Supervisor Hillary Ronen - Corona-Virus Update - Heres What Im Working On

A Rent and Mortgage Freeze, Sheltering Our Unhoused into Unused Hotel Rooms, Small Business Support, and More
 
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March 26, 2020

The Last 10 Days: A Summary

Since this is such an unprecedented crisis, my colleagues on the Board of Supervisors and I are splitting up into different areas of focus so we can better address the needs of all communities. I’m focusing on aid packages to assist small businesses, immigrant workers, sheltering people experiencing homelessness, and helping relieve debt for renters and homeowners.

Here is a quick snapshot of what the District 9 team has been working on during the last 10 days:
  • Introduced legislation to create a Small Business Rent Stabilization Loan program (See link below to watch the hearing)
  • Introduced a resolution urging essential businesses to establish dedicated shopping hours for seniors and vulnerable populations
  • Called on Governor Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and President Donald Trump to impose a moratorium on rent and mortgages
  • Worked to move people experiencing homelessness into San Francisco’s 30,000 empty hotel rooms
  • Responded to hundreds of constituent emails and phone calls to answer your questions and concerns, both individually and in virtual bilingual townhalls (You can view one of them here)
  • Convened a working group to come up with strategies to support gig workers, immigrants, and other marginalized groups that are being left out of state and federal aid packages
In case you missed it, I listed more detailed resources in my previous newsletter here. To stay up to date, please visit SF Gov's Official Novel Coronavirus page.

My office is here for you. We are available by email: ronenstaff@sfgov.org or by phone at 415-554-5144 (leave a message, and we will call you back-- we are checking our voicemails frequently). You can also check for live updates from me from my Twitter and  Facebook .
 

Calling for a Rent
and Mortgage Moratorium
I, along with Supervisors Matt Haney and Dean Preston, introduced a resolution calling on Governor Gavin Newsom, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and President Trump to impose a moratorium on rent and mortgages.

The government was right to call for a Shelter in Place Order during the COVID-19 outbreak. But we can’t shut down the free market, close businesses, and mandate that our citizens stay home, without providing a remedy to the devastating harm those orders caused.

If we allow rent and mortgages to pile up during the pandemic, when this is all over and the eviction moratorium is lifted, we’ll have renters and business owners with massive debt to their landlords, and those landlords themselves will have massive debt to the banks.

We’ll see evictions, foreclosures, and homelessness that we haven’t seen since the Great Depression. I won’t stand by and just quietly let the people of San Francisco become destitute because of no fault of their own.

Italy, the UK, France, and Spain have all passed or are working on similar measures to forgive rents and mortgages, and we are now starting to see other electeds in cities across the US calling for this, too.

I want to be clear that the City and County of San Francisco doesn’t have the power to enact these measures on our own. We need your help to make as much noise as possible to convince the state and federal government to do the right thing.

If San Franciscans don’t start loudly calling for a rent and mortgage moratorium then the effects of the second great depression could be even more devastating than the pandemic itself.

Post about it, talk about it, call your state and federal elected officials and demand it. We need a rent and mortgage moratorium and we need it starting now.
Read and Share my SF Chron Op Ed Here

Fighting to House our Homeless to Protect All of Us
At the March 17 Board meeting, I learned that the City's policy for people experiencing homelessness during our Shelter in Place Order was to expand congregate living spaces. This is dangerous and goes directly against health recommendations on COVID-19.

We should be housing people experiencing homelessness so they can shelter in place to prevent the spread of COVID-19. My colleagues Supervisors Dean Preston, Matt Haney, Aaron Peskin, Shamann Walton, and I have been working around the clock to change this City policy.

San Francisco has 33,000 hotel rooms that currently have an occupancy rate of between 5% and 7%. This means we have approximately 30,000 empty rooms.

After a lot of pushing from our end, the City is slowly changing its policy. We are now focused on obtaining individual hotel rooms to allow vulnerable populations without safe housing to shelter in place.

It’s a vast improvement, but I don’t think it’s enough. I am pushing the SF Department of Public Health and SF Department of Homelessness to move all unhoused individuals who can care for themselves into hotel rooms. This is necessary so they can keep both themselves, and the rest of us, safe from COVID-19.

Our individual safety and well-being is deeply connected to the safety and well-being of the whole.

If we have more than 30,000 empty hotel rooms and thousands of people unhoused on the street, or in dangerously crowded living situations, then we should move those people into rooms. Money must not be an object. Prejudices must not be an object. For once in our lives, let’s do the right thing. If housing is available, let’s move people into housing.

Helping Small Businesses Survive
I introduced legislation to create a Small Business Rent Stabilization Loan program to help stop what could be an irreversible loss of small businesses in San Francisco during this public health emergency.

The new Shelter in Place Order, while absolutely essential for public health, has our small businesses scrambling to figure out how to stay afloat, and some of them won’t survive without us. It's urgent. They need our help, and they need it now.

I’ve been working with the Treasurer’s office to quickly create a $20 million Small Business Rent Stabilization Loan program.

Through my proposed program, the city would provide no-interest loans up to $15,000 to small businesses to cover three months of rent, mortgage, or fixed operating costs, with no payments due for 12 months.

Unfortunately, the Budget Committee delayed the ordinance for a week. You can watch the hearing here. (The item starts at 56:25. At 1:33:35, the Committee votes against moving my legislation to the Full Board next Tuesday.)

This is a setback, but I want you to know this: I won’t stop fighting. We are in this together, and I’ve got your back.

Protecting our Seniors
and Vulnerable Populations
I introduced a resolution urging essential businesses to establish dedicated shopping hours for seniors and vulnerable populations to protect them from heightened risk of exposure to COVID-19.

Thankfully, many grocery stores, including fabulous District 9 worker-owned cooperative Rainbow Grocery, and locally owned Good Life Grocery, have designated specific hours for seniors and individuals with compromised immune systems.

I want to specifically thank all the workers who are providing services to all of us everyday as we shelter in place. We are tremendously grateful to you as you continue to work so hard to serve people during this stressful time.

Here is a list of all the Bay Area grocery stores with designated hours for people in vulnerable populations.
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Our mailing address is:
Hillary Ronen, District 9 Supervisor
 San Francisco City Hall
1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Room 244
San Francisco, CA 94102-4689

 
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