Today we came together to recognize the work we’ve done on Vision Zero and where we need to go. Today we also came together as a community in light of the tragedy in West Portal that devastated our city a little over a week ago. Vision Zero is about saving lives and preventing injuries. We will always need space for all modes of transportation—buses, cars, bikes, walking—and we need to make sure those spaces are safe for people to travel and to be together.

5 years ago, we passed a law to streamline the delivery of shelter, housing and homeless services. This law is expiring and I've proposed to renew it for 5 more years.

Now, members of the Board are threatening to derail it. Here are the consequences: sfexaminer.com/news/politics/… This law has expedited thousands of units of housing, shelter, & prevention resources.

It has cut bureaucracy so we can move faster.

It has helped us bring people indoors & change lives.

This law is one of the reasons we saw a 15% reduction in unsheltered homelessness.

The cause of yesterday’s fire in Hayes Valley is still under investigation. While there is always a rush to judge what the cause may be, we must allow our investigators to do their jobs. However, I want to address concerns raised by the neighbors about nearby encampments. First, again, right now we can't jump to conclusions and connect this nearby encampment and the fire. I understand it's hard, especially now when we have access to social media and shared content 24/7. But we must be patient.

So many of our challenges start with lack of housing. We need homes for families, workers, and those who can't afford to live here.
That’s why I launched Housing For All -- a plan to allow for 82,000 new homes to be built over the next 8 years. londonbreed.medium.com/housing-for-al… Housing For All started with an Executive Directive that set key actions with deadlines. Over the last three months, we’ve met these deadlines to set the path for long-term change to transform how we get housing built. sf.gov/sites/default/…

Today is the start of our two-year budget process.

The first step is to release our projected two-year general fund deficit, and inform Departments of what we need to do over the coming months to balance our budget. It is no secret our economy has been impacted by this pandemic. The structure of Downtown has shifted. We are working on significant policy changes to address this.

But for the near term, our budget is feeling the direct impacts of those changes.

New Data: San Francisco's latest homelessness count shows a 15% decline in unsheltered homelessness between 2022 and 2019, as part of an overall decrease in homelessness in that time.

We have a lot of work to do in this City, but this is good progress. Other data:
⬇️3.5% in overall homelessness (sheltered & unsheltered)
⬆️18% in people living in shelters and transitional housing
⬇️11% in chronically homeless adults

This is the result of investments and hard work of staff and non-profits, even during a global pandemic.

We're in the middle of an Omicron surge in SF, with our average cases more than double last winter's peak.
 
Our hospitalizations are increasing, but they remain below previous levels and we have the capacity to handle the expected increase.
 
Here's where we are. 81% of residents are fully vaccinated. 54% are boosted.
 
For vaccinated people, Omicron is very unlikely to result in hospitalization. It will most likely mean you need to quarantine for a short time.
 
Put simply: right now we're learning to live with COVID.

Our TL Emergency Intervention Plan is clearly needed in the neighborhood. This is not a question of services or police. We must do both.

We're making big investments in housing, treatment, & outreach. But we need police to address violent crime, drug dealing, & illegal activity. Here are just some of our investments:

- Adding 1,500 new units of Permanent Supportive Housing on top of the thousands we already have, including purchasing hotels for conversion,
- Adding 1,000 new shelter beds,
- Adding Urban Alchemy community ambassadors throughout the TL,

I declared a State of Emergency in the Tenderloin to give us the power to move quickly to address the public health crisis on our streets.

The Board will vote Thursday on whether to allow that State of Emergency to continue. Here are a couple reasons it's so important: 1) It waives permitting and zoning restrictions so we can stand up a Linkage Center to provide treatment and services for people facing addiction in the community.

Without the State of Emergency, this will likely take 6 to 9 months. Instead, we could open it in 2 to 3 weeks.

We need to change course on how we handle public safety in San Francisco. We can't be a place where anything goes on the street.

Today, I am announcing a series of new steps to address public safety in our city. londonbreed.medium.com/a-safer-san-fr… This includes:
➡️Executing an Emergency Intervention Plan in the TL,
➡️Securing emergency police funding for needed resources,
➡️Amending our surveillance ordinance so law enforcement can interrupt crime in real time ,
➡️Disrupting the illegal street sales of stolen goods.

San Francisco is making quick progress on the vaccine front, and we're getting shots administered as quickly as we receive them.

Healthcare workers and people over 65 are currently eligible.

You can make an appointment at SF.gov/getvaccinated.

Here's what's being done. 🧵 This week, we opened our second high-volume vaccination site at Moscone Center, with capacity for 7k-10k shots per day once supply increases.

This is in addition to our first high-volume vaccination site at City College, with a new site in the Bayview coming soon.

I'm joining with City Attorney @DennisHerrera in support of this lawsuit today.

This is not the path we would have preferred, but nothing matters more right now than getting our kids back in school.

You can follow the announcement live here:

https://twitter.com/dennisherrera/status/1357022405420453889

The City has offered resources and staff to get our school facilities ready and to support testing for our educators. We’ve offered the guidance and expertise of the Department of Public Health. We are ready and willing to do our part to get our kids back in the classroom.

Getting shots into arms quickly is our most important focus, and it's important that we're clear about what is happening with the vaccine rollout.
 
We've only received a very limited number of doses, which are being administered.
 
But we're ready for more when we get them. In order to facilitate large scale vaccinations, the City is working with private healthcare providers & pharmacies, which have received vaccine doses from the state, to open vaccination sites throughout SF.
 
When we have enough vaccines, these sites will be ready.

San Francisco can't recover without our small businesses.

We've directed $24 million in grants and loans to 1,230 businesses during the pandemic, but I've been saying this isn't enough.

Today, I'm announcing a plan for $62 million in additional support. londonbreed.medium.com/supporting-our… 90% of SF businesses are small businesses. They employ more than half of our workforce, and generate tens of billions in economic activity – most of which remains in SF. For our economy to recover, we need them to thrive.

We'll now be close to $100 million in local support.

Today, Dr. Colfax gave an update on our progress in beating back the alarming surge of COVID-19 cases that we've faced since Thanksgiving.

Here are some of the main takeaways. 🧵 By staying home, we've reduced the reproductive rate of the virus from 1.45 on December 5th to 1.13 as of December 26th.

According to the modeling, this means that we will have saved an estimated 430 lives compared to if we had not lowered the reproductive rate.

San Francisco, along with other Bay Area counties, is opting in to the Governor's regional Stay at Home Order effective Sunday at 10pm.

We're on pace to run out of hospital beds to care for patients the day after Christmas. We must turn this around now.

https://twitter.com/MyrPressOffice/status/1334972890773536769

We do not take these actions lightly. I know the impact that they have on local businesses, employees, and all of our residents, especially without the federal support that we need. But we can't afford to wait and delay the inevitable.

Our goal is to flatten this curve now.

Unfortunately as we expected, San Francisco has been placed on the State's most restrictive "purple" tier due the surge in COVID-19 cases.

Here's what this means for us and what we all need to do to reduce this alarming trend: This is the most aggressive surge SF has seen to date. We're currently averaging 118 new cases per day compared to 73 per day in the first week of November.

For the week of November 16th, we had 768 diagnosed cases compared to 217 diagnosed cases the week of October 12th.

Anyone who is watching what is happening across the country right now with COVID-19 cases should be alarmed.

Here in San Francisco we're seeing increased cases as well, and today we have been moved to the State's Red Tier.

Here's what this means for us: Effective tomorrow, non-essential offices will have to halt indoor operations until further notice. Offices will have to return to 100% remote and telework operations.

Fitness centers (including gyms, hotel fitness facilities, and climbing walls) may remain open at 10% capacity.

In the middle of a climate emergency, with our city experiencing weeks of dangerous air quality, there is no reason to subject important transit improvements to unnecessary delays.

But this isn't just limited to transit.
sfchronicle.com/bayarea/heathe… Slow Streets & Shared Spaces allow residents to safely go outside and our businesses to find new ways to operate.

They are innovative responses to unprecedented challenges--examples of government working for good.

One person shouldn't be able to delay an emergency response.

On April 11th we had 94 people hospitalized with COVID-19. By mid-June we were down to as low as 26 people.

We’re now back to 80 people in the hospital.

This virus is here and it's spreading. We must act right now to stop it.

What has changed? People are gathering again. People going into work, latino residents, and residents in the southeastern neighborhood are being disproportionately impacted.

But we know from our contact tracers that people meeting up with friends and family are getting sick too. We can't get complacent.

Here's one example:

Our reopening process is guided by data and science.

COVID-19 cases are rising throughout CA. We're now seeing a rise in cases in SF too. Our numbers are still low but rising rapidly.

As a result, we're temporarily delaying the re-openings that were scheduled for Monday. Yesterday we saw 103 cases. On June 15, when we first reopened outdoor dining and in-store retail, we had 20.

At our current rate, the number could double rapidly. If that continues & we don't intervene, we'll be at such a high number that our only option would be to shut down.