Good afternoon. Welcome to the Land Use Transportation Committee for with monday, may 11, 2020. I am the chair of the committee, chair peskin. Clerk, do you have any announcements . Clerk we, due to the covid19 pandemic, the board of supervisors legislative chamber and Committee Room are closed. Members will be participating online as if they are present. Channel 26 and online we are streaming. People will be allowed two minutes to speak. Ability to make comments are available by phone by calling 8882045984. The access code is 3501008. Press pound and then pound again. When you are connect with, dial 1 and then 0 to be put in the queue. When you are waiting, the system will be silent. You will be notified. Everyone must account for time delays between live coverage and streaming. Best practices are to call from a quiet location, speak clearly and slowly, and turn down your television or radio. Alternatively, you may submit Public Comment by emailing me. If you submit Public Comment by email, it will be included in the legislative file as part of the matter. Written comments may be sent via u. S. Postal code service. Chair thank you, ms. Major. Could you please read the first and only item. Clerk yes. Planning code zoning controls urban mixed use District Office uses ordinance amending the planning code to provide that in the urban mixed use district all office uses are prohibited, except that a professional service, financial service, or medical service is allowed as a conditional use on the ground floor when primarily open to the general public on a clientoriented basis; affirming the planning departments determination under the California Environmental quality act; making findings of consistency with the general plan, and the eight priority policies of planning code, section 101. 1; and adopting findings of public necessity, convenience, and welfare under planning code, section 302. Members of the public should you wish to make a comment, call the phone line. Chair thank you, ms. Major. This item which has been before this committee on a couple of occasions is authored by supervisor ronen and her staff ms. Amy binart is in this Virtual Meeting and i believe would like to ask for another continuance. Ms. Binart, the floor is yours. Thank you so much, chair, supervisors. Once again, thank you for opening this meeting and hearing this item. You are correct, we would like to continue this item at this time to the call of the chair. Unfortunately, we probably should have done that last meeting, but we will set it for a date certain. So here we are. So if you would entertain that motion to continue to the call of the chair, we would be very much appreciative. Chair thank you, amy. Are there any members of the public who would like to comment on this item . Clerk thank you, mr. Chair. The staff are checking if there are any staff in queue. You have zero questions remaining. Chair okay. There are no members of the public wishing to speak. Chair thank you. So Public Comment is now closed and i would like to make a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair, and on that motion, madam clerk, a roll call, please. [ roll call ]. Chair the item is continued to the call of the chair and the Land Use Transportation Committee is adjourned. The director of the department of Human Services, trent roer, the director of homelessness and housing, Abigail Stuart khan. Our police chief bill scott. Thank you so much for joining us here today. Were here to provide an update and answer questions during our Virtual Press conference. As of today, we have 1,954 reported covid19 cases diagnosed in San Francisco. And sadly with 35 people who have lost their lives. 71 people are currently hospitalized, and dr. Colfax will continue to provide an update of where we are and why the need to continue the work weve done around sheltering in place is so important to continuing to maintain the curve. As a reminder, data sf. Org covid19 is our website so that you can access data or information that you may need regarding the numbers that we know exist around those who have been diagnosed, but also information by zip code as well as the number of tests and other valuable information that weve done. Now last week we announced the next steps for gradually reopening San Francisco, and i know that people are anxious to see our city reopen. Im anxious to see our city reopen. And this has been a very tough and challenging time for all of us. When you think about what weve all sacrificed, kids who are graduating from high school and will not be able to have a traditional graduation or attend prom, those parents who cannot go back to work because they have no child care access for their children, the people who are elderly who actually really need comfort through family and friends, who are not able to visit with those folks that they love and care about the most, especially during this past mothers day. It continues to be a challenge, but especially with regards to our economy. Our economy is suffering not just in San Francisco but throughout the united states, and what weve tried to do here in San Francisco is redirect resources and raise private dollars in order to get support in the hands of those who need it the most, and oftentimes people who may not qualify for any assistance whatsoever. The people who have been impacted the most include our Small Businesses, our Small Businesses that are really the backbone of our city, employing hundreds of thousands of people who, sadly, were laid off as the result of this crisis. When these businesses are not open, they are not generating any money. They were already having a tough enough time as it was before the coronavirus pandemic with the high cost of commercial rents, with the laundry list of fees that are charged by the city that need to change, with a number of other taxes and other expenses, it oftentimes made it difficult for many of these Small Businesses to not only stay open in their existing storefront locations but also to maintain their staff. And its gotten even worse as a result of this pandemic. And this is why i was so excited to announce just a step forward in reopening our economy, and that includes specific Small Businesses that in some cases, for example, our florist. They were allowed to deliver this mothers day, but when you think about their capacity even to do just that, to prepare the arrangements, to take in the payments, to also arrange for delivery so that everyone is getting what they want when they want it, many florists were reached out to had to decline because they had so many orders and so they had a limited number of people who were able to assist them in delivering those orders. And this is why im also very excited that florists and bookstores, folks will be able to do both delivery and Pickup Services. Music and record stores, hobby, toy and game stores, Home Furnishing and home goods, cosmetic and beauty supplies. Lord knows i need a new fresh supply of cosmetics. Art supplies and Musical Instruments and supply stores, sewing, needlework and goods stores, pieced good stores okay, i dont know what that is, but nevertheless, we are opening a number of businesses for pickup and delivery, and were doing so gradually, and i want to explain, because many have asked, well, whats the difference between what the governor, our Governor Newsom is proposing, which was that businesses would be opened this past friday, versus what San Francisco is doing. And again, everything has and ive said this from the very beginning. We follow the advice of the Public Health officials here in our city and in our region as it relates to the data that were seeing. As it relates to the number of cases, the number of hospitalizations, the number of deaths, and because of all of you who have followed these orders, San Francisco is in a better place than most cities. But were still not in a place where we are seeing a decline, and i think thats important to remember. The more access we provide people with where there is a contact with another human being, the more the possibility that infections can spread. So the fact that we are offering a delivery and a Pickup Service is a big step, and it is definitely a big risk, and we hope that the types of systems that we put into place in order to protect you as youre able to support and use these places as a resource that we will continue to see the curve not only flatten, but decline, and again its up to the people in this city to continue to follow these orders, and i want to say again how much i appreciate what folks have continued to do, whether its standing in line at Grocery Stores or pharmacies, at a safe distance. I noticed people are wearing their mask in those lines. I noticed that folks were just following the social distancing order, for the most part, in most parts of our city. And this is gonna be the reason why we are able to lower the curve, but we also know that a number of challenges still exist. So as we allow Small Businesses to begin work around pickup and delivery, we have to keep in mind that we know that the more people are in contact with the public, theres a higher probability that they could contract the virus. Weve seen that in a more recent study done by ucsf, with the department of Public Health and a Latino Task Force when they conducted in one of the seconddensist census blocks in the mission community. They conducted an ongoing testing where they allowed anyone to test and discovered that although of the few thousand people that they tested, less than 2 were diagnosed with covid19, and many of those folks were in the workforce. They were still working at various locations. So we know that the probability that the more youre out there, the more youre in contact with other people, thats how the virus could spread, and this is why its necessary for us to continue down this path. Whats great about our city, again, is weve come a long way, and testing is so critical to our ability to allow more places to open. The more access people have to testing and also contact tracing, the better our ability to identify someone as quickly as possible, make sure that they are quarantined, but also track the other folks as they have been in contact with in order to just really stop things in their tracks. I want to say that here in the city whats great is, number one, we will provide testing for anyone who is an essential worker, whether you have a symptom or not. I think its important that we continue to get the word out regarding testing, and we will provide a test to any san franciscan who exhibits one of the symptoms, and if you have the need to be tested, please call 311. Insurance is not a barrier to testing. We will test anyone, and secondly, your immigration status is not a should not be a barrier to testing. So you should not feel afraid to get tested, especially if you feel like youre exhibiting symptoms. Our testing statistics over the past month have steadily grown. We have seen an increase in the number of tests, and as of today, over 36,000 covid19 tests have been reported to dph, department of Public Health. And in the last week weve averaged over 1,000 tests per day. And i just want to remind everyone that we were not always able to get that information from some of the private hospitals that are testing, and so this is a big, big thing. People wanted to know how many tests were being conducted, and this is really, really going to be helpful to helping us understand whats actually happening in San Francisco based on the percentage of those who test positive and the number of tests weve been able to administer. And i really want to thank Elaine Forbes from the port. I also want to thank my policy director, andres powers, as well as the department of Public Health, for the work that you all are continuing to do in coordinating with the community to make sure that we have this very, very important information. The Real Progress is when we get to at least the ability to conduct 200 covid19 tests per 100,000 residents. And again, this will help us get to a place where we can begin to understand whats happening in our city, a way to address it and a way to gradually move San Francisco in a direction of reopening. Testing capacity is critical, and as a reminder, just because you are tested and you are negative does not mean that you are immune from contracting covid19 after you discover that you are negative. Or even in any other event. So i want to just reiterate how important it is to continue to wear your mask when appropriate and maintain social distancing. We also know that, you know, equity is important. Making sure that communities that may not watch the news, that may not read the paper every day, that may not be in touch with whats happening with city government, that we do a better job of making sure that we outreach to those communities with a number of trusted communitybased organizations, as well as an Incredible Group of community volunteers, and i really want to thank the equity team and the team under cheryl davis. They have been incredible. These are people we have the office of racial equity, shackra smiley is the director there. We have had her and cheryl davis working hand in hand developing strategies from day one to make sure that as we have information were communicating to folks in these communities, to the seniors in the bayview to many of our sadly homeless residents in the tenderloin to folks in various parts of the city that may not have access to what is actually going on. They have been able to distribute the work from chinatown and other communities, they have outreached to these communities on a regular basis, not just distributing almost a million flyers with information and answering a number of questions from so many of these folks, again, who are not necessarily connected to the internet or connected to resources, but you know, providing masks, providing access to support for food or connecting them to other resources. The work that they have done around education on the coronavirus and education on around resources to help people weather this storm has been incredible, and i am grateful that they are also continuing to outreach as Testing Capacity continues the work continues. Because we showed up in one Community One day does not mean that we should not be going back to that community the next day and the next day and the next day. It includes not only individuals, but we have businesses where we have people who have limited english and may not be completely familiar with the policies of the city. So its the responsibility of this equity team to really reach out to many folks who are not always connected and who may not always have the resources to make sure they have the resources and that we provide them with clear direction around testing. Because as we saw in the study in the mission, many of the people who are part of our workforce are the ones who are testing positive. So we want to make sure that many of those essential businesses that are open, as well as the delivery thats gonna start on may 18 for those other businesses, the delivery and the pickup, that they know that their workers can get tested. So i want to appreciate the equity team and the work that theyre doing, as well as appreciate the Human Rights Commission here in San Francisco. Thank you for the work that youve done on outreach, and i also just want to finally wrap it up with talking a little bit about the hotel rooms because were preparing for a significant surge. We were also preparing for the opportunity to make sure that people who are our essential Health Care Workers and our Public Safety officials who were concerned about the impacts on their families, that they had places to go where they were able to isolate themselves. Because of how well the city has been doing in terms of maintaining the curve, we have not used as many of those hotel rooms as we anticipated, and the good news is we are able to repurpose those hotels. Weve negotiated. Trent roer and the department of Human Services and his team were able to renegotiate those contracts. So now those extra few hundred rooms that were supposed to be used for our frontline workers, and to be clear, we still have access to rooms for our frontline Health Care Workers and Public Safety officials. Those rooms will be used for people who need to isolate if they are covid positive. And were talking about people who live in our singleroom occupancy hotels who, if they contract the virus, they cant necessarily social distance themself in an sro if they are living there with their family, or someone whos homeless, or someone who lives in a congregate living setting, or anyone who lives with family where theres not the ability for them to selfquarantine. We have the opportunity to extend our Hotel Capacity to provide this as a resource to the people of San Francisco. So this is really great, and i think weve come a long way. The challenges around covid19 st