the richmond district. i am one of them. so we have the executive director of the golden gate senior services who will talk to us about senior needs. >> mayor lee, supervisor olague, chiu, mar, i am the director of golden gate senior services and also a senior myself. one of the programs we operate is the richmond senior center, which is out on geary boulevard between 26 and 27th ave. i appreciate the opportunity to speak with you tonight. golden gate senior services is a non-profit agency and was established 37 years ago to provide services to seniors at about half the cost to the city if they were to provide similar services. we can do this because our

salary scale is about half of what the city would pay for similar positions. we have a scaled-back health plan for our staff, and i'm ashamed to say we have no retirement for our staff. there are over 15,000 seniors in district 1, and the richmond senior center is full every day providing a full range of activities and lunch. each year we are asked to take budget cuts. in the past, supervisors have helped to restore some of these cuts. last year, mayor lee added money back to the department of aging. i appreciate and am grateful for this. for this upcoming budget, the human services agency and the department of a bold an aging services have submitted a budget to mayor lee with no cuts to service providers. i urge you to accept their budget. at the same time, the cost of

doing business for nonprofit contractors, like golden gate senior services, has gone up year after year. over the last five years, our health care costs have risen on an average of 7.5% a year. that is about 30% over the last five years. it is now costing us on an average of $858 a month for each employee. this is just one example of the rising cost that we have just to keep our doors open. this responsibility for our staff and seniors sometimes seems like a heavy weight on my shoulders. if at all possible, i would urge you all to give city contractors the cost of doing business increase. it would send an important message to all of us, that the city, indeed, values our work. thank you so much. [applause] >> now we will hear from

somebody from district 5, gordon phillips from the diamond youth shelter, talking about homelessness and also someone from the haight street referral center. you are here? i knew that. >> good evening, supervisors, mayor lee, department heads, we appreciate their opportunity to be transparent in this process. i am representing larkin street youth services. we have been around for 25 + years. over 25 programs serving the city's most vulnerable. we have two particular sites at district 5. our haight street referral center and we also have our diamond youth shelter which serves the cities most vulnerable you, an emergency

shelter for temporary stays. i want to speak recognizing that there is lots of priority that are being made around the budget process, recognizing also that our city has as a fundamental belief and value that we will maintain services for families, seniors, and i would like to advocate and urge that you also maintained its services. currently we have the eight st. referral center that operates on limited powers due to funding restrictions, staffing capacity levels. additionally, we have our diamond youth shelter that the upper during the day simply due to some of the neighborhood relations issues around having that site there within the panhandle districts. we want to see some of that change. reebok to see the funding maintained. as we look at making these are decisions, our needs are also being met. i'm also going to turn the mike

over to steve, a case manager. so she can speak more to the specific needs of the homeless youth population in the haight district. >> good evening. thank you for listening to us. i have been working as a case manager for about two years at the referral center. i usually work with approximately 10 youth. last year we had at approximately 1700 to come through the referral center. i just want to urge you that there is an outreach staff. we have four at the referral center. i am the only case manager there. i want to make sure you understand, recognize that youth is really important for our community, even if there from other places. a lot of those folks and coming here to make this place their home.

a lot of these folks are very smart and have a lot to give to our communities. i also wanted to mention, when it comes down to how the community is interacting with the youth population, i would encourage that the police presence in the community would be more engaging and welcoming, trying to build relationships, rather than a hardened hand when speaking, like around the lake situation that has been going on there. i appreciate everyone coming out. i just want to recognize that some of you that i worked with have been severely mentally ill and i have been able to support them and facilitate them getting into long-term housing. that is something, if we have more funding, we would be able to do. if we had more funding, we would not have a place for people to

go during the day so that they can spend time off the streets, instead of on the streets creating a problem for the neighbors. i hate to say like that, but that is how it is put. some of the utah have talked about have spoken about community gardens and things like that. they're interested in giving back. i want folks to know that that is a big part of who we are serving in the haight. everyone has a story and we should give them the opportunity to share with one another. thanks. >> thank you very much. now, speaking about families and children, from district 1, from the richmond district neighborhood center, we have patricia. >> thank you. she and her husband were instrumental in the beginning of the richmond district neighborhood center.

that was 36 years ago. totally a grass-roots effort to save the school district law from being turned into condominiums, and turning it into social services for the richmond district, which there are very few social services. we now have served over 3000 people per week in all of the schools and other sites around the richmond district. we do that on a $3 million budget. our main focus at the neighborhood center is that we are trying to keep families in san francisco. all of you have read over and over again how we lose our families. you see corridors of the city where there are many strollers about, and then you say, happens to all of them? they move out when they want to buy a home or go to a good school. we have to get the word out that we have good schools. we are proud of our schools in

the richmond district. my children went to alamos school. i personally would not run a program that i would not send my own child to. i challenge all of you to have that same mantra for yourselves, that you would not put a child somewhere where you would not put your own child. that is what we need to do in san francisco, understand that all families of all ages, all the grandparents that what their kids to school, they are critical for their safety, for their mental health and living experience. i feel strongly about that. i have seen that in the 42 years i have lived in the richmond district. i have seen it change. we have gone larger and larger. we have gone more diverse, which is a lovely thing for us. we have got to stand up as richmond district residents to say what our needs are in the richmond district. there are great pockets of need. at the neighborhood center, we have many food banks across the

richmond district. our food bank on thursday, we have to close down at 200 people. they are predominantly. and families. since 2010 and those numbers have gone from seniors to more and more families coming. so we have younger people coming to the food banks. we have got to hold onto those people and support them and give them jobs. one of the things we do through the beacon program is jobs for youth. we train people to feel good about themselves, that they have the talents and tools they need to be the best possible worker, whatever it is we're doing. i encourage all of you -- thinking so much for coming, thank you for having these town halls, and remember the richmond district and all of these people sitting here very quietly. wonderful, safe neighborhoods with lots of pockets of need.

do not forget us when you go to do the budgeting process. thank you. [applause] >> and it could have been just a few condominiums. it is a wonderful place. my triplet grandchildren will grow up and do a lot of things in the richmond district center, i hope. our last speaker is going to be from district 5, that the washington, a community member and district 5 resident, who will talk about you if, and he is young. >> how are you doing? my name is matthew washington. i grew up in san francisco in the western addition, fell more area, district 5 to you all, like we are aliens from the district 5 movie or something. my concern about how you guys

are going to allocate your budget is for the youths. i grew up in housing -- you know -- you work with the housing? you? horrible job. horrible job. when i move into the housing, i was 5 years old with my family. in the backyard there was grass. it is gravel now. we used to play football out there. if you play football on their, you will get hurt. recently, we had a murder up the street from where my mother lives. you all have cameras on the corner and everything. i do not know if they function or not, but this is a concern to me because it affects our youth generally from little babies to 17, they have nothing to do during the summer, nothing to do after school. i think it would be wise to allocate funding to the

families, predominantly the families in public housing, or the family that you all are talking about that are dwindling in san francisco. a lot of them are forced to move out of san francisco because of certain been the that affect the community and the cost of living is going up in san francisco as well. these people are important to your community because what is your next generation of san francisco? visit a cat that moved here and has the next internet boom? or is it the children of san francisco that have pride for san francisco, have family in san francisco. these kids are just as intelligent as someone coming from another state to go to these colleges to be part of the silicon valley, which is our neighbor, to be a part of companies within san francisco, like twitter. we have billion dollar companies out here, and these children

know about these companies, they use their devices, facebook, twitter, myspace. my advice would be to allocate some funding to the children so that they can learn how to become a part of these companies, become a part of these new things, because they are just as smart as the kids moving into san francisco to start these businesses. the only difference is, they had the privilege an opportunity to learn early, to write code on computers. put a computer in the middle of turk, i guarantee you will have the next markzuckerberg come out of the project in san francisco. how would you like to know that? when i see that number of $6.8 billion, that is a lot of money. that is how we feel you all need to allocate funding, for those

families. those families in the projects. [applause] >> you have heard from some very powerful speakers. they have said some things that is the truth about government. what is government for, and what is that money for? government is to help the youngest, the oldest, and those who cannot help themselves. we are talking about families. we are talking about you if. we are talking about transportation that brings people in and takes people out. we are talking about all of these things that people need. you are going to hear more because we have some speakers who will want to come up here. two minutes each. they will come up and ask their

questions or give their opinion. first -- i hope i read this right -- linda from district 1. >> mayor lee, supervisors, thank you for inviting members of the richmond area to speak today. i want to say something about seniors in the district. i manage the senior center on a daily basis. we have our programs, music, billiards, we have a drum circle month -- once a month. hippie hill in golden gate park inspired our drum circle. i want to tell a story about two

of our seniors. we have one gentleman who was born in korea. he came to the united states as a young man. he was born with cerebral palsy. he is wheelchair-bound. he has limited use of his two hands. he comes to the center twice a week and does part with us. he draws pictures of his church. his church has stained-glass doors and palm trees. we have several hundred pictures of this church because he draws it again and again, he loves it so much. his state is so great. his friend is roberts yip, a san francisco transplant, a merchant seamen. he had lived in the richmond district for 30 years, owns a house about two blocks away from the senior center. he takes care ofinsun. insun takes medication.

robert helps them. he always make sure that he has a chair and makes sure that he has a napkin and silverware. this is how the two men take care of each other. it is a lovely french ship, and it happened in the senior center. that is what your money does. thank you. [applause] >> we have a person from huckleberry house, patrick. i want to tell you, huckleberry house save my family, so i really want you to speak. >> my name is patrick. i am a case manager at huckleberry house, in the fifth district. i am a resident of the first district, so this works out nicely. i want to talk about the cost of living adjustments that we were hearing about. i do not think either one of you were in that committee.

to talk about why there are important, i first need to talk about huckleberry house itself. we are an emergency shelter for a 11to 17-year olds in the city. we are open 24 hours a day. we are open 365 days a year. we work with children and families in crisis. if there is violence in the home, if there is a kid running away -- we get kids from all of the country and the world running away from different situations. we work with kids who are having drug abuse issues, alcohol abuse issues, we work with kids who are suicidal, any kind of crisis that the youth might be going through in the city. because of the work that we do, a lot of the city agencies and a lot of the not-for-profit in the city are dependent on us or them to be able to their job, child

crisis, the police department -- i have a list. schools, a juvenile probation, therapists, community-based organizations. i understand you have a lot of difficult decisions to make when it comes to this budget, but you need to understand what kind of decisions -- what your decisions are. you can either give us the money when it comes to these increases, so we can continue to do the job we need to do, or you will still have kids in crisis. so you will end up spending more money in the long run. otherwise, you spend money putting kids into foster care with course outcomes. he will spend more money having kids on the street. you are going to spend more money -- god forbid having kids in hospitals from abuse or because of suicides. i'm out of time, but i appreciate it. i would love to meet with you afterwards. [applause] >> now we have sarah, who will

be talking about seniors and a dull day programs. when i work with seniors, i know how important that is. . >> thank you, good evening. my name is sarah chan, the director for the self-help for the elderly adults services. i am here to talk about seniors and their families. really, representing the frail seniors to attend our adult day services center in district 1. because we are so grateful to mayor lee, supervisor mar, supervisor chu, olague, for your continuous support for the adult day services in the adult community. as you know, providing services to the seniors, providing an

opportunity for them to continue to stay with their family, spending quality time, instead of going to a nursing home or other institutions. as you know, in the last year, we have been in this big battle with the state. we almost lost our program. thanks to mayor lee for helping to save our program so that seniors can continue to come to the center. it has been a tremendous impact for their family and their life. as we know, in 2010, the census, in district 1, about 10,000 seniors and 65 and older. 1500 over 75. in our center in district 1, we have about three centers. we are taking care of about 400

seniors. that is only about 4%. preserving these services is important. mayor lee is asking about innovative solutions. we are saving money and we are much cheaper than going to a nursing home. so we continue to thank mayor lee and your team, to remember us when you do your budget, continue to be sensitive to the seniors needs. thank you so much. >> it should be noted, when the state said they were going to cut adult day services, ours was the only city that said, we will help. it is the only city that i have seen in this state that stepped in. caroline goodman. she is here to speak. ok. the next speaker will be ann

chung. >> good evening, everybody. my concern -- i am in district 5. i am going to say this. we need to ensure we provide young people with jobs and internships, opportunities, but we also have to make sure that we prepare them with life skills that allow them to be successful in their position. another thing. we want to make sure that the youth has behavior and technical training when they enter the workforce. many of you in district 5 are disconnected from job opportunities, even unpaid internships that allow them to gain valuable experience. so i am speaking for the youth

in district 5. we need help for our youth. [applause] >> ann chung from district 1. >> thank you. good evening, mayor, supervisors. i am from self-help for the elderly. i want to share with you this associated press article that came out on april 19. the title just says "census statistics show older asian and hispanic populations growing at a rate of three times higher than that of the white and black population." specifically for california, between 2000 and 2010, asian seniors over 55 grew about 74%. hispanic seniors grew about 73%.

the white seniors grew about 18%. 34% is for the black seniors growth. with this kind of alarming statistics, one would think that we need to do something with all of our city services, from health care to human services, social service, transportation. other speakers have also talked about how you need to make them culturally competent. if we do not, then these vast population of immigrant seniors who do not speak english at all or fluently are going to put a strain on the system. i am here to urge you to take a look at the statistics and the growing trend of immigrant seniors in all of our city services and hope that you will provide language access. one way, -- thinking osha for the translation services.

set aside some money for the department so that they can really provide services for the immigrants and refugees, particularly, those who do not speak english fluently. thank you very much. [applause] >> we have, from district 5, irvus. >> good evening, mayor, supervisors, city staff. district 5, unfortunately -- fortunately, i went to washington, so i made of also. i could talk about every service hear from business to four redevelopment, to housing, to work force, public housing -- i could go down the line.

as you guys do the private- public partnerships, let's do a community partnership. let's partner with our small business agency in district 5 and around the city. let's start with public housing and do some more training. not just for the youth, but for the adults. this is my third funeral in the month of april, in three weeks. we do not need just a job training for young folks to we need adults also. i want to ask christina, if we can have a representative from every agency to meet with us monthly in the western addition to develop this partnership -- not just during the budget season -- but after beard we need to deal with this monthly. -- we need to meet monthly to do with this crisis. [applause] >> the next speaker is vera.

she is talking about dos. >> i am a member of the advisory council to the department of aging and adult services, and immigrants rights commission. i worked with senior so long i actually became one. that can happen to you, too. [laughter] i think nick covered what i wanted to say about the department of aging and adult services, but i want to give you an overview of exactly how many seniors there are. there are 154,700 for seniors in san francisco, and that is 19.2% san francisco, and that is 19.2% of the population.