we need to move people to housing, need families in housing. [indiscernable] we need families to put in place. [indiscernable] >> your time is up. >> are there any more speaker in the queue? >> erica case, executive director at compass family services. thank you for considering this issue. last year at compass we served

6500 parents and children. we are one part of the system. there is so much need. getting the resources approved but it is the fight to get the resources deployed. we need those funds for housing, behavioral health and services to get families and individuals and young adults housed. thank you. >> thank you for your comments. are there any more speaker in the queue? >> good afternoon. i live and work in san francisco. i work at the coalition of homelessness. i am calling on the city to release funds. they are available to provide housing. life saving services. i just want to emphasize the

failure to spend this money has devastating health impacts even before the pandemic. the average life expectancy for people living on the street was 36 years shorter of the general population. since then there are a surge of deaths among the unhoused people. delaying the spending of the funds is putting people's lives at risk. i call on the city to release the funds as quickly as you can. thank you. >> before we call the next speaker. if you are lining up to speak, system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand be. that means you are in line to speak. after that wait until the system indicates you are unmuted to begin your comments. any more speakers?

>> [speaking spanish].

>> we are timing each speaker for one minute. >> good afternoon, committee. i am an immigrant mother of two kids. i have been living in the streets in shelters for five years. i am calling you because i can't believe that families are living in the streets like myself any more. today i receive a subsidy.

i am grateful for that. i still have the families living in the streets. i know you have other responsibilities, i call on you to stand up for these hundreds of families waiting for you to release the funds. thank you. >> thank you so much. mr. adkins. any more speakers in the queue? i believe there are no more speakers, mr. chair. >> all right. thank you. public comment is closed. before i jump in, colleagues. >> just appreciate the updated

information. we will build on some of the things that were talked about yesterday at the board. there is a lot of demand apneed for support and a lot of financial uncertainty in our city. just as evidenced by today a lot of the programs and support happening it is important to have a clear picture of the financial outlook as we go to the budget. hear from the departments and people today is an important piece of the conversation. appreciate that to help us inform how we approach the upcoming budget. >> thank you. supervisor mar. >> did we have supervisor mar freeze?

>> it looks that way. >> all right. i will jump in then. >> supervisor mar, anything? yes. i want to thank you, chair haney for calling for this hearing. it was very helpful to hear all of the updates from the departments about the work that is happening right now to address homelessness in our city in a comprehensive way. i want to thank hespa and joe and mary for presentations and

for hespa for continuing to push us as a city to really address the urgency of the moment. more specifically to ensure the prop c funds that were allocated according to the our city our home spending plan, those funds are released as soon as possible. we have all heard the frustration from the community. the service providers and advocates how slow it has been for the departments to release the fund to get the programs and services online as soon as possible or expanded. i appreciate this hearing an opportunity to check in on that issue. i just want to ensure that the

departments are really hearing this message from the community. i think from us as supervisors that it is very urgent for them to do everything they can to release the funds to get the programs expended and new ones started as soon as possible. i wanted to make that statement. i know you have a lot of questions, chair haney. i might have further questions or comments afterwards. >> great. thank you to both of you for those comments. could i ask director mcspadden to come up first for a few questions. >> you know, we heard a theme of concern around some of the delays in getting money out

including contracting and invoicing delays. is there a sense you have that those delays are happening? what is your plan to address those delays? is it is related to the new priorities or some questions and how we are approaching prop c? is this what you would view as normal? >> i think we have had a history of delays. i have said to you a few times when i came on i realized how under-resourced the department had been. we really have been staffing up over the months since the fiscal year started. we have an unprecise departmented number of staff to execute all of these contracts.

it is also when you grow as fast as you have there is an on boarding process and it takes time to gel and have everybody understand their rolls. that is one thing. i think we have moved unprecedentedly quickly since the fiscal year started. we have gotten a number of new contracts out the door. we have been able to modify a number of contracts. i want to say one of the things that comes with this much money there is a huge amount of accountability, program design that has to happen in partnership with community. we can't be do it in a vacuum. that takes time. while there are some places where we have and will continue to modify contracts with existing providers, we know that we need to build capacity in our system. that means engaging with new providers. one of the reasons for that is,

as i mentioned in my presentation. we are dedicated to ensuring the provider community represents people experiencing homelessness. that means bringing on more black and brown-led organizations to do the work. engaging with organizations that serve people to do the work. while we have those providers we are working to build capacity and working to bring on new ones. we don't want to -- we understand the urgency very much. we talk about it all of the time at work. what can we do? what can we get out right now? what needs more planning? we are i feel like moving quickly with a lot of urgency. we have an unprecedented number of dollars to get out the door. i think, you know, the committee members know that the accountability means a lot of

steps to go through. just to get a contract out the door if we have a brand-new one to take three to six months. it is a frustrating process. we also want to ensure we have the protections in place that we are thinking about how we are going to monitor these contracts to ensure we get the right outcomes. that takes time to build. i see us in a different place in the next few months. staff worked hard in partnership with the community to get as many dollars out as quickly as we can in the fiscal year. if you have more specific questions i have got deputy directors on the call as well. >> the dollars allocated for

permanent housing less than half are allocated so far. wondering for permanent housing as it relates to family housing. what are the actual timelines to be able to move these forward? i know there are families on wait lists waiting for things to move forward. realtime impact on people's lives. can you speak to the family housing plan and in particular the question of when and how this is going to get out that has already been put in the budget for permanent housing? >> i am going to ask a deputy

director to speak to that specific timeline. they will probably give it more clearance than i will.

>> they will be rolling out later. single site brick and mortar. we have brought three buildings forward for acquisition this year. two of those are k buildings. we are excited about that. they are smaller buildings. total of 70 units between those two buildings. we are on the lookout for additional ones. we have 40 family units coming on as part of acquisition of panama rammic hotel. family housing is a challenge. fewer believes with large units to accommodate families as opposed to single adults. we are continuing to scour the market for good family housing

opportunities. >> we don't have a timeline on release of funds for the permanent housing or there is also just so many things here. sounds like from my feedback pretty much all of them there is a sense in all of them have not been fully released. flexible housing subsidy pool, k and family flex pools. there is a lot of feedback from people the money is not getting out even though it was allocated. is there anything to say about the timeline on any of those things. >> the family flex subsidies were delayed. 220 in early 2022.

i failedded to note earlier that part of the delay is that we have been over the last couple months working to reallocate funding to support rollout of 906 emergency housing vouchers. they are a huge resource and exciting to house 1,000 households. h. d did not provide service dollars. we had to reallocate from our budget to pay the services. we have 377 vouchers to be supported by services from plex subsidy pool budget. we prioritized getting those out first before the regular flex vouchers because of the urgency of not using the opportunity to

deploy hud vouchers which are time limited. those 377 are in process. >> mary kate. >> you spoke around contracting delays on some of these larger expenditures. some of the questions around the families. pools specifically. can you speak to both of those things and what your experience has been? >> yes. in basically 2020 during the budget process that year there was over $1 million allocated to begin family flex pool over the

next couple fiscal years, year one and two. that started in 2021. >> there has been money for quite awhile that hasn't rolled out yet. the reason there was a community process that the community has given a lot of feedback around what those subsidies should look like. i hear the priority is getting the emergency house be vouchers allocated. it is for families and survivors which we appreciate. the money for flexible housing much has been sitting there for a while. we just need to get that process together and start rolling out the funds.

to the point also about the housing acquisition plan for families in k. there is 225 units that are targeted for acquisition. 77 acquired that is wonderful. we need to acquire the balance. for families there is 350 to 450 units to be acquired and 44 acquired due to panama rammic. i am not aware of all buildings. i am not sure there are any beyond 333 12th street that is a great opportunity that folks are looking at. not sure of the plan to acquire or move forward on family housing. there are 100 families on shelter wait. between emergency housing and we could fix that if we could figure out how to unstick and

move forward on these efforts. >> i did have questions around the shelters and what our plan is around safe noncongregate shelter options as the pandemic still continues. we had a hearing on broader pandemic recovery, but where are things around shelter access and shelter expansion? as part of that we approved emergency hotel vouchers for families. could you have somebody speak to those issues?

>> i know we had those. >> we are rolling out vouchers. reinflating shelters to the extent we can in accordance with department of public health. we are going to engage in conversations with shelter providers how to move forward with congregate shelter to keep people safe there. are best practices out there that we can learn from and about in the congregate shelter system. we are expanding stabilization rooms. as i mentioned in my presentation we are looking to bring 7-eleven post on as noncongregate shelter which is one of the first -- we are

trying out different kinds of shelter in our system and trying to get away from the big congregate shelters but we need those. we are expanding that. we have a winter shelter that i mentioned that will really help with capacity in the winter months. we may open a second one. noel, you can answer the question specifically about the vouchers how many we have rolled out or hopefully you can. >> yes, the 100 vouchers in the budget has not rolled out. we are in process of deploying the k vouchers through a work order to ocd to continue existing k hotel voucher program while ramping up the program hsh. we have not delayed the pregnant

women or db vouchers. those are in planning. as the director explained, a lot of efforts in recent months are bringing much larger numbers of shelter units online. we are happy to have the hotel vouchers. a small number. by contrast we have 400 units in shelter planned to hope in the first half at 2022 at two new sites. in december we will open two additional winter shelter sites with a total of 212 units. those are all part of the effort to keep people safe during the ongoing pandemic. >> if i heard that right the vouchers that we put aside for domestic violence and pregnant people and families, none of those have been deployed at all

yet, is that right? >> that's correct. >> i know that there is a lot of individual pieces of this that i could focus in on. why does that take so long? it is in the name it is an emergency. these are vulnerable populations. we have nearly $1 million sitting in a bank for vouchers for some of the most vulnerable homeless people and we aren't using the money. why would that be? i know there are a lot of other priorities. why would that be so difficult to deploy? >> because we have never operated a hotel voucher program before. this requires us to do a new program design, new procurement

to bring providers online. the budget was signed four months ago. as the director explained. we are awash in funding. that is a wonderful problem but it takes time to do community be process, design new programs and get new contracts in place. >> are there partner organizations that have deployed hotel vouchers before? >> as i mentioned, for the k hotel vouchers there is an existing program by larkin street. the board placed the hotel voucher dollars in the hsh budget. we are working on ordering the voucher funds so there is no gap in services for the larkin

program. >> for people who are not in zip hotels, i am wondering about the access they might have to flex pool placement or the permanent supportive housing. we talked a lot about the zip hotels. there is a lot of questions about how we are making sure people who are not in the zip hotels are also accessing some of these placements. >> supervisor, we do have placements that are being made outside of the housing process. community q placements. placements to housing for k and families have been happening throughout the pandemic through

the community queue. adult placements during covid have largely focused on the zip rehousing cohort. in recent months we have begun to reinitiate adult community q placements. i am trying to grab the numbers of on maysments out -- placements for you. i can pull them up. it is significant number of placements from outside of zip this year. >> sorry. >> while you are looking at that, i have a similar related question about how we are connecting people who are unhoused with beds, services. those coming through dph with

crisis response team or at general hospital. i was recently at general hospital and surprised to find out that their sense was there were a lot of people coming there for receiving treatment or showing up for various reasons and not able to access placement to shelter or housing or directly from general hospital. you brought up this larger question how hsh is collaborating with dph and our broader health system to make sure there is integration to place people in housing or shelter from different health or mental health treatment access points. scrt or other clinics or

hospitals. >> supervisor, let me come back to that in a moment. briefly going back to the question about housing placements from outside of the sip hotels. 362 of the total 365k and family housing placements were from outside the sip system. during that same time about 50 adult placements to housing from outside the sip system. we are looking to ramp those numbers upstarting now. director mcspadden, do you want to speak to the behavioral health partnership or should i do that? >> well, i can say that we have worked on the partnership and meeting regularly. we certainly do take referrals from san francisco general to

the system. you know, maybe you can speak more specifically how that works. we do that. we reserve beds for san francisco general specifically in our system. if you are hearing people aren't able to access there could be a variety of reasons they are not. we may not have appropriate shelter housing at the time, but we have a partnership and continue to work on making sure that they have one of the highest levels of access of any partner. >> that's right. to lend more specificity. the question was around the street outreach teams and access to shelter. currently through central shelter placement process two of the top priorities are placements from hospital discharge. also, from the street response teams which includes skirt and

sf hot which also works closely in partnership with ems6. those are ongoing consistent and top priorities for shelter placement. >> sometimes they give me feedback they don't think that is happening to the degree it is. i am glad it is a priority. i would give the feedback it is something that comes up that sometimes there are not effective handoffs for placements for people who are coming through some of these systems of care. i know there is a lot going on and a lot of people to help.

i understand that. i did want to hit that feedback as well. are there any questions from colleagues for folks from hsh? i am going to ask a few questions from dph as well. >> quick question for hsh, chair haney. director mcspadden, talking to people on the street, people working on with directly with the unhoused population. there has been concern people can't self-refer to shelters. a lot has to do with existing could individual status and wanting to know are you thinking about rapid testing program to allow people to understand where their covid-19 status is so they can access shelter if they need

it? >> i don't know if answer to that question, supervisor. i will ask deputy director simons to answer. >> supervisor safai, i am not sure i understand your question correctly. i can definitely speak to community access to shelter. >> let me clarify. if someone is on the street and want to walk to a shelter today. can they walk into a shelter? >> no, they can't. that was not our process prior to covid either. >> i understand that that is a barrier for a lot of people and it is made more difficult because of not easily accessible testing to determine whether or not people can access the shelter readily. maybe you can talk us through why people can't come into a shelter if they need it and what

the process is and the barriers. >> the first thing to clarify is that being vaccinated for covid is not a requirement to enter shelter. we have consciously not made it a requirement. we don't want to set up barriers. testing for covid is a separate question. more in dph's purview. we do have testing available at all shelters for covid. that should not be a barrier. with regard to community access, before covid members of the public were able to access through 311 wait list. we had to shut that down. we now use the central shelter placements. in addition to the central shelter placement there are

other avenues for broader community access to shelter. one sf hot that a public phone line. any individual who is experiencing homelessness can call directly to that line. it is not answered. if they leave a message our hot team will follow up on all clients calls within 24 hours to make an offer of shelter. our hot team is responding 10 to 15 callers per day from that line. what you saw earlier in the presentation they made over 3300 placements into shelter from the street last year. it is a large number being placed that way. in addition to that there are a number of navigation centers and emergency shelters usuallying community referral processes. they don't go through the central process. they are able to identify people in the community and make direct placements into the shelters. we will also be working with a

number of community partners in order to fill the two winter noncongregate shelters. 212 beds coming online december and january. hot team will work with providers in the community to identify people on the street in needs of those beds. >> are you thinking about restoring the 311 process? >> we know that is a high priority for the community. there are technical barriers to restarting that weight list quickly. it would be a long and boring system. the old system is decommissioned. we need to stand up a new shelter bed management system. that is what is making it difficult for us. one of the things that makes it difficult to restart the 311

wait list right now. >> there are other avenues of community access to meet the demand for broader public access absent 311 wait list. >> is joe still on the line? >> i want to give him an opportunity to talk about this from his experience and what they see on the ground. >> thank you, supervisor. i have to express a lot of frustration here. with all due respect i can appreciate technical barriers to standing up shelter reservation lines. there are technical barriers for people being homeless. an additional challenge here is

it just doesn't feel like we are partners in this process. [please stand by]

>> it ought to be as easy as possible for a person outside who wants to get outside which is frankly not service resistant, and it's especially galling to have to deal with that when the services are

nonexistent, when the services are not really available, to have a conversation with the providers, what is the capacity, community by community, neighborhood by neighborhood, provider by provider, and a sense of urgency and alacrity of getting these things in place because it seems like we're waiting to do things, but all we do is wait, and we keep getting told that things are happening, things are being discussed, options are being considered, but it seems like -- and i'm trying to be as charitable as possible here, understanding that there's a pandemic, but it seems to be focused on motion rather than movement, and i

really have to appeal to all the department representatives here to feel the pain here because providers who are closest to individuals, families, adults, young people have to tell people every day why things are not happening. we are the ones charged with that responsibility; that we have to explain to people, i thought there was a whole lot of money coming down from the federal level or i saw the federal government talking about all this money that was available, and wasn't there this prop c thing that was available. we have to explain this to people, and it's galling not to be put in the situation where we can actually determine how decisions are made, what resources are allocated, and what projects can be stood up

in a reasonable period of time. what i would urge this committee to do is to put department staff on notice that you will be coming back every 30 days with a specific plan and a specific update on what has been done in the previous month, just like we have to do when we invoice on our contracts. we have to prove that we spent the money in a certain way, so departments should have to do that, too. >> supervisor safai: thanks, joe. director mcspadden, i want to give you an opportunity to respond to that because i understand you're just -- you're new in your transition, and this is by no means an attempt to blindside you, an attempt in any way. we new this from talking about

your staff, and i was trying to -- i understand that there's an attempt to expand the numbers. i just wanted to give you an opportunity to respond. >> yeah, sure. so, i mean i -- you know, i do understand the frustration in the community. there is a sense of urgency. as a san franciscan, i see what's happening out on the street. i know that my staff are working very intensely, very

hard, many hours to try to get this money out the door. it's really challenging, and i can say having been a department head for a while, it's bureaucratic, and there are a number of steps out there to get a contract out the door. there are a number of steps in changing the system. we have to have a fair process where we have panels and we have proposals, and we have equity at the center, and it's

just how our system works. there are just so many things at work and things that we're prioritizing more. these are the things that are going to get us the most items out the door, and we're laser focused on that, but it is a multilayered process, and i don't have any power to change that. >> supervisor safai: okay. thank you for that, director. >> but that said, i have said in many different rooms that i'm happy to work with the community, to hear what people said. we have been spending a lot of

time doing that, and i have learned a lot from the providers who i've been meeting with regularly. >> supervisor safai: no, anything we can do, director mcspadden, that's great. >> thank you. >> chair haney: anything we can do, working with providers and increasing urgency, we appreciate it. i'm going to hold my questions for the other departments and set up a time to talk with the department of public health directly, and i am also, i

think, going to want to have an update when we come back in january, that we see some further progress and see some dollars go out the door, so i'm going to want us to continue this hearing when we come back from break and see where things are and appreciate your work, and there's a lot more dollars, and that's why we want to get the collars to where they are -- dollars to where they're most needed to the services they desire. with that, i'm going to

continue this item to the call of the chair. can we have a roll call on that motion, please. >> clerk: yes, sir. on the motion to continue this item to the call of the chair -- [roll call] >> clerk: we have three ayes. >> chair haney: great. thank you so much, and thank you to all of the service providers and directors and department leaders who are here. we really appreciate your service, and we'll let you get back to it, and we'll be in touch further about next steps and looking to you to get this work done. thank you. i know know that we have in item 12, which relates to b.l.a., that we're going to leave for.

can we call item 12? >> clerk: yes. item 12 is a resolution approving an agreement between harvey m. rose associates, l.l.c., and the board of supervisors for the budget and legislative analyst services for a total amount not to exceed $10.5 million for an initial term of four years from january 1, 2022, through december 31, 2025. member of the public who wish to make public comment should call 415-655-0001, meeting i.d. 2482-945-4183. then press pound and pound again. press star, three to enter the queue and wait until the system

indicates your line has been unmuted. mr. chair? >> chair haney: thank you. we have [indiscernible] to present the item. >> thank you. i am [indiscernible] requesting the community to approve a new contract. as you know, we issued a request for proposal in april. although we received only one proposal, we conducted a thorough investigation by subject matter experts from the california legislative analyst's office, contra costa administrator's office and a member of the board to ensure we're hiring a qualified member for the board. the item before you is a resolution approving an agreement between harvey m.

rose associations, l.l.c. and the board of supervisors for the budget and legislative analyst services for an initial term of four years from january 1, 2022 through december 31, 2025. thank you, and i'm available for your questions.

>> clerk: i think we hear a caller. caller, you may begin your comments. >> yeah, supervisors, i was listening to the previous gentleman and, i think when whoever these people are that placed in positions because the mayor wants them in that position so that they can carry on their crooked ways, what i

find, i was trained in the military, they can go out -- >> clerk: mr. dacosta, i am pausing your time. we have already dispensed with that item. we are taking public comment on the agreement with the board of supervisors and harvey m. rose associates for budget and legislative analyst's services, so i will restart your time if you wish to redirect your comments. >> yes, give me another 1.5 minutes. so harvey rose has done a great job for the institution. thanks god for harvey rose because he's been there, seen that, so nobody can hoodwink here. so what i'm saying is,

supervisor, i'm asking for transparency, and quality of life issues are compromised, and the mayor has to play a role here. we can't let it go buy without challenging her. quality of life issues are compromised. harvey rose tries to do his best and put his best foot forward, but he cannot dictate to you all, supervisors. he cannot mandate to you all. you supervisors represent us,

so you supervisors should take it upon yourself to do a needs assessment and ratify things and put them back on track. that's all i've got to say. thank you very much. >> clerk: pardon. thank you, mr. dacosta, for your comments. mr. atkins, do we have any further callers in the queue? >> operator: we have no further callers in the queue. >> chair haney: thank you. i want to make a motion to move item 12 to the full board with a positive recommendation. can i have a roll call vote, please. >> clerk: on the motion to move item 12 to the full board -- [roll call] --

. >> clerk: i think member mar is frozen again. >> supervisor mar: i'm here. can you hear me? [roll call] >> clerk: we have two ayes with vice chair safai absent. >> chair haney: great. this will go to the full board with a positive recommendation. mr. clerk, are there any further items before us today? >> clerk: mr. chair, that concludes our business. >> chair haney: great. meeting's adjourned.

>> they were early. i'm on time.

well, it's great to be here and portrayal hills somewhat dog patch at the bottom of the hill, one of the iconic night life venues in san francisco celebrating 30 years in business. this is absolutely extraordinary for night life venue. when i think about all the places i went to growing up. the one-up, the glass cat and all these other venues, they're not even open anymore. so growing up in san francisco, live music, entertainment, events happening in the day and events happening in places like bottom of the hill were just apart of our culture. it's where so many people got their start. and when you think about it, can you imagine back in the day, if you had an opportunity to come to bottom of the hill and actually see santana perform. those kinds of iconic artists performed or got their start in

places like this. and when i think about the fact that that pandemic, we have had to all sacrifice and we've had to sacrifice because we've not been able to not only be around 1 another, but we weren't able to enjoy live music. from performing artists, those who dj, those who entertain, play musical instruments, those who sing, it was very hard. can you imagine it being hard on us not being able to see it, but being hard on the artists who weren't getting paid. hard on the venues who weren't making money and had to lay off staff. it was a tough almost two years we've experienced this pandemic and although we're in a much better place, we still know that many of these venues continue to have challenges. so in san francisco, what we've been able to do which i'm very proud of is our entertainment fund which i work with supervisor haney to establish,

we actually invested over $3 million to help night life businesses and i want to thank a lot of folks here from the entertainment industry to make sure we carve out resources specifically for night life entertainment businesses in san francisco. our jams permits, providing opportunities for restaurants in places that normally don't have live entertainment to have live entertainment for their customers especially with all the new park lites and open space and the outdoor dining. san franciscans know how to adapt. it was challenging, but we adapted, we opened up a lot of great open spaces and provided opportunities for artists. in addition to that waiving over $15 million in fees for light bottom of the hill and other places. and we know there are a lot of state and federal programs and our office of economic workforce development.

they have been working hard to make sure everyone who qualifies for any of those resources helping them through the application process to make sure no money is left on the table. because what we don't want is to see more businesses close in san francisco. before this pandemic, it was already challenging and since this pandemic we know it has been extremely brutal. and that's why having resources and programs and things like what we're announcing today are so important. and everyone is probably wondering, why is the city attorney at a press conference? well, the city attorney just became our city attorney and normally, you probably won't see it at a press conference. but former city attorney david chiu and many of those things were finally starting to feel in some cases the fruits of his

labor. a $2.5 million investment from the state thanks to our city attorney former assembly member david chiu that will invest in entertainment venues and parks and plazas and open spaces all over san francisco to support not just paying our artists, our local artists to perform, but also the production costs and all of the things that go into setting up these venues to entertain you cost a lot of money. and we want to make sure we're supporting this industry and keeping night life and entertainment alive in san francisco. that we're all when you think about it, the city starts to re-open and all of a sudden, you hear music, there's something about that that makes you smile. all of a sudden, you see someone dancing in the streets.

but, it's something about seeing people out in the public performing and entertaining the public. the shakespeares in the parks and all the things that we know make san francisco such a great place not just for the people who live here but also who visit here. i remember one of my first concerts as a kid, it was at the fill more and ice cube was performing. i'll be honest, i snuck in. i didn't have money to buy a ticket and i was probably under age at the time because i was still in junior high. but the fact is, it was like nothing i've ever seen before. but having someone live on stage going to a concert and having a good time and listening to music and feeling good and everyone feeling good and everyone singing the words, there's just nothing like that feeling. it brings people together. it is apart of the fabric of what makes san francisco such a

wonderful city it's about our health and well being because entertainment, music, fun, night life is the heart beat of why san francisco is so special. i'm grateful to be here today and at this time, i'd like to introduce city attorney david chiu who is really the champion of this program and the reason why we're here today. >> thank you so much, madam mayor. thank you for your leadership. do we have any fans of live music here. thank you, madam mayor and reminding me while i am the city attorney, i'm here really as a former assembly member who has been a bit obsessed by live music. i've been asked by a couple folks this morning how i got involved in all this.

it started for me when i was in junior high school. and i wrote my first paper on the festival known as wood stock. i am a musician in a past life and the violin is actually what got me through high school and college. it's what allowed me to make some pocket money in orchestras and weddings. and some of you may know that i carry that on here in san francisco. if you google apparently david chiu and electric violin, i might have been known but let's fast forward. when i first moved to san francisco, i fell in love with the live music scene in our city. and it's not just about the music and the arts and the culture. but it's about what this scene means for our city when it comes to our economic vitality. when it comes to attracting

tourists and the rest of the world that wants to come here and have a good time and enjoy the scene that we have. and the men and women behind me have been responsible for that scene represent literally thousands of folks would are part of what makes san francisco great. and we're here in part because the last couple of years, the pandemic and the recession have been catastrophic to this world, to this community. and so a few years ago when a number of folks, when kc from the san francisco venue coalition, when some of our small business commissioners, i know when ben blyman and sharky laguana and others came. and representing the independent venue association. they came to us and said what more can the state do to assist this. that was when mayor came and

said can you help us and figure out how to get some state support for this struggling industry that needs to continue and that is where this idea for sf live was born. what we're talking about is being able to support outdoor performances in and around these incredible live music venues to really remind folks of the magic of music and to ensure that we are keeping folks employed and bringing people back to these incredible establishments like the one that we're in front of right now which rolling stone said is one of the very best live music venues in the united states. i'm just so delighted to have an opportunity to work with everyone here. i'm looking forward to coming to all these performances. i'll tell you this, my five-year-old son took his first tap dancing class on saturday. when he moves. as the mayor said, he won't be caught dancing on the streets. he likely will be found dancing in front of these venues when

we get these performances going and because of that, i'm just so grateful to all the work by everyone here to make this happen. with that, i want to invite up someone who's going to make sure that it all happens. the woman who is now the new head of oewd building on the good work of our former ahead joaquin torres. take it away. >> well, it seems we all have a personal story about music and the arts, so i'll share mine. i'm the daughter of two professional musicians. from day one until the day they passed four years ago. in classical music. and, for me, that's really informed so much of what i have done in my life and my professional life because i remember how much they struggled and as i carried that forward in my life and my previous incarnation which is

about makers and artisans and helping them grow and sustain themselves here in the city to now in my role here at oewd a lot of what drives me is wanting to make sure that musicians and artists and performers and really the cultural trusts of our city have a way to make it for themselves, for their families and to earn a decent respectable life-sustaining living. so, from that, and you look at what is the infrastructure you need to make that happen? so there are the musicians themselves are artists. there are these cherished venues. when i came here to san francisco 30 plus years ago, i actually was amazed at the new wave and the punk scene and that was what i was personally into and so some of the clubs i started at were more about

electronica and this whole mash-up of what has flourished into live music and house and hip hop. we have it all here. but it needs tending like a flower so when i look at something like this investment, thank you as some former assembly member chiu and my team ben laurel for helping really bring this to culmination these wonderful precious jewels will grow here in the city. at the highest level of economic recovery. this is also i believe the way that we get our city back. we get to reimagine and reinfuse san francisco with what makes us special, what makes us only here in san francisco and i fully believe that our arts and music and

cultural assets need to lead the economic recovery front and center. they are the reason people move here. they are the reason people are starting to return back to their offices in downtown and they are certainly the reason why our visitors international and domestic are going to continue to come back here to san francisco. so with that, enough of us government folks. let's hear from somebody who actually knows how to do this, please. [ applause ] >> wow. we feel really supported. oh, my gosh, i need notes. i'm not good at this. for our venue, bottom of the hill, we were closed for 17 silent months. it seems pretty excruciating and that was the first time that we ever considered the possibility that we might not open again. we prided ourselves on being

scrappy and resourceful and survivors, but i think everyone here and across the country and the world realized for the first time that live music venues are fragile and need to be supported. that created change though which is good. we were pushed to forge friendships and alliances and the san francisco venue coalition which were and still are working hard for positive change and adaptation. and adaptation is definitely needed because there's a lot of continuing hardships in this field. we have a lot of band camp cancellations. people are not showing up because they're so afraid. supply chain issues, rising costs. somehow it's a rebirth and it's

been completely joyful and we've had seven sell-outs in the past two weeks. so that's fantastic. and other days, it kind of seems like we're never going to be out of the grip of covid and its continuing challenges. so this initiative is incredibly exciting for me and many venues. it allows a venue like ours that's very intimate to go to larger arenas and reach the people that don't feel safe going inside to a live show and without all the red tape and the prohibitive price tags that putting on a live music outside once entailed and it allows us to bring our individual venue styles to different spaces across the city to show visitors and locals what we're all about. i think most importantly, in

marks a historic time where our leaders are taking music seriously and making a choice to invest in it. there's no reason why cities like norlz, nashville, and austin get to be a music city. music drives tourism and music runs through our veins in san francisco. it's the best city in the world. we need to show it off and now we can. but i want to thank a few people. everyone here, i want to thank -- he didn't want to be thanked, but ben van houghton. this guy actually listens to people in venues and since well before covid and makes change happen. he didn't want to be thanked, but i had to.

and city attorney david chiu and mayor london breed, you all are amazing. thank you for stepping up to the plate for us. and we really look forward to partnering with you on this, for innovative initiative. it's the right move. it's very san francisco and we hope not only to survive but to thrive in the near future. that's it. now i have the distinct pleasure of introducing casey who has worked hard for the music industry and he's fabulous and he works for the san francisco alliance as well as many other hats. take it away. [ applause ] >> thank you city attorney chiu and mayor breed for your support and engagement throughout the pandemic. i'm the assistant general

manager at bill graham civic auditorium as well as the co-founder of the san francisco coalition. and during the pandemic provided an opportunity for over 40 independent venues in san francisco to share ideas, commiserate together and most importantly to engage our elected officials. we are thrilled to see this effort and look forward to developing these plans along with the office of economic work force and development. live music in san francisco is

synonymous. thank you >> thank you casey and thank you to everyone that's joining here today and i just want to take an opportunity to recognize our entertainment commissioners. ben blyman and starkey are all here. can you guys do a little wave. these are true night life and entertainment advocates in san francisco and just to be clear. i'm not just doing this because i like to party. i also think that it is needed at a time like this. nothing has made me more happy than to be out and about watching live performances, plays, and sees events. some of you also know that i used to run a nonprofit organization and just to see

kids from not even looking you in the eye. like who is that kid, like who is that person. the arts and entertainment in san francisco, it does so much and i remember when i served as a member of the board of supervisors and there were a number of new housing developments going up and there was some threats of places like even bottom of the hill being closed because of complaints from neighbors who had just moved here in some of the new developments. and so i remember some of the legislation to say you basically have to sign and know that a night life exists within a certain range because i just think that it's sad and unfortunate and unfair for a place like this that's been around for 30 years to be able to be sued or to be closed or to be, you know, taken away from our city in that way and so i think i want people to

know in general, you know, san francisco's a major city. it's a great city. there's a lot of noise everywhere and what we are going to continue to do is make sure that we protect our venues like bottom of the hill. they've been around for 30 years. it's a great venue. there's just something about being in an intimate space and listening to live music and also walking into a place where people know who you are. where you feel like you're connected to the bartenders and the staff. it just makes you feel good and so part of what i wanted to do today to recognize bottom of the hill for their resiliency, for staying here, for working with us, for providing the input in the changes to policies and resources that we needed to provide as a city, i wanted to take this opportunity and recognize you and bottom of the hill on your 30th anniversary and come on up.

and just present you with a certificate of honor because we know that bottom of the hill is now eligible to be a legacy business. so we need to be well on our way to protecting this institution in san francisco because we want to see the next santanas and other incredible musicians continue to come out of here. this is a real jewel. you're a real jewel for doing all the hard work to make it happen and continuing this great work. i know you started working in the kitchen at this location and now you're in charge of it and running the show. it's pretty remarkable and it is truly what makes san francisco a wonderful place. congratulations on 30 years. >> thank you. [ applause ] >> and, i noticed your lovely vintage attire as well. you can tell she's very artsy. i love that about san francisco. with that, without further adieu before i open it up to

questions, valley brown is joining us as well as our assessor recorder and i've mentioned the other commissioners and others. so, you know, this is really a team effort. it's something that we all care about and something we're going to continue to push and as you know, grants for the arts presents a lot of funding for the festivals and the parades and the other activities that we do. and so we're going to beef it up because we want our streets to be fun and live with entertainment. so thank you all so much for joining us. and then i'll just hope it up for a few quick questions. >> in addition to the $2.5 million in state money, are there any rule changes coming with this initiative to make it easier to do these live performances? and if i could ask a second question. talk about that old mcdonald site. i'm wondering if you can give

an explanation about your administration would not move forward. what was the first one? >> those are two questions. >> anything to make it change. >> so i think what we tried to do specifically the jams permit during the closure was to make it easier for not just night life venues to have entertainment, but also for some of our restaurants and other places that traditionally don't have that. we are definitely looking at ways to make it easier to get permits and to have these things occur in san francisco. i think we did that during the pandemic and i'm hoping that it will continue and, clearly, ben is doing his job. so, ben, you get to stay at oewd because, you know, that's an indication that he is doing his job. the office of economic and work force development. we are of the business of getting to yes to support our businesses in san francisco, to make sure they have the resources and support they need

to cut the bureaucracy. so whatever we can do policy wise or resource wise, we're going to do it. before i move on to your next question, i need to answer any other questions related to this. >> i'm just confused as to how this is going to work. how is it going to work? >> yeah. the way it's going to work.' there's a lot of people also who may not own brick and mortars, but promoters who are going to use a lot of our plazas, like downtown holiday plaza, u.n. plaza, various plazas and parks and open space, civic center. all over san francisco and various neighborhoods i forget what this new location is called over here. we also need to look at geographic equity. we can't just have it in the center of the city or the downtown area, we want to have it in neighborhood activities,

festivals and other events and so the plan is to work with the entertainment community. many have already expressed interest, but concern because of the cost related to it. there's definitely a market to do this and the goal is to make sure it's spread throughout the city and ultimately, we want to make sure that local artists are prioritized and paid for this program as well. >> [inaudible] >> i don't know. i just showed up here. does anybody know why we came here? why not here? >> yeah. why not here? i'm like, i don't know why did we hold it here? >> okay. you can quote me on that.

>> [inaudible] >> and, i'm sorry, are we finished with the questions related to this night life venue related stuff? okay. >> reporter: okay. so members are calling on the city to donate to the if fillmore area nonprofit for reparations. what do you think of that? >> we haven't made a decision about that. it's a lot more complicated because the property is under redevelopment disposition laws so it's not as if it's as simple l as donating without making sure there's some financial -- i don't know how to explain it exactly, but there's things that we are obligated to do as a city which will require money and so until we have a clear understanding of what that would entail and what it would mean, we don't know if that's going to be

possible. so we're going to do everything we can to work with the community which we have from the very beginning, but at this point, the state law will super cede what we're able to do here locally. >> i've not made a decision on that yet. >> going back to the same -- >> i'm sorry. i'm going to go back to him. >> i think your administration's going to be asked again the rationale for not going forward. >> i think i made my answer clear when i talked at the board of supervisors meeting. the supervisors put money in the budget to pay for a drop-in center. it went out to bid and the only organization that bid on it basically asked for a lot more money in order to do it and we were not willing to provide any additional resources to do it nor were we willing to use the amount of money just to cover their staff expenses. so how is that going to work? part of it was money. the other challenge is, you know, just the challenges of what has existed in the hate

ashbury community and needing to make sure that we have an organization or group or program that's going to help to eliminate some of the problems that have existed with this population for a very long time. clearly, what's happening there now is not working and i'm not 100% certain that adding this additional resource is going to make a difference. >> [inaudible] >> i don't know yet. because again we have an obligation under state redevelopment disposition law and that's what's made it way more complicated. we would have done something already, but there's certain obligations that we have to meet under state law. and so i'm not sure if the ability to provide it to the community is even an option without financial support being attached to it in some capacity. so i don't know. we are working on it and it's

more complicated than that and as a member myself of the black community, not everyone is in agreement. at the end of the day, you know, the work that we do with the city is going to be responsible and ultimately hopefully be of benefit to the community and we're going to try to work on that and we'll see what happens. >> would you like to see this happen? i would like to see the venue open. i would like to see the venue become a huge success. i don't want to see the venue continue to be a financial drain on the city. and so that's one of the things that we need to work towards, but ultimately, a lot of the guiden principles for how we make decisions with that venue have everything to do with state law. thank you.

>> it was an outdoor stadium for track and field, motorcycle and auto and rugby and cricket located in golden gate park, home to professional football, lacross and soccer.

adjacent to the indoor arena. built in the 1920s. the san francisco park commission accepted a $100,000 gift from the estate to build a memorial in honor of pioneers in the area. the city and county of san francisco contributed an additional $200,000 and the stadium was built in a year. in the 1930s it was home to several colleges such as usf, santa clara and st. mary's for competition and sporting. in 1946 it became home to the san francisco 49ers where they played nearly 25 years. the stayed de yam sat 60,000 fans. many caught game the rooftops and houses. the niners played the last game against the dallas cowboys january 3, 1971 before moving to candlestick park. the stadium hosted other events before demolition in 1989.

it suffered damages from the earthquake. it was reconstructed to seat 10,000 fans with an all weather track, soccer field and scoreboards. it hosts many northern california football championship games. local high schools sacred heart and mission high school used the field for home games. the rivalry football games are sometimes played here. today it is a huge free standing element, similar to the original featuring tall pink columns at the entrance. the field is surrounded by the track and used by high school and college football and soccer. it is open for public use as well.

>> everything is done in-house. i think it is done. i have always been passionate about gelato. every single slaver has its own recipe. we have our own -- we move on from there.

so you have every time a unique experience because that slaver is the flavored we want to make. union street is unique because of the neighbors and the location itself. the people that live around here i love to see when the street is full of people. it is a little bit of italy that is happening around you can walk around and enjoy shopping with gelato in your hand. this is the move we are happy to provide to the people. i always love union street because it's not like another commercial street where you have big chains. here you have the neighbors. there is a lot of stories and the neighborhoods are essential. people have -- they enjoy having their daily or weekly gelato. i love this street itself. >> we created a move of an area where we will be visiting.

we want to make sure that the area has the gelato that you like. what we give back as a shop owner is creating an ambient lifestyle. if you do it in your area and if you like it, then you can do it on the streets you like.

[♪♪♪] ♪ homelessness in san francisco is considered the number 1 issue by most people who live here, and it doesn't just affect neighbors without a home, it affects all of us. is real way to combat that is to work together. it will take city departments and nonprofit providers and volunteers and companies and community members all coming together. [♪♪♪] >> the product homeless connect community day of service began about 15 years ago, and we have had 73 of them. what we do is we host and expo-style event, and we were the very force organization to do this but it worked so well that 250 other cities across the globe host their own. there's over 120 service providers at the event today, and they range anywhere from hygiene kits provided by the basics, 5% -- to prescription

glasses and reading glasses, hearing tests, pet sitting, showers, medical services, flu shots, dental care, groceries, so many phenomenal service providers, and what makes it so unique is we ask that they provide that service today here it is an actual, tangible service people can leave with it. >> i am with the hearing and speech center of northern california, and we provide a variety of services including audiology, counselling, outreach, education, today we actually just do screening to see if someone has hearing loss. to follow updates when they come into the speech center and we do a full diagnostic hearing test, and we start the process of taking an impression of their year, deciding on which hearing aid will work best for them. if they have a smart phone, we make sure we get a smart phone that can connect to it, so they can stream phone calls, or use it for any other services that they need. >> san francisco has phenomenal social services to support people at risk of becoming

homeless, are already experience and homelessness, but it is confusing, and there is a lot of waste. bringing everyone into the same space not only saves an average of 20 hours a week in navigating the system and waiting in line for different areas, it helps them talk, so if you need to sign up for medi-cal, what you need identification, you don't have to go to sacramento or wait in line at a d.m.v., you go across the hall to the d.m.v. to get your i.d. ♪ today we will probably see around 30 people, and averaging about 20 of this people coming to cs for follow-up service. >> for a participant to qualify for services, all they need to do is come to the event. we have a lot of people who are at risk of homelessness but not yet experiencing it, that today's event can ensure they stay house. many people coming to the event are here to receive one specific need such as signing up for medi-cal or learning about d.m.v. services, and then of course, most of the people who are tender people experiencing homelessness today.

>> i am the representative for the volunteer central. we are the group that checks and all the volunteers that comment participate each day. on a typical day of service, we have anywhere between 40500 volunteers that we, back in, they get t-shirts, nametags, maps, and all the information they need to have a successful event. our participant escorts are a core part of our group, and they are the ones who help participants flow from the different service areas and help them find the different services that they needs. >> one of the ways we work closely with the department of homelessness and supportive housing is by working with homeless outreach teams. they come here, and these are the people that help you get into navigation centers, help you get into short-term shelter, and talk about housing-1st policies. we also work very closely with the department of public health to provide a lot of our services. >> we have all types of things that volunteers deal do on a day of service. we have folks that help give out lunches in the café, we have

folks who help with the check in, getting people when they arrive, making sure that they find the services that they need to, we have folks who help in the check out process, to make sure they get their food bag, bag of groceries, together hygiene kit, and whatever they need to. volunteers, i think of them as the secret sauce that just makes the whole process works smoothly. >> participants are encouraged and welcomed to come with their pets. we do have a pet daycare, so if they want to have their pets stay in the daycare area while they navigate the event, they are welcome to do that, will we also understand some people are more comfortable having their pets with them. they can bring them into the event as well. we also typically offer veterinary services, and it can be a real detriment to coming into an event like this. we also have a bag check. you don't have to worry about your belongings getting lost, especially when that is all that you have with you. >> we get connected with people

who knew they had hearing loss, but they didn't know they could get services to help them with their hearing loss picks and we are getting connected with each other to make sure they are getting supported. >> our next event will be in march, we don't yet have a date set. we typically sap set it six weeks out. the way to volunteer is to follow our newsletter, follow us on social media, or just visit our website. we always announce it right away, and you can register very easily online. >> a lot of people see folks experience a homelessness in the city, and they don't know how they can help, and defence like this gives a whole bunch of people a lot of good opportunities to give back and be supported. [♪♪♪]

. >> clerk: held on november 22nd, 2021. the meeting is being called to order at 4:30 p.m. small business thanks sfgov tv for televising the meeting. members of the public who will be calling in, the number is (415) 655-0001. the access code is 24997935471. press pound and then pound again to be added to the line. when connected, you will hear the meeting discussions but you will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up,