>> she was not able to answer and i'm going to ask you the same question today. the question is supervisor, when sweeps of homeless people who don't forget are your constituents, one of those

sweeps ethical and humane. to steal people's tents, tarps and other survival gear. when it is ethical and humane to steal people's medication, medical supplies, food, water, clothing. to steal and confiscate everything something owns leaving them with nothing. alone and unsheltered and victims of the weather and abuse and assault and who knows what else. so, when is it ethical and humane to do everything you can to get that tent gone? supervisor mandelman, where is your compassion?

>> next speaker. >> before the next speaker begins, just a reminder of. >> i'm colleen rebeca the senior organizing at the tenderloin neighborhood. for more than 35 years, they've provided housing and services for san francisco's lowest income residents. our buildings are home to 1,000 people who are formally homeless. through the work of our organizing team and others, we also engage in community development work and our deeply concerned about the well-being of our community members who are forced to live outside. tndc works hard to ensure that everyone has access to housing and adequate affordable housing is a shelter from the elements, provides a path to safety and stability and helps people

achieve and to thrive. we are building as much permanent supportive housing as we can. however, with housing development costs rising to over $700,000 a unit, it is not possible to meet the massive need for housing with existing resources. we believe that to adequately

address the problem we need far more resources and we encourage the city to continue doing all it can to dedicate research. while we all work towards providing adequate resources to create permanent solutions to homelessness, we believe that the fundamental dig net tee and. >> we are curious to understand more dooley the severe weather protocol and support the city and moving towards more expansive solutions. >> my name is sonia. i live in western seem a i think legislation, preventing sweeps is a great idea for a number of reasons. one of which is that it will actually create another opportunity to have another hearing and i think meetings like this are very important. another kind of meeting that is super important is meetings about proposals to build shelter. i have a flyer here, if you can put it on. the long-term solution for homelessness is housing and shelter as everyone here agrees. march 12th, there's a doubleheader. 3:15 at the ferry building before the port commission, 6:00 p.m. there's a proposal for 200 beds, a 24 hour shelter and the location for this is bryant

street and embarkedero. can you imagine this neighborhood is freaking out. it's so important that if you want people to have a place to live inside, please come and show neighbors that the community, as the previous speaker mentioned, the community is for housing and shelter. we want to make sure every san n franciscans we welcome housing and shelter. if there's a person that says my neighborhood is special, there shouldn't be a shelter in my neighborhood. when that person comes to a community meeting about shelter, we need to make sure they look around and they say, oh my god, everybody else here is for the shelter. you know, i thought that everyone agreed with me but actually, no one agrees with me. so, come out and show support for this particular shelter and like i said, 200 beds. it's 200 fewer people who will be potentially victimized by

sweeps. thank you, see you march 12th. >> next speaker. >> jennifer, coalition on homelessness. it's been brutal. it's been cold. it's been wet. for folks on the streets, that's potentially fatal. hypothermia says happen as low as 50°. the response has been abysmal. what we see on the streets, folks out there survival gear confiscated and nowhere to go and they're not offering anything. the city responds to give them misdemeanor for being poor. this is just a twisted work around to avoid the city policy, the property policy so they can take someone's tent when they know that the prosecutors is not prosecuting these and so it's all just a huge charade and to pour salt on the wounds of the people they're taking their property from? they're calling it a success? a success?

to reduce and takeaway tents? how dare the city call that a success. how dare the mayor call that a success. what is a success? a success is getting people mao housing. that is say success. meanwhile, the city has protocol that expands beds if they fold but doesn't know fie how to get the beds so they don't expand them because they never get full. this is a grotesque circle of despair and it's clouded by a lot of bureaucracy and reality and the reality is, they rarely have beds to offer but they're taking people's property everyday. every policy maker should support a better protocol because it's humane. sweeps are illegal, wrong, inhumane and because even this federal government think they're wrong. [ please stand by ]

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i do agree about the setting up the shelter on the waterfront. and i also was really heartened by supervisor -- [bell ringin ringing] -- by supervisor walton's approach to looking at potential that we can do this. you know, if all the people that were housed in san francisco were required to spend one night sleeping hard on the street, they would realize what those folks on the street have to put up with. how do you get up in the morning and get cleaned up to go to work? what do you do when your -- [bell ringing] >> thank you, next speaker. >> my name is betty trainer.

i was senior disability action and i'm a resident of the western addition. i'm bringing that up because a few years ago when there was extreme weather, the ymca, the buchanan, was one of the temporary shelters. that is right next to our complex. the director of the ymca there was very committed to providing that y as a temporary shelter. he called a meeting. the neighbors came to. he answered all our questions. he actually even was able to get investors -- volunteers from our community for this. what happened? as far as i know nothing happened. none of the homeless people were admitted to the shelter. i guess they didn't meet the criteria. maybe it was 42° instead of 40. 42° is very cold. i encourage the supervisors to accept the criteria of the

coalition on homelessness. especially about lowering the threshold. i also want to bring up one other issue which relates to the homeless outreach team. i called 311 in december because of a woman, a senior, who i saw sleeping on the street. when i called, it was a little after 10:00 p.m., and the 311 person told me, yes, this would go to the homeless outreach team, but unfortunately, they're not on duty. their hours are 6 a.m. to 10 p.m. i encourage you to make the homeless outreach team 24-7. please find the money for this. and the recommendations of the coalition on homelessness. thank you. >> thank you, next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm tiffany, district one resident. in a special report published last year by the united nations, the city of san francisco was

singled out for its punitive policies and denial of basic human rights to life, housing, health, water and sanitation. the u.n. has called for the policies to be prohibited by law and immediately ceased. the day before mayor london breed's inaugural ceremony on july 11, 2018, taking place a stone's throw from the u.n. plaza, there was an e-mail. can you please have the 70 units head down to clear out the homeless? they will need to stand by after the sweep is done. a few of the supervisors have expressed dismay and surprise that the sweeps have been happening continually. but if ignorance as a law doesn't hold up in court, does ignorance of human rights' violations fare any better? what is your defense, supervisor mandelman?

we call on you today to end sweeps effectively immediately. we call you on to provide constituents the basic right of adequate human shelter. not a cot for one day. not 25 extra mats during a rainstorm. we call on you to recognize and understand the respect their decision to refuse services that are inadequate and incompetent. we call on you to cease the persecution of the unhoused. these are our demands. we, the people, say enough. thank you. >> hi, my name is harvey williams. i'm a d-6 resident. done outreach and aid and taken statements from unhoused people in recent months. just to reiterate things that have been said. i know you don't want us to repeat, but we have to respond to lies that are repeated. the services offered are not in

good faith and are used as a threat. people are not able to get their belongings back and everybody knows it. last week, tuesday, february 26, i spoke to people on 46thish and the outer sunset, a married couple, and a man named roy. all said they regularly confiscate their belongings. they're given a few minutes to pack up. if they can't do it, their items are taken. they've had dozens of tents taken. roy had his glasses taken and is unable to see. robin is disabled decorated veteran and they slept in the rain on monday night because the last tent was taken by the city. they had a dozen tents in recent months. 12. a lot of those are handed out by people like us. they were thankful for the tarp i gave them that was left over

from a drive the dsa organized. there is good chance that will be taken, too. i've spoken to dozens of people. they threaten arrest, confiscate their belongings. and leave them to suffer. any offer of service is disingenuous. the question is not whether shelters are offered when they do the confiscations, but whether the offer is in good faith. to make it worse, these human rights are displayed on the twitter account, in actual fact, these are human rights' abuses and they're serving one portion of the population and brutally punishing another. >> hello. my name is tony page. i am paraglide and formerly

homeless. one of the things i want to talk about is the fact that we have been having these sweeps at such a regular basis. i think it's reprehensible. we have people who are losing everything from their meds, their clothes, their tents, all their belongings taken and the cold part, it's in the middle of -- cruel part, it's in the middle of extreme weather. i don't understand why you -- why the city would want to tear down peoples' tents in the middle of a rainstorm. or when it's 40°. i don't understand that. the other thing is, i think the city might need to adapt some newer ideas. maybe start networking with some of these organizations here like

some of them in the room here. or maybe even organize with some of the churches or something and maybe starting things such as tiny house villages. or even legal encampments. i've seen other cities adapt it and it seems to be working pretty well. you know, it's just something to think about. thank you. >> thank you. thank you for holding this hearing. i'm representing glide along with community members and staff. i find myself affected by the hearing as i'm sure many of us do. we completely agree with the recommendations of the coalition and our partners. we completely agree that the sweeps need to stop. and i think what comes up for me, i really want everybody in the city to believe the people who are affected.

i just want us to believe the people, because it doesn't seem like that happens. it seems like if anything comes up from the city, it should be from the voices of those people. i agree that police officers are not equipped to do the work we're asking them to do. and the dpw workers themselves are probably traumatized from the work they have to do. i believe that if we can do something that -- folks will be able to participate in a way that will lead to the outcomes we're looking for. if we can't do housing, we do shelter. we have to meet people on the street where they're at, and let them have what they need to survive. in glide, we're willing to work on this. we're willing to provide supplies, help with social services and all the ways we possibly can. but i think the one thing i wish we had heard from the department

of emergency management other than disdain, what if we had found those of us who are housed without housing? what if we all became unhoused? i think it would be dramatic, incredible and what we need to see today. >> thank you, next speaker. >> hello, supervisors. i wanted to thank you all to voice the urgency at which we approach and work on this ish. my name is -- this issue. i'm the director at an organization that works with homeless families in achieving stable housing. late last year, during the severe smoke and air quality issues we were experiencing, agencies were scrambling to try to protect people from the

outdoors. while they were able to provide masks to the community, we had requested and were not able to obtain masks for children. this made it abundantly clear we don't have a child centred approach to weather conditions. the threshold the city operates to trigger this process does not take into account the fact that children, as well as seniors as well as people with disabilities are extremely vulnerable to air quality conditions. so my ask of you supervisors you take into consideration those most vulnerable in the community to set the baseline for when these emergency protocols are to take effect. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> thank you, supervisors, thank you to coalition on homelessness for bringing solutions today. i wanted to read -- i'm colin, i

wanted to read our response in the sf "examiner". winter is here in san francisco with the heavy rain and pervading chill all around the city we see people experiencing homelessness carrying their soaked belongings and taking shelter anywhere they can. we hear the voices of people who have witnessed the confiscation of tents and wet weather gear from those suffering homelessness. it is difficult to understand why these items would be seized without room for each and every person in need. we're encouraged that the district 6 supervisor matt haney called this hearing to respond to the homelessness during record-breaking storms and cold temperatures. during the weather, only 75 matter were supplied for an estimated 4,000 in need while 1200 are still on the waiting list. in that same period, the san

francisco police department and the department of public works continued their assigned confiscation, at times using harsh language and rhetoric that seemed to boast of taking tents and personal belongings from people living on the streets. we understand that the city is working toward building better infrastructure for our unhoused, but that support is not yet in place. those beds are not available tonight and will not be for many nights to come. st. anthony's calls for a just approach by police, public agencies and policymakers without leaving our neighbors more vulnerable and deeper suffering. we ask them to partner with organizations like glide and so many others where our principles of compassion, dignity and respect guide emergency response protocols providing shelter, not seizure of tents. [bell ringing] >> thank you. next speaker.

>> hi again. long hearing, huh? anyway, thank you so much for holding this hearing, especially matt haney and thank you for inviting the coalition on homelessness. it's clear that the departments are violating their own polls and procedures. we're seeing this in the videos we showed, public comment and from homeless people themselves experiencing this on a daily basis. we see that what is happening is cruel an inhumane. over the past couple of weeks and months we've talked to many supervisors. and what they've been telling us that they need to talk to department heads to see if policies are actually being violated. we have no reason to lie. no one here wants to be in a three-hour hearing on a thursday, but the departments have serious motivations to pretend to the public they're following procedure.

but policies and procedures do not matter if they're unjust -- [applause] these laws are unjust. these policies don't provide anyone with adequate services or dignified housing, much less shelter and actively work to confiscate property. none of the departments are here to hear what we're saying. they haven't even sent a representative. it's clear they don't care what we have to say and they want to continue what they're doing. we need you to keep the mayor and the department heads accountable. we want to see our severe weather recommendations adopted and want the supervisors to oppose sweeps. we don't want to hear that it's a difficult position to take. and with this roomful of people asking you to make a change, you have the political cover to then oppose sweeps. because everyone here is asking you to do that. i know that this is a hearing. it doesn't warrant action. but what we need you to take is action. and now that you have heard all

of this information, you are beholden to it. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi, i'm with dsaf. i'm here to oppose the sweeps under all circumstances. throughout today's hearing we've heard a lot that before any property is confiscated, unhoused people are offered shelter. departments were light on providing any kind of numbers for that. so here are some numbers from chris herring's research as a candidate at berkeley. he says there are over 1300 adults on the list for adult shelter. 158 of them are senior citizens. unsheltered people have the option of waiting for a single night bed daily. herring found that in order to secure one of these beds, "one has to typically wait for four

hours and it is not unusual to wait over eight in order to go to a shelter, people on the streets are asked to give up all of their belongings that don't fit in a backpack and have them bagged and tagged, despite the fact that there is understanding if you forfeit your property, there is little chance you'll get it again. so when he says shelters are offered, he's lying. he's referring to a handful of beds that are vacant due to bureaucratic incompetence from the dpw. simple math can show that. therefore, to quote herring, the offer of shelter is not a genuine offer of services, but a weapon to dispossess the city's poorest who have already lost everything else. we demand you respect our unhoused neighbors' autonomy and

property. please have a moratorium on all sweeps. thank you. >> supervisors, i'm larry ackerman. retired scientist, research scientist from ucsf. and i'm collaborating, working with coalition on homelessness, because i found them a very good responsible organization. i was alerted to the issues on the streets, via my husband, who has mental and drug issues. i've helped him on many occasion try to navigate human services, life on the streets, trying to find his phone. he can't keep track of a phone, so 311 is not an option for him. and i gradually built up a personal picture of how rugged life is on the streets.

and when i've seen people lose all their belongings from these sweeps, it was disheartening. it was really depressing. the biggest point i want to leave with you, as long as the police department is the lead department for the hsoc, we're going to have conflicts, we're going to have difficulties. i know i've encountered difficulties from police over 25 years. various structural issues. so i'm calling for a social workforce. hot teams. we need to be sending out social workers, not police officers.

thank you. do what you can to stop the sweeps in the meantime, okay? thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> thank you. tyler. dsa. i first want to note, i know a couple of people said this, but for people watching this at home, everyone here left. jeff said he was going to come back, but everyone representing the cops, they're gone. they don't want to hear. they saw our signs but we're not supposed to have signs in the hearing. they didn't want to hear from us. i wanted to note that again. i definitely support the recommendations of the coh. i think that -- i also want to clear, i see looking at lines, response to homelessness in extreme weather. i hope what comes across is not a demand to stop the sweeps when it's raining and cold, but to actually stop the sweeps.

every night, it doesn't matter how cold it is or if there is smoke. i also wanted to follow up on the pedestrian advocate that was here and was talking about the supposed excuse that we have to clear the tents because they're blocking the sidewalk. they're not. usually they're placed in such a way to get around them, a wheelchair. but what is blocking the sidewalks is the fences that dpw puts up after they put someone away. it's a pre-emptive sweep. they just put up these fences and often they're in front of empty retail space or they're in front of a wall -- so they're not even protecting someone's business. they're not even protecting someone's store front making it look nice. they're -- these fences are protecting nothing. so if we're not out there every night, we don't necessarily see the sweeps happening, but if you

live in the tenderloin, if you see these fences in front of a safeway, by a church, that means the sweeps are still effectively happening. [bell ringing] even if you don't actually... >> thank you, next speaker. >> hi, my name is evan. i'm with the dsa and i'm d-1 resident. i was watching the hearing last week in this room and listened to david lazar. he said that people can retrieve their tagged belongings, but homeless people know that's a joke. he said, "we're trying to win over people on services but the offers of services are miniscule, sometimes only a single night on an emergency mat in the floor and they're offered -- if it can be called that -- under the threat of citation, arrest and

confiscation. i want to tell the supervisors to have an ounce of skepticism about this police department. just this much. we have officers who sent racist texts still on the force. whistleblowers like joel babbs have been retaliated against for calling out wrongdoing on the force. this is a department whose union did an end run around the police commission through restrictions on taser use in prop h. and we had the former president called the late jeff adachi aisle and bottom -- vile and bottom feeding. you have to ask them what their experience is, because they're telling a very different story. [bell ringing] i'm happy to walk you around myself or arrange to have a walk-around to talk to homeless people. if you can't square the stories

from homeless people with what department heads are saying. dig deeper. do your job. >> thank you, next speaker. >> i would like to discuss what the goal of this city sweep strategy could be, because commander la sfwlar went up -- lazar went up there and talked about how the goal was to get the homeless people shelter. this is a lie because the government agencies admitted there is not enough services or shelter for the people on the street. so that is nothing but window dressing to deceive the public about what is actually happening. the dpw claims of preserving people's property is again, just window dressing. we can see it is false. [please stand by]

>> i am going to get started here. hello, and welcome to the tuesday, march 5th, 2019 commission meeting at the san francisco entertainment commission meeting. i'm the commission president. if you are a member of the public and you would like to speak, there are speaker forms. you can hand them to our staff or come to the microphone when i call you for public comment. we ask that everyone turns off their cell phones are puts them on silent, including commissioners and staff. i want to thank san francisco government t.v. media services for sharing this meeting with the public. we will start with a roll call. [roll call]