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By Christin Evans, HANC Board

The pandemic emergency had its silver linings.  One was the unlocked federal funding from Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) which allowed the city to contract with 25 hotels to temporarily house over 2000 people experiencing homelessness.  The Shelter-In-Place (SIP) hotel program was scrutinized, criticized and lauded. It was a policy choice made at the height of fears that emergency rooms would be overwhelmed but it proved that when we focused our attention on the housing problem we could actually make strides in solving it.  

The emergency health order cleared the way for hotels to serve as temporary emergency shelters and over 2000 rooms were contracted and allocated in a few short months.  Skeptics and politicians who decried homelessness as a personal failing instead of a systemic failing were proven wrong – more than 95% of people offered a hotel room on the streets of San Francisco each day in June, July, and August 2020 accepted those rooms. 

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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.

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Mayor Breed, her allies in the tech and real-estate sectors of our economy (both of which are facing serious challenges in the Covid era) and their well funded "shock troops", the YIMBYs , are mounting an all out assault on long-term San Francisco pro- affordable housing policies in this Novembers election.

Counter to the prevailing "narrative" dominating the Chronicle's coverage of housing and development issues, San Franciscans have a strong record of supporting 100% truly affordable housing development for working families, the elderly and un-housed San Franciscans. In bond measures, special taxes and ordinances the people of San Francisco and their district elected Supervisors have time and again passed funding measures, density bonuses, and accelerated approvals for 100% affordable housing developments serving both low income and un-housed San Franciscans.

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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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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 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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