residents, their families and staff as supported and updated as possible. this weekend we launched a daily update via phone torres dents and families. when they call they will access a prerecorded covid-19 update. it will be updated every day seven days each week at noon in multiple languages. it will include the number of cases, the units unquarantining and other key operational changes we are making to limit the spread of the virus. i encourage families and loved ones to call for these updates. the number is (415)759-2190. this is a very challenging time for our laguna honda staff and

residents. we will provide extra resources to support staff and residents coping with the impact of the outbreak. for example the chaplain is available for spiritual services and guidance for staff and residents. we have opened a dedicated phone line. staffed by clinicians to provide emotional support to residents in realtime. this support is in addition to the regular clinical behavioral health services. we also have a behavioral health specialist on site dedicated to staff needs who is proactively reaching out to the staff on the two units that have been impacted to provide support and coping mechanisms. the behavioral health specialist is available to all staff and our clinicians will continue to reach out to provide services. we know, i know that caring for

the most vulnerable is some of the most intense and selfless work in the city. i am grateful to the compassion of the laguna honda team. they are true heroes. with regard to infection prevention and control, laguna honda continues so receive support from the centers of disease control and prevention within affection nurses physicians and epidemiologists. the cdc continues to guide laguna honda in screening and retesting of staff from the two quarantined units. the experts with the staff is conducting thorough contact investigations to look for sources of infection and the potential pathway of further spread. this will inform our current actions and further development of outbreak prevention and

response that takes the coronavirus situation fully into account. the cdc has also developed a web tracking system for every staff person identified as symptommic during screening or who calls in sick. this data will be instrumental to limit the spread of the virus by providing important data as staffing levels and duration of illness among staff for covid- r covid-19. they have self-screening prior to arriving at work. under cdc guidance, laguna honda improved the infection control program using the best practices from top experts to be integrated into day-to-day operations. these include all aspects of operation from deep cleaning

infected rooms, transfer of acute patients to screening of staff. we are taking the knowledge and the learning from the cdc and rapidly applying through establishing training, learning and realtime coaching to ensure laguna honda has the protocols in place regardless of the on site presence of the cdc. i am most grateful for the cdc support and expertise. this is an ever changing situation and the ability to develop and rapidly implement best practices will help slow the spread of the virus not only at laguna honda hospital but also at other residential nursing facilities in the city and region. again, i want be to thank the staff of laguna honda, residents and families for their

resilience and capacity to be part of our response to this pandemic. thank you very much. >> director trent rhorer from the human services agency will now make remarks.

>> good afternoon. i am trent rhorer, director of the human services agency of san francisco. i want today to give everyone an update on our plan for hoteling as well as providing other housing and supports for individuals during this pandemic. as i said before, the human services agency is charged with providing care and shelter for the city residents under this pandemic. on march 9th our agency activated the emergency operations center in the

expectation we were going to need to respond in a massive way to provide rooms and other housing options for individuals under covid-19. under the mayor's leadership we met early on with the hotel council, which is the group of hotel owners in san francisco representing over 80 hotels in the city to ask for their assistance to provide hotel rooms for the most vulnerable people in san francisco. the response to our request for beds was overwhelming. we received responses from over 45 hotels representing more than 10,000 rooms. these rooms were listed in the rpp for the following population. first those covid covid positive or persons under investigation meaning they are tested and the results are not yet in. in addition these are individuals who cannot self-quarantine on their own.

their current housing does not allow them to quarantine on their own. that would be individuals in the sro or single room occupancy hotels where they share bathrooms or kitchens or eating facilities. there are about 19,000 individuals living in these situations in san francisco. in addition, of course, our homeless population who live in homeless shelters, on the street are unable to self-quarantine. second population for the hotel rooms to be provided for are vulnerable populations in homeless shelters and homeless on the streets. these are individuals that are age 60 and above or who have underlying health conditions for whom a covid positive would result in significant harm to them. third category are of course the front line health responders. we want to make sure they remain

healthy able to provide the essential services that they don't go home and infect families or get in effected from familiors communities. i want to give you an update on progress so far at bringing these hotels under contract. as of today we have 1977 hotel rooms under or near contract. 880 are for first responders. 1097 are for the vulnerable populations i just listed a minute ago. the current numbers in hotels we have 184 individuals who are in the vulnerable class in hotel rooms and 67 first responders. of the 184 the vast majority of these individuals are homeless. as i say, every time i am

describing the city response this is a fluid situation. we arwe are responding daily to guidance from the cdc or state department of health and department of public health. the current plan based on the most recent evidence and data and information from those health authorities is that we need to bring on about 7,000 hotel rooms for the populations i described above. so our plan is to do that. we have begun our costing out of the plan, and i want to talk a little bit about those figures now. the current 1977 rooms we have under contract will cost the city about $35 million over the first three months of activation. the plan for the 7,000 hotel

rooms will cost over $105 million over that same three month period. in a sense our total activation or plan of 7,000 rooms will cost approximately $105 million. this cost does include estimates for staff costs, it includes supplies for cleaning and the other essential elements that we need to bring on the hotel rooms. it is important to note that fema provided guidance to the state of california. they will reimburse states and localities up to 75% of the costs of these hotel rooms but only for specific populations. the populations fema will provide the 75% reimbursement for are those covid positive or those who have come in contact with someone covid positive, individuals with underlying health conditions that i described earlier, individuals

age 65 and over an what will be covered at 75% by fema. our plan in san francisco we consider age 60 and above to be vulnerable. there will be a segment of the population we are bringing to hotel rooms not reimbursed by fema. in addition the state of california through the governor provided across the state $150 million to counties to help cover the cost of these hotel rooms. san francisco will receive a share of that $150 million to be applied toward the $105 million cost i mentioned a minute ago. lastly, i want to mention the plans for sheltering. this is the one piece every response that is most fluid. initially on march 9th the plans across the state were to open additional shelters to thin out

our shelter populations. subsequent to that, and i will say we had plans for 2500 shelter beds to do this. as an example, the city of los angeles is standing up 46 rec center for shelter beds. from the state department of health we received guidance those shelters are not appropriate. we experienced that in san francisco. we have had covid outbreaks at two of our shelters. we immediately shifted gears and pivoted from using moscone north to reduce the population in existing shelters and moscone north will serve for medically cleared homeless individuals, as a step down from hotel rooms. they have been tested negative or they had acquired covid and have since recovered and been

tested clear. if they choose to, they can receive a shot at the moscone west shelter with the appropriate physical distancing as well. the second shelter that we are setting up is at the palace of fine arts. it has room for 160 individuals. because this response is so fluid, what we are doing is setting up this shelter to respond to whatever need that may emerge. we are currently not planning to move individuals into that shelter at this time, but we have that under agreement and it makes sense to have relief valve of 160 slots for individuals should that need arise. we are in constant conversation with the department of homelessness and supportive housing, city department of public health regarding the potential use for this space. so i just want be to wrap up

again by restating the populations we are providing hotel rooms to so we are clear. covid positive and persons under investigation, they have had a test and need quarantined and they can't at home. vulnerable individuals on the streets and shelters to provide a safe place to protect from the virus. first line responders. we are planning for 7,000 rooms for that purpose, and we have nearly 2000 rooms under contract now. now, i will turn the podium over to san francisco police chief william scott. chief scott.

>> good afternoon everyone. i would like to begin with thanks and a show of appreciation to our mayor for her leadership during this crisis, particularly in the resources provided to our first

responders, police officers and members of the san francisco police department, other first responders and other city employees. we have had many members that have had a lot of stress and anxiety related to this pandemic. the resources the mayor has described today will be extremely helpful in helping us to deal with this pandemic and the anxiety and stresses that go along with that. also, in terms of increasing resiliency to do what we need to do to cope our community safe and healthy. i thank the may important and everybody that had apart in making this happen. by taking care of first responders and city employees we will have a safe and healthy san francisco and be in a box to help the residents of our city. thanks again for that work. i want to speak a little bit about our compliance in the city

overall. we are seeing good compliance. that is mentioned by the mayor and others, including dr. colfax. we still have challenges. the statistics i provided for you on monday as far as citations are still valid. we have two citations on individuals. i want to provide an update on the other statistics. i reported monday we had issued 26 warnings or add mommishments that is now 41. ththe majority are to businesses deemed to be nonessential. we are tracking, taking reports and as i said we will not ask a second time. for those businesses that are operating we do understand and we are very empathetic to the fact that this is uncharted waters for all of us, and this impacted people's livelihood and

there is stress and anxiety. what w we are trying to do is to keep people alive. please add here to the public health orders. keep doing well as we have seen for the first three weeks of the order. as far as crime. we are still seeing downward trends in terms of rates of crime. i want to go in a little more detail than i did the other day in terms of crime statistics the past week. 24% decrease in violent crimes is a decrease in 19 crimes. 71 the week before and 58 this week. property crimes we saw alarminger decrease. 146 fewer property crimes and that number went from 569 to 455.

our part one overall crimes we are down 165 over the prior week. we are seeing decreases, but we want to emphasize our officers are out in force. they are out patrolling the streets, and we would like to see that trend continue. particularly we are focused on the businesses boarded up and closed. we know those businesses feel vulnerable and the owners feel the businesses are vulnerable. we pay extra attention to that. we have had burglaries and vandalisms of businesses. we have made arrests and we will control those areas to give a sense of comfort to those who closed businesses. we encourage all people to report crime when and if they see it, and there are some crimes as i mentioned that you can report online or call our call center.

if it is a crime of violence or crime in progress, serious crime, please call 911. continue to do that. we will respond, and one of the silvesilver linings is that trac is light. our response time has gotten much, much better because of the light traffic. we will be there if you call us. for crimes that have already taken place annan violent property crimes calm (415)553-0123. you can call 311 or utilize our san francisco police website to file a police report or request an existing police report. i want to reemphasize some of the scams we have heard about. we have not had this particular one in our city but it is online. we hear people talk about it. we want to advise and warn the public so people can remain

safe. we have had a number of online posts about people knocking on doors asking to come into residential communities and they are claiming to be center for disease control workers or san francisco department of public health workers. i want to inform the public workers from the san francisco department of public health or workers from the centers for disease control will not knock on your door and ask to come inside your house or residence. don't let people in. if you get that it is not legitimate. be aware and be informed and call 911 if that happens to you. we have our city disaster service workers placing door hangers on businesses and doors. be aware of that. informational pamphlets to keep the public informed to help with the cause of staying at home and

staying six feet apart in the social distancing requirement we have been asked to do. they will not ask to come inside your residence. please make note of that. if you have somebody reporting to be a worker from any of those entities or any city worker do not let them into your home. if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. don't fall for things that sound too good to be true. investigate and call somebody you trust. these particular individuals like to prey on the elderly and most vulnerable population. be aware of that. if you know someone in those demographics please spread the word so we don't have anyone taken advantage of. robocalls, e-mails, online sellers are also sources of scams. please be careful and not fall

prey to that. if you are asked to click a link you are unfamiliar with, be cautious about that and investigate the site to make sure you are not being scammed that way. if you are receiving online type of fraudulent or scam activity, you can call the federal trade commission at (877)382-4357. as the mayor said, we expect that the weather will be nice this weekend, and we believe the weather has played a part in helping keep some of the people off the streets in the past few days. as weather increases, we ask again to please comply with the public health orders, social distancing requirement. if you have to go out for shopping like groceries stay six

feet away from the person in front of you or behind you. it is really important. we ask the store managers and owners and leadership at these particular out lets help out with that cause as they are required to. the last thing i would like to say is for the overall health of the police department and wellness, nothing to update there. again, i would like to thank our mayor london breed, director of public health, doctor grant coal fograntcolfax. keep our foot on the pedal and do what we have been asked to do and stay safe and healthy. thank you.

>> thank you. our first questions are for doctor grant colfax. >> this question is from jamie at the associated press. last week trent rhorer said 123 people, of whom 95% are homeless, had been moved from hospital beds to hotel rooms

because they tested positive and needed to isolate or were awaiting test results. why are these people not counted in the city's overall number of homeless who tested positive for covid-19, which is three? >> let me clarify on that number. currently we have 167 people who have been moved out of the hospital who are either covid-19 positive or under investigation. those include people who have no other place to go that is safe. that would include a high proportion of homeless individuals. also it includes people in crowded living conditions and other places where they cannot go and safely isolate. it is a combination of those populations. again, that is very important intervention to keep our hospital system as open as

possible. with regard to the people, the three people mentioned, we have four cases now of people who have been diagnosed in a shelter or navigation center. the msp south is for three cases. we are working hard with data systems to provide an accurate number of people experiencing homelessness diagnosed with covid-19. this testing is done throughout the city by different providers including private labs. our understanding is that private labs do not assess the housing situation. within our dph system we look to merge data sources on status of living status and covid-19 positive cases. we hope to share that

information. thank you. >> next question from trisha with the "san francisco chronicle." will the city release specific data on how many covid cases are tied to skilled nursing facilities or long-term care facilities? if so how many cases have there been? >> we will release that data as it is available and we will ensure that they are accurate. >> follow-up. yesterday we learned one skilled nursing home campus for jewish living is preparing to accept covid parish ain'ts -- patients. >> the state is working can long-term care facilities helping derm which facilities both across the state and within san francisco could do that with regard to the need and ensuring the safety of staff and residents. i am not able to identify these

facilities specifically in san francisco out of respect for privacy. i will say that it is part of our surge planning assessing and determining where covid positive patients who require a skilled nursing type level of care has been part of our conversation with other health systems in the city. we are supporting the long-term care facilities in our collective response. we have regular communication with them. we are supporting them, and we also hope to apply the cdc recommendations from laguna honda to other partners in the city. >> question from ron lynn of the "los angeles times." do you expect the shelter-in-place order and forms of social distancing to last beyond the summer and into the fall or into next year?

>> well, unfortunately, i cannot predict the future. i am focused on what we know now. looking at the data and science and facts. what we know now the physical distancing appears to have slowed the spread of the coronavirus in san francisco. this is a very vulnerable time for us to ensure that that surge continues to be slow. as you can see from the data tracker, there is a steady increase in cases and hospitalizations. we must be resolute in continuing the social distancing through the shelter-in-place during this time. >> follow-up. why are we seeing rising hospitalization cases eventhough the shelter-in-place wasn't acted more than three weeks ago? >> well, this virus is extremely transmissible.

despite multiple efforts early actions we knew there were going to be cases of covid-19 in our city. and what we are focusing now is ensuring the hospital systems have capacity to provide the best care possible for people with covid-19. yes, there is an increase across the united states. unfortunately, in our city we see a pattern. if you look across the nation, our increase has been slower so far, but again this could change any day when this virus takes off it can really take off. i would go back to public health intervention, social distancing, wash your hands, wear a face covering if you cannot keep at least six feet away from individuals, please do that and exercise restraint in your outings. thank you.

>> final question for dr. colfax from the san francisco examer. since the first cases were diagnosed has anyone recovered from covid-19 and if so how many people? >> people recover from covid-19, and i think we know from the data on both nationally and internationally that the majority of people and many have mild symptoms and recover well. it is really the focus on the vulnerable populations, the people who have to be hospitalized, the people in the i c .u. i think the focus needs to be on the hospital system and the capacity there and the people who have not recovered are are e people who died. with our collective efforts of prevention and experts. i want to emphasize the

expertise we have in the health department at zuckerberg, san francisco general, u.c.s.f. and kaiser we have incredible leadership ensuring that as many people recover as possible. >> is the department doing contact investigations for every positive case and notifying those who may have been in contact with the positive case? >> so we are continuing to expand our contact investigation efforts. we are ensuring that we are focusing on the most vulnerable communities with those contact investigations. right now our capacity to do all of the contact tracing for every case has benumbedded, which is again why -- ha has been exceed. as we move forward we are ensuring that we have a robust number of contact investigators

on board. think of right now as a situation where we have as you can see from the dashboard a lot of community transmission. over tight our hope, and i do not know if this will happen. over time we hope due to social distancing that community transmission rate will be crease and we will go to a level where the contact tracing is particularly important. think of it now as a situation where there is a steady, unfortunately, steady fire throughout the city with regard to transmission of cases. if we are successful in extinguishing this broader fire across the community, then we think about in the next stage if we get there sparks in the community. sparks, outbreaks that are containable. our goal is to have a robust

team of disease control investigators to immediately respond to the sparks so we do not return to widespread community transmission like today. >> thank you, dr. colfax. the next questions are for mayor breed. >> mayor breed, this question is from stefani at abc 7.

>> sf pride parade organizers have not cancelled for june. it may still happen. do you have a response to that? >> mayor breed: i do. i want to start by saying pride is one of my favorite times of the year in san francisco, and especially during this pandemic. the fact that the pride celebration potentially may not happen will be devastating to not only me personally but to so many people in our city, but we are in a different reality. i think it is important as dr. colfax said we can't predict the future. we don't know what is going to happen in the city. we know when we start to get out of this that having large scale events will be very, very difficult. i am not certain that it will be

possible at this time to say whether or not we can move forward with pride in the same capacity as we have done for many, many years. i think that once the shelter in order is lifted, there is going to be a gradual process to get the city back on track and back into some level of normalcy. i think it may not be possible to expect that we could launch a large scale event with millions of people in san francisco. i am not sure if that is going to be realistic to expect that we will be able to host the kind of pride parade this city is known for. that is where we are at this time.

>> john king of the "san francisco chronicle." what will mayor breed do if the emergency legislation proposed yesterday at the board is approved. including homeless people of all ages and current conditions and placing them in hotel rooms. >> mayor breed: i want to be clear. from the beginning we have focused on moving forward plans that are realistic, that allow us to use data, that are sustainable, that allow us to not only provide the resources necessary to make them work but to also sustain them. we have had to basically make magic happen over the past month as it relates to setting up the emergency operations center to focus on the public health crisis in staffing the hospitals, making sure the nurses and doctors have protective equipment, making sure the city work force has

protective equipment, thinning out shelters to protect the people working in the shelter system. we know that it is a lot more complicated, as i said. the thing i would want to do more than anyone else is to be able to house every single person on the street to make sure they have a safe place to be. the fact is that comes with so much more than opening up the doors to give people a hotel room. trent rhorer, the director of human services had provided an overview with a clear plan that has been changed based on what we know may work and may not work. specifically, the change we made to moscone west, the changes we are making around the hotel rooms that we are fortunate enough to have access to and to provide the staffing for those

particular locations. that will ensure safety. that will ensure that when we provide a room to someone that person is the only person who is in that rumor that person with their family members. that we are working with the hotels, that we are providing the 24 hour care and support, laundry service, food and all of the things needed. that takes a lot of people. it takes a lot of people who are part of our work force and the reality we are this is that some of those people are afraid. they are afraid to come to work. we want to make sure when we set these systems up we are not only providing places for people to be during this crisis but we are providing protection for those we are expecting to put their live on the line. we are expanding our capacity significantly quickly, and that

takes a plan that is focused, that is developed, that is consistent, that is something we can actually deliver. that is really what is important for me as mayor of the city to focus on, what we know we can do and make sure we get it done and to focus our attention on elevating what we know we need in this crisis. i will really basically continue to do just that. >> next questions for trent rhorer. thank you, mayor.

>> trentrent rhorer, human serv. >> this is the "san francisco chronicle." the 7,000 hotel rooms do not include homeless not covid-19 positive and not ranked as part of the vulnerable population. no ordinary homeless so to speak? >> let me clarify. the 7,000 rooms we are bringing online are for covid positive, persons under investigation who can't self-quarantine and vulnerable homeless individuals who are living in shelter or on the streets.

vulnerable age 60 and above or underlying health conditions. that would make them more susceptible to the covid virus. 7,000 includes homeless on the street, shelter and covid positive and under investigation for covid. >> next questions for chief bill scott.

>> this is a question from the "san francisco chronicle." has will been any change in calls related to domestic violence, increase as suggested by evidence? >> i can tell you what has been reported to the san francisco police department. we have seen a decrease in reported domestic violence incidents. from the period of march 17 to march 31st is the latest reporting that i have. compared to that time last year, we had 121 reported domestic violence incidents as opposed to 179 for the same period last year. we are hearing from the groups that they had an increase in calls and that might be a good thing in that people are seeking

out help. we know from the science of human behavior that stress and anxiety and frustration can trigger violent behavior. my message is that the those things are happening seek out help. the mayor said it, public health professionals across the country said it. seek out help. as far as reported we have seen a decrease for this shelter-in-place stay at home period as of march 17th through march 31st. we will keep an eye on that. that is definitely something our police officers are watching. some crimes are not reported. we realize that. it is another opportunity for me to encourage people to report crimes when they happen. we will be there and we will investigate. >> thank you. the next questions for abigail

stewart. >> these are the last two questions of the press conference from the san francisco public press.

has the city run into challenge with hotel rooms with general trust issues. how are city agencies handling these challenges? >> that is a great question. from talking with you i know you feel that people experiencing homeless niece are just like you and me. we all have questions and worries now. we would all need support if we were asked to pick up and leave our communities and move to an unknown hotel room. as a social worker, i know the strength of every person is what we need to rely on now. i see it as the system's responsibility to set up that support so that we can rapidly meet people where they are. we have steps in place and staff from all over the city who are trained to evaluate an individual's ability to self-care in these new environments before they move. the city is coming to help us. our hotels are staffed with hsh

heroes, non-profits, first unite council and ecs of san francisco and many more on the way as well as disaster service workers from city partners. as we scale, we will be reaching out to the most vulnerable outside through the channels and with a careful and clear process in place. we are grateful to ihss which is part of the human services agency who have helped so people can self-care. we are excited that we are exploring a volunteer program that would allow people at home to regularly check in on individuals living in hotels to reduce isolation and support on site staff. we believe in san francisco and in our community to set this up so people can shelter-in-place. it is going to take all of our creativity and strength, but we are built for this. thank you.

>> is the city working with homelessness related outreach groups to transition people to hotel rooms. if so which groups and what role do they play? >> i think i understand the question. i will answer as best i can. as we move to as director rohr said we are working on sheltered and unsheltered 60 and over people with pre-existing conditions. we will work with homeless outreach but we are not ready for that yet. we will provide more information in the coming days how to bring them inside and we are working with those with covid-19 cases. we are getting to scale rapidly and look forward to providing further updates. thank you. >> thank you very much. that concludes our press

conference.

>> we have private and public gardens throughout the garden tour. all of the gardens are volunteers. the only requirement is you're willing to show your garden for a day. so we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. it's a variety -- all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. >> i have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. in the early 1800s the portola

was farmland. the region's flowers were grown in this neighborhood. if you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. in the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. one of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of san francisco so they can share that history. >> when i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. we started doing this as a fund-raiser. since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six

work projects for the students. >> the scholarship programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a win-win-win situation all around. >> the scholarship program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. >> i was not sure how i would stay in san francisco. it is so expensive here. i prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in san francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i don't know where else i would have gone to finish. >> the scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [♪] [♪] >> you come into someone's home and it's they're private and

personal space. it's all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their outdoor living room. >> why are you here at this garden core? it's amazing and i volunteer here every year. this is fantastic. it's a beautiful day. you walk around and look at gardens. you meet people that love gardens. it's fantastic. >> the portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. mark your calendars every year.

>> good morning, i am san francisco's director of transportation. we're here today to have a conversation about our budget. even though that you have a lot of other things on your minds. these are unprecedented t