>> is there any other general public comment? >> seeing none, item four, this is a possible action to appoint commissioners to serve on the litigation subcommittee. >> commissioners, if i may, i would like to kind of make this as straight as possible. i have served on the commissioner walker served on it and commissioner clinch. if there is no objection, we kind of would like to stay on the litigation committee and i would put a motion forward that we stay with the same committee if there is no objections. >> no objections, so i move that we keep the same members on the litigation committee. >> thank you. >> is there a second? >> second. >> okay. >> is there any public comment on this motion?

>> okay, take the roll, please? >> okay, are all commissioners in favor? >> aye. >> any opposed? >> the motion carries and the current commissioners serving will remain on the litigation subcommittee. item number five, discussion and possible action to appoint commissioners to serve on the nominations subcommittee. >> thank you, madam, secretary. once again, if there is no objection i would like to keep the same appointments on this commission. >> is there a motion? >> i move to maintain the same membership in the nomination committee. >> second. >> is there any public comment on this item? >> seeing none, are all commission ers in favor?

>> aye. >> any opposed? >> this carries also to keep all of the current members of the nominations subcommit ti. >> item six update on code enforcement out reach program and single room occupancy collaborativives priorities for out reach. >> commissioner walker would like to make a comment. >> thank you, president for including this agenda item. i requested an update from our housing division, rose mary and also the program and sro collaborativives this is a partnership, a very successful partnership that our department has engaged in for the past over a decade, i believe. and we have several community groups who help our department and our inspecters both in the

housing and the building division deal with issues in some of the most vulnerable buildings both in the apartment houses and the sros in our city. the goal is to actually bring these units up to code so that they are habitable and so that people can have a nice place to live and call their homes. we have a really substantial history of bringing a lot of these violations that we, all of us, hear about. either in our meetings or in the litigation meeting of challenges conditions for people to live in. and i think that we owe a thank you to the organization to go out and assist our housing division in building inspection

division in making sure that these things are brought up to code. we asked them to come and talk about the priorities. i know that we maintain a commitment to this program, and i wanted to make sure that all of the commissioners are aware of the good work that is happening out there. so thank you for come and we look forward to the presentation. >> thank you commissioners and i am going to keep my comments short because we need to hear from our contractors. and you know to quote someone from a while ago it takes a community and collaboration, we have aging housing stock and a vulnerable population and to keep, safe san tarry and functional housing. this program has been absolutely crucial and the efforts and the information that is communicated between the groups out there and this department and other city agencies, and thank you for the opportunity to give us the snapshot of what is happening right now, the biggest news is

seniors and people with disabilities in residential hotels to grab our legislation was just before you. and thank you for your support of this. it was i will tell you there were great facial expressions at the board here that this commission is waving the fees on that and so we thank you for your generosity on that. but the one thing that i want to talk about is to be able to do this collaboration, and you are going to be seeing some information and i am going to let jamie introduce everybody here in a moment. but just on the grab the situation to be able to deal with identifying the conditions in the rooms and to be able to get more information profile these better so that it ties in with the information that we are giving from the collaborativives and in working with the mayor's office of disability. because we have to work together with other agencies as well. so i just want to show you a survey that we came up with, to be able to identify what is going on in the residential

hotels, with respect to what are the bathrooms looking like? this is because of reports that we were getting from the collaborativive and from everyone else telling us about this. so we basically have come up with a survey where my housing inspecters are going out there and looking and actually doing a diagram of the type of situations and a bathroom toilet room and a shower tub combination and etc., and then identifying the characteristics and so when that information manual comes that we promised you and it was suggested by our vendors that the mayor's office of disability would be able to have actual good information. so this is just one of many things that we are doing that is part of the collaboration. part of the monthly meetings that we have with the vendors and the daily interaction that we have with them and the inspector has. it absolutely makes me so happy

when i see one of the inspecters get their heads together with any one of the vendor and they are talking and collaborating and the true spirit of what this program was actually meant to do and so with that i am going to stop and introduce jamie and all of the people here so they can tell you more about what they have been doing. >> thank you and good morning, commissioners, the code enforcement out reach program was created in 1996 by the building inspection commission. in order to bring our housing services to san francisco ans living in substan ard living conditions. over the last 17 years, this program has you ever covered the worst, more horrifying substandard conditions found in the city for this period of time. and it has worked together with housing inspection services to abait and alleviate those conditions for the tenant whose live there, regardless of race, age, status, or language

barriers. provides extensive translation services for these critical issues and filed the complaints on those who are fareful of retaliation. it is one of the few in the city that encourages the tenants and landlords to work together in a cooperative manner. i want to show you one example here. this is the case, on turk which was featured on the 6:00 news. >> one of san francisco's roughest neighborhoods are speaking out tonight about the conditions in their apartment building, we talked with the building's owner after getting an ugly look at what it inside. >> 50 people live in this tender loin apartment building, this broken window provides only a glimpse into a building so run down, tenants are saying enough is enough.

>> tenants in the apartments and pay $1200 a month. it is challenge, next door the pipes that drips so much the counter is rotting and smoke alarms, what smoke alarms? >> and then there is the mold, take a look at this. it seems to be everywhere. and if you think his is bad take a look at his neighbor's bathroom. they had no heat until two weeks ago and one tenant with a newborn baby... (inaudible) it is kind of scary sometimes. we have people that come in the middle of the night and do drugs in the hallway. >> the ongoing problems here are why the tenants protested. in front of the restaurant that the landlord's family owns. >> they spoke with the landlord

about the plight. and the tenants called you a slum lord, what is the reaction? >> i think that they want to call and i can also understand their frustration really. >> they installed security cameras to keep people coming in and sleeping in the halls. >> as for the other problem. >> i can't put in $50,000 in the property like tomorrow, because it is bad. >> and also bad, i feel so bad and angry, because they don't take care of... >> we called the city of building inspections and issued some 200 citations for code violations in the past two years and it is now in the hands of the city attorney's office. >> tenants in one of san francisco's roughest... >> so, that was the case that was not covered by our out

reach program. and there are collaborativives who are also here today who were created ten years ago by the board of supervisors and they are partially modeled by the code out reach program and the board led by miano put forth the program in response of the many fires and it was part of the department of public health, but the board determined that this department should take over the program two years ago. the rooms are very small and the tenants must share the toilet and showers including senior and familiwise young children. priorities include conversions infestation and continued enforcement and grab bar legislation implementation. they are difficult to live in and difficult to manage. they have skom a long way in the time that i have been working on them and thanks to the collaboratives they remain a important resource for the city. the board of supervisors recently recognized our department and our division for

another case that was uncovered by our programs, 245 levenworth where 423 habitbility violations were corrected due to our actions. and i am going to pass this around. so we have the representatives where we have time to hear from a few of them. one of the executive directors here, sarah? sarah is the director of the housing rights committee, they have been one of the initial and have been there from the beginning. >> thank you, commissioners and thank you for hearing this item. the program we believe is an extremely important component of the work we do and the work that the city funds generally speaking. so, the basic way that the model works, is that tenants will contact us with building repair issues that they have not been able to resolve once they have taken the first steps of you know, contacting their

landlord and perhaps, even writing letters, etc. and we are able then to sort of help them navigate through the system and get in contact with dbi when we need to. and then, as jamie mentioned work with the land lords as well. we contact the apartment association in some cases and have them sort of work on the other end speaking to the landlord complying with codes and all of that. and we have had great success. the other thing that it allows us to do is a little bit of a more of a case management model. some of our counseling that we do it is really where we are only able to sort of do an in and out and advise them a little bit and send them on the way and with this, we are able to do follow up calls and we send out post cards saying has your issue been resolved and we will track the cases thoroughly. if the people are not getting anywhere, we are able to escalate through the dbi system

if we need to or keep helping them work with the landlord. i think that it provides a great service not just to the community and the tenants but to your department frankly. we are trying to do a lot of the groundwork so that these cases don't necessarily get to you. we are trying to sort of do what we can do just through the community work and it is also helpful that the tenants kind of come to us as you will hear from other groups, were based in various communities and various neighborhoods. and so rather than feeling like they have to go to sometimes what people considered intimidating, you know, city commission or department, where they are right in the communities, we have different languages that we are able to accommodate and we are really accessible and a free service. so, i think that it is, we have been since the beginning and how many years has it been jamie? >> 17. it makes me feel old.

we have been doing this a very long time and you know, unfortunately we still do keep seeing the cases there is clearly a need and i think that a continuing need and perhaps increasing as the market, you know, continues to escalate and again, we are able to do so much in the community just to resolve these issues so that they... your inspecters could spend a lot more time on the essential cases that they need to do more work with. so thank you very much. >> thank you. >> just quickly, as a clarification for those in the audience or watching on television. the reason why this program is so important that really demonstrate is that is an apartment building and so we generally do not go into the dwelling units unless there is a complaint by a occupant. it is different than a hotel, we have been in the common

areas but the picture that you saw of the conditions that were in the units themselves and in the bathrooms, etc. and in which we were some what hesitant to talk to us or maybe there was a language barrier and here, our groups are actually were absolutely were crucial to organizing these individuals and getting that information to us and this frequently happens where we will have a situation like this in an apartment building or even in an srl in which the organization will occur so the inspector will know that this is going to happen, and they will allow enough time for each individual to let them in and show them the conditions. which would not happen without this program. we might not see what is behind those closed doors, especially in an apartment buildings or residential hotels or other residential uses where people are afraid or don't understand what their rights are. so that is why it is a great illustration of where this program is right now. thank you.

>> good morning, commissioners, my name is page, i am a counselor, housing rights counselor and we are based in the commission district and also have an office in oakland. >> so they help us to manage the cases better and insure the case resolution since the workers working with the clients are connected to the inspectors as the only one with bilingual managers, we increase the capacity to work with more spanish speaking tenants and we make sure that they access services that they may not have otherwise, for fear of a language barrier or unfamiliarty with the housing codes in san francisco. so i brought with me the two clients that benefited and just wanted to share the brief stories with you >> martinez.

>> i'm here because to talk about how my landlord did not want to repair my water heater. for four weeks i was forced to heat up water on the stove. [ speaking in a foreign lanuage ] >> so, i called hosta and thankfully my problem got resolved. so when she came to us we helped her write a letter to the landlord. the landlord did not respond and so using the sea op, collaboration we enlisted the hept of the san francisco housing authorization and after that her landlord made her

repairs. >> thank you. >> one more quick story. [ speaking in a foreign lanuage ] >> martinez. [ speaking in a foreign lanuage ] >> so i am here for a similar reason as the last speaker. i have been living in my apartment for about ten years. >> the carpet was damaged. it was smelly. >> and the apartment was pretty much destroyed. >> so they told me to go to hosta. [ speaking in a foreign lanuage ] >> and with their help an inspector came to my apartment. [ speaking in a foreign lanuage ] >> so after that, they changed

my carpet, they repaired the chiping paint, they restored my cabinets that were broken and the conditions are much better now. [ speaking in a foreign lanuage ] >> thank you, miss martinez. >> thank you. >> that is all. >> the last one that i want to acknowledge some of the other groups that came today. central city collaborativive and josh from the commission collaborative and from the san francisco apartment association and very important for parts of the efforts thank you. >> commissioner walker? you have some comments before we... >> thank you, so much for the presentation. and i think that all of us are sufficiently disturbed by some of the conditions that we see. and that you guys help with. and i wonder if there is anything, are we committing enough funding to these

programs? what would help in being more proactive in making these conditions better? >> one of the things that we are looking at commissioner walker is a mental health component to this. because we and the collaborative need sometimes assistance in dealing with issues and so that has been looked into as far as the program is concerned. i'm also representing other parts of the city as well as the communities that are currently represented. and so it is a big chunk of the housing budget rate now. and the collaboratives and we do send the facts, the program needs to grow as the need grows as you can see from the situations like turk. what will help is the housing to act in the enforcement out

reach program. the announcement for the housing inspect ors went out on friday and we are four or five people down because that will help because i could put more inspecters in the north east part of the city that traditionally has more ha bitbility types of issues to work more closely with. the contractors, both. and those are some of the things that we are looking at as far as making the program more robust. >> is there any program currently for assisting the building owners in being more proactive on these repairs? and i think that the owner of one of those buildings said this they could not afford to commit, you know, $50,000 through fixing these things. have we looked into maybe making a low interest loans for increasing the code situations here?

>> well, actually commissioner, walker. there used to be part of the fund that individuals for at least the smaller buildings could use surf and cherp moneys and programs commissioner melgar is better at speaking on that issue. but i understand from the housing those funds are some what dried up. dbi did fund that at one point in time and it may be as the economy picks up that we will look at perhaps, the funding, but also look at whether or not, in the appropriate situation whether that can be expanded to other than small property owners in certain situations. i would not say, necessarily, that 308 turk would necessarily be a candidate. but other prompts may be. that would definitely be something to be looked at. >> that would be great and maybe we could get together proposals around that. i think that it is a benefit.

to have these buildings available. there are some of our lowest cost housing. but they really need to, we need to continue to focus on bringing the ha bitbility up. >> and the bliet cases that are very difficult cases for us to resolve so if that became available in the future it would be most helpful. >> as i remember it, the old programs, the surf program was funded by dbi and it was something that got... it was a commission action that dedicated that money to single family home owners. so it did not have to be that way. but we change that had three years ago when it was taken out of the code. because the funds had dried up. but as i remember, it also the fund was made available because of individual actions of the

inspecters that you have to file something with the state in order to get the money back from the board of equalization and that stopped happening too. so maybe we can look into that rose marry and see if we can get that going again. but it will take some actions from us. s >> right. >> to put it back on the code. and in dedicate, the money will be as a policy body i think that it is best. and it may not be single family home owners. in fact, that stopped making sense 25 years ago. so... >> i think that we should revisit that. >> yeah. >> great. >> commissioner mar? >> yes, i would like to thank our partners for coming today. i think that there is going to be another item on the agenda next month which perhaps some of you might want to come back to because i think this has been an important partnership as the mayor has talked about

moving the hud housing into quasiprivate for lack of a better work. i think that there might be a need for us to expand the work. also with our staff we want to take this on, i feel that we have to always look at how we can do more for the under represented tenants in the city, it is a job that we want to do but at the same time we have to have adequate resources whether it is to our community partners or for your own inspecters and this is just one other point that i would like to make is that i always feel like you know, you should also feel free to come to the commission and tell us what we could do better. to support you guys. i feel like there is a firm balance in terms of if you want to be able and have you roots in the community and you want to be able to walk in and look at the apartment owners but some of the cases that i have seen, like the one that was

highlighted in the news is these that these do not happen in a year or two years. you don't let it fall apart in a year or two years. there is encumbent on the community partners to say that the land lords are not letting us in there and we are not getting access. it is time to send in the inspecters in and right those novs. sometimes, we want to work with the community partners, and work with the tenant to collaborate with the land lords so they will do the right thing so we don't have to go out there and write up the novs. but there comes a point that we see on the news items. that is just two things, that i want to point out that you guys also should feel free to come and you know, the partnership has to go both ways there is a role for the inspecters to play

and at a point when some of the instincts of the land lords are not responding and that is kind of our job to hold them to it. >> thank you. >> deputy. director do you want to weigh in here? >> levan department of building inspection. i wanted to put in a little more details on the surf money. that was the code enforcement rehabilitation fund and this fund was completely transferred over to the mayor's office of housing several years ago. and the reason was because we were basically acting as an intermediatary. and so the mayor's office of housing went into agreements for low income, low interest loans or it was my at some point in time they were also doing grants. two various people who needed to make improvements on their

homes, regardless of what the issue was. and then they will send us the agreement and then we would process it through our financial books. and so, in order to try to make that much more efficient, we decided that we would transfer the money over to the mayor's office of housing so that they would not have to keep going through us. now to the extent that there was no money coming back as the commissioner said is totally correct is what was supposed to happen was we entered into a level of non-compliance by the property owners, we would then send their names to the state, the state would then put and this is very simplified but they would put, a hold on their property tax so that you could know longer claim exceptio