is what we talked about. where everyone is coming from, where it will go, and to use it wisely. it seems like you are wasting it on something and this is not helping homeless i will find housing. that i do not mind. president chiu: thank you very much. next speaker. resetting it for you. >> good evening, supervisors. i am the executive director of community housing partnership. i am addressing the choices before you. as we move to the month of june,

there will be many opportunities for the public to speak to you. as many of you know, in the latest chamber of commerce poll, homelessness is the issues that is on the top of mind of san franciscans. every citizen of san francisco would want an investment in stopping homelessness. while admirable in their cost savings and ability to reduce what they had at the beginning of the budget cycle, still these cuts will have huge impacts on individuals. i ask each and every one of you to think about what city you would in vision us have been in -- having in five years. i see a city full of full and permanent housing that gives the homeless a platform on which to rebuild their lives.

everybody in low income san francisco is able to be reimbursed for medical services. i see a city that says that our biggest priority is to stop homelessness in the next five years. chicago, new york invest more per capita than we do in san francisco. i asked you to restore these needed services. [applause] >> good evening, board of supervisors. i am a patient and counselor at san francisco general hospital. i have been working there for over 10 years. police patrolled the campus, surrounded emergency room and that the underground tunnel. i have been able to observe the

impact that the police and deputies have demonstrated over the years such as controlling patients' safety. we accept all types of the alissa's and accidents ranging from hiv-positive patients, a gunshot victims and suspects, psychotic patients, and even law-enforcement personnel. i just cannot figure how anyone would suggest hiring a security guard from a local drug store to control possible mayhem on campus to save a few bucks. san francisco police and deputies are trained to handle a manic depressive, psychotic, intoxicated, and criminals. why take the chance and contract it out to low-cost as security guards? please take into consideration, of the high-profile cases that

come to san francisco giants hospital, the san francisco giants fan beaten in los angeles, and a hollywood celebrity making a speech on the breast cancer walk. the reason we do not hear much about it is because the police and deputies are ahead of the game. they practice observation. i asked to please keep the deputies and police at san francisco general hospital because the citizens of san francisco -- president chiu: thank you. >> good evening, supervisors. i am the program of a supervisor saying at central city hospitality. i wonder what it is like for you to sit here and listen to

everybody's thoughts. despite all of the ideas representing by the -- represented by the board, each of you was elected to office to convince the people of your vision. one thing i want for you to know about hospitality, it is neat that you had a visit come to you. about 90% of our staff and managers are hired from the community. you've got to see some of those folks today. at any given point in time, at least one of our staff is homeless. you are supporting a whole community. you start volunteering and then get hired in the agencies. by supporting the agency, you are supporting that factor. i wanted to reflect back on the

journeys that brought you to this chair today and ask that you keep in mind services for people facing challenges in san francisco. we all have a vision of in san francisco. i hope that we can all lookout for those who are less fortunate. >> thank you. >> good evening. i am a guest of the providence baptist church in hunters point. i am a guest of the hospitality house for the last five years. i have done 17 art shows all over the city. i am a former drug addict. somebody told me when i got to the city that there is a free place you can go do artwork when you are recovering from drugs and alcohol and all sorts of things.

i am partially deaf. i could not talk right until i was about 12. i had a lot of handicaps. my mother was a nurse at kaiser hospital and my father did advertising for best western hotels. i grew up with an understanding of the emergency health care system. wow, i found out that i could sew all night and do our work all night instead of drugs. i have 24 years clean. no crack cocaine or any hard drugs. this is a tough city. the people are tough. it is highly competitive. a lot of people wish to live here. the fruits and vegetables are

stronger because of the climate. the weather makes people tougher. a lot of this city is like going through a diamond mine. a little bit wet, cold, scared, and then you hit a diamond like city hall. thank you. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> supervisors, a good evening. my name is lawrence. i have been a resident of the city and county of san francisco for 41 years. i am on the list of candidates

running for mayor. you have it all backwards. you should be expanding social services, not contracting them. the budget problem with the city and county of san francisco does not come from social services, a role. it comes from budgets related to pension and medical. that is your biggest problem. even if you saw the deficit this year, it would be twice as large next year. the next year, it would be three times as large. social services will not make a dent in the problem. you cannot put up enough parking meters to make up for this. you have raised tickets, citations, fees across the board. none of that is going to solve your problem. you have to cut salaries by 30% today or lie off 30% of the work

force in this city or freeze salaries for 10 years. that is all that you can do. all that you do by cutting social services and is not going to amount to anything. if you look at the economy at large, you can read the "wall street journal", housing prices are back to 2002 levels. homes that have been refinanced in the last 10 years are under water. the commercial real-estate market is starting to rot. you have salaries going up every year -- president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> good evening, my name is

jones. i am with a good friend of mine and also my kids. he is my case manager at the center. i have been in -- california 26 years and i have been in san francisco about that long. i have major problems like bipolar. i am dealing with my psychologist about that crisis. right now with the help of my baby at the health center, i am at the salvation army up the street. i have been there about three years. there was a contract with the housing situation about the homeless. i will be going to court on

about the 28th of this month. -- 20th of this month. that is because of my behaviors', drugs and alcohol. i am part of the situation. i do have them type of problems. i am going to leave it alone. help somebody that needs it like me. [applause] >> i am the president of local 1021. i want to thank the mayor for

the best budget process we have had in a while. i am here to talk about the security positions at the hospital. i am asking the board to support the efforts that larry bradshaw mentioned to you. i hope that the board of supervisors would encourage them to sit down with you and work it out. i was from the housing clinic. i was a community organizer. i walked the streets and i know what these nonprofits do. i know that their work is hazardous. it is unbelievable what they provide to the city in terms of value. maybe it is time to look at the very rich in this city. they make it so that tourism and commerce can happen. they allow you to extend

invitations. it is some of the work of these community groups and the public services of the public employees. it is time that the wealthy take a look at this. everybody is giving to preserve what we have, the quality of our lives. the city has got to start looking at the value of the public service is given by the nonprofit employees. thank you. [applause] president chiu: thank you. before the next speaker, i know that there are still some folks in the overflow room. it looks at this point as if there are only a few more speakers. >> good evening, supervisors. my name is mr. oh. i am here in support of the bayview hunters point methadone

clinic and the clients that benefit from their help. i did not prepare a speech. before my treatment, i was living a life of crime to pay for my habit. i was going in and out of your county jails. that life was leading me to desperation and despair and death of eventually. i got the help that i needed from them. from them, i was able to learn the inner demons and work them out. i was able to connect with a higher power. i was able to connect with my family that i was a strange from. i recently got married. i was able to find a home. the daily toil of looking for

drugs was no longer an issue for me. i was grateful for a system that provides this for homeless people, people like myself. i am one of the faces of those people. please take what i say to heart. the thought of not having that service was astonishing. i will probably still try to walk a righteous path. it will be a little bit hard. i thank you for your time. [applause] >> good evening, supervisors. i am the chief financial officer and chief operating officer for family services agency in san francisco. i want to thank you for spending this time listening to people representing all of these

different agencies including ours. we all have different work to do. i understand that these are difficult times. it is hard for me to balance our budget to support a few former staff. i am asking you to support our division. i can work with you in continuing to serve our clients in a partnership as we have done. >> i am a director of the coalition for homelessness. i want to in knowledge those of you who have been actively listening while people have been talking. well you have been waiting hours to speak, you realize that -- who has the wedding to talk.

the san franciscans that are so poor, they have no place to live. it would damage the folks ability to thrive. it is a little bit more than $10 million to empoverished people. it is not a huge amount of money for you to fund. homeless people have shouldered huge hits over the last 10 years. a third of our shelters, -- primary-care come up 33 million. i am not talking about anything

but act of services. that is administrative cuts. this is the department of health and it has been deeply hurtfu l. this covers the entire span of emergency services. the central city hospitality house, emergency psychiatric treatment, permits supportive housing, to addictive treatment, psychological treatment, it is all impacted by these cuts. i want to thank the hard work of the mayor. >> thank you very much.

>> good evening, supervisors. my name is davis. i am a volunteer at the hospitality agency. i was a volunteer for many of those years. i still utilize many of those services today. hospitality house is a critical part of the community. they are one of the last safety that agencies that provide to a diverse community just like mission neighborhood and the bayview. i know that you are facing severe challenges once again with the budget like we have in past years. we have dealt with cuts. supervisor at avalos mentioned

that we would probably be dealing with many more years like this. we were talking about potential revenue streams and how we could help with defunding from the state and less funding from the federal government. one-time funding like we have last year helped. we are not going to get those in the next years. there are many services at hospitality house from mental health to counseling to case management. i still utilize case management. that may be a victim of the budget cuts. i see the desperation at 6 streak -- sixth street. a lot of people come in there when they have nowhere else to

go and they do not have the capability of making it through the system. let alone the ability to access it. president chiu: thank you. next speaker. >> i am from multi services. i want to thank mayor lee, carmen chu, and all of you who held meetings in your districts about these very serious budget issues. we still have problems and we still have millions of dollars millionscuts to hospitality house. the department of public health has provided to the seriously mentally ill population that are dealing with mental health issues. this includes the asian-pacific

islander communities that require bilingual treatment. they can become more self- sufficient, more independent so that they would not have to rely fu so much relynds and helps -- much on public funds and health services. >> i have been in front of you before. most of it was because of contracting out. i was not able to get my job back or have a job. i have also just lost my husband. if you do cut some of these services, it would really be devastating for a lot of them. if i did not have some of these services to help me to help me

through the problems that i needed, i would not have anything. i do not have money coming in. i might end up homeless because i cannot live on what i am making. i hope you will consider not cutting a lot of these programs. the pensions is not the problem at all. i wish you take a little bit of consideration and think about not cutting some of these programs. it helped me out a lot. thank you. >> good evening. i have the great fortune of working at the sixth street health center as a therapist. i have worked with mental health facilities in san francisco. as i approach work every morning, i am warmly greeted by

a long line of participants are awaiting our program. they are there because they want to be. hospitality house cultivates a great sense of community. it is a place where participants matter and there is a sense of community. please remember this. thank you. >> good afternoon. my name as martha. i am a public health nurse. i just got off of work and rushed down here. i am seeing people that have really been affected by this economic downturn. they are struggling to make ends meet. they will suffer with these cuts. i am particularly concerned about mental health. i am concerned about moms with two-month-old babies.

i do not want to hear any hand wringing about the mom that through the baby off the bridge. she was probably trying to get help. i am concerned about my police and my co-workers. they can be escalates situations when we have -- de-escelate situations where we have really not the people coming in. do not cut west side or hospitality house. please find the revenues from the people who have profited from this downturn. we know who they are. they are the rich people and the corporations. please enforce these laws. you have got to find it in yourselves to protect the people that are going to be hurt by these cuts.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. i moved your 40 years ago and i was 24 years old and i was very young and i have the clothes on my back and $2 and managed to find my way because i was young. 20 years later, i was homeless and did not find my way. i would not be here if it was not for the services that lifted me out of homelessness. i cannot imagine someone not being able to access those same services that helped me. i cannot imagine being made homeless again. at my age, you might as well take me out and shoot me. how could this city give tax cuts $2 billion corporations and then turn around and cut services to its most vulnerable

citizens that depend on them, many of whom voted for you. i just wanted to say happy birthday to shake of era -- che guevarra. >> i am homeless and unemployed. i do not have to say honorable, but maybe i should. i really should just say ditto, ditto, ditto. you have heard it all. i do not want you to just not cut stuff. go to year soul, go to your heart, go to the second shock rise, go to someplace where you need to go. this is not the time to cut when

they cannot afford a car and they need to take the bus. this is not the time to cut services. this is not the time to cut services. do you think the folks at nob hill want to throw open their doors and house hundreds of people. we started with 10 people. if this gets worse, do you think that they dudes up there that will not even let women in will let the homeless people in and give them a place to sleep? these are supposed to be the people with billions of dollars with microsoft that say that they want to pay 50% on their taxes. they could discuss this with the people that own the other