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Rules Committee backs Family Violence Council overhaul and advances SRO voter‑access measures amid robust public support
Summary
The committee recommended formation of a broadened Family Violence Council and forwarded two SRO voter‑access measures — a resolution urging voter‑education outreach and an ordinance to ease campaign access to residential hotels — after extensive public comment from tenant advocates and service providers.
The Rules Committee voted to forward an ordinance to revitalize the Family Violence Council, broadening its scope to address violence across the lifespan — child abuse, domestic violence and elder abuse — and to bring city and community providers together on coordination, language access and prevention.
Department and advocacy leaders testified in support. Laura Marshall of the Department on the Status of Women called the ordinance "precedent setting," and Beverly Upton of the San Francisco Domestic Violence Consortium and Mary Toomey of the Institute on Aging described the need for cross‑training and coordination across child‑abuse, domestic‑violence and elder‑abuse services.
The committee also heard two SRO items: Item 13, a resolution urging expanded voter education and registration outreach to SRO residents, and Item 14, an ordinance to amend the administrative code so campaign workers doing get‑out‑the‑vote (GOTV) activity have access to residential hotels on the same basis as other visitors. Advocates and SRO tenants testified at length that door‑to‑door outreach increases registration and turnout for an isolated population with limited Internet and phone access.
Supervisors voiced concerns about balancing tenant privacy and protection from harassment with access; at least one supervisor asked to modify language that would allow "guests of occupants" to be used as a route for broad campaign access. The committee voted to forward Item 13 with recommendation and Item 14 with a 2–1 roll‑call result, with dissent noted.
