My name is Scott Robinson and I am one of 200+ Massage Therapists in the city of San Francisco who received a threatening letter from the Department of Public Health stating that the massage professionals are accused of operating without DPH permits. I graduated from the National Holistic Institute massage school in 2008, over 10 years ago. I am a sole practitioner who has been working out of a chiropractic office in the Mission/Bernal area for 2 years. I’ve provided therapeutic deep tissue work there, registered my business with the city, and paid my taxes. I received their threat along with my new business registration, in point of fact. As of next week I will be moving to a new office space right by Dolores Park, also a chiropractic office.

All who received the letter were given 30 days to get into compliance, or close. We are be facing a fine of $1000 a day if not in compliance. Obtaining the permits is an unrealistic hurdle for most Massage Therapists.

https://www.sfdph.org/dph/EH/Massage/establishment.asp

In order to get a permit for Massage Therapy, one must:

Be able to find AND afford to rent a place to practice. A small portion of the city is zoned for massage therapy. It is illegal elsewhere. An individual therapist cannot get approved and then rent a room. They must already have a location in mind, and it must be in one of the limited areas where Massage Therapy is allowed to be practiced to begin the process. Therapists must be able to afford to pay rent, without seeing clients, for 6–18 months, while working with the all city departments: Department of Public Health, the Planning Department, the Police Department, the Fire Department, and the three departments within the Department of Building Inspection. Planning Department requires therapists to go through the Conditional Use process. This process is tied to the building that the Therpist wants to open their business in, and requires the owner of the building to become involved. Therapists will need to pay to have all neighbors notified, with a postcard sent by the Planning Department, telling neighbors that Massage Therapy will be practiced in that location. Therapists will also have to pay a licensed architect to draw up a picture of the location/ room to give to the Planning Department of the room that they are going to work out of. Therapists are then required to go through a hearing at the Planning Commission to see if the Commission will vote in favor of the therapist being able to OPEN their business in that location. It can take months for this hearing. The Therapist will then be required to pay for all three departments in the Department of Building Inspection to come to the location, and inspect it. Each department within DBI will be paid to come out and inspect. If any permits need to be issued to fix things that the inspectors deem wrong, the therapist will be paying for each of those permits, and then paying for all follow up inspections until the Inspectors feel that they comply. The Therapist will need to go to the Police Department and have their mug shot taken and pass an SF City Criminal Background check. A copy of their land lord’s ID will also be required to pass this background check. The therapist will need to pay for a Fire Inspection from the Fire Department. Per the DPH FAQ (https://www.sfdph.org/dph/EH/Massage/massageFAQs.asp) the Sole Practitioner license doesn’t follow the therapist if they move, so if a therapist loses their space and needs to move, the Therapist will be going through the entire process listed above yet again.

Because Massage Therapists are not allowed to practice until after they have gone through this onerous process, they are looking at having to pay to rent a location for 8–13 months without being able to earn income on that space. The fees associated with this process, are in the thousands of dollars, potentially up to over $6000. The sole practitioner application fee, alone, is $853, plus the annual fee of $853. Just to get the Sole Practitioner permit is $1706 in the first year, without any of cost of rent on an empty space, the fees to an architect, the fees to the Planning Department, the fees to the Department of Building Inspection, Police Department and Fire Department, etc.

For massage therapists trying to rent a single room to practice by themselves, these requirements aren’t just inconvenient, they are insurmountable. If a Therapist would like to share the rent with other Therapists, then ALL Therapists will be required to go through all of the steps above, individually, on the same space, paying all of the same fees again.

The legislation laid out by former-Supervisor Tang are punishing, nonsensical, and in some cases flat out dangerous for businesses and their clients. One part of the legislation ( Sec 29.31(g)) Requires: “Doors to Remain Unlocked. Massage Establishment interior and exterior doors shall remain unlocked while the Massage Establishment is open. Exterior doors may remain locked if the Massage Establishment is owned by one individual with no more than one employee or independent contractor”.

This requirement means that most other like businesses, such as chiropractors, physical therapists, and fitness locations will be unwilling to rent to a massage therapist because not being able to lock the doors to a location would leave the facilities equipment vulnerable, as well as put both employees, therapists and patients in danger.

Also in the existing law, Sec 29.32, states the massage businesses are subject to warrant-less searches by police.

I cannot wait a year for zoning and permitting to continue to practice, nor do I have $6000 dollars to pay the city in order to operate. I am aware of the city requirements, and quite frankly, they are impossible for someone of my income level to comply with, or any independent massage therapist for that matter. You can levy a $1000 a day fine on me, but I have no funds with which to pay such an outrageous fine. Shall I go to jail, or does the city just plan to leave me destitute?

This law was brought about to fight sex trafficking, and we can all agree that is a noble cause. But how does putting me and other sole practicing small business owners out of business do that? We need your help. Please, contact your city San Francisco Supervisor and tell them that this is wrong.