the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. a >> reporter: first question is from jamie harp, associated press. to date, how many people experiencing homelessness have tested positive for covid-19? >> thank you for that question. i'm only aware of individuals who have tested positive at sites in the homelessness response system. it's a large system of care where people experiencing homelessness touch many different aspects. in the homeless responses to date, there are only three who have tested positive for covid. those are the individuals that i discussed earlier. >> reporter: a follow-up to that -- where are they now? >> those three individuals are in good condition and are either receiving medical care or at an isolation quarantine site operated by human services agency and staffed by the department of public health. >> reporter: thank you. question from john king of the "san francisco chronicle". what is the status of the vehicle triage center on geneva? >> right. for those who are unfamiliar, we have a pilot project that a

the director of human services, trent rohr, the director of homeless services for the city, abigail stewart kahn and our police chief bill scott. we have a pretty lengthy press conference today because we have -- we have a lot of information to update the public with. so i want to first start with city test s.f. and we know that every single day there are people who are working, city employees who are on the front lines. our police officers, our firefighters, our muni drivers, our health care workers. they are essential city workers who are showing up and who are interact aing with the public more so than most others and they have, we know, concerns about their own health. so they can't always n their capacity, practice social distancing. that ier are taking care of us so it's important that we take care of them. and one of most basic things that we can do is to ensure that they have access to testing. now last week, we announced a partnership that would allow our first responders to get priority testing through a number of health care providers. and here in san francisco, we know that it h

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. a

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. is from jamie harp, associated press. to date, how many people experiencing homelessness have tested positive for covid-19? >> thank you for that question. i'm only aware of individuals who have tested positive at sites in the homelessness response system. it's a large system of care where people experiencing homelessness touch many different aspects. in the homeless responses to date, there are only three who have tested positive for covid. those are the individuals that i discussed earlier. >> reporter: a follow-up to that -- where are they now? >> those three individuals are in good condition and are either receiving medical care or at an isolation quarantine site operated by human services agency and staffed by the department of public health. >> reporter: thank you. question from john king of the "san francisco chronicle". what is the status of the vehicle triage center on geneva? >> right. for those who are unfamiliar, we have a pilot project that allows people who live in their

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. a

management as well as our police chief bill scott and from the homeless services agency we have abigail stewartyou for joining you today. i just want to start by saying that i know that the last few weeks have been very challenging for families, especially parents

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. a >> reporter: first question is from jamie harp, associated press. to date, how many people experiencing homelessness have tested positive for covid-19? >> thank you for that question. i'm only aware of individuals who have tested positive at sites in the homelessness response system. it's a large system of care where people experiencing homelessness touch many different aspects. in the homeless responses to date, there are only three who have tested positive for covid. those are the individuals that i discussed earlier. >> reporter: a follow-up to that -- where are they now? >> those three individuals are in good condition and are either receiving medical care or at an isolation quarantine site operated by human services agency and staffed by the department of public health. >> reporter: thank you. question from john king of the "san francisco chronicle". what is the status of the vehicle triage center on geneva? >> right. for those who are unfamiliar, we have a pilot project that a

management as well as our police chief bill scott and from the homeless services agency we have abigail stewart. thank you for joining you today. i just want to start by saying that i know that the last few weeks have been very challenging for families, especially parents with children who are no longer in school, and also especially kids who have not been able to hang out with their friends and do the things that, of course, kids love to do. i know this has been very challenging for all of us, and especially for families as you juggle to work at home, home school your children, and deal with the difficulties that we know have happened over the past couple of weeks. more porely, what -- more importantly, what we are going to deal with over the next month to two months of staying at home and trying to abide by the order that has been issued. we know that it is important that while children are at home that they continue to access learning. for some, having access to a laptop and internet is a luxury that other kids may not have. we also know that the school district has been working really hard

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

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. a >> reporter: first question is from jamie harp, associated press. to date, how many people experiencing homelessness have tested positive for covid-19? >> thank you for that question. i'm only aware of individuals who have tested positive at sites in the homelessness response system. it's a large system of care where people experiencing homelessness touch many different aspects. in the homeless responses to date, there are only three who have tested positive for covid. those are the individuals that i discussed earlier. >> reporter: a follow-up to that -- where are they now? >> those three individuals are in good condition and are either receiving medical care or at an isolation quarantine site operated by human services agency and staffed by the department of public health. >> reporter: thank you. question from john king of the "san francisco chronicle". what is the status of the vehicle triage center on geneva? >> right. for those who are unfamiliar, we have a pilot project that a

management as well as our police chief bill scott and from the homeless services agency we have abigail stewart. thank you for joining you today. i just want to start by saying that i know that the last few weeks have been very challenging for families, especially parents with children who are no longer in school, and also especially kids who have not been able to hang out with their friends and do the things that, of course, kids love to do. i know this has been very challenging for all of us, and especially for families as you juggle to work at home, home school your children, and deal with the difficulties that we know have happened over the past couple of weeks. more porely, what -- more importantly, what we are going to deal with over the next month to two months of staying at home and trying to abide by the order that has been issued. we know that it is important that while children are at home that they continue to access learning. for some, having access to a laptop and internet is a luxury that other kids may not have. we also know that the school district has been working really hard

and the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan.i want to thank you for tuning in today and joining us to talk about a few updates we have related to covid-19 here in san francisco. as of today, we have 1,013 total cases of those who have been diagnosed with covid-19. and sadly, we have lost 17 people. there are 17 people who died as a result of this virus as of today. as a reminder, you can visit data sf.org for the full tracker with information on what -- who has been diagnosed, the number of tests and other resources that are available or any questions you may have. and i want to just start today by reminding us really how far we've come from the very beginning. we've made it our mission to slow the spread of this virus, to help those vulnerable populations, to keep people safe and we're continuing to do all we can to do just that. we're still dealing with the number of cases in san francisco and we also know that there will continue to be challenges and we will continue to see increases in the number of cases of the coronavirus

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn.a >> reporter: first question is from jamie harp, associated press. to date, how many people experiencing homelessness have tested positive for covid-19? >> thank you for that question. i'm only aware of individuals who have tested positive at sites in the homelessness response system. it's a large system of care where people experiencing homelessness touch many different aspects. in the homeless responses to date, there are only three who have tested positive for covid. those are the individuals that i discussed earlier. >> reporter: a follow-up to that -- where are they now? >> those three individuals are in good condition and are either receiving medical care or at an isolation quarantine site operated by human services agency and staffed by the department of public health. >> reporter: thank you. question from john king of the "san francisco chronicle". what is the status of the vehicle triage center on geneva? >> right. for those who are unfamiliar, we have a pilot project that al

the director of human services, trent rohr, the director of homeless services for the city, abigail stewartn and our police chief bill scott. we

mary ellen carol, director of department of human services, trent rhorer, abigail stewart conas well as director of the department of m.t.a., jeff tumlin, police chief, bill scott, and we have a special guest today from the interface council who will be speaking directly after my comments. as of today, we have confirmed 676 cases of the coronavirus, sadly, 10 people have passed away as a result of this disease. this is clearly a challenging time for san francisco. what we have done time and time again, especially during this press conference is to reiterate is importance of staying at home. we know that a couple weekends ago we had real challenges with that. over the past two weekends people complied and have been wonderful. we also think that weather might have played a role in that because it was rain, it wasn't as nice as it will be this weekend. i want be to remind people. it is important to really maintain our physical distance when we are out in public. we may need to run errands and take walks and we are hearing about a lot of data that indicates the early signs that san franc

the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chief bill scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. this weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. when we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. and, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. and during that time, san franciscans didn't throw up their hands. we took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. w

the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chief bill scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. this weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. when we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. and, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. and during that time, san franciscans didn't throw up their hands. we took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. w

the next set of questions are from abigail stewart kahn, homelessness and supportive housing. >> the next question is from the public press. in recent weeks, city officials have discussed the possibilities of opening sanctioned cabinets to help homeless people better socially distance themselves. does the city have a time table for opening these incantments? >> we know living in shelters put you at risk that many experienced before the global pandemic. meal as this became an issue, the healthy street's operation center paused their resolutions and began providing under the leadership of just kazitki to work with our unsheltered neighbors to physically distanced while unsheltered. i want to implore those living unsheltered to take heed of our hr stock partner's request and to physically distance as much as possible and to continue to ask all partners who are out there how to access the resources that are available. there a isto get to the questie sleeping, we know that it isn't always possible in sidewalk spaces or in tight areas to safely sleep. the healthy street's operation center

and i think it's time to open for questions. >> the first question is for director abigail stewart-khan, homelessness and supportive housing. director stewart-khan. are you concerned about the crowding of tents and people in general in the tenderloin? and what measures are you taking to address it? >> we are extremely concerned about the crowding of tents and the unsheltered population during this pandemic in the tenderloin and across our city. when people are anxious, which many of us are now, we seek connection. this is a natural human instinct and that connection is putting everybody in danger now. i want to thank the healthy streets operation center partnership, which is led by jeff co-sitski because the moment this was declared, they pivoted and starting providing education and ceased any encampment resolutions. what this means is they're out there every day, the hot team, the police department, the department of public health, department of public works, rec and park, and many, many others working together to provide information to our unsheltered neighbors, first on the epidemic

next questions are for abigail stewart conn. >> . >> as i get started here, i want be to introduce myself. i am the interim director of the department of homelessness and supportive housing. before i respond to questions, i want to note a couple things. this pandemic gives us the opportunity to keeply understand that housing is healthcare. that is clear now more than ever. thanks to the leadership of mayor breed before the crisis hit, she supercharged our homelessness response system with expansion. as i was visiting many housing and shelter and navigation site yesterday i saw 9,000 homeless that are safer because of that housing. immediately after the homelessness response after the coronavirus became evident we pivoted the response system to care, prevention and response. echoing mayor breed's note about positivity our system of care is tremendously grateful for the h.h.s. staff, guests, tenants and clients and people living unsheltered in our community, to our city partners annan profits and community we see you out there thanking us. i know my family has been out at 7:00 cheering with

director of public health, grant cofax, trent roar, the director of homelessness and housing abigail stewart-khan, the police chief, and the director of emergency management. today we'd like to provide an update and of course answer questions to the press during this virtual press conference. as of today, we have 1,216 confirmed cases of covid-19 in san francisco. sadly, we have 20 people who passed away as a result of the virus. as a reminder, datasf.org/covid-19 is where you can find details to find out who is actually infected as well as those who have been tested. i want to be clear from the very beginning when we heard about what was happening with the coronavir coronavirus, specifically in wuhan, china, sadly there were a lot of xenophobia of those in our asian community. this virus is not discriminating on the basis of race. sadly, the xenophobia continues. we want our community to know we are here to provide the resources and the support necessary to deal with the challenges around discrimination. so it's not tolerated here in san francisco. in fact, as we look at the data and the in

the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chief bill scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. this weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. when we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. and, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. and during that time, san franciscans didn't throw up their hands. we took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. w

management as well as our police chief bill scott and from the homeless services agency we have abigail stewart. thank you for joining you today. i just want

the next questions are for abigail stewart-kahn. >> a two-part question and a follow-up from nbc bay area. inside city shelters are homeless people now being sheltered in a way that allows for safe social distancing? if shelters need to be thinned out to achieve that, when do you expect that to be complete? days, weeks, months? >> thank you. just to clarify, so we are following guidance from the federal state and local authorities around creating six feet of distance, physical distancing in our shelters. and as the journalists notes, this is very difficult to accomplish. our shelters are very close and compact, and they vary significantly from site to site. we just know that that puts these folks at more risk. we began implementing creative physical distancing at all of our sites several weeks ago. and i really want to thank our providers who found space where there was no space to make this possible, even before we were able to start moving people out of sites. we are well on our way to reaching what i am calling shelter equilibrium which involves moving the most vulnerable individu

and then, abigail stewart kahn from d.s.h. >> thank you, chair fewer, for allowing us to speak about the population that we care about, as always. i think in terms of projecting numbers and where we are, that would be great to get from dan taplin. what i can say is of the prioritized populations that were shared a month ago before i was interim director and included many of the populations that you have talked about, as of yesterday, we have moved a total of approximately 750 into various kinds of hotels with more in motion as we speak and more hotels coming on-line. those will be questions for dan kaplan. these are all vulnerable folks in shelters who are moved before -- significantly before covid positives have occurred. the thing to note before i have to jump off and then you're in expert hands with emily cohen is that the process here is really significant. we're optimistic and creative, and our nonprofit partners are coming to the table every day. our divestment individuals are coming to the table every day, and they have complex lives and potentially more complex. we know that

next questions are for director abigail stewart-khan, director of homelessness and supportive housing. >> reporter: the first question. "huffington post". how many people in total in the city have been moved to the hotel rooms? >> as i said in my earlier remarks, as of yesterday it was 750 and we know we're moving people actively today. it's important to note that people experiencing homelessness are coming to hotels through many different means. some are coming from hospitals. some are coming from shelters. and they're going into different levels of hotel rooms in terms of the needs of their care. >> reporter: what is the city's current criteria and plan to move homeless into hotels? and by when? >> that's a great question. so as dr. colfax and director rohr have shared, we're prioritizing vulnerable individuals because of their risk of mortality. it is not that other people may not contract covid or we're not concerned about that, we're deeply concerned about it. at this stage in the epidemic, we need to, according to the department of public health, work towards preventing mortalit

the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chief bill scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. this weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. when we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. and, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. and during that time, san franciscans didn't throw up their hands. we took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. w

the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chiefl scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just

and i think it's time to open for questions. >> the first question is for director abigail stewart-khan, homelessness and supportive housing. director stewart-khan. are you concerned about the crowding of tents and people in general in the tenderloin? and what measures are you taking to address it? >> we are extremely concerned about the crowding of tents and the unsheltered population during this pandemic in the tenderloin and across our city. when people are anxious, which many of us are now, we seek connection. this is a natural human instinct and that connection is putting everybody in danger now. i want to thank the healthy streets operation center partnership, which is led by jeff co-sitski because the moment this was declared, they pivoted and starting providing education and ceased any encampment resolutions. what this means is they're out there every day, the hot team, the police department, the department of public health, department of public works, rec and park, and many, many others working together to provide information to our unsheltered neighbors, first on the epidemic

and the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan. i want to thank you for tuning in today and joining us to talk about a few updates we have related to covid-19 here in san francisco. as of today, we have 1,013 total cases of those who have been diagnosed with covid-19. and sadly, we have lost 17 people. there are 17 people who died as a result of this virus as of today. as a reminder, you can visit data sf.org for the full tracker with information on what -- who has been diagnosed, the number of tests and other resources that are available or any questions you may have. and i want to just start today by reminding us really how far we've come from the very beginning. we've made it our mission to slow the spread of this virus, to help those vulnerable populations, to keep people safe and we're continuing to do all we can to do just that. we're still dealing with the number of cases in san francisco and we also know that there will continue to be challenges and we will continue to see increases in the number of cases of the coronavirus

director of public health, grant cofax, trent roar, the director of homelessness and housing abigail stewart the police chief, and the director of emergency management. today we'd like to provide an update and of course answer questions to the press during this virtual press conference. as of today, we have 1,216

director of the department of human services, trent roher, the director of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-kahh and bill scott. thank you all for joining us here today and we are providing our update to begin the week. as of today, we have 1,424 cases of people who have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and sadly, there are 23 people that have logistic their lives and currently, we have about 85 people hospitalized. if you would like more information, specifically around the people who have been diagnosed as it relates to their race, ethnicity, zip code or any other data, please check out datasf.org/covid-19 for more information. we update that tracker everyday by 9:00 a.m. today, i just want to start by again thanking you all here in san francisco for your cooperation. i know that it has not been easy. we've imposed restrictions to your lives that have made things not only very difficult for you, but difficult for your family. sometimes difficult for not just your physical well-being, but also your mental well-being. we have tried to make sure that in this process as we are trying to pr

the director of the department of homelessness and housing, abigail stewart-khan and our police chief bill scott. thank you for joining us this afternoon. i want to start by providing the most updated numbers currently. we have 1,058 cases here in san francisco of those diagnosed with the coronavirus. and sadly, we have 20 people who died from this illness. and for more information, please visit data sf.org/covid-19 for our full tracker and more information that you may be interested in reviewing. today i just wanted to talk about the anniversary of the 1906 earthquake. this weekend marks the 106th anniversary of the earthquake. when we all can look back on our history and remember during that time, not only did the earthquake hit and it really physically destroyed buildings and many parts of our city, there was a very devastating fire that occurred. and, in fact, over 3,000 people lost their lives. and during that time, san franciscans didn't throw up their hands. we took to our feet, we came together with businesses, with people from all over the city and we focused on rebuilding. w

director of public health, grant cofax, trent roar, the director of homelessness and housing abigail stewart-khan, the police chief, and the director of emergency management. today we'd like to provide an update and of course answer questions to the press during this virtual press conference. as of today, we have 1,216 confirmed cases of covid-19 in san francisco. sadly, we have 20 people who passed away as a result of the virus. as a reminder, datasf.org/covid-19 is where you can find details to find out who is actually infected as well as those who have been tested. i want to be clear from the very beginning when we heard about what was happening with the coronavir coronavirus, specifically in wuhan, china, sadly there were a lot of xenophobia of those in our asian community. this virus is not discriminating on the basis of race. sadly, the xenophobia continues. we want our community to know we are here to provide the resources and the support necessary to deal with the challenges around discrimination. so it's not tolerated here in san francisco. in fact, as we look at the data and the in

and i think it's time to open for questions. >> the first question is for director abigail stewart-khanhomelessness and supportive housing. director stewart-khan. are you concerned about the crowding of tents and people in general in the tenderloin? and what measures are you taking to address it? >> we are extremely concerned about the crowding of tents and the unsheltered population during this pandemic in the tenderloin and across our city. when people are anxious, which many of us are now, we seek connection. this is a natural human instinct and that connection is putting everybody in danger now. i want to thank the healthy streets operation center partnership, which is led by jeff co-sitski because the moment this was declared, they pivoted and starting providing education and ceased any encampment resolutions. what this means is they're out there every day, the hot team, the police department, the department of public health, department of public works, rec and park, and many, many others working together to provide information to our unsheltered neighbors, first on the epidemic an

mary ellen carol, director of department of human services, trent rhorer, abigail stewart conas well as director of the department of m.t.a., jeff tumlin, police chief, bill scott, and we have a special guest today from the interface council who will be speaking directly after my comments. as of today, we have confirmed 676 cases of the coronavirus, sadly, 10 people have passed away as a result of this disease. this is clearly a challenging time for san francisco. what we have done time and time again, especially during this press conference is to reiterate is importance of staying at home. we know that a couple weekends ago we had real challenges with that. over the past two weekends people complied and have been wonderful. we also think that weather might have played a role in that because it was rain, it wasn't as nice as it will be this weekend. i want be to remind people. it is important to really maintain our physical distance when we are out in public. we may need to run errands and take walks and we are hearing about a lot of data that indicates the early signs that san franc

director abigail stewart-khan of the department of homelessness and housing will now make some remarks. >> hello. providing safe places for people experienci experiencing homelessness to isolate, quarantine, or shelter in place is a top priority for the department of homeless and supportive housing, the department of public health, and the entire city. additionally, the city is working to expand testing city-wide with a focus on vulnerable communities, as dr. colfax just shared in detail, including people experiencing homelessness. as we expand testing capacity, we know that we will need more places for people experiencing homelessness who test positive for covid-19 to go to isolate, receive care, and to recover. so that end, h.s.h., in connection with our partners, are opening new facilities. you've heard about this. to date we've opened five shelter-in-place hotels as well as multiple quarantine hotels with more planned rapidly. this has been incredibly hard and incredibly a critical expansion. i want to share a story of a voicemail i received from a colleague of someone who moved fr