francisco and help the youth. each of us needs to remember, if not for the help that we have, how many would make it to where we are today? >> i am a transitional age youth. it is appalling that people are opposing this project, no matter how the concerns are framed, it doesn't make sense to a young person like myself that would benefit greatly from this housing project. i don't understand how people can be opposed to helping to create safe and affordable housing for the city's most marginalized youth.

rather than respond to the issues, i would like to remind you all that the initial goal was to create 400 units for the transitional age youth by 2012. that goal has already been delayed. and this is a very urgent matter and ask that you not further delay this project. affordable housing is one of the most critical needs. please support the project. thank you. >> good evening, supervisors. i am here to speak in support of the edward the second project. just for a second, imagine a child that has been sexually abused by her father and is forced to enter the foster care system.

this is a friend of mine that is now 19 years old and just trying to get her life together, trying to recover from trauma. this is not the only person. there are thousands of young people in similar, worse, or different type of situations that are trying to live a healthy life. imagine a senior citizen, a refugee from el salvador that makes a living out of her house. she is barely making ends meet, she consistently taking in youth and young families that are struggling with housing from her local church. that is my grandmother. not only does she take in those folks, she supported myself, my sister, and my mother.

if this elderly woman who made ends meet by clipping coupons, only shopping when there was a sale, could support some many people that i used to see growing up, why can't the city and county of san francisco support this project and provide housing for transitional aid used? i urge you to make the right decision and the support and move forward the edward the second. the goal was to have 400 by 2012, we know that is not going to happen. but let's not delay any further and given the right direction. >> i am the executive director of the treasure island public development. i am here in favor of the housing project being proposed

by community housing partnerships had to speak against the appeals of this project. having worked for over a decade and being in contact with so many people have rebuilt their lives and credited the positive environment of treasure island for helping them stabilize, grow, and prosper, i feel strongly that we must provide these opportunities in different neighborhoods whenever we can. it represents the best of what the city can do to address those needs and opportunities. i've also worked with community health at a partnership for 15 years. they take their mission seriously, there are professional, compassionate, that they care greatly about their tents. san francisco and the neighborhood could not ask for a better partner. i hope the appeals are soundly rejected so that this project may move forward in the san

francisco transitional age you can find their place to stabilize growth and prosper. >> i am a marina native and homeowner. my neighbors, my extended family, many of my friends. there is concern -- i can promise you that they will have much more space than students have in the dorms. these are young people that are asking for a hand up and not a hand out. please vote to pass the project, thank you.

>> members of the board of supervisors, my name is richard spring water. why may district to resident and a supporter of that were the second. my day job involves real estate. in support of housing buildings , they serve 238 formerly homeless adults and 48 formerly homeless families. in addition, i am a member of the san francisco local homeless coordinating board where i have served for the past 10 years. the board is charged with overseeing in the continuum of care. the proposed project by

community housing partnership, if approved, will play a vital role in the continuum of care. the solution to homelessness is a home. support was developed 20 years ago. research has shown the support of housing pays for itself through savings in other public resources. they are otherwise consumed by the homeless. supportive housing turns lives around. we live in a vibrant city. we live near busy streets, and noisy schools, popular bars and restaurants whose regular is frequently celebrated at inconvenient hours. i wish that i could give comfort to those neighbors that have spoken in opposition to the motion that there is nothing to worry about. they have a national reputation has service providers and

managers, and i believe it will be a positive addition to the neighborhood. the one thing i know for sure is that the head with the second will save lives. those lives will be our sons and daughters. thank you. >> i work for allies united, formerly friends of the children for eight years. and i work with foster youth and at risk youth. i understand the concerns and the fear, i support this project. the biggest concern is safety, but i have seen the youth services performed very well, internationally known to be a successful program. selecting people that want to be

stable adults. they need help and deserve a real chance. i feel san francisco should allow this. we have a moral obligation to protect our most vulnerable population, our youth. we have a social responsibility to provide housing opportunities for those trying to uplift themselves. san francisco has been about community and that is why i have moved here. i hope that folks voting can see this is a beacon of light rather than something that is not worse for us in the community. >> my name is lisa, i am reading a letter on behalf of the neighborhood association. on behalf of the north panhandle neighborhood association, i would like to

strongly encourage you to approve the plans for the edward the second project. there is a community housing project within our neighborhood. it is a wonderful project that is filled with civic minded staff and residents. we have had nothing but positive experiences. several residences -- several residents attend committee meetings. we had our share of detractors on this project. they are worried, which a think is the main concern, that such a place will somehow the grade he quality of life for neighbors. our experience to date has been the complete opposite. our neighborhood and neighbors' lives are enhanced by a well-run facility that adds an element of diversity of life experience and

caring that solidifies our mutual commitment to building a better community. the community housing partnership is an excellent neighbor. they are sensitive and responsible to the concerns of neighbors and provide a much- needed service to those at the helm. >> on behalf of san francisco housing action coalition. month ago, we reviewed this project and support it wholeheartedly. but we think that the neighborhood would be improved by putting this project, and san francisco as a logical would be improved if these types of projects were dispersed all over the city. we want to express our deep frustration that ceqa is a tool to try to hamstring projects, to

try to stop them. it proves how broken it is as a tool for addressing the environmental challenges that the city faces. the very rare accident of the site of great developer and a great service provider occurring at the same place at time. it is hard to police projects. i want to say that as far as this appeal goes, we all know that this discussion is about many things. the impact on the environment is not one of them. i have to say that the appeal of a project like this is reprehensible and i hope that you would not support it. >> i am the interim housing director at the vernal heights

neighborhood center. if is a sister agency, we both have a true community-based approach for her affordable housing. they said the bar very high for the quality of its development. we look at it for the long run, for 55 years, the quality of construction and the operations to keep the housing stable. among the colleagues and neighbors, as a leader in developing a very sophisticated and successful model of property management. the project is desperately needed to address the needs of transitional youth. the city is responsible for the funds. they will be incorporating the units into a project that we are in development for right now.

it is important that all of the neighborhoods understand that we are really one city, one community. and we have a responsibility to take care of each other. i sought a t-shirt as i was sitting in the overflow room that said that the solution to homelessness is affordable housing. i would say high-quality affordable housing less affordable services is a solution to homelessness and this project does just that. i urge your support. >> i am speaking on behalf -- everyone knows that we are not here because of anybody spreading passion for ceqa. [laughter] a very small group of people think that and the property of their value of their

neighborhood will decline. the idea that one person can know anything about another person based on their gender, their sexual orientation, is something we call prejudice. the notion that it is a validation to determine who lives in what neighborhood is called segregation. and here we are. if you bring all of our thinking into the twenty first century, this fades away. do you support use housing or to support you homelessness. i think you know everything that you -- that i have said right now and they will vote the right way. >> how're you doing, supervisors?

i come from foster care, and i did not have anywhere to go. it was real hard. what they are trying to do with this, they want to support children coming from a foster home with housing, this is very vital. it is real powerful and it would really help a lot in a positive way. a hope you take into consideration here. thank you. >> i live one block from the edward project -- also, i am

familiar with the community housing building >> before coming to this particular organization, i have worked with transitional youth. while working with the specific population of 12-24, i realize

the importance of them having something that they can call their own as well as having certain issues addressed whether it is teen pregnancy, truancy, gang violence, things like that in order to overcome their odds. it is important to assist them and reach out to them. the community housing partnership, their track record speak for themselves. in regard to our reaching and working with people that have been excluded in this society, people are afraid of what they don't know. it will introduce neighbors to a new set of communities. >> i am not only a resident, i am an employee. they have done a lot for me, to give me employed. i hope for the user, we get some

kind of help that they really need, because it is going to be rough on all-out of people. if they don't get housing, it will be rough on everybody else. >> i am president of the golden gate valley neighborhood association. we heard about the golden gate valley library. and edward the second is one block west of the western boundaries. we have supported this product from the very beginning. we think it is good for the neighborhood. we think it is important for us to shoulder some of the burden for this youth population. we think the community housing partnerships and the youth services our quality organizations. i've been impressed by the amount of negotiation that they have undertaken with our neighbors that are nervous

about this project and i am not a entirely sure exactly why. i think the mitigation of a health and should help ease those concerns, like if there is an advisory committee or what ever it is of neighbors to oversee the implementation of this project. i just want you to know that there are many of us out there that think this is good, and we welcome it. we are just not frightened by the unknown. >> over 60% of its population, what we see when the population actually attends city colleges,

they become couch surfers. they go from house to house with no permanent or stable residents. a lot of them end up dropping out because there is no support services for this population. in the city of st. francis where we talk about these values of supporting and protecting the people that don't have a lot of protection, this is one of the projects that we should be supporting in san francisco. i want to point out that this is a drop in the bucket of the real housing needs for this population. i want to make sure that we can be as supportive in san francisco for the population to continue to support projects that really bring this population out of poverty and out of their cycle of abuse. i want to wholeheartedly support this project and i hope that the board of supervisors can, too.

>> i am with the council on community housing associations, we are in strong support of the project. you are talking about to institutions, they have had an incredible track record. these are organizations that we look to as a coalition, as models of how to get it done and how to do it well. and that is a core value of those organizations. i want to put that into the larger context of the affordable housing community, a coalition of 17 member organizations that build housing, provide services and do advocacy. it is important that community- based organizations are here to stay. they don't build and run. it is different than thinking about a one-time project that

you have to live with. these folks are going to build its affordability and quality because this is an asset they have to manage. they also build for their own property management viability because they have to own it, run it, and operate it. in terms of housing in the san francisco, some of the best managed housing in the best management services is from affordable housing developers. i want to emphasize that this will be good quality, very well managed. >> i know it has been a long evening for you wallenda been hearing a lot about this particular project from folks. i want you to take a minute and clear your mind, close your

eyes, and think about what image comes to your mind when i say a couple of phrases. foster care youths. homeless youth. are those images and scary? my comments are mostly directed from those fighting against this project. these images to scare them. they scare them ala. even though they may have moved into the neighborhood that has the widest people in the entire city, that particular neighborhood doesn't have a gate around it. it is inside san francisco. i want you to think about that as you are moving forward with this project. it is not ok for folks to do this. it is not any different from the police officers standing with guns after katrina, trying to keep folks from coming out of new orleans. it is done with money, keeping

people out of a neighborhood by using legal means because you have the money to do it. people who you are afraid of, who you are prejudiced against. that is not ok. we need to stand up against this, because there is no other way to describe that but wrong. >> you have a lot of disabled people, people going into that neighborhood, they have things that they have to overcome right there. when i hit this town, i found a

place to live in this big old victorian house. there are 18 bedrooms, and it was like 1/3 of halftime minimum wage there were a number of interesting characters. about a third of them were college students like myself. that is where my life interacted with mr. garcia. what i wanted to show you is that san francisco is gone, it is not coming back. that building has exactly six people living in it. does the need for this kind of project.

>> are there any other members of the public that wish to speak? why don't we go back to the appellant? >> there is a preliminary matter, the assertion that the association walked away from the deal. there is a memorandum of understanding that both sides worked on, a condition of that memorandum that the project sponsor required was that they take the appeal, they lack the legal standing to do. i want to set the record straight. with regard to the comment that the sud as an affordable housing mechanism doesn't create

a precedent. it would be pure speculation. to conclude as much, i would respond that such are a reasonably foreseeable development. i would direct the supervisor's attention to policy 7.5 that says the production of affordable housing through process and zoning accommodations and prioritized affordable housing in the river approval process. be specific used in this capacity should have, under -- come under ceqa review because they are easily foreseeable developments. there are six sponsors to this legislation. prior to the analysis.

therefore, it means that this legislation is as good as past. that is the type of city support prior to analysis that the case was concerned with. it was this kind of momentum that has a negative affect on the fair and objective process. going to the supervisor's comment about the density bonus, i would like to point out that the density bonus law that compliance will be implemented. this means that there should be one ordinance, not a variety of sud's.