Or residents of San Francisco have been trying to address relative to a huge amount of homelessness on our streets that has been exacerbated by the covid19 crisis. The floor, supervisor fewer, is yours. Supervisor hello . Supervisor, you are muted. Supervisor fewer . Supervisor i would like to note that director pennick is also joining us for a comment. Thank you, chair peskin, for scheduling this item. I would like to provide some background on why i introduced this legislation. While San Francisco has shown leadership and responded quickly to covid19, the city has struggled to respond to the publics needs of the atrisk population this threatens our ability to lift the shelter in place order and jeopardizes the Public Safety of everyone. And Public Health safety of everyone. And the mayor previously stated a goal of procuring 7,000 hotel rooms and the board passed legislation to acquire even more, but the city is falling short of the goals on both counts. As of this morning only 1,991 hotel rooms have been secured for unhoused people and only 58 of those rooms were occupied. Hotel rooms should continue to be a priority for ensuring that Homeless People on San Franciscos streets are protected from the threat of the terrible virus, particularly those who are elders and have comprised immune systems. While they must continue to press forward to procure hotel room, we must address other options in a serious problem that existed before covid19 that now with the inability to move people into indoor shelter, we need a plan in place to adhere to the guidelines to stop the spread of the deadly virus. On may 5, we unanimously passed a resolution urging the city to establish safe sites for unhoused people. Safe sleeping sites at the time include space for each tent that alouse for adequate social distancing, bathrooms, hand washing stations, meals, drinking water, and Garbage Disposal consistent with the department of Public Health guidance as best practices. Each site would have a safer plan and be staffed 24 7 and include janitorial and other critical services. The resolution passed unanimously and focused largely on the exploration of public property. I introduced this legislation before you today along with supervisor moore to further explore this model we will be creating for safe sleeping sites and park property in San Francisco which includes parking lots and the Parks Department had jurisdiction over several acres of land in San Francisco. To be clear, and i i want people to hear this. This legislation would not allow people to camp freely throughout our parks. It would also not mandate the use of any particular site. This legislation leaves the decision to the general manager of the recreation and Parks Department. This legislation would simply require directing the Parks Department to createened an explore, identifying suitable locations throughout the city where it may be possible to establish these sites in accordance with Public Health specifications. Its tent was to look at sites that would not interfere with the regulation needs of san franciscans during shelter in place which is why this defers to the general manager as he knows the property best. This has been severely misinterpreted and purposely misconstrued. Having said that, i am happy to say that i have reached and agreement with general manager ginsburg from the rec and Park Department. Manager ginsburg and i agree it makes perfect sense to look at all options and is our current responsibility as sitting leaders to save lives. To this end mr. Ginsburg will provide a report for rec and park sites suitable for safe sleeping sites to the board of supervisors by june 2. In addition, the director of the Real Estate Department will recognize other property where it may be possible to establish a site. As a city, we have contemplated using school property, the d. O. T. Parking lot and federal property. Of course we would look at cityowned properties as well. I would go so far to say as city leaders we have a responsible need. I want to thank them for working with me on this and for being here to speak about this. Given these agreements, i am requesting that this legislation be tabled today. Before i finish, i am happy that the city is now pursuing this model and the city opened the first sleeping site on fulton and we are set to open another one at the old mcdonalds parking dot. Exploring other potential site wills add another tool to respond to the homelessness crisis that is worsened by covid19. The mayor herself is looking for more sites. We need a plan for after the federal government stops reimbursing us for hotel rooms and that could be sooner than later considering the fact that we have a president who, quite frankly, doesnt believe this is the Public Health emergency that it is against the advice and expertise of scientists and doctors. Even if we occupied the full 8200 hotel rooms that are in position the cost would be 57 million a month and during this recession that would be impossible to maintain for the duration of the pandemic. I ask city leaders and people who are listening today and ask my colleagues, what are your solutions . Allowing people to live on sidewalks, along the corridors and in front of the small businesses, on our doorsteps, often without adequate facilities of toilets and hand washing stations, without food and access to services. The legislation that supervisor moore simply requests we look at more options as another tool in the tool shed to stop the spread of the virus. We are in the midst of a deadly, Global Pandemic and we know protecting thousands of people at highs aring from the disease living on the streets of San Francisco ultimately serve to protect all of us. Perhaps because we have not seen the deaths in other cities like knock, we have forgotten how very deadly this virus is. This is an an unprecedented Public Health crisis emergency and that means exploring all possible solutions. Thank you, colleagues. With that, i would like to ask direct ginsburg and director pennick to share a few comments. General manager ginsburg t floor is yours. Thank you, chair peskin. And thank you supervisor fewer and supervisor mar for really engaging with us in this conversation. Supervisor fewer, you are absolutely correct we are in the middle of an emergency, and in an emergency, we respond as one city and all the resources and all of the citys resources do need to be considered to save lives. I think, as you know, our department is currently providi providing spaces for covid19 testing, child care, food distribution, and yes, even for safe sleeping. And i certainly understand your interest in making sure that all of our public land and properties are cataloged to have an inventory of what is available and the endeavor of working with the board t mayor, and the Emergency Operations senter to identify additional locations for a Covid Response effort. But i think what weve all learned and appreciated is just the very poignant and Important Role that parks are playing in this response, not just as spaces for our direct response, but also of respite and health and well being for san franciscans. I know you understand that and you have been a great park champion in all the parks throughout the district as does the board. The parks, frankly, have never been more important. They are not nice to have. They are must haves. They are not just amenities, but they are utilities fundamental to our health and well being, so this is no doubt a complicated challenge to balance how to best use the public spaces for the public s health and welfare and your approach, supervisor, seems very reasonable to catalog and have an even of the public space, and were happy to do that. Good afternoon. Thank you for those comments. Mr. Pennick . Good afternoon, chair peskin, supervisors, and i am director of real estate and thank you for the opportunity to speak to this issue. As you know, the Real Estate Division has played its role in finding isolation rooms and hotels and congregate sheltering sites. We are happy to lend our support to this additional effort to find safe sleeping sites. I have had conversations at length with supervisor fewer and her aide. I think we have a clear understanding of the criteria needed for safe sleeping sites. And we will be happy to get that report by the june 2 deadline. Thank you. President thank you, mr. Pennick. Supervisor fewer, c congratulations on your incredible work, and i understand that you and your chief of staff have been through a lot over the last several weeks. Any final comments that you would like to make before we continue this for Public Comment. You have asked that the Committee Table this item number four, which the committee will take up after Public Comment later in this afternoons meeting. Supervisor yes, supervisor peskin. I believe my cosponsor supervisor mar would like to speak. President supervisor mar, i did not press the participant button, so i did not realize that you were in this virtual meeting. Supervisor mar, the floor is yours. Supervisor thank you so much, chair peskin. I just wanted to sort of i think supervisor fewer really kind of covered everything, but i really wanted to say on this, but i just wanted to thank supervisor fewer for her leadership on this item, and also general manager ginsburg and director pennick for working with us on being able to move this forward and just to sort of echo the statement that we are in the midst of an Unprecedented Health pandemic, and we believe that all options to save lives should be on the table for consideration. I did want to also acknowledge the many communications that we have received about this item, and i also agree with everyone that our parks, especially are an essential public good now more than ever and any potential emergency use of the parks as were considering through this action should not interfere with the parks primary purpose as a recreational space. So well keep that in mind as we do move ahead with the work to look at potential locations, underutilized locations in our parks city wide to meet Emergency Needs in our city right now. Thank you. President thank you, supervisor mar. Are there any questions or comments at this point from Committee Members . I should probably press that button. Hold on a second. Do not see any questions or comments from Committee Members. So colleagues supervisor, i just want to say a quick i wanted to thank supervisor fewer and supervisor mar for the hard work on this. As supervisor fewer said, there was a lot of misunderstanding and misconceptions on this and i appreciate her willingness to work with the departments and take the time to table the legislation and ask the department to come up with a list of potential locations that would be appropriate based on all the solutions that we have in the city. I have been a strong proponent of opening up our citys parking lots, working to ensure that we have the appropriate number of hotels and that were moving in that direction. Our district was the first to open up the safe parking to the entire city, and its been working in a very good fashion. So appreciate you all putting this forward and listening and willing to come up with the right solutions for the right fit at the right time. And i agree. In our district we have seen a tremendous increase of people that are out on the streets, that are out on the doorways, that are in front of the merchants, and i am constantly on the phone with the hot team and with the appropriate people in the Police Department and in some cases people just dont want the services in the first round. And in the second case, they are just waiting for the opportunity to be placed in the right location. And as you noted, the fact that because of social distancing and this pandemic, a lot of the options that we have traditionally have have been reduced because the capacity is at its max. I just want to appreciate the thoughtfulness and thank you, supervisor fewer, and again, i apologize in any way if i got out in front of your announcement. Thank you for your understanding. And listening at the same time. But that is no excuse. Thank you. Thank you for the comments, supervisor safai. And to supervisor fewer, do you want this item to be tabled or to be fileed . Supervisor tabled, please. Tabled, please, supervisor. In other words, so it can be taken off the table. Okay, understood. Seeing no other comments supervisor preston. Thanks. Sorry, chair peskin. I just wanted to speak briefly on this item and obviously this is an issue that is impacting the whole city and certainly in my district this is top of folks mind looking at and exploring the opportunities for safe sleeping sites and trying to get more folks into hotels and as supervisor fewer mentioned, we are eagerly awaiting within the next week or two the safe sleeps site at the mcdonalds and working with the eoc to make that a reality. I really wanted to thank supervisor fewer, supervisor mar, for elevating this issue and pushing it forward. And also to general manager ginsburg and director pennick for being with us today and for working collaboratively with my colleagues. I appreciate all the work to find the Common Ground here. And i wanted to echo my support not just for the discussions happening around parks but also looking at every City Department and agency really taking this moment to review the properties that are under their purview and control considering whether they would be appropriate for a safe sleeping site. I want to recognize the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development which has control over the mcdonalds site and was willing to make that site available immediately for this temporary use. And this is something that we are hearing constantly from neighbors as to supervisor safai mentioned, we are hearing constantly from neighbors who are dissatisfied, rightly so w the situation on our streets and are looking for solutions and it is good to see this solution is something that we have all been able to come together on, even as we continue to try to push for more rapid housing of folks in hotels and thank you for your leadership on this, and really just wanted to underscore the urging of all department heads, other city leaders to look at your portfolio, to look at what properties you have, and i am looking forward to seeing the reports that come back before us. Thank you. President thank you, supervisor preston. Colleagues f there is no objection, we will continue this item until later in this afternoons meeting. Thank you, general manager ginsburg. Thank you, director pennick. Thank you, supervisor fewer. Without objection, we will open this up to Public Comment after we hear the next three items. Madam clerk, please call item number one. Yes. Item number 1 is an ordinance amending ordering the summary vacation of a portion of 25th street, to enable extended operation of a temporary Navigation Center for homeless residents in a friendly appropriate siting. Members of the public should call 18882045984, access code is 3501008. Press pound and then pound again. If you are currently on hold for item number four, please press 1 and 0 to be to wait for the item later in the agenda. Thank you. President thank you, ms. Major. This is a temporary street vacation that lasts for i believe 42 months and needs to be renewed. It is brought to us by the mayor and supervisor walton to a Navigation Center that i have repeatedly visited and brought my constituents to as we were trying to win hearts and minds to open up a Navigation Center in the Northeast Corner of San Francisco prior to covid19, which now is being built out as we speak. On behalf of the Mayors Office, ms. Cohen, the floor is yours. Good afternoon, chair peskin and good afternoon, supervisors. Thank you very much. I am going to share a fairly quick presentation with you all. Plead let me if we can see your screen. Beautiful, thank you. As peskin indicated this, ordinance would allow for the extension of the Central WaterfrontNavigational Center for an additional five years. This Navigation Center was originally opened in 2017 with the idea of it being a threeyear, temporary Navigation Center and it is the dead end of 25th street on park property in the neighborhood surrounded by muni to one side, the bay to the other, and drainage on the other side. And we actually originally had a site for it on 24th street and worked with the neighborhood to move it over to 25th where its been very well received. Its also more close proximity to the park and a strong asset both for folks experiencing homelessness as well as from the neighbors. As you all well know and alluded to in the previous item or discussed in the previous item, we have an unsheltered homelessness crisis and is continually exacerbated by covid19. And experiencing homelessness for those living unsheltered in our community. The department of homelessness has opened eight Navigation Centers, two of which were temporary and have closed. So we currently have six in operation and certainly one sites that we continue. And for those who havent b