And actually its serving your constituents to have more of a micro handle on what is sort of going on in our districts, but also to be able to funnel people direct people to their website or to their offices versus them getting like a million calls or 311 getting a ton of calls. So i wanted to say that on the ground we could do that type of helpful work when i know that the city is working on a very macro level. Supervisor walton. Is there a regional conversation about cal pal yes, also on our list, yes. Id say lastly to the staff and then weve got to run. One of the other ideas is, you know, obviously former retirees who are in the Health Care Work as well as volunteers who have Training Background and are formally working with nonprofits or not, but sort of a Health Background or a clinical background. And the third is a lot of our communitybased organizations are deemed nonessential per the order so reaching out to employees from those c. B. O. S who are still getting paid. Were going to im going to bring that up through the or the Emergency OperationCenter Community branch, thats where all of those requests lie just as an information item. Thank you very much, supervisors. I believe supervisor ronen that indiscernible might be next. Good afternoon. The department of homelessness and Supportive Housing. I wanted to share a couple thoughts with and you ill take your questions. My main thought would be that we should remember to take always remember to take advantage of a crisis. I think that theres going to be opportunities for all of you to think about in the future around acquiring some of these hotels that will be going out of business, that maybe some of them that were using for temporarily housing but would be great Supportive Housing sites. And the other thing that were should be thinking about is that were learning a lot right now on how to respond to high needs individuals very quickly in an emergency manner. Homelessness is an emergency for everybody who experiences it every single day so im hoping that the learnings and the collaboration that were seeing happening right now could be written down and applied to the citys homelessness response system moving forward. The other things they just wanted to share that have not been shared yet is that were working closely with our providers, all of their services have been deemed essential services. None of our providers, bless them, have stopped doing their work. Theyre all struggling with staffing and struggling with supplies. So were doing two things in partnership with them. One is that we have created a central supply warehouse for our providers and theyll be able to fill out a form and say that i need toilet paper and then well email them back and say come to this location and you dont even need to get out of your car and drive in and well throw it in the back of your trunk and off you go. So we are also servicing our providers to understand what their staffing needs might be and these are essential services and we have created a number of job descriptions for the city disaster workers if necessary. So that is happening as well. Were sending them out daily email blasts, some are having calls two times a week with our providers and were in constant communication with them and supporting them and we want to thank them all and all of the city staff for staying on the frontlines and doing this work and, frankly, risking their own health. And dealing with, you know, family anxietyiettettey, and tod you that were doing that every single day for 13,000 homeless and formerly Homeless People and those services have to continue. Then well working with director roar and the e. O. C. To ensure that in the event that theres an outbreak that were prepared to address that as quickly as we possibly can. Well take any questions that you may have. Yes, what is the policy right now towards tents . Are you removing tents from the street . Or are you letting people stay and trying to space them out . So as of yesterday, weve briefed all of the key departments, the police and h. S. H. , of course, and public works, on a new procedure around addressing this. Essentially were not going to take peoples property away from them during this situation. We are going to ask people to not be in groups of more than five. To keep tents six feet apart. And not to share tents with somebody unless its your partner and not to go into one anothers tents during this crisis. Based on the guidance from the Public Health departments and dr. Evans and street medicine, we think this is the best practice. Well continue the Police Department will continue to enforce the law as needed and if theres criminal activity theyll address it. And if they need to compensate property in those cases i imagine they will. Public works will continue to clean but theyre not going to take peoples property. In fact, what we have recommended is that they give people who are in tents garbage bags and suggest ask people to clean up their areas themselves and then leave the garbage bags in a place that is good for the public works employees. That way they can minimize social contact and maintain a good distance from folks. But still keep the streets clean. Theyre going to continue to be Power Washing and keeping the streets clean as usual. Thats a Public Health need that needs to continue, but well not be removing encampments. This is a good way to model how to develop a more cooperative spirit with people who are on the streets. I dont think that its okay for there to be large tent encampments and i dont think that its okay for people to be disrupting and blocking sidewalks and disrupting other peoples lives, but i also dont think that id constantly be trying to move people around, especially during this crisis. And the team is 100 focused on this and were not responding at this time and we dont have the capacity to respond to 311 calls and were going out and talking to people in encampments and giving them hygiene kits and knowing where they can meet their basic hygiene needs and asking for cooperation on spacing. I hope that this will work and that is because just like the communities and we see people coming together and being their best selfs in this situation, that applies to people unhoused as well and doing their best to do their best and to help the community to get through this crisis so im optimistic that this will be successful immediately, but also well have a good longterm impact to how we do this work in the city. Are they doing to develop plans to make sure that no individual 60 or older and, again, this is hard because my argument is that all people experiencing homelessness are immune their immunity is compromised. But at least for seniors. Is h. S. H. Coming up with a plan to get everyone indoors . Yes. Well, to get everyone indoors everyone at the high risk category. So ideally, what we would be doing and we have put this forward and working on it with h. S. A. S to utilize Hotel Voucher program which is used off and on in San Francisco over the years. We still have small programs to get people who are over 65 out of the shelters. And we also are looking at reorganizing our shelters and creating more space between beds, as well as creating areas to segregate people who are at risk or maybe segregating people who are sick. So those kind of physical redesigns as well as looking at potentially using a Hotel Voucher program as well as director roar said that once we make sure that we have the beds that we need for quarantine and isolation beds and that were able to add additional beds that we might need to do spacing people out. Spacing the beds out. Because thats going to make us lose capacity. And we should look for additional shelter beds if we can get them. And, again, hopefully modeling how to quickly set up shelters to get people off the streets. However, you know, we have to deal with the Public Health needs first and make sure that the hospitals dont get overwhelmed by getting these other beds set up for quarantine and isolation as the director said theres huge staffing challenges that were going to face. But were looking at creative opportunities, both using Disaster Service workers and also potentially volunteers. So, yeah, were actively engaged in working on this. And then the other thing that were working on with the department of Public Health has been an amazing everyone is an amazing partner but we have been working with the Public Health department on folks who have Serious Mental Health issues or Substance Use disorders who need to be quarantined and isolated and we need to accommodate their needs and were working on that as well. So theres a lot going on and its complicated but were moving quickly and keeping things in place. And by the end of the week well have a substantial number of beds stood up and ready to go. Supervisor haney . Thank you, president yee, and thank you for your work. I than youre working at all hours of the day and your team as well. A couple questions. One is on the status of the supplies for the shelters and n. A. V. Centers and Supportive Housing. I have communicated this to you but i wonder if you could give us the latest on this. And i heard from three providers who said they have run out or theyll run out soon of toilet paper and bleach and sanitizing wipes and other essential supplies. How are we securing these supplies . Do we have a shortage . Is there a way to help, do we need donations . Yes, yes and yes. And were going to businesses and asking for donations. I know that some companies that have donated handwashing stations to us and we are reaching out. So any suggestions or contacts that you have we essentially went to our supplier yesterday and bought everything that we possibly could. Its now at a location that our providers we were just made aware at 4 00 today, im on a call with them. But well run out very quickly. We think that we have like a weeks worth of supplies. And then, you know, we have 100 facilities that h. S. H. Operates. Shelters and permanent Supportive Housing and dropin centers and were serving, again, 13,000 people a day in shelter and housing. So we have a huge need and were happy to accept donations, but, you know, we have put our requests into the e. O. C. But many systems need these supplies los angeles and well keep doing the best we can. And were happy to accept any and all donations of toilet paper, cleaning supplies and bleach, anything like that. So it would be great if you and your team could communicate that to us so we can communicate it out publicly who the people would donate to and where to drop it and what is needed. Because i think that theres a lot of people and businesses and Larger Office builds that probably have a lot of supplies they could give. I started to reach out to folks and directing them directly to the providers but i dont know if theres a more centralized way to do that. Yes and i will write that up and send that out to you this evening. And i think my staff probably have already been working on this today because i know that it was discussed on a call that i was on this morning. So i know that all of us are concerned about staffing from a number of different angles. We have to quickly expand in terms of the shelter beds and the hotels and everything that is happening. Do you have a way to and i asked a similar question but to expedite hiring, training and there may be a lot of folks out of work right now who want to help either as volunteers. And with that, how we are making sure that folks who are working in these spaces are safe and healthy. Ive gotten feedback from folks who have worked at shelters in Supportive Housing saying that a lot of the members dont want to come in because they feel they dont have theyre not able to wash their hands and theres no protection for them. And so its adding to the shortages. Yeah, i dont want to speak for director callahan. I know that they issued a department of Human Resources issued a memo about expediting hiring in certain cases and i know that shell be back to speak to you as well and you can ask her for a copy of that guidance. So as far as the city goes and the safety of city workers, thats in her purview and theyve issued quite a lot of guidance to City Employees around hiring and around safety. We have issued that same guidance that weve gotten from the department Public Health department to our nonprofit omaha ployees. I think that employees. And a lot is with information and theres a lot of myths about the need for masks and how the disease is transmitted. Were doing our best to make sure that staff are kept safe. We do have a protocol at the sthelters and our other sites if theres a client who is coughing to immediately give that client a mask. Again, theres a shortage of everything as dr. Colfax had mentioned so were using what we have in the most effective way that we know how based on the Health Departments recommendations. And that theres a huge need to give every employee masks. And its important to put that mask on them and we have delivered supplies to the shelters and we continue at the pace that were at right now to have enough to give out for that purpose. Thank you. And i think that is going to be an ongoing issue to prepare for because we obviously we have so many people on streets and we say that we have the space now but not the staff. And another thing is that we have hundreds of people in the shelters and in the n. A. V. Centers who are not able to maintain the social distancing and theyre in congregate settings and large rooms eating together, and this is an unhealthy situation. Many of the folks are older, 334 people in a shelter and over 60 of them are over 65. So as i understand it theres a plan or there will be a priority to try to find the folks in those shelters and to get them into hotel rooms and then also in the shelters to create new policies and rules so that we can maintain distance and people can be protected and healthier and that the virus wouldnt spread rapidly within the shelters. Yes, you characterized that correct. Well, as soon as that could happen. Yes, you know, wholeheartedly agree. And well start screening clients when they come into shelters and ask them Health Questions to make sure that we, unfortunately, cannot get thermometers that we need to safely take peoples temperatures. But we are going to be asking screening questions and if folks need to be selfisolated were going to set up a situation where we can help that person not deny them a place to sleep but to find a place to go immediately. And im sure that youre looking at this, but a policy where lots of new people are coming in all the time and if theyre presenting symptoms or theyre very sick or have a fever, how theres some level of screening. Yes, there is and theres a process in place that we encounter a client that we know to contact the d. P. H. And they will instruct us what to do in that situation. But that also reminded me of one other thing is that we had suspended all time limits on all shelter beds. So, you know, it doesnt make sense for people to be kind of coming in and out and in and out of the shelter system. So now everybody is able were just doing 30day chunks but everybody in the shelter got an automatic 30day extension and that will continue throughout this crisis. And well also ultimately, if this continues for a long period of time, well ultimately point to the need for us to expand shelter capacity. Because the more that people dont have access to a safe place to sleep, because a lot of people use shelters as a respite from the street for 90 days and their shelter stay is up and theyre back on the streets again and well need to find other places for people to go. And a last question, for folks in Supportive Housing we have concerns about Food Insecurity, that is an ongoing issue. And now when theyre asked to shelter in place theres a lot of concern from providers that theyre not going to be able to access food, and is there a plan in place to get them access or delivery of food . Yes, there is. Theres a whole food group set up at in the h. S. A. Doc. One of my Staff Members is on that and we have a plan for delivering meals to people. And were working to increase meals at the shelters. And some shelters only have two meals a day and well increase it so all shelters have three meals a day and people dont have to be hungry or go out looking for food or unnecessarily out on the streets. So for folks in Supportive Housing theres a way to get food to them . Not for everybody in Supportive Housing or people who have to selfquarantine or are not able to come out, we will expand our contract with meals on wheels and other food providers to do that. So, absolutely. Thank you. But, supervisor, if we could go back to one point that you brought up which i thought was a really great one is thinking about people who are losing their jobs in this crisis. Which are many, many people. I mean, all kinds of businesses are closing and its having an impact on lowwage workers and we need staff. So i think that its worth figuring out how we can marry those two needs together. Because we certainly need people. All of our providers need folks. So if theres anything that you all could do to help to think that through, we would be grateful. I think that its a great idea. This is a great time to open up the doors to try to get more people to come, and either staff or volunteers to help with this work. So whatever we can do to help. Thank you. President yee so just i had a quick thought as you were discussing these issues with toilet paper and other supplies. Im sure that you guys or the city people have thought of this already. One some of the institutions that are closing down, im thinking in terms of universities that are pretty much done for the semester, has anybody approa