it reminds you every day of where i used to be and where i am at now. this is the third event we've done this year and the other two, the bristol and the abigail are some of the best in the country. and at a time when people all around the country are complaining about homelessness

and saying what are the solutions. we're acquiring permanent supportive housing and that's the only answer because people need housing, they need a roof over their heads and this particular project as i said earlier, tenants from the baldwin hotel will be moving here and they've been in very tiny rooms on 6th street with no private baths.' this is the first hotel ever acquired by the city that has not only all private baths, but microkitchens in every room. they have microwaves, entire kitchens set up. a giant stove for people who really want to cook right around the corner and this is what i call s.r.o.2.0. this is what we want to see as the future. you know dpock and then cathy. cathy's late husband enrique

used to team with d-pock and then they turned it over to the city for us to run. mary's done a great job here. no further adieu. we'll let you speak. [ applause ] >> well, so first of all, let me just say, i want to acknowledge many of the people who are outside and working in our various places around the tenderloin community from sciu and many of the workers who even during the pandemic still showed up to work. thank you for your service. thank you for supporting the community in this neighborhood despite the challenges of a pandemic. we were able to still push for an expansion of many new hotels and affordable housing and i know it hasn't been easy. and so i hear your request and i am taking them very seriously and i just wanted to take this

opportunity to thank all of the various employees of not just the garland, but many of the supportive service housing locations throughout the city because we couldn't do this work without you. we know this work is important. we know there are people who are getting back on their feet. you know, it could happen to anyone at any given time. anyone could fall unfortunately victim to challenges around behavioral health, around substance use disorder, around poverty. and the ability to do what we're doing here today is so important. and d-pock, i just want to thank you so much because i feel like we continue to do these great partnerships, but most importantly, i appreciate how much care you take into making sure these places look good for the people that are going to be here. how you've gone out of your way in addition to another location that we've workeded together on

and provided even a television in a congregate room where people can come and gather as a community and it means a lot. it's the little things that make a difference and so we appreciate you and your family and your work to help us get san francisco's most vulnerable population housed. and the thing is, we set out in 2018 or 2019 to increase the number of shelters in san francisco and what we set out a goal to do was to add 1,500 new shelters to our portfolio. the fact is we're almost there and i'm really proud and excited. it's the largest expansion of shelter in san francisco in over 20 years, but in addition to shelter, what we've learned from this pandemic is people need their own space. people need their own bathrooms and their own food prep areas. i mean, these are things that

many of us are so blessed to have in our lives. things we take for granted every single day when we walk through the doors of our home, it's what other people sadly don't have, the people who unfortunately are sleeping on the sidewalk, are sleeping in tents, are sleeping in some cases in many of our single room occupancy hotels where they have to share a bathroom and have no control over the whole cleaning situation that occurs in those locations. that's why this place is so important. 80 new units where you have your own space where you have dignity. where you don't have to share your space with people that you may not even know and people that you may not even get along with. that is so important and this is direction that we need to be headed in. now, i know we built navigation centers and a number of other places to provide support for people living on the streets, but i want us as a city to move

away from that model. to move towards those small homes, the cabins we just opened at 33 goff. i want us to move towards places like the garland and focus on places that will allow people to live in their own space and live their lives as i said with dignity. this is so important and we were able to do this because of federal support from h.u.d. because of the state support through project home key and because of the resources we provided in our budget through the city and working with randy shaw and the tenderloin housing clinic and the work that they continue to do to manage these facilities to provide the supportive services, to work with the city and what we have available to make sure that we are not only getting people housed, but we're keeping them housed, and then we're thinking about the challenges that they

might face with their mental health or their personal care or just basic hygiene. and let me tell you this quick story because many of you know that i grew up in the city and i remember there was this gentleman who i knew all my life. and he with the older guys would hang out in this location. and we all lived in plaza east. this was public housing, and, yes, people didn't go there unless they lived there, but we didn't have people sleeping on the sidewalk. everybody had a place to go. and so just imagine you fast forward and this same gentleman who i'm not going to put his business out in the street, but he's sleeping near safeway at webster. and he was homeless we found out for five years. he lost his housing. he had challenges with his

social security. he didn't know where to go or what to do because he did accept when plaza east was torn down. he accepted a section eight voucher and he just struggled from that point forward and he was homeless. fast forward, we built the willy b. apartments we used neighborhood preference and we were able to not only get him housed, but we were able to provide the services to ensure that he stays housed because it wasn't -- he had his social security, but he had trouble in terms of balancing things and making the right decisions because he used to have someone who helped him to do that and he no longer did and that's why he ended up homeless and that is the tragedy. we can't just take for granted everyone knows what to do and how to do it especially in an expensive complex city like san francisco and that's why

services are so important and that's why it's so expensive. people are wondering why you're spending so much money and we don't see changes on the streets. john will disagree with you because there's a change in his life right now and it's a blessing. it's a blessing that he is here and our goal is to try and do everything we can in this city to make sure that people like john and his friends are not ending up on the streets. we have a lot of work to do in this city, but we're also committed to doing everything we can to make sure places like the garland become the norm and not the exception. thank you all for joining us here today as we really celebrate this milestone.

so much more work to be done. as you can see with all the folks that are here today, we are committed to that work and we're not going to give up. thank you. >> i want to thank the mayor for acknowledging our workers because one of the problems we have is that this proceeded mayor breed by years is that the salary levels for the workers in these hotels have not kept up. so all our jobs in the tenderloin housing clinic and all these jobs are in-person jobs, can't work at home. we've got to get the salaries raised in the next budget to make sure we can hire people and staff the hotels. i also want to mention, i was talking to a reporter and they said, well, you know, we have so many homeless people. is 80 units going to make a difference? some people have that attitude, but that's how you solve a problem by doing it building by building and that's what this mayor is doing and the mayor

made another great decision when she named her ahead of h.s.h. and ever since shareem's team got in there she made it better. so why don't you give some talk as well. [ applause ] >> so, thank you, randy, and thanks so much for inviting us today. this is really exciting. and i want to just start by thanking mayor breed for her leadership and i think you can tell from what she just said that this is a deeply personal issue for her and that she cares very much about san franciscans being housed and the garland is exactly what she said. this is the wave of the future for us. it's really nice to be in a building where people have their own bathrooms. where people have kitchens. i got to talk to john a little bit about how exciting it is to be moving in here from the baldwin and he got to see his room this morning which is just amazing and so i'm just very

excited. i want to also just welcome you, john, to your new home. yeah. and i also want to thank del semore who is the mayor of the tenderloin. love working with del. he's also a lead are on our local homeless coordinating board and is just everywhere and he pushes us to be a better department. through his lived experience and his wisdom. i also just want to say this building which is master leased and operated by t.h.c. will have on site staff and critically on site support services for people exiting chronic homelessness. and, yes, we absolutely need to support the work force. the lease of this building is part of the mayor's historic homeless recovery plan and a demonstration of the department

of homelessness and the housing mission to make homelessness rare, brief, and one time. currently, there are 1,490 active units and an additional little over a 1,000 extra units in the city's pipeline of new supportive housing. this puts the mayor's recovery plan at 99% of the goal today, but we are on track to reach 170% of our goal by the end of the fiscal year, which is only a few months away. permanent supportive housing such as the garland provides stability and hopefully a path out of homelessness permanently. we believe strongly that housing is a solution to homelessness and this property is the newest home we can provide for the community. i'm going to now turn the event back over to randy shaw and randy will move us into q&a. [ applause ] >> i know the mayor's schedule is tight but do you want to

look a room. >> okay. >> everything we do in the tenderloin, we urban outfit. here, this gives us an opportunity to collaborate with other agencies and we become familiar with how other agencies operate and allow us to be more flexible and get better at what we depo in the line of work in this task. >> sometimes you go down and it's hard to get up. so we see ourselves as providing an opportunity for the unhoused to get up. and so i really believe that when they come here and they've said it, this right here is absolutely needed. you can't ask for nothing better. >> the tenderloin is the stuff that ain't on the list of

remedies, liked the spiritual connection to recovery and why would i? why would i recover? what have i got to live for? things like that. and sharing the stories. like i was homeless and just the team. and some people need that extra connection on why they can change their life or how they could. >> we have a lot of guests that will come in and say i would like -- you know, i need help with shelter, food, and primary care doctor. and so here, that's three rooms down the hall. so if you book them, they get all of their needs taken care of in one go. this is an opportunity for us here in the tenderloin to come together, try out these ideas to see if we can put -- get -- connect people to services in a good morning everyone.

i'm cheryl chambers, deputy of external affairs for caltrans and i'm here to welcome you to today's event. happy to be many my hometown and looking forward to our program. starting off today, i want to introduce our district director of caltrans bay area ms. deena eltuansi. >> thank you. i'm caltrans bay area district director. and i can't tell you how thrilled i am to be here today. it's really a special day for us. before i start anything, i would like to congratulate the city of san francisco, sfmta yerba buena conservency for the south of market transit

project. congratulations. governor gavin newsome's clean california initiative is part of the california comeback plan to remove litter and to engage communities in butte if i indication efforts through job creation and education. clean california is truly a statewide effort and one third of the funding that's coming to us is coming to cities, counties, tribal authorities, and transit agencies to clean and provide beautification. san francisco is a beautiful city. often people will remark that homes in san francisco are built right next to each other. what people don't see from street view are the extensive

backyards, gardens, and patios. as here, there are beautiful gardens and so much to enjoy beyond what you see from the streets. this project will serve to highlight and restore the yerba buena gardens and invite the public to all the site has to offer. the children's human, i see them coming out here parts of the celebration, thank you for being here and this playground and more. the bay hills are beautified with plants and through an artist imagination to follow and to invite residents, visitors, and transit riders emerging from the new transit station into this space to enjoy the yerba buena gardens. we look forward to watching this project transform the site into a cleaner, more attractive and inviting place that we can all be very proud of. with that said, please help me

welcome ms. carmen chiu our city administrator. [ applause ] >> first off, i want to thank the district director for being here. deena, it's an honor to have you here and welcome you to san francisco. we truly appreciate the partnership you are bringing to this project. and, of course, to all the community members and our partners for helping to make the masconi center and this a wonderful place to be. when we think about a project like this, we know that the big things we try to accomplish are things we can accomplish together. i want to thank the city and county of san francisco for really coming together to recognize the importance of investing in a place like

muskonee expanding the for the many conventions that will come to san francisco. for us, it's more than just a convention center. we know that the convention center is linked to economic growth and to our recovery in san francisco. during covid, we saw a pretty unprecedented situation where restaurants closed down. many of our entertainment venues had to go dark and where conventions completely tops happening and the impact on that was devastating not just in san francisco but across the world. and as we come back now, we begin to really make sure that we make the investments for people to know that when they come to san francisco, when they come and visit our moscone center, it's not just the beautiful and wonderful staff at moscone center.

it's not just the beautiful center they can be staying at, but when they step right outside into our gardens here, they see why we love san francisco so much. that we care about the outside, the spaces where people gather, where they recreate, where they spend time with their friends and their families, where they welcome guests from across the bay or around the world to enjoy the beautiful city we have here. and we know that when we make investments like this, it's not just about the people who come to visit, but it's also about all the people who live around here. there have been communities, many residents, children, who live right around this neighborhood who deserve more than concrete. who deserve spaces to be and to breathe and to relax and be outside. so i, again, want to thank all of the community partners who have made this investment, this project possible. we look forward to coming back when the project is completely done to do a big ribbon cutting.

and i know the mayor herself is very disappointed she couldn't be here today. i can't tell you how many times the mayor has talked to me about the moscone center and the importance of investing in it and the people in this area so i want to thank you and i look forward to our continued the partnership. and now i want to bring up something we're very close to in the city. scott is the executive director of the yerba buena conservancy but also helps us when we were building this new convention center because he knew exactly what it meant to invest in facilities like this. so thank you, scott. and please, come on up. [ applause ] >> thank you, carmen.

i'm the executive director for the yerba buena gardens. we're glad to be here with you all. i want you to imagine 30 years ago, lots of parking lots, s.r.o. hotels. the redevelopment agency in the city went through an amazing time and what happened was an unbelievable gardens that opened in 1993 with the convention center and the surrounding development. it was amazing, it was beautiful. and it really has been such a symbol of hope and create 50 and renewal for this area. and the neighborhood built up around it since that time period. this grant that we're receiving today from clean california and the state is an unbelievable positive step in the next direction for this area and we're so proud of it on behalf of the city and the community and really it will revitalize us even further.

as we steward public spaces, this is a remarkable public space, but it takes time and investment. this project's going to beautify the outside of our facilities and our gardens. it's going to enhance cleaning throughout the neighborhood on our key transit corners all the way from market street all the way to the highway on 3rd and 4th street and mission street and we're really excited about that. we're going to add new public art that will be over on facing the subway. a large mural on the expansive wall that will be designed through the community process with the amazing artists and then murals guiding you into the public gardens and really welcoming you. i love the yellow brick road concept that was mentioned earlier. so all this will be really inspirational. the gardens will sore, the gardens will grow, and the community will bloom through this. as we've all talked about, this project really required an unbelievable community input and community process. i want to especially thank

sfmta for their support of us as a community and jeff tumlin, joel greenberg who really guided us and supported us through this process as a community. i'd also like to thank the city, our team at the city who's on our board and guiding us so well and we truly appreciate all their support, their leadership, their guidance. i'd also like to thank the yerba buena community benefit district who's a key partner in this process. acknowledge cathy maupin and entire team that cleans and beautifies the neighborhood around us. last and certainly not least and the relationship we have

and the convention and to recognize this really means a lot. so thank you. and more importantly, we're kind of excited. we want to get started. i think that's important to know. the goal for the project is we'll finalize planning this spring. we've got all the plans done. we've worked with an amazing architecture firm. we will bid and start construction this summer on the landscaping. the art process, we'll do a call for entries this summer and the art will be revealed in the january time period just in time for you to get off the subway and see this amazing art and this amazing site. couple other things. it's spring. i think we can all feel it. it's beautiful here. the gardens are blooming.

there's flowers everywhere. i think we're really delighted because what we have happening in the gardens today sort of reflects this project and reflects what's going to happen. there's amazing lines outside our restaurants. there's free music and dance festival with the yerba buena festival that's happening. i saw an amazing group of kids going into the bowling alley today. they were so excited. we had the children's creativity museum here with a beautiful x.o.x.o. exhibit about beauty and connection. the carousel right here. so amazing amenities plus our museum and the cultural centers. the gardens and this neighborhood are really spectacular. it is all renewal. it is a time for renewal and we're excited about that. downtown is blooming and please join us. i think that is all we want to say to you today on the high level. please enjoy the gardens. our goal is to finish these comments and if you would like to join us, we're going to walk

down 3rd street. see the subway and where the art will be and envision the plantings. thank you, caltrans and everybody and the city and everybody involved. [ applause ]

>> the chair: good afternoon and welcome to the april 19, 2022, regular meeting of the san francisco board of supervisors. madam clerk, will you please call the roll. [ roll call ]