supervisor mar: what or the percentage of people who did not feel safe according to the survey? >> it looks like about 36%. i do not know the exact number. they felt unsafe because of strangers are visitors in the building which was the highest proportion. i do not have the numbers on the of what percentage felt unsafe. it is in the report. i do not have those numbers on me. supervisor mar: it is about 44% do not feel safe. >> of 44% do not feel safe. those were the responses that i just showed. supervisor cohen: can you give some context as to 40% of the population surveyed did not answer the question? what made them feel unsafe? is it because they -- generally? >> some people answered, it was a follow-up question. what makes you feel unsafe?

the people did not respond were those who said they did feel safe in their building. again, i want to point to the fact that we did survey a large number of people in nonprofit run hotels which have a death cleric -- a desk clerk. there is more security in the hotel. their responses tended to be higher from privately run hotels. supervisor cohen: 56% of the folks said yes, they do feel safe. >> yes. ," are these largely folks that you interviewed in the nonprofit sro's? >> of the 151 service collected, i do not remember the exact breakdown. the majority were in nonprofit run hotels. it is hard to get access into the private hotels.

we rely on relationships we already had getting into buildings. enduing door-knocking in making phone calls and conducting surveys over the phone with people we already have relationships with. the majority is nonprofit which skews the results a little bit. >> the last thing i wanted to talk about is affordable housing and aging in place. it is evident that seniors are aging in place. when asked how long you are planning on staying here, these were the answers i had. if you can show the chart. there we go. so, 21% of the -- 21 said they are staying indefinitely or do not want to move. 19% did not know how long they were staying indicating they had no plans to move.

so although sro's are thought of often as transitional housing for people stay for a few months, the reality is people are staying much longer than that and many seniors are aging in place. we had a significant number of people who said they had been living in their rooms for many years or people saying how long are you staying? i will stay here until i die. we did not see the results, you might imagine that people leave in a year to. i do not have that on me. i do not have the page. it is in there somewhere. at the last thing i wanted to show, this is an 84-year-old woman who lives in chinatown. if you can show the projector. this is an 85-year-old woman

who lives in an sro in chinatown. just to show you an example of someone who is a senior who has been living in their room for a long time. like many people, plan to stay. there is a lot more in that survey. you can take a look at the more specifics but those are some of the points that i did want to highlight. supervisor mar: someone was going to present on in home support services. is there someone -- thank you some more -- so much for the great work on the survey and report. in home supportive services, these are the side issues that came up when we were out there talking to people. and that i was going to ask if we could take public comment and we could come afterwards and speak on the recommendations. i know we love canar from the

mission. there are other people here who i do not want to keep people waiting. i would like everyone that is here who is a resident to have the opportunity to come up here and speak and we will come back with a recommendation if you do not mind. ihss and the discharging issue and if we could take a break and come back to homelessness and the recommendations after that? i do not want to keep people here waiting. it is important here directly from the residence. -- residents. >> i am presenting on behalf of aaron schwartz. what we did is we surveyed our home care providers, this is from the perspective of those people who are working in the sro's providing services. there are three major groups of concerns that were raised. the first group is

accessibility. the first item is parents seldom have private bathrooms or the back rooms that are accessible will not work for wheelchair users or people with mobility impairment. the community bathrooms are often flooded, not clean, not working, generally unusable. elevators do not work consistently as we have heard. oftentimes, we will -- either it is not properly suited for power chair use, especially if they need to evacuate. elevators can be hard to open or operate. the smaller rooms are much more difficult for providers to keep clean or to keep working. the next issue is safety. issues that were raised is the drug activity can be present in many of these sro buildings which creates an element of fear

among home care providers. physical violence has been observed in community areas. the door locks can be easily broken. the staff is not trained to mitigate crises or violence that occurs in the lobby. some tenants feel unsafe using bathrooms due to suspicious activity in the building. drug paraphernalia can be found along the baseboards in the hallways. the final item is under health. issues are poor ventilation that causes smoking odors and it is difficult to participate. buildings are not kept clean, they do not meet the sanitary conditions especially in the kitchen and bathroom as we have seen. many buildings have pervasive infestations of rodents, cockroaches, or bedbugs and are not adequately or click the -- or consistently fumigated by management.

supervisor mar: thank you. our the speaker. -- next speaker. >> hello, again. the city of san francisco through department of public health that do place people into sro rooms through different programs. whenever -- the rooms the city pays for, it is conditions the hotel has to meet in order to be qualified a habitable room. and mou said the ester management must provide a 24-7 desk personnel who are trained to provide services and the rooms must have clean carpet and paint and a working elevator, and so on. on the mou it is stated that the page will not refer clients are still paying rent until these conditions have been met.

many of our experience working with tenants is that those orders are not being met. clients are placed in two rooms with broken windows, leaky pipes, and sometimes even bedbugs. their reasons for that. case workers are not checking the room before placing them. they would sometimes visit a client after the place them but they're not trained to notice or they are not required to report the with the rooms do not meet the standards. the city is placing people into substandard sro rooms because there is a lack of enforcement of existing requirements. supervisor mar: if there are questions that come up. >> i awork at clang for elders and we do a lot of work around improving hospital discharge planning procedures with a discharge -- the california

cooperative. when i walk -- i wanted to step aside and notice that this is bringing up a lot of points and a lot of things to people that if you spend any time in sro hotels which i have, i have been in a number of them and some of the conditions that were being shown, they are appalling and it is very real. ordinary people who are house that live in other places got in there and saw the conditions that people are living in, a lot of things would change and it is bringing up feelings in people. i remember my times in there. anybody who has been in there -- knows what it is like. it is obvious to us and imperative the general public known that -- know that. when they go into general, they have an acute hospital care, the get discharged into a place that is not always accessible, that is inadequate to help take care of the needs they have, that is

dirty, it is not monitored appropriately, and one thing i want to bring up, i want to show this one study we have had. i will call your attention to this in the monitor. this is a study of the -- the discharge planning cooperative did. if you could improve hospital discharge recidivism rates for one day, the state could save $227 million because the average cost of a hospital stay for one day in california is $2,250 per day. they're sending people from general into these hotels, people are getting worse, and they're coming back. they come back and forth and how much money is spent because the conditions are not kept healthy? the problem is larger than this. the hospital discharge planning issue, folks get sent into places that are not equipped for them to heel and there is a lot of money being spent and there

is a lot of being -- money being wasted that could be spent in a better way of enforcement, regula -- regulating, monitoring the facilities and s.e.r.e. -- making sure people go into a happy and healthy place. it is a matter of enforcement. i will leave a copy of this study. >> and my to mention that dan kelly -- i wanted to mention that dan kellie who compiled the study is here. i am sure he is available for questions. supervisor mar: let's open this up to public comment. for two minutes per person, we have quite a few people who have signed up and i will call your names and if you could please line up as your name is called in this order. you will have to wait until your name is called, sir.

i will read 10 of them. bruce alisyn, patrick allen, dan russell, and others. excuse me one second. two minutes per person. please try to keep it sure if possible. >> i will do my best. the two points that bill loya to make is the shortage of this housing. the raising -- reason the collaborative was set up in the first place, even though affordable housing was being built at the same time, hotels were being burned to the ground and not being replaced. the second point was the great problems with affordability and accessibility. i will talk more about

accessibility. my agency deals with independent access. people with disabilities -- many of the market rate hotels have a system by which the elevator does not run between the pavement, the ground, and the first floor where the office is. they do that so they can get a look at anyone which is good for crime-prevention but it is horrible for anybody physically disabled. they need accessible bathrooms. we talked about including buildings -- hall bathrooms. whether private or non-private. they need a system by which ihss people can come and go freely. i understand the problems. maybe someone -- people could have been identifying carter something. people do need to have their attendancts come and go freely

and request from transfers. the desk people and managers need to know disability rights and laws. thank you. if anyone wants a copy, i can give you my card. >> i am vera hale and i am a member of the ad budget council -- advisory council. i worked 13 years in chinatown. my office was in a rooming house for part of that time, and i worked 13 years in the tenderloin which of course you do with residential hotels, we called them initially, until they became sro's. there're a couple of similarities and a couple of differences.

the point i want to make about your future planning. one suit -- one of the similarities are is everyone is low income. and in chinatown, people speak the same language, and so it is very easy to -- for them to come tell you something. the advantage to working inside the neighborhood, you do not have to spend her time traveling to see people in need. people will come tell you something is wrong. so you get the grapevine, it makes a big difference in accessibility. there are no elevators, and in the tenderloin, the rooms are larger. i was impressed when i went to work. the rooms are bigger. there are more rooms with baths and -- then there are in chinatown. the one bathroom for eight

people in the center and that is a local code. if you talk about code enforcement, when you do that in chinatown, it scares people to death. because that could mean evicting large numbers of people deciding the police cannot be used. in the tenderloin, there have been renovations in hotels and their ways to do it. you can handle complaints on individual hotels that affects our rooms. supervisor mar: thank you. mr. ellison? >> since you lost the appeal on the notices to have mailboxes, this may not get out to -- to christmas time. this thing about the cuts and the chances to appeal on in home

support services. it may not get out to them exactly on time. a lot of these people will not be able to see this. this is a hardship on most clients. 20% cut to in home supportive services is almost one third of their hours being cut and they will not have a chance to appeal. another thing, i was a home care worker and had to leave due to a back injury of carrying down clients. with no elevators, wheelchair and all. thank you very much. supervisor mar:. -- supervisor mar: next speaker? patrick?

>> i was living 1139 market street. in the delmon that had the battle with the bedbugs. >> they did bring a really visual by -- vivid visual of what bedbugs are. thanks for trying. >> i lived in this building for almost two years and i had for three months dealt with laying in the room with the bedbugs. i asked to be moved, they refused to move me. they left me in there. they moved in that day, no problem. i could not move since i was in a wheelchair. no real's in the bathroom. people asleep in the stalls that

do not even live there, doing drugs, you know, these people, they come in and takeover plays and all. and one thing to another, they did not know what they were doing. they are young kids. there were charging the extra money to live there. the worker that i hired, an sro worker, they charged him for even being there. which is against a law. i had to pay the extra money. i mean, i am 61 years of age, it is kind of ridiculous. that is all i have to say. supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor wiener has a question.

supervisor wiener: this has been talked about a lot. maybe even had a hearing on that if i recall correctly. as the band data on what percentage of the buildings have or have had a bed bug infestation? >> it has been going back and forth. supervisor wiener: what percentage of the room's overall of the story building stop in san francisco? i do not now -- know. hoever -- whoever can answer that. >> i will answer that as the chair of the sro taiex forced -- task force. we have been working on a report and not only are we doing that

but there is several work groups out there that the collaborative as are working on on this issue as well. they have been working with the department of public health which is the lead on the bed bug issue. because the rules and regulations and protocol in dealing with the eradication of bedbugs is entirely -- [inaudible] we can cite them as well. we usually do it if there are other violations. it is a very big problem. after we finish with the report and recommendations, the next item is the security issue. we're hearing that is a big problem as well. supervisor wiener: i am trying to understand if there are statistics in terms of how frequent the infestations occur, what percentage of buildings at any given time have a bed bug infestation or have had -- when the building is invested. do we find they attempt to hit

all the rooms or it is localized? we hear so much about bedbug infestations in sro's. i am trying to understand if there has been statistical work done. >> the department of public health have some statistics on this issue. and has been realized there is a tremendous amount of under reporting. under the current rules, reporting by the licensed pest control operator is not something that is requested by the department of public health. we're not always at the -- as a city government getting the information as to that would help us authenticate the statistics. what we do hear from our collaborative and the people in the field is that the majority of residential hotels in the mission and the tenderloin are invested with bedbugs. obviously, if you treat one

room, you have to treat the adjacent rooms and above and below and you have to do it properly. one of the issues that comes up very frequently is how to prepare the room especially if it is occupied by senior or person with a disability. because without prepping a room properly, what ever eradication methods you use, he, pesticides, or whatever, it will not work unless the room is prepped properly. supervisor mar: next speaker? >> my name is alan. a little background. after sitting here and listening, i did some research before a move in to the building -- i moved in to the building. you can look at the conditions of other buildings and it is atrocious, it is frightening. i will give credit to tmdc.

i am more into bashing them. physically they take immensely different care of their buildings. all the issues i saw, not an issue. something is broken, they fix it. there is another shamrao of issues that go on. i come from a different background. the safety issues are immense. we have a desk clerk salal people to enter without signing in, that fosters people wander around. drug use is a man's. i have no position next -- if people want to make bad choices. when we have people who wander the hallways and knock on doors, it is a different issue. i got a huge room, i got a private bathroom, i look at some of these pictures and i realize how good i have got it in one respect. on the other hand there is a huge amount of issues that go on to deal with the mental and

emotional abuse. i do not have my intimates nearly the time to go into that with you. i think the physical issues and the private sector are relatively easily addressed. the other issues i would love to have a chance to talk with you about, go way deeper and are harder to address. for seniors like me, and i have a degenerative joint disease, i think it speaks to physical and mental well-being has an effect on our physical health. one last thing, real briefly and i know my time is up. i live in the -- and tmdc takes great care of the building. the election was over three weeks ago and there has been three robbery and stabbing in the block. supervisor mar: thank you. >> in afternoon. as a former tenant, to address

one of the questions about the visitation policy, [inaudible] there is a requirement that the committee take recommendations that the committee came out with. the policy be placed in the common area in large print. and be administered in each language. some of the hotels, their private hotels. it is behind the -- where the desk clerk is and residents do not have access. if you -- the policy is that it should be placed in the common areas. we do not have access. there is no excuse for that, either. it can go to 25. so that is some of the excuses.

not to enforce the informed visitation policy. it is something we need to look into. the committee has reviewed and made their recommendations to amend the policy itself. we're looking at ways to improve conditions. some of the things i am seeing, i know my time is getting short. conditions in the shelters. we have so many seniors that are stuck in the shelters and we need to look at ways to get them out of the shelters and into adequate service. time would not permit me to continue but this is the beginning and i will discontinue. supervisor mar: thank you. i will call in number of other names. -- a number of other names.

[reading names] we whathave si -- have silas and dan russell. >> thank you for seeing me. you can get the gist of what i am getting at. i made a few notes because i do not -- this has been going on for years. it is not the first time we have been here, in their last year the year before last. we were in a different court under the same program, complaining about the elevators for the laugh -- a lack of elevators working. i walk with a cane, i am disabled. it is terrible by in this beautiful, vibrant city to be able to go out one