reason, but it just doesn't seem realistic or logical that 45-year-old bricks are somehow historic, because that wasn't the character before the bricks. it's not like we had brick sidewalks for 150 years. didn't happen. and i'm bringing that to mind because as we're hearing, there is a multiple of agencies, the arts commission, the historic preservation commission, the planning commission, the multimodal access, all of them having something to say. so it's hard to keep track of these. but unless the disability council and disability-related groups and advocates weigh in and say, hold it, you've got to think more carefully about the safety of the materials you're using. and especially i'm going to suggest this council consider some simple letter saying we appreciate the efforts, but you really can't think of brick as

realistic, as something to be replaced with brick, with clay that is baked and if you don't call it brick, it's still clay that is baked. i'm going to suggest you think of some simple line that it's unsafe when wet. we've had a relatively wet winter. i mean, myself and others haven't been as mobile just because of all the rain and the slippery sidewalk surfaces. if you can come up with a simple letter that can be transmitted soon to the historic preservation commission, the planning commission, that can help, because too often the voice of the disabled is silent on the matters. and regarding mr. blacksten's comments about pedestrian safety, there is a separate program called vision zero that is working mightily at it as well. i am part of that. also, it's just that you need to realize a lot of agencies have to focus their works on specific programs and they can't go all over the place. vision zero is a place -- [bell

ringing] -- that has a website. look it up, participate in that if you can. thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you, bob. >> apparently there are two others, but i don't have the slips. just come up and give me your name, if you would? >> good afternoon, council members, charles. senior community organizer at the san francisco bicycle coalition. i'm also the vice chair of the better market street working community group. as a staffer of the bicycle coalition, i can say we're committed to a project that is safe and accessible. that means separated bicycle facility of course, but also a street that is accessible to people with all types of disabilities. also blind and deaf people. i appreciate council member orkid pointing that out. we're particularly excited to

engage with the pilot program of the delineation between the bike lane and the pedestrian area. that is something we haven't seen before in san francisco and there are a lot of questions on all sides of that issue. so we're looking forward to being able to engage with that. it will be right in front of our office, so seeing what different types of delineation makes sense given we're going to be applying this to the whole corridor. it's a crucial moment for the project, but we're excited to work in partnership with the disability community. thank you. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you. the second person? >> robin crop? >> hello, everyone. the market street project sounds really interesting, fabetty bonifassi -- fascinating to follow. i got hit by a car around that time and i was in a crosswalk.

i had the green light. when i think about safety, i think about all levels, pedestrian, bicyclists, motorists, we all have to figure out our safety issues. i don't step out into the street until i watch to see where all vehicles are. i see so many people on cell phones and not paying attention. i think a public advertising campaign needs to happen, even if you do it on billboards, speaking to the pedestrians, to watch the cars before they step you on the street, because we assume if we're in the crosswalk with a green light, we're fine, but we're not if a vehicle is coming. i learned that lesson. getting people off of cell phones, watching where they're going and for bikers this is important, too. the city is going to have to grapple with that because we just lost another person last week at 6th and howard. and the motorists, i'm wondering if there could be an advertising campaign about that, too, because they go fast.

i'm wondering if we could put in signs to slow down. the cars are coming by. whatever signage we could do, because the slower we go for any of us, the better we're going to do in terms of safety. though i know this vision zero, but i'm wondering also if everybody plays a part in trying to figure this out, or is it channelled to vision zero. i see three groups, pedestrians, bicyclists and motorists. we have to consider how to aeach of the groups to slow down, watch out and pay attention. i think it's a challenge for all three groups. let's keep working at it. >> co-chair blacksten: thank you very much for your comments. any more people want to speak on the issue? >> we have one more. >> this is cristina calderon olea again from public works. one of the the key initiatives

of better market street is restricting private passenger vehicles from market street. so private passenger vehicles will no longer be allowed on market street between stuart and octavia. that will be part of the early implementation, so not dependent on the implementation of the different segments. and i think that will help reduce collisions, help us get closer to vision zero, and will calm the corridor from what we have right now. >> co-chair blacksten: that's great. all right. anyone else? >> excuse me, through the chair. is there anyone on the bridge line that would like to speak on this? >> yes, there is. >> co-chair blacksten: we'll go to the bridge line. who is on the bridge line? >> this is helen walsh. i'd like to thank you for the presentation. i think it was really helpful. the one thing i want to speak on

is making sure the community, the communications to the community of individuals with disabilities and the public at large, is more available. so we have more diversity in the people that are doing the beta testing and what not in terms of persons with disabilities. i thought nicole had a great idea in terms of putting everything on one document. it might be helpful if the city utilized the website they have to condense the information so people can be a little bit more aware and understanding. and i also want to go in on communications for public awareness and getting ad campaigns going and making sure when those ad campaigns are done, or when you're calling up, or what not, doing something psa, or some other way that we diversify the talent to include

persons with disabilities and that as the pedestrians or the bicyclists. as persons with disabilities are using all these modes of transportation. i think we should provide a better intersection of providing communications for public safety and for input for our redevelopment plan. that's it. >> co-chair blacksten: all right. good comments. thank you very much. anyone else on the bridge line? want to chime in here? hearing none, this has been quite a very active discussion. we appreciate it. thank you very much. we will follow up with you. please feel free to talk with any one of us during the break. or following our meeting.

so with that, i think we are talking about break. we're right at the break time. 10 minutes after 10. what am i doing? 10 minutes after 2. let's come back at >> i know we're getting into the march 17 -- well, some people think it's a holiday on sunday, but -- >> it is. >> it is. it is for me -- a lot of folks. all right. we have our next presenter by teresa yanga, director of housing research, mayor's office of housing and community development. so welcome to the council. >> good afternoon. thank you so much for having me. we were asking to provide a little presentation about our

five-year strategic planning process that we're undertaking to talk about several of our strategic plans that our office is undertaking as well as some of our sister agencies. so what i'd like to do is provide you an overview of the various plans, the timeline in which we're doing our community engagement. i also wanted to talk -- ask -- invite you members of the disability council to participant in a specific focus group but i will go into that in a little bit. i also have some specific questions that i would like to ask of the council that i would love to inform of the strategic plan if we have time for that. so if i could indulge your time, thank you. so the strategic plans that our office is specifically taking, there's three for our office. there's our five-year consolidated plan. it identifies the community

housing needs as well as community development needs and priorities. it also helps guide our federal funding as well as our local sources and how we spend our funding. we have also an hiv housing plan which it's specifically required by the board of supervisors? and it's housing-related programs for people specifying living with hiv and aids. the third strategic plan which is kind of in a companion document to our dedicated plan is occupants of fair housing choice. so that's looking at fair housing issues and how those can be addressed and that's also a fire-year document. in conjunction with our particular strategic plans we're doing community engagement since january working also with the office of economic and workforce development. they are working on a workforce strategic framework that's working on development --

workforce development needs and priorities that helps inform oewd's local and community engagement plans. so the questions we have been asks are not only related to housing development and community, but also to jobs. and two other jobs that we're working with the planning department on is the community planning strategy. it's how the cigovernment and citizens can make strategic decisions as the city changes. you may have heard there's a lot of displacement of residents so the city is working on a strategy to help address some of those displacement concerns. the other plan we're working on with the planning department is a housing affordability strategy and it's how housing

affordable and plans how housing affordability can be addressed to help all of san francisco's diverse propositions. so we're doing community engagement in a number of methods. one, we are doing a survey that is both on-line as well as available in paper. it is available in four languages, the four languages required for frisk frisk as well as vietnamese, samoan, russian, and as well as what's on the next slide. it provides some quantitative responses. we also have been conducting a number of community forums, where we had ten community forums thus far where we're doing it in ten different

neighborhoods in san francisco, and we wanted to make sure we covered all the supervisorial districts. that is focused on neighborhood-based input. lastly -- or thirdly, we're working on different focus groups, trying to target specific vulnerable populations and also talking to community advocates. we're looking to -- to talk to people with subject matter expertise and also go into a little deeper dive on some of the questions we have to ask. and fourth we are working -- or planning to talk to city agency staff especially at the city departments that are -- to inform them of the needs that we have been hearing throughout the community but also to get an understanding of their various programs and help us address the needs that are surfaces. and get feedback on some of the strategies that we may be

developing. just a little about the survey. it's available on our website, like i mentioned. it's available in seven languages, just because we understood that those are languages that are often asked for and for translation. the survey, unfortunately, we have a window in which we need to close it, and then it is as of next friday, so i do encourage the council to go onto our website and -- or if you want to get hard copies of the survey, please let me know or i can work with m.o.d. to get you guys copies, and we're going to be including those as part of our data collection. i wanted to also talk specifically about a focus group as i mentioned to address impediments to access or a.i. there's three particular topics that we wanted to address. one is affordable housing, one is about healthy neighborhoods

and thirdly is persons with disabilities. i would love to invite a representative or more than one from the disability council to participate in these particular focus groups. the focus groups will be meeting over the course of three meetings over the month of april and may. the hope is the initial one would be talking about various data and issues this we have researched thus far? the second would be talking about the needs of the stakeholders that they've identified, and then, the third, we'd be talking about potential strategies to help address those needs. so this is our timeline. starting from december, we've been working on community engagement, whether it's through our forums, our surveys or our focus groups. we are doing data collection now, and we should be complete is that through the month of april? we are then going to be reporting back to the community in june as to everything that we've heard?

and then, we will be working on developing strategies to during the month of -- strategies during the month of may to june, and then putting out our strategies out to the public for comment. we will be having a public meeting to talk about those particular strategies. this is all in anticipation of issuing a request for proposal for all of our community development public service grants due out in august of this year. it'll be various funding that we provide, everything from like eviction defense, immigration services, etc., having access. then we will be drafting the plans themes in the fall and winter in anticipation of putting out the draft plans during the months of january and february -- or yeah, providing comments and finalizing the plans in february and march.

our plan is due to h.u.s., the department of housing and urban development in may 2020, and that will be our road map for the next five years. so with that. i would love to be able to ask a few questions of you, if you would be so inclined, and then i would definitely love to take questions from you. i'm not sure how to structure this first, if i would ask questions of you or you would ask me. >> why don't you finish up your presentation and then we'll open it up to council members to talk with you. >> okay. so these are just general questions that we've been asking the community and as we consider you stakeholders, as well, we'd love to get your answers. i've got ann romero here, who's taking notes on her laptop so we can collect this data as part of our data collection.

so one of the things we wanted to ask is what do you or your family need to get or stay in housing, so just kind of a general question. other than housing services -- the second question is, other than housing services, what are other services that are most important for you and your family, so nonhousing services that you would need. and then, what are things that would get in the way to be able to access or use existing programs or services, are there barriers particularly that you have identified or constituents that you know of that are in the way of getting access to particular programs. so those are three specific questions, and then, the next ones are, do you have suggestions on how we could make our services better to meet your community's programs and needs? the next is are there services that you've been unable to find, so again, trying to find unmet needs. and this is a communication question. if you wanted to learn about

affordable rental or ownership opportunities, what method of being notified do you prefer? whether it's things like through the e-mail, is it through fliering, is it through word of mouth, t.v. ads, etc. because we want to make sure that the hearing at-large is hearing about these opportunities as broadly as possible. so these are the extras, and we can go into those if we have time; extras. >> all right. well, let's open it up to council members to see if there's some of us that have thoughts. we'll go from there. >> through the chair. >> yes. >> first council member, helen smolinski would like to speak. >> all right. >> hi. so you want us to answer these questions. these questions sound like they all came from the survey. do you want us to answer the

questions if we filled out the survey? i filled out the survey twice, by the way. >> oh, that's fine. . >> i remember the survey going out, and twice, but i kept going. do you want my input a third time? >> well, the questions are a little different. >> are they? >> yeah. they're totally different. so we were trying to get a little more specific about some of the demographic questions? >> well, just for the record -- sk >> sure. >> i had this experience while i was filling out the survey two times, and i had that experience thinking about your questions and listening to your presentation. i think there's been a disconnect in we're talking,

we're concerned primary with bei accessible housing, you're concerned with housing access. and i was like oh, housing access, that's different, significantly different. so i want to make sure that i'm understanding that correctly how you're using those terms because it's -- with my experience filling out the survey that there was a lot of emphasis on economic access, and that's a legitimate and serious concern in the city as we all know, right? and i don't remember seeing the word disability or disabled on that. so my concern is kind of the legitimacy of the survey and how much you guys are going to rely on it to put together your strategies to get the r.f.p.

out. so if we can all just agree on the terms first. >> sure. no thank you for that feedback. just let me know if you want to continue to provide comments or continue to respond. >> no, no, continue to respond. >> so thank you for that comment. i completely understand the concern that it was more about housing access versus accessible housing because the intent, unfortunately was we had well over 100 questions, honestly, that we had to pare down because we're trying to provide feedback for various different plans? one thing i would encourage the council to do because we are focusing on persons with disability and we are going to be focusing on accessible housing in that focus group, we are definitely going to be taking that feedback in that context. >> well, i want to know how we can get the board of supervisors to require a plan for the disabled community and

for accessible housing. >> we'll note that as in terms of a particular request from the disability council. >> sure. because all those plans you mentioned, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen, and a lot of constituencies you've got to meet, and i kept waiting to hear the disability community, and it wasn't until, you know, when you broke it down into three, and then it was disability. >> yes. >> just so you know that -- because we're doing announcements on impediments with fair housing choices. that's why i wanted to make sure we focused on persons with disabilities in that particular document. >> and to be fair, to answer your first question, i think this is the extent that i'm going to be able to answer those questions or feel comfortable answering in a public forum. >> sure. >> i have an eight-year-old daughter who is in a

wheelchair, and, you know, is multiple severe complex disabilities. but definitely requires a wheelchair. and, you know, my partner and i have lived in the city over 25 years, and we had our children here, and we were lucky to be living in a rent controlled apartment with an elevator on the third floor. lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky. but we were also after saving for many years to be able to afford a place in the city and talking about staying in the city that we love with our children, you know, i've had -- i've had government groups, government agencies, social workers say get a ranch in the city, right? we all know san francisco is a vertical city, and there doesn't seem to be any

interest -- and this was something i saw firsthand when we were looking for housing and help with making our new home accessible. it doesn't seem there's any interest on the part of the city in keeping folks with disabilities in the city or making the city liveable to people with disabilities. i didn't just move here and expect to find a place, oh, i've got a daughter with a wheelchair. no interest, nothing to make that happen. so it was very difficult, and that was a priority for us, a priority. and you know what? at the end of the day, i think a colleague of mine said this at one point. we all become disabled, right? at one point, we all get older and older and older and more feeble, and those -- those home ms. san francisco that have a flight of stairs to even get

into the first floor, you know, i think that the city needs to make this a priority because it all affects us eventually. the city needs to put this in affordable homes, and they need to make this a priority for the city. >> okay. >> all right. that's excellent. are there other members of the council would would like to address our presenter? >> yes. the next council member that would like to speak is alex madrid. >> okay. >> thank you for the questions. i have a question about affordable accessible housing for people with disabilities, so my first question is that as

you know -- [inaudible] >> -- and when you're talking about accessible access to housing, people with disability has a limited income and right now, we're talking about unaffordable. most people with disabilities cannot afford that. so can you discuss that or not? and second thing is i don't know if you're talking about focus group for people with

disabilities, but i would suggest having this group a very diverse community when it comes to disability allies and people with disability. >> all right. go ahead. >> go ahead. >> the gauntlet has been thrown. thank you. so in terms of may i make sure i can reiterate the question. the concerns is because of affordable housing, especially because persons with disability have limited income. >> yes. >> okay. we completely understand and are acknowledging that. the one thing that we know that we will need to work towards is to be able to make the housing affordable because we will need to work towards getting subsidies so what we call

rental subsidies. we can make a recommendation and a strategy that we can be working towards. >> i think you should. >> thank you. and the second question? >> the second question in terms of making sure our focus groups are diverse? yes. i believe your second question was making sure persons are diverse with disabilities and getting a range -- and allies. >> yes, allies. >> thank you. >> very good. we're raising some important issues here. are there other members of the council -- >> yes, through the chair. >> yes. >> council member orkid sasounni? >> all right. orkid? >> yes. fantastic with the planning and the presentation. i think there's a few issues that are specific to the deaf community.

i work at the public library, for example. there are lots of deaf people in the city living in the city who are hiv positive. there are lots of deaf-blind people in the city. these are people low-income and with s.s.i. there are lots of issues that are challenging dealing with public housing. even going to access public housing, the workshops that are provided, they are provided for the potential residents aren't accessible for people who are deaf and deaf-blind, so they get kicked out of those programs. there's a very large issue with that population. we don't have a voice. we don't have anyone fighting or advocating, and the people who maybe were there in our corner are not there anymore. so it's quite frustrating. people give up, they live on the street. there are addiction issues that are related to being homeless,

and also, when my other council members were talking about -- when helen was talking about those of us who are looking to age in the city, it's challenging to think about what our futures might be here as senior citizens dealing with accessibility to multiple floors, so most of us are forced to move out of the city. the old buildings we live in or the old homes we live in are not accessible. the lapd lords are nndlords ar accessible to our needs. people who are deaf and have physical disabilities, as well, housing is some of the hardest parts. they are not able to afford to live in san francisco with

s.s.i., and affordability is not prioritized. accessibility is not prioritized. they're not even given the opportunity to participate in these programs, yeah. so what's right, yeah? >> all right. that's -- >> yeah, thank you. >> any other comments by council members? >> yes. we have council member sally mcdonald that would like to ask a question? >> all right. yeah, sally? >> yeah, just going back to the difference between what helen said about housing accessibility and housing access, what are the issues are for all san franciscans, all of them exist for people with disabilities.

housing is an important issue, but affordable and accessibility. specifically, the barriers, you asked about the barriers to -- in our own lives, and this is in the past now. i'm also a homeowner in san francisco and had to make our house accessible for my daughter in a wheelchair, as well. and you know with some creative planning, we have an elevator in the back yard -- it worked -- it wasn't perfect, but it worked. one thing i think that could be helpful for people who are trying to make changes on their own is to have the planning department appreciate that and work in concert with families who are -- maybe -- you know, you have the means to make the changes or you found somebody to subsidize them or whatever, and then, you're stopped at the planning department. i suppose it's just accommodations, but i don't mean accommodations particularly for the disabled, but particularly here's a

vertical city. i'm in a row house, i can't go in the side way. i can go in the front or the back, and you know, acknowledging this. this is an issue, and to work with families as opposed to putting up those same walls that everybody else gets -- not necessarily families. in my case, it was families, but whatever the individual is. it's not just people who can't access affordable housing, it's people who have been here 50 years in their house and now need to make it accessible. >> can i clarify your question? i heard you say road blocks being put up by the planning department. are there other city departments we should be aware of? >> i'm not sure. this was a long time ago, so i'm trying to remember. but i mean the biggest problem is the way the city was built, which we can't undo, obviously, but i would just say in our case, it's just getting

things -- incompetent think our architect put it in as voluntary a.d.a. access, and then, doors started opening. but it was that exact same thing until she put it under that title, but once she started playing that i am ga, you shouldn't have to do that to get -- that game, you shouldn't have to do that to get there. okay. oh, kate? >> this past week, one of our students, a blind student, moved to this area from another city and does not have housing. i gave her a list that -- probably need a broughtader li but when that person calls each and every services, the response was we're not especially applications.

we have -- we're not accepting applications. there's a wait list that's three or four -- we're not accepting applications. she was not able to find one single solitary opening in san francisco. i was shocked. i don't know if there's an answer. and as i said, i'm not complaining, i'm just surprised that calling all the contacts for city housing, not one unit was available nor were they accepting any applications. am i not having them contact the right agencies or is this just how it is in the city right now? >> if i may answer this briefly. >> yeah. >> there are often liftings, and unfortunately -- listings, and unfortunately, it is true, there are very long wait lists. unfortunately, the vacancy rate, as people are well aware of it very, very low in san

francisco, so the likelihood of there not being any listings is -- there's a high possibility but i can't say for certain? >> right. >> the one thing that we would say is to make sure that if -- we're directing people to either -- we do have what's called an on-line application called dalia, and i'm not sure -- did you direct them to that, but it does list all the existing agencies that -- >> what's it -- >> it's dalia. if you go under the website sfhousing.org, that is where you can do an on-line application system. >> so i guess in summation, we do have issues regarding housing.

not just accessibility, but housing, period. i was just surprised. >> are there any other questions by council members? >> yes, we have. the first council member -- i sound like a game show host, no disrespect. >> yes, you would. >> the next council member that would like to speak is helen smolinski, and after that, orkid sasounni. >> yes. just briefly, miss yanga. in addition to the planning department, the assessor's office. there's something within the assessor's office where you can apply and say i'm doing this to make my house accessible for a disabled person. let's just say there was a lot of back and forth and you know -- to -- to no good end at the end, you know? they just wore us down, but

that's something else that should be looked into, considered, etc. because we're making our home accessible. and it was -- and maybe -- and maybe -- and you know, maybe this issue is part of my frustration when i'm talking with you, so i apologize. >> no, right. >> it's just it's government bureaucracy, and you're the face right now. you're a good sport for listening to us. >> no. you clarify what the issue is so we can make sure we note that. as i said, we are talking to other city departments, and if we can make sure that we raise these particular issues with their sister agencies -- >> yeah, it impacts the property values. >> okay.

property taxes. >> all right. orkid? >> all right. i just have a few comments. i think the hardest part in this issue of renting is the deposit that's required. landlords say you don't meet what's required for the deposit, and they don't have enough money for the deposit, so that's an issue which is a barrier. and then, there are cultural issues in working with people with disabilities, and it's a barrier for them, and that's something that people confront on a daily basis, so i really think that it's an attitude within government -- or city agencies that need to change, as well. and -- it's the culture of the city and how it runs that these agencies and the representatives within the agencies don't know how to work with people's disabilities.

>> all right. we're going to go to staff in just a moment, but i just want to say to you you've heard all the comments of my colleagues here, and i think we certainly have given you a good amount of things to think about, to be sure. and i want to commend you for coming to speak us to and to hear our concerns. a few years ago, i was involved to some extent in the field of real estate as a realtor, and i quickly found that -- and i wanted to focus to some extent in -- on people with disabilities. yes, there are some people with disabilities who can afford to purchase homes due to their

income, but i quickly found there was a large number of persons who could not afford it, certainly here in san francisco. and it was a real eye opener, if you will, to me. and i knew this could be true, but i guess sometime you's you got to be out there in the middle of it. it's not just the economic aspect, although this's critically important as noted by helen, but it's the accessibility issue. housing can be affordable, but if they're not accessible, people with disabilities can't move there. that's just the reality. so there you have it. i want to go to -- oh, did you want to respond? >> no, i just wanted to say thank you. >> all right. anyone from the staff want to

comment? >> thank you, council members, for being willing to be open and to be put on the spot and for responding so candidly. i appreciate it. we really appreciate hearing this. one of the things that i want to offer is if you're willing to send this set of questions to me, i'd be happy to distribute it to this group so that everybody can have a chance to think through anything that maybe wasn't addressed that was one of your questions. maybe they are he -- make sure they're not on the survey. >> well, even if they are on the survey, i think it's good to get multiple per expespecti even if it's on the survey. one thing i looked up was if you wanted to address accessibility in the way that helen was speaking to it in

terms of physical accessibility to the space, was write-in answers. i want us to be thoughtful of it how we're weighting how folks answer those questions because of different definitions of what housing access means. so we're happy to work with you more and provide subject matter experts or whatever you need in this iteration. we're very open and thankful for this conversation. i just want us to be mindful of current definitions. i just wanted to say a few things. one, when we send up the council, i'm also happy to

provide information on the dalia portal. the dalia affordable housing team has presented to the mayor's disability council in the past, but it might be time to invite them again. we did try to bring them in today, but they weren't -- they weren't available today. but i would very encourage us to also hear from the portal team so you actually understand how -- when we do have accessible units available, how that information is made available, and you may have suggestions towards that, as well because it's a portal that's in development, so i'd like to encourage that. >> thank you. >> and that's it from me for now. >> thank you very much. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you very much, nicolle.

anyone else from staff? >> not at this time. >> not at this time. okay. so let's go to the bridge line. are there folks on the bridge line who would like to comment -- oh, before i do that -- okay. got to back up. first off, i just want to thank you again for making your presentation to us. it was tremendous. i commend you under a bit of fire. we do take your comments seriously and we do want to work with you. i just want to say that and that will conclude your part of the presentation. >> thank you. >> all right. so let's see...first wh -- fir want to do, are there any other people in the room. >> there's public comment. >> and there's someone on the bridge line. >> all right. someone on the bridge line. we'll get to the bridge line in a moment. >> so you want the public comment first? >> yeah. i think we're supposed to do the public comment first and

then the bridge line. >> okay. this is loretta litke, am i saying that right? >> i'm a disabled senior. i have m.s. it took me about ten years to find housing including through the city. i was told that -- i was literally crawling up the stairs and they told me you don't need housing because i had an apartment. i finally found housing, and i want accessible housing that's financially beiaccessible. i have cried so many times because of those -- may they rot in hell. is there any way i can the city

into not using bridge property management? any other groups that will do management? okay. 'cause they're taking over 50 more places in california this month. i've been there three years -- [inaudible] >> there's another comment -- >> okay. is there another comment? >> yes. my name is teresa flandrick and i work at senior and disability action and i try to work with agencies to get deeply affordable housing especially for seniors and people with disability. so because we believe that

there is an affordable crisis, there has been a lot of housing built in market rate which makes a lot of it unaffordable. i live in north beach -- there are many seniors -- as you know, north beach, chinatown, we have the greatest concentration of seniors and people with disabilities. our s.r.o.s, which are last affordable places, which are also being used for high earning young tech workers because you can get more money from them. so we are fighting very hard to keep and preserve the housing we do have, but to make damn sure it is accessible. there are many ways that things can be done, but we also need

to make sure that we are building housing that is from day one accessible, and so senior and housing that accommodates also wheelchairs, right? all sorts of different mobility mechanisms that people need in order to simply enjoy life. so one of the things that we have seen and which is a problem that i forgot to mention in our focus group yesterday with these folks is the idea that there are a lot of people, some who have small children with disabilities who for a long time were carrying their children down the three, four flights of shares but now, the oldest is a teen, and that just can't happen anymore? the woman can't continue to carry her child down the steps.

so asking for a ground-level unit, yes, she could do that, leave her three-bedroom unit for a two-bedroom unit on the ground level, but she would then be required to pay market rate for that one. even though she's in a rent controlled, a much lower -- a much larger unit also with a view, that shouldn't be, and that happens in many different buildings. so to truly keep the housing we need and make it accessible, people need to have the disability to move from a third floor to a ground-level floor without being charged an outrageous amount. >> thank you. >> all right. thank you very much. are there anymore people from the public who wish to speak? >> no more public comment. >> no more public comment? all right. i'm going to the bridge line. last, but certainly not least, by any means, is the bridge

line. is there anyone on the bridge line who would like to comment? >> yes, there is. >> all right. who do we have? >> this is helen walsh. i'm going to speak again on information and communications. i kind of echo what the commission has been saying in regards to inclusion of -- on surveys of the disability community. both we are community as individuals with diverse disabilities that are low-income that are having issues finding housing. and if our data is not included in the surveys, general surveys, we're missing out. children grow up with disabilities and there are children that need

accessibility as they're growing up. as able bodied people age, we need accessible housing. so i think it's really important on the survey to find a way. i appreciate that there'll be a focus group, but i also think on surveys, because the data is missing in all our departments in cities and this municipality, that i can see, it's important to start raising these questions to the low-income housing and disability issues. i'm hoping the survey is included in an accessible format. i think it's great that it has different languages. i'm hoping that this survey also, if it does have a printout or is accessible to people that are deaf-blind, i think it's important that we get our data in some sort of form in our city so that our planning and our strategic

planning is a lot better so that we can serve more people, and we can ensure that housing is accessible for the citizens of san francisco or any other place. that's my comment. >> fantastic. thank you very much. is there anyone else from the bridge line who would like to speak? going once, twice, three times. all right. so i think -- boy, someone's phone's going off. i'd like to conclude this presentation. it certainly has generated a lot of discussion and collaboration. we want to be -- i should say have a voice in the issue of affordable housing and -- and accessible housing going forward, and so we'll be looking at this very carefully as we go forward.

all right. so we have concluded two very important presentations today. running a bit behind schedule, but it's okay. i think we've got plenty of time. now we're going to go to something that is going to be really good, i have to say. before i was on this council, i've been to ceremonial situations before, and i've heard discussions take place. this is the first time i get to be involved with it. but we're going to have a ceremonial item here. we're going to honor donna adkins. and donna is the former

programatic access. she's moved on, but she's certainly made an outstanding contribution to the work that she's done over the years. i just wanted to give an opportunity for minute who wants to say something, but i just wanted to kick it off by saying that i think it was a couple years ago when i first came onto the council, donna was one of the first people that i spoke to, and i went to my interview back in -- i think it was january -- well, it was a couple years ago, and saw donna in the office on disability. i've seen donna at other meetings. she's active in the community. she's been to meeting with the california council of the blind

in san francisco. she's very thoughtful, and that's the thing that i'll always remember about her. left the meeting at the end, and she assisted me, you know, down stairs to get a cab out on market street. could have done all that on my own, but donna was there in the moment of need and gave me some direction on how to do it in that place. so i really want to thank you, donna, for all the work you've done and for being as thoughtful and understanding as -- as you've been. and that's what i have to say. >> jim, do you want to invite donna up? >> oh, yes, donna, i do want to invite you up. >> hi, donna. >> hey, donna. >> hi. >> first of all, i want to thank the cochairs and council

and staff for having me on a sunny friday afternoon. it's very lovely for you to honor me for doing something that for four years, i just really enjoyed doing as part of my job. i've seen many iterations of staff over that time. carleton, nicolle, and nate and nicolle are still over there, running the ship. and i've seen many iterations of council, including star and harry and roland and chip and denise, who was still with us. but one thing i will say about this particular group of council members, i'm excited because i've seen this group for almost two years together, i think, and you each represent a different lens on a particular disability. and i think that's really important to the city and

county of san francisco. i think that this particular group really does represent people with disabilities in the city and county of san francisco quite well. i was chuckling while helen was talking because that is the type of dialogue i expect this council to engage in regarding some of the pit falls around accessibility in the city and council. so i appreciate you having me here. it's lovely to be here. i'm looking forward to seeing all of you in lots of different places in my new role as the disaster prep person, because as you all know, disaster preparedness means persons with disabilities, too. regardless of my position in the city, this is my commitment to you. i will always have a lens of accessibility and thoughtfulness and inclusion because at the endth