Friends and Neighbors, 

The homeless crisis in D5 gets some much-needed relief for all of us!

It is with great anticipation that we are announcing some major relief to the homelessness crisis in the Haight through a temporary Safe Sleeping Village during the COVID-19 crisis. The site will be located on unused city property at Stanyan and Haight where the old McDonald’s used to be. This will be the second Safe Sleeping Village that the city has erected, and we are excited to work together with all our neighbors to make sure it is a success! 
 

Safe Sleeping Villages keep both housed and unhoused residents safe by providing the homeless population with a safe and protected place to access sanitation services, meals and a tent to isolate in and to store their belongings. Safe Sleeping Villages only serve hyper local populations, so we are also fortunate to have the City partnering with Haight Homeless Service Providers who are creating good neighbor guides and codes of conduct to make sure that the Village is a success for everyone. 

Many of you have reached out to ask what we can do to make sure our unhoused neighbors are able to stay safe and isolate, and thereby help keep housed neighbors safe from spread. We thank you for your kindness and understanding, your donations, volunteer hours and your advocacy for a solution.

What was already an unacceptable situation has gone from bad to worse during the COVID-19 crisis, with the unhoused population ballooning and tents and encampments multiplying. During the crisis, we’ve all learned from health professionals that it is critical to have all residents of our city be able to shelter in place and isolate in order to mitigate the spread of the disease. Our already overburdened shelter system had to dramatically reduce their populations to ensure that outbreaks didn’t occur within those congregate settings, and as a result, our 9,000K homelessness population is largely left to the streets, with the City only housing about 1,100 unhoused people in hotels . Furthermore, the Center for Disease Control’s statement on encampments directs cities in this way: “Unless individual housing units are available, do not clear encampments during community spread of COVID-19. Clearing encampments can cause people to disperse throughout the community and break connections with service providers. This increases the potential for infectious disease spread.”

This means we have to come together and think creatively about solutions like temporary Safe Sleeping Villages and work as a team. We are the first to admit that we prefer hotels, but we agree with you that we cannot wait for them any longer. It is time for solutions NOW. 

We’ll be hosting an info-session on the Safe Sleeping Village soon and will invite you to join us to learn more about how it will help our neighborhood get some much-needed relief for our homelessness population. 

Thank you!
 

Improvements at nine intersections along Divisadero (Turk St to Haight St).

Complete:

Coming soon:        

In the wake of an incident in which police officers responding to a protest donned “Thin Blue Line” masks supplied by the controversial Police Officers Association, I introduced on Tuesday legislation to restore ongoing meetings of the Police Commission , the body that oversees the police and ensures accountability. Following our announcement, Mayor Breed issued authorization to allow the Commission to meet on an ongoing basis. 

When the POA encourages offensive acts among their members in apparent violation of department rules, the body in charge of overseeing police matters needs to respond. I appreciate the leadership of Commissioners John Hamasaki and Petra DeJesus, as well as Public Defender Mano Raju and the SF League of Women Voters, all of whom called for Police Commission meetings to resume. Commissioner Hamasaki said it well: “As our City has been dealing with a public health and public safety crisis, the Police Commission has been held hostage by petty politics and gamesmanship. I am grateful to Supervisor Preston and the Board of Supervisors for taking the lead to restore oversight and accountability to the Department.”

And let’s be clear: This is about more than one incident. This is about restoring an important oversight body that ensures accountability when it comes to public safety. In this time when the role of police and the tools at their disposal is rapidly changing, allowing for greater transparency and oversight is more critical than ever.

I recently announced a ballot measure for November 2020 that will increase the tax on the most expensive real estate transactions (properties over $10 million), with funds from the tax to be used for Covid-19 rent and mortgage relief, as well as the creation of permanently affordable social housing.

We can’t sit by and wait for a wave of Covid-19 fueled speculation to displace more San Francisco tenants and small property owners. The way we stop speculation is to make the wealthiest pay more of their fare share, and to make sure those funds are used for long term housing stability.

Stay tuned for more information on our measure and the related rent relief and social housing funds!
 

In an open letter to the Mayor and public health officials, our office pushed city leadership to allow local businesses to open for curbside delivery in order to support struggling small businesses without compromising public health.

We are happy to report that just yesterday, the City issued guidelines for retail businesses, associated manufacturers and warehouses. NOTE: While the guidance for implementing a social distancing protocol makes a note about limiting customers inside the store, this amended Health Order does not allow customers to enter the store for non-essential retail businesses.
 
Under the amended Health Order, any retail store in San Francisco that faces the street will be able to operate under the following conditions:

• Storefront, curbside, or outside pickup only. Customers may not enter the store.
• No more than 10 personnel may be on site in the retail facility at any time. Smaller stores may need to limit personnel to fewer than 10, to allow for required social distancing.
• Stores must have access to an adjacent curbside adjacent sidewalk, street, alley, or parking lot for pickup by customers using any form of permitted travel. The pickup area must not block pedestrians, or cause pedestrian or vehicle congestion.
• Retail stores in an enclosed indoor shopping center may not reopen at this time, except to the extent that the store has a separate entrance to an exterior sidewalk.

The Office of Small Business created a list of local providers of personal protective equipment (PPE) to help you easily source these items including sneeze guards. We are extremely grateful to you for being an anchor in our community. While the pandemic isn’t over, the city will continue to monitor its progress and make necessary adjustments as needed. Please remember to follow these procedures to keep the rest of your staff and the public safe and healthy.
 

It has been another busy week out in the district delivering hand sanitizer and masks to those in need. In light of the city requirement to wear masks with no comprehensive, citywide distribution plan, we are taking masks and hand sanitizer directly to the folks who need it most. 

On Monday, along with Glide service providers, our office met with neighbors at the encampment on Octavia to ensure unhoused folks have the basic supplies they need during this time. As we roll out the first Safe Sleeping Village in our district, we have been meeting with neighbors at encampments to discuss possible solutions and distribute supplies. 

On Wednesday, our office dropped off lunch to our amazing San Francisco Unified School District staff and volunteers at Rosa Parks. They serve over 650+ meals to our SFUSD families every Monday and Wednesday from 11 am - 12pm. We are grateful to all of the SFUSD Staff and volunteers who make serving food to our District 5 families run so smoothly. 

Thank you to Bi-Rite Market for donating food for the amazing City Workers and volunteers preparing and delivering food to our families during this time. 

Later that day, our office delivered hundreds of bottles of hand sanitizer and masks to every resident at Midtown Park Apartments, an affordable housing complex in the Western Addition. Thank you to Pat Smith and Mary Watkins for going door to door with us to make sure their neighbors have the supplies they need during this pandemic. Three weeks ago, Midtown's interim property manager cancelled its Food Bank program. Since then, Natalia Kresich of the SF Food Solidarity Network has been working with Pat to bring groceries to the seniors that were using this program so they don't fall through the cracks. Thank you for all that you do! 

Finally, we had the pleasure of volunteering with the amazing people at Foodrunners, a non profit that takes excess food and has been serving approximately 2,000 meals a day to shelters, senior homes, SROs, and others facing food insecurity during Shelter in Place. Thank you to Todd Corboy, the chef behind this operation, who showed us the ropes and put us to work. Thank you for your incredible work! 
 

As always, if there is anything you need, please don’t hesitate to reach out directly to our office, via email at prestonstaff@sfgov.org, or by phone at 415-554-7630.