community-based organisations and other key stakeholders to develop the strategis to reduce economic barriers to enter the cannabis industry as workforce or entrepreneurs. san francisco should reduce annual permiting fees according to target populations. 25 pkz off for 25% employment of target populations. 50% off or 50% of target populations. the task force encourages legislation to address compassion programmes and supportive services that may fall outside the permiting system currently adopted. as a seat representing advocacy, i feel it is important to note the industry began the compassionate cannabis programme by providing cannabis to those who didn't have financial means to purchase at retail. the compassion programme has a history of improving patient's quality of liefz and we firmly believe that our current permiting system should make permanent the practice of compassion. as many of our critically ill patients live on fixed income and cannot afford medicine, these programmes are essential

for their survival. san francisco should encourage nonprofit models and make nonprofit licenses available for those that provide supportive, compassionate programmes and for example tax and licensing incentives to cannabis organisations that provide compassion programmes and supportive services. and then we'll go on to my colleague, jen garcia. >> thank you, supervisors. the task force made 17 recommendations. the recommendation to expand where cannabis businesses could be was made with a desire to include cannabis in areas where other equivalent businesses could operate. there is also a grant for the recommendation, to brace for the recommendation of future sensitive use that is may choose to locate near an existing cannabis business.

the task force feels strongly that lounges should be addressed sooner rather than later. community engagement must be a part of the application process. the city should encourage and promote a good neighbour culture from this industry as it continues to grow. in the discussion of social justice has been and continues to be a priority with the task force. the seven recommendations we made began with the questions of what are the characteristics of an equitable business ownership structure and workforce development structure. sorry. thank you. for the cannabis industry. the task force intent was to make recommendations that would commit san francisco to helping repair the damage to community most impacted from the war on drugs. we commend the district attorney's office for proactively expunging thousands

of misdemeanor cannabis convictions and to review thousands more for reductions and resentencing. this will help ensure equitable employment opportunity and the opportunity for business ownership. diversity belongs in ownership as well as in the workforce. we have recommended that the city support applicants by providing technical assistance and possible zero interest loans. we recommend san francisco allocate revenue from cannabis tax and/or cannabis funds received from the state to go toward education programmes and workshops, loans for equity cannabis businesses and to nonprofits. workforce training and job opportunities for impacted communities is another important recommendation we have made. san francisco should ensure existing workforce protections are tendsinged to this industry. the labour peace requirement for cannabis businesses an important opportunity for

workers to have access and understand their rights to act collectively. as the union labour representives see, i have encouraged and supported the participation of our workforce in a state registered apprenticeship programme. also, working with first source for local hire helps ensure that a broader selection of san francisco workers are the people that benefit mosts from having a sustainable cannabis industry. social justice inequity is a category that touches all in this industry. the task force will use due diligence as we continue our work into year three. >> thank you, supervisor, terrence allen back again to talk about agency oversight. you heard the words permit portability mentioned one or two times during our discussion

andan area that within agency oversight we would like to, as a task force, bring the subject up and bring it forward so that a permit given to a particular location when they outgrow or that sloex no longer appropriate does not have to abandon the work involved in getting that permit, but there is some methology for portability. i don't believe we're suggestioning that it be like a liquor license so they become horse traded commodities. but as communities evolve, our permiting system within san francisco has to accommodate the necessity of moving this business from here to there. also in agency oversight, the task force had many discussions about what is the best interface between individuals that are working within the system overseen by the office

of cannabis or individuals part of a community in which businesses would like the open, having interactions with the applicant and having a challenge. and decisions that are made, being challenged by both. in other words to do that, one thought that was brought forward by the task force was an independent commission. i respect and honour the discussion that was had at the board and so the task force brings it up only as a point of reference. so as long as there is a process in dispute can move beyond the initial individuals working on the project, i believe that it will satisfy the need for third party review of any dispute. we're happy that the office of cannabis is stand alone. thank you for that. and let's move on.

the important one. year three. what framework and vision should we have and supervisors, if i can have your attention for the next two minutes, it will be great because there will be a leading question at the end of this presentation for you. so, year two our recommendation categories morphed. they became more aligned with what the legislative intent was going to be. now year three, we're shifting again into three areas. we recommend that we shift to regulatory, land use, equity and social justice. we believe as a task force leadership team, that these will be the three areas most needing the kind of community input and facilitation that the task force can do. and then you see on the side cross cutting. cross cuting is a subject which occurs in all three. as you heard. consumption, social justice and inequity. you cannot have a regulatory

discussion without considering social justice and equity. so, in our proposed year three vision, and this is where a little attention is needed because you're going to guide us in what we actually do. in the regulatory side, you hear about compassion. it was bookmarked in the legislation. thank you very much for that bookmark. now we need to build that compassion programme out. and we need to involve the office through the regulatory process and if there is a requirement for legislation, come back to the board. remembering the compassion was the purpose that medical cannabis was born. and i'll just take a moment now. two weeks ago on saturday, we lost the pioneer who made medical marijuana -- you notice i say medical cannabis -- but the pioneer who made medical marijuana, dennis perone, a thing. almost 50 years ago.

his single handed and single-minded approach that cannabis belongs in patients hands and appropriate hands and it should not be an illegal substance, it should be something that we use in our compassion, or giving in our society, has lead us to where we are today and with this mention, i would like us to note that without dennis perone, i don't think we would be having this discussion today. i thank him for his labour of work and memorialize his passing. also in regulatory, there is the fun part -- event. we need to provide a vehicle by which san francisco can participate in the invents system that has grown up around cannabis. currently the state does not allow any space in san francisco to be licensed for events. so this is a dual pronged effort. through the advocacy and political will building at the task force, we can bring suggestions both to you and the

office of cannabis with some force behind them and together take them to the state and ask that they expand the way in which events are seen so we don't end up with hippie hill on 420 and nobody knows what to do about it. the leadership of mayor lee last year brought that into the city. the regulatory framework now pushes it back out of the city. we have to fix that. youth as well. youth diversion has been a big issue throughout the legislative process at the state and here. the task force stands firm. one of our voting members on the task force is a san francisco unified school district employee, which is unusual. the object voting member which is what i would call a department employee and that is to underscore the necessity of having youth consider rainfallsings in all the decisions that we make. in equity, equity programmes for year one and workforce

protections and in land use, you'll see some broad categories. such as, remember when we created the legislation, we took the tours out of landing use. we took the tour capability and said we have to study that for a year. what an ideal petri dish to do that study the task force would be so that it can bring back recommendations to you as the board members and the office of cannabis so that we can create a tour programme to once again keep san francisco on the cutting edge. all of you that went on a tour with me, i believe t came away from that tour knowing and learning something that you did not know that you couldn't have gotten from a book and would have been impossible to get from just sitting down with an individual or even looking at a youtube video. tours are a necessity. san francisco is a tourist destination. how we weave that together and

respect the industrial nranlds which most of the nonretail businesses are located is going to be tricky and that is where the task force can step in. and the big question that everyone asks me as i walk around the neighbourhood is when is my corner store going to have a cannabis shelf? in other words, accessory use. accessory use, again a bookend. whether it is the conversation of this year or next, it will be a conversation pushed by our small businesses who are seeing profitability in cannabis retail and want to participate in that opportunity and, as we evolve this system in one, two, maybe three years, we'll be ready for that conversation. the task force would like to bring that up as part of its year three vision. and, of course, consumption. we cannot get away from the fact that people will buy and they need to consume and the way the legislation came out of sacramento, it has to be in a private residence with the permission of the land lord. that is very difficult to get if you live in germany and you

are coming here for two weeks. we don't want to be pushing our tourists to airbnbs. we just created a system that took the pressure off our housing stocks by limiting airbnbs. we don't want the only place that airbnbs will be the only legal place for people to consume with the permission of their land lord. in the sphere of equity, we have state tax and local tax. there is going to be a conversation about local excise tax at this board. there will be a ballot initiative, i'm almost certain of that. so what is the appropriate tax rate and where do we get to the point in our taxes that the price of cannabis, with the tax coming out of the state, the excise tax and the sales tax, make it more economically viable for customers to go to the blake market. right now we're seeing almost an 80% increase at the retail shelf. at what point, by adding an

excise tax will we make that a doubling of the price that you can get it on the corner from your weed dealer? is we don't want to go back to that system. so, let's not allow the tax discussion to fail to bring in that consideration and the task force would be an excellent place for that discussion to happen. and then finally, regulatory equity and land use all overlap in data. we cannot move forward without getting data. we have an excellent director in the office of cannabis who understands the need for data, who is going to help me understand my next slide, which talks about how data works with our system. but methods of collection and the stoep of what we need in the first year's data, we need to decide now. so that we can start collecting it. and year one regulatory programme analysis. so, the task force is unique. it can look over the shoulder of the office of cannabis and hear both from its participants in the regulatory process, the applicants, hear from the

equity community, is it working and hear from our neighbours. is it working? we will be in the unique position to provide that ant. sister and will do so with your blessing. now what is this? review of viable system. i like talking about this because i'm learning about it as i speak. what i'm understanding is that the office of cannabis is being set up as a model for how online programmes can be used to gather data and make sure that that data is complete and send that data to the appropriate departments for review. so, in the online -- in this minimum viable system, we have not only those things that happen within i gate permit, i need go to step one, step two, step three but then we also have the preapplication requirements to make sure that you -- make sure that you are

an equity approximately kanltz or you have the appropriate number of equity employees. all of those things need to be data pointed and happen within the minimal, viable system. i probably fumbled that a great deal. by wanted you to know that the cannabis department is on the cutting edge of this technology. and i think it is going to help us. now in conclusion, and this is the part where i ask for your insight. our year three vision is outlined in this final slide. you saw it before. where have we missed an issue that you as the board would like us to take up as we move forward and set our agendas for the next year. if we've done great, i thank you very much. if you think of something in your sleep and text it, that is great. if there's something now that you would like to bring forward and talk about, i open it up for your conversation. >> that the end of your presentation?

>> and then i have a thank you slide. they were thanked at the beginning and on our website. and thank you for your time, supervisors. >> thank you very much, mr. allen. and ms. garcia and pam as well for your work on this presentation and our director and everyone who's been trying to help us navigate this new era here in san francisco. i appreciate the overview of the work that you have done in the past as well as highlight or preview of what you plan to do in the future as well. i really do like that you have a portion on here regarding youth. that is really important. and a lot of youth in our district through the youth council that we have in district four are curious about this topic. ftz in, it might be one that they're adopting to work on this year. because they also want to understand better how it is that they talk to their peers about it. how do they understand, you know, kind of what's available

to them or not and so forth. and i see -- ok. you are not getting up to talk about it. i would like to see what that education plan is for youth and now the unified school district as a whole is going to institutionalize this type of outreach to our youth. >> thank you, supervisor. i've made that note and will make sure that it is included. >> from the department of health, we are in partnership. currently with this unified school district and dcyf to work together in collaboration. i already met with the wellness centre counselors to brief them about this and we'll be working with them and happy to work with the youth council to engage. >> great. thank you for that. supervisor safai? >> thank you, chair tang. just a couple of comments. i know that, first of all, i

think that the task force did a tremendous job of informing us throughout the process when we were crafting our legislation. we had the good fortune of having many knowledgeable and talented people. i think the tour we participated in our office was very beneficial. i don't know if all the supervisors participated in that. but i know that many of them did and that was something that was very influential in terms of an impactful in terms of the way i was able to encroach given the legislation. i know you highlight add couple of thing, one of which we fried to solve for and have conversations around portability. the biggest hurdle with portability has to do with the fact that the regulatory and entilement. have to do with is it a land use conversation? and then to essentially take

that in terms of your licensing. we did provide for the mobility of the license. but it didn't remove the ability -- the requirement that a new location would have to go through the land use process all over again. and i don't think there is any way we're going to be able to remove that. as much as we would like it to. but what we did do, which i think was really important is allow for and control for the amount of ownership that the particular permit could be sold under. and how much ownership had to remain in the hanses of. so, we had instances where property owners came in and bought properties and were hopeful that they would then immediately assume that designation. in some cases they did. but we were able to, and correct me if i'm wrong, task force, but i believe we were able to solve for that in the

sense that just because you have the land use designation, doesn't mean you immediately assume the permit. so we worked directly with director elliott on that. it was an it ray tiff process. there was a lot of good leadership on behalf of the departments, the task force, the office of cannabis. my colleague. and i think we got to a really good place. woe are going to have to have a conversation about taxing. i think the taxing of this use is imminent. the state will come up with a number in the city and county of san francisco because of a lot of the needs in regard to health and equity and all the other desires. it is a conversation that is going to move forward in a rapiden maer, probably after the june election. but maybe even sooner than that.

so we should engage in that conversation. and other than that, i appreciate the conversation. i would like to echo what supervisor tang said because of the expansion of retail use, the knowledge and the access and the exposure of youth has gone up exponentially and i think it is important we have a real conversation because the folks that will be exposed to a broader variety of cannabis on the market, whether it is the secondary or tertiary market after folks that are buying it through the expanded retail accessability, we have to have a full-blown conversation about how we're disseminating that information. it's important to include, as you said, the department of children, youth and family

because there are those that are no longer in school, that are out of school and are hopefully accessible through the nonprofit networks that we have in the city and it is just about providing information and knowledge and understanding. and that might be a good thing in terms of the expansion of the retail. there is a little bit more knowledge about the strands and the usage and the dosage of t.h.c. levels versus just buying something on the street and not knowing what's exactly out there so that then there is going to be generally, what i'm saying is there is generally going to be more knowledge out in the general public. hopefully. and i think the department of public health has a key role to play in that. that way we'll be protective of our youth in general. thank you for your presentation today. we appreciate and look forward to a continued conversation. >> thank you, supervisor safai and thank you to everyone who has been work on this. i myself are first and foremost interested in how the

legislation that we just passed as a board will shake out in addition to everything that you presented today. i think that all of that will be very helpful in guiding us on your future work as well. we'll certainly all be thinking about that. i see there are no other questions from this trung indicated committee here. so, i will open up this hearing item four to public comment. if anyone wants to speak. come on up. >> hello. i'm jesse stoue. i live here in the neighbourhood. i'm on seat nine of the task force these past two years. thank you for passing this wonderful legislation two months ago in december that's enabled san francisco's cannabis industry to begin the process of becoming state licensed. appreciate that. a couple of areas from the presentation and others that i wanted to highlight. first the issue of consumption

of cannabis that currently the city has allow add few of the retailer, i think eight in total, to have consumption spaces within the retail floor spaces but that is not accessible for most people who would either like to use cannabis in their home, might have trouble with their land lord and there's just not going to be enough physical spaces in eight retailers for all the people who want to use cannabis in san francisco legally. so, we want to avoid a situation where people are going to use cannabis in the park or on the street corner. we instead prefer to allow some kind of space where people can go to use cannabis within city law and not run afoul. in other words to avoid people getting tickets that they can't afford to pay, we prefer if the board can continue to work on its legislation, to provide a place where people can go for safe consumption of cannabis. another area that is important that we mentioned earlier is compassion programmes. it's wonderful that the new legislation has the sentence

about the city will allow to have compassion programmes. we have a conflict with state law where the state regulations currently only alow for free medicine to be given out to people who qualified already as medical patients. we ask that the city lobby the state and expand city law to allow compassion programmes for anyone who can't afford it, rather than only people who have already gone through the expensive city card process. and finally i ask that the supervise source and the board to see your recommendation about the funding for eke wi applicants. we're concern that they may not be able to get bank loans and would be great if the city budget could include low-interest loans for these businesses. >> thank you very much. any other members of the public who wish to speak on item four, please come on up? >> hi, my name is wolfon i'm with the chinese-american democratic club. i respectfully ask to reject all recommendations coming from the task force.

it has been over a year of activism that's come of the neighbourhood and none of these recommendations come to support or address the needs of the neighbourhoods. i find that somewhat -- i nienlds offensive. i find that very offensive. since the last time i've spoken in front of the board ands in front of planning, two and a half months has passed since there's been a lot of people that's reached out to me. two of the top concerns that i have heard is cannabis grow within homes, rentsed homeswr* and i respectfully ask that

everything from the task force be rejected until there are resolutions to the neighbourhoods. thank you. >> thank you very much. any other members of the public who wish to speak on item four? ok. seeing none, public comment is closed on this item. i think that perhaps the task force could work with some of the members of the public who brought up suggestions. i think that would be really great. for example, i don't know if you heard earlier that we had chatted about the focus for youth. that is really important. again, i was glad to hear that you have a plan moving forward and perhaps we can do a better job to share with the public what exactly that is. supervisor safai? >> yes. i just wanted to -- the last comment by the previous speaker that's on the task force. >> jesse: something to

highlight for task force members and maybe they can report back to us next time. one of things that we heard from industry folks that because of the way we drew the equity rules that there was a lot of existing cannabis owners that had employees and other folks that were qualifying members in terms of the parameters that we set for equity applicants, that they were interested in working to invest and work with them as well. so i'd like to see -- you know, i'd like to see a report on what you're seeing in the industry as we move forward. the way the rules are set the next 50-plus applications that have to be approved have to be equity applicants. what we were getting some initial feedback is there were existing operators that were looking to invest and help to

grow -- no pun intended -- the equity applicants and their ability to expand. it will be interesting to see how they plan on doing that. and to the last speaker, you did miss our conversation and request that we had in terms of education and outreach and how we were informing youth in this process, particularly high school students. we had quite a conversation on that. director elliott, did you want to say something? >> director elliott? >> i'm sorry. >> i'm kidding. >> sorry. sorry. >> supervisor elliott, director of the office of cannabis. i want to a fluiinger for our website and on that website is a meeting page that gives every member of the public a sense of when we will be holding task force meetings. and we encourage members of the public to attend and participate in those meetings. as the recommendations of the

task force are advised by members of the public as well. thank you. thank you for sharing that. any other comments or questions? >> i don't have anything else. >> all right. well thank you again. i know that this is ongoing conversation that we're all going to have and monitor pretty closely. for today's purposes, we're going to close this hearing that was again called by supervisor cohen. i think we'll try to make a motion to file this hearing. ok. all right. we'll do that without objection. thank you. mr. clerk, are there any other items before us today? >> that completes the agenda for today. >> thank you. this meeting is adjourned.

>> okay. good morning, everyone. and i want to welcome you here today, where we will be talking about our new bill that we just introduced, sb-1045, which will give san francisco and other counties additional tools to address the human tragedy that we see unfolding on our streets every day with people who are severely drug addicted, severely mentally ill, and who are deteriorating and dying on our streets. first of all, i want to thank community housing partnership and gail gilman for hosting us here today. i want to thank the mayor of san francisco, mark farrell, and the president of the board of supervisors, london breed, for being with us today and

partnering with us to move this important effort forward. sb-1045 will expand public conservatorships. this is not about public conservatorships or probate conservatorships where a child steps in for a parent with alzheimers. this is about public conservatorships, so stiesk -- francisco can step in for people and get them into services. we want these people on our streets who are dying to get the housing and the care they need. we don't want them to end up in the criminal justice system, which unfortunately is what often happens now. we're often paralyzed by what we see every day on our streets, and it's easy to become numb, but we can't be numb. these are human beings, these are san francisco residents.

these are people who need help, and we need to help them. the current public conservatorship laws are simply too rigid to allow counties to help those who are in the great i say distress on our streets. too often after a 72-hour hold or perhaps a 14 day hold, people sober up become more lucid, and there's no longer a basis to continue to work with them and conserve even, even though it will be a resolving door, and they'll be back on the streets and in the hands of the city before long. this -- our current public conservatorship laws are particularly ineffective in addressing severe drug addiction because people can sober up and become apparently lucid even though we know they will spiral down again.

sb-1045 addresses this problem by expanding public conservatorships so that san francisco and other counties have more tools to help these individuals. to be clear, conservatorships are a very serious thing. they take someone's liberty away temporarily, and the county steps in and makes basic decisions for them until they become haelt healthy and are able to become independent and make those decisions for themselves. california's conservatorship laws have significant checks and balances, including judicial over sight, and ab-1045 will continue those checks and balances. we want to avoid the abuses and avoid the bad old days when people were institutionalized for mental health issues that frankly didn't require institutionalization. only a tiny percentage of people on our streets, perhaps 1% of our homeless population

fall into the category that we're talking about here. the vast, vast majority of homeless people in san francisco, this bill has nothing to do with them. this is for a tiny population that is diing ying on our stre that is in the e.r. all the time, that is being taken to the psych emergency room all the time; people that repeatedly need help. this is a life or death situation, and it is beyond inhumane to sit back and watch as these people die. sb-1045 is a broad collaboration between at this point san francisco and los angeles. my legislative partner in this endeavor is senator henry stern from los angeles county, and our co"au" shors are brad

hanford and steven allen. we are working closely with them to move both bills forward and to be a partnership. the -- of course we have with us today, our mayor and the president of our board of supervisors. in addition, in the last few weeks, both the los angeles county board of supervisors and the los angeles city council have passed resolutions with overwhelming votes asking the state to change its public conservatorship laws for exactly what we're talking about here today. in the coming months, we will work closely with our counties and cities and advocates and others to craft a bold and comprehensive bill that will save lives and that will protect the civil liberties and the lives of people on our streets. i also just want to note that this bill in many ways is a

legacy bill for mayor ed lee. mayor lee was passionate about getting homeless people off the streets, about getting people healthy, and before hedid diede made a number of commitments that i know that mayor farrell and president breed are getting people off the streets and save lives. this bill is really honoring and advancing of mayor lee's legacy of making sure this city works for everyone. so i'm thrill thad we have our city leadership here today, and i want to start by asking the mayor of san francisco, mark farrell, to come on up. >> thank you, senator weiner. it's rare that i have to turn a microphone down when i get up to speak. so first, i want to thank senator weiner and stern for their leadership on this issue.

it's a serious issue, but one we need to address as a city, as a state, and nationally, as well. we have to explore new ways to help these individuals. the status quo is simply unacceptable. we currently offer a broad range of services as a city for the mentally ill on our streets, but we know that many individuals simply need more help. they're unable to care for themselves, they are unable to deal with the challenges that they face on the streets, and as everyone here can attest, we are constantly looking for ways to break the cycle of people in jail, in hospitals, and back on our streets. we need to do everything we can to help these individuals that have these behavioral challenges. as senator weiner mentioned, i do want to take a moment to thank mayor ed lee for his

legacy on this issue. this was an issue that he cared very passionately about. in many ways, this bill is a continuation of that legacy. and mayor lee, before he passed away, in the fall of last year, launched in august 2017, an integrated care team where we have multiagencies within the city of frisk looking at the most prolific that continue to cycle in and out of our systems in san francisco. this team meets every two weeks to track these individuals and how they're doing on our streets and how we as a city are helping them get off the streets and hopefully onto better lives and their own 2 feet. mayor lee spent the last few months of his life working on this issue, and this integrated

care team is the result, and i want to thank him for all of his hard work. a few years ago, i worked with a number of those behind me on the board of supervisors to draft and pass laura's law here in san francisco. and during the drafting of that and working with sad vadvocate heard from many people who are askd by mental illness. in many instances, we heard family that's have elleders an parents with mental illness, and they are unable to help them. this is something that i'm very proud to support and sponsor because i do believe, as we did with laura's law, it's so important to convene the experts on this issue, work

with our advocates, work with this issue, and the state of california. if we're going to address the challenges on our streets, we need new ideas, we need new efforts, we need new laws to help those that are truly in need and deserve our support. i do look forward to being an active partner with senator weiner up in sacramento in this endeavor, and to work with our agencies here in san francisco. this is critically important to the city of san francisco. it's critically important to those that need our help on the streets of san francisco, and i couldn't be more proud to both sponsor this bill here and up in sacramento. thank you. >> thank you, mayor farrell. i now want to ask up the president of the board of supervisors, london breed, who i know is also introducing

legislation as this is a state local partnership. >> thank you, senator. thank you, everyone for being here today. good morning, and welcome to district five. i'm excited to be here at the richardson apartments because right here is the product of hard work and the investment that we need to make as a community and as a city to stablize and house the most vulnerable population we have in our city. for those of you who don't know, this beautiful property was opened in 2011, and thanks to the work of community housing partnership who is here today, these 120 units of supportive housing have transformed lives of countless individuals who were all formerly homeless. what our residents grappling with drug abuse, homelessness and mental illness need is a

unique individualized term. not one organization or city department or family member will achieve this goal alone, and no one policy change will be able to account for every personal struggle, but we must do more. we must have bold and creative ideas, and we must make individuals suffering from severe mental illness, chronic homelessness and substance abuse a priority in this city. just like the approach that is used here at richardson apartments, coupling housing with supportive services, these individuals have an entire village of people working hard every single day to help deal with a multitude of issues. we have high risk individuals who are suffering from is he vee mental health issues on our

streets right now that aren't getting the same services. we all see them, but we cannot ignore -- ignore them. sometimes, they get arrested for a day or receive a shelter bed for a day or hospitalized, but before you know it, they're back on the streets. we as a city have so many amazing resources and programs to help with those mental health issues, but there are far too many hurdles to get people the help they actually need quickly and consistently. i've personally tried to help individuals in my district and it's been incredibly frustrating to run into the limits of state law and sometimes our city systems. for example, there is an elderly man who resides in the haight-ashbury who i often visit and check on. for privacy purposes, i'll just call him bobbie. bobbie is mostless harmless, but he's a schizophrenic and struggles with severe trauma, and sometimes he gets taken

advantage of. when he cashes his social security check, he sometimes gets robbed, he gets beat up, and when his mental health issues flairs issues flares up, he sometimes become a danger to himself and others. his rage festers, and he becomes uncontrollable, and he becomes unable to take care of himself or his own basic needs. what bobbie really need is someone to take care of him, making sure his basic needs are met and ensuring he is on a regiment plan towards stablization and that he has housing. he can't do it alone. i personally have tried to help him get into shelter services, which he refuses to stay. but given our limited ability to conserve individuals and get them into a long-term plan, nothing seems to stick. despite my attempts over the last three years, bobbie is still on our streets.

how can we expect bobbie to navigate this system. as a public servant, as a leader, and as people, this community is counting on us to look at this issue different than we have before. we have to go beyond the status quo. when our systems aren't working for people like bobbie, we can't blame him. he we ha we have to take a hard look at the system and figure out how we can adapt services to wrap them around this individual. we have to make it work for him, and that's what we're announced this week. coupled with these much needed changes to state law proposed by senator scott weiner, i'm introducing legislation that will do two main things. number one, it will decriminalizing mental health issues by transferring the

current responsibility skefsh topship prime from the district attorney's office to the city attorney's office. these will be treated the same way as we treat child and family law in the city. and number two, it will kr 0 dify a system in the city that will serve clients like bobbie. it will address some of our highest, our most at risk individuals. some departments include the department of public health, the department of homeless and support services, the department of ageing and adult services, the san francisco police department, and the b.a.r.t. police. it's a bicycfocused effort by agencies to collaboratively monitor and treat individuals struggling with mental health

issues. that will provide a full wraparound services with a goal of getting stablized happy, healthy and housed for the long run. getting these individuals stablized and housed is a compassionate approach that we need to help them, and many residents see this on the streets every day. these are legislative, progr programmatic reforms that we need. i want to thank senator weiner for his help, george gascon, barbara garcia, who's been a tireless advocate for these efforts, and i want to thank the department of ageing and adult services, san francisco police department and the b.a.r.t. police, and the folks who are working with us on this multiagency approach, and i

also want to thank, along with my colleagues here today, supervisor safai, i want to thank mayor ed lee because he worked collaboratively with my office in the past year on this particular issue, and just his leadership and support in working on this issue has just been amazing, approximand to s come to life in this way is truly amazing. i will be introducing the legislation tomorrow at the board of supervisors, and i look forward to it passing, along with senator weiner's legislation on the state level, working together collaboratively is going to help us address this crises, and we will see the difference in the lives of the people that we save on on yur streets ever single day. thank you. >> all right. thank you, president breed. i want to acknowledge supervisor ahsha safai, who is here right behind me, and also

former supervisor angela alioto. in addition, we have several department heads here today, and this will be an interdepartmental effort. i next want to invite up, because this is fund amouamenta health issue. >> barbara garcia, director of health. >> thank you, president breed and senator fors introducing legislation at the state and local levels. this is an issue that i've been working on many years. many patients of ours, we see over and over again, at the moment that they present themselves to the judges, they look good because they've been in a hospital for a couple of days. but then, they leave, and we start all over again.

and again, the laws that are present today inhibit us to do the kinds of work that we believe they need. including the work thfact thatf these residents and patients of our communities will have representation as senator weiner talked about. i want to thank mayor farrell for continuing the commitment, and at the heart of the work of the health department is the responsibility of providing care to the most vulnerable population. i worked for at least two to three years with mayor lee on these same issues, and we continued to find that the laws just became pa barrier for us o find long-term care that these patients need. we're also part of the opening of this -- richardson. we know that people with addiction do so much better with housing. so this important combination of housing and treatment i believe will be the success, including the changes of the law. treatment, support, care, and

housing are critical to need to reduce the suffering and to save lives, so we support the reform. particularly because they add addiction, and we know that we see the results of the shortfall of our current system every day. in psychiatric emergency services, this is our psychiatric emergency room where half the patients also have an addiction problem, and more and more of them, because of our methamphetamine epidemic, and that means in 24 hours, they look much better, but what you see on the streets looks like mental illness. and in street medicine, we have a street medicine team that goes out to serve people, particularly the chronically homeless that cannot make progress on their own towards health and well-being without being housed and without treatments. so in san francisco we're always looking at the local level for new programs and innovations to address the needs of people who are homeless, who need help, and

who struggle going through the doors of emergency serves. we have incorporated over 100 beds to he been sure these people who need the care have the treatment services, and i know when we partner with the department of housing, we will provide the magic combination of treatment, law enforcement -- the court enforcement, because courts will really help us to ensure the individuals continue their care, and also with housing. thank you so much for your time today and your focus on this issue. [applause]. >> thank you, director garcia. and then finally, i want to bring up our host, gail gilman, the executive director of community housing partnership, an organization whose only job is to house homeless people, and they do a fantastic job getting people stable, in supportive housing, and so gail, thank you again for hosting us, and come on up.

>> thank you, senator weiner. again, gail gilman with community housing partnership, and i want to thank senator weiner and president breed for introducing these pieces of legislation at the state and local level. these pieces of legislation will allow the city of san francisco to come together and hope tho help those who need it the most. this will also give providers like community housing partnership the opportunity to provide intervention to individuals actually living in housing who sometimes get soen tasoen -- so entangled in their addiction that they put their housing at risk. we struggle every day in helping all of our residents get the services they need.

this pair of legislation both at the state level to give local municipalities the power to do their own planning and push that envelope, and the legislation that president breed is introducing will give communities like san francisco the ability to take individuals suffering on our streets, provide them care, treatment, and housing, and also will hand in hand give us the ability of those who operate housing solutions in san francisco to provide short-term solutions to individuals who at that time may not see what they'll need. we know that housing, treatment, services can work, and that this is one more tool in our tool box to help have a stable and thriving society. thank you. [applause]. >> okay. that concludes this press conference. happy to answer any questions.

february 14th, 2018. item one, roll call. (roll call) item two. members of the public may address remarks as the commission as a whole and not individual commissioners or department personnel. commissioners are not allowed to enter into debate. lack of response does not necessarily mean agreement of statements. >> presi c