>> first, we have a lot of feelings. we feel a lot of pain that with all of this trouble. obviously for the kids, because when they asked when windier -- when we're going to have our own place to play, we cannot find an answer to that question. [>> [speaking spanish] >> what are we supposed to say?

we need to lie? i do not think that is the good way to teach your children, but sometimes i like to my daughter. >>i like to heard telling her we're going camping. she does not know what is camping, but i say that because i do not want to tell her we're going to the shelter. >> [speaking spanish] >> please command the meeting

with the audience and the mayor. he can see the problem face to face. here the families, and find a solution for this. >>we need a solution promptly. thank you. >> next speaker, please. >> buenos tardes. [speaking spanish [ ] good morning, supervisors. my name is yvette. i am part of the coalition for the homeless. >> [speaking spanish]

>> we have a lot -- too many. i think that is not just a problem, but the problem it is also with school districts. the children there are not doing well academically. it is a trauma for them to be homeless. >> [speaking spanish]

>> we ask the mayor, we are asking for two things. to give us an audience. and we have information about the shelters that is on the peak of capacity. more families trying to find a shelter or somewhere to stay, but unfortunately there is. we have all of the information. give us a solution to this problem. >> [speaking spanish] >> we put a heart on your hand

and the man us a solution to the problem. and-- demand a solution to the problem. [applause] >> one more? >> hi. i want to say something. housing. my name is mario. thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is wayne. i have two kids and my wife have

been [inaudible] . we do not have no money, nothing. we have to stay in a park for a while. every day we get to the shelter. [inaudible] thank you. i do not speak really good. ok. [applause] >> hello, my name is l.d. the

community. i feel this city needs to step up their efforts in helping the homeless. it is a crisis, and we need to be addressing it in that way. i believe this is so serious and we can do things in a much better way if we just make the effort that needs to be made. i know the work they do, and i know the truth is here -- the true sincerity they have. if it was not for the people of this city, there would not be no city. let's take care of the people. [applause] >> any other members of the public that would like to comment? anyone else who would like to comment, please come forward. >> hi.

well, let me start here, i definitely believe that let me give you some of the things i recommend your do. first of all, -- >> could you please identify yourself? >> i am charles. i would recommend you have the team masterly several apartment buildings. the mou process is not currently working. some of the housing have ability programs. the other thing is we need to definitely think about how the stability of these housings. hopefully that is a piece of legislation you will create to make laws more stricter when people move into housing.

i am also thinking about -- i think the case managers at these places need specialized training so they will be able to help people get into housing and where the housing is, and how to navigate the process. i think i was given a housing application that was pretty much as big as this book. they expect me to fill that out. it is not a simple issue dealing with this, so i think you have to figure out how to bring more jobs into the city and county of san francisco. i also feel you have a problem with accountability system. i just feel like they should not have come from the coalition of homeless. this should have come from the local coordinating home was

board. this is overrun by service providers are you are not getting the information. i find it problematic that this guy is going to pull 150 housing units out of the blue somewhere just to house these people what they have probably been fake it for years. -- vacant for years.sarah short did a presentation about a year ago. it needs to be said, she did a presentation about a year ago, and it was very much opposite of everything that sf housing said. it was totally opposite and i -- [unintelligible] >> thank you very much. [applause] if there are no other members of the public that would like to

comment, i will close public comment. >> the african-american -- >> i have already closed public comment. i want to thank everyone for coming and speaking in your advocacy in your work, because obviously this hearing would not have happened if you have not spoken up. i believe we would not have the stories that come out in the media because he is speaking up and talking about conditions. clearly the city as a problem in the city that the city has not been adequately responding to. you do not need me to tell you that, but i just said it. i want to thank you for coming forward and making things happen. we of coordination now between city departments and housing authority that has been a long

time coming. we also have a donation that has come from the private sector that i think is welcome as well that is a start. we have to look at -- from how we can prevent these conditions from worsening. i want to make sure we're moving along the right track, so i think your effort from the community side has been instrumental in making that happen. also want to thinank mr. cayhan for being here. i think mr. rorar at comments he wanted to express about his comments in the paper. and i would like to give you space to do that. and i want to have follow-up as well. there are lots of people that spoke here, very personal stories.

stories that are not often spoke on television. made me feel very uncomfortable. i want to acknowledge that was done in you revealed to me and to the public that it is very difficult to hear but we need to hear those things. thank you for doing that in giving us that uncomfortable must that helps us to do our work even better to acknowledge the conditions out there in the city. >> thank you for the opportunity. i do not often comment on what is portrayed in the press, and we all know how the media sometimes has its own way of spending things, but this one was particularly alarming for me, and it was the quote attributed to me about this not being a crisis. unfortunately this was taken out of context. what i said it is not a crisis that demands the opening of new shelters, but one that requires us to address the lack

affordability of housing and lack of income or low income among homeless families. unfortunately that whole " did not express. -- that whoele quote did not get expressed. supervisor avalos: i want to work with providers to make sure we close the loop on any family that potentially is at risk of prolonging the condition of being in a shelter. i think it is support we do that. also, you can summarize for us what has been achieved so far in terms of new programming in new funding, just to summarize that again before the close of the hearing. what do you see as a challenge to make sure we're reaching more

families as well? >> thank you for having the hearing and the families coming out and taking the time to share their stories with us. at times uncomfortable, but important to hear. you ask me about ensuring families get connected to the system, and we will make sure that happens. there was testimony about the mayor's not meeting with families. the mayor is well aware of the concerns of the families, and that is why the mayor instructed his department to court mate, and also he was open to hearing from their private-sector. i will be meeting in some of the city staff will meet with the families on the coalition of homelessness tomorrow to address concerns, and so we will be doing that. regarding the programs you heard about some of the rent subsidy program, i will ask mr. look out for us to come forward. that is 200 families we believe co-exist in the school system

and homeless shelter we need to address right now. we're trying to get them into housing, something short-term right now and hopefully long- term going forward before the holidays. we cannot get all 200 during that time, but a large number of the men. then we're looking at other parts to look at the way we're coordinating. as i told you on the side, i am very concerned that many families are applying for the families in transition program through the school district, but it does not seem they know about our system of care. many of those families live with relatives. but it's an ok situation for them. if i reach out and connected to them, they may say i am fine. i want to know that front and center. i also want to say we talked about the idea of not needing to open a shelter. we heard from the families that are not talking about the need for increases in shelter.

what they were saying is they needed us stable place to live. -- need a stable place to live that allows for the families to get to school on time. they get their benefits in child care. it is the base of support that we all need in order to thrive. that is what we want to put in place for the families and not waste any of their time. we want to help them get housing right away. i will ask them to quickly summarize for your request that program, and then we can wrap up from there. >> i appreciate the comments come and hope to hear about a follow-up, but i want to say that i know hydro mendoza just came in, and i want to ask about what we do with in the school district to make sure am they are cared for, but also we

addressed the bullying him. i would like to know a little bit about that. i want to say that i appreciated the many families that testified, and totally agreed that if 2200 homeless families existed, if the bullet is increase this to me. -- it definitely is a crisis to meet. a number of people brought this up. i appreciate 51 units that are born to be used in housing, but what about the 150 vacant housing units? could more of those be used to ease the suffering of homeless families, especially during the coldest part of winter right now? >> for think yothank you, commi.

this is that currently are really key issue for us, and we try our best to keep our families as the mall as possible -- to keep our families as stable as possible. i want to dturn it over to talk about the program itself. take a good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for allowing me the opportunity to speak on behalf of the program at san francisco unified school district. my name is salvador lopez bar. the money is money set aside for students to be used to eliminate any barriers that would otherwise prevent productive

and gainful education. most of the students enrolled in the program are combination of those that live in a shelter, abandoned buildings, cars, parks, churches. the other half of the family that we subsidize to are those that we would consider doubled up or tripled up for economic reasons, loss of appointment, foreclosures. many of you have heard from prior to my speaking. to answer your question, we do not classify students as homeless students. it is a badge that has a stigma affect to the community, especially in the school setting -- school setting. i like to refer to my students as it candidates -- fit

candidates. they are candidates to receive income and of the program i court in may. i never referred to the students as homeless, and is a badge that i do not think it is appropriate. if anything, i refer to them as transitions students. the definition of this is quite frankly different than the mayor's office intends to define. we tend to focus on the entire district community. the mayor's office is forthcoming in trying to prevent and assist our department. i would like to thank them for securing the additional funding that we will be able to use in the future to help subsidize families. to g>> good morning again.

henry of a rise for housing authority pier yen -- henry alvarez. currently homelessness is the number one preference on our waitlist. on the public housing side we have 25,000 families waiting, of which approximately 2500 of them have self-declared their homeless, and that list is ordered in time and date. whoever has been there the longest typically rises to the top of the list, and homeless families rise to the top of that. and on about your side of aisle, we have a bust -- 11,000 families on that list. the housing authorities programs are regulated by the federal government, by the department of urban housing and development.

the criteria by which we housed families, they all must come from about waitlist. if they are not on the wait list, we typically cannot house them. the wait list is currently closed. we anticipate opening it by the second quarter of the coming year, and including a discussion about preferences. we're hearing about this more and more every day that we may need to adjust our preference schemes, that families that are homeless with school-aged children may come first. there are other groups that wish to become first, so that is problematic. >> how did the wait list it close? take of the department of urban development decides that it await list as i have a reasonable expectation of housing, that it should be closed. we use the rubric if your weight is typically long prevented

years, the wait list is closed. of the 25,000 families on the wait list and public housing, given on average we house 400- 500 families per year, that typically will be longer than a 10-year wait. on the voucher side, that is more than 100% utilized. it is a budget-operative program. basically 10 million per month. once we provide subsidies but add up to 10,000 per month, we typically close the section 8 list. we are at capacity. however, we are hearing from the public that there is a need in certain elements of family population, and our intent is to open the wait list so we can service or assist those families. >> how do you have the discretion to do that? >> we will need to open the

list for all families, because it will create a housing element. the issue will be what are the preferences that we accord to provide? those families with preferences go above those that do not have preferences. the other thing is the notion of how many vacant units we have. that is incorrect. we have approximately 223 vacant units. 100 of which we are processing for families. there are approximately 115-123 baking units -- vacant units that are getting ready to be utilized for families. the typical methodology is to get a unit substantially ready within a day or so of families moving in, bring in the appliances, because we discover

without closing up the units we are subject to vandalism and squatting and theft of appliances, so we tend to for these up as soon as we assess they are vacant. we then start working on them to get them ready, and typically the lesser work that has to be done to get those units quickly come of the more work that has to be done in large construction work, they take longer. i should mention also that the budgetary constraints of the federal level have reduced the ability to do that quickly, so what we're doing to expedite these units is to simply attach families to these units. we will delay other capital activities to get the units ready. that sense that there are large number of vacant units are not correct. we're typically operated of the

public housing side at 93% occupancy-95% on average. our about your program is operating at 100-108% of budget authority, which is where we of been for the past year. some of the things that our colleagues mentioned to you earlier, we're going to look into methodologies of creating a set aside for the specific population group where we take a small portion of our about your program and create preferences that these families can be served a quicker. the issue with that is obviously whoever goes first, there are other families that will then have to wait, because this is a finite product. currently the federal government is cutting resources to provide those services. i hope that answers the question. if not, i would be more than happy to answer more.

supervisor avalos: ok, i can't continue to the call of the chair and get a report back in the new year. how we are able to get families into more stable housing situations and figure out what we can do next of the process. okay? so we could agree to do that. we will adjourn this meeting. thank you very much. [applause]

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