i've heard all kinds of untrue statements masquerading as theffacts. i feel like there needs to be some real investigation into the issue of bedbugs. beyond that, the list of recommendations that my co- worker passed out, i want to explain those. those came up as a result of a community meeting in which we invited tenants and interested people to come and give their thoughts and experiences on what has worked and what has not worked. we do not have somebody here who will cover every point, so i encourage everyone to take a look at this. i'm more than happy to go over any questions that people have on what is on that sheet. there were just a couple things. i know i have 15 seconds left.

i wanted to talk mainly about what happens to be invested furniture. i've seen case after case of a tenant complaining of having been infected bed and it gets drove down the hall him put in a room with a lot of others. thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is tom. i'm with the housing rights committee of san francisco. i will try not to be repetitive. maybe some things are worth repeating. i would like to sor second to before collaborative said. their recommendations are excellent. we see the same types of situations. landlords do not respond. tenants are asked to do things that violate their civil rights. i would also like to repeat what

someone said about alternative treatments. we see a lot of people with asthma and other types of diseases. these chemicals are extremely toxic. there are some alternatives. i think there's more work that could go into that. those things are of a horribly affected with bedbugs. in terms of the numbers people are siding, i would say those are very underestimated. those are the tip of the iceberg. a lot of people do not report bedbugs. a lot of tenants just leave their rooms. what we're looking at is an epidemic where we do not have any good idea of how many cases we are dealing with. i think that is really alarming. i think we need to deal with this as an epidemic. that leads me to my final point. i think the efforts we are

making now are not enough. we need a more aggressive campaign against bedbugs. maybe that will take what victor said. get all the players together in a room. have them sit down for a couple of hours and come up with a very effective way to deal with this problem. that might make the most sense. thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. >> my name is joan. i'm a retired social worker. i still work part time in social work. i have a current infestation of bedbugs that has been going on for two months. i've had a great deal of trouble. i've had help from the housing advocates. my problem has been with both the property management company and with the companies that did the eradication. i had a heat treatment.

the standard treatment for my building is the pesticide. because i have had a health problem, i wanted to give the heat treatment, which cost about $3,000. i offered to pay this. i offered to pay the full deduction, $300. i had to give them a check in advance. they would not let me have this treatment for at least a month. finally, a hi hired a company that was not able to do it. i went to another company. they did the heat treatment and it was not effective. my neighbors have the infestation. i live in a four-unit building. they had the infestation during the summer. they thought the land war had informed me, but the landlord did not inform me.

i had the bed bugs in my department for many months. i did discover rashes. a person who was staying in one of my extra rooms saw the bedbugs. there were about 100 live once in a mattress. i've been suffering. i'm suffering at this moment. the company put in a monitor. they said it is very effective. it was not effective. i really appreciate this. hopefully you can do this meeting and i can talk to some of the people. president murphy: thank you. your two minutes is up. >> thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, commissioners. i'm speaking from my own experience.

i live with hiv. in early 2007, my unit, my permit unit had bedbugs. i reported this to my manager on monday. they did not send a maintenance man into my unit until wednesday fifth if i did not get anyone from pest control until the following monday. if you do not know what it's like to be up at night with your lights on for, wondering if you are going to get ate up, living with hiv aids, this is dangerous. i called the department of public health. they referred me to dbi. i called them. they put me on hold and said they cannot do anything for me and to go back to dph. there's a mix of with the

department. it's not the lack of funding. it is the department merry-go- round. come up with a solution to get off the department merry-go- round. maybe more tenants would not be eaten up by the bugs. with over 500 hotels in the city and more than 350 low-income housing buildings, two inspectors from each department is not going to cut it. i have to spend my own money to do my own laundry. management did not move me out of the unit. the problem is enforcement. someone needs to step up to the plate and in forenforce it. thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please.

>> hello. i have been dealing with bedbugs for a year-and-a-half. i live in an apartment building. i have hiv and i am bipolar. i had a nervous breakdown dealing with the bedbugs. i first got them a year-and-a- half ago. i was on my own pretty much. i could not get friends to help out. luckily, i got the info about the department of health, an adult protective services and in home services. i went through a deep freeze treatment, but it did not formally work. the case workers, i know a lot

for doing the best they could. they were not always communicated. they did not have knowledge of protocol and bedbugs. there's no funding available. the exterminator that was hired did not really communicate with me. the building managers, of course, made it difficult all along the way. it wanted me to pay for the bedbugs to begin with. at this point, as disabled as i've been, if it were not for me, things would not get done. there are times when i'm not at my best as far as being proactive with everything. the more communication there is, the better everyone is going to be. knowledge about protocol and the bedbugs themselves and how to treat them. that is all.

thank you. president murphy >> good morning, commissioners. this is an education for me to listen to of the presentations by the doctor and a testament that has been given by so many people. clearly, it is a difficult problem. i do think it deserves attention. hopefully, we can keep the emotional aspect out of it and keep the frustrations out of it. you will find landlords who will say they have a building that was not infected and it was possibly brought in by a tenant. some will say that maybe it was

already investein testeinfestae. it is clearly complicated. it will take a team effort. just a reminder, as tis the case with most things in life -- most people in san francisco are decent people, which includes all of the tenants of san francisco. most of the landlords are decent people. we have a few bad aids. -eggs. i think we were together, we can take care of this collectively.

i recommend that dbi does not take the heavy hand of responsibility for it. it might be better in the department of public health. that is just a personal opinion. thank you. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i am from supervisor kim's office. i want to thank everyone who came out today. we would like to coordinate. we will also be convening community meetings. you are more than welcome to combacontact me. we are coordinating together to try to put together multiple community meetings. phil free to contacfeel free tot

where is a good location for these meetings. we want to make it convenient for the tenants. thank you so much. president murphy: thank you. next speaker, please. >> i work with the sor family's collaborative. this affects everyone. sor it is belief tenanit is not only sor . it affects everyone. renters, property owners, everyone. you heard in a very eloquent way from tenants what it's like to live with bedbugs. i want to look at some solutions. it is obvious looking from the numbers that if there is 538 complaints in one year and there

are two inspectors dealing with those complaints, that means each inspector would be out there every day expectininspectt least one complaint. in addition to that, they would also need to do regular mandatory inspections for500 sor hotels. either we stretchout are your to make it 500 days, or these people will not have time to investigate to investigate and enforce all the complaints they have seen. i think it's a very good idea to bring together all sides. we have heard a lot of reactions from tenants that say, "we are not the problem." i do think the property managers or the property owners are the problem. this is a shared responsibility. that is key for us.

one of the things that we glanced over its relocation, which would make sense. a lot of landlords do not provide relocation because the law currently, they would incur relocation costs. we need to look at that together. president murphy: thank you. >> thank you. >> john from the san francisco coalition for responsible growth. pres., commissioners, it appears there's an all-out war on the tiny, creepy, bloodsucking predators. it looks like they are winning the war. thank you, commissioner walker , for bringing the topic to

conversation. i know that entomologist gail getty has noted that the problem is getting worse. we have heard that from all of the speakers. what she did not say -- it can be tackled through education. the president talked about training earlier. i would see that as fundamental. i would also suggest from listening to dr. johnson's presentation that he broke in 2008 that this should be one agency that handles this would complete indirect responsibility. that would be dph. of course, whatever input from dbi. i recall in the 1940's, my

father told me problems he had as a young man with these bedbugs. here, all those years later, i'm back hearing about it in san francisco. i wish you all the best with tackling this. >> hello. my name is fully show. i live in a sor in the mission district. the management company is doing a wonderful job keeping the bed bugs out. we have 80 rooms. by now, we probably have one apartment with bedbugs. as i'm standing here, they're doing our rooms right now. they are doing a wonderful job keeping bedbugs out.

when tenants move out, they take the carpet out. the mattresses are all covered with plastic. they do not put anything all in our building. when they bring things up off the street, are management checks everything. they checked it before you bring it in the building. the management is responsible for all the problems with the bedbugs. it is not the city. it is just the management. ok. presiden >> good morning, commissioners. i'm speaking about bedbugs. i hope i have jurisdiction.

i also had an experience with bedbugs. after i was even if it illegally -- after i was evicted in legalllegally. [nthese people that gave me temporary housing were really aggressive. i went to the san francisco hospital. immediately, they were recommending to the landlord that they have to take care of this problem. they did very well. i feel that we all have to work together, not just, as someone

said regarding the building inspection commission -- the notice of violation. if they do not take care of that, then we have to go to the building inspection commission. that happened to my case. they do not send one single instructor. i'm still demanding a public hearing. they're coming up with a new code that is going to change4dq. it is supposed to give me protection. president murphy: thank you. >> thank you. president murphy: next speaker, please. >> hi. i want to give preferencreferen.

it showsúd) obama, dr. nathan hill, michelle obama, and madame j.c. walker. my experience with bedbugs -- i want to tell you, there are solutions. we have bedbugs in sor's. they even talk about bedbugs in the united nations. good night, sleep tight. do not let the bed bugs bite. i have found out that bedbugs could be sexual. it could be not getting proper showers. if you look at san francisco,

all the shelters used to be back clubs. people walk around with bedbugs. i go to one hotel and i asked him to put plastic on the bed. in 9/11 at a shelter -- that was my first time to see bedbugs and lice. when i went to a shelter at 150 golden gate, there was a guy they could not make take a shower. i have long hair. i take the bedbug shampoo and mix it with a lotion. it could be invisible. they could be invisible. people never know. it is also cedar wood. we must use every idea to kill bedbugs in our lives.

thank you. president murphy: thank you very much. i do not see any further speakers. commissioner walker: i want to thank you. i know it is a long hearing on this issue. clearly, it is escalating. i hope the department can work departmentdph, dpw, aps, in this group that is discussing how to move forward so that we can work as a team. i think/(ñ that dph needs our assistance. we're out there all the time in these hotels. we have very committed nonprofits doing outreach to this community. not just the tenants, but the landlords. i think education and may be

more focused on enforcement and what that means. also, updating protocol as to how to get rid of them. that seems to be not happening. i would hope that we can commit to that. i will commit to working with commissioners to try to make sure we of funding for that, if needed. president murphy: what is the process for closing out a complaint, if there is a complaint and it has been dealt with? what is the process? how many cases have been closed out? >> i cannot tell you right now how many notices we have issued that have been closed out the that involve bedbugs. i can go back and look. the licensed ted control operator provides a report that they have treated the room. they give us that information. they do a re-inspection for the

types of things you typically see in the room or apartment. all of that hooks to the dph rules and regulations that you have in your package. with respect to the reporting and all that further information, we leave that to dph. we might make an inquiry, but we also work with the health inspectors and the community groups to find out whether or not there's a reoccurrence. president murphy: thank you. commissioner walker: do we still have the sor task force up and operating? >> thank you, commissioner. we do and they meet tomorrow.

the chairman has moved on to greater things. she will be greatly missed. we will be electing a new chair tomorrow. one thing did come up. the doctor was kind enough to give an updated presentation to the sor task force when we last met. one thing came up. it was fascinating to hear about the lady who did not have great luck withbce heat treatment. we are told it is very expensive. it is $1,000, as opposed to $150 a. as you heard, the pesticides are not always desirable. it has to hit the adults bugs and the eggs. we know that the animals can burrow. they can live up to 18 months without additional feeding. because of the expense of this,

one of the questions i posed at the sor task force, if it is an effective tool, if it has done right -- obviously, we've heard you have to have the right temperature for the right amount of time. you have to seal the room. you have to close the room. if it is done properly, it's another tool to use in the arsenal to deal with a very tenacious pest. has anybody talked to the industry and asked them if the costs can be reduced because of the amount of volume of work that is here in san francisco that we know is pervasive throughout a lot of the residential hotels? that's one thing i hope will come out of the discussion at the sor task force. there have been continuing discussions about this issue. it is front and center. commissioner walker: maybe they can also interface with the supervisors' efforts just to make sure that we streamline

this. i think they have left, but they are going to have a hearing. we have something scheduled for the 25th. i think that might be the sor collaboratives. maybe get our staff or somebody from housing and maybe somebody from the task force to be there so that we all work together. >> thank you. that occurred to me, as well. any of the supervisors are invited to come to this to be able -- there's a lot of good work that goes on there. there are property owner representatives, city agencies, and collaboratives, and tenants. a lot of people regularly attend that. commissioner walker: great. president murphy: [inaudible] that is something our director should do. commissioner walker: that is why

they're here. >> i would like to make a comment. i would like to direct this to the department of public health, if i may. i think the bedbugs issue -- it's safe to say that it is a citywide issue. we are all very concerned. i also think it's safe to say that the entire city is probably looking for the department of public health's lead on this issue. certainly, our department and other departments, like dpw, and maybe even the department of environment, can help. we need the department of public health's lead on this issue. if you feel like there's a limit to help, please say something. maybe this will come out in the board of supervisors hearing,