one preference in our housing processes on both sides of the aisle, of public housing and in our section eight product. their number one. as a result, we typically house a number of homeless families. what we're doing specifically different in this particular case is we are matching the intersection family-for-family between the shelter process that the city is operating in the waiting list that the housing authority operates. what we're discovering is that many of those families, there is an intersection. they're not always number one. they could be 200, 300. our goal is to try to process families in an expeditious way to get to all of those families. with that, i think there will sit and try to get to the question and answers. supervisor avalos: ok. you know, this past year, i have heard that there has been a lot

of families with in the housing authority that actually have been evicted, and i am wondering if we're seeing now some of those families that have lost their housing in the house about 40 are now in our shelter system and coming back into the housing authority buildings. what has happened over the past year in terms of families being marginally house, being released from the housing authority, and what conditions lead to families end up being evicted? >> i would like to talk about those it the context. there are those families that week evict for cause, for some sort of lease a violation. violence, drugs, criminal activity, not abiding by their lease. then there are families that we have to structure it processes for rent payment. in those cases, we go to extraordinary lengths. we have had a call to the

housing authorities of families not paying rent. what we have attempted to do over the last year is to change that culture by trying to find ways to convince our families that they should pay rent. typically that rent payment is 30% of their monthly adjusted income. in some instances, what we're doing with families if they have arrearages from however long ago that has been, we have asked them to enter into payment plans. in those instances, those play meant plans to renegotiate at nominal values. it could be as little as $1, in addition to what their average a normal monthly mental -- rental payment would be. if you have not pay your rent for the last year and we get to a point where we enter into a discussion with the family about paying rent, we would say to that family, let's make a play end of how you will pay an additional not more than 5%, but

maybe it is just $5. and your rental payment is $100. for the foreseeable months into the future, we're asking families to pay $105. $100 of their normal range, and five additional dollars to cover their rear edges. additionally, we are writing off arrearages better significantly old enough that they are uncollectable by statute or simply by our collection process. so we are actually ievicting a limited number of families or not paying rent, and those are only those families who were unwilling to cooperate with the agency in terms of entering a payment plan or becoming current in their rental structure. supervisor avalos: do you know how many families that has been over the past year? >> historically, it has been about a third of our inventory. anywhere from 1300 to 1500 families have not been paying rent. supervisor avalos: of that number, how many end up becoming

infected? >> there has been a minimal number of folks. i would say a handful, less than 50. in the three and a half years that i have been here, we have tried not to evict families for nonpayment of rent. again, those families who, when we get to the eviction process, which requires a court activity, we are typically asked to go into the hallway and created a plan of action that allows the family to stay. in those instances, we're either writing off those arrearages that are older than the statutory limit, and we're coming to obtain an agreement on the back rent, and we're asking families to be current. so we have a new commuter -- computer systems. we are improving our calculations of red so we get the numbers accurately. as families report changes in income and household composition that affect their rent, and these are complicated structures, we're trying to implement those quickly so that we do not evict families simply

because of their inability to pay. supervisor avalos: thank you. ok, we have someone from the mayor's office of housing. >> yes, we will. brian and teresa will come up to talk about our supportive housing program and about some of the for closure programs that we have. supervisor avalos: the idea i had around the foreclosures was, last tuesday, there were about 20 families that were imminent of being evicted, and i guess there was a call for a moratorium from some of the families and community groups to see if there was a way to prevent the evictions of being carried out. i guess the options that the city might have, we can see the

options we have to prevent evictions during the month of december, at least, during the holiday. >> let me back up briefly and give you a thumbnail description of our efforts in this area. briefly, on the rental side, our support for homeless families primarily exists in resources river to community-based organizations. we support about $1 million or so through a combination of community development block grant funds, shelter funds, and stabilization fund, a nonprofit organization funds, eviction and services to families and individuals at risk of being evicted each year. on the for closure prevention side, our primary resistance this through our community

development block grant program to a number of different homeownership counseling groups. we fund the clever to be might be aware of called homeownership sf which consists of meta, sf housing, lgbt center, community housing, and those groups them individually and as home ownership sf, started off primarily during first-time home buyer counseling. but over the last two or three years, we have had to shift focus of efforts on to for closure prevention. it has proven to be a quite challenging situation. i think that are limited success in these areas has primarily been in working with those banks that are willing to look at loan modifications or payment default programs for those families who can show that they have some source of income. perhaps there has been a momentary loss in income due to an illness in the family, and

those situations where we are able to persuade the lender that people will be able to make their repayment, where sometimes able to be able to get package loans and to that effect. it has been challenging. i have to say that the issue that comes up every day, issues that we talk about what all of our partners that homeownership sf, unfortunately nobody has come up with a perfect solution. because none of these families are necessarily able to show that there will have the income stream necessary to fully support a loan modification. in those instances, the most our offices can do is work with home ownership sf to at least work towards a permissible short sale instead of zero for closure. at least we can try and minimize the impact on these families credit abilities so they will not be barred in the future from purchasing a home. but it is a very difficult situation unfortunately, many

cases we are not able to work towards a loan modification. and short sales offer an alternative to foreclosure, but those families still have to move out. in most of those cases, families, we found, tend to find emergency housing, often with other relatives. they often have to move out of the city. sometimes moving to another state. it has been a very challenging time for them. so we're open to working with the city for solutions. we get requests every day, but we're limited in what we are able to do for our own program, but we're happy to work with the city if there are other efforts. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> good morning. teresa from the mayor's office of housing. for our supportive housing pipeline, it is not only challenging to deal with for closures but also challenging

to build affordable housing in san francisco. in our current pipeline, we have about 133 housing units that are slated for homeless families specifically. that is funded and support with the human services agency and our local operating subsidy program, which thankfully you guys are always willing to support through the budget process. of those 133 units, and none are necessarily -- they are in development now and are slated for opening starting in 2013 and 2014. so nothing that is immediately develop will -- available. most housing currently under construction is he there for seniors are the disabled, but we definitely have staff in the pipeline. today, we have at least 179 units targeted specifically for homeless families, families in some other affordable housing developments, and that is funded through the human services agencies and our local operating subsidies program. those homeless families go to the human services agency access

points. supervisor avalos: thank you. if there are no other persons to present -- >> we did have a couple folks from the school district if you had questions about the families in transition program, and we are available to answer any questions. we're also interested in hearing from families. supervisor avalos: i think that would be best if we can go to public comment. and then if you're still available for questions, i would be delighted to have them. so let's go ahead and open it up for public comment. i do not have cards, but if folks who would like to speak and line up along the windows here, we will do two minutes per person.

again, i want to thank a lot of the folks in the community, families who are homeless, and the coalition of homelessness for your advocacy in raising this issue, raising awareness of it, and being able to get a response in court in nation from the city, which is a great thing. also to get folks from the private sector as well, the benioff family. please come forward. two minutes per person. >> hello. because of the director programs for hamilton family center. first, i want to say i am very encouraged to here then is that the salesforce and hsa collaboration. this funding will definitely be infused a need and fulfill a

need in san francisco. we're currently looking at the decrease of homeless prevention rapid re-housing dollars that were infused into the city in september 2009, which allow us to serve approximately 128 families. since that time what rental subsidies in move-in support, we're currently in the process of ramping down from the funding, because that funding will end june 2012. so this infusion will definitely allow us to provide additional and continuing subsidies and move-in support for families. i also want to bring up the fact that there is a big shift happening in federal funding that we need to pay attention to. the emergency solutions grant -- the emergency shelter grant is shifting to the emergency solutions brand, which will focus that money on prevention. yeah, at the same time, we

continue to need a safety net in san francisco. hamilton family center provides a full circle, from emergency services to subsidies and move- in for homeless families and the eviction prevention. [bell rings] we need all of these services. having shelter while waiting to get into housing, as well as support to move families as rapidly as possible into housing. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> i am assistant program director at compass connecting point, which manages the waiting list for the long-term family shelters. i wanted to talk more about what we are seeing on our end. i know that you mentioned earlier, in june 2007, there were 71 families on our waiting list for family shelter, and they could expect to wait approximately two months for placement. a family with a serious medical

or mental health condition, could get a fast track and shelter within a week or two. today we have over 250 families on the waiting list, and they couldn't expect with over seven months for placement. a family with a serious medical or mental condition still has about two to three-month wait for placement. during the time that families are waiting for shelter, they are often staying from couch-to- count, parks, hotels, emergency overnight shelters, and more. it is not uncommon that we will see families who are staying, you know, 10 people in a 1- bedroom unit in the projects. families are staying in a variety of situations. they will stay with a relative one eye, hotel lanai, car one night, and more. a lot of families cannot sustain this. families often leave the state are moved back into an abusive situation, lose custody of their children, or they drop off the radar and do not continue getting services, but they never achieve stability. one of the scary things right

now that the overnight shelters are reaching capacity. the last resort shelters that we used to use the like providence, have recently had to turn families the way for the first time in history, which is pretty scary. [bell rings] supervisor avalos: your time is right there. >> ok. so the last point i just wanted to make is that, unlike other residential programs, compass connecting point does not have programming capacity. we will continue to serve in the family that is homeless and in need of shelter, but our budget does not increase at all. the case managers are working with triple caseloads, tripoli a lot of hot line calls. there is emergency services like diapers, bus tokens, and food. but we're definitely very grateful to have this opportunity to collaborate with community partners. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. please come forward, next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors.

my name is lee. my family lives in an sro unit. [speaking foreign language] i am here to call for your help on the situation homeless families are facing. we now have over 2,000 students in public schools that are homeless kids.

i have>> i have a son who is ind grade now. when he comes home, he has. it is even hard for him to move around in the room. >> [speaking foreign language. ] >> it is difficult to find opportunities, even for affordable housing. >> [speaking foreign language. ] >> i hope that the city will provide better housing for our children. >> [speaking foreign language] >> we are concerned about families on the street that are homeless.

we ask for your help. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] >> supervisors, i am one of the worker organizers for the foundation. i did collaborative. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i'd like to share with you what the families are telling me. because i do home visits all the time, they tell me that there are [unintelligible] on the rental subsidies. >> [speaking foreign language] >> about the limit of years on

the rental subsidy, although we said there was a possibility of extending it to five years, most of the families are out within a couple of years. >> [speaking foreign language] >> one of the hurdles for families in rentals such as these is that they would need to raise their monthly income at least $500. in this time, when families are getting really tough times holding on to jobs, much less getting a raise on the job, things like that -- a lot of

them feared that they could not raise -- meet the requirement to raise their income. so, they are not applying, even though they really wanted to move up. >> [speaking foreign language] >> this limited number of slots for families on the rental subsidy, some of the families might get to a point where they can use the rental subsidy. but all applications have been closed at that time. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i urge the city and supervisors to look at the soup -- situation and improve the much needed housing that our

families need. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello, good morning. my name is deborah. i am here as a resident of san francisco. my day job is the medical director of the homeless families program run by the san francisco department of public health. i also work with and for the national health care for the homeless. i do a lot of work with the homeless nationally and in affirmative front care. i wanted to say thank you to you and all of the incredible people in the city, public and private, nonprofit working currently on this issue. your work is outstanding. being poor and a vulnerable, for a family it is devastating, medically and emotionally. for homeless families, it is

exponential. the demographics between -- i have children, so i am used to it -- so, the demographics between homeless adults and families is very different. unfortunately, we are doing is building more work for the future. -- unfortunately, what we are doing is building more work for the future. sorry, i am nervous right now, my brain is not functioning as well as it could. if you were getting hit by a bus coming toward you, your brain would shut off. you would not be able to memorize the gettysburg address or remember what you had for breakfast. the 2000 children facing homelessness, and countless more out there unable to function in schools because of the level of stress for families -- i want to just say that a long-term

effects, there are studies about increased chances for heart disease and substance abuse. if you would like that data, i can provide it to you. the other issue is that in san francisco, chronic homeless adults, we have great programming and we are ahead of the nation. we do not have that parallel system for homeless families. if they follow -- if they fall through the gap in this system, there is not a lot of stabilization to get help first. that is what everyone here is working toward. i had a family, recently, that left with type 1 diabetes. she was out in her car, and it got stolen. cbs got involved. there are lots of families like that, where we do not have anyone between the gaps and the resources we are offering.

i would like to look at parallel processes for the families. >> hello, my name is kate. i am here as a san francisco resident. my day job is with the san francisco department of public health. i wanted to paint a picture of what we do every week. i sit with kids at the connecting point. once a week to shelter directors and i meet, going over the priority list. it has doubled into the 50's. usually it is in the 20's. you get on the priority list because of physical and mental health issues. we are seeing sicker and sicker families on both sides. we have to -- we listen to the stories and they are really, really compelling.

newborns. kids with immune problems. kids in wheelchairs, sometimes. parents in wheelchairs. people who are postoperative period high-risk pregnancies. and they go through the list and at the end of the session, we say -- how many rooms are available? sometimes it is zero. usually it is one or two. on a good day, we will have four. it is a difficult task. the other thing that i wanted to mention was that we only have two homerooms in the entire city for medical respite. if there is an outbreak of influenza in the shelter -- [tone] we have no where to put people. it is a very different picture for homeless adults. we do not have the resources. thank you. supervisor avalos: has that changed, over the years?

has there been a reduced number? >> it is a larger number of people. people are sicker. it is the numbers. with the same resources. so, the resources were not adequate before. now, you know, we sat around -- i am a mother of an ill child and i cannot imagine not having a roof over my head. we have to make really difficult decisions. it is unbelievable. in a city like this, where there is so much money. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, supervisors. thank you for holding this hearing. in the political director of united educators of san francisco. made a job for 25 years has been classroom teacher. last week we passed a resolution to get the teachers and professionals of san francisco

involved in every way possible to solve this problem. when we throw around the figure -- 2000, 2100 children, showing up to our schools homeless, that means that virtually every single classroom in this district has at least one homeless student. educators know that poverty is the number one indicator of problems with our students. student failure, students being left behind, students not graduating, students not showing up for school. they are so traumatized, as previous speakers alluded to, they cannot get engaged with their lesson. we imagine that there are homeless students, and the studies are out there, that the problem is geometrically multiplied. they will not be able to do their history lesson, certainly

not be able to take up the challenge in subjects like geometry and physics, let alone learning to count to 10. so, we are very glad that you are holding the hearing. all of these folks from the community, we want everyone to know that the teachers and professionals of san francisco are joining in this effort. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. >> [speaking foreign language] >> good morning, my name is theresa. >> [speaking foreign language] supervisor avalos: you want to pull the microphone closer to you for the translation? >> working as a supporter for the homeless and housing.