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Dear neighbor,
Happy Chinese Lunar New Year, as we welcome in the year of the rabbit, a symbol that represents hope, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture. We are also celebrating Black History Month, joining our community in activities to commemorate the legacy of Black-led movements for social and racial justice, while continuing everyday to push for societal changes that reflect fundamental equalities for all.
We know that there is a mood in our City, one of frustration and distrust that City leaders cannot deliver on our promises. We hear your exasperation and we are working every day to address the many and varied issues facing our residents. The problems we are tackling City-wide, and particularly in D9, are extremely complex, and are at their center perpetuated by long-standing and deepening poverty, mental illness and drug addiction, all factors that have been compounded by Covid. As we work our way out of the pandemic and begin to return to some semblance of “normal,” my office is taking decisive action to mitigate the immediate harms and the long term root causes of what have become increasingly unacceptable conditions in D9 and other regions of the City. We can promise you
that we are pulling out all the stops to make a difference. Please read on for the highlights of my legislative efforts and community projects that are helping to turn the tide and bring back a sense of community, love and hope for our District.
As always, you can reach out to my office with any concerns or questions by emailing: ronenstaff@sfgov.org.
All my best,
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Homelessness
Earlier this month Sam Dodge, Director of the Healthy Streets Operation Center reported that since October 1st 2022, they have conducted 38 operations and placed 226 people inside. Yet this tremendous work is completely overshadowed by the numbers that remain on the streets of the Mission.
In order to understand the scope and monitor progress city-wide and for D9, you can look at city-wide data here, and check out our D9 data tracking here.
If you encounter an unhoused person who seeks shelter and resources, please assist them or encourage them to call 415-355-7401 and leave a message with their name and location. Neighbors may also call and leave a message to request outreach. Please note you can only leave a message and SFHOT will only respond to the location described in the message. SFHOT does not resolve encampments, clean or move people along. If you know of an individual who needs services, go here to find help.
Proposal for Tiny Cabins as Interim Use at 1979 Mission Street
There continues to be more people sleeping in the streets than temporary shelter or permanent housing available. I have secured funding to build around 60 tiny cabins in the Mission District and have held a couple of community meetings about the potential project. Tiny Cabins offer non-congregate shelter, in a community setting that provides dignified housing, intensive resources and supports to move people into more permanent housing. The first Tiny Cabins village was piloted at 33 Gough Street
, and we have seen great success in that program, getting ~70 people off the streets and into the cabins, while seeing a significant improvement in street conditions in that neighborhood. I am hopeful that this is a good model that will make a difference and greatly improve conditions in the Mission, but I will fight for this only if I can guarantee those outcomes.
Until I feel certain that City Departments can maintain conditions around other D9 temporary housing facilities clear, clean, and safe, I will not be supporting more projects in the Mission. But rest assured, I am not sitting idly by waiting for the City Departments to improve. I have several projects in motion to improve conditions around temporary housing sites and will provide updates as those projects move forward. I want Tiny Cabins in the Mission, but I want those cabins to markedly improve neighborhood street conditions, in addition to providing dignified shelter and make a difference in individual lives. |
Photo: Tiny Cabins at 33 Gough Street. Photo credit: Denny Machuca-Grebe, Public Information Officer, San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing
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Street Conditions
Cleaning Up Trash on the Streets of District 9
Please join me this Saturday for District 9 Beautification Day. A team from DPW and Recology and Neighborhood Volunteers will be spanning the District to pick up trash and complete small beautification projects. If you would like to join us, the big group is meeting up at 8:30 a.m. at John O'Connell High School at 2355 Folsom Street and dispersing from there. If you want a list of all the spots we will be throughout the day, please contact ronenstaff@sfgov.org and we will match you with a project of your choice and you can go directly to the clean up site.
Vendor Legislation and Conditions at 24th Street Bart
Since passing the Vendor Permitting legislation I wrote with Mayor Breed, the street markets for stolen goods have gotten smaller in the Mission. As this is an ongoing process, we know that conditions are not yet perfect. Towards that end, the Mayor and I are amending the Vendor legislation to make it easier to enforce, including prohibiting the sale of non-food items after 8:00 p.m. This first of its kind law is meant to balance out the right for long term vendors of artisan goods to continue to make a living on our streets and at our BART stops, while stopping the markets of stolen merchandise that has brought violence to Mission Street. Maintaining these twin goals is not simple, and we are
constantly monitoring and fine tuning the law and enforcement as we live and learn in real time. Thanks for your patience as we work to improve.
Sex Work on Capp Street
Sex work has existed on Capp Street in the Mission for decades, if not a century. Relatively recently, the track has expanded and the conditions for this small residential street are untenable and dangerous. In response, our office has worked with DPW, MTA, the Mayor’s Office, and SFPD to place barriers along Capp from 22nd Street to 18th Street. At minimum we expect these barriers will stop the bumper to bumper cruising of johns at all hours of the evening on Capp. In addition, SFPD will be increasing traffic enforcement and investigation into pimps that many neighbors have witnessed abusing sex workers. My office is watching the situation closely and seeing how the barriers and increased
enforcement impact other streets in the Mission.
In the long term, to truly make sex work as safe as possible, I believe the State should legalize the practice. Anywhere where inequality and poverty exist, sex work is present. It is often called the oldest profession in the world. If sex work was legalized, through the Department of Public Health, the City could permit the practice, have minimum health requirements, move the practice indoors, and have access to sex workers to offer assistance with housing, health needs, job training, etc. Legalization will make it easier to remove pimps and traffickers from the equation and make sex workers and neighborhoods safer. Towards this end, I will be introducing a resolution on Tuesday urging our State Delegation – Senator Wiener and Assemblymembers Ting and Haney – to introduce a
bill to legalize sex work. |
Rain readiness and weather protections
San Francisco experienced historic amounts of rain to start 2023. SFPUC and DPW placed flood barriers in the 17th and Folsom Street flood zones and DPW handed out over 15,000 sandbags. In some cases, DPW staff were out in the rain helping residents strategically place sandbags.
In D9 there were many small businesses and residents impacted by these storms and we have been putting businesses in touch with the Office of Small Business, where there are emergency grants and low-interest loans for disaster relief. Grant applications are due February 10, more information can be found here. |
| "Raindrops on my way to work," taken on Mission Street, San Francisco. Photo credit: GPS at flickr.com/photos/zoxcleb/ |
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The Department of Emergency Management has released a Community Impact Survey to assess the damage from the storms. The main link calls up the English version, but see top right for additional languages. Share far and wide to help the City understand the scope of the impact of these recent storms. Finally, remember to check
sf72.org
for advice on preparing for, during, and after future storms. |
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Transit
Valencia Street Corridor
SFMTA is working on additional safety improvements for the 16th and Valencia intersection, including leading pedestrian intervals and accelerating the AB43 20 MPH speed limit reduction signage. In addition, the Valencia Bikeway Improvements project, which is moving forward and should be at the SFMTA Board this Spring, includes proposals for left-turn restrictions, which I fully support. I am working with SFMTA and SFCTA to dedicate funding to study further pedestrianization and safety improvements to the Valencia Corridor – more to come when this is before the SFCTA in March!
Board Committees
The new Board committee assignments have come out, and I am happy to be on Budget and Appropriations along with my colleagues Chair Chan, Supervisors Safai, Mandleman and Walton. We know this is going to be a tough year with a looming projected deficit prompting hard decisions. However I will continue to advocate for our communities to guarantee food security, housing, street cleaning and programming to support our most vulnerable residents.
I am honored to also Chair a new committee, the Homelessness and Behavioral Health Select Committee, where we will address the most urgent issues impacting our City. And finally, I continue to chair the bimonthly Youth, Young Adults and Families Committee that addresses all issues related to SFUSD, early childhood education and youth related systems of care and support. |
| The D9 Team! Supervisor Hillary Ronen and Legislative Aides: Ana Herrera, Jennifer Ferrigno, Santiago Lerma and Nikita Saini. |
Partnership with SFUSD to Support Student Learning & Wellness
Lead Testing for BVHM
When Buena Vista Horace Mann’s soil and water came back with high levels of lead, we worked with the school administration, SFUSD and DPH to make sure that a plan for lead testing for students, families and staff lead testing was put in place. In partnership with the Latino Task Force and BayPls laboratories, we were able to fund and secure testing days for students, families and staff, which will continue to be available on Saturdays throughout February. For BVHM students and families interested in testing who have not yet done so, please reach out to the school principal for details. The good news is most test results are coming back in the normal range.
Math Pilot in action!
I had the privilege of participating in the Math Night event at Flynn Elementary School, where students and families were engaged in math games and learning strategies as part of the Whole School Lesson Study math pilot we helped spearhead at SFUSD. Last budget season, we fought for and won two years of funding to support a promising new approach to teaching math, first piloted over 5 years at John Muir Elementary School.
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| 1. Families gather at Flynn Elementary Math Night! 2. Superintendent Dr. Matthew Wayne joins families for Flynn Math Night. 3. Families and students engaged in math games. Photo Credit: Hillary Ronen |
The results of this pilot were so successful, math and literacy scores jumped from fewer than 20% of students at grade level, to over 50% of students meeting the state’s challenging standards by the end of the 2018-2019 school year. Black students, Latinx students, and English learners all made dramatic gains. While an explicitly math-focused intervention, literacy levels also equally improved. Due to such positive results, we worked together with SFUSD, members of the Board of Education, and the Department of Children Youth and Their Families to expand the pilot to a total of four schools, including John Muir, Leonard Flynn, Malcolm X Academy, and Sanchez elementary schools.
Student Success Fund Roll-out
Now that Prop G's Student Success Fund, the ballot measure I co-authored in collaboration with City, SFUSD and community partners, passed with overwhelming public support in the 2022 elections, it's time for its implementation! We are excited that the Student Success Fund will be up and running this next school year. In its first year, $11 million will be available for SFUSD schools to implement programming that supports academic achievement and/or social/emotional wellness. The funds will increase incrementally over 4 years, reaching the total goal of $60 million per year for 15 years.
The Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) will be administering the grant process, in consultation with a committee that will include our office. We will be announcing the roll-out plan soon! Meanwhile, the Latino Task Force (LTF) has a survey for families to get input on the most pressing student and school needs, the results of which will be presented to the Student Success Fund implementation team. The survey is for parents of SFUSD families, especially in District 9, so if you have kids in any of the SFUSD schools, please participate! Go to survey link here.
Decarbonization & Supporting Green Spaces in D9!
We are working with the Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts (MCCLA), the SF Arts Commission, and SFPUC to evaluate MCCLA’s building to include building decarbonization efforts (removing natural gas from a building’s infrastructure and replacing with electric) to the extent possible, as part of their seismic retrofit.
MCCLA is a beloved organization and the building was granted Landmark Status last year due to its historical role in the art, culture and character of San Francisco’s Mission District. We hope that their building can become a model for building decarbonization efforts in the City. Stay tuned for more news as this project develops over the next few years. To learn more about MCCLA check out their website here. |
| Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts. Photo Credit: Martina Ayala, Director, MCCLA |
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Spotlight on a D9 Community Organization
To lift up the amazing work that is happening every day in our District throughout Bernal heights, the Mission and the Portola, we have decided to feature the work of one D9 organization in every newsletter. We are so excited to share with you our first feature organization:
Asociación Mayab
Asociación Mayab
was founded in 2004 by Mayan immigrants concerned about the gradual loss of the language and values of their ancient culture among the youngest members of their community and by the lack of culturally and linguistically appropriate services for, at the time, an estimated 30,000 Mayan immigrants living in the Bay Area. This number today has grown to more than double, with some estimates as high as 80,000 Mayans in the Bay Area. Asociación Mayab provides social and emergency support, community advocacy, and cultural preservation through language, dance, and embroidery and handicraft classes to over 400 people who take part in their programs, which include:
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The Asociación Mayab Food Bank which at its height during COVID served 180 -200 people per week; this year due to cuts, they had their food allotment reduced to 70 which did not come close to meeting the need. After advocating for an increase they are now at 100 boxes, and we are expecting to increase up to 120 - 150.
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Classes Zumba, Jarana, Embroidery and other handicrafts.
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Interpretation classes for Mayan languages Maya Yucateco, Mam, K'iche' to meet the growing need for interpreters.
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Asociación Mayab Baseball League! Made up of 8 teams serving 144 players, this league plays year round in San Francisco, providing a healthy outlet and connection for the community.
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Community events and celebrations that draw up to 500 people to come out and enjoy Mayan culture, food, dance and togetherness.
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Baseball is a motivation for our members to focus more on a physical and mental activity, something that allows them to dedicate themselves to a group purpose. They spend time with their community in a healthy way, and it gives them energy and positivity that lasts the whole week until the next game comes around.
Maestra Lydia Candila, Executive Director, Asociación Mayab |
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Photos (left to right): Asociación Mayab Baseball League Team Captains. Bottom photo: Jennifer Ferrigno, D9 Legislative Aide, Supervisor Ronen, Maestra Lydia Candila, Director Asociación Mayab, Aracely Cach Chel, member Asociación Mayab, Maria Victoria Castro, Community Development Specialist, MOHCD.
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Profile on a D9 Senior 📚
Mission resident Suzanne Korey has been rolling her colorful “Book Wagon” through the Mission and Bayview neighborhoods, giving away more than 22,000 books so far in the two years she has been running her volunteer literacy operation.
Korey picks books meticulously at the public library’s redistribution center, making a point to select titles in Spanish and Chinese as well as English. Books culled after new library inventories arrive are up for grabs for qualifying agencies and nonprofits such as the Book Wagon.
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