COVID-19 Pandemic

Under the leadership of Mayor Breed, San Francisco’s quick actions during the COVID-19 pandemic was hailed as a national model that saved thousands of lives. The City’s response to this once-in-a-century pandemic was not just a health response — it was a response that met the fallout of crises as the city faced the unthinkable reality of having to shut down entirely to stop the spread of a deadly virus.

On February 25th, 2020, before San Francisco even had one case of COVID, Mayor Breed declared a state of emergency, allowing San Francisco to allocate resources around coronavirus mitigation efforts such as: staffing, the coordination of agencies throughout the city, the allowance of future reimbursement by the state and federal governments and increased awareness throughout the city on coronavirus preparation methods. These proactive steps helped the city be prepared for what was to come.

Then, on March 17th, 2020, Mayor Breed took the unprecedented step of shutting the city down. San Francisco took this dramatic step in partnership with other counties across the Bay Area, making San Francisco the first major city in the country to shut down. Cities across the country followed shortly thereafter. The City turned Moscone Convention Center into its COVID Command Center where it incorporated community operations, transportation, law enforcement and public safety, planning, logistics, finance, and joint information, as well as liaisons to health and human services. This was the hub of the City’s response where all the leaders and city workers aligned to meet the continually evolving needs of residents, businesses, and the workforce of San Francisco.

Despite not knowing how long the shutdown would last, San Francisco’s early action was credited with preventing the spread, especially among the most vulnerable communities. While nursing homes across the country saw devastating waves of the virus kill thousands, Laguna Honda Hospital, the largest skilled nursing facility west of the Mississippi, saw no deaths for months and very few overall.

In the early days of the pandemic, the city worked to pop up testing sites across the city, secure millions of piece of PPE to be handed out for workers and in community, popped up community hubs with foods and resources, opened over two thousand hotel rooms for homeless individuals who were out on the streets after shelters had been emptied out, and created financial support programs for small businesses and vulnerable residents who couldn’t work. The City created innovative programs like the Right to Recover, which provided financial support targeted towards Latino residents who were hit hardest by COVID. Through strong community partnerships, the city prevented the spread of misinformation about COVID and helped connect uncertain residents with resources.

When the vaccine became available at the end of 2020, San Francisco once again sprung into action to be a national leader, opening both mass vaccine sites and targeted community efforts. San Francisco became the first major city to hit 80% vaccination by the summer of 2021, a key metric that allowed for a safer reopening of San Francisco.

The pandemic also became an opportunity for San Francisco to show what was possible when it could act with clarity and urgency of purpose. Thanks to the emergency powers, San Francisco demonstrated the effectiveness of cutting hiring times to quickly add health workers, launch creative programs like Shared Spaces which allowed for outdoor dining, and open up facilities for the most vulnerable to provide immediate care and support without going through months of bureaucracy. During COVID, Mayor Breed issued XXX Mayoral Executive Orders that delivered unprecedented support and drove life-saving actions. Many of the city’s successful programs like Shared Spaces, JFK Promenade and Slow Streets came out of the pandemic.

COVID was one of the most difficult times in the history of San Francisco, and the scars of the pandemic were still being felt years after the first case arrived. But the quick and unified action by the City, under the leadership of Mayor Breed, demonstrated what San Francisco is capable of in a crisis when lives are on the line.

Health Operations

San Francisco launched a COVID health response that provided critical testing and vaccination services and bridged gaps with communities that didn’t have traditional connection to those resources. By utilizing the city’s emergency declaration to quickly pop up medical facilities in weeks, San Francisco was able to provide robust large testing sites at places like the Alemany Flea Market and Pier 30–32, while also sending helping to fund targeted community testing efforts. When the vaccine became available, San Francisco partnered with health and community organizations to ramp up distribution, reaching 80% vaccination in just six months.

Successes include:

• Managed outbreaks and mitigated COVID transmission in the highest risk settings that house the most vulnerable populations of San Francisco, including Laguna Honda Hospital.
• Expanded the City’s testing capacity to over 4,500 tests/day, including 2 high-volume fixed testing sites, 4 testing sites at Primary Care centers and over 750 pop-up testing sites
• Opened 3 mass vaccination sites and many clinic and community sites that vaccinated 81% of San Franciscans in just 6 months
• Launched a Contact Tracing program where cases contacts received daily texts or phone calls to monitor health and symptoms

Human Services Operations

San Francisco prioritized providing resources for the most vulnerable residents who could not shelter in place due to housing insecurity and homelessness. Through emergency alternative housing programs, the city was able to fill the gap left by the need to empty out shelters due to social distancing needs and keep people indoors where they could be safe and connected to services.

Successes include:

• Set up 30 hotels, 8 congregate shelters, 7 Safe Sleep sites, and 1 trailer site to make the alternative housing program
• Served approximately 9,000 people in the Alternative Shelter Program including 4,300 in Isolation & Quarantine
• Helped 1,868 people sleeping in tents access shelter, hotels and safe sleeping villages
• Served over 20K individuals since the beginning of the pandemic, distributing more than 110K meals and 35K grocery bags

Community Operations

One of San Francisco’s great assets during the pandemic was the connection with community. Leaning on the lessons learned during the HIV/AIDS crisis of the 80s and 90s, San Francisco developed a model that relied on known community leaders and organizations bridging the gaps where access and trust of services often failed. This was particularly critical with monolingual and immigrant communities, including both the Latino and API communities. Early data showed the Latino community being hit particularly hard, which led to programs designed to do outreach and support into the Mission, Excelsior and other targeted areas. The City also developed programs and outreach targeting the African-American community where vaccine hesitancy prevented an initial uptake of life-saving vaccines. Without these strong community connections, San Francisco’s response would not have been the success it was.

Success include:

• Launched Community Learning Hubs, to provide thousands of SF Public School students with a safe place to learn and socialize while schools were closed
• Supported school reopenings by assessing and inspecting 102 SFUSD and 122 private/charter schools for safe reopening
• Created Right to Recover, a program that provided wage replacement for those who contracted COVID but did not have access to sick pay through their work, ensuring people from low-income and immigrant communities would come forward to test and then stay home if necessary
• Residential Eviction Moratorium: Under this Mayoral order, renters who informed their landlord within 30 days of a missed rent payment that they’ve suffered outbreak-related hardships like loss of work or extraordinary out-of-pocket medical expenses were shielded from eviction.
• Provided prevention technical assistance to respond to over 5,500 COVID-19 exposures at businesses
• Trained >400 vaccine ambassadors to increase vaccine confidence throughout SF
• Provided over 500,000 meals monthly through both the Aging and Food Disability Network and the Great Plates program, which partnered with local restaurants

Support Services Operations:

San Francisco’s government operations provided emergency support citywide, including having to launch expedited hiring, secure protective equipment at a time there was an international shortage of face masks and gloves, and support essential workers who were still need to keep the city moving forward.

Successes include:

• City’s Emergency Hiring Unit expedited 1,100 positions including 264 nurses
• Completed over 100 site visits to support the City’s priorities related to testing, medical surge, shelter-in-place, safe sleeping, weather relief and cooling centers
• Coordinated among many city departments to ensure essential services were properly resourced with last-minute supplies, equipment and staff
• Provided emergency child and youth care and Recreation and Park centers to support essential workers
• Procured 67 million pieces of PPE, including face masks and gloves, and then coordinated the distribution of this equipment to essential workers, community organizations, and facilities all across the city.

Economic and Small Business Support

The public health measures necessary to stop the spread of COVID had a tremendous impact on local businesses. Both requirements to close as well as a slow reopening created the need for direct financial support and creative solutions to support neighborhood corridors. San Francisco provided grants and loans, waived fees and rents, and launched new programs like Shared Spaces, which created new space for restaurants and bars to operate outdoors.

Successes include:

• Deferred business taxes and business registration fees, delayed collection of license fees — 11,000 businesses who pay $14MM, and suspended delinquent collection practices.
• Put in place a commercial eviction moratorium to protect small businesses that could not afford to pay rent while being forced to close
• Launched small business relief funds that provided loans and grants to small businesses across San Francisco, and provided emergency small business and nonprofit utility rate discounts
• Deferred & waived rents for hundreds of small business tenants on city-owned properties at the SFPUC, Airport, Port, and Rec and Park, and provided emergency loans to support tenants on Port properties.
• Created an arts and artists relief fund to support 700 individual artists and 5 organizations
• Launched Give2SF, a city operated site to collect philanthropic support for for small business, basic needs
• Continued to fund of city-funded nonprofit contracts
• Capped third-party delivery fees to protect restaurants
• Launched the Venue Fund, which provided financial support to entertainment and nightlife venues

Public Spaces

While COVID protections required people to shelter in place, it was still critical that opportunities for recreation and safe socializing were fostered. San Francisco brought creativity to the use of its public spaces by opening up streets for people to be together safely to walk, dine and listen to music.

Success include:

• Closed JFK Promenade to car traffic, allowing people to walk, bike and exercise safely in Golden Gate Park.
• Launched Shared Spaces to provide outdoor space for restaurants, bars and retail shops to set up in parking spaces out front their businesses.
• Created the Just Add Music (JAM) program, which offered a free and streamlined opportunity for businesses to bring local musicians to play in Shared Spaces
• Started the Slow Streets program which created the opportunity for people to walk safely on neighborhood streets and gather at a distance with neighbors.