tools on hand to give you the solution to this problem. >> [speaking foreign language] >> today it is cold. what the homeless people have to go through, day-by-day, believe that you can give these people a better place to live. you can have a solution to this problem. the people will have a better life.

>> [speaking foreign language] >> last month we came to ask the mayor to have a meeting with him. but he did not have a date for something like that. he can give the solutions to many problems in these meetings. the only thing that we ask for is a meeting and we can talk about it. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> she says that she knows that you have enough units to give a family a place to live that they can call home. she said that covering the problem like it does not exist is not the solution. there is a solution on your hands and you can do it. thank you. [applause] >> thank you. next speaker, please. -- supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> good morning, my name is kenya valdez. i was homeless many years ago. thanks to the coalition and their support, i was able to get a place to live now. >> [speaking foreign language] >> now that i have a place to live, i can only think of those who do not have a place to stay. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i do not want to forget those

times when i did not have a place to stay. i want to go in front of the mayor to let him know that the same right that he has to stay with his family in a safe place is for any family here in the city. >> [speaking foreign language] >> in the past year, there has been a difficult time for housing for everyone. i can see now that the situation is even worse. there are too many kids from the school that do not have a place to stay. we demand an answer from the

city. god bless you. [applause] >> [speaking foreign language] >> my name is raul valdez. >> [speaking foreign language] [applause] >> he is representing the families that do not have a place to live and is asked -- also asking for the mayor to give different opportunities. >> [speaking foreign language] >> hello, my name is jusenia. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> i am homeless. my daughter with me, she has never had a place to stay since she was born. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i do not feel that it is fair that we are being denied a place of safety when we know that there are empty units available. >> [speaking foreign language] >> i would like this christmas to be able to stay in my house

and be with my daughter. right now, i am in a shelter, and i cannot go back to being homeless. >> [speaking foreign language] >> we are really desperate. we want the mayor to give us the opportunity to talk to him directly, as we have been asking for for a very long time. thank you. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> [speaking foreign language] >> hello, my name is morris. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> we have been in a shelter, from shelter to shelter, for the past few years, since my daughter was born. it has made our life very difficult. we feel that it is not a safe place for us to leave our daughter behind and give the possibility of finding a job or something where we can provide for her. >> [speaking foreign language]

>> we are thankful because we have a shelter and a place to spend the night. we understand that there are many other people in the industry, where if any of you -- that there are many other people on the streets. what the city and look with your own eyes. there are people out there that could die because they do not have a place for themselves. >> [speaking foreign language] >> we are only asking for a

place to live. we are not asking for anything else. we want to meet with the mayor and asking to help us with this. >> [speaking foreign language] >> thank you. [applause] >> my name is patricia jones. i am the mother of three. i am currently homeless right now. i live with a lot of other families. today i am very emotional. there are a lot of us out here crying out for homes for our children. someone decided that we are not worthy enough to have these spaces. a shelter is not a safe place for a child. definitely not for mine. not for yours. not for anyone.

in the shelters, a lot of things go on. they are not monitored. whoever comes off the street is welcome to come there and live with our children. we do not know their history. they do not know hours. our children have gotten sick in the shelters. our children had to be hospitalized. i am making a dying plea and also asking the mayor to personally come down to the ocean shelter at 211 13th and mission and join me and my family and stay with us for one night so that he can understand the seriousness that we are experiencing. [applause] >> good afternoon, supervisors.

my name is sarah short. i am really happy to hear that 31 housing units will be offered to homeless families. i am really, really angry and sad that it took a press conference, a rally, a hearing to make that happen. the city should be aware, they should be tracking the over 250 homeless folks on the shelter waiting list. there are 250 or so they can units at the housing authority. boom, there is a crisis. they should be aware that this is an ongoing crisis. it has been for quite a while. the other thing that i wanted to bring to your attention is that we have to look at the importance of eviction prevention in helping to reduce this problem and prevent further family homelessness, looking at

the role that our city funded agencies are playing with that as well. for instance, i am very concerned that we may well be giving these units to homeless families, which is wonderful, but we do not want that canceled out by objections on the back and where hundreds of housing authority families are currently being evicted for non-payment of rent. that is where some of the homeless population comes from. right now, i spoke to one of the attorneys that does the eviction offense. the housing authority has filed as many evictions that by the end of september of this year, as they have for all of last year. so, this is real. hundreds of evictions are happening at the same time as partnerships are being expressed to solve the problem. we have to look at both ends.

thank you very much. [applause] >> good morning, supervisors. i am a program manager at catholic charity housing start. we are homeless prevention program funded through the federal stimulus money program that is scheduled to end in six months. i just wanted to express my gratitude for the private partners in city coming to the table to pledge additional resources, as i know that the end is going to prove to be incredibly detrimental to our continued of care. in the past few years we have served over 600 with $1 million in resources. these families have been provided the background assistance, subsidies, and we have helped families living inside of substandard housing to move into a safe and decent housing. one of my concerns is the volume

of families that we have seen that have faced months and months waiting to get into housing authority units. we are grateful that the san francisco housing authority units is here today to partner with the homeless agencies. we want to make sure that this hearing holds them accountable to responding immediately and quickly to move these families into these units. also, to further what sarah mentioned, to talk about the other 150 + current vacant units that are available to easily help these families. we look forward to being a part of the partnership with these other great, non-profit agencies behind me, to address the critical issue. housing is a basic human right. families in san francisco should have access. thank you for your time today. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you,

next speaker, please. >> good morning, supervisors. my name is douglas. i have lived in san francisco for 59 years. my opinion, homelessness in san francisco was like political corruption. it is never going to end. i hope you have all of the locked in solving this problem. as you become more successful in solving homelessness, if you solve the problems of 100 people, i can assure you that it will be more from another part of the world that will be coming to san francisco to take their place. you have to be realistic. this problem will never end. the more successful you are at it, you would actually get more work. i guess, in a certain sense, it is kind of a problem that is perplexing. i have to realistic solutions for your consideration. -- two realistic solutions for your consideration.

when the 49ers leave san francisco, i would like to see candlestick park with an inexpensive dolma placed over it, turning the parking lot and the park into informal housing and recreational facilities to help the homeless. i would like to see the stands converted into classrooms, so that this way the homeless can reach and be able to have some sort of education. i think that is a better use of candlestick park. to help the homeless. my second suggestion is to turn treasure island into another area where the homeless can benefit from the open space. you can put portable classrooms there. you could put in recreational -- recreational facilities. we could use the buildings to educate the homeless. i think that those two can help. the third suggestion is that would like to see city leaders

publicly donating money, so we know who really supports the homeless. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, city operations. walter paulson. ♪ if you are going to san francisco be sure to have some budget -- some budget homeless money there if you are going to san francisco, you are going to find some homeless help theire all across the nation they got money before they went on vacation on this motion, bring it on like a money ocean so those that come to san

francisco, they are going to find some homeless help there, they will find some hope, help on, hold on here, they will find some help here they will find some help on here today ♪ [applause] >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am here to support the families that live in hotels, shelters, under the bridges and in their cars. i hope that you can give them a welcome, holiday christmas gift 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 likeo