>> building a better bay area, moving forward, finding solutions. this is abc7news. anchor: you are watching getting answers on abc seven, every day we talk with experts about issues important to the bay area and get answers into real-time. today history making surgery, a recent five hour heart transplant at ucf was completed by a unique all women team. we will talk with a main resident and anesthesiologist about this milestone. a family of six living in a 100 square-foot room for years? that is what hundreds, perhaps thousands of san francisco families are facing, and hope is

slow to come despite the attention on the housing crisis. our media partner the san francisco standard will show us a heartbreaking and eye-opening story. a big show of support this morning in front of oakland city hall, dozens of leaders and members related for the fired police chief to be reinstated. they said their voices were not heard when mayor chantel fired him yesterday at one month after placing armstrong on administrative leave after an outside report concluded the chief mishandled lee's conduct cases involving a hit and run and gunshot fired with the service weapon inside headquarters. >> i have decided to separate from chief armstrong from the city without cause. anchor: joining us live to discuss the firing the former opd chief and armstrong's predecessor. thank you for joining us. >> thank you. anchor: are you surprised by

what happened and this is how it ended? >> yes, a little bit i was surprised by the ending and the decision to terminate, but i understand why, so was surprised on one end i was not surprised on the other. kristen: you sure you understand but does that mean you think the mayor made the right call here? >> i think she made the best call that was right for her, i can understand why she made the decision. so she is being true to herself, and that is what is best for her. kristen: i want to ask you about that. how is it best for her? she pointed to she lost confidence in him, that continue to him would get in the way of reform. is that trying to say something about the federal oversight relationship if armstrong were to remain? >> i did not read it that way,

did not read her comments that way. what i am addressing is she is saying everyone will be held accountable no matter who you are, and she was deeply disturbed as she articulated on her own about credibility issues that came up and accountability issues or lack of accountability, and she wants to be clear that in her administration that will be dealt with, that is the way i took her comments. kristen: statement in a reaction. i am deeply disappointed in the mayor's decision after the relevant facts are fully evaluated instead of pulling soundbites from strategically linked and accurate reports. it will be clear i was an effective reformer of the oakland police department. it will be equally clear that i

committed no misconduct in my termination is wrong, unjustified, and unfair. have you talked to armstrong either today, yesterday or in the past month? >> no, i have not. i know how is, so maybe we will speak. he needs to be surrounded and loved don and wrapped around by those that know him better than i would. kristen: do you think as you stated in that response that he was an effective reformer as chief? >> that is going to be obviously how the community perceives it, and how the mayor perceives it, how the officers perceive it and most importantly how the judge and monitor perceive it, and everyone may have different perceptions about that. kristen: you mentioned he has a

lot of support in the community. she came up the ranks in opd, 20 something years. he is a native of oakland. is this firing impact the city and a way that perhaps of the mayor would not want? >> she was in many situation. the chief knew she was going to had a divided house even if she had made the decision to keep chief armstrong, she would still have a divided house. ultimately this is one in which she had to make a hard decision and there was going to be a divided house. we will see what the fruits of this decision are over time. kristen: do you think things might have been different, ended differently had chief armstrong not said when he was first placed on leave that the federal

monitor had an incentive to point out false and continue this oversight -- faults and continue this oversight situation? >> you know, whenever you such a disappointing event, and this is obviously a very disappointing event for chief armstrong, i think it would be a normal reaction that he is going to be expressing himself, whether it was the right thing to do, it was not for me. the mayor has every right to assess whether or not she was or was not ok with it. she stated clearly in her remarks that she was not ok with it and that is her prerogative. kristen: she said this not disciplinary but she lost confidence in him and fired him without cause. correct me if i'm wrong but i

think you were also fired without cause back in 2020 by the mayor and the police commission. explain to the layman what does that mean? >> it is a legal term of art. to be fired with cause or without cause. with cause is defined as several elements, such as you suffer from alcoholism you cannot do the duties of your job or you were arrested for a felony. things like that, there are delineated regions -- reasons and we call that just cause. to be fired without cause is used for people who are admirable employees. the underline allows -- it is a statement of it allows that employee to be able to receive benefits, and there are other messaging's associated with it, but it is a legal term of art. kristen: thanks for clearing

that, i think a lot of people were stuck on what exactly does that mean. after your firing you were awarded $340,000 and then you got a settlement from the city for $1.5 million. do you see that happening here with armstrong? >> i do not know armstrong is going to choose to take legal action, and if so what would it be? that will be up to him and with legal counsel, what underlying issues he is going to point to. a wrongful termination, he will need to point to why it would be illegal or why it was wrongful in legal terms. mine was a retaliation for whistleblowing, so i do not know that he would be trying to make the same underlying issues. that is why i do not know and i

do not know if you will choose to pursue a lawsuit or not. that is a difficult question. kristen: they are going to need an interim chief. have you been approached? and would you be interested? >> no, i have not been approached. i have been asked this question a lot, which is a bit surprising. so i will be consistent in what i think. i did not want to leave oakland to begin with. i would return to oakland in a heartbeat without question if i were approached and asked, but no one from the city at all has even ventured that, but i never wanted to leave. that is the best i can give. i love that city, i love that police department. if asked to be interim it would be my honor. kristen: thank you for coming on

, i know it is not easy to talk about the situation. you being one of the chief said -- that had been in that musical chair. we appreciate your insight. history at u

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kristen: welcome back, the ucsf team of doctors and nurses make history. the all women team performed a five-hour heart transplant. even the patient was a woman, it was the first time that happened at ucsf and possibly anywhere. running this live right now are

dr. fiedler and two other physicians involved in the surgery. welcome to the show. >> thank you. kristen: we first heard about your history making surgery on facebook through your post about the surgery that took ways. i think it was in december. let's pull that up, very exciting. obviously to you as well. tell us about what you see in this picture? >> [laughter] i see a lot of powerful w who love cardiac surgery and got together on the right day at the right time to save a young woman's life. kristen: and that was when? >> i do not think we should say the exact date. but the patient was a she had heart failure and she turned out beautifully.

how was she doing right now? kristen: she looks fantastic, over a month after surgery she is back to normal activities of daily living and we were lucky enough to get together for a photo shoot opportunity just last week. she just looks fantastic. >> do we know if the organ donor was also a woman? >> also cannot talk about that. kristen: i keep asking these questions, i am sorry. nosy reporter that i am. i want to ask you about the moment he realized this was an all woman team. did you know beforehand? >> why don't you go ahead, dr. blake. >> there was no way for us to know ahead of time. i was scheduled to be on call and dr. spring jar --

was on schedule with dr. fiedler and we were coming in for a regular day of work, and none of us noticed to the very end of the surgery and dr. fiedler said we are all women. [laughter] kristen: in addition to you three who with the other roles in an operating room. >> there was a woman named ashley running the heart and lung machine. there were a couple of women who were our nurses. one is a contract nurse with ucsf and dr. meisler was also with us. kristen: how rare is this? even the best records that we have do not show anything like this previously. >> what do you think? >> i do not think anyone is ever

kept track of it before but it has never happened to any of us, which makes it unlikely to happen. kristen: i love this dynamic where you are all being inclusive. do you see how this woman dynamic is being brought in here and i see that happening in the or. did you notice anything in terms of the damage -- the dynamic, the working, the communicating. >> i think it was just another day in the operating room. we are lucky to work in a place like ucsf where we are an institution filled with diverse individuals. we are used to working together under stressful and difficult situations. and we are a team, and we communicate like this inside and outside the operating room, and we are lucky to be at a place that can bring us all together. kristen: if it was going to happen anywhere it would happen here because of the diversity of the staff. what does that say, this is so

rare. why traditionally, historically there have been so few women cardiologists. >> i can talk about that from a surgical standpoint. cardiothoracic been dominated by men. we have seen an uptick of women in our specialty for a variety of reasons. some of it has been more representation. some of the myths of cardiac surgery have been dispelled and women are starting to see other women going into the field and recognize this is a field that is accessible to them. it is an incredible opportunity and life and you have the ability to truly impact these patients every single day you come to work. however, we are still very much underrepresented specifically in cardiac surgery, and dr. blake and talk to the

underrepresentation not only of color in the field of cardiac anesthesiology. kristen: we have about 30 seconds, but i would love to hear about that. >> there are not many women in cardiac anesthesia itself. of the 220 incoming five of them were black. i cannot say how many were women, and to be a woman of color and to be in this position is a privilege, and i am grateful to be able to be a role model for others who want to do something like this, because it is an incredible life and incredible career. kristen: you can get together and save a life. doctors, and you for being inspirations and role models. this is what being a surgeon looks like. thank you so much, congratulations. >> thank you. kristen: coming up next we have

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kristen: addressing homelessness and the lack of housing are the main focus of abc a seven's building a better bay area reporting. today a new story in the standard highlights a deplorable yet invisible crisis, up to 1000 families may be living in the city and unimaginable squalor in single room occupancy units. joining us live to hear this heartbreaking story our reporter. for those who do not know what sros look like i want to show viewers your video. this is where the yu lives. i think this is in chinatown. tell us about the space and the family living there? >> the family lives in a

chinatown sro unit. normally it is about 100 square feet. we mentioned this a lot when we talk about housing topics. it is normally a are 10 or 12 units, and in those units there are no kitchen, bathroom or toilets. all the tenants on the floor share one bathroom. this type of housing is very common in chinatown and the mission district. kristen: looking at your video i see a husband and wife. i think they have two young boys and two teen girls. can you even describe, how do they study. where do they hang out? how do they cook? >> this is very heartbreaking. six of them growing up, and all

have. so normally they will baths and share the bathroom together. there is average and some shelves. kristen: i saw a rice cooker. >> may be just one little space for people to stand. during the remote learning time, four of the kids might have to study at home and there is no way four kids can stay at the same time. they have to go out to the hallway and find a space to study. kristen: i cannot even imagine. how much do they pay to rent a space like that? >> sros are considered very affordable compared to san francisco's situation. normally the rent for an sro

room is $500, $700. kristen: and it is legal for them to live like that? it almost feels like a fire hazard. >> that is a really good question. federal, state, and local laws prohibit overcrowding in these small rooms, but a lot of them do not have options. what they can do is live in the small rooms. san francisco's building code, if there are two adults living in one room the minimum legal space is 70 square feet, and if there are additional individuals there has to be an additional 50 square feet. the legal minimum space for them is 270. kristen: they have been in there for nine years or at least a husband and wife, and i know you interviewed miss yu being the

only one who works and supporting her family. i want folks to hear her response. >>[speaking non-english language] kristen: what did she say there? >> situation is very heartbreaking. kristen: as a mom myself just to hear her cry in anguish saying she failed as a mother is hard working. how common are sros and where are they located in the city? >> there are a lot of sro units in san francisco. there are tens of thousands of them living in sros in the city. what we are talking about here are the families with minor k growing up. approximately there are 1000 of these families living in san

francisco, and the majority of them are in chinatown. kristen: our time is limited, we have about a minute but what are her options? has she applied for housing assistance? >> typically there are three options for them to consider to move out. the first is to apply for a federal housing voucher, which is section eight. the san francisco housing authority has a major financial crisis in 2018, so they were banned from issuing housing vouchers until late 2021, so that makes a huge delay for the family and that kind of a miserable situation. they are expecting to issue vouchers very soon. there are two other options like local subsidy programs from city hall, city government and also apply for local affordable housing. the most ideal way for them is the federal vouchers.

kristen: has the city responded to your story? >> yes, i reached out to the mayor's office on housing. they partner with local nonprofits issuing those subsidies and reach out to the federal voucher agency, so they are expecting to issue vouchers very soon. kristen: i think your story will make a lot of people pay attention. you can check out more of the standard's reporting on their website. abc 7 will bring you more segments h

kristen: thank you so much for joining us for getting answers today. we will be here every weekday at

3:00 answering questions with experts from around the bay area. world news tonight with david tonight, president biden addressing the nation about the downing of four objects over the u.s. and canada, including the chinese spy balloon shot down off the coast of south carolina. the president under growing pressure from both parties to speak directly to the american people about the incidents. all four objects shot down by u.s. fighter jets, beginning with that spy balloon. then three objects brought down three days in a row over alaska, the yukon, and lake huron. the president on what the u.s. has learned about those objects, and why he says shooting down china's balloon sent a clear message. martha raddatz in washington. also tonight, the georgia special grand jury recommending perjury charges linked to testimony about attempts to overturn the state's 2020 presidential election results by former president trump and his