and there are a lot of come portment problems there and they are the public restrooms which are used for laundry and bathing and other things. unfortunately i had a health problem involving colitis and i had to use the restroom on the floor and it is a problem. i do appreciate the fact that they do have the social worker on hand. it's terrible to see librarians having to mediate disputes between some irritable patrons. but, all in all, i think the library is a find place and i believe they are doing a great job and are to be commended. >> thank you. any other

public comment? all right. thank you very much. >> next we are moving on to item no. 8. lava mae. this is denise sandoval. >> yes. thank you for the opportunity to present council this afternoon. lava mae is a mobile shower and toilet service that is meant to address the massive shortage in showers and sanitation available to the homeless. we are not out on the ground yet. we are a brand new organization. we are working on our first bus which we hoke -- hope to launch in may and provide up to 45 showers a day. i will give a little bit of background on the buses and what they look like and how we'll be working with those with disabilities but i wanted to show a quick video to frame the issue first.

>> we need captioning for that video as well? >> [inaudible] >> >> hold on, please. >> denise can we pause for a

second. the captioning doesn't seem to be working with the video. can we put the microphone closer? let's start again. >> [inaudible] >> >> that's okay. i don't want to log jam the schedule. you can find our video on our website which is a lava

may.org. basically it just frames the problem. the number that was listed in the video list the 2011 homeless count. but the official count is 6350 people and half of them living on the streets. there are only seven facilities offering showers and sanitation to the almost 4,000 people and thus we find libraries being used for laundry and bathing facilities. lava mae was created to address this challenge. we decided to go mobile for multiple reasons. one being to get people where they were and gentrification is pushing real estate and rental prices through roof we didn't want to be subjected to rents for people with deep pockets. the buses

essentially will have two hygiene pods. the fronts of the bus. these are retired muni buses. we received four of them from mta. each of these buses will have a two hygiene pods. the front portion will be completely ada compliant and they will be able to take advantage of them there and we are working to provide up to code and space that we need to address the needs of the disabled. we are running a little bit behind on the bus because the buses are very tight in terms of space constraints and we have to be careful how we wire electricity and make sure we are fully compliant. we will launch our service in may and we'll operate in partnerships

with other non-profits already serving the homeless and we'll partner with the research center and bayview and youth with the mission in the tenderloin. essentially we will have this em -- them do the scheduling and work in the morning and pull permits for water from fire hydrants. the cleaning products we use are green and they make the water better. so the idea is that we will be working with volunteers who are retired emt's and nurses. we've been contacted by a number of people who have had that experience and passionate about working with this population to deliver our service. we hope you will see

our first in may and the total four buses beginning in 2014. >> are there any questions from councilmembers? identify -- i have a couple comments. first of all my question is are the buses going to be running on the cables or out of diesel buses? >> these are diesel buses. >> so they can go anywhere? >> yes. >> you said, will you have the capability of doing 45 showers per day? >> it could be more, but depends on how long it takes us to do the pilot program. we want to give people as much time and want to be able to serve as many people as possible. the showers are on 10-minute timers. they will be on 10-minute timers and another 8 minutes to allow

people to do something else. in the shower area and toilet and changing areas and a bench for shoes and socks. >> 1/2 of those facilities will be ada compliant? >> absolutely. >> wonderful. great. thank you. >> absolutely. all right. any public comment on this item? >> believe it or not. larry juicy. i went to city college to shower. when i was homeless, i knew i can be a student and go to cook school and take a shower in the men's locker. you will not know how long this has been a problem. i have been here 25 years

now. you know, one thing that i know about our showering is that showers are so important. even when it rains, i say to people to go out and threat water fort -- let the water fort washington them. we tell people not to appreciate the rain when it rains, but that's the same water you get in the showers. it's the same water. we don't get any water, then we messed up. we do -- are not taught to appreciate the water when it rains. it's sad that people can't shower. shower is not a homeless thing. it's an american thing. the slap for san francisco is before aids we had all of these shelters were actually

bath clubs. even in rome you were supposed to be able to have a shower, orgy or whatever. showers are very important and that's how a lot of illnesses and disease get by people not been. we should have showers in this city. there is loor doctor a -- a lot of facilities to get showers. we like spending money on something that when we can be used in common sense. open up those vacant buildings and make showers and restrooms. thank you. >> thank you councilmembers and thank you for the presentation. my name is charles men stir. senior. i

was born back easton baltimore. this -- they had public markets and they made a law to have shower facilities adjacent to these markets so people that worked there handling food would be able to maintain hygienic quality of life. i was where fred douglas and between use i used that shower and you would get a towel and soap. like the brother said in rome, we had public baths in rome about 2,000 years ago. here we are an advanced society and we don't have public baths to take care of the hygiene problem which of course for communicable diseases is a

major public health problem. so this is something a little late, it's something that is little but we should have facilities that people passing through and certainly a lot of people pass through this town on a daily basis and people that don't have a roof over their head can clean up. it should be a minimum of any civilized society. that's what they call this, a civilized society. thank you. >> thank you. any further comment? thank you ms. sandoval. >> we'll move on to item no. 9. the community ambassadors program. we'll hear from richard whippel. >> good afternoon councilmembers and staff. i want to thank you for the opportunity for being here today. i really appreciate it. i'm going to explain what i will be talking about today and i will leave the balance of time for questions.

basically overview on the community ambassadors program and the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs. a long title. i will explaining a little bit about what we see about the marketing stream of the community ambassadors and look at what's happening along the mid-market corridor. in terms of our background of our office, the office of civic engagement in civic affairs was established in 2009 to address functions in the city, the language access, immigrants rights commission and the outreach efforts since all of those have a very similar nexus reaching the population of the city. after being established for a few years, the office is really has worked in three key areas. it's a policies office through programs like our community ambassadors program and we do grant making around i am

grant immigration initiatives. that's a snapshot of the offices. the community ambassadors is one of our premier programs that started in 2010. just some background on the program. it started in the bayview on the 10th supervise real district in addition to conflict happening at that time. there were several very high profile crimes against asian americans. i think they were on youtube. they were very high profile events that led to outcry in the chinese immigrant community in the southeast part of the city and they didn't feel they had access to information in their language and they didn't feel safe in their communities and couldn't communicate adequate with the city. in order to address the issue of community safety and bridge the divide

between the communities in district 10 which is one of the most diverse districts in the city. our office was asked to help and create a community safety escort program and a senior escort program and we developed it into a general assistance program targeting all residents regardless of ability, age, language, those types of things. the program started in 2010 and we really worked to hire a team from within the community that they serve. our ambassadors from the bayview are from the bayview or currently live in the bayview and represent the diversity in that neighborhood. because it was so well received by the community the mayor asked us to expand if program in 2011 as part of that area which

has revitalized that area which is a very high profile need in the part of the city. our central market community ambassador team has been around since 2011. this team is unique in that it is really viewed as a job training team. we partner with the human services agency to hire san francisco residents. we try to hire from the community and place them to work in the community. our group of ambassadors, currently we have 12 that work in the central market area from 5th street to valencia and we look at going about a block or two on i -- either side on market street. it's to visible -- that's the goal. we categorize into

three major categories, general assistance whether that's helping someone on or off a muni vehicle with bags or lunge -- luggage and tourism information and referrals. if they come to a homeless individual or business executive who is in need of some service or who wants to know about a program, our ambassadors can offer information to that person. lastly is reporting. this is another important component of the program. we report things, any criminal behavior or any issues of blight or physical issues on the streets and also what we report to 9-1-1, 311 and any other issues around quality of life and social services we may also contact other organizations like the san francisco homeless

outreach team which was previously mentioned as well. that is kind of the gist of the program. they keep activity logs of the programs they do as ambassadors and they really bring with them a tremendous wealth of personal experience. a lot of them have experienced homelessness and a lot of them have varied levels of ability and a lot dealt with substance abuse and other kinds of personal trauma that allowed them to have that compassion that we work for as community ambassadors. behind me is the office from the central market community team. and two of our other ambassadors are joining us along today and jennifer. in terms of what we see on market street and they can speak to this as well if need be, we know that the mid-market area is very high need and there is a lot of negative undesirable street behavior on market

street particularly in this area that we are looking at. the specific kinds of things that we see has already been stated. there is a lot of illegal activity with drugs and illegal vending of all types and a big social service need. there is a lot of homelessness, a lot of folks who may not necessarily be homeless but still have a high need. they maybe sro residents and maybe in need of programs. we see a lot of blight, a lot of violence, we see domestic violence in the streets. we see assaults and all levels of violence that are impacting residents and visitors on the street. i would also add that recently i know that's been kind of a point of discussion amongst

different bodies in the city but pedestrian safety has been a huge area of concern. in fact last year there was a gentleman who was wondering around the center of market street and struck by a vehicle and i don't think he was of a sound state at that time and because of that was basically walking head on to another vehicle thachls just one example of how there is really like i said a lot of activity in this corridor of market street. in terms of how we choose to deal with that, ambassadors are well trained. we are the first tier of support. as we provide services to all members of the public regardless of whether they are homeless or businessmen or women. they are really the first entry point and provide referrals to other needs or services. one example is that we provide a lot of

referrals to the homeless outreach team or everyday connect program. so we are really that first entry point to make an assessment and move people along in the process in terms of getting them the services they need. i think i will just make a few more comments and leave the rest of the time for questions. just a snapshot. in the last year alone we logged over 100 calls to 9-1-1 in the calendar year of 2013. we only workweek days. that shows you that is a very high need area and those range from medical emergencies. we did have two people that did not respond and were later resuscitated biomedical personnel and we do well checks and called 311 nearly 600 times to report issues with problems with

curb cut outs, graffiti, illegal dumping or human excrement on the sidewalk. i'm happy to provide more information on those areas. in general the team encounters a lot on a daily basis. it's a very stret -- stressful job and they do what's best to connect people with needs. what we are doing is allocation of citywide resources which sometimes makes it difficult. particularly the lack of mental health services in this city is what we have noticed. in the last 2-3 years we have seen an improvement of market street proper but it's very significant to know that those people haven't been happened or housing per say, but there is also a big amount of displacement. i think that's important to note. we've seen a lot of the same folks that

we normally assist and work with in further streets within the tenderloin or up further blocks along market street for the upper mid-market section towards valencia and so many -- soma. it's not just a market problem but needs to be examined citywide. it's not helping the over all problem. that's a snap shop of what we do on market street. i will take any questions. >> i have a couple. >> sure. >> the first one is speaking from a disability council member perspective, i realize it's my understanding that there are a lot of people on the streets who may or may not be housed, may or may not be under care, but have

disabilities, many of them hidden and those could be mental health, they could be systemic conditions, long-term illnesses, they could be mental health, ptsd, all sorts of things. i want to be careful that, i would like you to be careful when, i want to ask you if you are careful, are you cognizant of that when you are dealing with folks that might, for instance people that have very good reasons for using drugs. they keep you warm, they stave off hunger, cure pain, and loneliness. as a culture we have to realize that and there would be thinking along those lines and that people don't necessarily need to be fixed because they are hanging

around on a corner. >> great. i'm glad you brought that up. the san francisco mental health provided training on that. we are very much aware of a lot of the stigma around mental health issues and homeless in general. a good amount of our ambassadors have experienced this at all. we are really just facilitate the role of information. our primary concern is if somebody is a danger to themselves physically or to the public. >> okay. my other question with regard to displacement. they have cleaned out my neighborhood almost completely. i live in hayes

valley. it used to be a very popular place to camp. i'm seeing more people sleeping just on the concrete, they don't even have gear and this worries me and this whole homeless situation. this is very complicated and i know there are no easy answers. i'm worried about just moving people along. that really disturbs me because they have a right to be somewhere. homeless are still residents of the city of san francisco. i just wanted to comment on that. >> i agree 100 percent. again, i think the fact that our staff members have walked in those shoes and we approach it from a deliver model than anything else. when i say wellness check we go up to

individuals and ask if you need anything. you might need a new pair of shoes. and this place offers sleeping bags. we definitely stay away from anything that is enforcement and it's not our purview and we don't address those things because people have a right to be places. where can't you be if you don't have a public space. >> thank you. councilmember roland wong? >> yes, are they making plans to expand the program to the civic center area like the market plaza because it seems like there is more and more people that are hanging out there. is there plans to expand to that area too single

t -- >> currently that is not an area we cover. we cover central plaza. there are no current plans now. the central market team ambassadors is still an unfunded program now because we use the unsubsidized program. there is a community benefit district and they use to patrol those areas. we have been approached to expand to other areas as parts of the city and other neighborhoods but because of lack of resources at this time we are not looking into it. that's an excellent question. >> through the chair, i just wanted to thank you for coming today. i first got an acquainted with the ambassador program through my attendance

at the mayor's hall business meeting. i think the ambassador program is a great name. you help to navigate people to the different facilities and services so they can participate in the public process. our office is part of mid-market. we are right there at the civic center and we see your ambassadors everyday and i just always really appreciate how the ambassadors who are working not only with the people that are living on the streets but also as you said with the business people who maybe a little confused about where they landed. and it just seems to be a service to the entire community. i really love our ambassadors and i'm happy to see you here today. >> thank you very much. >> okay we'll move on to public comment on this item.

>> larry, they call me juicy. i'm at the ambassador hotel and the band played on about aids when we first took this and control and found a cure today. but what i think about ambassadors, the first ambassadors at the hotel was when kennedy was shot. just on tuesday i graduate from carra from here to orange county, three different cities today. to me ambassadors you are doing a great job. i often think that san francisco should get comments. good thing we sit here between 6 ,000-7,000 homeless on the