Up to speak on your right. You may submit Public Comment in writing in the following ways, email victor. Young sfgov. Org. If you submit via email it will be forwarded to the sfr visor kbz inincluding in the file. You can send written comments by u. S. Mail to city hall 1 dr. Carlton b goodlett place room 244 San Francisco california 94102. Please make sure to silence cell phones and electronic devices. The documents should be submitted to the clerk. Items acted upon today are expected to appear on the board supervisor agenda april 30, 2024 unless stated. I like to differ to our interpreter roburto to make the announcements in spanish if possible. Please come on up. Good morning. [providing instructions in spanish] mr. Clerk, can you please call items number 1 . Yes, item 1 is rez wlugz urging department of homelessinize and Supportive Housing to prioritize families with children to receive shelter or Hotel Vouchers the same day they arrive at an access point to develop comprehensive plans that focus on children and families to prevent children living on the streets and develop a multilingual access public dashboard where families can monitor the waitlist and the process of moving families into permanent housing. Thank you. I like to turn it over to the sponsor, supervisor safai. Thank you chair ronan. Appreciate you making the time to schedule this today and thank you supervisor walton and ronan for cosponsoring this really really important hearing. We have been working over the last two months diligently to listen, learn and move in the right direction to address issues families are having accessing adequate shelter and particularly families with children. Im sure likeim sure that like myself, many are away of the scathing reports and experiences we heard from unhoused families seeking refuge in our city. I have been horrified by these experiences of these families here today and many others not able to come forward publicly that reported to me and my staff and we spent time listening and going on visiting and hearing first hand not just in official government settings but community, churches and different places hearing from people about the experience they are having with our city. A city with tremendous resources. This isnt just a lack of transparency, inadequate response and information they encounter, but serious lang ishing conditions of the shelter when it is made to them and many times threats thrown their way if they speak up or speak out. The limited time expired food they are offered at times, the lack of compassionate response in their situation when they report medical conditions or the streess so overwhelming that some ended up in the hospital and i think one of the days we had a meeting, one of the individuals had to go to the hospital and the teen age daughter had no where to go. We have babies that have not been able to access child care, making it difficult for their parents to navigate the bureaucracy that they have to go through. Traveling all over the city to get answers from different partners. When children are enrolled in school from these families they are often falling asleep in class because they are not getting access to the appropriate rest and food they need at very critical developmental stages in their life. I walked awaytremendously shocked at these circumstances as i said in the city as resourceful as we are, to be thinking about small children with their families in these conditions, it really is unconsinable and breaks my heart. Many are immigrant families, newcomers to our city and from my personal experience not born in the country and fled violence, had Family Members that were killed, many of these families are leaving trauma to only come here in our city and experience more trauma. There is another thing we want to hear more about and thats the actual number of families that are on the wait list. The number keeps moving. It is around 400, but we are not sure if that is the right number. We like to see how the wait list is managed, how they are processed and we dont have clarity how a family moves through the system with any demonstrable success, so we like to know what the metric are and how the outcomes are being measured. Im hoping we can get clarity from departments that are going to present today and well listen learn and improve the ist ism to insure that families are provided what they need to exit the homelessness system. I like to know the network and city is building to support in order to insure that the safetynet for unhoused families with children do not fall into chronic homelessness and suffer longterm harm we know are likely consequences of chronic homelessness and for children reported being tired, falling asleep in class, not getting the appropriate food they need, all this is really really important to address and understand how we are going to improve on. We are entering a difficult budget year. We all know that. We know this is a difficult difficult time, but we need much more reliable data so we can come up with better solutions. We have the resources. We have the resources in our city, we just dont have the coordination and the leadership on this issue. We need to understand that how we are going to better address this first hand. And we need real solutions, not band aids. We need a system that works to get families the wrap around services in a coordinated way so they can get through the system successfully and not held back and further traumatized by it. We have two main departments here today colleagues that are going to present. First we have office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs and department of homeless Supportive Housing, with the department of Human Service agency on call if we need them. I believe that hsa director of Disaster Preparedness, doris baron is on standby. Why dont we do the firs presentation now . I like to call up director revas and if we can take questions after each department that is better flow rather then have them both present. I will it over. The floor is yours. Qulou have about 10 minutes and i know you will present data for us today and then well ask you questions directly and then go to the next department and then open up for Public Comment. Thank you. Good morning supervisor walton, safai and chair ronan. Would you mind pulling the microphone towards yourself. Pleasure to be with all you this morning. My name is jorge rivas. I am joined by my colleagues rich whipal and richard who lead and work on the newcomer ish aoos in the office. Well be available for questions at the end. Thank you again for having us and giving opportunity to share backgrounds on trends, data and supporting the wave of newcomers. The office of Civic Engagement immigrant affairicize a policy compliance direct Service Grant making department and all our work focus on foster inclusive and welcoming city for all particularly immigrants. Next slide. Just again, the quick reminder, we do this work in variousair yeahs which i wonets go into detail but Civic Engagement, Community Safety through ambassador program. Provide grants to Community Organizations and Service Providers and lead the city Language Access work and provide immigrant services. Next slide. Next two slides are help paint a picture what we know and dont know about what is happening in San Francisco with newcomer community. Today is primarily focused on access to Family Housing and oceia was invited to share immigrant families are experiencing. We also know that immigrant families are a growing user and looking into enter the housing system in addition teert resources. The slides provide color what is happening in San Francisco but by no means provides a complete picture of what is happening. As we recognize there are gaps in the Data Collection. Let me start with trends in our recent migration patterns to help ground in a conversation mpt we have seen the reports and news about the National Surge in migration that is happening at the border, the buses sent to cities and are grower negative their ative. We know we havetitle 42, the lifting of Public Health emergency for covid and processes contributed to the surge. There have been a growing diversity in the countries of origin, due to conflict, poverty and economic crisis. This means there is more diversity in the cultural language needs meaning that receiving cities and governments may be prepared with adequate resources. We know this in the recent migration wave, increase number of migrants arriving dont have a support network or system that previous waves might have had. This means, it can lead to more families experiencing homelessness and the need for navigation and Services Upon arrival. As they have difficulty navigating our system. Another Important Note is that in the recent wave we see more families and miners traveling alone and particularly single mothers. Lastly, related to the first point, the Biden Administration created programs to facilitate migration from particular countries experiencing hardship. Wealth of qualitative data and stories about the influx of newcomers in the city from Community Partners primarily collected through monthly Asylum SeekerCommunity Response planning meetings which many staff attend on a regular basis. Of the data affirms we are experiencing a steady stream of newcomer Asylum Seekers in particular. We have eare lied heavily on partners to support us with data. The Unified School District shared monthly numbers of newcomer students and homeless newcomer student the main data point for us all along. In addition, the data regarding the demand for Legal Service from legal Service Providers is something well share today as well. However, there is very limited quantitative data to support this trend due to city Data Collection processes. Efforts to protect the migrant communities, Many Departments do not ask for documentation status when assessing services to be in line with our sanctuary city policy. More Data Collection for newcomers would greatly strengthen the case for more support and need. In this slide, it Shows Percent of new immigrant enrollment over the years. You will note that there have been some miner influxions over the last 10 years but steadily increase over the last three. And in this school year alone, you will note we have the highest newcomer enrollment in the school year isnt over yet. Next slide. This slide takes a deeper dive into the number of new School Enrollment with comparison to those who are unhoused. The numbers director, can you go back to the previous slide . I just want to stop you for a second. It says 3 percent ofis that the total enrollment. Entire . Entire. What is that number . 3 percent is what . I do not have that number. [indiscernible] it is 49. 231 kids enrolled and the number is 1566. Thank you supervisor, yes. Please proceed. Thanks for the question. In this slide, it takes a deeper dive into the new School Enrollment with comparison of the unhoused. These are numbers from the last 6 months. This compare the newcomer enrollees and those unhoused. We thank the partner frz the School District, but they expressed the data may be a bit incomplete as they selfreported. This next slide is a data that comes from partners at the San Francisco immigrant leem defense collaborative. Which provides legal representation and support to local immigrants and Asylum Seekers in need of Immigration Services. [indiscernible] response to the Record Number of unaccompanied miners, attained a wait list. Routine wait list are a hundred to 200 individuals. As of the late, we have seen a wait list go up to over 900 individuals. Again, the School District and data do not paint the whole picture, but it does illustrate by both community and Public Institution there has been increase in newcomer families attempting to access city services. The next slide is to further ground our current state of the reminder. Im going to share what Asylum Seeker may or may not have access to. Have permission to stay thin u. S. While they fight their case and likely monitored to ice. Do not have a right to the attorney or Social Security number and can apply for work permit for 6 months after filing for asylum. They are not eligible for most Public Benefit programs. They are eligible for medical and some city funded programs administered by hsa and other departments. Asked about the departmental coordination and work. In the late 2022, Committee Established to plan for mass arrival. Various departments, developed a plan in a case of arrival of a large number of immigrants. We were seeing many cities. This will only be activated in the case of emergency. Role was to support with language service, create maintain newcomer response tool kits with Resources Available to immigrants and newcomers. Hold meetings to align the work and support newcomers to collaborate and share resources with organizations on a regular basis. Asked by hsa to provide training for all Housing Access point staff and partners around sf immigrant rights, resources and cultural competency. Developed a training and collaboration [indiscernible] at the School District. This will be delivered later this week. Departmental coordination has shifted. We started to focus on understanding and planning for the steady stream of newcomers. As it compls to supporting newcomers we have worked in innovative ways and stretch resources. We convene Community Stakeholders on a monthly basis and thank supervisors, staff for attending and participating at those. We have also been working with legal Service Providers to expand Work Opportunities for newcomers for example, we host a Work Authorization clinic later this summer. We also have a rfp out to insure we have Legal Support service and navigation support service to the future. The team has been working to explore alternative Housing Options for newcomers. One is hosted housing, working with groups such as Interfaith Movement to identify private residents willing to house newcomers and develop a platform where hosted Families Program can be developed in San Francisco. Another effort which is a bit premature to announce as we finalize details, but comfortable enough to sthair we have an agreement with usf, to utilize vacant dormitories over the summer to house newcomers. Of course, as it pertains to Language Access and we have been and continue to partner with city departments to provide ongoing Language AccessTechnical Assistance and supplement Language Access service where and when it is needed. The last two slides are resources for all in the room and those here at home and anybody who may know somebody seeking asylum or needs immigration support. I encourage to visit the support hub. If you or someone you know is seeking asylum please visit the website on the screen. And then, the response and referral tool kit. The isis meant for Community Based organizations city departments and other immigrant serving agencies to connect immigrants and Asylum Seekers. With that, i conclude my presentation. Thank you supervisors. Thank you director. Really really appreciate the presentation. I have a couple questions for you. One is, can you talk more about the immigrant support hub . You mentioned it lightly. Is it a point of contact . A place people newcomers and immigrant families can be referred to as they arrive in San Francisco . Can you give us more detail that . I understand the toolkit, i think that great you work in partnership with Community Based organizations, but like to hear more about the immigrant support hub. The immigrant support hub is a onlineyou find Services Available to newcomers. On line. On line . Online. Is the