Transcripts For SFGTV Government Access Programming 20171118

SFGTV Government Access Programming November 18, 2017

As well. Trent reimbursed that coworker for the cost of the d. R. With a check that contained the wording reimburse for d. R. In the memo line the coworker brought that check to the deposition and the city is in possession of a copy of it. That coworker testified she didnt know what discretionary review means as well. Another tenant stated in his deposition that he was contacted by a representative of the defendants on three occasions that provided him with a list of talking points and asked that they use those talking points to form the basis of the Public Comments to you all at Previous Commission hearings regarding this application. In short, they imposed their own application to legalize their properties and attempted to cover it up. When you consider they filled in october, 2016, and its now november, 2017, theyve been successful delaying this for 13 months. The only plausible reason to do this is to delay enforcement, collect rent, and to conceal their identity. It would be more sympathetic if a tenant was an applicant rather than the project sponsor himself. Another motive for delaying this legalization process is there is a legal strategy involved. If theyre not involved in the process, they can blame city bureaucracy for the 13month delay infixing their Code Violations and say bureaucracy held up the legalization process and that they shouldnt have to pay the penalties that accrue for the Code Violations. While this d. R. Has been pending, wu and zu have made no progress to legalizing the profit and the tenant victims live in substandard, uninspected housing. Our office has personally met with tenants along with personnel from the planning department, building department, and the Mayors Office, and were going to continue to provide all the help we can to provide adequate housing in the event that they need to find new housing. Thank you. Thank you. And i believe ms. Cohen from the department of homelessness im emily cohen, department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, and im here to share with you our plan for serving any of the households that may be displaced during this process and what we have prepared in order to ensure that none of these veterans or households become unstable in their housing if they need to move. I will walk you through the process. The department of homelessness and Supportive Housing is committed to the housing stability and wellbeing of all the households in the affected units. Were committed to the 10 hud households that may need to move out and any that are affected. We are committed to providing the resources for these tenants. And were contracting with brilliant corners, local Nonprofit Organization to provide the services were working to assure that the units that we find are acceptable and comparable to the units that folks might need to move out of. As i mentioned, brilliant corners is a nonprofit that weve been working with for many years on our veterans initiatives and were committed to be able to work again with brilliant corners because of their excellent track record in finding housing for veterans in our community. And entering housing stability. Well be including a flexible landlord incentive up to 1,000 per unit. Weve been doing this over the last several months or at least a year and we found that this has helped us to engage new landlords in the program and make successful housing placements. Well be providing moving assistance. So each household that is impacted will meet with a brilliant corner staff member and develop an individualized placement plan. It will focus on their needs, preferences in terms of location, community amenities, needing to be close to a bus stop or other amenities. It will be taken into consideration as an individualized plan is developed. Then the housing search work begins. The staff will go out and use their landlord connections to find tenants. They will accompany the tenants to view apartments, it meet with landlord and assist with housing applications. In terms of Financial Assistance, housing search includes the following supports. Transportation to appointments, paying for background checks and credit checks, so when a household meets with a landlord, they have a package ready to give them and paying any application fees that may be associated. Landlord engagement is part of the work. They work to recruit new landlords, providing financial incentives, providing additional incentive upon the units and then providing ongoing availability and support to the landlords in case an issue arises. Housing placement is the next place. Brilliant corners helps to match the individual looking for housing with those looking for housing and trying to find the best match possible. Well support them through the lease signing and voucher process. It can be a cumbersome process with housing authorities and well make sure that the tenants are well supported. And tenants will receive flexible moving assistance to cover any costs associated. Once tenants are placed, stabilization is critical. Well work to make sure that they integrate to the new units, know where the Grocery Store is and bus stop is, or even if its a few blocks away from where they live. Want to be sure that folks know the way around their home and neighborhood. Brilliant corners will conduct wellness checks they will coordinate with social workers to provide the Ongoing Supportive Services and will remain available to landlords in case any issues come up. I assume that folks know, this is a Housing Voucher Program run through h. U. D. And administered through the Housing Authority matched with social workers from the v. A. Social service work is incredibly important. So brilliant corners will ensure warm handoffs to the social worker that works with the tenants. Another important point is that many of the tenants impacted have been in their housing for several years. And their vouchers are more valuable than they were four, five, six years ago when they were initially placed in these units. Beginning in january, 2017, there were new payment standards for vouchers in San Francisco. You can see on the grid the values and the payment standards they go up to. For a 1bedroom unit, 3,100 a month. Its got significant purchase power and were confident that well be able to find veterans adequate Housing Units in San Francisco. And thank you and im happy to take any questions. I want to acknowledge that nicole mccraydickerson from Program Staff is here and barry benda from brilliant corners if you have specific questions about the housing search process. Thank you. We may. Ms. Kittler is here, did you want to make a remark . Briefly. Legislative aide in supervisor cohens office. Thank you for your patients. I know that this has been on the agenda for several months now. Supervisor cohen urges you to take action. As you heard, the Property Owner, what they did is unacceptable and put her tenants, many of whom weve heard from in a difficult situation for all of us. Supervisor cohen, along with the Mayors Office and this commission, dont want to see anyone displaced. That is nobodys intention here. After further discussion, our office has confidence that we have a solid relocation plan for all tenants that may find themselves in an illegal unit after the action today. What is critical to the supervisor is that all of the tenants are matched and placed in comparable units, not in the tenderloin, preferably in the neighborhood and on a timeline that will ensure that theyre stably housed. Were confident the plan laid out achieves these goals. This is not behavior that can be corrected or solved with simple legislative action. We must treat this situation seriously and i believe with your action today we can move forward to address the bad behavior and ensure that the residents be properly houses. Thank you. So we will start with d. R. Requester, mr. Bryant. Good evening, commissioners. Welcome. Thank you. Ive been listening to the comments from the City Attorney and others that represent the interests of the city. My mission is that veterans that are currently housed in units that can come and go as they need and all the veterans that im familiar with that i talked to, not representing them directly, but through hud and the va, contacts that i had, and ive had numerous meetings, and in unison, its our contention that we dont want to be relocated to dwelling units that may have to be shared. If you consolidate these units to multiple tenants, that means there could be more than one veteran in some of these units. In my particular case at 1290 shafter, we have very nice Apartment Units that are outfitted with full kitchens. When have a laundry area downstairs. I have an electric motorscooter that i have in the garage in that building with the consent of the wus. My hope is there be a consideration for the 40someodd veterans and recipients of the h. U. D. Vouchers not to dislocate them at all, if possible, or at least not prematurely. Theres an old saying that comes to mind, the best laid plans of mice and men and ive heard them. There are no guarantees that some of the veterans that are in these units now will find comparable housing. You know what the Housing Market is in San Francisco and its a tough one. The city has offered to find comparable units, which may or may not be readily available. The timeline is 6 months. Within 6 months, there has to be remediation done and relocations done into an unknown void. The veterans are deeply concerned that they maintain their residences, understand circumstances that they find favorable. And so my hope is that there will be a resolution that allows the veterans to stay in their domiciles that they occupy with the exception that may have to be made such as laundry rooms or maybe some of the units would not have stoves necessarily. The contention among the group that ive talked to is that if they dont have a stove, they have alternatives. They can get microwaves. They can get a cooktop, heating equipment, and so on. So theyre not worried about necessarily having a stove. There are two dwelling units that have been approved at 1187 palou and my building at 1290 shafter avenue. I can only tell you that my experiences with mr. And mrs. Wu has been very positive. Every time ive had any kind of a minor problem like the batteries running out in the smoke detectors or coins not being put correctly in the laundry room, things of that kind, theyve responded very quickly to take care of whatever issues we have. Inju your kind attendance is appreciated. We hope that you allow the veterans to remain where they are with some possible alterations but not to put them into multiple dwelling units. Thank you very kindly. Great. Thank you very much. Well open it up to Public Comment in support of the d. R. Request. I have a couple of speaker cards. Tommy avacolamecca, tony robles and michelle muton, and anyone else that would like to speak can line up on the screen side of the room and come forward in any order. We are in support because we are deeply concerned about the tenants and the tenants only. We would like to see the units legalized and judy wu forced to bring them up to code. Replace any materials that are not safe or appropriate. We feel these units could be legalized if the city really wanted to do it. It would be the easiest solution and the one that would have the least effect on the tenants health. A legislative fix is possible. That should not prevent this commission from recommending that. Im not clear what your powers are here, but it seems that there could be a resolution from this commission recommending legalization, especially since you are on record asking there be no cap in the john avalos bill two years ago and thats keeping units from being legalized. Being realistic, if displacement is going to happen, then we want more than verbal assurances from the city that no permits will ever be issued until all of the tenants are housed. Need i remind you that the road to hell is paved with good intentions and i believe the city has good intensions. But wear only hearing this verbally. I would like to see something in writing from the city, something in writing to the tenants, that states exactly what the city is going to do and what the timeline is here and the fact that no one will be displaced until there is a suitable and comparable replacement unit. Thats vital. I would hope that you as commissioners would demand that of the city, that there be something in writing or something that we can, you know, take, count on, that we can use, if the city doesnt come through. My organization does plan to keep to make sure that the city is accountable and that the city does come through with what theyre saying that theyre going to do. So i would hope that this Commission Also will be making that same demand of the city. I think the main point is to reiterate, if there will be displacements, we want a solid, written assurance that no permit will ever be issued until there is comparable replacement housing found for every single tenant. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker, please. Good evening. I stay in one of the units, but im not a veteran. I came from a different program. Its like, if you take these housing away from us, what happens to people in programs like me . Where do i get place ed . Where do i get housed . I came from a program where i was on probation and i got housing probation. When i got in the program, i had no on. I have two jobs now. I stay in a nice unit. When i had a problem, she always fixed it. I never had a problem with the unit i stayed in. And this seems to me like instead of just trying to replace us, they should invest in her fixing it. Its more than just veterans that are suffering. You have other people that are suffering. If i get put out my place, where do i go . Im not a veteran. What options do i have . So im in support if you can just give her time to try to fix the units or come up with a better solution. Thats all i wanted to say. Thank you very much. Next speaker, please . Commissioners. Im tony robles. I represent senior and disability action. Wed like to see the units legalized. We dont want to see any of the tenants have their homes in jeopardy. Very much concerned because many of them are veterans, not all, but many are veterans, who have been through a lot and have fought for a lot and, you know, this is one thing they shouldnt have to be fighting tooth and nail for. This should be a right. They should have a home. Theyre entitled to that. Theyve earned that. We want to see the units legalized. The way things are in the city. The way things are run, its goofy. What assurances, if tenants have to move, are there . We know that in the current housing landscape, people are on patienting lists for a very long, long time. We would like to see some assurances if they do have to move and there is displacement that they will be moving and we would like to see the plans specific the specifics of those plans, again, like other people have stated, in writing. I think the gentleman who spoke earlier i dont think theres anything we could add. He spoke very, very eloquently about the needs of the tenants there and how we dont want to see tenants move to a part of town that will put them at risk. They can come and go as please. They can thrive. They have community and we would like to see that maintained and remain undisturbed. Thank you. [please sta times a week and i think this could be solved without i mean, if they want to punish judy woo, they can do it without putting housing at risk. Thank you. How is everybody doing up there today . Great. How are you . Im hanging in there. Im john talbot, im a navy veteran, i live at 1290 shafter, along with fred over there. And im hearing some bad things about judy i dont like, not only do i not like it, im very worried about what judys going to do. The reason im saying that, most of the veterans that saying good things about judy, me also. If you look up the word compassion in the dictionary, i wouldnt be surprised if you see judys picture in it. Shes always around and helps everybody who has a problem in their place. Thats not why were here today. Were here today because some veterans have to have to move. The reason they have to move is because judy has a Shopping List of violations she has to take care of and she cant take care of it while the veterans are living there, for example, i stay in a three unit house on the bottom floor, franks up stairs in a single unit in the back and joes up stairs in a single unit in the front. Judy wants to turn these two single units into one two bedrooms so joes kitchen and his bathroom have to go. So how is joe going to live down there while they tear down the kitchen and bathroom. Judy wants to take care of the violations. Shes good woman. She doesnt have a problem taking care of the violations but shes stuck between a rock and a hard place because she cant fix any of the violations until the People Living there move. Im hearing these thrones thrown at judy thank you sir. Thats your time. I didnt know i had a time. You have three minutes. Theres some things you dont know about. Hud inspects all the units before we move in. Why let veterans move into a place before we may have questions about that. People dont want to talk about that. Okay. Weve got to move on. Everybody has equal time. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you sir. We appreciate it. Put Homeless Veterans in. Sir, if everybody did this, well be very long sir, everybody has three minutes. We want to keep it fair. Next speaker please. Im michelle and i live on the 1700 block of newcomb avenue and im a part of the member of the Model Block Program and were supporting illegal units be terminated, to whatever extent needs to happen, my dad is a veteran. He lives in the providence senior housing, a legal unit. And i think it is wrong that veterans would be in a unit that is not properly staffed, thats not safe. That theres possibility of fire from electrical things and also to the neighbors that live in the vicinity of the apartments. While the apartment im speaking about is not currently on the list, its owned by judy woo and we have had a steady str

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