Rudin clarifies urine containers, food policy, and culinary program

I absolutely need to clarify the urine in people's living spaces.

There is, first of all, let it be very clear, privacy in the bathroom, stalls with doors that can be closed.

Privacy is not an issue in the bathrooms.

It's not something we've historically heard feedback on.

When people are urinating in containers, it relates to a specific medical condition.

And so that's a set of exceptions for people who have medical concerns.

And of course, we encourage folks to clean out those containers so that we can provide a clean and habitable shelter.

I also want to make clear that food is not confiscated.

We have an area, a room where people can bring food and eat from the outside.

We have recently learned from DSS that people can bring food from the outside and eat it in the cafeteria.

So we are in the process of creating a process for that.

I also lastly want to be clear that the culinary arts training program that we have on site with Project Renewal has capacity for 20 people.

cohort, it would make us thrilled if all 20 were clients at Borden.

Last cycle, we had no clients from Borden.

Now, this bespeaks the fact that we have a high employment rate, and this is a rigorous food training program, but we are always interested in prioritizing clients,

residents who live at Borden, the veterans, and would do backflips to do so, and would want to talk to you, Councilmember Wong, offline, if you've heard from people who aren't getting access to the program.

One thing that comes to mind is it's possible that they expressed interest after the cohort begins, so we would need to wait for the new cohort, but they are always welcome.

That is our priority, and candidly, one of our reasons why we wanted to host this program at the Borden Avenue residence.

Thank you all for your time.