As a matter of fact, theres a hepatitis outbreak in los angeles that is spreading into the streets that could easily come to san francisco. There are people dying in fires that are started in tents on the streets and moving to other tents. I dont know what else could be a greater emergency. If were not in every single building and every single district with every single ounce of political will we have all working to solve this issue, as a crisis, and in an emergency fashion, then we are failing to do our job. So i absolutely could not disagree with you more, supervisor peskin, and will not support a continuance of item 57 and only reluctantly out of respect for supervisor kim will support a continuance for item 56. Councillor breed thank you. Supervisor tang. Councillor tang i agree with supervisor ronen in this case. And per the budget analyst report, without this Emergency Declaration, the work will continue 12 to 18 months to complete and with this Emergency Declaration, we can shorten that timeline 7 to 13 points. I agree that i consider it an emergency in our city right now. Theres not a day that goes by that i dont think that any one of us are not badgered by our residents in the city about the homelessness issue. I would be supportive of the items moving forward. Councillor breed thank you, supervisor tang. Supervisor safai . Councillor safai thank you, madam president. Yesterday we had an extensive conversation about the situation. I agree with supervisor ronen. There is no debate that this is an emergency situation. Its an everevolving, daily emergency. Its not a situation that we can take lightly. But i think were dealing with two Different Things. I hear a couple of Different Things from supervisor kim and i would like to ask her to clarify them. One, theres a concern about Community Process and input and definition of how some of the space will be used. I think weve had extensive debate about where the office of department homelessness and Supportive Housing is going to be located. We had that debate about south of market. Weve agreed with the budget and legislative Analyst Recommendations that over 21 million for a lease in that part of town when a building is currently owned, which this body before myself and supervisor ronen and a few others were on this body voted to purchase. We were in that purchase phase. So are we debating about Community Process . Are we debating about the need to bring this building on line in an emergency fashion . And i think theres no debate that there is an emergency situation to bring this building on line. 9 times out of 10, as you know, and weve had this debate extensively, i defer to the District Supervisor. In this situation, i feel this rises above because this is a matter of creating a department, streamlining it, putting it under one house and providing services described in the Committee Hearing yesterday that would allow for the Homeward Bound Program to have participant access showers, laundry, if there is interviews, interviews that need to be conducted on site, i understand that. And i believe that the District Supervisor supports the housing offices there. I would like to hear that. But i also believe that there is no debate in this chamber that the homeless situation in this city rises to an emergency level and i understand and i would love to hear from the department. I, too, took a step back when i saw the declaration of emergency, but what was explained in committee is this would allowed for a savings of anywhere between 4 to 6 months and in this situation given the emergency, that seems appropriate for this particular matter. So is there someone from the department of homelessness here or maybe even the department of public works that will be performing the work and why the Emergency Declaration and would the it would mean to the situation . Councillor breed one section. Supervisor safai, supervisor kim would like to separate first. Councillor kim i would like to separate 56 and 57. 56 is using the declaration of emergency to build an office space for department. That is unprecedented. I dont know when this board has ever declared an emergency to build offices for a department. And to be very clear about what weve had on site. Whats been told to the tenderloin neighborhood over and over is that it will be office space for department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, not a Navigation Center. Thats why i want to separate the two. I want to concur that there is a declaration there is an emergency on our streets today and while i was concerned that i didnt get a headsup that we would be moving forward with the two Navigation Centers, one in my district, as an emergency, i do agree that we are in a state of emergency today and, in fact, supervisor cohen and i introduced a resolution in 20 2016 declaring a state of emergency for homelessness. Weve want to see our centers come on line as quickly as possible. Ive worked very closely with hsh and the director about ensuring that we find a space where women will be prioritized, understanding that as we talk about the environment for women in this country today that it is a daily reality that if you are a woman sleeping on the street that Sexual Assault is a part of your life. Its not a question. Its a fact. And i cannot stand knowing that as a representative of the city that we are allowing women to get raped and sexually assaulted on our streets. So i just think that the two issues are separate. I have a lot of questions both as a policymaker about using a declaration of emergency for an office space and im glad to hear specifically on that issue. I want to separate items 56 and 57 in terms of using that vehicle. On a separate note, there was Community Issues about what was communicated and what would be freud of provided on 440 turk. I support having an access point on site with showers and laundry services. I think thats something thats very basic. But out of respect to the neighborhood that i represent that felt blindsided, i think through a continuance to january 9 will allow us to have that communication and i plan on moving this forward in the beginning of the year. I just want to make sure that people understood the distinction between the two items. Councillor breed thank you for that clarity. Supervisor safai, did you have any further questions . Councillor safai i have questions from the department. What i understood from the hearing is part of the Emergency Declaration for the offices is that 20 of space is designated for uses that would provide services, shower, laundry facilities, and we have on the record that the department would come back with a detailed plan. They admitted that there was some disagreement with some members of the community. They did talk about having multiple, large meetings that hundreds of people had attended along with outreach to multiple groups. But i will allow them to say that on the record, but i would like to have an explanation on the record why the Emergency Declaration in this instance for both the 440 turk and the other locations. Director kasitsky. Director of homelessness and Supportive Housing. Background on the sites. In july of this year, we began a discussion about opening up a Resource Center at 440 turk street, which would have had offices for about 40 of our staff and would have primarily served as a Resource Center where individuals experiencing homelessness can come in and get access to services, showers, a place to sit down, a meal, etc. We received a fair amount of pushback from the community and had a meeting on august 3 in which approximately 75 were in attendance and heard concerns from the community and a preference that a Resource Center not be opened up at that site due to the fact that there were other Resource Centers in the community and concerns about the level of Services Already in the neighborhood. At a second meeting on august 15, we returned another Community Meeting with like 75 people in attendance and presented the plan that we are pretty much presenting today. During that plan, we presented to the community, we did explain that we would primarily be office space. And rather than a Resource Center, it would serve as an access point or the front door to the department where people coming in to get Services Like homeward bound, to get qualified for housing, to get certified for things like shelter plus care, to get into our coordinated entry data system, we would make all of that information on that site and when people had concerns or experiencing homelessness, it would be the one place that people would say, go to 440 turk street, and well be able to provide you at least get you into our system. We felt that since many of our clients coming in for the programs need access to showers and laundry that we would have a small shower and laundry facility available. As you mentioned, supervisor safai, homeward bound that connects people with friends and families, we make connections and make sure theyre financially and emotionally able to accept the folks back in their lives and put them on a bus and get them home. Prior to that, we need to make sure that folks clothing is clean and theyve taken a shower and we wanted those Services Available on site. After that meeting, we held approximately 10 Community Meetings with resident associations, with Community Benefits districts and with business groups, explaining what our plans were and also held a meeting in which mayor lee was in attendance. I believe that was september 25. So our plans have been the same since august 15 weve done our best to communicate with the community as well as your offices about moving forward on this. We understand there are concerns about being showers and laundry facilities. Weve heard the concerns loud and clear, we dont necessarily agree with them. I also want to be clear that this will not be a dropinn center or Resource Center. The community was clear this is not what they want. People coming to the building are people coming in to do business with the department and not off the street. We committed security inside and outside of the sites. And spending a lot of time gathering information from folks. That was the Community Process and this is where we landed. The question as to why this would be an emergency as supervisor ronen so eloquently put and many of you also echoed in agreement, homelessness is a great emergency and crisis. And everybody treats this as an emergency to people experiencing homelessness. Its critical to the strategy that the department has developed that we have a Central Access point for services. I think its important to our strategy of coordinated entry that we open up this facility and i think its an emergency that because we have not done the best of jobs for the past years, we have amazing programs and nonprofit providers. Were trying to build a homelessness response system that makes sense that requires Access Points that are available to people experiencing homelessness that requires us to work in a coordinated matter. Were spread over five different buildings and its created a lot of challenges for the department. So i do believe that were currently facing an emergency in the city and around the state and around the country around homelessness. And i do believe that opening up of this site as quickly as possible is an emergency, that it is critical that we move as quickly as possible in opening up these facilities as well as Navigation Centers and any other site to serve the 7,500 people currently experiencing homelessness in the city. Councillor breed supervisor kim . Councillor kim is it correct that the board of supervisors and the mayor allocated funding for the office space at 440 turk in june, 2016, for the fiscal year 2016 2017 budget . Yes. Councillor kim if this was such an emergency, why are we doing this 1 1 2 years later . It just if were going to use a declaration of emergency, we should have used it in july, 2016, one year, six months ago. I have a hard time that we allocated money 18 months ago and now were put against a wall saying, its an emergency to build all of this office space. I get the Navigation Center. Im not going to debate the need for beds, particularly as the rain and the cold comes. Its very cold already right now. Im just not understanding that. Second point, i went to both meetings at the end of july and beginning of august. It is true that there was mention that hsh was considering shower and laundry facilities on site, but one of the frustrations that the community had at the end of the meeting is they didnt feel they got a clear proposal. At no point, do i remember hearing an access point that would be rfpd out to a nonprofit. I think those are two Different Things. What i heard in the august 15 meeting is that because there would be an hsh office there that naturally people who are searching for services would come on site and you would, of course, want to provide some Emergency Services on site. What im hearing today is different from what i heard a few months ago. I think that while i support this, i dont want to say that i dont i understand the need for that i dont see what a threeweek continuance will do providing that additional time to respect the neighborhood that were moving into. So i think, supervisor, those are good points and just to speak about what happened in june, 2016, and why we didnt immediately move forward. As you know, we were creating a new department at that time. And had many, many staff vacancies and, frankly, struggled to get the vacancies filled and in many ways are still struggling to get our vacancies filled and get the department fully stood up. So, frankly, we prioritized getting staff on board, getting settled, and we needed to continue the daytoday duties of the department. He maintain housing for 9,000 people a year and outreach to 6,000 and so, frankly, trying to provide services that need to be provided on a daily basis and trying to start a new department and trying to come up with a new strategy for the department. It was in many ways like trying to build an aircraft while it was in flight and 30 of your mechanics are still on the ground. So we were not able to, not because we didnt want to, but not able to prioritize opening up the facility. When we did move forward with a proposal and started to look at the site, we saw that there were other issues that we had not uncovered in june, 2016, including the fact that the building at 50 ivy street will be closing in the next couple of years and had a better idea of what our office needs were and presented an alternative to the board of supervisors and it was not accepted, and then needed to adjust and came one a proposal with feedback from the board of supervisors and the community. Councillor kim when was item 56 introduced . If you dont know, i can tell you. It was introduced on october 31. About 1 1 2 months ago. Again, its an emergency and a declaration of emergency is heard 6 weeks later . That doesnt sound like an emergency to me. I will defer to my colleague councillor kim item 57 was introduced two weeks ago. What has changed between june, 2016, and today that makes it an emergency now . If it was such an emergency, we should have been working very quickly to open these offices over the last 18 months. I, again, referring to my previous answer. I agree. However, we had to prioritize other issues relating to getting other issues off the ground, hiring staff and ensuring that the services we provided on a daily basis were going uninterrupted. Councillor kim are you providing all of these Services Today with all the employees youve hired up . Yes. Councillor kim i still dont understand what makes it an emergency. Honestly, it sounds like what a department normally goes through. Actually, what you went through is very normal, the fits and starts of starting a department, putting it together, but then the department comes to us and building their office space is an emergency. Im wondering what differentiates you and other departments . I dont believe that anything does, but i think that the difference is this is not just about our office space. Its about creating an access point, critical access point, for people experiencing homelessness in a single place where people on the streets and needing to find access for services to get into the coordinated entry system to be able to access homeward bound and our expanded problemsolving or prevention and Diversion Services is critical. Councillor kim how many Access Points are there in the city . Two, and were rolling out our new strategy of coordinated entry and Access Points for families. There are two Access Points existing for families and a third to be opened up in the mission district. Were going to be rolling out Access Points for the Adult Population during the next month. And essentially, what were doing now, is having the hot team out in the streets trying to enroll kwem into our coordinated entry system. With 4,000 people on the streets and no clear places for individuals to go to, i believe that this, again, in my opinion, warrants an