Friends & neighbors,
Working elevators in SRO hotel buildings that house our most vulnerable San Franciscans. It shouldn’t be too much to ask. For some, a non-functioning elevator effectively means they are trapped in their units.
That’s why, less than a month after the Tenderloin was redistricted into District 5, we went to bat for increased funding for SRO elevator repairs, and successfully secured $10m for these critical upgrades. We knew at the time that this allocation had the power to change lives. The only thing standing in the way was the Mayor’s office, and its Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, getting the funds out the door.
More than a year later, our frustration — shared by our constituents – was through the roof. Commitment after commitment to get the funds out the door had come and gone.
A February 2023 pledge to make the elevator repair funds available “later this month” went unfulfilled. Then, in a May 2023 hearing, the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing told the Budget Committee that they are drafting the Notice of Funding Availability (NOFA) “right now” and “plan to issue it this summer.” Nothing happened. Then in August 2023, HSH staff asserted that they were no longer planning to issue the NOFA in the summer, but it would be completed “by the end of the calendar year.” Again, that deadline came and went. We continued to push, even using our once every three month opportunity at Question Time in January 2024 to ask the Mayor for a firm commitment to issue the NOFA by February 12, a commitment the Mayor declined to provide.
We decided to seek sunshine on these inexcusable delays, and we brought this to the attention of the San Francisco Chronicle. Just hours after the Chronicle published their story, the administration announced that the funds were officially posted online and finally getting out the door.
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