last line of defense. she said no when we can't help them we send them over to you. we use occupy style tactics. we door knock on their homes from foreclosure lists that the investors buying the homes get and we find that half don't know the house is up to sale. we have weekly meetings for the foreclosure and eviction fighters. we have ways to pressure banks and investors to do the right thing and starting with action calls and alerts and many calls and emails. protest bank branches and we also provide referrals to hud approved counselors. get help through representative nancy pelosi's office and the mayor's office and the sheriff's

office and the office of the controller of currency but even with all of these agencies we are not able to stop the foreclosure or eviction and something that judges maybe able to institute here in san francisco is particularly important and particularly in the cases of disabled people or seniors. tenants are also impacted when evicted due to foreclosures even though they're supposedly protected by the law because the new landlords are getting these homes as an investment, not a place where they're staying and they're eager to provide incentives whether legal or not for people to leave. we had quite a few successes in obtaining loan modifications or

reversing evictions through a program and we have dealt with seniors like larry fox who is losing his home. larry fox is now on couches or in his van. >> thank you. star dust at some point -- when you're finish oppose. that's okay. at some point we may want to sit down to talk about recommendations or ideas that you have to incorporate into the recommendations because this is a serious problem that this subcommittee needs to deal with and we would like to sit down with. >>you i am happy to do that and ask the larger groups to provide recommendations as well. >> that will be fabulous and thank you that you and occupy

do. how many more city people? seth open house. okay. how are we going to did this in 15 minutes? seth, do you want to come up and give us something? wow i totally -- the time just flew by. >> i can actually be really fast time with this update because so many folks have said so many important things about the needs of lgbt seniors but i am seth killborn. i am the execute execute of open house. our mission is enable lgbt seniors to overcome the challenges that they reach and providing housing and direct services and community building programs and before i give an update on 55 laguna and where we are with that and highlight a couple of themes i have heard throughout today and one of the theme for lgbt seniors to work with groups

like open house, to work with groups like aids housing alliance and tenant rights groups to get ourselves organized about getting into some of these lotteries for affordable housing. other communities are better organized than we are in terms of getting their folks placed and as i think brian said or somebody said earlier it's a numbers game. we need to get more lgbt senior folks educated about how the lottery process works, get them the applications, make sure they're in the pools. even if it takes years we need to get more people into the mix and that ties into the update on 55 laguna and what open house does with seniors and i encourage those with questions with affordable housing to really give us a call and talk to some of the staff folks so we can contribute to that process that needs to happen. the other theme that i definitely heard

and want to emphasize housing alone isn't enough. we really need to have that true sense of community, that true sense of helping each other and get the services that we need to make a house a home and we really need to have that community building work that open house and other organizations do, but as sheriff mirkarimi mentioned 55 laguna has been in development for a long time and it was approved to prove lgbt welcoming housing at 55 laguna street. we have a great develop partner in mercy california and we wi co-co-operate and manage these facilities. it will be 55% of

am i or behofl and i will get to the rent subsidy in a moment and all apartments will be made available to low income seniors 55 and older. what promises to be a landmark with lgbt people in san francisco the project will include some sort of activity center as well as open house services and our vision is include not only housing for the residents but make it a real hub for the tens of thousands of lgbt seniors around the community who need community and support and assistance so it's not just about housing but the community building. why lgbt welcoming housing? i think we heard plenty about that. so many lgbt people have come to san francisco looking for personal freedom and acceptance. over 25,000 lgbt older adults currently live in the city and they feel great pressure as we have heard to go back into the

closet as we have heard to receive quality care and housing and many face serious challenges in finding welcoming and supportive housing and if not they have to relocate and leave their community and friends and leave san francisco which has its own traumas and own challenges. so what happens next here with 55 laguna? now that the planning commission has approved our development plan to proceed with developments open house and mercy housing california will work with the san francisco mayor's office on housing and we wouldn't be here without their help and support. we will work with them and financing models to put together the financing and we are off to a good start but we anticipate we will begin the first phase of construction by late raw 2014

and fast approaching and we are looking forward to that. i want to be clear who can live at 55 laguna. any senior that meets the qualifications can live there. we anticipate that again lgbt will apply to live there because open house is the co-owner and we need lgbt folks interested in affordable housing in general to get in touch of us and provide them and all qualified seniors about information about 55 laguna as it comes up. it's about that numbers game so it's important that we reach the lgbt seniors that need to get into this kind of housing because anybody that is income qualified drim nate

-- we can't-- we are trying to secure rent subsidies so people pay no more than 30% of their income and that's really important because without that rent subsidy the rents are going to be anyway from $600 to $1,000 a month and for people with ssi or social security that's too high of a rent and in san francisco that is described as affordable so it's important to get that rent subsidy. applications are not going to be available until construction is close to

completion so the first phase won't be completed until 2015. that's when we will have the applications available. however anybody regarding of sexual orientation or identity interested in updates about 55 laguna or other programs i recommend that they get on our mailing list. it's not official list for housing. it's our mailing list but it includes updates on 55 laguna and anybody that needs housing before that comes on line please contact open house and we can -- as allen said earlier work with you and getting the applications worked out and getting you in the lotteries and 14 of the units -- 110 total and 14 are set aside with people -- funded by opportunities for people with aids and 14 are available for

a diagnosis of aids. >> i am sorry we don't have more time for you and open house is important project and we are happy with what is happening. >> are there any plans in the timeline to acquire additional property for housing? i know this would be the first of our kind for our city and county. can you hit real quick on that. >> well, it's a huge project and it's a lot of work. open house is always keeping its eyes open for other opportunities out there and we would love to think about down the road developing future housing and those opportunities arise. hoaf anything to tell you right now while we are putting 55 laguna together but i hope down the road there are other opportunities for sure.

>> great. >> thank you. >> thank you for open house. we're glad it's there. really glad it's there. i am wondering if we could have robert and lupe come up together and we have to go>> i am lupe --

>> [inaudible] >> use the other mic. that one doesn't work. >> hi good morning task force members. i am robert collins and the deputy deputy director with the san francisco rent board. the director regrets she can't be here today and i am here and want to present some information based on our most recent annual eviction report. >> okay. >> i will be very brief. >> okay. >> so one of the areas that the san francisco has been a leader in many issues including equal benefits for same sex and partners and lgbt health access and a lot has been in response auto human rights commission worked hard to implement some of the recommendations in the 2003 lgbt advisory committee report aging and the lgbt community. definitely one of the areas that we are talking about today is

housing for safe affordable and stable housing for lgbt seniors. the price of the one bedroom apartment now is $2,700 and the average ssi payment is $1,200 if that, so just numbers alone most seniors are not going to afford a market rate apartment in san francisco or anyone that is disabled and receiving a government subsidy. for us in terms of housing discrimination complaints and about 65% of the complaints are discrimination complaints are regarding housing and about 40% are alleged discrimination on disability or alleged sexual orientation and disability is the one that we get the most complaints about. a big issue for us definitely is reasonable accommodations which is reasonable change in policy and procedure for disabled people

to stay in housing such as having a care giving, physical and emotional support animals and food delivery and the third party subsidies. definitely if somebody is living alone and away from their families and lgbt or otherwise and rely on people and face discrimination of providers that don't understand the concept a family that isn't biological and we just talked about this right now but definitely a big -- it wasn't me. >> it's not you. it's not you. >> so definitely people growing older in san francisco in san francisco housing stock is a huge issue. the lack of elevators and available units and as we know ada housing is many years wait at best.

definitely if the wait list is even open. so basically what we're doing right now is part of is we investigate and look at complaints of discrimination. if someone feels th discriminated against we will investigate those complaints and by the lgbt task force and with [inaudible] and serving the lgbt community and senior community and figure out what the needs and definitelying in out what are possible solutions and we will continue to do that with this body and the mayor and the board of supervisors. >> great thank you. can i just ask. you said 40% are disable or sexual artation gender complaints so you don't break those down separately? >> about 35% are disability.

about 5% are actually sexual orientation and additional three to 5% are gender identity. >> okay. >> so it's a little over 40%. >> okay. great. thank you. can you stay up there for a few seconds if people have questions. robert do you want to give a run down and if people have questions. >>i would like to share with you the annual eviction report that came out. i have four copys. >> that's great. copies are always good. we have a lot of paperwork, so hopefully we are here for another 15 minutes. >> good morning. i just wanted to share with you some of our latest numbers from the annual

eviction report that the rent board publishes every march for data that goes from march 1 -- in this case of 2012 to the end of february 2013, and so some key highlights. the number of eviction notices this year was up 26% to 1395. those are the eviction notices that are filed with the san francisco rent board, and then the second page has some highlights of the kinds of evictions that went up and down -- [inaudible] >> somebody has the cell phone on.

>> mine's off but who knows. and it went up to 116 this past year with the year that ended on the end of february, so we're seeing increases in room rate evictions, illegal rentals and as well as nuisance so i wanted to give those highlights. i will say in general all sort of traffic and distance picking up at the rent board if you would. rent petitions show a similar thing and the economy up tick and who knows what else is happening but these evictions are going up significantly at this point. >> i have a quick question. i know the board doesn't keep statistics by gender orientation or anything but is it possible for the rent board to do that? if this board makes that

recommendation that all city departments keep records by sexual orientation and age and is that possible by the rent board? >> there is a process that we're are talking about. when talking about the rent coal board and talking about eviction notices filed with the board. i think in most cases what we are interesting in -- the task force is interested in is eviction notices and those are filed by the landlord or the attorney and doesn't know if the person they're evicting at that moment -- they might know it, but they don't have a requisite need to know it, so the way that process works. they file the notice and then in the case of ellis the tenant has a right to request from a four month notice

another eight months so for one year notice person for the ellis eviction so in this case we know that happens when it happens but it's not with the original filing and then so that's the difficulty that we have. we can't really make demand or figure out the sexual orientation of the person they want to e -- evict per se. >> right and but you do have a map in your annual report. >> we publish data by zip code. >> by zip code so we could make assumptions and the castro area and make assumptions that the people evicted there are lgbt folks something like that. that maybe something we're rs toed to do as a committee and there is no data out there and it's

frustrating to come up with recommendations when we have no data to base the recommendations on. it's a very frustrating process but i think the map maybe helpful and i maybe contacting you and getting the last few years report with the maps. >> sure we are glad to assist you with that and get you other data if it helps with mapping that out. >> sure. any subcommittee members have questions of lupe or robert? thank you for being patient and waiting around. is there anybody else who wants to say a few words before we cut it off and another five minutes for testimony? yeah come up on. so if you could keep your comments to two minutes that would be great andful helpful and we are getting more time. >> okay. this is short and off

subject. we're trying very hard to keep pages out of the hands of sfpd and i know carmen announced it. it's different now. i want you to know we have a planning meeting tonight at the lgbt center on market street -- carmen what is it? five to six or five to 630? >> [inaudible] >> okay. it's tonight. so everybody come because this is a real problem. thanks a lot. >> thank you carol. we have two more people. >> hi i am edmund usey and i say in the ambassador sro. i heard great reports and police and how much they're people and we're not talking about the violence

within lgbt and them and that has to with the evictions and mental health. we are san francisco and fighting for marriages for all in this country. we need to make sure that any lgbt person in san francisco -- we need a fuller law to cover bullying with sexual minorities and others and as the sheriff talk. when i was in jail for winking at a man for a funeral a year ago i learned that the jail does better than the hotels do. they allow a lot of violence and people in the closet don't come out, still don't come out. that's why they want to get naked at 72. they are finally coming out. this is april's fool day and it's the first and they can't get visitors on the first and the third and san francisco we need to rise up and make it better

for everyone in the nation and as we get marriages for all. thank you for bringing this year and look forward to working with you and making san francisco a leader in lgbt human rights. thank you. >> thank you. and john will be our final speaker. come on up. >> good afternoon. my name is john shooker. i have worked in san francisco for bottom 40 years [inaudible] as a host of a radio show. put on about a thousand shows in this town. had wonderful support, battered womens' shelters et cetera. i am invested in this town and that means no matter what else is going on in my life i love san francisco. you walk around you can't get a bad view. there are lots of smart and engaging people to be with. cut to my

landlord. what he does and what happens is a tenant goes to him and says he has a problem. the problem could be bed bugs, mice, a ceiling that leaks for years and years and the landlord plays them. he doesn't do anything. if the tenant becomes striden and what are you going to do about the issues? he screams at them and "if you don't like it move out ." this saves him time with the lawyers and erksz vision time. he harassing them so much they move. his grandson pulled a gun on someone and split and got out of the area. this goes on again and again and has been going on for years. personally my landlord has taken me to court for three years,

three different times over something -- basically i haven't done a damn thing wrong. there was a bed bug infestation. he blamed me for it. one of the things i have done is work as a club dj. i have 5500 records in my house. it was the manhattannization of vinyl. they all went up to the ceiling and of course the bed bugs come and every record is a potential condo for the bed bugs so i called the department of public health. i was addressed by lillian dice san that said i need to see the bed bugs before i do anything and gave us a sticky trap and we are 35 bugs the next time she came to pick

them up. worked for the department of health and it's now on my record. my landlord said that the bed bug infestation was coming from my apartment. meanwhile he only treated my apartment and with a non county registered treater, al's bed bugs i think the name and in six months the bugs came back. somebody better feed that thing. usually i'm good at this -- >> is somebody's cell phone ringing? we're almost done anyway. >> i have a constant i can prove i was in rock and roll bands and dj so i'm deaf. i have a total knee replacement. i had seven

surgeryos my foot. my landlord knows i'm disabled and continually takes me to court. i tried to contact media. i got a superficial write up in the bay area reporter. it was almost after overview but it didn't say anything about what this man does. this man has been doing this for years. it's about very greedy individual who is are down right social paths and he over

charged me for years. this stuff is [inaudible] it blew my mind when i realized what was being done to me and it's not just me. it's my neighborhoods and "john says the most homo homophobic things that could say ." i don't know if i could use the words but i will. he called me several names. one is true and one is not. to make a long story short he didn't do it one time or five times. he screams at me every time. this is the business plan and he raises the rent and rent it out again with the bed bugs and the lice and the mice. >> john, let me inform you if