I have exciting news to share! Governor Gavin Newsom has announced plans for a 100% affordable housing project at the DMV site located at 1377 Fell Street. This project will include 372 affordable housing units, to be built in three phases, and a new DMV office on the 2.5-acre site.

This has been an extremely difficult time for public school students, families, educators, and school staff. As a public school parent and Supervisor representing so many families, I know our public school communities have been experiencing a great deal of uncertainty and angst around the announcement of potential school closures and mergers. After an initial delay, SFUSD released its recommendations yesterday. 

This school year, our SFUSD families returned to much uncertainty about the fate of their children’s schools. As a public school parent and a Supervisor representing families across our district, I’m concerned about the situation and closely monitoring it. I wanted to provide you with some updates and encourage you to be part of the process that is unfolding.

We started off the month walking the picket line with striking Local 2 hotel workers on Labor Day, and it has been a month of standing with workers at every opportunity since. This week, I was proud to stand with SEIU 1021’s Superior Court workers who are demanding adequate staffing, training, and a fair contract. These workers are the backbone of our justice system, ensuring that court proceedings move without delays—because justice delayed is justice denied.

Today marks the start of the school year for SFUSD students. As a public school parent and District 5 Supervisor, I wanted to welcome back students, families, educators, and school staff. I hope you all had a healthy, positive, relaxing, and enriching summer.

The 2024 Point-in-Time (PIT) Count—which chronicles how many unhoused people there are across San Francisco every 2 years—was released today, and it shows something pretty amazing: a 21% drop in unsheltered homelessness in District 5, going from 1,225 to 975 since the 2022 PIT Count. 

I would like to take a second to thank everyone that worked with our office to ensure we were able to preserve critical programs and funding in this year's budget. Huge thank you to the many advocates, community leaders, CBOs, neighborhood and merchant groups, and my colleagues on the Budget and Appropriations Committee for all of their advocacy on budget. 

I’m thrilled to announce that in response to our resolution, the Mayor and Housing Authority have committed to using the federal Faircloth-to-RAD program to create 3,667 deeply affordable homes! This is a huge victory for public housing residents, tenant organizers, and affordable housing advocates who partnered with our office to demand that San Francisco utilize these available federal funds. This is an exciting opportunity to create new affordable housing across the City!

Many of you will recall the case of Rosemarie Benter, an 82-year-old who has lived in her home in the Haight for the past 26 years. 

Last Tuesday, a major fire destroyed the home of Terry Williams and his family, who have been the targets of racial terror and threats for the past few weeks. Thanks to an incredible response from the San Francisco Fire Department and EMS workers, no lives were lost. I was on scene immediately to make sure impacted residents and the Williams family were connected with city resources. 

I would like to start this newsletter by thanking everyone who has reached out to our office in support of the Williams family, who have been a target of racial terror for weeks, and whose family home suffered a major fire earlier this week. Our sincerest gratitude and appreciation also goes to the SFFD and EMS first responders who arrived quickly and saved lives.

At long-last, the Trader Joe’s location at 555 Fulton will be open to the public on Friday, fulfilling a more than decades-long promise to the Hayes Valley and Western Addition residents for a neighborhood serving grocery store. 

Over 500,000 San Franciscans– or more than 60 percent of residents– are tenants. Nearly a third of tenants spend more than 30 percent of their income on rent, and that percentage is even higher in some of our District 5 neighborhoods. With the recent release of two City reports, we now have data that proves that helping tenants helps everyone in San Francisco.

Happy Earth Day! Every year on April 22, we dedicate time to celebrate our beautiful planet and reaffirm our commitment to protecting it so future generations can enjoy a vibrant natural world that can sustain a good life for all people. 

We had two major legislative victories this week that I wanted to bring to your attention. First, our ordinance to ban new smoke shops in the Tenderloin and Lower Polk neighborhoods, a measure strongly supported by a broad cross-section of Tenderloin and Lower Polk residents and small businesses, received final approval from the Board this week and will soon go into effect.

Exciting news! On March 11, our office was notified by the US Department of Transportation (US DOT) that we were awarded a $2 million Reconnecting Communities grant. This grant will fund  the Geary-Fillmore Underpass Community Planning Study, a community-based planning process for reconnecting the Japantown and Fillmore/Western Addition neighborhoods in San Francisco—communities that were divided and harmed by the redevelopment-era construction of the Geary Boulevard/Fillmore underpass in the 1960s.

Happy Spring! This season is known as the “season of hope,” and with it comes feelings of regeneration and restoration. Perfect timing with $2 million in federal funding we secured to start a community-based planning process to reconnect the Japantown-Fillmore/Western Addition neighborhoods that were physically divided and harmed by the redevelopment-era construction of the Geary Boulevard/Fillmore Street underpass in the 1960s.

These past few weeks have been a flurry of celebrations in the district. I was honored to attend the capital campaign kick-off to rehabilitate Kinmon Gakuen , a Japanese language school and community center in the heart of Japantown.

Tomorrow is Election Day – Tuesday, March 5. I encourage you to cast your ballot and have your voice heard in this important election.

Since the start of 2022, there have been at least 20 fires in District 5 that resulted in displacement, leaving more than 220 residents—many of whom live in rent-controlled buildings—needing immediate shelter. As a tenant rights attorney who has helped hundreds of people across San Francisco impacted by fires, I know how devastating these fires are to residents.