New Hope, Help, and a Hearing on School Start Times
Dear Neighbors,
With COVID-19 cases at a new low and with 78% of San Francisco residents having been vaccinated, San Francisco’s recovery is well underway. On that note, I was thrilled to see all 12 Bay Area health officials announce their support for the full reopening of public schools in the fall.
As we start to rebuild and with the City annual budget process now underway, my priorities for our district and the city at large are continuing the full implementation of Mental Health SF to improve conditions on our streets, getting students back in school and thriving, supporting the recovery and resilience of small businesses, bringing resources and direct aid to the communities most impacted by the pandemic, and investing in housing for people experiencing homelessness and the working poor.
I am excited to announce that the front-facing services at City Hall have reopened, including the Assessor-Recorder, the Treasurer-Tax Collector, and the County Clerk for those who have been patiently waiting to get married. District Supervisor offices will be open on an appointment-only basis.
Starting June 15, 2021, the Board of Supervisors will be back in the Chamber for in-person meetings, although public comment will continue to be remote, pending updated health and safety guidance from the Chief Health Officer. Members of the public may continue to participate and provide public comment remotely via remote meeting call-in and/or by submitting comments regarding current legislative matters electronically via email to
bos.legislation@sfgov.org
. As always, public meetings held by the Board of Supervisors and its committees will continue to be publicly cable casted through SFGovTV and SFGovTV’s online Video on Demand service at https://sfgovtv.org/.
In this newsletter, I will give you the latest updates on:
Vaccines for 12+ and Drop-in Clinics
Celebrating Pride 2021
Applying for Rent Relief
Combating Food Insecurity
Homelessness and Street Crisis Response Teams
Hearing on Changing School Start Times
$1 Million in Grant Relief for Small Businesses
Mission Merchants Receive Greenlight Grant
Special Election Resolution
Fighting for Workers Rights: Closing Healthcare Loophole
Portola Family Connections Food Pantry
Portola Community Safety Meeting and Portola Brunch Hop
Fireworks Leading up to July 4
Resources and Announcements
Please sign up at https://myturn.ca.gov/ and get the vaccine as soon as you’re eligible, and remember to continue to stay at home as much as possible, protect yourself and others by wearing a mask correctly, practice physical distancing, and wash your hands frequently.
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 voicemail frequently). Check for updates on my Twitter and Facebook.
Vaccines for 12+ and Drop-in Clinics
Good news; more than 78% of San Franciscans over the age of 12 have been vaccinated in the city. Starting last month, people aged 12 and over became eligible to receive a Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine. The Pfizer vaccine, the only vaccine approved for this age group, is very effective in teenagers, with studies showing that it prevents up to 100% of COVID-19 infections and produces protective antibodies.
While the San Francisco Pride Parade is sadly cancelled again this year, we are not letting Pride month go by without a proper celebration of San Francisco’s vibrant queer community.
After going for a virtual event lineup last year, the City’s 2021 offerings include a mix of in-person, outdoor, and online events that contribute to SF Pride’s mission to expand celebrations beyond the last weekend of June. Here are the events celebrating the LGBTQ community in the City this year.
Applying for Rent Relief
San Francisco's Emergency Rental Assistance Program launched on May 28. If you need help paying rent, you can apply online, or get help applying from a community organization.
For help with rent debt from April 2020 to March 2021, apply for State relief at housingiskey.com. The State’s program provides rent relief and eviction protection resources for tenants, landlords and homeowners.
For help with rent for April 2021 and after, you can apply for the City’s program starting May 28. The City’s program provides for rent assistance for up to 3 months of back rent and 3 months of forward rent, for a total of 6 months of rent assistance for residents who have suffered financial hardships during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Check out sf.gov/renthelp for more information about the program and community resources. The Anti-Displacement Coalition has information on how to get help from community partner organizations to access rent relief.
In May, I hosted a hearing on food insecurity and hunger at the Budget and Appropriations Committee of the Board of Supervisors.
Prior to COVID19, food insecurity in San Francisco was already far too common. During COVID, food insecurity has spiked, and without question, low-income communities of color have suffered the most.
Over the past year, the City quickly assembled operations to deliver meals and quick mobilizations to feed children who had depended on free meals at school and to expand food pantries. Community-led organizations like HOMEY and the Mission Food Hub in District 9 created massive lifesaving food distribution centers. Volunteers and donors dedicated hours and dollars to address this crisis.
This year, the Board specifically called out food security as a priority in the annual budget. The goal of the hearing was to be sure that San Francisco has a coordinated and effective response to food insecurity and ensure those responses are recognized in the budget.
Also, the following week, I introduced a resolution in support of the federal Universal School Meals Program Act of 2021. This bill will provide free breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack to all public school children across the country regardless of income.
We know that child hunger has profound immediate and long-term impacts on physical and mental health, and with impaired development of language and motor skills, increased behavioral challenges, and decreased academic achievement. On the flip side, school meals result in healthier diets and significantly improved nutrition and lead to more stable attendance, lower detention and discipline rates, and higher academic scores. Universal free meals for all schoolchildren is the right thing to do. Let's make sure that no student goes hungry.
Homelessness and Street Crisis Response Teams
The Street Crisis Response Teams
, a core component of the Mental Health SF legislation that I authored with Supervisor Haney, launched in November 2020 as a compassionate way to connect the City’s most vulnerable residents with care. The rollout of the Street Crisis Response Teams is ongoing, and we expect to have 6 teams in operation by July 15. Each SCRT neighborhood team consists of a paramedic, a behavioral health clinician, and peer health worker. These are important steps, but aren't enough. We need 24/7 teams to respond to homelessness, addiction, and to enter people into care. As I mentioned earlier, this will be a top budget priority.
The Homeless Prenatal Program, a nonprofit serving pregnant homeless women and families in San Francisco, is planning to create supportive housing to serve homeless families on the site adjacent to their current offices at 18th Street and Potrero. This is the natural next step for Homeless Prenatal, and I’m excited to support this move.
We also celebrated a victory for San Franciscans living in supportive housing. Going forward, all tenants in supportive housing will pay 30% of their income in rent. Many had been paying 50% to 80% of their income depending on what building they happened to live in. Special thanks to Supervisor Matt Haney and Jordan Davis for leading this fight for housing justice!
Through the budget process, I will ensure that the City continues to prioritize the acquisition and construction of more affordable housing and permanent supportive housing units. We must work towards more permanent solutions in order to meaningfully address our mental health and homelessness crisis.
SFUSD recently announced plans
to adjust the start times of more than 40 schools in the district, which will see changes between 30 minutes to over a full hour from their existing schedules. While these adjustments are being proposed with the intention of standardizing and streamlining school start times across grade levels, the changes have created many questions and concerns about these schedule shifts. Parents and caregivers often choose their school based on the school’s specific start time to accommodate work and life schedules.The change in start times could inadvertently drive away families if the new start times no longer longer work for their personal schedules.
I am calling a hearing to help SFUSD families and the general public understand what prompted the school district’s decision to change school start times, what child development research justify these changes, how families and teachers were consulted, how the changes affect teachers’ work schedules, and what impacts these changes have on afterschool program operating costs and staffing needs.
This hearing will provide an opportunity for families and educators to voice concerns and share recommendations about the start time changes. I am directing the Clerk of the Board to invite representatives from the San Francisco Unified School District, School Board members, and the United Educators of San Francisco to attend.
You can watch the hearing live on SFGOV TV at 10am on Friday, June 11. The meeting starts at 10 am. You can watch it on Channel 26, 78, or 99, depending on your provider, or on www.sfgovtv.org. To provide public comment, call (415) 655-0001. Meeting ID: 187 933 8769. For more information on the meeting, click here.
$1 Million in Grant Relief for Small Businesses
SF New Deal is launching a new $1 million initiative that will provide 400 small businesses in San Francisco with $2,500 debt relief grants. Applications are available in English, Spanish, and Chinese and will be accepted through the end of the month.
SF New Deal’s grant program is open to all small businesses, including newly opened businesses, that have not previously participated in any of SF New Deal’s programs. The business does not have to be a restaurant to apply -- for example bookstores, retail stores, nail salons or any type of impacted small businesses are encouraged to apply. Individuals can apply for their own business to receive a grant or can nominate a small business for the grant. Application and nomination details are listed on the SF New Deal Small Business Debt Relief Grant Program Page. The application submission period is from June 1 - June 30, 2021. Grant award announcements will be made by July 31, 2021.
In order to qualify, the business must meet all of the following criteria:
The business has 3 or fewer locations.
The business has at least 3 (Full Time Equivalent) employees.
The business had 2019 (pre-pandemic) revenue of less than $3M annually.
The business was negatively impacted by COVID-19 Shelter-in-Place orders (ex. the business lost employees, sales decreased, debt increased, etc.).
The business has no outstanding violations or existing claims with the San Francisco Office of Labor Standards Enforcement (OLSE) or the California Division of Labor Standards Enforcement (DLSE).
The business has never participated in any of SF New Deal’s programs.
As San Francisco reopens and our small businesses look toward a brighter future, I was so happy to be able to witness Mission Merchants Association receiving an Avenue Greenlight Grant. Thanks to Maryo Mogannam of the Council of District Merchants Associations, and congratulations to Ryen Motzek and Roberto Hernandez of Mission Merchants. I know you’ll make great use of this $50,000 to strengthen the corridor!
Special Election Resolution
The Board passed my legislation stating our intent to hold a special election
to coincide with the state recall election so San Francisco voters can elect their Assessor-Recorder & City Attorney at the earliest opportunity. Thank you to my colleagues President Shamann Walton and Supervisors Matt Haney, Dean Preston, Gordon Mar, and Aaron Peskin for cosponsoring and to the full Board for unanimous support.
The Mayor announced in April that she intended to appoint City Attorney Dennis Herrera as the next General Manager of the SF Public Utilities Commission, which would trigger his resignation from his elected position and allow the Mayor to appoint an interim City Attorney. The City Attorney has played a lead watchdog role, and the new City Attorney will be expected to continue to investigate the pervasive web of corruption, bribery, influence-peddling, and fraud that has been revealed over the past 16 months. To do so without any real or perceived conflict of interest, it is critical that San Franciscans get to elect the new City Attorney of their choice. There is too much at stake to wait. The voters must be able to decide who will fill these elected positions.
Months after the sudden shift to remote work last year, some employees realized they were no longer receiving health care contributions as required by the 2006 Health Care Security Ordinance. City employers are mandated to either provide insurance or pay into a program providing some level of care for workers.
But adjunct part-time professors at the University of San Francisco discovered that their medical reimbursement accounts had stalled because working from home outside the city limits meant the law didn't apply.
A university like USF finding loopholes in a law to avoid paying their employees health insurance during a pandemic was a new low. As we’re going to see working from home as more part of our new normal in society, it’s important that we get it clear right now.
Portola Grocery Giveaway
Portola Family Connections is giving away a bag of fresh vegetables, fruits, eggs, for each adult at 2565 San Bruno Avenue on June 19, and every other Saturday until the end of the year. It is first come, first serve basis while supplies last.
If you would like to reserve a bag ahead of time, contact info@fccenters.org
Portola Family Connections
2565 San Bruno Avenue, San Francisco, CA
1st and 3rd Saturdays of the month
Saturday - June 19, 2021 -11AM - 12PM, and every other Saturday until the end of the year
Portola Community Safety Meeting and Portola Brunch Hop
Zoom Portola Community Meeting
Thursday, June 10th, 6:30 - 8:00 p.m. on Zoom
Please RSVP and mark your calendars!
The PNA is hosting a public community meeting to discuss safety in the neighborhood.
Meet SFPD Bayview Station Captain David Maron and the Coalition for Safety and Justice and learn about new safety measures in the Portola. There will be time for Q&A. Please RSVP for the Zoom link here.
将与SFPD Bayview警察长David Maron和社区安全与正义联盟(Coalition for Safety and Justice)会面,了解在Portola的新安全措施,届时将有时间进行问答。 请回复Zoom链接。
Portola Reunión Comunitaria por Zoom
¡Confirmar su asistencia y marcar sus calendarios!
El PNA está organizando una reunión comunitaria pública para discutir la seguridad en el vecindario.
Ven para conocer al capitán de la estación de SFPD Bayview, David Maron, y a la Coalición por la Seguridad y la Justicia, e informarse sobre las nuevas medidas de seguridad en Portola. Habrá tiempo para preguntas y respuestas. Confirme su asistencia para el enlace de Zoom.
Start your Pride festivities by picking up brunch in the
Portola Brunch Hop. Check out this handy guide to Portola brunch spots.
They'll have outdoor seating set up at Hey Neighbor, a new cafe at 2 Burrows and at Burrows Pocket Park Extension, the new gardens located behind Bank of the West. They’ll be offering a sneak peek of the park, which features amphitheater seating. Free parking will be available in the Bank of the West parking lot.
Fireworks Leading up to July 4
SFPD And SFFD are working together to plan for the upcoming 4th of July. Aside from professional firework displays put on by venues in the Bay Area. San Francisco does not permit the use of fireworks. I understand that the fireworks have been continuous throughout the year, and cause problems for residents and their pets.
Here are some tips from SFPD:
Report all fireworks to the San Francisco Police Department at (415) 553-0123.
If illegal fireworks can be seen, it's encouraged that residents do their best when reporting by giving a precise location, description of suspect, physical, clothing, vehicle, address (and if safe to do so, photos or video) when calling dispatch.
Information leading to the arrest of anyone selling or setting off fireworks can be provided by emailing or calling the station of the district they live in.
If fireworks can be heard but not seen, and residents cannot be able to determine the location, officers may not be able either, which makes it harder for SFPD to be about to look for them with limited information. Anonymous callers reporting fireworks going off in a vague area is not helpful.
Misdemeanors cannot be enforced if the officer does not see it without a citizen's arrest.
Posting on Next-door is not a form of reporting to the police, and residents should not expect enforcement, no matter how many comments a post receives.
Resources and Announcements
Electric Vehicle Financial Incentives Clinic
June 16 at 7:00 pm. Participants may sign-up using this link. There are many rebates available to disadvantaged communities all throughout the Bay Area to purchase an EV. Disadvantaged communities have been excluded from electric vehicle use for too long. EV ownership can a reality for all.
The Summer is The Best Time to Flood-Proof Your Property With a $100k Grant
Do you experience damage on your property due to heavy rains? Apply for the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC)’s Floodwater Grant. Eligible property owners may be reimbursed up to $100k for installing flood barriers or backflow preventers, regrading floors, and more before the next rainy season.
Join for a FREE webinar to learn how to qualify and start working on your project before the rainy season.
Wednesday, June 23, 5:30-6:30 P.M. PST Register here.
Learn more about additional resources to prepare for the rainy season at sfpuc.org/RainReadySF
Help Stretch Our Water Supply
This is the second dry year in a row for California. We must continue to do what we can to make the most of our water supplies in case this dry trend continues. We are asking San Franciscans who are able, to please be more efficient with your outdoor water use. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commission offers lots of resources to help you use less water both indoors and out. Utilize the SFPUC’s free Water-Wise Evaluations, rebates and incentives, and free toilet program.
Traffic Court Citation Discounts MyCitations—a new online tool for people with low incomes or who receive public benefits to request a significant discount (up to 80% or more!) on their traffic court citations. This discount can be worth hundreds of dollars. Using the MyCitations
tool, people can look up their traffic citations online, answer a series of simple questions about their eligibility, and submit a request for a discount of 80% or more on their traffic court fines and fees. The
MyCitations tool can also be used to request a payment plan, more time to pay, or community service. Using MyCitations can also save people an in-person trip to San Francisco Traffic Court.
New BMR Announcement: The Lofton at 495 Cambridge
1 two-bedroom home priced at $472,506 with parking, and 6 three-bedroom homes priced at $532,720 with parking in the Excelsior! Applications due June 7th, and completion on first time homebuyer education is required prior to applying. I am attaching the flyers in this email so that you can inform your constituents. Please be sure to include this in your upcoming newsletter, and any other digital outreach your office is doing during these times. Click here for more information.
Essential Worker Ride Home: SF Environment the SFCTA (SF Environment and SF County Transportation Agency) launched a program to help essential workers commuting home late at night and don't have a reliable transit option. Click here for more.
COVID-19 Eviction and Rent Increase Moratoriums
– Emergency tenant protections, including more time to pay your rent, suspension of evictions during the pandemic, and a rent freeze in City-subsidized housing.
Got an upcoming event or opportunity to include in this newsletter? Email Jennifer.Li-D9@sfgov.org
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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