SFPUC approves Head Start lease at Southeast Community Facility after community objections; commission conditions verification of footprint

The commission voted on Oct. 14 to authorize a five-year lease with Wu Yi Children's Services for approximately 3,450 square feet and use of an adjacent 5,000-square-foot fenced play yard at the Southeast Community Facility, with an annual rent reported as $32,775.

Doctor Espinola Jackson (Black Human Rights Leadership Council of San Francisco) and other community speakers contested the change of operator and whether the footprint matched the prior arrangement. Jackson said she and community members had not been properly informed and argued the space had been planned for community college uses, asserting that the neighborhood had relied on mitigation commitments associated with earlier projects.

Rosanna Russell, the PUC's Real Estate Director, replied that the Head Start operator selection was made through a federal Head Start competitive process and that Wu Yi was replacing the existing subsidized childcare provider in the same footprint. AGM Julia Ellis said the commission and the Southeast Commission had previously been advised and that City College continues as a separate tenant.

After extended public comment and a request for verification, a commissioner moved to approve the lease with the explicit condition that the footprint of the new lease match the prior Head Start footprint and that the action be recognized as a change only in operator as selected by the federal Head Start program. The commission voted in favor of the conditional motion and then passed the original resolution.

The PUC recorded that staff would provide comparative lease documents to verify square footage and said staff had informed the Southeast Commission in a memo about the replacement operator.