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tv   Government Access Programming  SFGTV  August 10, 2018 12:00pm-1:00pm PDT

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from chinese. we believe that it's very important to give culturally appropriate care to our patients and we have information. i'm very excited about this opportunity to expand our services in the health of the patients in the community. i'm very pleased with that. >> thank you. commissioner green. >> yes, i am a little confused about spmf and the health plans you take. because i know that cpmc, for example, takes blue cross programs and medical but i know my colleagues in the foundation are not on medi-cal and as not example, blue cross plans, we've had this problem because we prefer our patients to spmf doctors and find out were contracted with these plans that they're not. i'm wondering if you can explain how you plan to expand and mirror the health plans that
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cpmc is a part of so we can ensure that all the patients can have continuity care and i guess the second question i have is spmf taking the services that will duplicated and i'm curious whether spmf is planning to take over the breast health and cardiology and so fourth at the van hvaness campus and if not, y not? >> i am plead i don't know the answer to that one. i've just taken over as c.e.o. in that area so i'm not sure about everything. on this, first of all your question on insurance programs. you are absolutely right, there are millions of insurance plans around and in emergency services obviously people can go to the hospital and get taken care of. non emergency services, people need to check their insurance plans. we have met with and reached out to plans and we're here and
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available and willing to work with you on these programs so that they're available for anyone who wants to use them. additionally, for medi-cal, as you know, many, many patients have signed up for medi-cal hmos and that is just like signing up for kaiser hmo and
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do you know the percentage of medi-cal? >> we have reached out to the insurance plans to contract with all of them, including hill and all the other plans to offer those services. so we have no intention of not offering the service, we want to offer them to everyone and we are working with their health plan administrators to write those contracts. so it's our intention to contract with all blue cross plans. >> this will be done by the time all these changes occur? >> so the contracting issues as you well know, laurie is complicated and it's complicated because it takes two sides to make a contract. what doctor stated it's our intention to offer those plans to continue access to the services we are mentioning.
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it's up to the plans, frankly, to decide whether they want to continue that. in terms of paramix, the diabetes center at saint like's. surprisingly 36% is commercial, 25% is medicare, 25% is medi-cal fee for service. 2% is medi-cal risk and 0.3% are self-pay. i can answer the question for the other activities as well. >> i also want to comment on the concept of community benefit. we have both a duty and an inclination to community benefit in the foundation and give millions in community benefit every year. free services, uncompensated care and community benefit classes.
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we have thousands of outreach classes. so we are very committed to the community and community benefit and especially education research. >> so much non-invasive cardiology is already done in the foundation. our current plans are the mammography unit, which is a very large unit is going to move to the specific campus and at least for the foreseeable future is going to continue to be operated by the hospital. however the national trend, as you know, is for diagnostic services, whether lab or radiology, to move into outpatient providers. so my guess, but it's just a guess is at some point in the future, most of those outpatient services will no longer be provided, not just by c.p.m.c. but frankly any hospital in the country.
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>> as you know, matt [off mic] limiting our ability to [off mic] >> all of the money that goes to -- >> please speak in the microphone. >> sorry, all reimbursement within the hospital and foundation goes to sutter. it's one bottom line. it's not the physician group is contracted with the foundation to provide services. but all of it goes to the same place so it's not a difference. the foundation and the hospital are one. we have one single member on the board.
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>> commissioner guillermo. >> you spoke about these transfers would be able to provide a benefit for the patient. so i'm interested in, sort of a bigger picture of that system otherwise it looks like each of these becomes a discrete transfer for, you know, any purpose that anybody might ascribe to it, so i'm interested in getting a little bit of a big picture of that transfer of patients from the acute care setting to a more of an outpatient, essentially community-based setting, so that we can maybe look at this in that context.
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as well as you mentioned community benefit which was one of my questions. how does all of that fit together? >> some day we need to sit down and spend a lot of time talking. if you look at health care as a whole, it's moving from the hospital to the outpatient setting everywhere. whether it's electronic monitoring in your home or home care, in-home care, there's lots of things going on. the concept of the hospital as the center of health care is really quite antiquated. unfortunately, you can't sort of break it all down and start again and say oh what's the best place to do this, we will build this for this, and this for this. so what we have done is said where is the best place to put assertive as we know it now and as we have the opportunity to make those changes we make those changes, so the foundation is growing. they are making big investments
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in primary care and in growing the outpatient setting and availability of outpatient services for patients in san francisco around this beautiful new hospital that's being built. so to sort of round out the care that we provide. so this is our opportunity to make those changes. and as we continue to grow and change, we will take those opportunities and make those changes. >> community benefit? >> what would you like to know about community benefit? i don't have the numbers with me but i can certainly provide them to you. community benefit comes in the form of free care, providing care in the various foundations, it's done in different ways. whether it's teaching, research, free care, classes is a huge part. physicians giving more time, we pay the physicians, they then give their time to h.u.f.c.'s and other community benefit services.
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>> are you then -- >> do we monitor it? because you are answering the question, my response is it just the foundation that manages the community benefit resource allocation, community benefit plan, or is it a separate community benefit plan or department versus the hospital, or versus the system? because i'm talking about system. >> right, right. so the system has a community benefit goal. so that's one of our measures, how much community benefit you are providing within your community based on your size and other things. so the hospital has a community benefit target and we have a community benefit target and that's monitored within the system and watched. i think that answered your question.
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our community benefit is coordinated in the way that every year, or i guess every couple years, the hospital and community clinics in the community services, look at needs assessment for a community and look at what needs to be done and how they can participate in that. so a community benefit in one town might be different. in sunnyvale we teach nutrition classes, run the project cornerstone, we do lunches for kids. so there's that type of community benefit. you do what the community needs. i'm sorry, i'm trying to answer, i really am. i'm not sure what you are asking. >> sorry, i don't mean to drag this on but you mentioned community benefit was a part of the consideration as these services are moving into the foundation. so my assumption was that there was going to be a coordination or integration of the resources that you have with community
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benefit relative to these services that are transitioning. >> i think we made, there was a disconnect there. one of our speakers said there's no community benefit in the foundation and i wanted to be sure that you all understood that there is community benefit in the foundation and we do have a responsibility for community benefit. however, it is true that much of community benefit in the foundation is in the form of education. so many, many education classes are transgender classes are classes for suicide prevention for teens. all of that fits in community benefit and that serves sort of the needs of the whole community. you look at the whole community. did that make more sense? sorry i didn't confirm the disconnect there.
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>> commissioner sanchez? >> thank you. i just want to make sure i heard you correctly. you said in reference to the diabetes patients that are now being seen at saint luke's, the new services will provide culturally competent linguistic staff? >> the same staff -- >> staff or professionals in the new site, which is the one on van ness? >> we did mention a new diabetes site ativan necessary. -- at van ness. the cal campus, we will find a new site for it. we haven't determined where that's going to be just like other programs at cal campus, that campus is closing.
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we haven't determined it might be pacific, it might be van ness, it might be elsewhere. >> i'm sorry, but i do want to cite, because of the 2-mile rule your colleague mentioned in the presidio, his comment a little of this geographic area, two miles. two miles of saint luke's includes a number of unique services that have been going on for over 50 years in the community. the mission health center. central latinos of san francisco provides nutrition, citizenship, english, health education. they also provide transportation. they also provide meals. 7 days a week. a number of the non-profits are transferring to that because they are the only physician
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that now consistently cooks in that area, everything fresh. on the other side within your area is on lock which also has a large diverse population. plus we can name a number of other sites in this area. and two blocks away is the rodriguez early childhood education program on mission street which is over 70 years old which provides nutrition, training for staff and diabetes because of the student population there. the grandparents come in. the parents come in and it's all part of this communication and education. all i'm saying is within this two-mile area there's a number of unique resources that are now being linked with sfgh and others to provide some of these services, including choir system from u.c.s.f. etc.
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but i still haven't seen any discussion and or collaboration to utilize these services to enhance the ability to maintain these cultural services within the new parameter of the new st. luke's. that's sort of a little bit on the radar. so hopefully, as i said, it took a long time to get spanish-speaking staff a number of years ago for the diabetes center out there plus some other programs. >> so commissioners, as i'm sure you are aware, we work very closely with the san francisco community clinic consortium. our primary partner in that, and this is a decision the community clinics make we are the primary hospital for all of their patients. i'm sure that director garcia can talk about that. mission neighborly health center, i think still san francisco general. i think the hospital has done a
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very good job working with the community clinics in identifying the appropriate place for patients to get that kind of care. we are working with community clinic consortium. when we get asked to do things we try to say yes. >> if i may, commissioners, if i can just ask a couple questions and make comments. dr. rivera, we are pleased you had the conversation about reflecting who we serve in our communities is so important for us. this is one of the issues we had the conversations with sutter about the diabetes clinic and the concerns that staff from those programs show and you could hear that today. the fact you are going to be leaving the hospital setting, which is, as you said, from a system approach, outpatient is where it's at and that's where we need to do our best work. the disparities in our community are really in the latino, samoan and african american communities.
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i wonder could we hear a commitment from you, particularly to work closely with us, because as we move forward, you won't have to come to a prop-q hearing when you reduce or eliminate a service. but it is, and i know your working relationship as an example with missions neighborhood health center, which will be really important. but we would like, because you are a new person in around here, i just want to hear a commitment from you to work with us closely. we have, you know, i think, common interests and i would like to work and i know our staff would like to work with you in terms of looking at those common denominators because i know we could do better. whether at the patient or hospital level. prop-q is important, we would like to see what happens at the hospital level. we would just like to hear a
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commitment. we have our chief medical officer for network here. it's so important, alice chan. dr. brown and i worked closely for two years on the development agreement. five years, okay. two intense years of negotiations. and i just think, hearing a commitment to those populations, i think, would serve us well. and getting to know you, as the c.e.o., we look forward to that. but a commitment to these populations is going to be really important for the future and working relationship for the health department. we are here for you and with you to assist you in how to serve this population i think we have expertise in. i just wanted to give you that opportunity. >> thank you. i'm absolutely committed to serving the community and getting to know the community. as i say, i apologize, i'm new to this part of the
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organization. and just beginning to learn about the needs. but, if you grilled me on the community needs in the south bay where i have worked for a long time, i could tell you all the f.u.h.c.'s on a first-name, in fact we actually just won the award for the organization that's most honored for helping the community through our work with project cornerstone, our work with the y.m.c.a. and our work with the food banks and other things. we are absolutely committed to helping the community and really having a partnership. hearing what the needs are and how we can help with those. especially classes and other things. we really are excited about that. >> i find this discussion concerning the change of
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management is somewhat more of a trust that the statement made that c.p.m.c. has reported no changes to services except payment sources or staffing models from our presentation and slides is actually not reflected in any of, in either your letter to us, for example. i am pointing this out because our responsibility now is to determine if that management transfer is as best as we can tell having a detrimental impact on the health services in the community. the responses to dr. green could also be interpreted to mean that not everyone who currently is able to access
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certain services at the hospital base clients will because certain plans may not choose the rates you are offering them. i agree, it's a contract negotiation. but understanding contract negotiations, that could have detrimental effect if, in fact a u.s. or 500% of everyone's cost. i like the fact you are shaking your heads saying no. but it would be really nice to hear a more positive, or see a more positive commitment, as i think director garcia was hinting towards, to show that, in fact, both, or in this case, because it's going to be the foundation that's going to have to carry out at least some sort of semblance of a responsibility that this very short statement seems to envision that we aren't changing services. we are moving across the street
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to the montego building. we will keep the same staff. we will have the same culturally competent staffing. we will be available in echocardiograms just like we were a hospital. that would mean also these normal, lower say income medi-cal patients will actually still have access. i don't see that. >> sir i want to clarify, the only group we don't have assurance about are commercially-insured patients. a limited number of blue cross plans we still have to get a contract with. now, as you all know from your experience at chinese hospital, negotiating with insurance companies is not straight forward. it is our hope they will agree to accept the same rates that
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they currently pay to the hospital for these services. honestly we would not be truthful with you if we said we could answer for them. but that's our intention is to say this is our plan, do you agree. in terms of medicare and medi-cal and vast majority of patient insured services, it's not an issue. >> i understand. obviously you can't be held hostage to unscrupulous differing programs or plans. i think if we were able somehow to get a clearer definition of what the management transfer would be and while you can say there is no real impact, we are going to maintain all of these. if that could somehow be translated into some type of, for example, whereas in our documents, that then allows us
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at least what we could have understood to be the intent that you have. i think that helps us move forward in terms of looking at how we could say the health care of the city isn't going to suffer from this change of management. and i think we have several weeks. that we take some time to see if we can craft something. many years ago we had this same -- not this same issue, but issues of, for example, i don't -- dr. brotmo was here at that time, we talked about employee benefits. that was finally worked out and available within our whereas's. understanding from you these are so. i think that this is something that we could leave to
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crafting, in terms of improving within our document what we understand you have said today to show whether or not there really is any change so that a clinic moving to the montego office building will have the very same services. that is your intent. will have the same access. if those things could be placed into our whereas's, and i leave that with staff to try to work out. and i think the same issues that dr. garcia has raised for us from a continuation of working together to try to continue to move forward on services. that might also be reflected in some of our issues in terms of the alzheimer's and what not. the intent we could place the
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organizations together willing to move. it's all part of health care is dynamic and moving. can we actually have a resolution that then could say that these are changes that can make sense are not going to harm but even serve our community better. is that something we could work towards? >> we could certainly work toward that dr. chow. we could certainly try. we all understand part of this proposition to process is to have a public hearing of the changes that are going to be made. and i'm sure the commissioners understand that ultimately the decision to make those changes are hospitals and foundations but we work very closely with the departments to make sure that what we are doing is as fair and equitable as it can be so we are happy to take that
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back to our team and work with director garcia and her staff. >> right, i would just like to see we could memorialize some of these issues going forward. >> what blue cross decides is not under my control but -- >> very interested in the medi-cal population. >> right. >> and the people we are currently serving right now. i think those are all things if we were able to place into, you know, it's a moral commitment and we are all aware of that. prop-q is only a moral, a more public hearing to understand what is happening and i think that helps for you to tell the public and tell us and the public your intent. we really appreciate that, it's again another reason we take more than one hearing in order
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to try to see if we could work things out. >> we are quite proud the new facility we are building at daviess for inpatient and outpatient psychiatry will be a much better place to provide that care. if we could have a prop-r? [chuckles] >> staff? >> prop-r should then call for you to come and tell us all the good things you are doing. thank you. commissioners, any further comments or questions? therefore we will be looking at august 21. it is possible that if, in fact, going back to the whole issue of the svindal services in the day center that we may want to also be looking at some of that and possibly that might call for a delay if we can
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understand more of that and i think that we certainly want to give every opportunity to see that the health care of the community is in fact enhanced rather than reduced by the proposals that you have brought to us. >> yes, and as i think you know, august 21st is in the middle of a very busy week for us, because we are opening a new hospital on mission bernal on august 25th. i know full attention is going to make sure that goes as smoothly as possible. >> and this commission is very pleased you are hoping that new hospital for our communities. if there are no further questions, then thank you for coming and to help state what your intents are and we will
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ask staff to continue to work with you so we could have that as part of our resolution. thank you. >> commissioners, item 11 is other business. i'm just noting that your next meeting is off site. it will be held at the richmond community center at 251 18th avenue. of course we will send that as a reminder to you and give you details about parking and all of that. any other questions about the calendar? any other issues you would like to bring up during this item? okay we will move onto item 12. >> [off mic] >> i'm sorry? item 12 is report back from the july 10th meeting. i believe commissioner sanchez has the notes. >> thank you. this is the july 10th meeting
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of the laguna joint cause committee. -- attended even though she had undergone that accident last month but she was there and did want to present the report and we welcomed her back. we also have the 218 san francisco fellows project which did an excellent presentation pertaining to designing the visual board for our nursing hurdles and they presented just basically these were three fellows that were all young women who just did an outstanding job pertaining to working with our nursing staff as they took a look at different challenges affecting patient care. and it was just extremely well done and everybody gave them a standing round of applause. we also had our lien
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transformation update, discharge care planning improvement event. we had resident satisfactory survey different from the one taken five years ago. even though there might have been some very negative comments about five years ago, a number of those, or some of those who made those comments were very pleased with the resident family satisfaction survey this time. we wanted to thank the staff and everybody at that point. the committee also approved the hospital-wide policies and procedures, in closed session we approved the credentials report and we adjourned, i believe at 5:30. >> is there any other additions my colleague would like to make? >> i just wanted to add that it was my first opportunity to attend one of the j.c.c.'s at
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laguna honda and i was both surprised and pleased, i think, at the staff participation and what seems to be a very, i think, robust desire on the part of what i observed, a robust desire to really sort of bring the hospital into a more high performing and sort of, at the same time, maintain its orientation around a very sort of humanistic care facility for its patients. so to be able to move into something that requires much more efficiency at the same time, same if not better level of human touch is something that i observed as a sort of
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dual and laudable goal on the part of the management and the staff that i was able to interact with and observe while i was there. >> thank you. that concludes our j.c.c. report. >> great, we could move onto consideration of closed session item. there's no public comment request for this item. >> okay, a motion is in order to hold a closed session. so moved. second? all in favor say aye. all opposed.
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>> i'm warren corn field and we are doing a series called stay safe, we are going to talk about staying in your home after an earthquake and taking care of your pet's needs. ♪
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>> here we are at the spur urban ken center and we are in this little house that was built to show what it is like in san francisco after an earthquake. we are very pleased to have with us today, pat brown from the department of animal care and control and her friend oreo. >> hi. >> lauren. >> could you tell us what it would take after an earthquake or some other emergency when you are in your home and maybe no power or water for a little while. what it would take for you and oreo to be comfortable and safe at home. >> just as you would prepare for your own needs should an earthquake or a disaster event occur, you need to prepare for your pets. and i have brought with me today, some of the things that i have put in my disaster kit to prepare for my animal's needs to make sure that i am
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ready should something happen and i need to shelter at home. >> what are some of the things that people should have in their home after an earthquake or other emergency to help take care of their tasks and take care of themselves. >> i took the liberty of bringing you some examples. it includes a first aid kit for your pet and you can also use it for yourself and extra meds for your pets. and water container that will not tip over. we have got both food, wet food and dry food for your pet. and disposable food container. and water, and your vet records. in addition, we have a collar and some toys. >> yeah. to keep oreo busy. >> he needs toys and this is san francisco being a fruity city and come on oreo.
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this is your dinner, it is patte style chicken dinner with our foody seen here. >> what they say now is that you should have at least a gallon of water and i think that a gallon of water is small amount, i think that maybe more like two gallons of water would be good for you and your pet. >> does the city of animal control or any other agency help you with your pet after an emergency. >> there is a coalition of ngos, non-governmental organizations led by the department of animal care and control to do disaster planning for pets and that includes the san francisco spca. the paws group, the vet sos, pets unlimited. and we all have gotten together and have been getting together for over four or five years now to talk about how we can educate the public about being prepared for a disaster as it
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involves your pets. >> a lot of services. i understand that if you have to leave your home, we are encouraging people to take their pets with them. >> absolutely. we think that that is a lesson that we concerned from karina, if you are being evacuated you should take your pet with you. i have a carrier, and you need to have a carrier that you can fit your pet in comfortably and you need to take your pet with you when you were evacuated. >> i am going to thank you very much for joining us and bringing oreo today. and i am go >> my biggest take away is that you can always find a way. most people who go into public policies really want to make a difference and have a positive impact on the world, and that's what i love most about my job. i feel like every day at the
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sfpuc all of the policies that we're involved in have major impacts on people's lives both here in the city and across the state and the nation. in 2017, california senate bill 649 was released. it would have capped the fees that cities such as ourselves would be able to charge telecom companies for the right to use or poll for their cell equipments, and it also would have taken away city's abilities to negotiate what the equipment looks like, where they could be placed, and potentially we could even be in a position where we would not be able to stop them putting equipment especially on our light poles. my name is emily lamb and i am director of policy affairs for the sfpuc. i really am involved with a team of people and building a strong coalition of a team of
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folks. we are working very closely to get this bill defeated and ultimately vetoed by governor brown. >> emily is one of those people who is a bright star with regards to her passion, her commitment, her tenacity and she's just a great, fun person. she's all of the things that you would want in an employee and an ambassador for our organization. >> my biggest take away is you can always find a way, especially when something is important and worth fighting for, if you put your heads together with people, and you collaborate, that usually you can find some solution to get to your goal. in this case, it was a bill that most people considered politically difficult to complete, and we didn't have a chance of doing it, but with a lot of strattizing with a lot of different partners, we got
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it done. my name is emily lamb, and i am the director of policy and government affairs, and i've been with sfpuc for 2.5 years. >> hello, everyone! good morning. my name is london breed. i tam mayor of the city and county of san francisco and i'm happy to be here today for a really important announcement. sthau -- thank you all so much for joining us. today we are announcing additional funding to fight unlawful evictions and prevent displacement of tenants in san francisco. many of you know i've been a renter all my life and i personally know what it feels like to face housing insecurity. in fact, a couple of years ago, when i was on the board of supervisors, my building was sold and i didn't know what would happen to me and the other folks who lived in the
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building. we know that one of the best ways to prevent homelessness is to make sure that we keep people housed in the first place. some of us may be familiar with the fact that almost 70% of the people who sadly live on our streets that are homeless were actually housed in san francisco. before they became homeless. that's why as president of the board of supervisors, i pushed hard to establish the right to council so that people don't have to face eviction alone. and we did not go through the process of that particular legislation since we know that proposition f was put on the ballot and overwhelmingly passed by voter and we know that proposition f did not have a funding source attached to it, i as mayor have made a commitment -- [shouting] that we would fund that -- [shouting] that we would fund that -- [shouting] and people would not have to
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face eviction. [chanting] the reality is our housing shortage is driving up the prices of citizens across the city. which can incentivize evictions. you know what's really unfortunate about this situation is we're all fighting for the same thing. and today what i want to announce is that we're providing $5.8 million here in the city and county of san francisco for the right to council for residents facing eviction. in the vast majority of these proceedings, land lords have legal reasons and representation antenanlts do not. we know sadly that most tenants can't afford a lawyer and don't know where to go in the first place when they are served with an eviction notice from their landlord. as a result, too many san
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franciscans face eviction without knowing what their full rights are. it's not a housing policy that we want to advance in the city and currently the mayor's office of community development spends over $7.5 million annually on eviction protection tenant outreach and education and short-term rental assistance. but these programs do not provide the full level of scope that so many people need stay in their homes. as i said earlier today, assignment proud to announce that we're investing $5.8 million to fund this program over the next two years to support legal representation for tenants facing eviction. [applause]
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one of the first things i did as mayor was to work to rebalance our budget to include funding for this very important program. starting in june of 2019, tenants will now have access to full scope legal representation and be better able to prevent evictions and stay in their home. we are the first city in california and the second in the nation to institute a right to civil council for tenants. and as we work to create more housing and increase affordability for all of our residents and invest in critical tools to prevent displacement, we have to make sure that we're paying attention to everything that's going on and making the right investments. i want to thank the board of supervisors for their collaboration in securing this funding and even though he is not able to attend today, i wanted to recognize asommably
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member david chu who created the pilot program for legal counsel for san franciscans for civil proceedings in 2011 when he was a member of the board of supervise source and i appreciate his advocate siz on this i believer ewe over the years. i want to thank the legal service organizations who are here with us today and will assist us in developmenting and implementing this very important program. so now with that, i'd like to turn it over to the district five supervisor, someone who has been on the front lines and an advocate for residents of district five for so many years , ladies and gentlemen, district valley supervisor brown. [applause] >> thank you and good morning. i'm valley brown, supervisor of district five. today is a good day for renters and the city. in june, of this year, the voters of san francisco asked and received right to legal
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council when fighting evictions. assembly member chu introduced the idea when he was on the board of supervise source. today we celebrate this work put into place and the funding which is an absolutely important tool. thank you to the hard work and strong partnership between the mayor and board of supervisors, we were able to fund this in less than two months. [shouting] funding is very important. [shouting] it is naornlts we have a great stride to protect renters facing eviction. with the recent passed budge, we now have the necessary resources to fund eviction defense for the residents of san francisco. thank you, mayor breed, for working with the board of supervisors to ensure this critical first step in its funding. going forward, i would -- i am planning on working with my colleagues on the board of supervisors and mayor breed to
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invest in programs that will help people stay in their homes. and create more opportunities for affordable homeownership so the need for eviction defense becomes a last resort. when we look at funding for rental subsidy programs that help working families and low-income residents, keeping roof over their heads, existing programs and partnerships are helping folks, but we must explore expansion funding and strengthening of existing rental subsidy programs. while also looking for new opportunities to help san francisco -- san franciscans stailz in their homes. so >> so, the next speaker we have here today, the executive director from eviction defense collaborative, martina -- are you here? >> yes. >> thank you. come on up. [applause] >> good morning.
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my name is martina and i'm the executive director of eviction defense collaborative. on behalf of san franciscan tenants, we thank mayor for prioritizing keeping people in their homes. we also thank the collective advocacy of the homeless emergency services providers for their tireless efforts in securing these funds. we also thank san francisco tenants union antenanlzes togethers for their work surrounding prop f and the voters of san francisco who ensured that prop f became the law of the land. we are pleased the mayor is acting diligently to provide an immediate influx of $1.9 million to help keep san francisco tenants in their homes. we haven't seen the devastating impact the housing crisis is having in our communities for years. and we as a community have been failing to keep people in their homes. we know that evictions have been rising at a dramatic rate over the past five years. we know that land lords have been represented by attorneys
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at a rate of 6-to-1 compared to tenants. we know that having an attorney increases a family's chance of being evicted by over 70%. we know that being evicted from your home in san francisco means being evicted from san francisco. our family, friends and our neighbors are being pushed out of this city. we also know that protecting tenants preserves affordable housing. unfortunately, the united states of today is a place where is how much money you have dictates your access to basic human rights, including your rights to a home. san francisco residents are saying no more. they are saying this is our city. these are our homes. and we will defend our rights. and with these funds -- [applause] >> whew! that ok right! and with these funds, mayor breed is pushing this agenda forward. she is stepping up as a leader for this movement.
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she is acknowledging that housing is a human right and she is commited to leveling the playing field for this city's tenants. this combined $5.8 million is a start. while we have a ways to go, i know that i speak on behalf of all the tenant services providers when i say that we're excited to work with the mayor and city staff. we are ready and up for the task of bringing tenant right to council to san francisco. thank you. [applause] i'd like to now introduce tom drohand, supervising attorney for legal assistance to the elderly. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i work at legal assistance to the elderly. one of the many community organizations that provide direct boots on the ground, full scope legal representation for tenants in san francisco.
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we've been providing free legal services for seniors for nearly 40 years. we help seniors who are victims of elder abuse. we help seniors with their social security benefits. we help seniors preserve their health care. we help seniors with debt relief. but san francisco's current severe housing crisis now over 60% of our calls, are seniors calling for help because they're in distress because they received eviction notices. each year we receive hundreds of calls from desperate seniors threatened wtih eviction. many are low-income, long-term tenants paying low below market rents and they're falsely accused of minor lease infractions or wholly made up alleged nuisances. for them, having an opportunity represent the scouter a difference between keeping their home or being on the street. i worked in l.a. for over 25 years. for a long time i was the only
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housing attorney there and the hardest part of my job was telling a desperate senior that i couldn't take their case because i was already overloaded with too many cases. with this increased funding from the city, the number of cases we are able to take has increased greatly. but there's stille a need. no one, and especially not our city's most vulnerable citizens, should lose their home because they can't afford a lawyer. [applause] when we take a case of legal assistance to the elderly, we take it to win. we aggressively litigate eviction case on behalf of our klienltzes. we take cases to trial and we win. this year we won at trial where the landlord was trying to evict our client because other members of the family were involved in an act of domestic abuse. a major land nrords san francisco was alleging that the
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rent ordinance that we have to protect our tenants did not alie to them. we won the case for that te nanls and also for all the other long-term seniors in that housing. we have a long history of fighting for our clients and keeping them in our homes. this additional funding means legal assistances to the elderly and all the other tenant organizations here can help many more seniors and others keep their homes in san francisco. i'd like the introduce to you a senior who rerecently helped fight her wrongful eviction and has kept her home and is here to tell you about it. ms. wong? [applause] >> thank you. and good morning to everybody. my name is virginia wong.
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i came from the fill leans in 1983 and i have lived in a place -- in an apartment where i am now. my husband has been there living since 1974. i have always paid my rents. and all of a sudden there was a problem. i didn't understand why the landlord said i owed money. i was afraid i was going to lose the small place that i am staying. so, um, -- and that means i would be leaving my small place. i would be leaving my friends. i would be leaving my church and my doctors and my friends. in the community.
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then i met tony at the legal assistance for the elderly. he said he would help me. i felt my darkness became lighter. in the end, it turned out the landlord was wrong in the calculation and my attorney got the case dismissed. i also [inaudible] when i heard this and at that point it meant that i was going to be able to stay at home, which is my place. and i'm thankful for the legal assistance. that helped me. and why do we have to choose people who will live in san francisco who, after all, this is san francisco the name of the saint who was so poor but
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helped -- who was so rich and became poor to help everybody. thank you. [applause] >> again, thank you and san francisco. only in san francisco. gotta love san francisco. nonl san francisco can you do something like provide $5.8 million for right to counsel to tenants facing eviction and have protesters. thank you, guys, for being here today. [applause]
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>> president m. cohen: good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. i want to welcome you to the july 24th, 2018 meeting of the board of supervisors. thank you for being here. madam clerk, please call the roll. >> clerk: supervisor brown. president cohen present supervisor fewer present. supervisor kim present.