us to do no less. plan and now, when so many of the years she stepped up to help find the federal funding to save it, it is our turn to step up one hour congress is not able to make that task, and we're stepping up. i want to say thank you to everybody behind me. we have representative reynolds here on behalf of congresswoman pelosi. i value his work with us on a local basis. and then all of our community partners who have been with us for many, many years. i want to thank them, too, for their invaluable service to us. thank you. scott -- [applause] >> thank you, mr. mayor. when supervisor campos and i went to merely to ask him to work with us on this -- went to mayor lee to ask him to work with on this, he was enthusiastic and rock-solid in his support. i had the honor of representing

district 8, which includes the castro and surrounding neighborhoods, and my district has been the hardest hit by the hiv/aids pandemic. and it has the highest number of people living with hiv/aids. and i see, every single day, constituents of mine who absolutely depend on these services, whether it is access to housing, legal services, to health care, to mental health services. these are not optional services. these are not luxury services. these are basic bedrock services for a significant number of people living in this city. you know, over my dead body are we going to retreat from our commitment to the people living with hiv/aids and those at risk. and i really just want to emphasize how grateful i am and how grateful we all are to nancy pelosi, who went to congress in

1987 and in her maiden speech on the floor of the house talked about how she was there to fight hiv/aids, and she has fought it in an incredibly heroic manner for the last 25 years. we all owe her an enormous debt of gratitude for her leadership on this issue and for the unending funding that she has brought into sentences go to allow us to maintain our commitment to those living with and at risk for this disease. so, thank you, a leader pelosi, for standing with us and continuing to stand with us. i now want to bring up my colleagues, supervisors david campos and supervisor christina olague, as well as dan bernall speaking on behalf of the leader pelosi. >> thank you very much, supervisor wiener. let me echo what he said about leader policy, who will always be speaker pelosi, but we have

been very lucky in san francisco that we have had representatives -- representation in washington d.c. -- washington, d.c., that has advocated for the agency community, and has made san francisco an example for the rest of the country in how to treat that community. as scott indicated, we, in san francisco, have a lot to be brought up, and we should not go backwards. i want to thank mayor lee for the fact that when supervisor wiener and i went to him, there was no question, no hesitation. i think those of us or members of this lgbt community, we're very grateful to you and want you to know that we appreciate that commitment that you have made. i want to thank our director of public health who also was instrumental in making this possible, barbara garcia. i am very excited about our

newly appointed lgbt supervisor, christina olague. i think this is her second -- second press conference as is supervisor cohen that might be her first co-sponsors of providing it is a testament to her commitment to our community that she is here. i think that it says the very clear message also about the unity that we have on the board of supervisors. we, the lgbt supervisors, understand that we have to make sure that we are united in trying to protect our community. and this funding literally will save lives, has saved lives. we're talking about protecting the most vulnerable in our community. so i am proud to be a part of a city government that makes that investment. again, i want to thank speaker pelosi, mayor lee, supervisor wiener, supervisor olague, and we look forward to the full board approving this matter expeditiously. finally, i want to thank the advocacy committee for those who are working with people living with aids/hiv, who brought this

to our attention and pushed for this forward. he could not have happened without their support. so thank you very much. [applause] >> i want to thank mayor lee and supervisors wiener and campos for inviting me to participate in this action today. it is my first action as a supervisor, a member of the board of supervisors. i am very proud to be here as part of that, as part of this effort. i have worked extensively with low-income tenants in san francisco. i have worked with the seniors and people living with disabilities. i have seen, also, folks who are able-bodied have, you know, reach points in their life where they are no longer able to work, due to the devastating impact of this disease. it is unconscionable that we can do all that we can to make sure the people who are suffering

from the impact of aids still have some ability to access the senate quality of life housing and health care. i first moved here in 1982, and that was really at the very beginning of this devastating disease. and i had many friends that i lost, as we all have here in san francisco. many of my friends i lost in the 1980's. i remember one year we were having thanksgiving dinner with friends, and is started out with 10 of us at the table. by the year 2000, only three of us were left. and it was all due to the impact of aids. so i know that we're all familiar with those losses. again, i want to think supervisors wiener and campos

for inviting me here. i also want to let knowledge the efforts of the lgbt community and all of those cbo's that do work daily, delivering services and to the committee. so, again, thank you. [applause] >> good morning, and thank you all for being here. i am district are preferred democratic leader nancy pelosi. she cannot be here today, but she did ask me to come to share some words and to express her data gratitude to mayor ed lee for his continued and outstanding leadership and continued commitment in the fight against hiv and aids. and also to supervisors winner, campos, and olague for all the work they're doing, the mayor is fantastic that, director of public health, thank you. thank you. she also wanted me to express

her deep gratitude to all of the members of the community of hiv/aids service providers, some of whom are represented today, some we have lost in the last few years, but for their ongoing commitment in the fight against hiv/aids. here is leader pelosi's statement. "the fight against hiv/aids and for those fighting against this terrible disease has been one of my top legislative priorities for the of 25 years. san francisco was hit early and hit hard by the devastation of hiv/aids, but san franciscans responded by developing a model of care that became the model for the ryan white care act. our city shows that, bourbons of hiv/aids work saves lives by keeping people healthy and productive. today, again, san francisco leads the way for compassionate, community-based care with the supplemental budget from mayor lee. ryan white funded initiatives

are saving lives. declines in aids deaths are a direct result of the '30s and services that have been made more widely available through the ryan white act to large numbers of uninsured and underinsured people here that is why it was disappointing when the bush administration first proposed severe cuts, and that is why i have fought continued republican efforts to sustain these cuts. for several years, i worked successfully in a bipartisan way to roll back these destabilizing cuts and their potentially devastating impact. since 2007, we have restored nearly $21 million to san francisco systems of care. every step of the way in fighting these cuts, i have found a partner in the san francisco mayor's office, beginning with mayor newsom and continued by mayor lee. today's announcement by mayor lee of $1.8 million in

supplemental city funding will result in save lives. i look also like to a knowledge supervisors wiener, campos, and olague and members of the san francisco hiv/aids planning council for their leadership in this fight. together, we will uphold the spirit of the ryan white care act, insuring that hiv aids care, treatment, prevention and research receive increased funding and improving in strengthening those investments until hiv/aids is a painful chapter in the distant past." thank you very much. [applause] >> i now want to welcome two members of the hiv/aids provider community. the vice-president of the hiv/aids provider network, and also the executive director of the positive resource center, and the member and former co- chair of the san francisco

health services planning council and who often -- also serves as the director of the drug policy alliance. >> scott is tall, and i am short. good morning, everyone. as scott said, i am had to be the executive director of positive resource center, but i stand before you today as a representative of the hiv/aids provider network. the hiv/aids provider network is a coalition of over 30 san francisco-based nonprofits that provide a comprehensive array of services daily to people living with hiv and aids. today is a good day for san francisco, and let me tell you why. in december when the service provider community found out about this loss of funding of over $4 million, we truly were in a state of shock, but we knew what was at stake. so we quickly got to work

meeting with barbara garcia at the department of public health, supervisors campos and wiener and the mayor to figure out what solution we could put to these devastating cuts, and i am pleased to report that all of them were keenly aware -- hold on one second. i am pleased to report that all of them were keenly aware of these devastating cuts long before we met face to face, so we gather here today to thank and acknowledge mayor lee, supervisors wiener campos and olague for their receptive ear and nimble response to our request for support to help mitigate these devastating cuts. mayor lee and the supervisors joint request for supplemental appropriation of $1.8 million will help ensure the

continuation of vital primary care and supportive services, which are essential to the health and well-being of people living with hiv and aids. san francisco has provided leadership to the entire country with an effective model of care to respond to the aids crisis. the leadership that is represented here today and the cooperation is reflected here today, and we rely on it in the coming years. to the remaining board members, with -- when this important piece of legislation reaches your desk, i encourage you to move forward with swiftness because the very people whose lives are impacted by it hangs in the balance. while we're pleased and grateful for the result of our collective work today, there is still so much work to do. the community of service providers, dph, the mayor, the supervisors have all made a strong commitment to continue to dialogue in an effort to design a strategy to minimize the harm

in this loss of funding. in closing, i'd like to thank congresswoman pelosi and her office for her unapologetic and strident commitment of hiv issues over the years. congresswoman pelosi is passionate and true. my grandmother always said when people show you who they are, believe them. leader pelosi has shown us who she is, and we believe her and we believe in her, and we thank her for standing in the fight all these years. she in deed is our hero. for all of us here today, i asked that we remain focused, educated on the issues, and resolved to achieving the outcome of our choosing in making sure that people living with hiv and aids are given the necessary services and maintain a good and decent quality of life. again, thank you for your work in the community and thank you for your presence here today. [applause]

>> we are going in the right order. we are the federally mandated community planning council that prioritizes and allocates the federal ryan white funds for three county areas including san francisco, san mateo, and marin counties. one of the things we have had to do in prioritizing and allocating those funds for the last several years is decide where and how to cut funds that we know are desperately needed by people living with hiv in san francisco. so with that, i am incredibly grateful and thankful to mayor lee, supervisors campos, wiener, and olague from saving us from had to make this difficult decisions for the next few months. there are more people living with hiv in san francisco now than there have ever been, and yet, we have fewer federal resources for the services that

we know are needed. it has been going down for the last 15 years. federal funding is half of what it used to be, despite the best efforts. state funding for a chevy services has entirely evaporated, and health care reform is at best an unfunded mandate right now. we have to go back to where we were when the epidemic started in san francisco set the model for the nation in the world in stepping up and taking care of people here in san francisco. we are a city of compassion and justice, and we are willing to use our resources to take care of people here in san francisco, even when other governments are not living up to their responsibilities. this is san francisco stepping up to assure the people living with hiv continue to get the services and treatment that they need.

also, we need to continue to invest in hiv prevention, which is also taking a cut this year. there is a sense among people who work in hiv that the end is in sight, the end of this epidemic is in sight for the first time ever, but that will only happen if we continue to fully invest in effect of it said the prevention efforts and if we ensure that everyone can access hiv/aids treatment and can stay on it and get the full benefit. san francisco, as we have since the beginning, in showing how to do this, but we need the resources to match our heart and brain. there is work to do. how do we continue to address this challenge into the next fiscal year? we pledged to work with the mayor's office, the board of supervisors, leader pelosi's

office, the at&t/aids provider network to do everything we can to insure those resources are there and as we transition services from 11 extreme to another that it is done as seamlessly as possible. on behalf of the hiv health services planning council, i want to again thank leader pelosi for everything she has done and the mayor and the members of the board of supervisors for stepping up so quickly in this moment of need and injuring the people living with hiv will continue to get the services. thank you. [applause] >> everyone, thank you for being here today.

good morning, everyone. thank you for joining us at the under construction site. thank you to the developers and call their supporters and certainlthe people that i had met last year, including dennis rogers. we're all here on that rainy day last year when we kick started this project with the developers and housing advocates. your story here also with supervisor and board president david chiu with supervisor kim

and our newest supervisor, christina olague. thank you for all being here. [applause] first, let me begin by saying that during the campaign for mayor and certainly post- campaign, there has been a very strong effort on our part to make sure that job creation and economic development, as i said in my speech and inauguration -- that that becomes a priority for me and my administration. i have a lot of support that the board for this as well. part of that not only is when we talk about jobs and talk about the training and getting people involved that the early level of their education to get into the work force and making sure that they see san francisco as full of hope for them, but also, we have got to take care of some of the other important elements of

having a good, strong work force, and that is housing. not just for low-income, although here, that is what this is focused on. that is why we have so many advocates here today, but they will agree that work force and middle-class housing is just as important in this town. as we see a lot of expensive housing going up -- and that is good, too, but middle-class housing, housing for folks that are working and taking care of families is as important. that is why today, i wanted to use this site and use the opportunity to bring all of our housing advocates together with developers, with financial people, with people representing real estate association, property owners, and so forth, to come together and talk about the need to fill the void, as we have been talking about, where redevelopment is thought to be eliminated on february 1, and where there are constant challenges. in my opinion, have to use the

word of abandonment. but the end of state-funded programs. the curtailment at the federal level of programs that we could use to create an ongoing source for funding housing in the creation of housing. i know that our housing authority commissioners who are here -- director henry alvarez is here as well -- they will immediately agree. we are not going to take this lying down. we will not become victims, as i said earlier. even if they eliminate redevelopment, we are coming back. we are bringing people together and coming back with private enterprises, developers, people who have worked together with us. they know that delivery of promises has never been about a reliance on government programs, that we would fail ourselves and fail our community if we are so inclined to allow ourselves to lie down. that is why i have helped to assemble this group of people behind me. also people in front of me that

are represented in the private sector. people who have been very successful in producing housing. we need everybody to work together. today, i am announcing that in light of the idea that we had about forming the housing trust fund, that we begin forming a housing trust fund working group. a working group of people reflective of all the talent in our city, from advocates to developers to producers to people who maintain housing stock in the city well. that is the private housing developers, the real estate association, to the business mines and the city, and that i would like a trust fund working group to help me help our whole city come up with the best ideas possible and afford ourselves with an opportunity to work with our borders supervisors, leadership of the board to amass

the best ideas we can and bring it if need be to the ballot in november. i want this working group to welcome all the best ideas and then to struggle, if you will, with those ideas to make sure that we come out with the most agreeable schedule of ideas that we can present to the voters and residents that we are not going to abandon our commitment to this city to build housing for everybody. we are not going to allow ourselves to lie down and say that just because the state and defense do not find this to be their highest priority, in san francisco, we do. as we build training programs for our employees, as we build the technology and the grain industry to complement our tourism industry for good jobs, that we also are talking about the housing that we need to

support our local industry and our local workers. i think that we need a press, a thrust at this housing trust to bring everybody together and say that we could challenge ourselves to come up with the best ideas and to forge alliances that maybe have been in the past only at the affordable housing level for only at the luxury housing level or the market rate housing level, that we can forge an alliance together to build middle-class housing that the city desperately needs. so i am announcing today this forging. i am asking the director of our mayor's office of housing to take the leadership up on this and ask everybody to come to gather on an agenda. some of the people that we have asked today to come together here, both in front and behind me, include the housing advocates, the council on

community housing organizations, enterprise community partners, the non- profit housing association, mercy, bridge, chinatown community development, tabernacle, who is part of this effort here. the community housing partnerships. tenderloin housing. i know randy is here today. mission housing. south of market. community action. enterprise community partners. and then, of course, the developer family. san francisco planning and urban research, the housing action coalition. lennar is here today. thank you for being here. jackson. pacific. hei capital. bank of america. tenants union. coming together to join all of us to make this effort genuinely open for dialogue and for hopefully reaching an agreement again so that we can house our

middle-class families and make sure that we represent everybody can have housing for everyone in the city. with that, i would like to ask members of our board of supervisors to join with me on this. president chiu. [applause] supervisor chiu: thank you, mayor lee. i am really happy that we have represented to a really a wonderful spectrum of folks that care about a topic of folks that i think we all have been talking about for quite some time. mayor lee referred to the proposals he put out last year on the campaign trail. i can tell you that every candidate last year was talking about the importance of affordable housing. it is time to move beyond talk, though, to figure out what the solutions are, but something on the ballot, and get it done. i want to thank all my colleagues who are here. i know supervisor wiener has been leading in making sure we remember the importance of workforce housing. our newest colleagues supervisor olague has been making sure to

work with tenants. we all have a real commitment to making sure that we're bringing together all the diverse voices, and i know that every constituency who is here wants to make sure that we see housing built at different segments and different parts of the housing need that we have. we have to figure out how we get it all done. i know that the mayor is committed to this and i am committed to making sure we're figuring out how everyone can be at the table, how we can all craft solutions that will represent a good stepping board in building was san francisco is going to look like in the 21st century. thank you for being here. we look forward to getting this work done. [applause] supervisor olague: hello. most of you know me because we have worked together on all sides of the housing issue. i wrote a very brief note that i

want to put out there to confirm my commitment to this dialogue and to this working group. i want to say that i am very excited to be coming to the board as these conversations begin. i look forward to working in collaboration with tenant activists and developers and others who have worked with in the past over the past several years to find ways to address the overwhelming need the city has for low and middle-income housing. the need is great and immediate, but we cannot begin to find solutions without dialogue. please feel free to stop by my office if you want to have individual conversations so we can go and have a little bit more in-depth talk about this because sometimes when you get into the working group, it is, you know, that format is a little bit constrained. i would like to have conversations with those of you here who aren