so, this is 2015 and so what we decided to do is take all of this information that we gathered and start to put together a process and so what you will see here on the diagram is a timeline if you will of our agencies' efforts and the work we've done thus far and also i will talk a little bit about what we're going to do moving forward in 2018. so after we did that assessment. we really had to think about ways we could improve our outreach and engagement which we also call our public precipitation. and so we did was we didn't want to assume we know the answer and that is the worse mistake you can make in public precipitation. we looked across the country and we talked to other city departments, government departments, we talked to other entities and asked them what do you do for your outreach and engagement. it didn't have to be someone that was similar to us. what are the approaches that you take? do you have best practices? i think the most stunning thing

i found a lot of folks don't have this and a lot of organizations didn't have the formula or strategy in place but they all recognized the growing need for it because of the public really demanding this and wanting more of a standardized approach. so when we gathered all that information up we started to pull together a really good core team, about 50 of our staff that represented all the divisions across the agency so we had to develop actually a standard on how we could conduct our outreach and engagements and that's how poets was generated. it was a team strategy. the key word is team because we had to make sure all the staff whatever division they were in if they were involved in implementing outreach and endangerment, they have to have a seat and say at table. the core group that we had was about 50 people, a lot of folks like myself that conduct outreach and engagement and it took a while for 50 people to

come together and we made a commitment to our staff and said while we practice these standards and implement these standards we're also going to listen and we're going to start making sure that we have classes and we start training them. we've done extensive training over the past year and i'll talk a little bit about that but the peer group is what really helps us get this started. 2017 was really the implementation of all of these efforts i've just mentioned. wore still in the process of implementing these efforts. as we move into 2018, the core thing you will hear me talk about is we're no longer talking about stand addres standards.

when you think about accountability, anybody that has to conduct outreach and endangerment moving forward on a project with our agency, they have to be accountable and they have to follow these requirements. we're not asking anymore. so it really is raising the bar for us. so let me just talk briefly to you about the three core foundations of poets really comes down to three core components. and those components, like i mentioned are requirements they're based on resources and pockets and the other is relationships and with those components and we're on the right track for success and you will see the first part and requirement and briefly there's a lot of detail around the

requirements i can get into and out of respect for everyone's time here is the main part and we have to make sure that for ev project we a sass the projects impacts, what are the impacts to the community. and identify who those key stakeholders are. before we do anything we have to know who we're supposed to be talk to go and engaging with. we have to develop a plan. the plan is basically an outline of here are the impacts for the projects and decision space. based on that decision space here is how we're going to engage with the community. here is how we're going to take their input and here we are most importantly going to make sure they understand when we take their input we're going to come back to them and let them know how their input shaped that final decision of the project and it was a big complaint we heard was people said if you are going to bring me in a room and ask me what i think, let me know what you did with what i thought. of course, the early engagement

kept rising and all the discussions that i had across the city with people was it's ok if you don't have a fully thought out plan. we would rather you come to us early on when you know there's going to be a project formulating in our community and sit down and work with us. more often than not, we find when we do the engagement there are obstacles, unless you live in that neighborhood you don't understand. you can sit down and be transparent and sometimes that loading zone that doesn't make sense those things can actually be resolved within a group. we found that was important to make sure we included that in the process and the last piece really was we have to make sure that our staff understands and know how to use all of our communications channels. there are so many ways as an agency that we can reach the public. but making sure that our staff knows how to use those ways it's not just our website, there's lots of opportunities. also, not letting a project become quiet.

more often than not, i know a lot of you have heard the complaint is i haven't heard about this project for two years. as far as i'm concerned it's starting over. if we really do our due diligence, that will not happen because we will make sure that we have on going engagement. we remind people while some are in another room building a project for a plan that's approved the project is in process. we'll second ou spend out flyerk with our aids and all of our community and neighborhood and merchants groups to remind them and the community is that the project isn't going anywhere. that was a really core piece of what we heard when we talked about our outreach and engagement. so the second r is resources. that speaks more to us as an agency and how we support our staff, right. so right now i'm really happy to say we've actually trained 100 of our staff. i think actually you know about

this training because you were interested in it it's a one week long training with the international association of public participation and this really does take our staff for a full week off site, explains to them this is what public participation is. why it's important and the foundation of your agency. here are what you consider when you put together a plan for a project. that is the one thing, i get requests all the time for that class from our staff because at that moment they truly feel they understand it so much better than they have and they feel they have some guidance and help on how they can start to develop a plan but also feel more empowered and confident about going out and talking to the public. and that's not an easy thing to do. and so, the education and train asking a core part of the training is core support. we have office hours and staff can sit down with someone like

myself and more senior members that understand outreach and engagement and sit down with their project and will help them develop a plan. because i find sometimes staff just needs that extra guidance and help. and we're also going top webinars some of which will be our own and some of which we can borrow from other true public practitioner professionals and it will be things such as best practices, tools and techniques, things of that nature that you can use. there's a pretty robust list of the plan that is going to launch with the requirements. i won't get into all the detail but if you are going to ask people to do a job you have to provide them with what they need to do the job well. and that is what we're trying to do with the resources. the last part, well relationships, right. so if we don't build trust with the communities that we serve and we don't sit down and listen to them and work with them, without a relationship and trust projects will not move forward.

it's just a fundamental commonsense thing. and so we have ways in which we're trying to help staff with that. this is a very important core piece of the poet's programs. we do have and ihink some of you have heard about our district liaison program and they're actually dedicating to a specific district. some of them have built solid relationships now. they go to the community meetings. they go to the merchant and neighborhood group meetings and they understand the concerns the community has. they report back to the supervisors and their aids. a lot of the community members know them and trust them and as a conduit to the agency so that time where you picked up the phone and didn't know where to go, they clear that path and get you into the right direction. they don't solve all the problems but they do mitigate a lot of the frustrations that used to come with those

problems. and then of course you've probably heard of some of the working groups we've done. we had a d3 working group with supervisor peskin and his aids and i thought it was a successful one. we sat down with representatives of the community, merchants and neighbors and advocacy groups and really listened to them about their concerns specific to their district. sometimes when you troy to implement a project and 100 people in a room is very difficult. but finding five to 18 people that the community feels represents them, allows you to dig deep no into a project. we've gotten a lot of input on the requirements. we're launching in july, i conducted about 30 input sessions. i went out and talked to different community groups, members of the community, leaders of the community and we have talked to a lot of folks and asked them in a perfect

world, if we were to conduct outreach and engagement what do you think is missing? what are we doing well and what would you like to see change and i really feel that with the lessons learned a lot community meetings we've had the past couple years the implementation of our standards and listening to everybody the requirements really are a culmination of those efforts. but you know, when you launch something like this of this magnitude the requirements do take some time and i think the education that we're going to give and the training we're going to give our staff will be helpful and instrumental. so the last piece is really how do we know if this is all working and quite briefly, if you think about it, it really says the stake holder relationship, which we've already talked about. if we have those solid relationships and we develop that trust and we can work with these community groups, we're going to see projects move a lot more smoothly. if the project deliverly will be a important part of that because

when you have those relationships and you do the right level of outreach and engagement projects around stalled the way they have been in the past. and the last piece of course is our staff members and that is giving them the encouragement, the training, and the resources and tools that they need to go out and be better prepared to do a better job. that's my very brief summation. i look at ed because he laughs. i do tend to talk a little bit. it's a lot of information and there's been a lot of work done these past two years and some of you have been exposed to it and been part of the process. the last thing i would only say is thank you. to really say it takes a village. we've had a lot of people, like i said, there was a 50 membership of peers that helped me with this. leadership has embraced this and stood behind me and supported it. i've met with a lot of advocacy groups and a lot of members of the public who have given us valuable input. it really has been an on going effort with people involved so i

would say thank you to all of those and their support. the next step isaunc lng these requirements and you know, putting our money where our mouth is and see what happens. >> thank you so much for the presentation. i'm going to go to public comment first. do we have public comment? >> yes, kathy di luca and david pillpal and stephanie di luca. >> hello, my name is kathy i'm the policy and program director at walk san francisco. and i think that deanna is brilliant. i think that everything she put up on those slides captures what we see and hear in the community all the time. i was listening to what she was saying and i stopped and i just wrote deanna is brilliant. listen to her, fund her and expand this program. that's really all you need to know. except that i'm going to add a

little bit more. i think that this outreach that this really deep outreach that deanna is creating for this agency is actually what can get us to vision zero by 2024. i think we're seeing delay after delay in projects and i think that engaging the community in a deeper way is going to get us there more quickly. and so i encourage you to double, triple, the amount of money and time and staff resources you put no outreach and make it a major vision zero strategy. when i think of deanna i think of the term decision space and it's a important term. she says it all the time but making sure staff really let's the public know where they can have input and not. this agency has goals and you are going to meet those goals and do certain things that not everybody is going to like. but where can you empower the community. where can you listen to them? where can you build that trust? how can you have trained staff that sometimes has to go out to the community and know they have

to say we messed up. we're going to do better. that is how you build trust. you go out and i think the poet's process understands that and will really help this agency meet all of the amazing goals that you have. deanne is brilliant, expand this program. >> david pillpal followed by stephanie. >> i agree with much of what kathy just said and i disagree with kathy on a number of policy issues but we agree that deanna is brilliant and you should support her. as opposed to my earlier comments i'm positive about this item. i think that doing this right may take more staff. i would be fine getting rid of some of the planners and hiring public outreach people. i think if we do fewer things and do them well rather than trying to do more things and do

them poorly that would be better for the agency. do fewer thing things and do thm well. supporters are already on board with what you are doing. and i think it's important to build trust with people who are on the fence about various projects and operations of the agency. people who oppose various things that the agency does. and finally, and again, agreeing with what kathy just said, be honest. when there's something that is working well acknowledge it and celebrate the people who are a part of that and when something is not working well acknowledge that and say you know, we didn't get that sign up or we didn't call that person. we really need to do a better job and do a better job and get back to those people. all of this is really critical stuff. perhaps more important than the earlier items on the agenda and some of the specific projects before you. the way we go about our business and interact with each other is important. i cannot support this work

enough. >> thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> stephanie kahina, herbert winier are the last two speaker cards. >> good afternoon. i'm the executive director of the action group. i just want to echo everything kathy said. deanna is brilliant. i'm part of the small business working group she has engage for about a year and a half now. analyzing gaps that really have been a disservice for the small business community and project implementation with m.t.a. a lot of the folks represented in that group come from diverse corridors that have different stressors and different dynamics but the one unifier we had because a general frustration of the outreach engagement processes with m.t.a. engagement being the paramount and most important thing that we are focusing on. one of the things that was expressed constantly were the financial implications these

outreach engagements had and so with deanna we tried to find the root causes of why there were so many issues with it. what's going on with this, right? and she let us workshop ideas and really get and have input on these processes and say this is not going to work and add this and take this out. it was an amazing process and just going through that process really restored trust, which is a big statement with this agency, right. it restored trust with a lot of community leaders that have lost it. and so i really want to congratulate deanna for doing that and i agree that this should be funded and implemented as soon as possibility. i acknowledge there's gaps in implementation and difficulties trying to launch this but i'm definitely hopeful that with this groundwork, that a good future is ahead for m.t.a. on

this front. thank you. >> thank you, very much. >> next speaker, please. >> herbert winier that is the last person who has submitted a speaker card on this matter. >> thank you. >> herbert winier. i'm in agreement with what everyone has said. i'd like to extend it a little further, however. i noticed that part of the political tone of the board has been identity politics. there's been the bikers, there's been vision zero, there's the transit riders union, but what about the individual? and that is the real problem. the individuals who are affected by the decisions of this board and sadly this board has been divorced from reality at times. there's been impacts. i've always referred to the long distance that seniors in this disabled have to walk to the bus stop. and i don't know if this was

taken into consideration by the board. this offers the opportunity to do that. and part of the proposal i would like to see, if an individual is concerned, they can call people directly and express their concerns because groups can express their concerns but they can't directly reflect individual sentiment. not every group represents everything i feel. i think people ought to be able to express their feelings and this is offering the opportunity to do that and i hope the group of this organization does that directly. it's a small voices that are not heard. and this proposal enables this and i think this builds trust between m.t.a. and the community

and i think it enableses his mission which basically all of us don't really disagre with. it's just how it's being done. which is often flawed. >> thank you, next speaker, please. >> the last person who turned in a speaker card. >> we have one more person approaching. >> thank you. >> my name is donna parker. and i want to tell you how happy i am that i stayed when everybody else kind of left because this was a wonderful presentation. this is what we need in the m.t.a. when sen drank fewer had a meeting and a number of us one of the highlights of her comments were there's no place to go that can tell us everything that the m.t.a. is doing in our neighborhood. so, we were there about the eighth avenue project. but, then we had concerns about

the gerry which has changed names a number of times for us but that they've taken the bus stop on ninth away, which leaves us going to park precidio or up to sixth avenue. i'm glad that you admitted to not having looked at all the information on the diversion plan because if you had you would see that eighth avenue is one of the few places on gerry that you can make a left-hand turn on to eighth avenue. that's part of the problem. the only place you can get in and out of the park and the only place on gerry street you can make a turn. so where is that going to leave people? now you will ask them to zigzag across streets, which is more dangerous than having them go direct. [ please stand by ]

>> director brinkman: please stand up and approach the p odium. >> my name is greenway i've been consulting to mta on the poets program in 2015. i want to share couple of t hings. one is how from the point of

view of public engagement practitioner, how important this work is and comparative perspective, within public agencies not just in california but really nationally. mta helped develop this program out of political leadership. which is an institute at the university of pepperdine and what they saw early on in 2015 was the something really special what attracted me was not just the project itself but the team behind it. deon in, candice and madeleine and the leadership from ed reiskin was critical. i seen all kind of efforts that start in the middle level of an organization and not ultimately been successful because of lack

of sustained leadership. i ask you to give your support and continue to watch the great work that this team is doing. because that leadership support is critical and i wanted to share with you really how much attention is being given to this work from an outside community of practitioners and public agencies. thank you. >> director brinkman: thank you for your work on the project. any more public comments. come forward. >> my name is frank. i have a background in community planning and public engagement. i want to echo. the report was actually well done. it was nice to read and c oncerned i am. what i would echo in your notes you need in not just agree with it. you need to institutionalize it that every new project fund has to be focused. your grants will end up drying

up and outreach and engagement is the first place grants dry u p. i would encourage you strongly to make sure that there's a fiscal affiliation or percentage of every new project will have a poets component built in. right from day one. otherwise your sustainability of these projects will fall flat in three years, five years. i would love to see start a year ago. coming from any other voice you need sustain this and you need to build it into a budget for every project. >> director brinkman: thank you very much. do i have any more public comments. seeing none. public comment it closed. the last public speaker, you did absolutely sum up what i i ntended to say which is it's so heartening to hear all of these public commenters about how important this is. we had a couple of examples here today as we just heard of how if we had this process in place, if

we had this level of outreach and engagement, we may have had a very different outcome. we can't underestimate the values of good, outreach and engagement and the follow-up and follow through. we're also going to have to absolutely, i know director torres will bring up the cost of this outreach. both what it cost up front to have this level of outreach and engagement and what it cost us on this side when we don't have good outreach and engagement and we have people who can't suddenly realize they can't park on air own street and they have a permit so they can't park anywhere else in the neighborhood. absolutely hear your frustration on that. i apologize that was something that a process like this had it been robustly aapplied, we would have caught that. the eighth street neighborway i felt staff frustration and that was really hard for me to watch

to realize that they obviously felt like they had the wind knocked out of their sales because we didn't have a good process to get to a great solution for that street. which that street deserve and the citizens deserve. i just want to say, i know that this is -- it's a lot of verbage for those of us who aren't in that area. it's a lot for us to understand. i'll remind us all director ramos left this board to go to sfmta to work on this. we know what good people are involved with it. i'm confident that with our support, with continuing to move forward on something like this. we will have fewer of these situations where we have neighbors come to us and say, what about this and that. you missed this, we've got this wrong. we don't agree with this because we don't understand what the impact is going on in the neighborhood. thank you very much for your work on this. i really appreciate it. you have my commitment to

absolutely support that outreach work. i think we're going to start s eeing the benefit of this. we need to see the benefit of i t. we hear it from supervisors and citizens we know we need to do better job. this is how we're going to do i t. so thank you very much for that. yes director torres. >> director torres: i don't recall hearing, i was listening carefully. maybe for incorporating our f ears and concerns. do we provide outreach meetings interactive opportunities for female -- people who can call i n? we finally set allowing public to call in and public comment. because we're statewide agency, it was much more problematic. i think that might help especially if disabled or s eniors can't get a way to go to these outreach meetings.

i don't think technical requirement will be that hard. i wantedito put that out there. we can figure out if that's feasible. >> absolutely. what public participation is all about is knowing that pecple are not going to always come to you. implementing new technology in ways that we can get to them and the gentleman said earlier, it's not just about the groups but it's about the communities. we have to go outside and actually go door to door and talk to the community. i seen those in action and they work really well. >> director torres: thank you madam chair. >> director brinkman: director boredden. >> director borden: i was congratulate them on their amazing work. i'm excited about this. people i've known since i been on this board. this has been a big issue for m e, having done community plans and working with developers to make sure that they engage with the community to reach the best possible outcomes. i'm thrilled that we are making

this real. obviously the challenge will be really implementing this going forward. even backtracking on some of the existing projects to really kind of be more robust in this area. i'm confident that we are. i'm glad to hear you say that trust is the next system of the most important aspect. one thing i heard on the board of the mta, real lack in trust of why we make the decisions we make. it's frustration when you have vision zero and trying to include transit performance and that people doubt -- they don't trust us enough to believe that the improvements are done for the right reason. it's not special interest that come up. we believe this is the best approach to achieve certain outcomes. i think that's really important. any way we can increase our ability to gather more feedback, we also hear different call for

people to attend them. that's another factor is. people work and people don't have access to the internet. really trying to be creative how to best reach people. it's going to be quite dynamic. i'm 100% supportive making sure we fund community outreach efforts. make sure we do this holding members whether it's agency and contractors accountable. >> empowering staffing to be comfortable enough say, sometimes the answers are no. true public transportation doesn't mine 100% consensus. sometimes we have to make difficult decisions. we showed we listened to folks, we can stand behind our d ecisions. that's where the trust starts to grow. >> director borden: i would love that. we can start with. we can't do everything that people suggest that we do. people come up with great ideas.

point is, we have to be honest with people about the tools that we have in our tool box to make changes. so we don't bring people together with unrealistic expectations and to say no and also you pointed out, bringing back the feedback and explaining what are the parameters when we start off with what we have to work with helps a lot in being creative. >> very much so. >> director brinkman: vice chair heinicke. >> director heinicke: congratula tions on good work. i will support this. it's something that needs to be done. it's been getting better over time. when i first started it was hit or miss. there were certain people who seem to get the praise for the outreach and maybe other folks who didn't. standardizing this is clearly the way to go not just depending

on the independent and individual project managers. in that same time, i sort of seen three categories of outreach. there's one we didn't know about it. our friends from market street here today who sat through this whole meeting. fall on that category. that's just a mistake. hopefully we'll fix that and they'll know. there's people who knew about it but they didn't feel we listened to. that we just came to them and we said here's the plan. we'll tell you about it. if you have questions ask them and we're not going to listen. there's people who knew about i t, got a chance to input and just don't like the decision. they're going to come back that's an outreach failure. by definition that's not an outreach failure, they knew about it and they participated. it's the category in the middle that i'm most worried about. to two friends from market street, hopefully that won't happen again. but that's more easily a ddressable. it's are the one in the middle.

the complaint that i hear on the one in the middle is this. staff shows up with a plan, communicates the plan and there's a sense that that just the plan. they are there to provide information and answer questions and tell you how life will be and give how fancy dissertation on why harvard public school will endorse this thing without listening to the neighborhood concerns. i saw that in your presentation. it seem like there's precollaboration in there. i realized there's tension. you can't just go out to pick the richmond, eighth fulton and say we're thinking about solving the bike problem. what do you guys think. that's not going to to do it either. there's some middle ground. i would say as you're doing this and maybe this is built in the program, be aware of the perception that we go out and tell people how it's going to be

and then just impose it. i think even if you go out as we often get as board members, several design plans with a recommended one for us to c hoose. several options within a menu for people to consider and give your input on. that will go long way towards solving problems. i think it has to be more than just listening. i think considering design alternatives considering program alternatives and bringing them to the neighbors and the supervisors and the people there so they're actually concrete choices and concrete discussions to have is going to go a long way. because the tension or the resentment that i'm talking about is palpable. it's not only bad for the policy and it can inhibit dialogue

where people will feel like they will not be heard and why bother in the process. we want the neighbors to show us and fell us how to do it better. that's going to be critical. perhaps something you're well aware of. i will tell you over 12 years of doing this, that's the complaint that i hear at this end of the process and when i'm out in the community what concerns me the most. >> i can come back if the future and talk about that. there's really definitely what you're speaking to makes lot of sense. there's different stages of project in different decision spaces. there are projects where we are here to inform you. this is a safety project. there's no work around this and no decision space. why do we ask people for their input. why do we not be transparent. there's other area where we do have parameters by which we can frame a project without having a fully baked idea where people can weigh in and help us maybe that final decision. part of that comes better educating our staff and actually

better articulating that to the public. you're speaking directly into that middle area that we have to work the most. that's where the genesis, lot of the frustration is. i hear you loud and clear. in part of the plan on how to address that. >> director brinkman: director what shoe any comments. >> director hsu: you all covered pretty well. looking forward to seeing how this gets played out. especially vice chair heinicke's comment about the perception we'll do it this way. that is really good issue we can get out in front of that as much as possible. it will go a long way. >> we are human beings, there will be mistakes. no matter how much we try as an agency. staff will sometimes miss a mark and what we should do is correct that and acknowledge it. it takes a long time. we're changing the culture of an agency. we are being looked at from a

national level across the country. lot of organizations have not attempted to do this. without leadership like director reiskin and what -- hsu behind, this would not be happening this takes time. we'll be traitor and acknowledge when -- transparent and acknowledge when mistake is made. it's really difficult job for them to talk to the public. sometimes it's very i ntimidating. not for me but other people. >> director brinkman: thank you so much. director reiskin thank you for your support for this. we're going to have citizen who are more engaged and feel like we are out there doing the best for them. our work depends on this. we're going to get there. thank you very much. >> thank you guys.

>> secretary boomer: item 14 whether to vote attorney client privilege. >> director brinkman: do i have a motion. all in favor aye. any public comment ongoing into closed return. >> how many lawyers does it t ake. >> mta board is back into open session. item 15 announcement of closed session. >> move not to disclose. >> director brinkman: second. all in favor aye. we will not disclose. >> secretary boomer: that concludes the business before you today. >> director brinkman: we are adjourned. thank you for spending your tuesday afternoon with us.

bayview. >> a lot discussion how residents in san francisco are displaced how businesses are displaced and there's not as much discussion how many nonprofits are displaced i think a general concern in the arts community is the testimony loss of performance spaces and venues no renderings for establishes when our lease is up you have to deal with what the market bears in terms of of rent. >> nonprofits can't afford to operate here.

>> my name is bill henry the executive director of aids passage l lp provides services for people with hispanics and aids and 9 advertising that fight for the clients in housing insurance and migration in the last two years we negotiated a lease that saw 0 rent more than doubled. >> my name is ross the executive directors of current pulls for the last 10 years at 9 and mission we were known for the projection of sfwrath with taking art and moving both a experiment art our lease expired our rent went from 5 thousand dollars to $10,000 a most. >> and chad of the arts project pursue. >> the evolution of the orientation the focus on art education between children and

patrol officer artist we offer a full range of rhythms and dance and theatre music theatre about in the last few years it is more and more difficult to find space for the program that we run. >> i'm the nonprofit manager for the mayor's office of economic workforce development one of the reasons why the mayor has invested in nonprofit displacement is because of the challenge and because nonprofits often commute technical assistance to understand the negotiate for a commercial lease. >> snooechlz is rob the executive director and co-founder of at the crossroads we want to reach the disconnected young people not streets of san francisco for young adults are kicked out of the services our building was sold no 2015 they let us know

they'll not renew our lease the last year's the city with the nonprofit displacement litigation program held over 75 nonprofits financial sanction and technical assistance. >> fortunate the city hesitate set aside funds for businesses facing increased rent we believable to get some relief in the form of a grant that helped us to cover the increase in rent our rent had been around $40,000 a year now $87,000 taylor's dollars a year we got a grant that covered 22 thousands of that but and came to the minnesota street project in two people that development in the better streets plan project they saved us space for a nonprofit

organization national anthem and turned out the northern california fund they accepted us into the real estate program to see if we could withstand the stress and after the program was in full swinging skinning they brought up the litigation fund and the grants were made we applied for that we received a one thousand dollars granted and that grant allowed us to move in to the space to finish the space as we needed it to furniture is for classes the building opened on schedule on march 18, 2016 and by july we were teaching classed here. >> which we found out we were going to have to leave it was overwhelm didn't know anything about commercial real estate we suggested to a bunch of people to look at the nonprofits

displacement mitigation program you have access to commercial real estate either city owned or city leased and a city lease space become available there is a $946,000 grant that is provided through the mayor's office of economic workforce development and that's going to go towards boulder the space covers a little bit less than half the cost it is critical. >> the purpose of the organization trust to stabilize the arts in san francisco working with local agency i go like the northern california platoon fund that helped to establish documents of our long track record of stvent and working to find the right partner with the organization of our size and budget the opportunity with the purchase of property we're sitting in the former disposal house theatre

that expired 5 to 10 years ago we get to operate under the old lease and not receive a rent increase for the next 5 to 7 years we'll renting $10,000 square feet for the next 5 to seven years we pay off the balance of the purpose of this and the cost of the renovation. >> the loophole will that is unfortunate fortunate we have buy out a reserve our organization not reduce the services found a way to send some of the reserves to be able to continue the serves we know our clients need them we were able to get relief when was needed the most as we were fortunate to arrive that he location at the time, we did in that regard the city has been - we've had tremendous support

from the mayor's office of economic workforce development and apg and helped to roommate the facade of the building and complete the renovation inside of the building without the sport support. >> our lease is for 5 years th a 5ear onyx by the city has an 86 year lease that made that clear as long as we're doing the work we've been we should be able to stay there for decades and decades. >> the single most important thing we know that is that meaningful. >> it has been here 5 months and even better than that we could image. >> with the economic development have announced an initiative if ours is a nonprofit or know of a nonprofit looking for more resources they

can go to the office of economic workforce development oewd.com slashing nonprofit and found out about the mayors nonprofit mitigation program and the sustainability initiative and find their information through technical assistance as much as how to get started with more fundraising or the real estate assistance and they can find my contact and reach out to me through the circles of the city through the >> so first, i want to say good afternoon and thank you for joining me as i submit our balance to your budget to the board of supervisors here in city hall.

i want to start today by bei acknowledging all of the hard work that went into this. i want to thampg the members of the board of supervisors, i want to thank the departments that are here today and their staffs for all their hard work and the months of preparation that are here today. there are a few people that i want to call out. first, ben rosenfield. i also want to thank and acknowledge harvey rose. it has been a pleasure with the board of supervisors to working with him. and lastly, and i want to say most importantly, i want to thank my entire budget team. they're all sitting over here, and to keller kirkpatrick, our acting budget director, can we

give her a round of plauz? [applause] >> and i want to acknowledge my chief of staff, jason elliott, jason, thank you for everything. [applause] >> so before i dive into the specifics of the budget, i do want to acknowledge where we have been over the past seven months. i think we all remember where we were when we heard about mayor lee's passing and the shock that it felt. no one could have possibly anticipated that our mayor would have been taken from us in december, taken from the city that he loved. we all have endured a lot since that fateful night. many of us have cried, many of us have mourned, but we have come together as a city. we have definitely had our disagreements and debates over the past seven months, but we have stayed together, defending the values of san francisco. and while our local economy continues to thrive, san

francisco faces real challenges every single day. well, you all understand that a mother should not have to choose between paying her utility bill or paying rent, the potential of facing eviction or homelessness. we know that clean streets free of syringes and needles should be the norm, not the exception. that parking your car in san francisco should not induce a panic attack because you think it will be broken into. we all understand that residents in historically under served communities did he serve the resources and -- deserve the resources in a booming economy. they deserve it from san francisco. and as the trump administration attacks so many of our communities, our immigrant community, our lgbt community, our women in san francisco, and

the rights of all san franciscans, we must fight back. we are stewards of the greatest city in the world, and we will rise up to the challenges of today. thank you. [applause] >> now, homelessness has plagued our city for decades, but the situation has never been so dire as it is right now. we will not solve this epidemic with one single answer, and this budget takes a multifacet multifaceted approach to making a real dent in the issue, to help stem the tight of homelessness and push back on the challenges that have confronted us for years on our streets. i also understand the roots of this tragedy are complex, they are not simple, and they are also not unique to san francisco, which is why over the past few months, i have

partnered with ten of the mayor's of the other largest cities in california and advocated in sacramento, advocated with our governor, spent hours in sacramento together as mayors to ask for more than $1.5 billion in our state budget so that cities can address homelessness on our streets because we know the solutions that are working. and i want to say a special thanks to assembly man -- senator weiner, assembly men chiu, and this budget, as large as it is and as large as the investments are within homelessness does not reflect a single dollar of that ask, and we have had great results in sacramento in committees over the past few weeks, and we are hopeful that additional funding will be coming shortly from sacramento. this budget invests in measures

that prevent people from falling into the clutches of homelessness to begin with, while also supporting programs that ensure once they are housed, they will have the support and services that they need to avoid slipping back into homelessness on our streets. we will be compassion driven in our approach, but we will also take strategic common sense measures, measures such as our encampment resolution teams, because no one gets better by living on our streets at night. the first fiscal year of my budget will include $30 million in new initiatives for homelessness. that package includes an investment to double our home ward bound budget, a measure that reunites struggling families with their loved ones, and last year alone over 900 people were served by project home ward bound, and less than

10% of people returned to the city of san francisco to access services. this is to prevent and divert people from a life on our streets here in san francisco. and when someone leaves the throes of homelessness, they will leave permanently with the resource necessary to make sure they get back on their own 2 feet. in the next fiscal year, this budget will create 200 new supportive housing units in san francisco. with these units, san francisco will have more than 7,900 permanent supportive housing units in the city of san francisco, the most percapita of any city in our entire country. along with our new units, i will be investing $1.5 million additional funds to support additional housing at our permanent housing sites. this includes $15 million to