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Mayor's Office on Disability presents GIS mapping of vulnerable populations and buildings
Summary
The Mayor's Office on Disability and DEM presented GIS maps showing convergence of vulnerable soils, soft‑story buildings and populations (including ~21,000 in-home support beneficiaries), highlighting clusters in Tenderloin, Chinatown, North Beach, SOMA and Mission and urging policy and operational uses.
Carla Johnson of the Mayor's Office on Disability presented 'Vulnerable Population Planning' to the Disaster Council, showing layered GIS maps that combine geotechnical hazards, building vulnerabilities and demographic data to identify areas of concentrated disaster risk.
Johnson described three vulnerability categories the project analyzes: "vulnerable soils" (liquefaction, tsunami and landslide zones), "vulnerable buildings" (soft‑story construction, single‑room‑occupancy hotels and Housing Authority properties) and "vulnerable people" (seniors and people with disabilities living in poverty). She showed map layers indicating approximately 500 SROs, about 50 Housing Authority locations, and roughly 4,300 soft‑story buildings from a Department of Building Inspection survey (2007–2008).
The presenters overlaid those building layers with a blue‑dot layer representing more than 21,000 recipients of in‑home support services (IHS), which the presentation characterized as among the city's most vulnerable residents. Johnson noted clustering of these vulnerabilities in the Tenderloin, Chinatown, North Beach, South of Market and Mission neighborhoods and said the intersection of hazard, building stock and population creates focal areas for planning.
Johnson outlined operational uses for the maps: prioritizing shelter siting and the sequence for opening shelters; targeting inspectors to get situational awareness on damage and shelter needs; coordinating with the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and Paratransit to send accessible vehicles to high‑need neighborhoods; and informing interim housing policy and recovery planning. She said the Department of Emergency Management and Human Services Agency, DBI and the EOC are using the maps to build a top‑10 shelter list.
On policy, Johnson noted a voluntary soft‑story retrofit ordinance was imminent and that a mandatory soft‑story measure was under development; she also flagged that the voluntary ordinance does not specifically target SROs and suggested that might merit further consideration.
Johnson said the data can be integrated into the EOC's new mapping console (FreedomWeb) to support situational awareness and asked the council for substantive and procedural feedback on desired features.
No public comments were recorded on the item during the meeting; presenters requested follow‑up input by city email.
