tv Mayors Press Availability SFGTV April 10, 2024 11:00am-12:01pm PDT
11:00 am
everyone to >> good afternoon everybody i'm chair of the board of directors of sfmta. we are here to mark a very meaningful mild stone, the ten-year anniversary of san francisco's adoption of vision zero. i want to acknowledge that vision zero is an extremely emotional topic. imagine some of you are feeling
11:01 am
a sense of rage and you're looking for somebody to glaim. others may be feeling powerless, shaken, heartbroken, that is all okay, we understand that. like you the leaders who join me today share your grief anytime somebody is injured or killed on our streets. we all know in our hearts, and in our guts, that this is unacceptable. this is not the kind of city that we want to live in and that is why ten years ago, today, many of our visionary leaders made san francisco the second city in america to adopt vision zero. since i joined the sfm board of directors i was laser focus on how it will get to zero. this is my number one priority in my service to this city. i see the ability to walk,
11:02 am
bike, drive, roll, or take transit safely without fior of harm as a basic right and freedom that everybody should expect in our city. it's why i created the vision zero subcommittee so that we can all sit around the table together, talk about opportunities, but also talk about the real challenges that director tumlin and staff face every single day as they're trying to achieve this goal. i wanted a space where community, advocates and government can come together and problem solve together. as with embark in the next ten years of vision zero i want to continue to come to the table, please bring your next ideas, we want to work together. and as much as i am deeply passionate about vision zero, it was not until recently that
11:03 am
vision zero is not actually our vision. of course no one should die or injured on our streets, of course. but we can reach vision zero, we can reach a day where no one dies and no one is injured and we can still fall short in the city that we want to be. you see, i think safety is the floor. safety is the minimum. and as we have seen these last few years, our street can be so much more than safe. our streets can be placed that uplift and elevate people. our vaoets will be blank canvassed for local artist, places for communities to come together and express their unique identities and histories. great streets, should create opportunities for joy, and for delight. whenever i ride my bike down jfk promenade and i pass that
11:04 am
piano that warped piano and i see a community sing along and i see people making fools of themselves just coming together as a community. or i take a highway and a see a spontaneous jazz by the ocean wave, i think this is, this the kind of city that i want to live in. mayor breed, you have had the vision and the foresight to call for jfk promenade to be a permanent place for people. and that is a gift that every single day up lifts, how's thousands and thousands of people in this city, forever. you are all here today because you care so much. well no one, no one cares more about this city than this mayor. no one takes more direct responsibility for all of the challenges this city faces than this mayor.
11:05 am
and no one holds more of the incredible challenge of reconciling often competing view points and still finding a pass forward. emigrateful for your undying sense of optimism that we will reach out our potential thank you, for your service mayor breed. san francisco please welcome your mayor, london breed! [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you, amanda and thank you to all the people and the advocates and so many who care deeply about this and san francisco who have joined us today. thank you to all of our elected leaders and to sfmta, i'm so glad that we're all here together in order to really talk about what the future of san francisco holds and what we need to do to move this city forward as a result of so many
11:06 am
challenges that we have experienced. today is a moment for us to come together as a community in light of a strategy that struck our city in a devastating a little over a week ago. i don't need to repeat the details of the moments to all of you what happens the pain, the terror, the hopelessness the frustration. we are still still processing the grief and sadness for a family who's life was lost and a community that was shaken. i will never for goat receiving the call and being in the community in the aftermath, there were so many, so many moment that's stay with you as a mayor. i've been in the homes of grieving families who have lost sons, and daughters to gun violence, i've been in the hospital supporting tragedies that have happened to our first responders. what happened at west portal, was one of those moments.
11:07 am
i'm going to west portal next week with sfmta john tumlin to talk through some of the changes that we're making on the streets. but those changes while important will not take back what happened. to every one who has shoulder and born the grief of the family over the last two weeks, or the injuries or deaths of other loved one over the years, we see you and we thank you for your work and your advocacy. this is a moment that we never want to live through again. not just a family loss but two lives of young people, unimaginable. i've seen loss in my own life devastating loss and it never gets easy. it is lessons from horrific events such of these that must to the way we move forward as a city. the way that we move forward in a courageous way to make
11:08 am
significant change. but that's also why we do the work. we do the work to make a difference, we do the work because we want to save lives and we want to make san francisco a better place. that's one of the hard parts about the efforts with vision zero. it's rare to recognize the work that you have done to safe lives and it has. we've done a will the of work, reductions and speed limits, protected bike lanes, slowing drivers down and while these efforts have been successful and have saved lives, we know we have to do more. ten years ago, i sat in the board of supervisor sxz voted with along with my colleagues including our surnt city attorney david kh* ru. five years i inherited the 49 scare miles of 100
11:09 am
plus-year-old infrastructure road that no longer fully meets our values as residents, our values today are so much more different and it needs a complete overhaul, period. [applause] these streets were built for another time. a smaller population and design for a world, we no longer want to live in. where cars are prioritized and the only option. our systems are long overdue for a physical moderization and this is going to take a lot of time and a lot of resources and a lot of understanding, because things need to be different. ten years ago, we made a commitment to improve our streets, that work has been hard and it has been long and it has not always been easy. but when you step back,
11:10 am
progress has been made. and we made it together. san francisco's has installed 33 quick billed projects and more than 50 miles of safety improvements on the highest injury streets. we've installed over 700 traffic calming dwiesz such as speed humps, raised crosswalks, median islands to reduce speed. we've installed 41 miles of protected bike lanes since 2014. we've installed no right turns on red lights at over 300 intersections city wide including 62 intersections in the tenderloin. we have established slow streets, shared spaces and jfk prom nod --promenade mostly because of the pandemic. we became the first city in
11:11 am
california to reduce speed limits on san francisco streets. [applause]. and with every one here in support including our city attorney david chu, we passed enforcement at the state level. so thank you to the city attorney who worked with safety advocates to first introduce automated speed and did it several times. thank you for fighting here at the state of supervisors. that's not all of the work, but it's a lot. and we know that, it has saved lives. and we look at the work we have done to determine what we know we have to do. too often street safety projects get stalled or slowed down. but today we lay down our commitments to moving forward. this happens now.
11:12 am
i'm here to support sfmta as they deliver their vision zero commitment including projects, automatic speed enforcement and reducing speed limits all over the city. i've asked for three specific things. a day lighting plan and policy to prioritize the treatment of intersection city wide. a no right on red policy to prioritize the treatment at intersections city wide. and increase parking control enforcement to ticket people who park on sidewalks and block our crosswalks and bike lanes. [applause] [cheers and applause] but that's not all, i want to say something else about vision zero. i know we rightfully focus on street safety, it is a moral imperative, it is urgent and it is an urgent matter that we
11:13 am
need to address. but making our streets safer should also deliver hope. it should bring people together. when we first created the slow streets during the pandemic, as much as we cannot be together as a community, we were still together on the streets of san francisco. and it brought hope, and it brought joy. it should be about creating spaces that unite us not just streets we drive down or neighborhoods we drive-thru or bike down or on our way to somebody someplace else. it should be about joy. when i think about jfk promenade, they have so much joy. yes, it's definitely safer than it was before, absolutely. but it's also more joyful, whether you're roller skating, biking, walking your dogs, walking with neighbors running into your friends, it brings
11:14 am
joy. that's where i want to take vision zero next. [applause] so how do we spend the next ten years making the city more welcoming for people to be out on the sidewalks and in their streets talking with neighbors and having a block party and listening to music and kids walking to school and feeling that they can be safe, we will always focus on safety. but i want us to focus on how we bring people together. because the street changes that bring us together are also what will make us safer. we will continue to work with all of you to imagine those space sxz reimagine what is possible. can you imagine if we would like look at places like northbeach where people can come out on the streets and sidewalks and enjoy their neighborhoods. even places like hay street
11:15 am
where we know the sidewalks are really small but people visit that neighborhood and can be another kind of promenade, we need to be open to these ideas and i understand they will be challenging when people do not understand what that can mean for an impactful business and the ability to get to work. and what happens, people to see it, they have to feel it and we have to be courageous enough to produce it. [applause] we will continue, we will continue to work with all of you to imagine those spaces. to reimagine what is possible. we will always need spaces for different modes of transportation, buses, cars, bikes, walking but we also need spaces for people to come together. the city is complicated and it is dense. but i truly believe that has space for us all and change is not bad. change in our street
11:16 am
infrastructure is not bad, it's a way to make san francisco the kind of city that we can all enjoy and love. we need better transit, we need more housing, we need more opportunities for public space and i know there are a lot of opinions and a lot of ideas but let's hear them all. and also, if we don't completely agree that's okay. but the biggest picture here as i said, is always about safety, and bringing people together. we can all agree on working together to get to come together to do what is necessary to address the challenges. and my message to all the street safety advocates that are joining us here today, that are demanding change, that want to see bold, courageous change in the streets of san francisco, we are prepared to be aggressive in implementing
11:17 am
that change in order to make a difference. when i first became supervisor, i fought to make those bike lanes on valen oak happen despite all the challenges that occured before and i will continue to do what i can to deliver on street safety in san francisco. thank you all for being here for bringing attention to street safety for holding space, for the lives that we have lost and to make sure that they are never forgotten and we honor their legacy by making improvements and making sure that it tuz not happen again. i will always do more to push the envelope and i will make sure that we're continuing to have the hard conversations. we know it's not easy and one of the things that i've been consistency talking about is getting rid of the bureaucracy to move forward. yes we want community engagement but sometimes it's just a little too much, we need
11:18 am
to move forward, we need to get out of the way, and we need to make it happen! thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] and with that, i would like to introduce supervisor rafael mandelman. [applause] >> thank you, madam chair, why supervisor mandelman? oh because i'm the chair of transportation authority and have been able to do that for a few years, it's come here, stand next to me, it's actually the heart, speaking of bureaucrats who are amazing our transportation authority director and her team. i just want to thank you, tilly. thank you madam mayor, yeah, tilly deserves some applause. yeah, her team deserves some applause. [applause] thank you madam mayor for your vision on vision zero.
11:19 am
i join in acknowledging the ten-year anniversary policy. but more importantly, i'm here to recommit the t.a. to work in partnership with our city broad community to end traffic related injuries and deaths in our city. i also join my colleagues here today and all of you in mourning the death of the family that was killed in last year's traffic crash we grief with their family. in 2013 san francisco was the second city to adopt vision zero through an ordinance through norman ye and kim. united in our commitment to trying to make our city safer. since then, we've done a lot to redesign our streets and increase visibility and reduce speed limits and conflicts and
11:20 am
institute education and enforcement including the upcoming installation of safety cameras. they have provided hundreds of millions of dollars through our voter approved sales tax, double a vehicle registration, prop b and other funds to improve safety from traffic calming, to safe routes to schools, our prop bell program will provide over 15 million dollars over the next five years alone in accelerated vision zero capitol investment and education funds. but as i noted as at the t a meeting, while we will continue to presa head it is --press ahead, we need more culture no more speeding. here i'm grateful for the work of families for safe streets and walk sf and legislate tours, past and present, past mayors and the current mayor
11:21 am
and sfmt a and david chu, who worked so hard for us to authority to pilot speed safety cameras. this will safe lives and i know san franciscans cannot wait. and i will continue to press for traffic enforcement, we're holding a hearing again on that, at the committee at the end of april in city hall. we must protect all visitors and through vision zero and i look forward to all of us unifying to tackle the goal with the urgency that it deserves and demands in the coming years and years. and i believe i now get to introduce a true a true, safety advocate and champion, both well as a supervisor on the boateder of supervisors, as president of the board of supervisors, then as a state
11:22 am
legislature and now back to us as city attorney, we're glad to have you david chu. [applause] >> good afternoon, brothers and sisters. so i have to say as somebody who has attended many many events here on the steps of city hall, today feels different. this is a different kind of moment. this is a moment of emotion, of reflection and of intent recommitment and i want to thank you all of you for being part of our san francisco community. ten years ago, when which was serving as a president of our board of supervisors, we were seeing too many families who were losing loved ones on our streets, kids going to school, cyclist going to work. seniors living their best lives, and this is why a number of us came together to author the inaugural resolution to
11:23 am
start vision zero. to eliminate traffic fatalities and severe injuries and increase safe mobility for every one. and i want to take a moment and thank each of and every one of you because as i look out here, there are folks who are with us, ten years ago, 9, 8, who have been with us every step of the way in this fight. transportation professionals, pedestrian, and cycling and senior advocates and community and elected leaders, the road has been long and well it may not feel that way, we have been saving lives but we all know this work has been much harder than any of us expected. we also know when we travel together, we get it done. and i want to give one example. i have to tell you in 2017 when a whole number of us, many of us here on these steps, when we first introduced the first version of automated speed
11:24 am
enforcement, i thought we were going to get it done in 2017. then 2018, 2019, it took us 7 years despite the fact that we know that speed kills. that it's the top factor in severe and fatal car crashes despite the fact that automatic o mated speed enforcement had saved lives in over two cities, dropping preventable deaths by 20, 30, 40 percent. it took the work of literal' virtually every person standing with us today to get it done. but because we did, govern newsom signed it into law and those cameras are going up! [cheers and applause] listen, we were just tragically reminded this past month why we do this work. and as a parent and as a san
11:25 am
franciscan i joined us this week about what happened. but this is what has to fire us up to do the hard work. building the safe travel, creating slower streets and i want to you know as your city attorney, no matter how hard it is, our lawyers are going to work with our transittion and policy makers, they will defend the lawsuits that challenge bike lanes and promenades. [applause] but today, we're here because we are rededicating ourselves to this work. we're not only rededicated to what we said we were going to do ten years ago but we have to push the envelope because great cities safe lives, great cities have great pass of travel for pedestrians and cyclist sxz seniors and kids and workers and students and great cities don't see the number of deaths that we have had.
11:26 am
let me end with one final thought. which is this, every november, families for safe streets sf have a ceremony here at city hall where we remember those who have died because of traffic violence. and our dream, my hope is, our collective vision s some year, soon in that november we will still come to grief with our families who have lost one, but not families that have lost one in that year because we collect ively believe that the right number is zero. we believe in vision zero, thank you very much. [applause] and with that, the guy who is responsible, everyday for getting this entire thing done, no pressure, jeff tomlin, head of the mta, thank you so much.
11:27 am
>> thank you, city attorney david chu and thank you, chair and mayor and chairman del man. i want to offer gratitude and make a commitment to action. first of all, i want to thank all of you who are here with protest signs, who are here expressing your rightous rage! [applause] we can't do this work without strong community activism and i'm grateful for the time that you spend everyday helping us deliver on this work. you are right to be angry and to demand action. i want to thank those of you who have spent so much time walking the halls with us in sacramento, to legalize the basic tools that are available in ever advance country anywhere in the world except
11:28 am
for here in california. thank you for helping us clear the path. i want to thank you for all the work that you do, educating our policy makers that there are solutions to these problems that zero is possible if we have the courage to do the hard work examine to make hard choices. the fighting and the worse catastrophe that this agency has faced. we're going to need real money to convert plastic straws to concrete and streets. i want to thank you for all the community organizing work that you do because in order to move this work hard and get to the two-thirds vote, we need stronger community agreement and you are out there everyday helping us on the ground to change minds. and finally and most importantly, i want to build upon what the city attorney
11:29 am
just said about the central role that you hold, holding grief for families who have lost people needlessly to traffic violence and turning that grief and that righteous rage into strategic action, thank you for that work. now i want to build a little bit upon the commitment that mayor breed has ordered us to. there is a long list and you can see a lot of those commitments from the press release that the mayor's office released today. she asked us to advance our work. we have seen very clearly that the quick bolt project that we build on highs injury network, build on including the collision rate on the corridors by 42 percent and the pedestrian related collision rate by 26%. we have already succeeded in doubling our annual production
11:30 am
of projects and the mayor has urged us to double that again to be able to complete 17 quick pedestrian safety projects, this and next year on the remaining 50 miles of the high injury network. also asked and we have accepted the challenge of evaluating all 900 intersections on the network and making sure that they're complete with daylighting, lines longer walk times and pedestrian head starts. we are committed to being the first city in california to finally being able to implement the safety cameras that have fought to hard to legalize. we're doing that staff work now. there is a lot of staff work that is required and we're committed to making the 33 cameras happen as quickly as possible completing the evaluation and most importantly going back to sacramento to fight for another three
11:31 am
thousand, not 33. [applause] we have lead the state in reducing state limits to 20 miles per hour on 43 miles of our streets and we're committed to adding another 17 corridors this year and additional set in 2025. we are committed to doing additional enforcement that is focused on safety related problems. we're committed to redoing traffic signal timing all over the city to advance traffic safety and to ensure adequate pedestrian time. we're committed to traffic calms and a whole street of improvement that you can see in the release. finally before i close, i also want to thank the staff who are the ones who actually have to do this work. and i want to start by thanking the first responders who have the burden of being
11:32 am
the first ones out there on the scene and seeing the results of our failure to thank creatively and work quickly enough across the transportation system. i also want to thank the staff and the tragedy in west portal is a good example where it was muni transit stuff who were the first ones on the scene and our, rapid response team who came out immediately afterwards. rapid response team who was out there within 24 hours working in the dark and in the rain and carrying the emotional burden of reality, of the impacts of our work. they are many of them here standing stoicaly because that's their role despite the criticism that they receive and they're the ones who quietly crying in my office, or pushing
11:33 am
me to be bolder. i can't do any of this work without the staff. i know this work is emotional and hard for you and i'm committed to supporting you to be able to move through this more quickly. thank you. [applause] and speaking of people who challenge me to do more and be better, i now want to introduce the executive director of walk sf, and my partner in this work, jodie maderas. [applause] >> good afternoon, before i say a few moments of silence--says a few words, i want to take a moment of silence for the victims especially west portal. thank you.
11:34 am
and thank you to mayor breed for bringing us together to stand together for safe streets. in my job, i often get asked what is my favorite place to walk in san francisco. i used to say from alma square along advisedero to goenld gate park but now i say jfk promenade. i don't have to think about the threat of dangerous traffic, i run into people i know. i feel connected and i feel joy and we would not have jfk promenade if mayor breed had not taken bold action during a dark time four years ago at the start of the pandemic. mayor breed used emergency pie rad to close the promenade to through traffic. as well shelley park. today we need bold action during another very dark time, i did speak with mayor breed and the crowd at the vigil of
11:35 am
west portal. it was clear that she shares the heart break and heartache of what happened, and i saw something else a determination to stop these strategies. [fire sirens in background] all of us know that fourth and king and almela and and ruse o and the list goes on and on. it's the 100s of people each year who are also severely injured in crashes who's lives may never be the same. because it's everyday anytime, niz of us walk outside of our door, we are all too vulnerable to the cars, trucks and suvs that can be a deadly weapon in an instant. i'm very grateful to mayor breed for the vision zero along
11:36 am
with our leaders here today when it's not yet a success story but it can be a success story. san francisco can be become a city that prioritized safety over driver convenience. we can be become a transit first city. can be a place where our streets bring us together not threaten our lives. is vision zero is the right approach, the right goal. and we have made important strides on our streets and historic streets like jfk but we need so much more. the good news is that a lot has been done to really change our city streets to scale up to move quickly and to make things better. and i know you and all of us here want to end these senseless deaths, we're ready to see and feel the change. we're ready to work together to fight together, like we did for jfk promenade.
11:37 am
so we are all still here asking mayor breed, we need your bold action during this very dark time. thank you. [applause] now i would like to welcome christopher white, the interim executive directer of san francisco bike coalition. [applause] >> on behalf of the thousands of members of the san francisco bicycle coalition, i want to thank mayor breed and all of the elected officials and agency heads here today, every one who has worked and fought to try to make vision zero a reality in san francisco. and especially our members and fellow advocates. what an audacious goal the city set for itself in 2014 to undo a century of streets to
11:38 am
prioritize speeds and cars over human lives and to do it in a single decade. we have not gotten there in fact we barely moved the needle on the total number of lives lost on our streets, but we cannot throw up our hands, we have learned so much in ten years and we have potent tools that didn't exist then, automated speed enforcement and greater local control over speed limits. when layered together these tools become a strategy. we also learned from internal obstacles to excessive red tape. we've seen quick bills slow down while some slow streets have literally sped up. aligning a massive ship like the san francisco government demands leadership and i want to thank mayor breed for
11:39 am
introducing this vision and start to go layout some commitment. and in order for this leadership of this vision to really be seen and felt, it needs to continue translating into those commitments. city leadership has been key, to achieving beautiful joyful places like jfk promenade, car free weekends on the great highway and permanent slow streets program. and when that leadership has not been apparent, we've experienced the impact and commitments are meaningful when there is accountability. the san francisco bicycle coalition will play our parts holding decision makers accountable to making progress at an accelerated rate as well as appreciating and celebrating their their successes. city wide inter connected network of car free and people
11:40 am
prioritized corridors that allow anyone to leave their home and get on their bike or scooter and within minutes be on the network that connects them to any other neighborhood with minimum contact with cars. [applause] as the city developed its new biking enrolling plan, nothing less will do. we have to be bold and visionary, not just because it saves lives because it has the power to rejaouf night the city bringing more joy and vibrancy to san francisco. [applause] we also must center equity as we envision the san francisco we want to live in. as the sfmta has worked on the biking and rolling plan, they brought five organizations on to talk to their communities and how to shape the priorities to reflect their needs and desires. there is a lot of trust that
11:41 am
needs to be rebuilt in these communities and creating space for local leadership is doing that. and today as we reflect on this goal that we have not yet reached, on this anniversary that fall so soon after the tragedy less than two weeks ago, it's appropriate to feel grief and anger, i feel those things with you and i'm trying to do some personal alchemy to generate to resolve to get to safe streets and equitably. there is no choice, we can and must reach this goal with commitment, leadership and accountability. thank you. [applause] and i'm very happy to be able to introduce robin pam who
11:42 am
leads kid's safe sf. [applause] >> hello every one, i want to thank mayor breed for her leadership today can all of our other elected official sxz city leaders who have worked so hard to transform our city in the last few years. i want to start a quick story why i'm standing here today. i had a baby early in the covid pandemic with a preschooler at school, we had nowhere to go, no school, no playgrounds, no library, no support from any community. the only spaces available to our family where i can push a stroller and my older kid can run tree why jfk, slow streets all of which have been closed for social distancing. as a parent raising kids in san francisco, i don't worry about the threat to my kids from guns or crime, my greatest fear is
11:43 am
that my family will be hit on by a car on the dangerous roads near by home. the experience of being in a space like jfk where cars are not an ever present threat changed the way about how i raise kids in the city t gave my family a place to be safe and the kids to be kids. and because of leadership, jfk has allowed us to see what our streets can be when we prioritize people and when we stick to our convictions. in the past six years, mayor breed have lead a huge transformation on our streets. the car free spaces in golden gate park, mcclaire en park, the great park, 18 slow streets that are now permanent, 45 miles of protective lanes. yet last week in west portal we saw that despite the changes
11:44 am
we've made an entire family can still be skilled killed in an instant by a speeding driver. this is a tragic reminder that we need to move quickly than ever. when advocates met with mayor breed, we asked for her support and we heard from her commitment to prioritize safety in the way that we design our streets. and when we do this, it has benefits beyond safety, more infrastructure safety, car free promenades these can create community and xwif our neighborhoods the post pandemic boost that they need. and installing this infrastructure, reimagining our public realm, this has to be the pace and urgency when facing a cries of this magnitude. what but is more cities that have done this work, whether
11:45 am
it's new york city, mexico city, these people are driving, they are feing seem on the streets, walking everybody, taking the bus, taking transit. and we know from prop j which passed in every supervisor district that these changes are popular. there is going to be a small number of voices trying to veto and stop progress, but we cannot let them. all of you here today, everybody in the past couple of years who has started biking during the pandemic, parents who bike their way to school, seniors going to the farmers market, going to the medical appointments on the bus, teens who just want a safe place to go, every one wants the same thing we just want to exist in our city without being hit by a car, exist in public and feel safe. all of these people, we are ready for change and we are
11:46 am
ready for urgency. we're ready to support mayor breed as they follow through to make our streets safe and joyful for all possible and for all san franciscans. thank you. [applause] >> all right, i just want to thank you for being here and i did mean what i said we need all of you to play a part in this next phase of vision zero, please join us at for our vision zero sub submit he's, we want all of your ideas, you may always speak in general public comment, and i have office hours you can join me virtually, 4:00 o'clock on monday'sed before our tuesday board meeting. thank you all again for your commit toment vision zero and with na, --and with that, we are adjourned. thank you. [applause]
11:47 am
11:48 am
>> the current lottery program began in 2016. but there have been lot rows that have happened for affordable housing in the city for much longer than that. it was -- there was no standard practice. for non-profit organizations that were providing affordable housing with low in the city, they all did their lotteries on their own. private developers that include in their buildings affordable units, those are the city we've been monitoring for some time since 1992. we did it with something like this. where people were given circus tickets. we game into 291st century in 2016 and started doing electronic lotteries. at the same time, we started electronic applications systems. called dalia. the lottery is completely free.
11:49 am
you can apply two ways. you can submit a paper application, which you can download from the listing itself. if you apply online, it will take five minutes. you can make it easier creating an account. to get to dalia, you log on to housing.sfgov.org. >> i have lived in san francisco for almost 42 years. i was born here in the hayes valley. >> i applied for the san francisco affordable housing lottery three times. >> since 2016, we've had about 265 electronic lotteries and almost 2,000 people have got their home through the lottery system. if you go into the listing, you can actually just press lottery results and you put in your
11:50 am
lottery number and it will tell you exactly how you ranked. >> for some people, signing up for it was going to be a challenge. there is a digital divide here and especially when you are trying to help low and very low income people. so we began providing digital assistance for folks to go in and get help. >> along with the income and the residency requirements, we also required someone who is trying to buy the home to be a first time home buyer and there's also an educational component that consists of an orientation that they need to attend, a first-time home buyer workshop and a one-on-one counseling session with the housing councilor. >> sometimes we have to go through 10 applicants before
11:51 am
they shouldn't be discouraged if they have a low lottery number. they still might get a value for an available, affordable housing unit. >> we have a variety of lottery programs. the four that you will most often see are what we call c.o.p., the certificate of preference program, the dthp which is the displaced penance housing preference program. the neighborhood resident housing program and the live worth preference. >> i moved in my new home february 25th and 2019. the neighborhood preference program really helped me achieve that goal and that dream was with eventually wind up staying in san francisco. >> the next steps, after finding out how well you did in the lottery and especially if you ranked really well you will be contacted by the leasing agent. you have to submit those document and income and asset qualify and you have to pass the
11:52 am
credit and rental screening and the background and when you qualify for the unit, you can chose the unit and hopefully sign that lease. all city sponsored affordable housing comes through the system and has an electronic lottery. every week there's a listing on dalia. something that people can apply for. >> it's a bit hard to predict how long it will take for someone to be able to move into a unit. let's say the lottery has happened. several factors go into that and mainly how many units are in the project, right. and how well you ranked and what preference bucket you were in. >> this particular building was brand new and really this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. in my mind, i was like how am i going to win this? i did and when you get that
11:53 am
notice that you won, it's like at first, it's surreal and you don't believe it and it sinks in, yeah, it happened. >> some of our buildings are pretty spectacular. they have key less entry now. they have a court yard where they play movies during the weekends, they have another master kitchen and space where people can throw parties. >> mayor breed has a plan for over 10,000 new units between now and 2025. we will start construction on about 2,000 new units just in 2020. >> we also have a very big portfolio like over 25,000 units across the city. and life happens to people. people move. so we have a very large number of rerentals and resales of units every year.
11:54 am
>> best thing about working for the affordable housing program is that we know that we're making a difference and we actually see that difference on a day-to-day basis. >> being back in the neighborhood i grew up in, it's a wonderful experience. >> it's a long process to get through. well worth it when you get to the other side. i could not be happier. [♪♪♪]
12:00 pm
15 Views
IN COLLECTIONS
SFGTV: San Francisco Government TelevisionUploaded by TV Archive on
![](http://athena.archive.org/0.gif?kind=track_js&track_js_case=control&cache_bust=1660770524)