we hold the classes to no longer 12 and there's 23 teachers. i go around and i watch each class and there's certain children i watched from babies and it's exciting to see them after today. the children learn how to follow directions and it ends up helping them in their regular schooling. they get self-confidents and today, we had a residual and a lot of time go on stage and i hope they get the bug and want to dance for the rest of their

>> we are, we are at the balboa movie theater, but you're not going to be watching a movie today. maybe tonight, but not during the daytime outside. thank you all for being here. i'm san francisco mayor london breed, and i'm joined by a number of folks who i'll introduce later to speak. but i wanted to take this opportunity to just start with, really, how far we've come. it's been a very, very challenging seven months in san francisco. when this pandemic first hit, we had to make some really hard decisions. and with those hard decisions,

we knew it was not only going to hit our economy as a whole, but it was going to have a tremendous impact on our small businesses, especially businesses in the community. we saw, within the first time that we closed in the month of april, we saw unemployment go to over 60,000 people, and as of today, we have over 200,000 people who have filed for unemployment. we've seen businesses close, and some that we have gone to our entire lives, we've seen them close permanently. we've had to balance a $1.5 billion budget deficit in san francisco. it's been hard. our unemployment before the pandemic was less than 2%, and at its height, went to 12%, and today, it's 8%.

so yes, from an economic standpoint, we have had some really challenges in our city, and the good news is that because we are a resilient city, there have been a lot of adjustments. we've adapted, we've improvised, and when movie theaters called, what was it call? >> oh, popcorn thursday. >> the hon. london breed: i remember the first movie you played was "clueless," and i was all excited about that. it was look, we can't have it inside, but let's particultake the streets. let's come together as a community to enjoy something that all of us have missed, and that's going to the movies. and in addition with that jazz

permit that we provide, it allows them to provide jazz music. adapting is what we do best. do we want to do it? no. we want to maintain our businesses and serve the community, but in the course of this pandemic, i've got to tell you, i'm so proud to be a san franciscan. i'm so proud of what everyone has done to just say, you know what? we'll figure it out. we'll do the best we can. we'll make changes, like these parklets and some of the great ideas that came out of carmen chu and the economic recovery task force to say, let's make some adjustments. let's try and continue to support our businesses in a way that we didn't before. and even though it has been

challenging, i don't know how you feel about these incredible pa parklets that are all over san francisco, but i feel like the city is alive again. and part of what we have to do in addition to some of the hard decisions we've had to make, we have to make decisions to get our economy going again, and that means making the right kinds of investments. today, i want to announce that we are making an additional $7.4 million investment into the jobsnow program. and some of you might be wondering, what is jobsnow? in 2009, when we had the previous economic recession in this country under president barack obama, we had programs

like cal fresh and job assistance. i was the executive director of the african american art and culture complex, and there were people that qualified for the jobsnow program, they started to work for me at the african american art and culture complex, and our organization got money to pay their salary. now one time, they were late with the checks, trent. you remember that time, when i called you, wondering when is it coming? when is it coming? i've got to meet payroll. well, that program happened. over 26,000 people were served, and many of them still working today. and so carmen chu, what was head of -- who was head of this economic recovery task force, provided a lot of recommendations. and one of those recommendations was to get people back to work, we should look at investing more in the

jobsnow program. to support small businesses, we should make it easier for them to get help from this jobsnow program, and that's exactly what we're doing here today, because what we want to make sure is when people reopen, that they are able to hire people, but they're not generating the revenue that they want to generate. so this is another way that we can support our small business community. i remember, i went to a coffee shop in my neighborhood. and i've been going there many, many years, but this was the first time i've met the owner of the coffee shop. he told me that he couldn't afford to bring his employees back right away. so that's why programs like jobsnow and making programs

like that available, it's all about helping people. we want to get our economic going, we want to get people back to work, we want to support our small businesses. we want to make sure that we come back out of this pandemic more successful and stronger more than ever before, because this is san francisco. this is what we do, and this is one further step towards meeting that goal. i want to thank the san francisco chamber of commerce for their work and their support. i want to thank ucsf for being an incredible partner with the jobs now program, and i really want to express my appreciation to this community, to folks in the richmond, because i know that it's been hard, even before the pandemic, that this community sometimes feels

neglected and forgotten. and as a native san franciscan, i want to make sure that so many outskirts of our city, that they receive the resources and help that they need to thrive. that is my goal, that is my hope, and that is my desire, and that's why it was important for me to come to this community. we've got a lot of work to do, folks, and that is why we need to do as a city is make sure that we are not creating policies in a bubble. we want to make sure that we understand what the needs are of the folks that have the businesses out here, and that we are able to respond to these needs in a way that makes it easier for you to do business in san francisco but also makes you a success in san francisco. that is my goal. that is why i'm excited about this incredible program. i've worked with this program directly, as i said, before, and because of my experience in the jobs now program and getting my check late, i made

it clear to trent that we have to do better with not this reimbursement model. we've got to get folks their payroll. so at this time, i want to introduce trent rorrer who's going to talk a little bit about the program, how small businesses can connect to the program, and how quickly they're going to get reimbursed from the program. trent? >> thank you, mayor breed. as mayor breed said, i'm trent rhorer, executive director of the city's human services agency.

the jobsnow was borne out of president barack obama's jobs program. we immediately in the city seized on the opportunity right after 2009, when it passed, which, in its first year under the stimulus act, placed over 5,000 people in subsidized jobs. this went to unemployed san franciscans, san franciscans on benefits, and impacted hundreds of thousands of san franciscans, businesses big and small, and it was able to make a big impact on the recession. so this time, mayor breed didn't wait to pass a stimulus packages to assist residents and the unemployed, and it's a good thing she didn't because we'd still be waiting.

in it, she included $7 million to the human services agency to expand jobsnow to serve an additional 3,700 people as well as businesses looking to reopen, to expand, or to simply start a new business. this mayor's investment, as she said, is in line with the city investments programs. so what is jobsnow? it's the subsidized employment program that we at the human services agency operate that matches low-income unemployed or underplayed people with job opportunities in the public sector, the private sector, and also the nonprofit. what is subsidized employment? it is a job strategy that uses public dollars, in this case, over $7 million, to reimburse

employers for the wages that they pay to workers that are hired through jobs now. the idea behind the program is very simple and straightforward. as businesses are thinking about opening for the first time or reopening or expanding, there's obviously a lot of uncertainty, given the pandemic, and given the local connect rig economy right now. things like what will be the customer base when it reopens? how immediate and how robust will the supply chain be? all of these thinks are what employers are thinking about when they're thinking about rehiring. so it's all about us saying say, let's lessen your risk and allowing you to pay for a large risk in your business, which is wages. the other benefit of jobsnow

which isn't talked about a lot, but other people who participate in the program will talk about it, is it takes care of businesses' hiring needs. the human services agency does the job announcements, the outreach, resume screening based on the skills of the people that we're working with. rearrange all the incident -- we arrange all the interviews. it allows the employer to get all that work done by us rather than the employers who are thinking about other critical issues related to reopening and expansion and other things. time and time again, in 2009, we heard from employers who said this program is great. but even the best thing, above the wage replacement, is we are meeting their human resources needs. they wouldn't have to place a job announcement on craigslist, schedule interviews, and have

one person show up. we do everything. so we are offering several tiers of wage reimbursement to meet the specific needs of businesses. i'm not going to go into the different tiers and the levels, but i want to talk more broadly about what our strategy is. we're offering the deepest subsidies to businesses that are trying to reopen and rehire staff that they had to layoff or businesses opening for the first time. for these situations, we're reimbursing 100% of the wages for the first three months and 50% of the wages for the next three months. [applause] >> i'll take that. we're also not excluding existing businesses, of course, we'll reimburse businesses $1500 a month for the first six months depending on the wages

that they're offering and their ability to offer full time or part-time work. initially, the program is designed to meet san francisco's residents needs who are enrolled in benefit services. but this is going to allow us to open up this to any job seeker in san francisco. if they're unemployed, if they're underemployed -- and generally, someone who's unemployed is low-income. if they're unemployed or underemployed, they're eligible for jobsnow. so we'll be partnering with the office of workforce development, and doing a biggobig outreach campaign so that any san franciscan knows they can

come to jobsnow, and we'll get them a job. right now, more than 270,000 san franciscans have filed for unemployment. at this time in 2009, about 44,000 san franciscans applied for unemployment. a year ago, the unemployment rate at this time was 1.8%. we're now well over 8%. in addition, the public assistance caseloads have sky rocketed. we're seeing thousands and tens of thousands of people applying for food stamps, and calfresh services to provide for their families. even as importantly, if not more importantly, the small business owner to my right, it's a benefit for small businesses and large businesses struggling in san francisco to

stay open or who are trying to reopen. all the city's 311 line. they'll connect you or sfhsa.org sla sfhsa.org/jobsnow. i want to thank our partners like the mayor, but also our other partners. office for workforce development, joaquin torres and joshua arce, and then, the cochairs of the city's economic recovery task force, rodney fong, the president of the chamber of commerce, as well as assessor carmen chu, for their vision and their leadership in

crafting an economic recovery plan that's sure to make a difference for our citizens and our residents. so i'm really happy to introduce one of the cochairs, assessor carmen chu. [applause] >> thank you very much, trent. couldn't be more pleased to be here today, and i want to just start off by sharing my deep appreciation for the mayor's leadership in all of this. i know that many of you are aware that it's through her leadership and her vision that brought together businesses small and large, community leaders, and nonprofits to put forth ideas to assist in recovery. i'm joined by awe teen torres from eowd as -- oewd as well

as -- joaquin torres from oewd as well as my cochair, rodney san francisco, from the chamber of commerce. through the partnership of our professionals at the department of public health, we've put forward a plan that has been thoughtful and measured, something that has put san francisco apart from the rest of this nation. we're one of the only counties in the state of california to have just recently hit the yellow tier, the least restrictive tier when it comes to the state tiering system. but not only that, we did it in a way that was responsible, in a way that didn't ping pong businesses back and forth to open and close, to open and close. these are really hard decisions, tough things to do, but i think that san francisco

did it right. this doesn't mean that we don't have a lot to do, that we can let down our guards, but it shows that we can reopen and do it safely. but just because we say that we're opening businesses, that restaurants can open, that movie theaters can reopen, it doesn't mean that businesses can come back. through our conversations with folks in the neighbor, we've heard about how even with reopening, people are really worried about bringing back their memployees. do employees feel safe coming back to work? these are questions that many of our businesses do face. that's why a program like jobsnow and its $7.4 million is so incredibly important. it's a way for small businesses to be able to make those choices to bring people back in a responsible way that help them get through this time.

if you're a small business, and you're wondering whether you're going to see customers coming in through your doors, you're going to have the ability to hire someone and get those wages reimbursed for the first three months and 50% for the three months afterwards. that's a big deal. i certainly would do that if i was a small business, and i think this jobsnow program creates the stage to get the help that all our businesses need to get in the right space. so again, i couldn't be more pleased as a member of the economic recovery task force, representing my cochairs and all the members of the community to see this investment come back and be made in san francisco. thank you, mayor breed, for your wonderful investment and for your wonderful leadership. [applaus [applause] >> and with that, i am really pleased to announce our next speaker, someone who i have come to know, and the owner of this wonderful establishment that we all know and love in

the richmond district. adam is going to be coming up to say a few words on behalf of not only the richmond district but the balboa theater. >> hello. i'm adam bergeron of the balboa theat theater. we thought we had used this stimulus money and the p.p.p. and the loan money, but this has just gone on for so long, that even though strategically using it, we just ran out of our p.p.p. money last thursday, so now we're in a position where the rubber is hitting the road. it's time to make some pretty big decisions, and it was right at that moment that i was turned on by my friend to the possibility of jobsnow, and it

really does seem like this could be a lifeline to get us from now to the end of the pandemic to keep some of the valuable staff that we have on board, right, and be able to bridge that gap until we're in a spot where we feel a little more kment about business, the ability to do business. you know, the theater business is a little unique in that i think we're all a little weary of being in a room with people for hours, and it's something we need to consider if we're allowed to reopen, what's going to be the financial viability of the business, and is it going to be safe? thanks, everybody, mayor breed, and thanks, everybody. [applause]

>> the hon. london bree >> i want to join ucsf in thanking mayor breed for bringing us together, and putting san francisco back to work by expanding the jobsnow program. ucsf is the second largest employer in san francisco, and for us, ensuring that our workforce reflects the communities that we're in is part of a long-standing commitment and critical to our priorities. the health and science field is a huge job generator in san francisco. at a time when other parts of our economy are struggling to survive and recover from covid-19, ucsf is committed to doing our part in creating a skilled workforce, not just for our employees, but for the communities we serve. i served on mayor breed kazz task force, and i, too, want to thank the leadership for rodney fong and carmen