at the beginning of every year, whether chinese new year begins in january or february, the city and county sets a great example for the other major cities in this country in the way we celebrate lunar new year, and especially with the leadership of all the members and supporters and volunteers of the chinese chamber of commerce. we have seen so many years of the street fairs, the parades' that attract a quarter million people. we really have set an example for the rest of the country. i want to congratulate everyone for their hard work. i look forward to seeing everybody this saturday at the parade. taking an example of the lunar utah -- lunar new year and how celebrate it, we talked about it lunar new year and chinese new year as the same period that are

pretty much the same, but lunar new year is celebrated by many groups within the asian american community, including korean- americans, vietnamese americans, and many others. we want to celebrate the chinese new year every year, but also the occasion of asia pacific heritage month in grand style, and set an example for the rest of the country. this year, our theme is celebrating heritage, advancing education. we will be presenting three awards to distinguished individuals and organizations in the area us of advancing education. the nomination is open to the public. we will have more information in the weeks to come. this evening, talking about history and culture, a reception for the ceremony. we have a calligrapher and a

musician who will entertain us as part of tonight's celebration. [speaking a foreign language]

lastly, we have a special presentation. i would like to bring up commissioner and each one -- commissioner amy chuang. also representing -- i did not realize all of this. would you like to introduce the artist? this is a very special year of the dragon presentation. the artist. [speaking a foreign language]

>> thanks, claudine. mr. mayor, i know you are pressed on time.

thank you for being here tonight. your staff has asked me to call you back. i think you are late for a meeting. the work of a dragon. thank you, sir. tonight, we are honored to be with family, friends, and loved ones who help us celebrate this new beginning. we are also here with members of the elected family and special dignitaries. i want to acknowledge some of the other officials present in the audience. i know the mayor's wife is here. would you stand up? say hello. the director of civic affairs is here. emily murase is here. police chief greg suhr, and the director of dpw. we also have the president of the police commission, mr. mazzucco.

we have tiger mendoza, who sits on the school board. and we have the consul general of the philippines and the consul general of vietnam. we also have share of -- sheriff mirkarimi here, and treasurer cisneros. it is an honor on behalf of the city and county to celebrate such a cultural event as the lunar new year. this concludes tonight's ceremonies. please enjoy the reception that follows in the north light court. thank you to moon star for providing delicious food. thank you to the youth at cyc for the amazing dragon dance. speaking [a foreign-language] thank you all. good night.

there is a few of uic from the mayor's office. but get that right there. --we want to thank the advanced english academy. thank you, thank you so much. [applause] they helped with the set up and take down. we were doing it all day yesterday. we want to thank them. they're not here but we will give them around of applause.

we have people who provided coffee for the volunteers. and the ambassadors have done so much to transport participants from the bayview to hear and they helped do a lot of outrage for us. thank you to the community ambassadors. you are still outside, i think. we also, i want to identify a couple of other people. i do not know of you know this. we are the founders of something -- there are 200 pages these -- ph.d's who look at us and say, let's do this in our city. there are people from baltimore and new york. i can say san francisco does a better. [applause] we have also some people from --

calif. -- rand, california. they are remote access medical services. they did one in oakland where they saw how many people, to put you on the spot? 3000 people from medical and dental. we love that. we left people with like minds. congratulations. i also of course would like to thank our notables who will have a chance to speak. people ask me, what makes phc so great that i should fly from baltimore? she did not say it quite like that but i will say she did. i said it is the volunteers. i do not know if any of you know

the story. we are the project that is not done only by you. everything that you see here is done by volunteers. there are 200 nonprofits that are here to serve and the only way this could happen is with your help. we are using some new technologies. you have been on twitter and facebook. you are way cooler than me. i just did this last week. i have six friends and i need more. what we do every week is we have the need at the week @ phcsf. last week, we needed a crock pot. and we got one. things like that that we can mobilize resources and use technology to mobilize resources when we are all limited on

funds. like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. [applause] i want a commitment at the end of today. i need to have more than six france. the first person that we're going to introduce is someone i met in new york. about a decade ago i was running a homeless shelter and i met the next gentlemen. his passion was the same as mine to work with the homeless and he was also pretty good looking, so i married him. just because of his looks. anyhow, he is now the program director and we're going to have -- every event, we will be having a service that comes and talks about what they do. also i am having him come

because our next event is july 27 in the bayview. that will be a family connection. i want him to come to talk to you about what is going on with family homelessness. i would like to introduce my husband. >> thank you. you can see why i am still in love with her. she is as adorable as ever. good morning, everybody. another event which i am sure will be as successful. i have a few things to say. i am the program director at hamilton family residences and emergency center. it is the oldest and largest family shelter in san francisco. i was -- it was established in 1985 and is still going today. hamilton not only operates a family shelter but a

transitional housing program and permits supportive housing program and a first avenue program. it is dedicated to homelessness prevention. our mission is to end homelessness for families and individuals in the san francisco bay area and that is where we're present at every phc event. let's talk about homelessness in san francisco. we have been hearing a lot about a homeless families for the past five or six months in the media. usually harmless singles have been the face of homelessness in san francisco. there is no -- homeless families are one of the most believable groups. the first half of last year when the city conducted its annual survey, out of 6466 homeless persons, 635 of them were families.

by november of last year, there were 267 families wishing to access shelter in one of the city-funded family shelters. that is to under 67 families that did not have a regular place to sleep. -- 2647 famil7 families. the wait list was at 214. now that number on -- in november exceeded 25% more than the number of families seeking shelter at the height of the recession. we have over 190 families seeking shelter. these are families that are attempting to get placement in a family shelter. our schools are telling us we have 2200 homeless children. homeless children have a higher rate of serious and chronic

health issues, mental health problems, academic failure, behavior problems, and poor nutrition. given these numbers, it is clear we have a crisis around family homelessness. as we know, homelessness is first and foremost a housing problem and should be treated as that. more and more families are more open to intervention, more open to social service support once they are housed. we need more affordable housing. as a result of private donations and public funding through the mayor's office, the home for the holidays program over the 2011- 2012 holiday season housed dozens of homeless families that would not have had housing without the support of the mayor's office and individuals like yourself donating for these families. this is not enough. we need more housing for homeless families. until that housing materializes,

it is like -- volunteers like yourself and organizations and organizations that provide the much-needed services and support. as a provider, we're excited about the family connect in july. we thank all of you for the services and support you offer and i look forward to seeing you in july when we focus on homeless families and give the attention they deserve. thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you. our next event will be in bayview. it is family connect. we're doing it from 1:00 p.m. until 7:00 p.m., a family style dinner and a lot of nutrition and karradah classes and the same services we have here today. thank you for coming. hydra mendoza is on the

board of education. thank you for coming out. the next person i get to introduce is exciting because she is someone i talked to you guys about who helped me when i was in a bad place as a child. i am lucky she gets to be my boss. my boss is the wonderful director of public health for the city. she believes and i said this before in doing the work the clients need when the clients need it. that is what makes phc so dynamic. i want to introduce barbara garcia. >> buenos dias, good morning. it is good to be here. phc would not work without each one of you. at want to give a shout out to our officials.

stand up. you will see some of our core staff, the staff of mental health services and medical services, our medical directors who provide the structure for everyone to volunteer. i want to acknowledge them and give them a hand. we talked about resources and support. i want to a knowledge -- acknowledge penny, who is the steward of all our donations today for project, as connect. we want to acknowledge that. i just have a special announcement. the department has been working for 10 years with the social security administration to look at the issue of homeless individuals and schizophrenia. these are some of our most vulnerable population and they have a hard time trying to get into services and the kind of complications of trying to fill out all the forms and getting treatment. through the work we have collaboration with the social

security administration. we are participating in a pilot for 200 people. we hope this will become an official policy. we're individuals who are homeless with schizophrenia will have a presumptive award. meaning within five days, not two years, not one year, not six months which usually is the case. within five days with the correct process we will be doing with case managers can get ssi, the benefits and get medical care. we want to thank the social security administration on the ph -- and dph for that. i want to thank you today. we will have sore feet to day. i want to thank you and welcome back to the old phc's and u.n. trade will have a great day.

thank you. >> the next person is no stranger to phc, he is one of our best friends, bevan dufty. >> good morning, everybody. it is great to be here. i was here in february and i started as director of h.o.p.e. for mayor lee. amanda fried is here, and caitlyn jacobson, our program assistant. i have a great team working with me. even when your title is director, it is inspiring to see you here and all the folks who are getting ready to work with individuals who are coming to see us today. the mayor has said we want to take a different look at what has gone on with homelessness. family homelessness, veterans who are homeless, individuals with hiv-aides who are homeless

and our general population. our office has been on the forefront with taking new approaches. last week, mayor lee, we traveled together to seattle and we got to visit the housing they have here that works with chronic public inebriates. they have 75 individuals who live there with dignity and support. it has had -- not had barriers. i was with barbara garcia camauro amazing public health director with social security. it was such a transformative day to recognize we will qualify 200 homeless schizophrenic who are those people you see not been able to garner services. we're looking at doing some exciting things. our jails for 10 years have had a charter adult school. they have done amazing work. we are looking at bringing five keys to six straight and sunni deal. we need to have access to education.

we have 18% high-school graduation rats ies in sunnydal. it want to have the housing authority be one of the best in the nation. we want to get vacant units rehabilitated. the mayor has been helping us. home depot foundation has said they might like to cwork with out. and we have va homeless housing. and we were the nubmer one -- number one rated application out of 440 in the nation. we're doing some great things in san francisco. there are a lot of ideas and a lot of different things. you might have ideas. peer to peer, listening to individuals who have been

homeless is one of the most important things. we're looking at using 3114 shelter reservations so people do not have to line up at 3 and 4 in the morning. be part of the hope and give a share ideas and i am pleased to recognize and give the mike to our leader, mayor ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. good morning. are you ready? thank you for being here this morning. i want to thank bevan and cara and volunteers. every time i come, there is a lot of smiles on their faces. because you are doing what san franciscans have always traditionally done. with people -- when people are in need, we come out and help. will lead with our hearts. this is why i am so lucky to be the mayor of san francisco. we want everyone to share in the

richness of the city. it is rich. it is for the 100%. i have said that before. we do not divide ourselves up. whenever we have an opportunity, we come out ensure our hearts. that is what we have been known for and that is what you are doing today. some of you decided you would help me celebrate my 60th birthday by adding this as one of the 60 things you wanted to do for our city. thank you very much for being here. [applause] bevan and arbour are absolutely right. there are so many programs out there that we know we can have introduced. there are programs that reflect professional thoughts of how we can end homelessness. obviously what was said earlier about housing being in the lead but the most important thing is this city has to always show its

compassion. if you do not care about people, folks on the streets can feel that right away. they will know you are not sincere. they will know that you want to get in and corral them into some place and leave them alone so they will continue to be isolated. is that isolation from people, that uncaring attitude that other cities do not succeed in. we have an opportunity with our director of hope not only to show and demonstrate our compassion but to have real programs that people can choose to transform their lives. the best decisions are the ones that are made for people who care about themselves. how can you have people care about themselves if you do not show our compassion for them? this is why san francisco is such a great city. i want you to know that we care, we care about you, we want to make sure that you have the most highest inspiration backing you for everything you do today.

we want you to be safe as well. we want you to share in your compassion for those who are less fortunate and for those who are seeking help. if you have that moment when you are giving away a free book or introducing them to dental care there are traces out there you can help them make. that can get them into long term, support of shelter. we want to be able to do that because that is the ultimate answer. we know that to be the truth. that will be the place where people can sustain their decisions and we saw it right away. we saw in our troops and our shelters. people want not only that shelter but if they can work their way into sustainable jobs, and where they can get their self-sufficiency and their pride and respect back, there will last longer for their lives. it begins a lot of times with

whatever compassion we can show here. the connectivity that project homeless connect shows. and gets them into an attitude where there are answers for them and people that care. thank you very much for being here. thank you for volunteering your time, your money, your resources and the sharing of your hearts. thank you for being here today. [applause] >> again, i want to reiterate that -- something that merely said. this is one place where you can go where you are not alone. at 6:00 a.m., hundreds lined up in the parking lot to me you guys. they told me about seeing some of their friends who were volunteers from last time. the impact you make today, the smiles you give today truly change lives. a lot of people have contacted me and said, how can i help more? let me give you a couple of ways. i already told you facebook and twitter. that is a good one. the second thing you can do is

donate your time. those of you who have a few extra dollars and think, at $10 and i do not know what i can do. for $10, you can bear -- by someone a pair of glasses. give it to us. if you have $500, we can get someone dentures. if you have a little extra sitting around, let us know. it does straight to the clients, it does not go to staff salaries. it goes into making these events and things that work for the clients. go home and join us on facebook and twitter and before we close today, there is a lot of volunteers downstairs who have been here since very early this morning. do you think you can be loud enough so they can hear us? on the count of three, let's say thank you. let's see if this works. thank you downstairs. thank you guys, have a wonderful day. if you have any input or

feedback, let us know, we always want to do better. thank you.