify their condition and provide more details as to how these conditions affect their ability to use the fixed route system. Oncea determination is made if the applicant does not agree with that determination, they do have the right to appeal that decision. An appeal once an appeal is filed, a thirdparty reviews this application all the information the applicant submitted. This panel that reviews the appeals is comprised of a medical professional may transit represent of the paratransit consumer. So i want talk about the Programs Services we provide to our Paratransit Program. For services sf Access Service which is the traditional ada prescheduled shared ride van service. We have a ontime performance rate of 86 . We consider a trip to be on time it arrives within 20 min. Of your promised pickup time. So if you have a pickup schedule for 2 pm, the trip is considered to be on time if the band comes 5 min. Before so 1 55 pm or 15 min. After, 2 15 pm. We have a fleet of approximately 112 cutaway vehicles which are like i guess more like shuttle buses, small shuttle buses. As well as five minivans. We are in the process of procuring more minivans to add to our fleet as we find we find that minivan might suit the Transportation Needs of our clients alone but better than the larger minibus. In fiscal year 2016 we completed over two and 29,000 trips including 60,000 trips to wheelchair users. The Second Service we provide is crew ban service. Kuban services a prescheduled Transportation Service for groups of individuals going to a single location. Some of the load in quotations make include Adult Day Health Centers Group work site or nutrition programs. [inaudible] providers including transdev, they met, as well as several Community Nonprofit organizations including self help with the elderly, and centro latino. In fiscal year 2000 sitting we [inaudible] over 20,000 trips with the group then service. The Third Service would pride for 88 clients is that taxi service. This is the same day demand response service. All taxes in the city are required to participate in the Paratransit Program so therefore anyone having any paratransit client can help any taxi in the city and they will provide them with transportation. We provide about 286,000 paratransit trips to the taxi service including over 9600 trips to wheelchair users. When individuals qualify for the pure Paratransit Program other issued a [inaudible] card operate the same as anyones bank issued debit card. A writer would pay is 5. 50 we would give them 30 without taxi value to use for Transportation Services. They use the paratransit debit card to pay for their meter fare, for their trip. Every writer is given a monthly allotment based on the trip needs. So the greater your trip needs, the higher the allotment for the taxi service. Thiswriters are only allowed to use the taxi service for trips within San Francisco and are not allowed to usenot allowed to use the taxi service for any roundtrip in any trip that starts and ends at the same destination, were for any way trips and trips where the taxi transports the person to the destination but waits with him that we dont pay for those trips. This taxi debit card has been a Great Success that its a lot easier for riders to pages using a debit card as opposed to paper scripts and data allows sf paratransit and sf mta to better monitor Program Rules and providelearn more details what the trips taken. As a paratransit also provides several Transportation Services for individuals who do not qualify for 88 Paratransit Service. One of these Services Shop around programs. This is a man and taxi service that provides transportation for seniors so anyone 55 or older and individuals with disabilities to grocery stores. We have a prescheduledwe have a spree scheduledwe have a schedule on our van service and we do go regulate to trader joes, coscos, [inaudible] safeway and luckys. Because its a grant funded service and in fiscal 2016 we provided over 8000 trips to our the writers. We also booked Second Service called van gogh. This provides Group Transportation and people with disabilities to go to cultural social and recreational events brought the city. In fiscal year 2016 inmate over 2000 trips through the service. We arewe are putting greater emphasis on mobility management currently. Will do the management seeks to provide services and programs to seniors and people disabilities to allow them to make the having the appropriate transportation choices given their trip needs. We recognize that there is no one solution in providing transportation to seniors and people with disabilities, so we want to make sure people are aware of other Transportation Service available as well as maybe develop programs that would facilitate better Translation Services for them. We are in the process of launching a Steering Committee that will help guide us in our [inaudible] in this initiative. We want to make sure that what the services we provide and the programs we develop do benefit those in the community. We are workingwe are developing partnerships with the Common Public Health to help facilitate for better Transportation Services to the public clinics [inaudible] with difficult terrain is that well as working with the department of aging and Adult Services at their new information and resource [inaudible] to have a staff member there, staff to help provide information about Transportation Services to anyone who comes to their office and needs that kind of assistance. Now, i want to kind of go into, i guess, the recent decline in the number of paratransit wheelchair trips completed by taxes. So taxis to provide about one third of all of our paratransit trips we find out our customers really enjoy the service. They see a lot of benefit to the service in that it provides sameday transportation. It provides greater possibility for users. They dont have to make a reservation the day before. They can be much go anywhere they want onthefly. And it is very Cost Effective service for the Paratransit Program. Im sure all you guys are aware that in the past couple of years theres been a big growth entrance rotation Network Comedy such as uber and left. And the taxi industry. Due to their growth and the Business Model many taxi drivers find thatfind that provided service through [inaudible] may benefit them has been [inaudible] the taxi industry this is really particularly affected the ramp taxi program. In that, it has drawn away experienced drivers from the program. Operating a ramp taxi which is a Wheelchair Accessible taxi, is also more costly in terms of fuel and maintenance, and there is more time required because you have spent more time securing an individual into the vehicle, but we are aware of the situation and we have taken steps to kind of address some of these issues. One of our current initiatives is we provide a incentive to drivers who provide ramp taxi service. This was launched in 2013 and what we do is we provide multiple incentives to riders, two drivers. For every paratransit will charge up that a taxi driver completes we provide a 10 bonus to them. We also provide a 500 bonus to the taxi company with the highest number of paratransit wheelchair trips completed per the number of ramp [inaudible] they have. We also do provide Financial Assistance and if the driver chooses to provideif the driver chooses to purchase a medallion and they also do provide a monthly speed be sure past to drivers who completewho pick up riders and the outlying neighborhoods of the city. So these are primarily on the western side of the city as well as the southern part of the city where are there more residential housing. This [inaudible] at the airport so they are not spending all their time at the airport waiting for passengers to come get in their taxi. We are also having we also do have a couple of medallions available and we are actually trying to recruit individual drivers, drivers were dedicated to this service, drivers who want to provide the service and we are trying to recruit them to operate ramp taxi medallions. All theseeveryone who gets everyone engages in an offering of ramp taxi medallion does undergo an interview process with the paratransit coronation counsel. Also working with [inaudible] to integrate our paratransit debit card into the smartphone app. I think currently, you can download the app and there is a way for you to select Wheelchair Accessible vehicles. [laughing] we been working with them in order to kind of expand the number of ways that someone could hail a taxi because the traditional way is either call a taxi company and have them tell you a time, or, also get one on the streets we find that by using utilizing this, technology, we can Better Connect riders the degree wheelchair users, to the right taxi that they need. We are also we also will bethere will be a focus group of will till users and taxidrivers to strategize solutions to help strengthen the ramp taxi program to help allow it to grow some of the ideas that were think about is providing some sort of Financial Assistance to drivers who are interested but unable to put the capital cost to purchase either a Wheelchair Accessible vehicle or to convert a minivan into a Wheelchair Accessible vehicle. We are also c considering expanding our 10 incentive to trips that are completed to general public wheelchair users. Thats my presentation and my name is Jonathan Jane paratransit coordinator at San Francisco mta. You can reach me at 41507014597 get you can contact them at 4153517000 thank you. I would like to open up questions from the council . Base your hand so i can see you. Councilmember smolinski if you want to go first thank you for your presentation i love, love, love your offering incentive to the taxicab drivers. How do you make them aware of these . We do promotewe do promote them to the through the taxidrivers but we promote them through the companies. We promote them throughwe work with the division of Taxi Services in one departments of the regulars who oversee the taxis industry, they are heaven theyve also been [inaudible] of the drivers who who come to the office below also do promote it at our Paratransit Office we also many wheelchair riders who promote it through taxidrivers that they see that they encounter. I will say, theres a very dedicated core of taxi drivers who want to provide the service and see this incentive as something that they can use to better support them as they operate these vehicles. , big user of flywheel. I know youre working with him. So again, you may be use these incentives known to flywheel is an organization because i know they work with lots of different yes they work with multiple Taxi Companies so they are aware of the incentive. Thank you. Council member madrid thank you for [inaudible]. A couple of questions come to mind. One is that, how do you guys determine [inaudible] this organization contacted [inaudible]. I know [inaudible]. The same question isits been good to learn how many trips that are completed, but how many how much is the percentage of those people [inaudible] complaints and how do you minimize and how do you guys improve those complaints [inaudible] verso want to address the question of philo. We are curren Pilot Testing that integration of the paratransit debit card into the app. We do have a select number of paratransit users are currently have a testing it. Theyre providing feedback about the usability as well as some of the issues theyve encountered. We have met with the flywheel, i think, a couple weeks ago to discuss some of these issues that been brought up by these private users. I mean, sf mta and sf paratransit recognizes that theres all this new technology thats out there and we have tosomehow integrate this kind of technology into our service delivery. We have been very fortunate that flywheel has been open and willing to work with us to incorporate the paratransit debit card and are riders into the app to make it more accessible to our writers. In terms of the complaints i think a lot of complaints do stem from the lackadding a love of the complaints do some from poor Service Quality. Thats includingthat includes vehicles coming in late. That includes driver friendliness [inaudible] what we do is very complaint that comes into the office, we respond within 14 days of that complaint and that complaintthe response we do address what kind of initiatives we are taking to kind of rectify those situations because we dont want those complaints to come over and over and over to our office. There are some circumstances that may be out of our control. I think you guys may be aware Traffic Congestion is a lothas increased in the past couple of years, and so, there are some things that we cant control, but i think some of the issues we are takingpurchasing minivans i think will help improve Service Quality because minivans are a lot more, i was a, mobile were a lot moretheyre better able to handle the city streets and these kind of bigger minibuses that we operate and so i think that something that may happen that will be coming soon that will help provide Better Service to our clients, but we are definitely aware of the Service Quality issues and we are always working to kind of find resolutions to resolve them. Thank you. Thank you. Councilmember [inaudible] 01 a thank you for your presentation and thats excellent incentives you provide are great. I want you to know ive been a user of paratransit now for quite a number of years. Both the man using your van service and taxes. If the taxi that i need to address right now. The taxi service is what i use the most. Im a guide dog user. I have been a user for about eight years and for quite a number of years i used a cane, but as i grew older, into my 50s, said well i want a guide dog. So that is my choice of mobility aid. I have to tell you, that its a must on uncountable number of situations i run into. You go to a hotel to catch a cab and you know, theres a yellow cab out there or any number of cabs. You asked the driver, i want a captured he goes, no, cant take you because you got a dog. Or, i was some sort of allergy. Work, theres other excuses. Its frustrating. In a few cases, i dont feel like reporting all of them. But it is that difficult. What are you doing in terms of educating, especially your new drivers coming in, that by law, they have to accept that dogs . So forthank you for bringing this topic up. So, first off, im glad you do report incidents and once a driver does not allow you to enter the vehicle with her guide dog, a good thingthe good thing about the shop we do [inaudible] with the taxi department and sf mta. So for instance, we are taxidrivers do not allow you to enter the taxis, the taxi investigated to reach out to the taxi driver. Sit them down and give them a good real talking. This way of to provide this under the ada. For new drivers, there is a component in their trained that they take sf mta that they mustthat is about paratransit. So we explained to them with the Paratransit Program is. Weve slain the responsibilities including accepting Service Animals and its required of only taxidrivers, training, before there issued their cards. We do it incorporate paratransit training in the overall Driver Training for new drivers. I do appreciate that because i think the education is a key here. You know, i have to say theres a number of drivers that are been very good about it, too because hes a nice breaker in many respects and with some drivers weve got some good conversations going. So i want you to know its not true in all cases but in those cases where it is true, it just needs to be brought to your attention as a handler. If you ever need to have someone tosometimes really have to be in your training to users make presentations and if you needed that from this community i be willing to help you peer at councilmember sassouni. Thats great that paratransit is helping out. And providing assistance with all this. Especially for deaf people speak of the what is interesting is that he said anyone can apply. However, is it true that anyone can apply . Because i do know people that of endocrine because it is very vacant people can fill out the form and get denied. Is there any sort of accuracy for that person views also people with vision loss as well. Being able to access the buses it difficult for them and so sometimes it takes a lot of advocacy and over time, to call and encourage the person to apply and get that form right . So especially when you go to talk about dedication andmr. Medications, and then we having to rely on be able to the breeder versus havingso also, department of justice doesnt require you to find proof of disability so it can be kind of vague. That is also a barrier as well. So i am just curious. Particular person im thinking of has not given up and has given upand theyve decided its not worth it to pursue getting the paratransitfilling out the paratransit form. So im just curious, what are you guys doing in terms of advocacy work . So i did briefly talk about how people could qualify. In joint prevention [inaudible] they have to be showing prevention either some or all the time. I understand sometimes when people fill out the application form, they may not fill it outthey may not highlight the condition that prevents them from using the paraTransit System. Thats why we do secondlevel assessments with them in order to get more information. Now,when you saw that fill out the paratransit application you can also summon completed on your behalf. So social worker can help you. Someone who is maybeis promoted familiar with her situation can help fill out the application on your behalf. In addition, anyone who is denied paratransit can always appeal that decision. During the appeal a thirdparty totally independent who are notwere not involved in the initial determination, heres the information, reads all the information given and provides the applicant had opportunity to expand to the panel why they need paratransit. Why they are prevented from using the fixed route system. During this appeals hearing, they can also bring in an advocate to help speak on their behalf were to help them better explained why they need paratransit. Then, based on all this information the thirdparty committee, which is again comprised of a medical professional transit represented in a paratransit consumer, will make the final determination in terms of their eligibility for Paratransit Services. Thank you. Councilmember williams again, how do they determine like okay its fine i can fill out the form but how do they determine that right . Because its based on the structure and policy and who can apply. So, for example, i am thinking of who gets priorities like people with physical disability they make a priority which is completely understandable. However, there is the issue wide range of people with different types of disabilities. I am young i guess i can walk fine. But why cant apply for paratransit . So its interesting to see the gray lines in the gray areas in terms of that. I just want to be make sure its clear who can and cannot apply for paratransit. Anyone can apply if they believe that their conditions prevent them from using the fixed route system. Paratransit eligibility is in [inaudible] guideline that other programs. Theres no age requirement. There is no income requirements. What the analyst is trying to determine based on all the information you give them whether or not your conditions prevent you from using the fixed route system. This may mean they need more information required or different kinds of information is required [inaudible] opportunities for the applicants to provide Additional Information during the application prospect because we want to make sure we get all the information that information thatcan be given to us and i will post help the analyst be better informed and making themaking their initial determination of the eligibility. Okay, thank you. Thank you. Last but not least Councilmember Williams. Thank you. Well i can tell you i get back to my office, im going to be reactivating my paratransit. I did not realize that your taxi what we used to call vouchers, have been speak of the glass, life had to be 87. So im excited about this. Thank you. [laughing] idle, to make. It truly more [inaudible] you can be attaching perhaps fly look at i use flywheel all the time. My request is that you ask flywheel to make their app accessible for those of us in the Blind Community it is not accessible. I can see my phone. I use accessibility tools and i am in tears half the time. If you can, pleaded with them just for our community [inaudible] it definitelyalso i tried with some of our students to call them wheelchairs. I dont believe that its on their app. I am unable to find it. I called many times to try to find it. A taxi that works at people [inaudible] are coming to our classes and will check it out of the its part of their app. I like it no differently [inaudible] its really a [inaudible] for the relationship with them. Thank you. Yes. Thank you. Thank you for the feedback and ill definitely talk to flywheel because i would love it if the people you encounter do participate in the flywheel either program or just use it when we have wanted systemwide. In terms of the thethere is a filter. Im not sure but i think theres a filter at the bottom when you pull up the screen with theres all the taxes, there should be a filter at the bottom that shows a band, suv and there should be a picture of a little wheelchair user. Spews thats what im saying. Its not accessible. We dont see pictures like sorry, sorry. When youre using the accessibility tool it doesnt work. Thank you. Is just a suggestion not a complaint. Asking you to bring it to their attention if possible i would love to give you i would love to give you a list of all the Taxi Companies [inaudible] soldier unable to use your Smart Phone App to helen you could possibly [inaudible] call the company with many ramp taxes in individually in order to access the ramp taxi. I would love to provide a list to you if possible okay. , thank you. I want to make i dont miss anybody. Okay. Any questions to the staff or comments . [inaudible off mic] thank you so much. Really informative presentation. Just a comment that the Mayors Office and disability we think the incentives for potential incentive conversation for folks who are outside [inaudible] paraTransit System is a good idea to talk about. So, thank you. Thank you. Jonathan, thank you. Thank you for your presentation it if you want to send that list of Taxi Services to me i can forward it to the council but i do have two questions. If either paratransit user and night the monthly allotment and lets say, im going to have more trips than i need to take for whatever reason, what is the process to increase the monthly allotment for that particular month . So if you need more taxi allotment giving your trip is will increase maybe temporarily you can fill out a form with a Paratransit Office could they will review the form and then they would determine whether or not they can give you that additional allotment. Additionally, you can use the paraTransit System. Theres a limitation as to how many trips you can take on the sf Access Service. Okay. My second question is during the eligibility process, you mentioned coming in for an interview. Can a person request an accommodation so that i dont have to come in to do a facetoface interview . Yes. If an individual cannot come into the interview we could possibly do a phone interview. Or, we can try to do the doctor Verification Firm to verify the condition. We do providewe do transportation to and from these injuries will hopefully that wont be a barrier for them. Okay. I am assuming that someday shows up in person and they need an accommodation they can get an accommodation during the actual eligibility interview . Yes. We do havewethe voicethe videos video relay interpreter as well as we do about language assistance as well. Okay. Thank you. Normally, the next one i want to go to Public Comment but to Council Members have additional questions. We will make it short so we can get on councilmember madrid i forgot to ask about [inaudible] is pretty popular with [inaudible] think about using paratransit as taxi for especially for people with disabilities. [inaudible] theres a security [inaudible] things i got. Yes. We do want to incorporate the peabody for band service. I think with a taxi might be a little different given that the reason why we issue the debit card does have a picture of the individual on the car. So that kind of prevents any fraud from occurring. I think that is one. We might not integrate the taxi debit card into the february but we deftly want to integrate the cover card with our band service and have that be another method of payment for writers. Thank you. Thank you. I would like to open up Public Comment at this point. Are there any speaker cards . Anyone on the bridge line . I thank you so much for coming here today and presenting. We are going to go on to our next presentation. Information item number 10. Get around. Like to welcome carissa belinski. Thank you for being here today. Hello. Thank you. Thank you guys so much for having me my name is carissa belinski San Francisco city manager for get around. Giving you guys a background of get around what we are all about and then explaining a little more about us join forces with the city car share which you guys may be familiar with, and antoniou 11 more about their access mobile which im sure youre all interested in and then only plenty time for questions. So get around initially launched in San Francisco in 2010 in San Francisco [inaudible] to be our largest market and what of our fastestgrowing markets today. Today you can buy nearly 2000 of route San Francisco. Unlike traditional car sharing platforms get around doesnt own any of the vehicles. So instead we ashley power the car owners to share their cars the people nearby you by the hour by the day by the week renters can search for cars nearby using get around app for android iphone or android apps or by our website and then can instantly book cars that are available right then without waiting for owner approval. And then can locate the cars by the gps. Once the car has been equipped with her get around connect, which is our hardware installed in all the vehicles wanted to just simply arrange their calendars by when the car is actually available and then well get times the cars not available versus available. The chips are covered by get around 1 million insurance policy backed by insurance which is our policy provider. Today we are operating in nine cities including San Francisco, oakland and berkeley. Outside of the bay area get around is also available across the dc metro area, chicago and portland. So in the bay area, you can rent nearly 2000 cars as those mentioning within. 1 miles from 90 of the population in San Francisco. People are renting out everything from a previous two bmw convertibles, teslas, portions, the economic environment and parking bans of car sharing a welldocumented because of get around model the benefit of both the users and car owner and the city all you need. As you make a researchbased data at uc berkeley has found that each share card takes 10 off of the road. Bring up parking spaces, wrote raise an offsetting co2 emissions. Additionally, get around 60 money spent on the platform goes rectory back into the car owners of our community. So forget around city car share, back in november 9, 2016, get around city car share announced the two car sharing platforms would be joining forces to form the bay areas largest Car Sharing Club from additionally word announcing, whos the owner and operator of city car share franchise, would be transferring all the operations to the get around platform. So this means that while they would continue to own and manage the vehicles, and the city car share fleet, the process of booking and managing the vehicles will now be moved to get around platform. Essentially you can kind of think of, as one car owner and they were now have many cars that you can book on the get around platform. Additionally, get around announced they be producing [inaudible] this equated to culver city car shares parking agreement and parking vendors across [inaudible] so with all that that one information now premuch everybody would probably be interested in here. The axis mobile. City car share offers a Service Called axis mobile, which allowed bay area residents to book Wheelchair Accessible vans on their platform. Bza goals were not included in the list of city car share vehicles that, totally decided to list on the get around platform. So our understanding is the Wheelchair Accessible vehicles were originally purchased and supported the city car share by share, to federal Transit Administration new freedom grants in conjunction with. The grant was awarded in 2012 and city car share has filled all the contractual requirements of the grant. , in conjunction with bart continues to own these vehicles and working with bart and fda to take steps towards deciding an appropriate outcome for these vehicles. Get around partners in this grant to determine the best path forward for these vehicles. Including the possibility of hooking the vehicles on the get around platform. Whether through city car share needs or the organization to decide different owner of these vehicles whether theyre either going to have somebody else purchase them or donate them to the public. Get around understands more vital these eagles are the people who rely on them and will work however we need to to support the community with these vehicles going forward. So the latest update on the use is we have been talking with the company, trail, her name is a Community Resource for independent living, and they are located in hayward and potentially interested in purchasing to these Wheelchair Accessible vans that were previously owned and operated by,. Weve been working with their executive director to see if it makes sense for krill to list these vans on get around if and when they do purchase these. Krill is in their Due Diligence phase along with her budget and finance phase to make it see if its possible to this these ants on get around and make them available to the public again. Then, for more information on get around that you can go to get around. Com to find out more or you can email me