the san francisco unified school district expenditure plan for the public education enrichment fun for fiscal year 2011-2012. item 18, resolution approving the san francisco children and families commission expenditure plan for the public education enrichment fund for fiscal year 2011-2012. item 19, motion approving and exercising the final option set forth in the agreement for professional budget and legislative services between the city and county of san francisco and harvey m. rose associates, debra newman, and louis wong, thereby extending the term of the agreement from january 2012 through december 31, 2013. supervisor chu: thank you very much. we have called items one through 19. these items are all actually related to the budget. the piece that is in the budget and in the rest of them are

traveling legislation to enable the budget to move forward. setting forth fees, etc. just wanted to provide that public education. before we do public comment, there are a few actions we need to make, a few technical amendments. on item 12, which is the dpw temporary occupancy fee, that needs to be increased by 86 cents from $56.76 to $57.52. item 13 is the services at the human services agency. again, the budget reflects a $37 fee, but the legislation still reflect the lower level of $35, so we need to make that to dollar adjustment. finally, we acted on this yesterday, but our advice is that we need to act on this today. we made this amendment yesterday, but we have to take it again. it is simply to make sure that we are reflecting the correct number on our document.

again, the office articulated the language we need to add in with regard to the physical findings that are necessary, so those are three technical amendments. item six we made yesterday, but we need to do it again. can we take those technical amendments without objection? supervisor mirkarimi: so moved. supervisor chu: that will be the case. and then we begin our public comment. we will be providing two minutes of public comment per individual. if you need translation services, you will have extra time. i could ask the first individual to step up. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the executive director of community housing partnership. i like everyone in the gallery to please stand who supports my testimony today. i am here today to challenge you to have a bright successful

future for the city and county of san francisco, a city that will move the dial on homelessness. since 2004 and the implementation of care not cash, the dial has not moved enough. budget reductions year after year to support of housing, services that affect homeless people have ripped away the safety nets and system here in san francisco. the most recent chamber of commerce poll shows the number one issue voters feel is important in the city and county of san francisco is truly solving homelessness. supportive housing is a solution to homelessness. it is the most cost effective intervention of placing someone into housing with services instead of letting them languish in our streets and shelter system. i challenge you today to find money through the budget analyst report to restore cuts to health and human services, to make cold supportive housing and to believe that folks that are living in poverty and who have experienced homelessness are

avoidable. to believe that these individuals cannot go back to work is a fallacy. a have civic engagement, pride. many of them are in the chambers today to speak up and say that in five to 10 years, san francisco should move the dial on homelessness, provide housing and jobs for our most vulnerable citizens, and that is what i challenge all of you to do through the budget process. thank you. [applause] supervisor chu: thank you. if i could ask folks to hold your applause, it is the role of the chamber to not have applause after or during public speakers so that we can move the process through. thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the director of housing development for community housing partnership, and i would like to ask the board to restore funding for services in support of housing. my job is to develop new supportive housing for homeless san franciscans, and i want to add that perspective. the services they found in

existing housing make it possible to build new supportive housing, and pulling back from funding commitments jeopardize our cities' ability to build new support of public housing. every affordable housing development that happens in the city relies on private corporations that invest their money in exchange for tax credits. these investors put millions or tens of billions of dollars in every building. these investors jews how much they want to invest or if they want to invest based on how they want to invest. why did they invest in homeless people in san francisco? most of them do. the few that do do because we can show that there are civil services being provided. for every new supporter housing building, every potential

investor asks how into the services will still be here next year or the year after. we say that we rely on the city's commitment to fund supported housing. if the city cuts back on its commitments, we lose those investors and cannot build new housing and cannot move people off the streets. san francisco's entire plan to end chronic homeless this is bound to the service funding proposed to be cut, so i urge you to restore funding to support of housing services to protect our ability to create new housing for homeless san franciscans. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> i am the director for tenant services in the community housing partnership. i have been in the supporting housing business for over 11 years, providing direct service and also working for support of public housing for seven years, advocating for the advancement and building of the capacity for the industry. i can tell you that the impact

of the proposed budget reductions will definitely have an impact on our ability to help people who have experienced homelessness. i can tell you that the current proposed idea that we will continue to be able to meet our 95% retention rate -- i do not believe that that is true. i believe that that rate will decline and that we will reduce our capacity to be able to keep people housed for 12 months and to be able to address the quality of life issues that are critical. one of the things that i can tell you from my experience in trying to advance supportive housing in the industry is that it is a cost-effective solution, and part of that solution is as having the capacity through services to actually prevent people from entering institutional settings that actually increase the cost of

services to the city and to the county. i just want to make a point and remind you that supported housing on average cost about $46 a day per person. the cost to house someone in jail is $167. the cost to how someone in a psychiatric setting -- $467 a day. the cost to house someone in a hospital -- $1,100. when you talk about investing in support of housing, when you reduce the capacity of the service fee to address those important interventions from a service perspective, that is a big deal. i can tell you that -- [bell rings] chu thank you very much. -- supervisor chu: thank you very much. >> good morning. i feel bad -- that of these

reductions go through, our current tenants who are on our waiting list to the house will never have the opportunity to break the cycle of homelessness. these reductions are affecting the future of our city, state, and country. the children of those families being affected by these reductions will never get the opportunity to feel the warmth of a home. housing should be a right, and we are giving these formerly homeless people that right. dear supervisors, please look in your heart and be reasonable on where these reductions come from. as of right now, the people most affected by these reductions are those in greatest need. i am here speaking on behalf of community housing partnership and our tenants, but i assure you that every organization and the clients being affected by these reductions have an enormous impact in our community and the future of this city. i actually started a youth program, and we had an ongoing program, and if these reductions

go through, i will be losing a full-time employee, a counselor at the center, and this program will no longer be available to the kids who live there. it is affecting everyone from the staffing to the families to the formerly homeless. most importantly, the children of our city. so, please, look in your hearts and let's make it happen. thank you guys. >> good morning, supervisors. i am from community housing partnership. i am the deputy director, and i am here to speak about the job readiness and deployment services for homeless and formerly homeless individuals that are funded through the human services agency. the one-stop centers provide many critical employment

linkages throughout the city, but they do not provide the job readiness and supportive services that are important to eliminate the barriers that people face when they enter or return to the workplace. in fact, the centers as their partner organizations, the nonprofit organizations, to fulfil that role. of the people that we work with, 75% of the people we work with you want to return to work do get a job. employment for them is an avenue to increase their self- sufficiency, develop self- confidence, and be an active member and leader of their community as well as become a taxpayer can support themselves and families. in essence, to transform their lives and be a catalyst to end the cycle of homelessness for their families and for themselves. of those who are standing here in support of this, more than half of them have actually used the services and are now proud, taxpaying citizens. this both reduces the burden to the city in terms of public assistance recipients as well as

increasing the public funds available for other purposes. following is a speaker who is just one representative of all these people standing and one example of someone who has transformed her life and family through employment. supervisor chu: thank you. >> hello. my name is ebony wilson, and i work for community housing partnership. i am a prime example two reasons why you guys should not cut our budget. i went through the training program. i graduated. now, you're sort a property manager, but the steps i had to take to get there -- i was a part-time desk clerk to a full time desperate, and interim billing manager, and now a property manager. if you guys do not take our budget away so we can keep this cycle going. i have been homeless, and i do

not like to see our san francisco come down like that. so please keep the budget rolling and please help us out by keeping the budget rolling and let more of us grow, especially our children. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the executive director of central city hospitality house. thanks for your attention today. i know you have a long day ahead. i am asking you today to restore the approximately $10 million to health and human services programs. as a city, we have lost millions of dollars of services over the past several years, and we cannot afford to take these cuts. i particularly want to highlight the cuts to homeless people. as you have heard, support for supportive housing is essential for a supportive housing program. hospitality has placed many people into supportive housing who would not have been able to

obtain and maintain housing otherwise. also, homeless employment services. i want to echo the comments already made about the distinct services that are essential to our community and the safety net of safety net services provided by programs like this. this is my 10th budgie year before you. every year, we come back and fight for the same services. we have seen a lot of those services whittled away over time, and i am here to tell you that we are at the absolute breaking point in terms of homeless safety net services. as you know, i have participated in the cbo stakeholder meetings that were convened by you and the mayor. in those meetings, we came up with budget priorities. i wanted to pass to you today a chart of those priorities versus

hospitality house's programs, and you will see that we need seven of the eight priorities. the tenderloin self-help center is 26 years old. we were the first drop in center in the city for homeless folks to get behavioral health services. we were the model for other centers that have come and some that have gone over the years, and we were asked to the center on sixth street as well, so thank you for restoring the $10 million of cuts. supervisor chu: thank you very much. >> good morning, supervisors. thanks for being here and listening to us. i am the program manager of the community arts program, part of central city hospitality house. completely understand the complexities of balancing a budget, ask you to take into consideration all those intangible factors and the impacts that cutting human

services would have to the community. there are so many aspects that cannot be factored into numbers. we do ask that you do trim the fat to make the government functioned at a more efficient capacity but do not stab the heart in the process. this is the part of the community, the people. we have been every year facing budget cuts, and we are operating nearly at our capacity. right now, if this cut goes through, we would be closing programs, laying people off, and putting those people out on the street without a place to go. we are happy to work to come up with creative solutions. we want to be part of it. thank you again. >> i am @ participant at central city hospitality house in the tenderloin. i wanted to talk to you about --

we realize that there is a shortage of money. i am asking you to go ahead and invest in the tenderloin self- help center. the complete wrap around services in six straight, and on church street as well. the employment, mental health services. it is a place where you can make a phone call, get hygiene, and get on your feet. the counselors work with the person at their pace. if there is a shortage in budget, why continue to put money in homeless services? people at self-help centers get housing, get employment, get better, and that is what i wanted to tell you today. the program offers something unique that does not come anywhere else. if you need treatment, you can come there today and receive treatment. there is no waiting list. you can do a good day. you can get a one-on-one

counselor today. for some who have substance abuse issues, it is too much to try to go to task and wait two or three weeks to get a program interview maybe. they have mental health services there. they also have regular doctors that come in on tuesday. this place -- i am a combat veteran. i have a purple heart. also, i am and formerly incarcerated person. central city hospitality house made it possible to have housing. something that the va would not do. they push you aside. something with the other agencies do not have funding. central agency hospitality health is local, friendly. it is a community, a family of people that support each other. if there's obstacles, they work around them, and these people will not remain homeless. there will always move to their

best and -- [bell rings] supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i would like to express the importance of community-based programs and the funding. i have been in san francisco for five years now. most of my time here, i could not gain employment or housing. within one week, hospitality house help regain housing and employment. they provided me with stable housing so i can go to school and finish my education. if you cut funding for programs like this, it will be harder for people like me to become contributing members of society, and we have to turn to - alternatives. that is pretty much all i want to say. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am the director of the program

called the stonewall project with the san francisco aids foundation. we brought some of our clients here today to speak with you. also, courtney is here with us as well. she will hand out all of our speaking points to move forward. i am year to oppose the budget cuts. we are the only drug and alcohol treatment program specifically and solely funded to work with gay men and other msm who use methamphetamine and other drugs and alcohol. we are a non-traditional program, which offers opportunities to folks in a variety of continuance, so we do not turn people away for inability to come into more traditional treatment facilities. the reason i am here is to ask you to try to protect the stonewall project because i feel that it is among the programs that are part of the fabric of the safety net of the city and county of san francisco, and if it is a program that gets cut, we will have severe waiting list for our particular clients.

it makes it much more difficult for us to do our work. we do hiv counseling, std counseling, we make sure that folks remain in housing. we make sure people remain in care. and a direct cut to these types of services means that people will not get their needs met, and they can wind up homeless or remain homeless. there is increased use of fire, police, medical emergency room visits, that kind of thing, so keeping services like the stone wall project are ways to reduce the money spent in the city and county on things like that. our services actually are a small amount of money to actually give the city a lot more. our folks are resilient. they have the power themselves to make changes in their lives. they need a hand at this point. cutting the services effectively means cutting off what we feel are really important safety net services.

just want to ask you to please not cut the [bell rings] supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i am here to talk about the stonewall project. i want to thank all of you for finding some of the funds necessary for a long stone wall to continue to run these outpatient programs. the program has been effective and should not go down, especially given the high rates of methamphetamine use in san francisco. has been an important part of my recovery process and has accepted me for who i am and where i was at in my life experience. the feedbacks dole gives me is informative, non-judgmental, and non-support data. -- non-authoritative. we are allowed to voice our stories. all the staff are experienced in facilitating group discussions

and with counseling clients regarding the dynamics of drug recovery in general. i have worked for several years with three counselors at stonewall. like a lot of gay men, i had a lot of other issues. specifically, i have some family issues. i had a horrific coming up experience. they kind of take on a therapeutic role, and because of that and because of my relationship with them, i have been able to transcend and find some resolution are around that. because i stay clean and maintain a several years long relationship with them, you're sort about to re-enter the workforce, and it is imperative for me that i continue that relationship. not only to stay clean, but to make my transition to the work world successful. so please do not allow such a valuable and meaningful

resourced to so many gay men who want to become contributing members to san francisco to fade away. the stonewall program is an asset to the city. so thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am here to speak on behalf of the stonewall project, the san francisco aids foundation. so opposed to the budget cuts because without the help i have received from stole all -- i mean, when i first went, i was losing my health, partnership with my partner for 21 years, my home, possibly my life. i do not know where i would be without them today. if you could find a way to spare them, i definitely would appreciate it. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning. i have been hiv-positive since 1986. diagnosed with aids in 1992.

depression, grief, despair had overwhelmed me. in a downward spiral of self medicate -- sells medication became my life. last october, ahp referred me to the stonewall project at the aids foundation where i now attend two group book readings, full catastrophe living for stress management, well as wednesday's, also, one-on-one counseling, and a harm reduction group each and every week. i now have the tools of support, understanding, and community, which coincide with the life program to support me on my journey forward. thanks to these programs, the next 25 years will not be anything like the last 25 years for me. i have my life back. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you.

>> good morning. i am hear from the san francisco aids foundation also to speak on the stonewall budget cuts. i have talking points here for you today, so i will not read everything on the page. i know i have probably gone over all of this with you before, but you're so glad you were able to hear from our clients. i think they articulated better than i could how important these services are for them and what an asset this program is for the city. i wanted to highlight that with the closure last year, there really is no information -- no other place for these folks to go q we have worked closely with the city to expand our services, to address all the drivers identified in the san francisco 80 prevention section -- hiv prevention section. we have work to develop the needs written out in that plan, so this is a critical part of the hiv prevention work of the city, and i urge you not to cut

this program. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is travis abernathy. i am a tip we would-time participant in the life program -- a two-time participant in the light program. people who know my story would tell you i have been living with aids for 35 years as of today. if it were not for the life program, i would still be in my wheelchair that i spent three years in. i ask that you find in your heart somewhere a way to make this work. without the program, i would still be trapped in my house, afraid to go out, afraid to reach out for help. i know that with a budget, you guys have a lot of things in your hands that you have to deal with, but this is one thing i cannot let go. i need the life program in order to exist, to communicate with my fellow people that understand me.

outside of the life program, i have nothing. it has brought me from a very dark place in my life to a place where you saw it at now -- i am act now -- wehrhere i am at now. i ask you please to somehow make it work. without the program, so many people will not know what i know, and that is not right. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. >> good morning, supervisors. i am speaking on behalf of the housing rights committee of san francisco and also bay area legal aid. the thing that makes the housing rights committee unique in the city of san francisco is that there are no requirements, no income requirements for anyone to seek our services. the only requirement is that they be a lender. that gives us a huge impact in

the city, letting people know what their rights are and being an advocate for them. the benefit of having bay area legal aid next door is that whenever someone needs a lawyer or we need to see someone's -- seek someone's legal advice, we have somebody right there. it is a very efficient system, and i cannot tell you -- every time, every day somebody comes to the clinics that we have put together, and they are amazed that this agency even exists. they always are very thankful and very grateful that there is someplace they can come and know that their grievances, their complaints, their issues will be taken seriously, not just, "you are just a crank" or "you do not understand the law" or something like that. we make sure people understand their rights, make sure they get those rights, and