In March, 2022, San Francisco passed an ordinance extending the eviction moratorium until the state of emergency ends.  That never went into effect because it was preempted by weaker State legislation.  The State legislation expired on June 30, so as of July 1, the San Francisco ordinance has been in effect.  Here is what it does:

• Landlords are prohibited from evicting SF residential tenants for non-payment of rent that came due on or after July 1, 2022 and was not paid due to the COVID-19 pandemic (note this does not protect tenants against eviction if the rental debt was incurred prior to July 1, 2022).
• Landlords are also prohibited from imposing late fees or penalties on this rent.
• Landlords can seek to collect rent through civil court, but cannot evict for it.
• There is no specific notification requirement for tenants.
• These protections continue until Mayor London Breed terminates her COVID-19 Emergency Proclamation.

As a reminder, the state rent relief program has closed, but the local Emergency Rental Assistance Program remains open. Go to sf.gov/renthelp to apply!

By Christin Evans, HANC Board

The 2018 ballot measure, Our City Our Home, which taxes San Francisco’s largest businesses to fund housing, shelter and other solutions for people experiencing homelessness has finally started to trickle out to reach those in need.  Delayed by a court challenge, the first Prop C funds were unlocked in late 2020 by a California Supreme Court decision. While some funds were allowed to be spent, primarily on emergency shelter, at the height of pandemic, the bulk of the stockpiled funds were allocated by Mayor Breed and the Board of Supervisors in July 2021.

Headlines proclaimed the city’s spending had swelled to over $1 billion to address homelessness, which became a bit of a political issue in the state assembly race. Of course, the large figure was misleading as it was a projected two year spending figure and included several one-time revenue sources including one-time Covid relief funds for Shelter in Place hotels which would not reoccur.

Fast forward to this year’s budget cycle and a more realistic picture of what impact Prop C is having took shape.  The revenues generated from the gross receipts tax on sales over $50 million has consistently delivered over $300 million annually in new funds, doubling the city’s annual budget for homelessness and supportive housing solutions. 

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As we reported in the March HANC Voice  (https://www.hanc-sf.org/24-home/676-call-for-artists-public-art-at-730-stanyan ), the affordable housing planned for 730 Stanyan is required to use part of the construction budget to fund art that is visible from the street.

An updated Public Art Request for Qualifications was released on April 18, and forty artists responded by the May 26 deadline.  Out of these forty, five semi-finalists have been chosen:  Kim Anno (https://www.kimanno.com/ ), Jenifer Wofford (https://wofflehouse.com/ ), Miguel Arzabe (https://www.miguelarzabe.net/ ), Laura Haddad and Tom Drugan (https://haddad-drugan.com/) and Andre Jones and Sorrell Tsui of the ABG Art Group and Bay Area Mural Project (https://thebamp.org/ ).

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New businesses have recently emerged in the Haight Ashbury.  Here are a few:

We will continue to provide updates on new businesses in the Haight-Ashbury, either during our July meeting or in future issues of the Voice.

6 AND 21 BUS LINES TO BE RESTORED

The next step for the restoration of MUNI lines is scheduled for July 9.  Among the announced changes, the 6 Parnassus will be restored to its old route.  The 21 Hayes is also returning, but with a shortened route—it will end at Grove and Hyde Street, by the Main Library and the Civic Center BART station.  Both lines will have scheduled frequencies of 20 minutes.  The 43 Masonic, which now ends at California and Presidio, will have its former route returned, and will go through the Presidio and the Marina, and to Fort Mason.

HANC will continue to advocate for greater frequency for the 6 and the 21, and for extension of the 21 to its full former route (as well as for bus service within Golden Gate Park from other parts of the City).

BUENA VISTA PARK COMMUNITY MEETING JULY 12

There will be a virtual community meeting on July 12, from 6 to 7 pm to “review the findings of the 2020 Buena Vista Park Needs Assessment and Cost Analysis and finalize the scope of the improvements to be funded with three million dollars from the 2020 Health and Recovery Bond. 

The Zoom link is available here:  https://sfrecpark.org/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=740 .

The 2020 Buena Vista Parks needs Assessment and Cost Analysis (which runs 157 pages) can be downloaded here:  https://sfrecpark.org/1641/Buena-Vista-Park-Improvement-Project .

By Lisa Awbrey, HANC President

As we all know, district based elections for the San Francisco Board of Supervisors require adjustment of supervisorial district boundaries every 10 years in order to reflect population shifts by giving each district roughly the same number of people within plus or minus 5% of the average. 

The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council Board and members engaged early and often in this most recent redistricting mapping process. Although many of us are deeply disheartened and angered by the final map that was adopted by the Redistricting Task Force at the end of April, HANC is resigned to continue to organize and engage with our neighbors around everyday issues that impact each of us. The newly adopted map has torn the Haight Ashbury asunder into 3 new districts: D5, D7 and D8. 

At our June public meeting, we will discuss how to keep Haight residents and community members in surrounding neighborhoods that were formerly a part of D5 connected and together even though the new map has torn us apart. Let us aspire to continue to work together no matter which district we live in. This is most certainly not goodbye, but if anything, a wake up call and reinvigoration of our Council and our communities. Here is an opportunity to strengthen and grow our coalition beyond old boundaries. 

By David Woo, HANC Vice President

HANC welcomes our new neighbors in the Tenderloin to District 5. We hope to build together around issues that face our communities and struggles for affordable housing, tenants’ rights, and supporting our houseless neighbors.

The San Francisco redistricting process was a joke. The Redistricting Task Force created a predetermined map, aimed specifically at attacking tenants, low-income and working-class residents, communities of color, the LGBTQ+ community, and established neighborhoods. The Chair of the Task Force even admitted to multiple people that he was under immense pressure from the Mayor, who had appointed him to the Task Force, to make specific changes. The impact of outside influences on certain Task Force members, in an attempt to shift the political landscape of the current districts, became abundantly clear as the months wore on in the redistricting process.

Central to the shifting boundaries in the redistricting process was District 6 and the Tenderloin. Tenderloin and South of Market residents gave testimony, submitted evidence, and spoke again and again about the deep connection and community that spans the two neighborhoods. The refusal of these two neighborhoods to be split from each other, and remain together in District 6, was a consistent demand articulated by the Black, Filipino, LGBTQ+, and Arab communities who live in these two neighborhoods.

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By Jaime Michaels, HANC Board

In Spring 2020, after the COVID-19 lockdown had taken effect, the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency (SFMTA) implemented the Slow Street program in various neighborhoods to create more space where people could recreate at safe social distances and also away from car traffic. Page Street between its intersections with Stanyan and Octavia was included in the pilot program. To date, traffic management features on Page St. have been temporary and largely informal, but SFMTA is now proposing several more formal measures, as described below:

Vehicle Turn Restrictions at Page St. Intersections With Stanyan and Masonic. (1) At the intersection of Page and Stanyan, northbound and southbound vehicles on Stanyan would be prohibited from turning onto Page and, thus, from traveling eastbound between Stanyan and Shrader. Westbound vehicles on Page between Stanyan and Shrader, and turns from Page to Stanyan would be allowed; and (2) at the intersection of Masonic, northbound vehicles would be prohibited from turning right and left onto Page and southbound vehicles would be prohibited from turning left onto Page. According to SFMTA, the proposed measures are intended to affect eastbound traffic on Page, and  would not apply to emergency vehicles or alternative modes of transit (e.g., bikes, wheelchairs, skateboards, and pedestrians).

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