Homeless population. So we are now about seven weeks into the shelter in place order. I know, you know, that, like so many other san franciscans that are blessed to be housed, we are getting antsy. I know this weekend, the parks were filled and people had no masks and were trying to inform them that were not out of this yet, and that in order to keep the curve flat, it isnt a done deal; that we have to continue to shelter in place in order to do that. But whats so hard for me when i talk to my housed constituents is that outside they door, they see massive, massive tent encampments where people are out in the streets without masks, theyre clearly interacting, sharing equipment, have no access to showers, no access to water, have no access to food or very little access to food. Theyre going to work, some of them, because despite the stereotypes, many unhoused members of our city are working. And ive just been frankly shocked that there has not been one health order issued yet directly related to this population. And it seems like youve operated with two separate standards a standard of protection, an expectation for the housed population, and a standard of care and expectations for the unhoused population, and its been really upsetting to me the entire time. And ill finally get to my question. Why havent you issued a health order requiring shelter or some sort of setup where people are safe and distancing and have access to showers, water, and hygiene for the massive unhoused population of this city during this crisis . And im sorry, supervisors. I just per president yee, i let him know that i unfortunately had a hard stop at 6 00, and supervisor ronen, dr. Aragon will answer your question. I do want to emphasize, though, that from the beginning, the population experiencing homelessness was an acute priority of ours. In working with h. S. A. And h. S. H. , we have housed in hotels hundreds of people that are particularly vulnerable. In doing that, weve saved many saves, and the isolation and quarantine hotels, we currently have 200, and we have a capacity of 500. I hear your concerns, very much appreciate them, but i do want to emphasize that this is a population that the Health Department and other departments have been focused on during this pandemic. So unfortunately, i do have to leave at this point, but ill turn it over to dr. Aragon. President yee dr. Aragon . Yes, thank you for that question. I know when i started looking into this, we did consult with the City Attorney of what of just the whole topic of commandeering property. And one of the things that i learned theres actually two things that i learned, and that is in order in order to commandeer property, we would have to show that persons are not cooperating in our in our attempt to secure hotel rooms. And the other thing i learned is that because of due process, it could take longer. Supervisor ronen can you repeat your first statement . I missed that. So the communication that i have from the City Attorney was that we would have to show that we were unable exhausted all resources all resources to get hotel rooms, and as long as long as the city can secure hotel rooms, that that should go forward. So that was that was my understanding. So it didnt seem to me to make sense to do an order if the city has the capacity to negotiate and get hotel rooms as the board of supervisors has also passed an ordinance, as well. Supervisor ronen well, dr. Arag aragon, i completely disagree with your statement. But second, you have a unique power to order individuals that walk out on the street and may someday need help in the hospitals have decided not to issue that order in the past seven weeks. I want to know why because it doesnt make sense to me, and it doesnt make sense to my constituents, both housed and unhoused. If you walk the streets of the city, it doesnt make sense to any of those thousands of people that are obviously dangerously camping in the street right next to each other with no access to hygiene. So i dont want you to hide behind the City Attorney, i want to know why you havent issued a health order requiring intervention on the basis of Public Health facility. You just shutdown the entire economy of San Francisco, and you were willing to do that, and i stood by you, and i stand by you in that decision. You have not been willing to do that for the homeless population, and i dont understand it. We as supervisors have done everything in our power to try to force the situation, but were not the Public Health officer. Thats you, and i want to understand why you havent issued that order. Ill explain it to you the best way i could, and thats really all im prepared to say at the moment. Supervisor ronen well, thats really disappointing, dr. Aragon. I have nothing more. President yee okay. Thank you, supervisor ronen. Ill say it mildly. I dont disagree with supervisor ronen. Supervisor safai . Supervisor safai thank you, president yee. Thank you, dr. Aragon. Thank you for let me just say that you for all the questions that i have had, all the ones that i have funneled your way during this crisis, i really appreciate your accessibility and your response and your ability to explain things in a clear manner, joining us for our town halls, and for working so hard to get this information out as quickly as possible. Its been tremendous. I want to ask you, and if i missed it, im sorry because i know that theres been a lot of questions. I want to talk a little bit about our Skilled Nursing facilities. I know ive talked to you about this last time. I know weve had some conversations about when testing would begin in an aggressive manner, and when i see that new york is has issued the governor of new york has issued that all persons in these facilities would be tested twice a week, and they would be moving aggressively, and they then changed their orders that said they would no longer allow covidpositive patients to be transferred into these nursing facilities. And then, when i read the statistics in the state that over half the people that have died have been in these Skilled Nursing facilities, it makes me wonder why and how we havent moved a little bit more aggressively. I know you said youre still debating about the types of swabs and so on, but what can you do i know youve told us recently that the orders have changed, and now, all the staff in these facilities are going to be tested. But we put out on sfcity, testsf that people can get testing at 7 and brandon without an appointment, or any person can get testing on pier 32. Im just wondering how and why we havent been able to move more aggressively in our skilled facilities. This is a big concern in the entire Jewish Community yes, thank you. It is our longterm care facilities, especially the s. N. F. S, is our highest priority. And i think what youll see if you go back and look at all the orders that were done on Skilled Nursing facilities, strom screening, temperature checking, we made it at laguna honda, the residents that could prior leave, are not allowed to leave. So what we did what we did early on with laguna honda because that is the biggest location, we asked the c. D. C. And the California Department of Public Health to come in and actually develop a framework and an approach that we could provide to longterm care facilities, and weve gone beyond that, and were requiring testing for all staff and all patients. Supervisor safai i know that you guys have consistently changed your orders. It just seems that were not moving aggressively enough, given the statistics of people that have died, and i just wonder how we can move more aggressively. Yeah. So let me just real quickly tell you our goal. Our goal is to get every two weeks of testing. Its big logistically, and the Health Department has committed to making sure the testing gets done. Other places will pass the orders and then just expect the Skilled Nursing facilities to do it. What weve heard is they dont necessarily have the Financial Resources or expertise to do that. So were stepping up to do that, and if we see that it needs to be done for frequently, well move in that direction. But we agree with you and im actually getting some texts that i need to leave because i needed to leave at 6 00, and its 6 15. That all your questions . Supervisor safai well, i did have one more questions, and thats abaho sphere, and how its going to be distributed throughout all the hospitals. I know our staff is looking into that, because theres been changes how that drug is going to be distributed. Were getting instruction from the state, and i believe something may have just been distributed within the last 24 hours, ill send it to you so you have an idea of how its going to be distributed within california. Supervisor safai more specifically in San Francisco. Yeah. Youll want to know where its going and where its not going. Supervisor safai okay. Thank you. President yee thank you. Theres two more names added, but supervisor walton, do you have a quick question . Supervisor walton i know that supervisor fewer had a few questions, so ill pass it to her. President yee yes. Supervisor fewer . Supervisor fewer yes. Dr. Aragon, i can say i understand the frustration. Once, when you came before us, you said early, the unhoused population, the people in s. R. O. S, they are our main concern, yet, we have not seen a Public Health order, and therefore, we dont know the plan or direction what is happening to these people. I think also in the recovery, but not only the recovery, but as go forward in the next couple of months, we dont know what the plan is. If were adopting a strategy of safe sleeping sites, thats something we should be doing right now. We cant leave it to people in the bayview, to leave it in their hands. This is leaving a whole population, and were talking about thousands of people without a direction, and we as supervisors dont have direction of where youre headed with this. I think that its it is disingenuous, quite frankly, to say. This is a population from the very beginning that weve had concern about, and not had a Public Health order, not one direction. We also say to people, thousands of people, in a very middle class way, wash your hands 20 times for 20 seconds every time. We hear from Public Health officials, yet they dont even have their clothes in their house. They have to undress before they get into their own homes. When we are saying these basic things to folks, and yet, in the unhoused population, we dont even have a place for them to wash their hands, i would say that we are looking at it through a wrong paradigm. We are looking at it through a middle class lens, when actually, quite frankly, where we are going to see this outbreak, where we are going to see saving lives of people, it is in this paradigm where they dont have these options. We dont know whats going to happen, and even when we start to loosen up the restrictions, these people still have not been quarantined. So i join my colleagues in wondering what is really happening and what will really happen . We have not been shared on a plan, we dont know what the plan is. I actually, quite frankly, think that during this Public Health crisis, that should be a Public Health mandate. So that is not a question, that is just my opinion, and im happy to have a private offline conversation with you about this, but thank you. I appreciate the honest feedback. Thank you. President yee dr. Aragon. Im going to have to im going to have to run, so i dont want to be rude, and i know that we still have to president yee well, dr. Aragon, excuse me, theres been this question over and over again, and youre not going to be able to answer it, of course, today. And youre at least, i think for next week, you should start off answering this question, what the plan is, if any, and if theres a reason for it. And i want to give at least one more person a chance who hasnt asked a question at all, even though youre way over. No, its okay. President yee okay. Supervisor peskin. Supervisor preston. Supervisor preston thank you, president yee. I want to share my concern of my colleagues. In your explanation, i heard a reason why you felt you couldnt issue an order on kmo kmo on commandeering hotels, but that is only part of the issue that supervisors ronen and fewer has raised. My question is, you came before us on march 17, you said that we could do everything right in our response here, but if we dont address our congregate living situations and Homeless People, that we could have an explosion of cases. I think you were right then and would like to see the orders that my colleagues have referenced address Homeless People. But my question isnt looking backwards as to why you havent. Id actually just like a direct answer as to whether you plan to issue any Health Orders regarding homelessness on the issues that have been raised social distancing among Homeless People, the availability of rest rooms, showers, hand washing stations for Homeless People . Are you planning on issuing a health order on those issues . Yeah. So everything that youre describing to me are really policy decisions and strategic options, and so what i want to do is i want to just convene with dr. Colfax and our executive team and really come back and decide how we can respond in a holistic way. Ill work with president yee to make sure that we can come back and discuss this further. Supervisor preston thank you. Supervisor peskin mr. President , i just want to remind all of us, and im sorry for jumping in and keeping dr. Aragon, but i want to just raise the original contention that dr. Aragon presented at the beginning. And i admit that San Francisco is unique because we are a city and county, but the reality is this the City Attorney believes, and i share this belief, that along with the other 57 counties, it is the legislative branch that appoints this position. And while it is true that as a doctor in the Health Department, dr. Aragon works for dr. Colfax and is part of the executive branch. It doesnt actually have to be that way. Thats not the way it is in the other 57 counties, and the City Attorney says that should we desire to have dr. Aragon be a completely independent person who does not have to take marching orders from dr. Colfax not that im saying that dr. Colfax is giving him bad marching orders we have that power and ability. So i think we really, for the health of the body politic and communications amongst Decision Makers and communicators and the public, we need to change the dialogue between the chief Health Officer and this legislative elected body, and i just want to leave everybody with this thought. Im really going to have to run because my wife is going to be very upset with me. President yee, is it okay if i clerk mr. President , you might be muted. I just want to be excused appropriately. President yee i will excuse you as soon as i finish my sentence. Okay. Thank you. President yee so basically, you answered some of the questions, and thank you very much for doing that, and theres some outstanding ones that were on the list that you didnt get a chance to get to. I think theres some fundamental frustration or questions that we have frustrations about thats going to come back over and over again. You need to have a plan when you come back on how to do this, because its not going to go away. The people on the streets arent going to go away by themselves, and the danger thats afforded to them isnt going to go away, and we cant come back every single time and say, were thinking about it, and we have a plan. Okay. Thank you for staying a lot later than we asked you to. Okay. Thank you very much. Have a good evening. President yee okay. Thank you very much. Okay. Thank you, colleagues, and i will continue talking with dr. Aragon and dr. Colfax to try to get to some of the questions that you have presented, and i will now adjourn this update. Thank you very much. Supervisor peskin okay. Thank you. Good afternoon, welcome to the may 12, 2020 meeting to the board of supervisors. Madam clerk, will you please call the role. role call . Mr. President , all members of president. Please place your right hand over your heart. Will you join me in reciting the pledge of allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of america and to the republic for which it stands, one makes under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Thank you. On behalf of the board, i would like to acknowledge the staff at sfg tv. The special order is the appearance with the honnable mayor, london breed. There being no questions submitted from supervisors one through four, the mayor may address the board up to five minutes. Ok. First of all, i want to welcome madam mayor breed and there were no topics submitted by supervisors today, but before you get started, i want to take the time to address the public on what we are preparing to announce next week. I want to acknowledge how we are collectively are reevaluating the structures we have in place with the Emergency Response. Communications between the board and Emergency Operations center has been a work in progress and it has been difficult for own or constituents to understand the status of the evolving emergency and what the future might hold. We have been in discussions with the Mayors Office on how to clarify this and make sure that all policy decisions moving forward can be clearly articulated to all members of the public. As elected supervisors, we are held accountable to our extents regardless of the social economic status or their vote. As the duly elected governing body of policy make es makers, e responsible for weighing and mitigating the poli