checklist and really be able to objectively assess what is out there and the availability. it is important, helping us to identify areas where there are minimum in easy fixes, making those units so much more efficient. the tenants in those units,, they must have an overall prioritization strategy for placing seniors with disabilities in units based on specific needs. the report in front of you talked about prioritizing people with disabilities and seniors and being put in lower floors of ground level units. really, we need to take a close look at our existing stock,

needs, and be able to match them up with the accessibility situation. just because someone might be aging it does not necessarily oppose -- it does not necessarily oppose the limitation on their physical mobility or their need for a bigger bathroom. but by simply installing a grab bar, it may. you have heard it before. mark -- multiple agencies and departments are involved, but there is not a coordinated strategy. this is what we are advocating, from the perspective of transitional plants, essentially, for access. also, this recommendation comes from our own experience, where the city has taken the procedure office with complaints that we oversee and try to resolve in collaboration with the department, coming from city-

funded programs. i understand of the majority is private, but right now we will not address those. our record for the past three years indicates that the majority of complaints involved excessive of the features, like elevators and indoors. also, most importantly, accommodations requests that were not responded to in a timely manner. typical requests involved being wooed to a unit that better accommodates an individual's ability or in real modifications. units with better ventilation, a wider door opening, etc. we have been told about folks that have to part with their scooter outside those units because they do not have the. when they're asked to be put on a transfer list, they often wait in line for many months and

years to be able to be moved to a proper unit. again, another way of not having a coordinated approach to the issue. in response to what seems to be a lack of awareness around legal awareness for operators, today we embark in a private project in 2008, 2009, collaborating with the legal reserve panel. we provided training under the requirements of the fair housing amendments act to over 500 individual providers, staff, and 150 tenants. there was one component to that project that also involved and announced visit remounts the five months after training. the goal was to understand the experience in making their housing amendments act requests. in other words, those we have

received the most complaints from. the mentoring project showed a dramatic improvement in properties that have received training. big surprise. 90% of previously monitored properties score higher than last year. there was also a high correlation between attendance in training and above-average monitoring scores. at the time of the monitoring, 92% of the properties had a acceptable obligation procedures, which was a huge development. therefore, the final recommendation would be to mandate that in addition to all of the extra 6's, we mandate frequent trainings, especially around the concept of risk -- concept of reasonable

accommodation in the modification, i was told to get a request for accommodation, but more like an in telling mandated a quest -- request. in closing, thank you for considering the time to consider this issue. at the same time colleagues, we look forward to see it -- -- supervisor mar: the new one in the audience is very excited. please be patient. we have about 50 people who signed up. the last speaker will introduce the author of the report.

i wanted to thank jessica laymen, up from the senior action network, and karen bass or putting effort into the report as well. >> thank you. is the overhead working? srsupervisor mar: there it goes. >> thank you for the opportunity of addressing the subject of seniors in sro hotels. it has been important to our society for quite some time. 30 years ago, they work -- an article was run in which they were called he lists hotels.

supervisor lenny passed emergency legislation. they were written by warren in cold. despite the good intentions, this is our apartment, in terms of housing code violations. in the late 1990's, a rash of fires on of -- in sro's came along. two years ago, the board of supervisors along with the health department asked our department to work more collaborative meet and assume more funding. this decision has been fruitful. working together closely, housing inspection services has found an additional 250,000,

75% have been corrected. >> i believe that we have copies of this -- of this for each member of the community. -- kennedy. the violations we had found, since we have proved them, 222 hours and you can see the rest of his sinks', sanitations, sysop -- locks, windows, etc.

the current outreach program encourages tenants and landlords to work together, utilizing the san francisco partner association. we much prefer when tenants and landlords can work it out themselves without involving us. we also have tommy, who has done outreach to the senior survival school for many years now. the chief inspector has worked diligently to help those who drafted this report. she could not be here today, so i would like to introduce the s -- sro collaborative. >> i wanted to thank rosemary for her great work. thank you. plaskett -- good afternoon. i am here to talk a bit how we

got to these recommendations basically, the last hearing we had here, we spent a lot of time talking about the findings of the survey. we look at those results and set ups a series of meetings with different tenants and tried to give at the roots of what could be in the solution. and it would be a while to get the details figured out. some of them we will try to implement some other day. it fairer -- is it clearer in

caesar? we will come back to it later. certainly, the things i want to draw an -- draw attention to another category is a new policies, as well as longer term goals. for all of the talk about this briefly. one of those is grab bars in the bathrooms of the hotels. for folks who have not been in supervisor mar: sro -- 's before, but there are traditional bathrooms, sometimes they are split, with just a shower and for the falling in

slipping in and way of the of the left -- out of the bathroom, it is health and safety for that. we have our recommendations in that section, but have found that less than with one person planning on moving or standing -- staying in that building. over 20% in the four laws in various and another quick one that i like to hit upon is stone jackson. a lot of people do not you live it when it comes to cell phones

and things of that nature, that is not in the local housing code, that is another recommendation that we have so that when the department sends out inspectors, they are able to cite and inspect -- and force that locally. again, thank you so much everyone for being here. i would especially like to thank everyone who lives in sro's as a tenant. i appreciate your coming out here to speak your mind. >> supervisor cohen: as a point of clarification, your recommendation is to codify in the code phone jacks as a requirement for all housing units.

is that correct? >> that is right. supervisor cohen: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is joyce and i am a sro with the family collaborate -- collaborative. -- i am with the sro family collaborative. safety remains a major concern, especially for seniors who have disabilities. one of the most common reasons is that they described the building as having a lot of strangers. the clerk on site of can monitor who is in the building. so, a model that we can look at is that the person, the desk clerk needs to literally be sitting in front of a desk and that currently in our chinatown

hotels, one or two tenants became a manager or contact person for other tenants. so, we recommend that the city requires a trained desk clerk in all sro hotels. it could be added to the current requirements. on top of requiring a desk clerk, we want them to be trained. we recommend that they be trained to effectively assist tenants, there but they should have a general understanding of health and housing codes and answers to questions about rent and repair. in the community we know that there are some current curriculum that the city, should they be interested, can look at. another point i would like to mention is physical and accessibility. most of these buildings are multiple stories high, which could constitute a huge problem

for those of us in the population of seniors with disabilities. many seniors and people with disabilities in describing sro as an accessible. the same as in the report, we would like to see a rebate program where they could voluntarily relocate tenants that need it from an upper floor to a ground-floor units. we also want the city to add language to contracts between owners and city programs or requiring that preference for a lower floor units be given to people with disabilities. supervisor mar: thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. in a community organizer with the central city collaborative.

we know that there have been -- that there have been meetings about common problems in sro hotels and many of us do outreach, it is difficult to address all the concerns that exist, particularly when so many problems go unreported. many city-funded agencies are placing seniors in sro units. this is an enormous opportunity to discuss have the ability issues. our recommendation is that any contract between those city agencies and owners should include a standard of have the ability that is enforced. while this seems basic, many tenants are intimidated when they have concerns over their building. so, many of these concerns do not go reported. let's say that a city department

funds a non-profit agency into non-funded sro's. they should require in the contract that they only place people in who are up to code would have the ability standards. in addition, the agency coming to the agreement to place units should require the owner to provide units that are up to code in free of infestation. we recommended inspections and enforcement of this contract language. the addition in the enforcement of this type of language would increase the number of units that meet have the ability standards and make sure that findings go to place people in units that are up to code. additionally, a structure that is efficient and responsive is critical for seniors and people with disabilities, because many maintenance issues can be urgent

or life threatening and may need to be resolved immediately. for example, a senior with the disability may need electricity to plug in a refrigerator that holds medication and power issues need to be resolved quickly. similarly, they may have health problems that require waiting a few days for fixing. we recommend a shortened time frame, as well as exploring other options for codes already in place. thank you. >> -- supervisor mar: thank you. that concludes the testimony of the department reps. i also wanted to say that our city attorney is here. i know that one question that had come up before about legislation on the use of mail boxes in hotel units, i am wondering what the status on that legislation is.

>> supervisor, the postal service apparently decided to stop delivering mail to sro's. our office filed a challenge on behalf of the city, arguing that tenants had a constitutional right to receive their mail. the superior court disagreed. the briefing is due at the end of this month before the ninth circuit. supervisor mar: thank you so much. colleagues, i am going to jump into public comment. two minutes per person. there is a buzzer that goes off. please try to stay within time limits, if possible. i am going to call people in bunches of 10, but if people could live up on the left side, that would really help. jessica, james, jesse, tony, and

[unintelligible] [reads names] >> good afternoon, supervisors, city staff, and supervisors. you have heard a number of recommendations for changes to be made. what you have heard so far are recommendations that can be implemented right away. these are urgently needed, given the concerns over health and safety. we urge you to take action in the days and weeks. by improving contacts and pursuing other changes, i have several other recommendations that might take more time. more targeted outreach to seniors and adults with disabilities in sro's, as well as access to services to make sure that seniors have access to in home affordable options and

other services. we would also like to see increased disaster planning. over the long term, we propose providing tenants the ability to provide a council not from a management so that people can speak issue -- openly about issues that they face. of course, we need more affordable housing. we would like to see on-site staff that includes maintenance and janitorial to keep buildings better maintained. individual mailboxes, that has been an issue for people to safely receive their own mail. well list shacks, or i am ok door hangers, for people who are isolated or have medical risk. these recommendations are necessary to ensure safe, habitable housing for seniors and people with disabilities in sro's.

thank you for working with us to take action on these recommendations. thanks supervisor mar: you. thank you. i forgot to read supervisor mar: thank you. -- supervisor mar: thank you. i forgot to call colleen. next speaker, colleen? [laughter] c microphone? ok. >> hello? ok. hello, supervisors. i have some recommendations that are related to issues of senior nutrition, which is also related to housing. at these communities we serve about 3000 meals every day. 30% go into the senior and disabled hour.

it has actually increased to two hours. we see a lot of folks eating in our dining room who live in our single occupancy room hotels. one recommendation is that seniors receiving ssi are living be -- below the poverty level. the federal poverty level is $10,890. because of the california ssi cash out policy, they are ineligible for cal fresh or food stamps. california should pursue any missed policy for those harmed by it. secondly, high rent burdens result in negative outcomes for people. some of may skip meals to avoid rent. they have a yearly income that

is only 14% of the san francisco area median income. more affordable housing is essential and new affordable housing for seniors and people with disabilities should include individual or shared cooking facilities. since we have received no government funding for food programs, we do sit -- feel the increased demand for those things when other organizations have cutbacks. increasing food and transportation costs. in 2009, 2010, 134,000 meals over contract were provided. supervisor mar: thank you so much. i called a number of speakers. please keep coming forward. i will call a few more names.

[read] names >> hello, in a disabled veteran and i would like to thank the collaborative is that aid the disabled and under-income people. i lived in and sro. i call it home. i will probably live the rest of my life there. i do not know how long that is. i would like to see some upgrades. especially to the electricity. we can only operate a couple of things at once. it is hard on us. i have been lucky. the va gave me enough letters. i got a room with a bathroom. i tell you what, the people that do share bathrooms, those rooms need to be fixed. there needs to be something on the floor so that people do not

slip. i do not want to see these people hurt. we are all family. i happen to be on the tenant's council and we have gotten a few things done. we have gotten the place painted. we want to be safe. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> hello. my name is john stone. i am sro -- in a residence sro of the -- i in am a resident of the sro in the tenderloin. something i want to bring your attention to, it is a relevant problem to sro's in general. it has to do with the task

force. now, the reason it came to my attention is i came up with the problem of mice and cockroaches. it repeatedly went to my building manager numerous times. sometimes he would tell me flat out that he would not spread. sometimes his schedule would not do it. sometimes he would make excuses. sometimes i cannot keep them out of my dad when i sleep at night. has gotten to the point where i cannot take. i thought to myself, let me do the smart thing. let me find out who i am dealing with here. i went online to find out who was managing my building. what do you know, it turns out, first of all, that this guy is currently sitting on your sro

task force. not only that, he is not even a resident of san francisco. he lives in san mateo. he does not care. [applause] supervisor mar: next speaker. i will call a few more names. [leads names] -- reads names] >> i just turned 81. i am a senior. i did not grow up at the time of single occupancy. i know what it is like for these people. it is not fair that anyone in this city should have to live like that. is there