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San Francisco Chronicle
a day ago
- Business
- San Francisco Chronicle
S.F.'s budget woes could kill programs that help the city's most at-risk tenants
Long regarded as a critical supplement to the work done by city building inspectors, two community-based code enforcement outreach programs that target some of the city's most at-risk tenants could soon cease to exist as San Francisco's Department of Building Inspection looks to trim costs. Emails sent to about half a dozen local housing nonprofits on Monday informed them that the decades-old Code Enforcement Outreach Program, or CEOP, is facing complete erasure due to the city's budget woes. Among the supports offered by the nonprofits that receive funding through CEOP and the SRO Collaborative program, another DBI-administered initiative focused on residents of low-income single-room occupancy hotels (SROs) that's also at risk, are multilingual outreach, housing counseling and disaster preparedness services. In the past, the programs have united advocates representing landlords and tenants. And yet, both are on the chopping block under DBI's proposed two-year budget plan, which suggests cutting the department's annual $4.8 million allocation for the programs as Mayor Daniel Lurie seeks to eliminate $185 million in grant and contract spending in order to close a looming $800 million two-year city budget shortfall. 'We greatly value and respect the work we've done together, but any grant is dependent on having sufficient funding in our budget. As such, we are invoking the termination stipulation in Section 2.3,' a DBI representative said in the emails sent to nonprofit leaders on Monday, which the Chronicle obtained. The Chinatown Community Development Center, or CCDC, the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, the San Francisco Apartment Association, Dolores Street Services and the Housing Rights Committee, are among the groups that will be impacted by the programs' elimination. Monday felt like 'groundhog day' to service providers who, for the second time in two years, were told that the programs would be defunded. They pushed back against cuts planned by DBI in 2023 under then-Mayor London Breed, and were successful in getting the funding reinstated. Those interviewed by the Chronicle Tuesday said they were blindsided by the news, given that DBI's own commission recommended keeping the programs in place and fully funded earlier this year. 'We were shocked in 2023 and we are shocked this year, mainly because around February we were advocating at the commission as we were expecting about a 25% cut in total,' said Lisa Yu, a policy analyst with CCDC, a local affordable housing developer. 'Everything is in jeopardy.' DBI requested that the recipients of the code enforcement outreach grants 'plan for an end date for your services' on June 30. The move will impact an estimated 15 outreach workers across the list of nonprofits that are funding through the grants, the Chronicle has learned. 'The mayor talked about cutting some nonprofit contracts that emerged during COVID. But CEOP started in 1996. The collaboratives have been here for more than 25 years. These are programs that no one's ever had a negative word to say about,' said Randy Shaw, director of the Tenderloin Housing Clinic, a low-income tenant advocacy organization that stands to lose roughly $900,000 for its Central City SRO Collaborative program and CEOP. The funding cuts appear to thwart recommendations made by DBI's Building Inspection Commission, which penned a letter to the city's Board of Supervisors in March requesting that the code enforcement outreach grants be fully funded. That letter, obtained by the Chronicle, suggested that Lurie and the Board use general fund dollars to continue to support the programs, and that DBI could increase the inspection fees it charges across the board by 1.5% to 'compensate for the proposed General Fund reductions in support.' 'These providers go to the tenants as well as take complaints. Reduction in outreach services will not mean a reduction in need, it will mean more tenants leave inhabitable apartments and end up homeless or people will suffer health conditions as a result of uninhabitable housing,' the commission warned in its letter. Neither DBI nor Lurie's office immediately responded to the Chronicle's inquiries for comment on the programs' planned elimination. Last week, Lurie unveiled his $15.9 million budget proposal, which he said prioritizes the city's core services, including clean street and public safety. Declaring an end to what he described as the ' era of soaring city budgets,' his plan includes slashing 1,400 city jobs. The proposed cuts come as the city's revenues remain impacted by high commercial vacancy rates and sluggish tourism downtown. CEOP and the SRO Collaborative program were previously placed in jeopardy under former Mayor London Breed, who sought to patch a growing budget deficit in 2023 by ordering city departments to trim their budgets. The funding was ultimately restored, though the total allocation for the programs was reduced by 10%, according to Yu, of CCDC. She said that the nonprofit providers expected another 15% funding cut for the outreach programs. 'We're all really confused on what happened, because we weren't expecting a 100% funding cut when the issue was presented to the Commission in February,' Yu said. CEOP has received about $1.7 million from the total grant allocation, while the SRO program received about $3.8 million. The nonprofits that have historically received the funding are operating on five-year contracts that are due to expire next June. Yu said that CCDC runs the SRO Collaborative, for which it receives about $1.5 million in annual funding. It also receives about $272,500 for CEOP. 'We have housing counseling, and we provide fire prevention workshops. For home visits alone, we visit about 43 SROs in Chinatown with about 80 SRO families total,' Yu said, adding that the nonprofit assists about 86 clients per quarter with housing counseling services. 'About 183 tenants attended our fire and disaster preparedness workshops per quarter,' she said. About 16% of the Housing Rights Committee's total budget, or $617,000, comes from the DBI grant, according to the nonprofit's executive director, Maria Zamudio. HRC has long provided housing counseling and advocates for tenants rights in San Francisco. 'We provide language access to tenants who are not going to be able to just connect directly with a building inspector, or are not able to navigate the DBI website. We also ensure that there is support for (U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development) tenants, who have some of the most egregious habitability conditions in the city,' Zamudio said. 'In this political moment, with all of the attacks on immigrants and all of the attacks on HUD funding at the federal level, to feel those attacks locally and in a way that doesn't need to happen … really shows where the priorities for this new administration are,' she said. Tenant advocacy organizations aren't the only ones impacted by the proposed cuts. The San Francisco Apartment Association advocates for property owners on a 'shoestring budget,' according to spokesperson Charley Goss. The organization faces a funding reduction of close to $150,000 if the code enforcement outreach programs are cut. 'There are difficult decisions that have to be made with regard to the budget. But, from our perspective, these are maybe the only programs where you have tenant groups and landlord groups working together for a common goal, which is to improve living conditions in apartment buildings,' Goss said. 'We've seen firsthand that the programs work … and we believe they also save the city money. We have nonprofits doing the work to get buildings up to code, which saves the city money via their inspectors. The inspectors don't have to do that work.'
Gulf Insider
26-05-2025
- Health
- Gulf Insider
China's COVID Resurgence: 'Razor Blade Throat' and New Omicron XDV Variant Symptoms
China is experiencing a resurgence of COVID-19, with patients reporting symptoms of severe, burning throat pain, experts say. Zhong Nanshan, one of China's leading pulmonologists and epidemiologists, said in an interview with China-based media on May 19 that the 'razor blade throat' symptom is more pronounced in this wave of resurgence, accompanied by more frequent coughing. 'Razor blade throat' is a term used in China to describe severe throat pain, akin to swallowing shattered glass or razor blades. Dr. Li Tongzeng, director of the Infectious Diseases Department at Beijing You'an Hospital, told Chinese media that the new wave of COVID-19, which began in March, is expected to peak in late May. According to Zhong, the dominant strain in this wave is the Omicron XDV variant, which is highly transmissible but relatively less virulent. Early symptoms include fever, headaches, fatigue, a burning throat, and severe coughing. He believes the epidemic is still in the 'climbing phase' and is expected to last six to eight weeks and subside by the end of June. Chinese netizens described their painful experiences with this new strain on Weibo, a Chinese social media platform closely monitored by the Chinese regime. Netizens shared comments such as: 'During lunch time a few days ago, a colleague was coughing so wildly I thought she choked on food. She said it was a lingering effect from this COVID wave. When I asked about her main symptom, she said 'razor blade throat.'' Other comments include, 'I've been hit with razor blade throat and feel completely drained.' 'Post-COVID razor blade throat is brutal—swollen, painful, and I can barely speak. Any quick remedies?' another one read. A female Beijing resident, infected for nearly 10 days, told the Chinese language edition of The Epoch Times: 'I had a fever, sore throat, yellow phlegm with blood streaks, nosebleeds, cough, sneezing, a runny nose, dizziness, and no energy. It's terrifying—I sneezed once and my nose started bleeding, which scared me to death. This round of COVID is too severe.' The Chinese regime has faced long-standing accusations of concealing epidemic data, particularly regarding death tolls. Although 'rising COVID-19 infections' trended on Weibo, Chinese media downplayed the epidemic, and experts noted significant missing or uninformative data from the authorities. Dr. Jonathan Liu, a professor at the Canadian College of Traditional Chinese Medicine and director of Kang Mei TCM Clinic and skeptic of data from the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CCDC), said official data for March reported that seven people died from COVID-19 that month. 'With normal epidemic rates, such a low figure is implausible. Canada, with a sparse population and good sanitation, reported 1,915 COVID deaths from August last year to May this year—over 200 per month. How could China, with its dense population, have only seven deaths monthly?' Liu told The Epoch Times. According to the CCDC, outpatient and emergency cases increased from 7.5 percent to 16.2 percent, while severe hospitalized respiratory infection cases rose from 3.3 percent to 6.3 percent. Xiaoxu Sean Lin, an assistant professor in the Biomedical Science Department at Feitian College in New York and a contributor to The Epoch Times, said that the CCDC has failed to report the most important data. He told The Epoch Times that the data provided by the CCDC only reflects the increasing positive rate of the new coronavirus, omitting four critical factors: the number of confirmed cases, hospitalization rates, severe case rates, and mortality rates. These are essential for understanding the true extent of the outbreak. He said that the Chinese regime has in the past concealed too much information. COVID-19 cases have also risen in Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. On May 8, Hong Kong's Centre for Health Protection reported that over the past four weeks, key COVID monitoring indicators reached a one-year high, with 31 adult deaths. Singapore's health authorities noted on May 13 that cases from April 27 to May 3 surged by about 28 percent to more than 14,000, with a 30 percent increase in daily hospitalizations. The Taiwan CDC reported that cases have risen significantly since May, with a peak expected in June. Zhong said that from a pathogenic perspective, the COVID-19 virus may reduce its virulence to ensure its survival, but it is too early to judge whether it will become 'flu-like' in the future. He said that one thing is certain, however: The COVID-19 virus will not disappear. Luo Ya, Xiaohua Gu, and Grace Song contributed to this report. Also Read: China Doesn't Have The Economic Strength To Save South Africa
South China Morning Post
12-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Mr Blank 2.0 a dance piece that's visually dazzling but feels bleak, brutal and voyeuristic
'These premises are under CCTV surveillance for your personal safety and security.' Advertisement This ominous message on wall-mounted screens greets the audience in the auditorium of Kwai Tsing Theatre as they arrive to watch Mr Blank 2.0, by Hong Kong's City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC). When the curtain rises, the same words appear on the back wall of the stage. The visually dazzling dance work, with its use of multilayered video projections and intense performances, offers a bleak picture of a world from which basic humanity has disappeared. There is no denying its visceral power, but ultimately its lack of hope or possibility of redemption make it more a work of horror than a moral tale. Multilayered projections help paint a bleak picture of a world bereft of humanity in Mr Blank 2.0. Photo: Carmen So Sang Jijia 's first creation since becoming CCDC's artistic director at the beginning of 2025 is the latest permutation of a work originally staged in 2018, then again in 2020, and most recently in a film version in 2021.
South China Morning Post
24-02-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Certain Movements and Shadows is rich in ideas, but it is not pure dance
Certain Movements and Shadows, the new production from City Contemporary Dance Company (CCDC), brings together two choreographers: Hong Kong's legendary Helen Lai and Taiwan's Chou Shu-yi. Advertisement While the work is described as 'co-choreographed' by Lai and Chou, it seems that each created different scenes rather than choreographing the same scenes together. After a slow start, the 90-minute work comes into its own in the last half-hour or so – the choreography for these final sections suggests that they are by Lai, while the style of movement in earlier sections is more typical of Chou. The work draws inspiration from Lai's 2006 Movements and Shadows and, like that piece, from the poems of Bei Dao , arguably China's most celebrated modern poet. It comprises nine scenes, each headed by a line from Bei Dao's poetry. The original 2006 piece was very different in nature, consisting of seven scenes, including four solos, two duets and a finale bringing six dancers together. Advertisement Half of a double bill entitled 'Iron and Silk', there was a strong emphasis on the 'shadows' of the title, with numerous stunning lighting effects by Jo Phoa as performers danced with their own shadows or with video images by the late and much missed Ringo Chan.
Yahoo
29-01-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
‘Stunning' 11-acre croft put up for lease by Scottish island community firm
AN 11-acre croft in a 'stunning location' is being advertised for lease by a Scottish island's community company. Colonsay Community Development Company (CCDC), with Scottish Land Fund support, has brought an 11 acre croft on the beautiful and remote island into community ownership. Colonsay can be reached in 2.5 hours by ferry from Oban, and has a small resident population. READ MORE: In what the community firm is describing as a 'rare opportunity', the property is earmarked for a family and is intended to support Colonsay's primary school – boosting the number of children as well as the working age population. Darragh Keenaghan, CCDC Director, said: 'We're grateful to the Scottish Land Fund for recognising our determination to create new opportunities for families and young people to live on Colonsay. 'This is a fantastic opportunity for a resilient and enthusiastic family looking to become crofters and make a future in Colonsay.' READ MORE: Meanwhile, Kilchattan Primary headteacher Kim Bentley added: 'At the heart of our school is the belief that relationships are fundamental to learning. Our approach is child-led and play-based, with plenty of time spent outdoors. 'Being a small school we're able to follow children's interests while delivering key skills across the curriculum. We take pride in our welcoming and friendly ethos, and are looking forward to growing our school community!' CCDC would also like to see the croft actively worked, ideally with a small business. Dannie Onn, also a director of CCDC, said: 'Our existing community-owned crofts have been opportunities that have brought people of working age, and Colonsay's primary school supports a number of jobs within the island community. Being able to offer an affordable way for a family to become crofters here fits with our vision of sustainable community development, growing our working age population and creating opportunity for enterprise.' For more information and the application form, contact Colonsay Community Development Company at before the application deadline of March 23 2025.
