why are you asking me to come up here in a speech to the seniors? you were broke a few years ago after working all of your life. i will tell you, without the family service, without the housing clinic, i would have been in the streets. after working all of my life. i want to say thank you to all of you that have the nerve to come up and ask the mayor and the staff to please consider keeping those units open. there are people that don't have food on the weekend. they will cut out the food program to the weekends. they have nothing to eat. they need someplace to go to claim himself a.

-- clean themselves up. they connect you to the community. to get clean water to drink, to have associations with somebody that might be able to tell you something that is helpful. he never was without a job. after three operations, you are stuck. you are still stuck.

i would like to say thank you for the opportunity to come before you. i could not believe it, i was broken after working all my life. the family service, those people are doing a great job. thank you. [applause] >> next, i like to call maria to speak to us about family and youth issues. [applause] >> good afternoon everyone, my

name is maria gomez. i am the mother of a family of three children. all of my children have an iep. [speaking spanish] and i have a child with severe artisan -- autism. he needs to speak with sign language. [speaking spanish] and i go to a lot of different programs, principally to the center of resources. and also [unintelligible]

[speaking spanish] >> i go to a lot of different programs, i think you understood the ones she said. i don't speak english. and i also receive mental services. >> i have had a lot of difficult experiences. it has been very hard for me to find help. ok. even asking for help in the agencies that speak spanish, it

is hard for her to ask for help. >> [speaking spanish] >> and i have come up against a lot of discrimination. >> [ speaking spanish] >> ok. and i feel that they don't support the people very well. >> [speaking spanish] >> and because it has been so hard for me, i want to thank all of the agencies that help our children. because they are the future of our country. [applause]

and that was, "thank you very much for your attention. please have a good day." [applause] you have to go where they can see you, ok? a little bit more. >> thank you for being here. my sister has been there.

[unintelligible] i think if you take the money away from them, and there will be no more programs. does all i have to say. [unintelligible] >> thank you, maria and oscar. >> [unintelligible] [inaudible] [speaking spanish]

>> ok. all right. [applause] and you know, i encourage you to share that. we will hear from sro tenants with david. [applause] >> my name is david lewis, i am here representing the city. i am here representing -- these decisions need to be smart.

treatment can cost so much more. consider these trade-offs. community health services verses domestic violence. affordable and supportive housing programs verse is homelessness spearheaded -- homelessness. it stands for a single room occupancy hotels. most of these were constructed after the 1906 earthquake. they were built to house the workers after the quake. they are home to over 500 families and 1000 children. just in the area alone.

to some of the city's most vulnerable residents. after many, these are a safeguard to homelessness, and they are also a step up and they step out to people that have been homeless. please remember that the true cost of homelessness is not just found in the service issues, it is in the impact of the quality of life. helping to move people out and stay out involves a series steppingstone programs. the begin with shelters, case management, they include advocacy programs coupled with a function of behavioral health systems will help get the --

that will help get the seniors into the community where they can help themselves and help the community. thank you for your time. [applause] >> think you so much. -- thank you so much. we want to bring up erica to share with us about homelessness. >> district 6 has the largest population of homeless people in the city. it resides in the south of market area. it is the largest proportion of other social conditions often linked to poverty, overcrowding, disability, mental illness, addictive disorders,

and more. 9000 different people, into small shelters. three of the shelters were located in district 6. after the recession hit, the list went up. it has fluctuated between 140 and 175,000. over half of the resources have been lost citywide. 5 resources centers have closed, and one has opened up. they are the primary solution to homelessness, and san francisco has demonstrated a strong commitment to affordable housing. some of the support of housing

for these have maintained their housing. this is known to have saved the city $20,000 and other public costs. excuse me. at the same time, how funding in san francisco has been cut $1 million. district 6 is home to a disproportionate number of individuals that are suffering from mental illnesses. many of them self medicate and perform serious addictive disorders. they have to mental health clinics that are privately run. due to over 32 million in reductions to substance abuse, mental health, and funded programs in the past four years, the mental health system does not have close to the capacity to serve district 6

residents. there is a two-month waiting list. any reductions have his darkly had the impact in cutting off assistance or reducing benefits. they have been skyrocketing. it will create more homelessness. one is to cut people off of all forms of public assistance when they have other minor rule violations. i utilize these programs. i went from being homeless and unemployed to living independently as a community

organizing advocate. given the tools for me, showing them how to share their gifts. i am here today to advocate. [applause] >> we have brian does going to talk about other issues. >> i am the director of the aids housing alliance. we will talk about the needs of the lgbt community. when we get kicked out -- toledo

gets to move back home. also, our issues are your issues. we are you. we represent every community. just today down a little bit. the other rights that other people get for free, it has been making these substantial investments in trying to secure a marriage of quality and repeal

the defense of marriage act. to allow us to have the dignity of our nation's largest employer in the military. all of the safety net services, all of that money is gone. we are tattered at the edges and we are coming off at the wheels. we should not have the most vulnerable people in san francisco. it is a luxury for us. what people with hiv/aids need in this town is a job. we need a job.

anybody know a disabled person that has a job here? raise your hand. where is it? there are money and services for people to get jobs to serve us, but where are our jobs? that is indicative of some kind of endemic discrimination against creating employment. transgendered people need the jobs. 42% have lost their jobs or have been denied employment or a raise because of their jobs. we have this huge problem with transitional youth because they don't have a job. they don't have the income supports necessary we have invested all of this money into two or six years of services.

we need to invest in an exit strategy for folks. and we also need to invest in the services. we need jobs, and the agency's need money. [unintelligible] agencies are going to close. what are you going to do about it? they should find a proposal for subsidized job training program. it is in the city's comprehensive plan. to continue to fund the transgendered employment initiatives, we should avoid the $20,000 cut to the only lgbt

services in the city. i know my time is up. thank you. [applause] >> i was to bring the divina that will share with us about the immigrant experiences. >> i'm a resident of district 6? i like to share some facts about immigrants with you. it is estimated [unintelligible] latino immigrants are 14% of the

shelter out of the population, a 23% of all families living in shelters. the center in the north mission, case management, health care, and other critical services to 1700 homeless clients. south of market has a large concentration. working in much needed services. immigrants face serious barriers. they lack health insurance, access to income, and living wages. access to benefits such as general assistance, food stamps. the long-term shelter,

affordable housing, and affordable child care. they protect immigrants from abuse such as illegal rent increases and provide them with a defense. what we are asking you tonight is to prepare spaces for survival services for homeless immigrants. that support services in the south of market area that provide affordable child care and services to help stabilize these families. protect the filipino world war ii veterans and many of their surviving spouses. cuts to the services will impact them because of their age,

language, diminishing health, and ability to access stable facilities, including health care. please prepare the legal services for immigrants. please consider s immigrants for " -- before preparing your budget. thank you. [applause] >> you are right. thank you. now, we are going to hear from revenue with gordon. hey, gordon. >> thank you. i'm here tonight with a coalition of community and labor organizations working together to promote worker rights and

social justice locally and nationally. i was asked to make some brief remarks about the revenue side of the picture and tax policy, so my first point is that we cannot solve the budget crisis through cuts alone, and i think this is a pretty obvious statement to everybody here tonight. this forum tonight is really important to allow the community and people that are directly affected by these terrible budget cuts to speak out and raise their voice directly to our public officials, but too often, forums like this and the other one that are going to have before self -- the discussion is constrained just to things like talking about the impact of the budget cuts, talking about layoffs of public sector workers, cutbacks to benefits to public-sector workers, or even as we see in the midwest, a tax on even the collective bargaining rights.

what i think is really important to broaden the framework of these discussions and include the revenue pictures and the tax picture. the next point i want to make is just that the underlying cause of the budget crisis that we are all talking about here tonight is really a revenue problem and not a spending problem. the top 1% of the wealth holders are the richest people. they control 34% of the wealth in this country. [applause] the state income tax rates are lower, and the federal income tax rates are lower today than they were before. in 1993, the highest tax bracket in california was 11%. currently, it is 9.3%. the wealthiest 1% of taxpayers averaged $1.6 million per year in income, restoring their tax

operating in california back to 11% would bring in $5 billion to the state in revenue that would go to the state and local governments to protect services. [applause] and tax rates for corporations are lower today than they used to be. in 1980, california corporations contributed nearly 50% of the state budget, whereas today, they only contribute 11%. closing the corporate tax loopholes that have been and will mature in the state, just in california since 1991, would actually bring in $16 billion per year again in revenue. that could help protect education and health care and needed public services. i know i was asked to wrap up, but i just wanted to end with a couple of quick points. tax policy can be progressive or regressive.

the justice and community labor organizations that we work with, pushing for progress of revenue and progressive taxation as the real approach to solving the budget crisis that reflects san francisco values. progressive policies are ways to address the state and city's budget crisis without adversely affecting the vast majority of californians and san franciscans. it is fair that people in big corporations, wealthy individuals that have benefited immensely and in many cases obscenely, by the economy and from our economies should pay their fair share to insure that our communities are able to survive and thrive in 2011. so thank you. [applause] , all right.

let's thank everyone once again for their thoughtful presentations. [applause] we will now be beginning our open mike process. if you could submit a speaker card, that would help us stick to our agenda. we will be calling speakers up three at a time. if you could please be courteous and stick to the time limit, we know there are a lot of people here with a lot of things to say, and unfortunately, we probably will not be able to hear all of them. but remember to stay engaged. this is just the beginning of the process. i would like to say that these fine public officials probably did not have to be here today, but they are here, and i think that says a lot. let's be respectful of one another. as we call your name, if you could line up of here. [reading names]

i'm sorry if i mispronounced your name. but the other folks could come up here if i called your name. >> greetings to everyone who is here. nobody can hear you. is that better? in a district 6 resident for the past three years. i have been in the south of market area. i'm here to speak on behalf of my work. -- my work at lyric. -- my work at lyric. i also want to represent the