with some next steps. as i mentioned earlier that the press conference, there are now lots of conversations happening around seniors in this city. we will have one of the largest senior populations of any major city in california in the next 10 years. we want to be ahead of this topic. i am happy to be working with all of these groups to try to bring as much focus as we can and as many resolutions around, and improvements around the issues that concern seniors. such as pedestrian safety, have the ability, or any of the rest of those issues. we are here to listen and hopefully move towards some next steps today. i want to especially thank the senior action network and caring for helping to put together this report. supervisor mar: thank you, supervisor olague. i have a number of speakers and

cards from people in the community. i will be calling six different representatives. first, maria, from the department of aging and adult services. >> good afternoon. committee chairman, supervisors, my name is maria and in a program analyst with the department of aging and adult services. i am here to give a brief introduction to today's hearing. supervisors, thank you very much for setting up today's follow-up hearing from the one from 2011. that hearing was affected in showcasing the tremendous work done by the senior action network, various collaborative is, and representatives from our city agencies, like the department of building inspection, service agency, and community nonprofit groups. as they work together to improve

the quality of life for seniors and young adults living with disability. in particular the residents of the city's sro's. that hearing provided the cannabis upon which many residents and people living in them could paint their pictures of what it is like to live there. for the most part, we found mainly grim scenes that were quite graphic in terms of the stories that were told about the poor conditions and lack of amenities that residents must endure. occasionally there was a bright splash of color indicating that many have hope that there is a real potential for improving conditions, and a river ray of light when some residents share that there is was really working for them and they felt that they were living with some level of dignity. we have now had several months to reflect and build up our

resolve to change that which needs to be changed. not much has been accomplished towards this end, with a clear exception of the tireless day to day work that the sro's collaborative in the central city, the birth of that date -- the work that they do on a day- to-day basis with their community partners, we all benefit from their precision in sharp advocacy. the fact that they work towards an powering up residence and the humanity that act " -- echoes through the hallways. of course, where would we be without the resilience and extremely patient residents themselves, who trust that the city will do right by them. at today's hearing, we are bringing together more of a blueprint of recommendations to

help create living environments in which persons can age in place without fear for their personal security or saddling to live in an environment with serious health violations or without basic amenities that many others take for granted. for example, a phone jack. now i think we want to add community gardens to that list. it is a goal of the sro working group to focus more on ideas and solutions at today's hearing. the group is very encouraged by the interest and support that you have afforded and want to actively engage in problem- solving the situation. the department of aging and adult services is happy to see that the limited funding we are able to give towards this effort bring forward an opportunity to make a difference. we applaud the collaboration between community partners. they have conducted a study

amongst residents, tabulated findings, and crafted a comprehensive report that will help us all to focus on remedies for the many deficiencies that were outlined. that mission continues to be to coordinate services to older adults, adults with disabilities and their families, maximizing self-sufficiency, health, and independence so that they can remain in the community for as long as possible. the mission remains, of whether someone is living in a well-to- do assisted living facility, a longtime family home, a modest studio apartment, or sro, the mission will not be fulfilled if those living within sro's are not given the highest quality of life possible. chairman, i wanted to thank you for pointing out that scott has

been here, should you have questions and would like to hear from him. at the november hearing in did my remarks with a quote from an anonymous source that still applies. the test of our progress is not whether we add to the abundance of those who have much, it is whether we provide enough to those who have little. there is a lot of work before us. thank you for your willing participation in partnership. this brings us closer to passing the test. supervisor mar: thank you. these of the department reps who are speaking. from the mayor's office, joanna. thank you for being here. >> can i have a lower microphone, please? thank you.

thank you so much. good afternoon, supervisors. thank you, chairman, for allowing our office to come with a couple of brief comments. my name is joanna and and the deputy director for the mayor's office of disability. i would love to thank you for the opportunity to frame the day's discussion in the context of disability rights issues in the city, and our city obligation to remain compliant. as many of you know, the mayor's office of disability deals with compliance issues and not so much service issues. let me begin by saying that sro 's is more than just a service issue, it is a civil rights issue. with over 8000 seniors and people with disabilities currently living in them, in

approximately two-thirds of the survey sample, they reported some kind of disability. it is important to highlight the discrepancy between the number of physically acceptably units and the percentage of people that need them. of course, we know that the majority of these are old-style hotels that do not even meet minimum have the ability standards. this is a major challenge. we are talking about really old construction with many barriers. we know that the city continues to work towards memorial projects online, such as the civic center and accessibility standards. we do not yet have enough. permanent housing is kind of far down the horizon. as long as the city is using these sro's to house people, we still have an obligation to provide access. let me take a minute to define

for you what program access really is. it means that the percentage of usable units must be proportionate to the number of residents in need accessibility to function properly. whether we call these individuals seniors or people with disabilities, it is the matter that they stop and need basic features, such as gravel bars, accessible elevators, wide doors, to safely use their environment. it is not simply enough to say that we have a percentage of 5% or 10% of the available rooms in the city accessible in usable. we must make sure that the supply meets the demand in order for the city to meet its civil rights obligation. therefore, we would like to recommend, in addition to the wonderful recommendations in the

report, that these -- that they city -- that the city survey the existing stock based on features. it is important to know about people's perception of usability or access. to actually go along with a 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 i also wanted to say that our city attorney is here.