San Francisco firefighters are still on duty, working shifts at the firehouse, responding to calls and conducting fire safety inspections. As part of an ongoing series of conversations with front-line workers, Civic spoke with local firefighter Adam Wood. He says that, among other things, firefighters are wearing protective equipment where possible, cleaning common areas and equipment three times a day and bracing for a spike in COVID-19 cases.

Now more than 850 members strong, the Sunset Neighborhood Help Group is made entirely of volunteers and was sparked by just one person’s post offering to pick up groceries for those unable to leave their homes. In this recording of a live webinar organized by the Public Press, full-time artist and Sunset resident Bianca Nandzik, her husband Stefan and former printing industry worker Frank Plughoff share their experience building a mutual aid society from the ground up.

Some San Francisco bookstores carry a colorful magazine that looks like the New Yorker of the west coast. This is the San Franciscan, a volunteer passion project. Amanda Legge and Erica Messner are two women living in San Francisco and working full time in non-media jobs who started the magazine purely for fun. Messner says part of the inspiration for the magazine came from a desire to reflect the creativity the two saw around them.

City officials said Wednesday that the city would be leasing some 7,000 hotel rooms to house those who may have COVID-19 and cannot isolate themselves, and some vulnerable homeless people, and also announced new mental health support programs for frontline workers and city employees. Listen to the full press conference audio here for these and other updates.

As the SFMTA makes drastic cuts to service to prevent further spread of the coronavirus, drivers are afraid of being infected and are asking for masks, gloves, hand sanitizer and wipes. Five cases have been confirmed among Muni workers. Roger Marenco, president of the Transport Workers Union Local 250-A, which represents Muni bus drivers and some other transit workers, said the city has not been able to keep the number of passengers on buses low enough to ensure social distancing.

San Francisco leaders announced at a press conference Monday, April 6, that changes would be made to the emergency shelter at Moscone Center West after 19 people there were found to have had contact with two former residents of another shelter who have contracted the coronavirus. Listen to the full press conference, including updates about testing, hospital capacity, and coronavirus data, here.

As of Monday, April 6 three people in San Francisco’s shelter system had tested positive for coronavirus. Chris Herring, a sociologist and doctoral candidate at the University of California, Berkeley, is among those who have been calling for homeless people to be moved into hotel rooms. Herring has studied homelessness and its governance for the past decade, and says the coronavirus crisis has interacted with and exacerbated the public health problem of homelessness.

In What's New & What's Next, the Civic team offers a roundup of San Francisco news and a look at what's ahead on the city's calendar. The news: With extended shelter-in-place, officials also recommend wearing face coverings in public. Mayor London Breed lays out who will be placed in empty hotel rooms. SFPD begins to issue citations for noncompliance with shelter-in-place order. City College gets interim chancellor. Coming up: New CCSF chancellor to hold virtual town hall.

As the third week of sheltering in place came to a close in San Francisco, city officials said efforts to move homeless people into hotel rooms would be focused on the most vulnerable, and asked for trust and compliance as the city manages the coronavirus pandemic. Listen to the full briefing audio from 4/03 here.

In mid-March, Gov. Gavin Newsom issued what he called an eviction moratorium. But many tenant advocates say the term is misleading, because it postpones evictions rather than prevents them. Some landlords, too, are wondering how they’ll make ends meet, and to what extent the state will step in to help them if tenants just can’t pay. Advocates for both groups say landlords and tenants should start open communication to negotiate an approach that works for both sides to keep everyone in place.