By Danielle McVay and Tab Buckner, HANC Board

HANC’s next general membership meeting will occur on Thursday, April 13 at 7:00 PM in a hybrid format at the Flywheel Café at 672 Stanyan Street (see accompanying article for online access). Guest speakers will address accountability deficiencies at City Hall and community efforts to counter such shortcomings. The panel will include San Francisco Coalition on Homelessness (COH) Executive Director Jennifer Friedenbach, Hospitality House Executive Director Joe Wilson, and Lydia Bransten, Executive Director of the Gubbio Project.

The COH filed a lawsuit last September against the City & County of San Francisco and Mayor London Breed in response to police sweeps of homeless encampments as a violation of people’s constitutional rights. On December 23, U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna Ryu granted a preliminary injunction to halt aggressive policing against the unhoused by means of enforcing certain laws against sitting, lying and sleeping on sidewalks. The injunction also prohibits confiscation and destruction of their personal property. The ruling stated that the City was violating its own laws as well as federal precedent by displacing and destroying encampments without offering a stable shelter alternative. The court’s decision was based on expert witness findings that reviewed three years of enforcement data, declarations from 25 impacted unhoused individuals and the observation of three former City employees. The findings indicate that the City’s forced displacements expose the illusion of a “services-first” program in place. The City has appealed the preliminary injunction and moved to stay the injunction pending the appeal.

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Christin Evans, Booksmith owner, former President of the Haight-Ashbury Merchants Association, and current HANC Board member, and Katie Albright, Senior Advisor of Safe and Sound (formerly The Child Abuse Prevention Center), which has been located in the neighborhood since 1987, were appointed this month by the Board of Supervisors to oversee the City's homeless programs, formerly under the sole direction of Mayor Breed.  Evans, nominated by the Board of Supervisors and Albright, nominated by the Mayor, will serve on the Commission created in last November’s election, when 67% of San Francisco's voters favored Proposition C, rejecting Mayor Breed's objection to the measure.  A whopping 74% of the Haight- Ashbury's voters favored the creation of the Commission.

No other neighborhood has as much representation on the Commission and the appointments can only be seen as recognition of the creative advocacy and skillful program creation that exists in our community in meeting and seeking solutions to the City's most vexing problem. Both Evans and Albright are members of the Coalition for a Complete Community which, along with HANC, successfully advocated for permanently affordable housing and non-profit service space to meet the needs of families, seniors and youth facing homelessness at the vacant McDonald’s site at 730 Stanyan.  Construction at the site is due to start this summer, and will include 100% affordable housing for families and "transition aged youth" with an affirmative marketing program for seniors.

It is a rare victory for advocates and non-profit service providers in today's San Francisco.  It is especially sweet for our two stalwart community workers to receive the recognition for their work.  HANC congratulates Christin and Katie and looks forward to working with them in their new positions.

By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

 Supervisor Dean Preston held a Haight-Ashbury Town Hall on March 29 in the Community Room of the Park Branch Library.  He was joined by Christin Evans, representing (in one of her many roles) the Haight Ashbury Merchant Association (HAMA), David Woo, representing HANC, as our President, and Jesse Jones, Team Lead Ambassador for the City Ambassador Program.

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In late January, Supervisor Dean Preston issued A Call to Action:  District 5 Affordable Housing Opportunity Sites. 

The report calls for the following action steps:

1. Allocate Prop I income to new affordable housing
2. Identify and act on opportunity sites

The report can be downloaded here:  D5 Affordable Housing Opportunity Sites Report .  It lists the following six sites within District 5 that together can yield more than 1,250 units of affordable housing:

• DMV Office (1377 Fell)
• Northern Police Station (1125 Fillmore)
• Touchless Car Wash (400 Divisadero)
• 600 Van Ness
• 730 Stanyan
• Proxy & Biergarten (Hayes and Octavia)

HANC has been actively involved in advocating for the development of affordable housing at 730 Stanyan.  We also started a petition for affordable housing at the DMV site:  HANC Petition for Affordable Housing at DMV Site . 

By Karen Fishkin, HANC Board

In mid February an email went out from Physicians for a National Health Program (PNHP) that contained this information:

The latest attempt by Wall Street investors to get their hands on Medicare, has been stopped.  The 2.4 million beneficiaries that have been placed,(without their knowledge or permission), into this new model of healthcare will be the last, for now.

Unfortunately, that 2.4 million are now subject to the use of up to 40% of the funds that could have been provided for their care, being given as profit to private entities.

The federal government has stopped the extension of this program.

This action took 18 months worth of work by over 300 grassroots organizations, some members of Congress, and nearly 20,000  advocates who signed the petition to protect Medicare.

More information is available in a press release from PNHP:  PNHP Celebrates Win For Activists .

We must remain vigilant.  The work continues to guard against future privatization efforts and to try to return traditional Medicare services and end even this limited REACH substitution.

By Christin Evans, HANC Board

San Francisco is on track to have its own bank in a few short years. This past month, the San Francisco Reinvestment Working Group released two draft business plans. The first plan is for a San Francisco Public Bank and details how the city will leverage its financial assets to expand lending for affordable housing, small enterprise and climate action.  The second plan is for the bank’s precursor entity, a Municipal Finance Corporation (MFC), which will demonstrate the financial viability of the city running its own financial institution before the city applies for approvals from federal and state banking regulators to create a Public Bank.  

The city does after all already run a public utility and an airport, so why not a bank?  The plans which are now available for review and public comment can be found online for the MFC here: Municipal Finance Corporation Draft Plan and the Public Bank here: Public Bank Draft Plan

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By Richard Ivanhoe, HANC Board

Residential Rental Registry

San Francisco’s Residential Rental Registry (officially “The Rent Board Housing Inventory”) now requires all owners of residential property to report information about their property to the Rent Board.  The reporting requirements apply to all residential units in San Francisco, including single-family homes, vacant units, and owner-occupied units.   Reports from owners of property with more than ten residential units were required by report by July 1, 2022.  Reports from owners of all other residential property were required to report by March 1, 2023.  Updates will be required every March 1.

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One of the attendees at HANC’s February meeting was struck by a vehicle on the way home from the meeting.  Fortunately, the accident was not fatal, but it did cause serious injury.

HANC has always been an advocate for pedestrian safety, and we believe that it is time for more attention to be paid to pedestrian safety.  SFMTA’s Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee currently has six vacancies out of seventeen seats, and has not met since September, 2020 (Pedestrian Safety Advisory Committee Website ).  Vision Zero reported 20 pedestrian traffic fatalities in 2022, up from 18 in pre-pandemic 2019, 11 in 2020 and 13 in 2021.  There have already been 3 pedestrian traffic deaths in January, 2023 (San Francisco Traffic Fatalities ).

Walk SF estimates that an average of 3 people are struck each day while walking (Walk SF - Our Vision ). 

This article was written before the February 28 Board of Supervisors meeting.  We have been informed that Supervisor Preston planned to introduce a resolution to get all city agencies refocused on Vision Zero.  We plan to provide updates on this website.