Please support this. And all organizations and all the folks will work to make this a coalition that is incredibly [bell ringing]. Your time is concluded. Speaker, please. Hello . Hi, please proceed. My name is debbie newman. Can you hear me . Yes, we can hear you. Yeah, um, i forgot i made a video, but i forgot what i said on it. Oh, god. Let me get back to you guys. Let me get back to you. Dammit. Next speaker, please. Hello, good afternoon. I work with Movement Health center and the San Francisco support services manager. I am trying to keep the support evers at 30 of the income because making the rent 50 of the income will impact the that i work with. So please keep the 30 rent income because its a loss. That completes the queue. Public comment is now closed on item number 18. I understand, supervisor haney, that you have actually some amendments that you would like to propose. I have those amendments before we. Would you like me to read them . Or you were on mute, supervisor. [laughter] sorry about that. Can i just quickly explain them and im happy to read them if thats okay . Supervisor fewer sure. Supervisor haney so, i want to thank everybody who called in and all of the organizers and really grateful and inspired by the organizing that has taken place around this measure. I absolutely agree that this is overdue and needs to happen as soon as possible. And there is nothing about this measure that doesnt that would prevent it from happening as soon as possible and that we all Work Together and fight to get the funding put into the next budget absolutely. So i really appreciate that everybody was underscoring that. With that, at the request of the City Attorney, we are going to remove the date by which the contracts have to be amended so were not imposing a new requirement on existing contracts. That is something that the City Attorney says were not able to do. This did not prevent us from transitioning rent standards from before 2023 as i just mentioned. So on page 8, line 15, striking the date, october 1, 2023 and replacing it with upon renewal. And on page 2, line 34, adding additional finding, d, it is the intent of the board that october 1, 2023, no client in permanent Supportive Housing pays more than 30 of their income in rent. I believe we have someone from the City Attorney office if there are questions why they requested that we did this. Supervisor fewer okay. Thats great. Supervisor mandelman, i see you in the queue. Supervisor mandelman yeah. Im not speaking to the amendments, im speaking to the ordinance. Supervisor fewer sure. I think that the amendment is pretty cut and dried. So feel free to speak about it, though, if you have questions or comments. Supervisor mandelman i dont have any questions for comments about the amendment. I want to thank supervisor haney for your work on this ordinance. This is a difficult budgetary time for the city. The next few years, i think theyre going to be more difficult budgetary. I think were going to be making hundreds of millions of dollars in cuts over the next few years. And our budget is a zerosum affair. We increased our allocations by 6 or 7 million for one thing. That means we have to find that money somewhere else. So all that being said, you know, i believe that this is an important thing to do. And so we will have to find an additional 7 million each year to make this happen, or maybe it will be less as time goes by. At any rate, this is important. We should do it and i will be voting for it. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Supervisor walton . Supervisor walton thank you so much, chair fewer. I was just going to move that we accept the amendments that were provided by supervisor haney. Supervisor fewer okay, i first wanted to make a comment and just wanted to say that i you know, actually i wish supervisor haney, that you had this earlier when i was budget chair. Im still budget chair, but during this budget cycle, because in 2018, we listened and we said, lets put a Million Dollars toward this pilot. I think i have one of the largest Supportive Housing developments in my district. And it has impacted those tenants. So we know and i think you know because i set aside a Million Dollars to implement this, that i was supportive and had been willing to work with you. I think that going forward, it is going to be difficult to find the money, but not impossible. I just want to tell people as the budget chair, having, i think, a pretty intimate knowledge of where our expenses are and what we spend them on, we can find 6 million in this budget, even though were in a budget crisis. I think that it is not a radical idea that people only spend 30 of their income on rent. It is not radical and in fact it should be a standard for everyone in San Francisco. But especially for our most vulnerable and lowincome folks. So having said that, as i am leaving my office as you know, this will come before the new budget committee. So i just wanted to say that i think that it is not impossible to find that money. In fact, i think it is very doable. 6 million is a lot of money to i think most of us, but when you deal with 13 billionbudget, 6 million actually is not that much money and i know where we have spent money. And i think that there are ways that we can actually pull from areas that we can pull from that will not have impact on services to our city. So i want to encourage people, because i will not be here for the rebalancing plan, or i will not be here to determine the budget, i actually think it should start before 2023, because every day, every month that people have to pay more than 30 of their income on rent is burdensome and also could be detrimental to their livelihood, but also to their health. So i just want to encourage people as we have this discussion at budget, that i think there is my two colleagues that are on budget with me, youre seeing the budget this year, you know where the money goes. It would be not that hard to find the 6 million. So i also just want to say that id love to be a sponsor of this. As i said, i set aside a Million Dollars before, i know that you can find the money. With that, supervisor walton, i think we should call for a roll call vote. One thing in response to that. Again, thank you so much for funding the 1 million pilot. And i do, you know, we, in my first year last year before we were in this current economic crisis with this pandemic, this was a top priority to fund the entire thing. And we asked for the entire thing to be funded. I think what we came to the conclusion, or that we had to put it in law and make this legislation. So i agree with you, chair fewer, that by making it the law were saying this is a priority and were committing to fund it in the future. I appreciated your partnership on this and sending a strong message to the budget committees of the future to step up in the way that you have. So appreciate that and thank you. Supervisor fewer yes. Just want to encourage everyone. Supervisor walton, a motion on the table. So roll call vote, please. On the motion to amend item number 18, supervisor walton . Supervisor walton aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor fewer aye. Your ayes are three ayes. Supervisor fewer thank you very much. Supervisor walton, would you like to continue the motion . Supervisor walton yes. Id like to move that they move this legislation, item 18, forward with positive recommendation from the budget and finance Committee Supervisor fewer roll call vote, please. On that motion, supervisor walton supervisor walton aye. Supervisor mandelman aye. Supervisor fewer aye. Thank you very much. Madame clerk, can you call 19 and 20 together. Yes, item number 19 is a hearing on the shelters in place and housing in site plan schedule at the board of supervisors pursuant to motion number 20, file number 201233 rand referred to the budget and finance committee. Item 20 is emergency ordinance to prohibit the city from requiring people experiencing homelessness currently housed in approximately 2300 shelter in place hotel rooms until federal Emergency Management agency, fema, provides written notification that fema funding available is terminated or nullified in a way that no longer reimburses or people experiences homelessness or hotel rooms obtain a housing placement, these 2300 rooms are considered available as they vacated to shelter people experiencing homelessness. Until the stayathome order is rescinded and requiring the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing to prepare publicly available reports on the progress of placements into stable housing. Those who wish to provide Public Comment on these items should call 14156550001, meeting i. D. , 146 414 8528 ,. If you have not already done so, please dial star 3 to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Interpretation services are also available on this item, on these two items during Public Comment period until 7 00 p. M. Please call now so that we can identify you. Thank you. Supervisor fewer thank you very much, madame clerk. So today we have, as speakers, i think supervisor haney, abigail stewartkhan and also ben rosenfield, our controller. Lets kick it off first with supervisor haney. Supervisor haney thank you. Thank you, chair fewer. Hello, again, budget committee. Thank you so much, chair, for your willingness to accommodate this request to move this emergency legislation quickly through the board process. And i also want to thank president yee and the clerk staff as well. I want to acknowledge at the outset the other three supervisors who are the cosponsors of this legislation. Supervisors walton, preston and ronen. This has really been a Close Partnership with all of us and our staff, so i want to acknowledge and thank them as well. For the last eight months, the shelter in Place Hotel Program has provided shelter, three meals a day, health care and safety for over 2000 vulnerable individuals during this pandemic. It has had a deeply powerful, stabilizing effect on thousands of people. It has curb the spread of covid19, undoubtedly saving many lives and it has been remarkably Cost Effective with a number of the costs being reimbursed by the state and federal government. If you recall this at the start of the program, when we passed legislation, there was a lot of concern and pushback. The board and advocates and people experiencing homelessness were told that people wouldnt want to come into the hotels or couldnt handle live in their own room. We were told it would cost too much, there was no staffing for the hotels. We have been able to prove all of those assertions wrong. The hotel shelterinplace program has worked. It has kept people safe. It has been staffed effectively and it has saved lived. We have had over 25 hotels with the extraordinary work of h. S. H. , h. S. A. , the covid command center, nonprofit providers and many others who have made this program operate effectively. As you all know, i had the opportunity to work in two of those shelterinplace hotels as a service worker. I got to know the providers, the residents and what i can tell you is that this was a life changing opportunity for some of the most Vulnerable People on our in our city. Many of whom who have been on the streets for months and years. Many are older. Many are sick, have underlying medical conditions. A huge number of them are native san franciscans. Half of them are black. And what weve seen in these hotels was a remarkable level of healing and health during one of the most dangerous times for all of us. And i think its a program that we should be very proud of. And that we should protect. This legislation is also a massive opportunity for us as a city to finally make steps forward in any homelessness for thousands of people. These Hotel Programs have brought people inside, some of whom for the first time, and this has been a moment for us to take a huge stride to end homelessness for these individuals and to make a large make significant progress in what has been our citys biggest failure, which is failing to ensure access to stable housing for all of our residents. This legislation is straightforward. It establishes that the city shall keep the current shelterinplace hotel rooms open until fema notification that funding will end, or the end of the emergency orders. The city should move people into housing, but only if theyre moved into permanent Supportive Housing, or should permanent housing should not be available, theyre moved into another stable housing option that the client agrees is appropriate. The city should continue to bring people inside the hotels temporarily as we bring longterm Housing Resources online. I want to say that im very happy to see that the department is slowing down and proposing a more thoughtful slower plan to demobilize the hotels, pushing the time line out to october 2021, with more time to stand up hundreds of housing exits. I know the department is going to present on that plan. But i hope there is widespread recognition that the plan announced last month is still was inadequate and poorly communicated. And that the new plan still does not go far enough. There are key differences between the departments plan and this legislation. First, more than 80 of the housing exits are still unfunded and we dont know how long it will take to set up the exits. Its a wish list and we dont know what is doable. Moving the closing date is good, but its not just about the date, its an actual rehousing plan. It means we prioritize clients over people. There are almost 500 people who are housing referral status and not in the shelterinplace hotels and those who are document ready. The current plan that closes hotels down in phases and sets up an end date for each of the phases, bumps these people off the list. That is a choice the department is making. If we set the right time frame and not set arbitrary dates. Lastly, related to that, their plan does nothing to address the fact that there are still thousands of people on our streets. I want to address some of the concerns that weve heard about as the legislation and im sure there may be questions as well. I have heard feedback that if we continue to let people into the hotels, we may be in a situation where fema ends and we have to exit 2000 people in an even shorter time frame. First, if were worried about reaching the edge of a cliff when fema ends, these are people still on the streets who have already fallen off a cliff and we need it to help them back up. The humanitarian disaster we face is that there are still people on the street during a pandemic without safe and adequate housing. The shelterinplace hotels are the smartest and most Cost Effective option short of making more Housing Options available, but which we will do, but its takes time. We absolutely must reevaluate in 60 days, then in 120 and rightsize the Hotel Program so it meets the needs of the people in the hotels now and those who arent in the hotels. And though the authorization is for 30 days, its unreasonable to say well be blind sided by funding ending. We can track when case counts are reducing and i would hope that the Health Officer would communicate when the local emergency will end. The bottom line is that there are people on the streets. Thousands of them. And we should not close this program that is our only population we are employing to get option we are employing to get people off the streets. The only reason i heard is because were concerned about a fiscal cliff that, again, is an majimagin imaginary one. The costs will essentially be the same as what is planned for. The controller estimates that to keep the hotels open will only cost an additional 8 million more than projections for the departments revised plan and that doesnt take into account potential future state grants. Lastly, and i said this before about the other individuals who are in housing referral status, we should not arbitrarily set a deadline because it forces people who are currently in the shelterinplace hotels ahead of people who may be more vulnerable, may be ahead of them in line, et cetera. We should be able to keep the hotels open and keep people in the shelterinplace hotels and have a fair process to determine placements in permanent housing as it opens. In general, this legislation acknowledges that shelter this in place tt hotels are not the permanent answer, but theyre a critical tool we need now. We still need them and we should not be shutting down these hotel rooms at a time we do not have permanent placement for people in these rooms. And we still have thousands of people out on our streets. In closing, again, i want to thank my cosponsors on this and all of you. I want to thank the advocacy of the many shelterinplace hotel residents, hespa, the providers who have spoken out on this, the coalition on homelessness and everybody who has worked so hard to make this program a success and to make the case that we must continue it as an essential part of our overall Covid Response system which as we know looking outside, things are as bad as ever and we are all being asked to act differently, to take more sacrifices, and during this time it is completely against any sort of commonsense to fasttrack the closure of what has been one of our most successful covid19 response systems. I believe we have presentations from h. S. H. Supervisor fewer before we, do, i see two other senior supervisors in the queue. Before we do the presentations, id like to call on my colleagues, supervisor walton, i see you in the queue. Supervisor walton thank you, chair fewer and thank you supervisor haney. I want to thank this committee and president yee for waiving the 30day rule and for making Space Available for us to have this continuation of our hearing from november 10th. This is very important. I will speak a little bit later and make more comments, but everything that supervisor haney stated is why its important that this legislation be in place and that we do everything we can to make sure folks are not exited out onto