working with very challenging individuals who are facing a lot of difficulties in their lives and providing them with compassionate and loving and professional services. i also want to talk about this as a regional issue because b.a.r.t. is a regional system. and just wanted to point out that san francisco has 23% of the homelessness and i think it's also important to point out every year approximately 5,000 individuals enter san francisco who are experiencing homelessness from other bay area counties. i agree with supervisor sheehy to look at this and coordinate be our surrounding counties and b.a.r.t. is very important if we are going to bend the curve on the problem in san francisco or the bay area.

we don't have really great data on exactly what we're doing at 16th street b.a.r.t., but i can provide you with some information as you'll' here. district nine as 271 of the sheltered homeless population and 281 of the unsheltered homeless population. in january 2017 when we did the point and time count. you also will see that relative to the homeless population in the city, district nine has 6.6% of the unsheltered but 17% of the calls. part of this is due to the residential nature and the high population density in the mission district. there's a lot of people there. and a lot of new residences and businesses. but we are receiving a fair number of complaints and concerns from citizens around this issue relative to the size of the homeless population.

this next slide will show you the homeless outreach team. that star is the 16th street b.a.r.t. station and you will see that it is in red meaning that it is one of the areas where the hot team has about 6,000 -- serves 6,000 people a year and this is a heat map of where they're reaching out to folks and bringing that down a little bit to just district nine. you'll see based on our work in district nine, the hot team spends not most of it's time, but a significant amount of time at the 16th street plaza. you see there's a significant number of encampments and this could be one tent or more in the area right around the plaza there. i think we've had some significant impacts, positive impacts on homelessness through the mission district homeless outreach prompt and thanks to

supervisor ronen's leadership, we have opened up one at van ness. we engage 1,700 people to date who are homeless and there are tents in the mission district. 70% of them accepted placements to the n.a.v. center. when we started, 264 tents and structures counted on june 20th of 2017. and at last count there were fewer than 60. we've had good progress. we can make improvements. so, we have been piloting a project with b.a.r.t. and muni which has been quite successful. our goal is to serve homeless individuals, the 21,000 people experiencing homelessness in our streets in any given year. but we also assist where we can on place based special projects. whether it be we receive extra

funding to work in the library or to work in a specific neighborhood. we are happy to do that if we're able to have the resources and we -- b.a.r.t. and muni essentially is funding the hot team to have two full-time hot staff members there. they're focusing on stations -- they started really focusing from em barring -- ebargadero and the tunnels between the stations where we are finding people inside the tunnels which is a huge safety concern. the hot team has contacted 258 individuals. we have made 128 referrals to services outside of our system and that we've made 266 different connections to folks.

let me define what all those terms mean. by contact, that means a client has been engaged and educated of services available to them. a referral is client was educated on a particular service that they fit the criteria for. and a connection is that they successfully completed the -- whatever the referral was. they went to a resource center, a drug program. we've had fairly good successes. i don't have data on how much the things have improved at those stations. i think the eyeball test tells me that there's significantly more work to do. but i think the thing that is important to remember is that in a lot of cases, the folks who were at the stations maybe engaging in drug dealing or

other behavior is not conducive to the area, they are not homeless. we are focusing on the folks who are most in need in and around the b.a.r.t. stations and trying to get them connected to the appropriate services. we don't have enough of anything. with 21,000 people coming through the city every year and despite we have more permanent housing than any other city in the united states, we are only able to help about 2,000 people a year and shelter about 7,000 people a year. clearly, it's a challenge, but i think when we do find individuals who are very sick or long term homeless, we are prioritizing them as we would anybody we encounter on the streets who is a high priority client. a couple of recommendations, improving conditions at the b.a.r.t. station is not

primarily a homelessness issue. there's challenges related to design, poverty, cleanliness that also need to be addressed. ty do think that moving forward, we can and will focus on b.a.r.t. stations as part of the unified command model that we're working on with public works and public health and the police and fire. and our department all working together to try to address hot spots and to really also try to address people who are the highest users of multiple systems in the city. i think we should also consider expanding the b.a.r.t./muni pilot from b.a.r.t. police and from the hot team, this has been successful. we can't just add stations, though. if we just add stations, we're going to simply just really water down the work of those two staff members. we need to have a minimum of two people funded full-time for this to be successful. it costs approximately a quarter

of a million dollars to be able to provide that service. but i think it has been successful and worth looking at. also just as a suggestion, maybe a little bit outside of my lane, is i know in l.a., usc for example, they have funded -- they are ambassadors. i think they wear yellow shirts. and many are from homeless or formerly homeless or from the community. i think if we want to edge gauge people who are perhaps involved in behavior that's not really conducive for the neighborhood they are in or appropriate outdoors, i think having community ambassadors to talk to, to work with, to point folks in the right direction and encourage them is something else we should be considering in the city. my focus really is how do i help as many unhoused people get off the streets and into shelter. however, i certainly share the same concerns that all you have about quality of life in our neighborhoods and safety for

everybody in our neighborhoods. i think there's a lot of didn't things that we could do around safety and security that don't necessarily involve a police presence. we want to be out there and we will continue to be out there as much as we can, offering individuals who are in the b.a.r.t. station or around the b.a.r.t. station or anywhere in our city with the shelter and services that we have available to them. >> vice chair ronen: great. i have three quick questions. when the hot team encounters someone who is homeless because we know not everyone is homeless who is hanging out or spending time in b.a.r.t. stations, is one of the referrals that they make or connections that they make to they're congratulations center -- they're congratulations -- navigation center beds? >> yeah. we have one day shelter beds. we have resource centers people

can go to, to get into the system so they can be registered for the shelter. and occasionally when we have beds available, we can refer folks there. but those are frankly few and far between. but, yeah, they do have access to those beds. >> vice chair ronen: so, we will be talking about that more in our next hearing on navigation centers but it seems like that's the essential. that the hot teams members are only as successful as there's a solution at the back-end they're able to provide. i'm interested in expanding this model of m.t.a. and bar.a.r.t. d other city agencies that can focus on 16th street b.a.r.t. station. but i know that will only be effective if we have navigation center beds on the back-end for people to go to. we're working on that in the mission and hopefully achieving it. but i just wanted to make that

point and continue to work with you towards that end. >> i should point out if i could that there are 2,300 shelter beds in the city. and they're usually all full. so, the other thing that we have to focus on is that just opening up shelters is not going to be enough because people need somewhere to go after they leave those shelters and navigation centers and shelters don't create places for them to go. we are wokking on a flexible housing subsidy pool they have down in los angeles, which will allow us to place people into privately owned houses with services that we attach through a roving team. and one of the opportunities that that potentially creates is we try to hold fidelity to our system in terms of the longest term homeless individuals who have the highest needs are the ones who get access to the supportive housing. like in l.a., the health care

system is buying beds through the flexible housing subsidy pool. organizations like b.a.r.t. or our own public health system can buy beds. we have to find exits for folks. we need more temporary places for folks to go. but without the exits, those temporary places become cul-de-sacs and we need to think bigger than that. >> vice chair ronen: my next question is we work together to get alice housed. but how is it possible that a very ill 63-year-old woman sleeps for three years in a very public space in front of the b.a.r.t. station and none of our programs are able to get her to go inside? it feels like a breakdown in the system. >> i cannot speak publicly about an individual client. i'm very aware of this situation and what occurred there.

but let me speak more generally about what i have observed in my year or half in this position. i spend a fair -- year and a half in this position. i spend a fair amount of time out there and see there are individuals on the streets who everybody is wanting to assist and often times, those individuals for whatever reason, due to serious mental illness or substance abuse issues or bad experiences they had in a shelter or even in housing, we need to find other options for them and other ways to get them to -- and to meet them where they're at. maybe the flexible housing subsidy pool will provide some flexible options for folks around the housing that we have available. but i think the work we're doing and all the departments coordinating together around situations in which we're working with folks who are very

high needs individuals with complex issues -- in some cases it's not that the services and the resources aren't there. the desire to work with those individuals is strong. we don't always have the tools to get those folks to accept services. i think supervisor sheehy and i have conspired to help a certain individual in his district. i even went out to try to engage this individual and we haven't found the right formula yet. i think the important thing is that we do our outreach with compassion and love and we're also just persistent and understand this isn't a linear -- there's not linear solutions for a lot of folks. it takes time and compassion. we absolutely need more in the system. but i think there's also something wrong in the system that we're putting people in and out of san francisco general hospital back out on the streets

and not finding a way to disrupt that. i think we need to continue to find different tools, but also different laws that will help us serve individuals like that. >> i hear a lot of people in s.r.o.s will congregate around these stations because they can, number one, purchase stuff there. there's dealers there. but they can also inject. and if they inject in their s.r.o., they get booted, right? for the most part they get kicked out if they get caught using. so, my question is, is one of the solutions to this problem safe injection sites? >> well -- >> at least near where there's the congregation? >> i don't want to speak for the department of public health but

i do agree with director garcia's support for and moving forward on safe injection sites. i think it has proven to be effective in many places around the world. i have been particularly interested in looking at what they're doing in denmark with mobile safe injection sites that both helps address neighborhood concerns. i don't want this in my neighborhood because it is moving around. but also addresses the fact that people who are suffering from substance abuse disorders won't walk 15 or 20 minutes to get to a safe injection site. i want to point out on the s.r.o.s aren't necessarily leased or owned by the city. i don't know what they're policies -- their policies necessarily are. but people in a funded supported housing if they're using in their unit -- and many housed people formerly homeless and all

income levels are using injection drugs in their apartments. it is more of behavior that gets people kicked out. not that they may or may not be injecting drugs. >> vice chair ronen: thank you. last and certainly not at least we will hear from angelica. thank you for being here. >> good morning supervisors. my goal is to talk about lead and more specifically about some

early data we have from the mission district. law enforcement assisted diverse is a program that started in seattle and was a strong recommendation from the work group to reenvision the jail replacement project. it includes many departments, community based organizations, technical support and community representatives. this program is currently funded through a grant through the board of corrections. our program launched in october of 2017 and ends in june of 2019. the goal of this program is divert individuals with low level drug offenses or prostitution offenses from jail to community services. we were asked to identify specific areas of san francisco that we wanted to focus on. given the nature of the eligible charges that we're required to include under the grant, we decided to focus on the tenderloin admissions district. we have identified serving a minimum of 250 individuals.

200 would be pre-booking referrals and 50 would be social contact referrals which i will talk about. our specific goals for the grants in san francisco are to reduce recidivism rates. strength and collaboration across city departments, and improve health and status, including supporting individuals in enrolling in public benefits they are eligible for, health services, et cetera. our grant is governed by a policy committee which includes representatives from the aforementioned city and community based organizations. and we also have what's called an operation work group which meets on a biweekly basis. it is to have representatives from the different departments who have direct contact with lead participants to discuss referrals and cases to support the individuals and includes

representatives from the district attorney's office, public defender's office, law enforcement, department of public health and community based organizations. so, looking at the type of referrals under bill 843 that we have to includes as part of the lead grant, the first and priority of the grant and our policy committee in san francisco is what is called pre-booking referrals. this is a situation where an individual officer has probable cause for arrest for a lead eligible charge. and they're able to offer this program as an alternative to arrest to connect the individual to social services. alternatively, there's a referral that's called a social contact referral. and this is a similar population in which the individual is at high risk for arrest of one of the eligible charges. and there's a history of involvement with or being arrested for those charges. and again the individual wants to voluntarily participate.

there's 15 charges we are able to accept at this time. >> vice chair ronen: would it be possible -- because i know that this is highly restricted grant that's a pilot project. would it be possible to go back and rewrite the grant so there are 50-pre-booking referrals and 200 social referrals? >> certainly we talked about the goals of the grant and this being recommendation from the reenvisioning of the jail replacement project. we want to work on diverting individuals who would spend very few days in custody from the custody system. we have been working with the board of state and community corrections. the next one is talking about the charges we have to include under the senate bill which is pretty limiting. one of the things we have talked about is perhaps expanding the eligible charges we are able to include so we are able to divert

more people from custody. we are able to discussion social contact referrals. but we want to make sure we are maintaining the goal of the grant trying to divert people from the criminal justice system. >> vice chair ronen: i ask that because this talking at some of the police who are at the 16th street b.a.r.t. station who are participating in lead, their finding is it ends up being more effective, the social contact referral than pre-booking referrals. and i know there are some differences of opinion. but it is something i want to continue to explore. i plan on visiting seattle, who created this program that we're sort of copying here in san francisco. and the b.a.r.t. police were telling me in their discussions with the leaders of the program in seattle, they found that social referrals are a lot more effective. it is a discussion i would love to keep having. >> absolutely.

i would say that of course, social contact referral are an active part. we reck these the lead program has limited capacity and we aren't going to be able to serve everyone who would benefit from services. we are fortunate to have the group where we discuss cases and law enforcement can bring cases to us so if an individual isn't an appropriate fit, we are able to work with our community based organizations and other resources we have to support the linkage to services. the other things frustrating for law enforcement is how limiting the grant is in terms of the types of charges. i think this current conversation we are having will help open that up so we are able to maintain the goal of the grant and support individuals who would benefit from the services. so, in terms of the eligible charges that are currently eligible under the grant -- and

we are hoping this will be expanded through our conversations with the bort and state of community corrections -- board and state of community corrections it is individuals related to assisted living. this includes charges related to possession of a substance, sale of a substance or being under the influence and again prostitution charges. the law enforcement agencies we're working with through this grant who are able to make referrals to the program includes the san francisco police department, bay area rap transit police department. >> vice chair ronen: what additional charges would they like to include? >> that's something that we actually are just in early conversations. i'm not sure they will have additional limitations that we would need to look at in terms of the types of charges. what we have looked acetaminophen the policy

committee level and -- at, at the policy committee level is to includes other charges that are non-violent arrests that again might be related to behavioral that could be diverted from custody. and people who typically stay in custody but repeatedly cycling in and out of custody. and there's a better alternative we could do to support individuals to staying in the community. in terms of the services that are offered through the lead grant, we are working with two community based organizations. the first the foundation working with the tenderloin participants. the grant is currently funding four full-time case managers across the two programs and the case managers are able to work with participants up to 25

individuals. so 100 active cases at any given time. there are four additional peer outreach workers or drivers. the goal is to provide support to the case managers and work they're doing and provide outreach and engagement in the community. one of our other votes for the grants and one of the things we have seen, it can take multiple opportunities to offer someone services before their willing to participate. and in situations we are able to intervene before somebody has contacted law enforcement. we are able to use these staff to help link them to appropriate services in our system of care. this is also funding an additional managers to work specifically with individuals identified as having significant mental health needs. in looking at the specific referrals from the mission district, we've had a total of 15 referrals thus far. two of which have been pre-booking referrals. 13 have been social contact and

14 have come from the police department. one of the referrals have come from b.a.r.t. police. but we continue to do outreach to develop rapport. and then my last item of information is about our policy committee. how to contact lead if there's any questions and we post all of our information from our policy committee at this website. >> vice chair ronen: any questions? no. thank you so much. and i also just wanted to recognize and thank sergeant cole from the mission police station who is our point person for s.f. lead for being here and he is available to answer any questions if anyone has any. stephanie felder, the director of crisis services at d.p.h. and the assistant director of environment health. thank you all for being here. i think we should open this up

for public comment. sure. >> if people could line up on the left here -- or your right. jordan davis, katie sellcraig. sus susan fiat. olinda. susan marsh. aaron. guy trigger. rachel and dario romero. >> public: hi. i'm katie. i'm with the mission collaborative community services in plaza 16. i want to say poor people and homeless people are being blamed for the situation when it is the fault of a neglectful government

services. it allows people who have never been homeless to say and believe that homeless people are dirty and disrespectful of the environment, which are offensive and derogatory statements. i think that b.a.r.t. and the city of san francisco would never be this neglectful in a wealthy or majority white area. wealthy white people trash delores park and it is immediately cleaned. i want to be clear that this conversation is about government services and the fix that is needed for that. i'm glad to see that b.a.r.t. and the city of san francisco are taking steps to maintain the plaza and there needs to be accountable for how long it took to make this commitment. this is an example of neglect. that governmental neglect and that structural disinvestment opens the door for lee tie cons like maximus. i think other government officials need to stand up like

director dufty and supervisor ronen have to prevent this. neighborhoods can solve their own problems without involvement from real estate tie cons but we need -- tycoons but we need the support of the government. [bell]. >> public: thank you. >> public: good morning. jordan davis. i seem peeking for mission collaborative and tenant. i don't shoot up contrary to popular belief. i sympathize with supervisor ronen's concerns and thank you for cleaning up every wednesday. while i do not think the plaza should be left in its current state, i do not want this to be execution for police presence. as you may know, there are many people who want to call my neighborhood and we can't let them call for the remooufrm of low-income people and -- removal of low-income people and people

of color. it is incumbent to put more resource stations whether it is community services, bathrooms or whatever to stagss that need the most -- stations that need the most. that's the most important part. i just don't think we need more luxury towers nor s.r.o.s nor do we need more police around. thank you. >> public: good morning. i'm guy from puma car wash. we start from november to clean the station behind us. [indiscernible] >> public: we walk every night over there and one wednesday i went back to check the station and i sue supervisor ronen and dufty and we realize how it is

important to keep the station clean. i conduct many projects. this one is the most interesting challenge and that's why i like it the most. we go every night and start at 8:30. we go to 24th station and we move at nighttime to 16th station. people have to understand this is not just a power washer job. it is a janitorial job and have to be very professional dealing with the people over there because some people live there. i know in my company, we know the station in and out. [indiscernible] >> public: eventually help to think about the future and how to restore the station. we have done deep cleaning and there are other issues that are resolved. but a lot of work have to be done. people pee in the corner where you have to stand. we have to use different soap and you have to vacuum the soap.

companies have to be very involved. [bell]. >> public: thank you. >> vice chair ronen: thank you so much, guy, for your amazing work. it has been a pleasure to meet you. >> public: thank you very much. >> next speaker, please. >> public: my name is susan. i'm from -- a parent from marshal elementary school around the corner from 16th street b.a.r.t. station. and i really want to applaud what you're doing. i think it is exactly what needs to happen there. it's about five years, maybe ten years overdue. but it is happening so, i really applaud you. maximus started from the beginning speaking to the school about how they were going to improve the neighborhood by bringing in luxury housing. and everyone at marshal elementary school knows that's not going to solve the problems at the 16th street b.a.r.t. station. this is the kind of thing that will. i just want to say thank you

very much and i hope in the future, more members of the community can be involved in helping with what you're doing. so, thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> public: i'm the ceo of samen design. last year i decided it was time for me to start contributing and being a community member that would help. i contacted the downtown streets team and have been funding the pilot program that has had them out there every weekday morning. they're going to be doing this with the current funds until july. i encourage you to work with them. they are a real solution to the problems we have in the plaza. they're not just cleaning. they're also engaging with lots of different individuals in the plaza and putting people who are formerly homeless to useful work. i want to thank director dufty

for the great impact he is having on the station. i see him from miss windows. i know he is out there cleaning. thank you for that. please to continue to support him. he has advocated for a full-time janitor. it has made a huge difference. i walk that plaza twice a day. six months ago it was disaster. there was glass everywhere, feces, urine. because of bevan's efforts and a lot of other efforts, the plaza is markedly different. i will go back there after this conversation today and it is cleaner than it's ever been. we are committed to the neighborhood. it is not a question of gent -- thank you for your time. [bell]. >> thank you. next speaker please.

[speaking spanish] >> translator: thank you. i'm a leader in the san francisco parrish. faith and action is an organization with more than 90 schools in san francisco. we are part of the national pico network and we are functioning

in 17 states and 150 cities. [speaking spanish] >> translator: we are committed to ensuring that all the members of our community receive respect. we are here in solidarity with all persons who are unhoused and we are asking for solutions, not criminalization. [speaking spanish] >> translator: they are part of our community and we should respect them. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> public: good afternoon. i too would like to thank for doing this. i have been familiar with the plaza and the area around the plaza for 20 years. and it has been the object of

the most outrageous forms of neglect and has been treated as a drug containment zone without any attempt to solve the underlying injustices and problems that are generating the amount of drug use we are seeing in the plaza. this neglect contributes whether intentionally or not, to the disinvestment that is now being used as an excuse to general -- gent identify -- as people become more desperate both economically and to using and selling drugs and to other forms of behavior that have to do with

getting by out of here desperation. i'm grateful we are taking steps to clean the plaza and assist people with their struggles. i would ask we remain along this track and not allow this to be used as an excuse for more luxury development, but that instead we make -- [bell]. >> public: that we treat everyone with respect and make it a livable community for everyone in the neighborhood and in the city. thank you. >> next speaker. >> public: i'm executive director of transit riders and i'm a daily b.a.r.t. rider. i want to thank you, supervisor ronen, for calling this hearing. it is good to see our elected officials speaking up for

riders. we all know this extends beyond 16th street. this is into every b.a.r.t. station and train. i hear b.a.r.t. is making plans to tackle the quality of life issue, and that's great. i also read an article that was headlines "b.a.r.t. listening to riders to clean up its act". and i'm trying to figure out how it got to this point where it is nearly unbearable to step into a station. i recognize that is a country wide issue but i have to call it out. ridership is down on b.a.r.t. to a point where a supervisor had to get involved before b.a.r.t. took this issue seriously. transit riders have been singing this tune for years. despite the shade, sorry, b.a.r.t. i want to say i'm encouraged by this and i think this is a step in the right direction. there are, of course, additional issues that i think transit riders would love to see as part

of improving b.a.r.t., including >> next speaker, please. >> public: thank you for doing this. i know standing for low-income people and poor people. i want to make sure to everyone that being poor is not being a

criminal. people have families. they are not criminals. they are people -- this is a bigger problem. this is what i want to have. i have lived there close to 24 and i can see the difference between the 24th and 16th plaza. we want services for everyone and more services for the people who are more in need. we need affordable housing. [indiscernible] >> public: this is why we are proposing to build the marble. it will be affordable housing and we need more solutions around housing. otherwise we are not going to solve anything. thank you again. i hope we continue this conversation and engagement of the community. >> thank you. next speaker, please.

>> public: my conversation is not only about number three, but also number four as well. first of all, you're going to continue to have this frontal with people being out on the street just as long as you keep building new apartment building complexes. and you set the medium and requirement of the income above and far above the level of income for the low-income people that's in that income bracket that need housing. you got people on social security benefits, permanent disability benefits, retirement benefits and veterans who are in income brackets always below the medium that you set the requirement. you always set it at 80%, 90% of the medium produced by h.u.d. as a result, the people cannot

apply. you claim that mission is affordable housing. you have a hispanic female and her daughter be a pitch person on a commercial that was shown nationwide -- i mean city wide and getting people to think that people in low-income brackets can apply and be a tenant at an apartment building complex called mission rock. when you look at the fine print, you find the people in that income bracket cannot afford to move in that building. it is discuss gusting. that's fraud -- disgusting. that's fraud. [bell]. >> public: 20-30% of the medium and you always make the requirement at 70-125% of the medium. you make statements the new low income is $125,000 a year. that's disgusting. that's disgusting. since when is somebody making

$125,000 a year need to be part of a low-income affordable housing program? [bell]. >> thank you. next speaker, please. [microphone off] [indiscernible] >> thank you. >> your time is up. thank you. >> public: good morning. my name is maryland duran. i'm a community organizer and part of the plaza 16 coalition. 16th street b.a.r.t. is one of the places i'm familiar with along with 24th street b.a.r.t. and knowing that since this affordable housing crisis we have seen more folks having to be in that area with no place to go. i applaud supervisor ronen and

bevan dufty for coming out to the community and having conversations. that's a lot of things we lack with community and city collaboration is that there's lack of communication and collaboration. it is overseen from city hall and not deep and engrained in the community. where people who live in s.r.o.'s. i had a friend who passed away in his car because he had nowhere to go and often was in the plaza. just applauding there are folks who are in the community and are members who really want to have this dialogue and need a pathway to housing. a year ago on valentine's day, i was here advocating for more senior housing for both senior and homeless seniors. knowing that is a pathway we need for our communities who are out there and have nowhere else to go. and we as a community know that you can continue to do outreach and you can have a pipeline of

outreach. if it has nowhere to go, you are creating a pipeline to go nowhere. again i want to alaud the efforts and we need -- applaud the efforts and we need to create more plans and solutions like affordable housing. like the gentleman mentioned before, we people who are low-income who don't fit in the bracket. communities have solutions. [bell]. >> public: community can also be planners and we need to be deep and collaborate with community. thank you. >> thank you. any closing comments? >> vice chair ronen: i just wanted to thank you everyone from coming out today. when i called this hearing, we hadn't received the great news from b.a.r.t. i just really want to thank b.a.r.t. for listening and for stepping up. i want to thank community members like eric for funding the downtown streets team. i didn't realize that was you.

i want to really tell you how grateful i am. i have seen them with my own eyes. thank you for that. and for all the members of community who came out. this is really government's job to fix these problems that we have had in the b.a.r.t. station. and we're starting to do that and we're just going to get better over time. appreciate my colleagues for taking so much time with this hearing as well. it lasted a while, but it is well worth it. let's keep up the great work. with that we can go ahead and make a motion to file the hearing. >> i should gavel down public comment. >> sorry. >> anymore public testimony? okay. >> vice chair ronen: i make a motion to file the hearing. >> thank you. no objection? okay. the hearing is filed. thank you. now i would like to call item

number two, please. >> clerk: motion verifying that cafe envy llc doing business as cafe envy has completed the preapplication meeting requirement under california business profession code for the issuance of new nontrancial type-87 neighbor hood restricted special on sale general liquor license. >> we will now hear from city departments on this item. ben van hooten can give us a background on the type-87 liquor license. >> sure. thank you. good morning chair sheehy and members of the committee.

this is a type-87 -- should i -- >> i would like to welcome supervisor cohen to the hearing and thank him for sponsoring this item. if there are any comments you would like to make. >> supervisor cohen: just a few comments. thank you. i'm very pleased to present this item before you today. this is a type-87 liquor license application for new business in the bayview called cafe envy. i want to emphasize my support for this particular license type. as some of you know, the bayview is a restricted use district, meaning there's a cap in place for liquor license applications due to a historic proliferation of liquor retailers.

type-87 licenses are a new type of liquor license recently adopted by the state legislature in 2016 and they are affordable. the goal is to help restaurants who in turn help their surrounding neighborhoods. these businesses supply jobs. they bring traffic to a neighborhood and they help keep the dollars circulating in the community. it is particularly exciting to be able to uplift and support black women opening up a -- a black woman opening up her second business. i will have bragging rights, a friend and a former classmate. although she is a year older than me. for the record. [laughter] >> supervisor cohen: none -- nonetheless it gives me professional and personal sat

-- satisfaction to advocate on april's behalf. she creates delicious dishes and makes space for events at her current restaurant which is a tradition i imagine she will continue. i want to thank you, april, for what you have done. what you have brought to the bayview community. a tremendous asset. as the neighborhood continues to grow and to change, you are definitely a business owner we want to sustain, a business owner that we want to continue to support and support in your professional growth over time. so, without further adieu, i would like to invite ben van hooten to provide an overview of the requirements for community outreach for this particular applicant. thank you, ben. >> thank you, supervisor. to quickly outline, the type-87 is a new type of liquor license that has a unique preapplication

community outreach component different from other liquor licenses. so, what the resolution that you're considering today is about certifying that that pre-application community outreach has taken place. should this be successful and this will ultimately perform part of the packet that cafe envy will submit. and they will go through the full application process. as specified in the legislation, sb 1285 adopted a couple of years ago, the application has to send a notice out to residents within 500 feet from the location. has to note planning groups and send a note to the chief of police as well. that note has to happen 14 days before a community meeting. it has to occur within a mile of the proposed business location and then ultimately there has to be that community meeting has to be held. and evidence of that community

meeting has to be submitted and so your packet includes evidence from those steps certifying the mailing happened. that the actual mailer itself, notes from the community meeting and the abc form that ultimately cafe envy will need. and i'm happy to answer any technical questions but i would be happy to invite april spears from cafe envy to discuss her project in more detail. >> supervisor cohen: thank you. we will invite april spears to describe the project and outreach strategy and the work you have done. welcome. >> thank you. i'm april spears, the owner of aunty april's chicken and soul waffles and the new owner of cafe envy. this is megan mitchell, my community partner. together we're going to bring a really exciting project to

bayview. expanding is really, you know, at heart for me. i'm so excited to continue to bring great entertainment, great food, comradery and a place where people can come and just the community can come and -- what do you say? >> supervisor cohen: hang out. >> hang out basically. [laughter] >> in a safe, fun environment. i have been in business on the corner for 12 years now. so, expanding -- i'm so excited about it. i can't even put my words together. and i will let megan talk a little about what we are going to do. we did the 500 mailer. we did hold a community meeting. very few people did show to meeting. however, i was in contact with several of our neighborhood organizations, merchants of the

town, economic development on third street. i have had a phone conference with officer gordon in talking about what it is that we're going to be bringing to the corridor. and i have been able to gather quite a bit of support from new residents as well as the old-timers of the neighborhood who are really looking forward to bringing back basically a historic location that a lot of them have missed. because prior to cafe envy, it used to be the monte carlo which is a place of meeting for a lot of the older community members. so, they are very excited to see something coming back to the corridor that they dearly missed. i will let megan talk -- elaborate a little more about the project. >> supervisor cohen: i just want to recognize megan mitchell who is also a native san franciscoian and has done and

written a lot of articles that have been publicized. >> thank you. what we're doing with cafe envy, i don't know if any of you have been to third street, but there are going to be a ton of restaurants and things opening up along the corridor. the thing about third street is you have places that either close at 3:00 or open at 5:00. we will be bridging that gap of nothing happening on third street. we will be open all day long. this is the place that we want our residents to go to when they want to get things done. think cafe bean bag. you know how that place is open all day long. we are going to have heart. we're going to have live entertainment and most pointly healthy food that's so crucial in our district. we want kids to come and pick up snacks after school. for anybody who is just in the area to come and look at us as a place to hang out. and then we will also be

bridging the night life gap. after hours -- not after hours but 7:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. doing fun things 21 and up. it should be pretty exciting and we are super excited aren't we? >> yeah! [laughter] >> supervisor cohen: thank you, ladies. >> i cook better than i speak by the way. >> supervisor cohen: i don't know if you have any remaining questions for the applicants or for staff. i ask that you give this business your support and vote and send this back to the full board with a positive recommendation and then we could take public comment. thank you. >> is there any public testimony? seeing none, public comment is closed. do we have a motion? >> vice chair ronen: i just wanted to say i'm very excited to send this to the board with positive recommendation. it sounds incredible. i can't wait to be a client or patron. but i wanted to thank you

o.e.w.d. for bringing this program into existence. especially for some of the older businesses run by native san franciscoans. having a liquor license will make or break a business. i want to thank you. i'm really excited in seeing these applications come through this committee after years of work that i know you've been doing is such a happy thing to watch. i just wanted to appreciate you as well. thank you very much. with that i will make a motion to bring this item forward with positive recommendations. >> no objections? no. that's it right? still figuring this out. that, mr. clerk. please call item four.

>> clerk: a hearing on the homeless navigation center including number of people served, efficacy and impact on host neighborhoods. >> thank you. supervisor cohen. >> supervisor cohen: yes. thank you. one more piece of business that i have brought to this committee and again, thank you for hearing this item. this is an important one because what we're going to be doing is discussing about the homeless navigation centers. they often services and flexibility to move people permanently off the streets and into safe and supportive systems. kind of been a theme all morning for this committee what we are doing with our homeless crisis. we are pouring tens of millions of dollars into the builds-out to support the navy congratulations centers because we believe -- navigation centers