for housing. i want to say thank you. [applause] >> hello, my name is kimmal. i came here with my daughter in her three children. i am thank you for a motion allowing us to be here and by being a 24-hour drop in center, we were able to stay there and get ourselves together to try to find housing. we have been trying to find housing at a steady pace for two months. nothing fits our pockets. we cannot afford anything. we are begging you to please open up the 800 units that are affordable for our family. [unintelligible] it is a lot. is this too many? i have another daughter who is currently at home.

she thought she had a place for her children tonight. now she is back home on the streets -- now she's back on the streets. open those 800 units, please. help us. it is a lot of stress. it is emotional. it does not make sense for kids to get up at 6:00 in the morning and be out in the streets for 12 hours until this time for them to come back. there is nothing here for them to do. in the freezing cold, there is nothing. please look at those that need your help, need housing. need to eat at the table. need to get their sanity back. everyone is mixed up and confused in this homeless situation. under the bridges. i do not understand that. how come they cannot get into shelters? [tone] >> my name is geneva.

i have been homeless for two years. i have been on the waiting list for that long. my number was high. are around the 3000, 4000, i got there at 302. i have not had a letter or anything. and i have been at the shelters for almost three months. since i have been in the shelters, my kids have been sick. back and forth to the hospitals and doctors' appointments, i cannot do much to get a job while in this process. having more units available then you are supposed to, i give out more than are needed now -- the winter, when it is cold. it makes sense. i feel like if more people knew

about the situation, and more people had turned care about the homeless, anyone could be in this situation. you ain't got to be low income or a pedestrian to make you homeless. any situation could make you that way. you could come from the richpoor being rich to poor in a minute. it could happen to anyone. you do not have to have a specific reason to be on the streets. it do not take much to end up in my position. people laugh at the homeless and it is not funny. she would like to speak on her mother's behalf. go ahead. how do you feel being homeless and having to go to school?

>> sad. >> ok. so, what is your daily routine like? >> i go to the shelter? >> how do you feel about that. is there enough time to study? >> no. >> do you need help? >> no. >> what time do you have to get up in the morning to get ready for school? >> 5:00 a.m. >> how does that make you feel? do you feel like you will be able to get enough sleep to study and make it through life? >> no. >> how do you feel when you go to school? do you have enough energy to work through the day without feeling tired? >> no. >> [inaudible]

>> because they laugh at me. >> i want to make sure that she gets to speak in her own words. i know that you are helping her. perhaps she is not ready to speak right now. >> do you have anything you want to add? >> help the homeless. >> speak. tell them how you feel. >> sad and homeless. >> what do you want to say to them, in your own words? >> help the homeless. >> how old are you? >> attend. >> thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. [applause] next speaker, please. >> hello, good morning. or good afternoon. i am working for the coalition on homelessness. for many years, it seems i work

with the commission and i seen so many mayors talking about the crisis of homelessness in san francisco. it is going up. what is the mayor doing to end homelessness in san francisco? not enough. not enough. of course, there are 2200 homeless shelters in san francisco. when one of the officials last week on the 30th of november, saying that there is not a crisis -- it is a crisis when there are 2000 homeless and other ones that have been homeless for years. we can see that it is more like

4000 in 5000 homeless children in san francisco. -- 4000, 5000 homeless children in san francisco. why we do not resolve to fix this problem? i would like to see on this agenda for the next one, mr. ed lee, mayor, to put specific attention to resolve the problems of homelessness. i do not want to see more homeless familiesi do not want e homeless families, and i do not want to see more homeless families on the waiting list to get into a shelter. i would like to ask him to apologize to their families for what happened last week, because what he is saying is not

a crisis in san francisco, it is a crisis. thank you. i am waiting for an answer. [applause] >> next speaker, please. >please, i want to go through the testimony, and with so much clapping generally not allowed in to keep it to a minimum. thank you. >> gracias. >> thank you for everything. >> [speaking spanish]

>> 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. candidates. they are candidates to receiv