some of the adults are privately run. in south of market, they are along the six street corridor. most units are occupied by single individuals, with some units have been two in the unit. the tenderloin and south of market has very few families living in sro's. the majority of tenants are african-american and caucasian, and there are more men than women. seniors and disabled adults, some on public benefits. i will turn it over to talk about other neighborhoods.

>> hi, supervisors. my name is joyce. i work with the sro collaborative, and most of my work is done in chinatown. i am sure you know, that is a tourist hot spot and an ethnic enclave. most are chinese emigrants and low-income workers. most of the housing stock is actually sro's. there are 5000 units in chinatown. most of the residents are seniors and families with small children. the rest of the population is less transient. in terms of the infrastructure of the building itself, this is quite different from other neighborhoods.

with the relatively affordable and easy access to grocery, most cut in their own rooms with rice cookers and hot plates. >> my name is josh, and i am with an sro collaborative, and i just wanted to quickly talk about a mission. there is actually a mix in the mission. there is about 50 sro's. there are only six that are nonprofit. the schedule needs to more stable populations, but the vast majority, they are private buildings and sort of run the spectrum of meeting people's needs to being quite bad places.

one of the nonprofit buildings, the mission houses 288 rooms. the majority are fought wars or less. there are a lot of buildings that do not have elevators, or if they do, there may not be a code requirement to have them. it is more difficult to the elevators fixed in situations. lastly, i guess i would say the mission is a very diverse place. also, the tenants that live there also a very diverse group of folks. we have latino families. we have low-income working people. we have students who live in the mission, but the majority of folks that i work with, most of the tenants in the building, are single adults. many of them are getting up in

age, and many of them also have disabilities, including physical disabilities, that makes the housing stock more inaccessible for them. i think that is about all you need to know about the mission. there are people who are very familiar with sro's and very familiar with sro's in the mission. thank them for coming out. supervisor mar: if i can ask about the private versus nonprofit ownership. you mentioned the nonprofit ones. can i just ask you about the challenges of making housing improvements which the private sector ownership of sro hotels? >> what we found is that the non brocatels generally are in much better condition. the majority of these buildings are very old, 100 years or so old.

there is staff on side -- site. there is a lot of language written into contracts that require better conditions. pest control is performed. it is a little bit more difficult to push that as an advocate in those buildings, and that is because we have to go through a code enforcement process. supervisor mar: it looks like 530 or so, about 10% are run by nonprofits, but others are run by private ownership. is that right?

>> some of the private buildings, as well. there is a chance to improve conditions to contracts that way, but, yes, the majority of the buildings are privately run and privately owned. supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor cohen: actually, i have a question. supervisor mar: supervisor cohen? supervisor cohen: steve felt -- do you find that the privately owned ones are run by the same families or groups? >> there are networks of private owners. it is structured in a way where it is either a limited liability corporation or a trust, and sometimes it is actually very difficult to find who the decision maker and owner is at a building.

there are some that manage different buildings, even in different parts of the city, but i do not know as much about who owns the different parts of the buildings. supervisor mar: miss? >> is it ok that we use the projector for part of the presentation? i am going to present some of the results of the survey. we do not have time to go over everything, but i want to kick up some parts that i wanted to share today. our findings are based on 150 surveys that were collected from seniors and adults with disabilities who live in sro's. because of our access to the buildings and limited funding, the results are not meant to be

inclusive. hopefully this will bring to light some of the issues that this population faces. yes, is impossible to make sure that it shows more of the page? like actually the amount? supervisor mar: so pan out, so the whole page can be seen. >> yes, in a little bit more. -- yes, a little bit more. i will go over it. so this chart, which may or may not be able to see. we provided a list of common

concerns, and the respondents answered. this shows the results. that is good. great. policy violations, other infestations, meaning other than bedbugs. and medical problems, maintenance and repairs, music, problems receiving mail, dirty needles, lack of nutrition and access to food, physical and accessibility of buildings, bedbugs, fire safety, isolation, and senator brownback brands, lack of heat, personal safety --

isolation, dirty bathrooms, lack of heat. the top three most common were bedbugs, and other in the station's other than bedbugs and electrical problems. other problems were policy violations, harassment, and unsanitary bathrooms. so i just want to show a couple of photographs of infestations and unsanitary bathrooms, so if we can zoom out a bit, this is an example of bedbugs. this is a mattress with a bed bugs in it. the next picture i want to show, a senior he has a bed bug infestation, and bedbugs bite. this next is just an example of three mines that were caught in a trap.

another was unsanitary bathrooms, just to give you a sense of what we're talking about for unsanitary bathrooms, this is a bathroom in an sro. supervisor cohen: i have a question. whose responsibility is it to clean the bathrooms? are you showing pictures of sro's that are privately owned? >> all these pictures i am showing are privately run. still, many privately run ones have maintenance staff, and they are not always being cleaned. this is another example of a bathroom. supervisor cohen: i am sorry. i have another question. i know you are trying to get through the report. who contacts dbi and the inspectors? >> residents can call to make a complaint.

supervisor cohen: what is the consortium doing to educate residents? >> there are four different sro collaborative in this city, and we all do outreach in our respective neighborhoods. we let people know about both 311 as well as dbi and dbh, and we work with tenants to resolve complaints, but there are still a number did not know about our services. there is a poster which should be hanging in all of the hotels.

supervisor cohen: it is not legally mandated >> it is, that it has to be in all of the hotels, but it is not necessarily there. the complaints do not necessarily get resolved. >> -- this is a picture of an sr a bathroom. so the next thing i wanted to talk about, the next thing i wanted to talk about is that we asked people what their top three concerns were in the building, and rather than giving them choices, i had them give out their own answers.

these are the categories that they were grouped into, which was physical maintenance problems, physical relationship, health and safety issues, and other. as you can see, there are the physical maintenance problems. 60% of the respondents listed two things -- was did things that had to do with this. this is a cracked window in someone's room. i think that person did get it repaired, but when the picture was taken, it had been broken for a couple of months. this is an example of water damage that has been leaking down onto the walls.

this is a light switch, and the boards behind it are exposed. this is the hallway of an sro, and it has paid next to it, which is also a fire hazard. this is an sro that is covered with trash. this is outside one of the emergency exits. the next thing i wanted to bring to your attention was elevators and bars. 46% either had no elevator, a

broken elevator, or one that did not working consistently. those that were not on the ground floor had to walk upstairs multiple times a day or get trapped in their room. this had a broken elevator for one year to two years, sometimes as much as four or five months at a time. having to walk up the stairs every day, you can see he is a senior. several months without an elevator is difficult. supervisor cohen: i am sorry. can you tell me the average height of these sro's? >> they range anywhere from -- anywhere from 2 to 8 floors, is sort of the range.

like josh said, in the mission, they tend to be a bit shorter. >> commissioners, cheap housing inspector, dbi. typically, the buildings are less than 50 feet in height. there is a provision in the housing code that says any residential hotel that is required to have an elevator per the fire code, and that was the height for the fire code, is required to have an operational elevator for the residents. unfortunately, that code section is now out of the fire code. we have left it in the housing code, and we are going to take as a retroactive provision, but other buildings that do not follow that particular requirement that are not part of that criteria would not be required to have the unit. 50 feet from high. -- height.

supervisor mar: i would like to say to not yell out from the crowd. >> there are a lot of two-story buildings, said they would not fall in this requirement. four stories or more than to believe they would be. supervisor mar: can i just add that there was a story in 2010 in june, and it shows that of the 500 sro's, they are mostly built between 1906 and 1915, and they are really very, very old buildings, and there is a chunk of them that are over 100 to 200 units, but many of them, like she was saying, are a much smaller number of units. it looks like it is about 50 of them that have over 100 units.

>> the problem, if there was a retroactive situation in the code requiring all residential hotels to provide elevators, what you would be looking at, because of the size of these buildings, would be a reduction to put them in, so it is a consideration. we are usually dealing with other issues, as well. also, just as clarification, the supervisor had asked about this particular requirement. the requirement about housing code. it is in force. if the housing inspector goes out and sees, or if we are told that one is missing, we will cite the property owner for not having it. the process for the housing code is to rather robust.

with the complaints we get, in order that they frequently come in, basically, what we find a violation, we will write a notice of violation and give them anywhere from 24 hours to 30 days to comply. if they do not comply, we will issue an order and recorded and bill them for our time, which occurs at the time of notice of violation. a referral from the collaborative or others. an outreach program.

we do not know what is going on 24 hours a day. these collaborative do very, very important to tell us additional information that may be going on. this type of information is very valuable to us and to dph to go in and follow up with additional inspections as necessary. typically, we will respond to a climate within one to to w business days, depending on what the problem is -- we will respond to a client. it depends on where the referral comes from. supervisor cohen: who do you represent? >> the department of building inspection, housing division. supervisor mar: thank you for being here. i understand they have to challenge dbi do a much better

job, and the establishment of the sro ladder to is, they are really important to make sure there is a sense of power meant for those in the sro hotels, but there is a need to make sure that they are addressed in a timely manner. i just wanted to thank you and aske ms. billick to continue. we as a division refer more cases than any other division or department in the city as far as code enforcement and we are aggressive. i testified in court and deposition many times. the other thing we do is if we get into litigation week get permanent injunctions to require additional take away from that

for profit management so that as far as the hotel conversion ordinance and things like that, the temporary conversion of rooms to tourist rooms, we will take that away. other things the property owners demonstrating they are illegally converting the rooms are not maintaining the property. you heard testimony regarding musical rooms which is a property owner for-profit now allowing a person to stay for 32 days to establishment -- established tendency. when that happens, it is not in force under the housing code. it is not in violation of any of the codes. we will typically do a review and look at the records and provide the city attorney copies which is the chief enforcer of

preventing musical rooms. it comes in cycles. when we hear from the collaborate gives that they're seeing this happening, we will do more inspections and let the city attorney work closely with them on that issue as well. >> thank you. please turn off your phones, everyone. >> one more thing on elevators. i said that ground-floor units are more accessible. many of these sro's are over storefronts and there is no ground for units. there is not always in the accessible units. i also wanted to talk about grab bars. we asked respondents if they had grab bars in the bathroom and 48 respondents said they did not have them in the bathroom. nonprofit-run hotels are more likely to have the bars and because of our limited access to

private hotels i imagine this would be higher. if we had had more access to private hotels, they tend to not have grabbers -- grab bars. as you heard in the neighborhood description, chinatown sro's tend to have community kitchens and some nonprofit have community kitchens but the majority do not have community kitchens. even with the high percentage of respondents being in nonprofit sro's, 53% said they do not have access to a community kitchen. we asked how people prepare their meals and the choices are where i could cook in my room or a hot plate, i eat out or bring prepared food home. i eat free meals at places such as clyde or other soup kitchens -- glide or other soup

kitchens. i skip meals because of a lack of resources or facilities. this is the breakdown of that as you can see. the majority of people said they could in their rooms on hot plates are microwaves or eat out or bring prepared food home. when we're talking about seniors and people with disabilities, people will have a need for access to good nutrition, there is a lack of ways to get nutritious food or food without having to leave your room or wait on line at a soup kitchen. this is some places in chinatown. this is an example of an sro room. a senior prepares a her food in her room and a significant amount of the room is taken up with shelf space for her food. and this is an example of a community kitchen.

in chinatown, it is hard to see on the projector. the ground is fairly not clean and bare is limited resources in the community kitchen. it is often shared by multiple families. >> the communication like the bathrooms are -- the person is responsible for cleaning them is the occupant. >> it would be, unless there is a maintenance person, -- in line supervisor cohen: isn't it their responsibility to keep them clean? >> it is up to the manager. people are responsible for doing their own dishes, providing their own dishes. the general upkeep of the room would be the manager's responsibility.

the next thing i want to talk about is in home support services. we ask if people have an ihss worker and 70% said they do and 70% said they do not. -- 17% said they do and 70% said they do not. over the last two years, eligibility requirements for receiving and home support services have become more strict and funding for in home services has been cut. most of the people did not have an idea just -- ihss worker. we asked which of the following make you feel not safe and they chose all applied for a list. the toast -- choices were strangers or visitors in the building, drug activity in the building, my neighbors, physical characteristics of the building, landlord or manager or other. so, many people felt unsafe

because of strangers in the building. as well as drug activity. others felt not safe because of their neighbors or physical characteristics of the building. i wanted to show -- >> that is what they are goin in s -- doing in sro's. supervisor mar: please continue. >> this is an example of a door hinge, it is detached from the frame. i have seen this many times when the door is not connected and cannot properly lock which will contribute to a lack of safety in buildings. people feel people can just walk in if the doors are not locked.