-- anyone else who would like to speak? seeing none public comment is closed. i want to say thank you for walking me through the history but for engaging in that community in such a great process. thank you so much for your work with the city. supervisor wiener: i would like to move that we forward items four through six to the full board with positive recommendations. supervisor mar: can we do this without objection? is there any other business before us? >> we have further note -- no further matters. supervisor mar: thank you, everyone. meeting is adjourned.

>> all right, good afternoon, everyone. welcome to the thursday, january 26, 2012 meeting of the government and all the site -- government audit and oversight committee. i am supervisor farrell. supervisor chu, out of deference with the other supervisors who want to be here, is in his office walking attentively. i'm also joined by supervisor scott wenner, supervisor olague, and supervisor campos. i want to thank the committee and also the members of sfgtv that are covering this hearing. madam clerk, can you please make

any announcements? >> yes, turn off all cell phones. please present speaker card as there will be included as part of the file. mahnke. supervisor farrell: okay, colleagues, are there any comments to begin? madam clerk, please call the first item. >> item one, hearing of the needs of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender seniors. supervisor campos: thank you for hearing this item today. let me begin by thanking my colleagues at it, supervisor scott wiener and supervisor christina olive new -- olague, who have helped.

this is a very important issue, and i want to thank everyone for taking time out of your busy schedules to be here with us. i think it is a testament to how engaged not only the lgbt community, the entire san francisco community is, and i am very proud of that. there are about 25,000 lgbt people who are 65 years or older. live in san francisco. in fact, given the baby boomer generation, that generation is aging, and we know that number will continue to increase. this is often a population, lgbt seniors, who, frankly, and i say this as an lgbt man, we do not get -- i know it has taken some

time perhaps to get the attention this issue deserves, but the reason why i am so proud that we are here is because we have the lgbt members of the board of supervisors working together to make sure that we shed light on this important issue. and i'm very proud to have been able to work with supervisor wiener, who has taken a very key leadership role in this. and, of course, we have been joined by our newly appointed supervisor, supervisor olague, who has hit the ground running. one of the first thing she did was co-sponsored this hearing. we know that lgbt seniors face a number of issues. depending on their health status, housing situation, immigration status, or family situation, those issues can be compounded and complicated. we are part of a very diverse community, we who are lgbt.

today, what we wanted to do in this complicated and important issue, we wanted to frame the discussion by inviting to the hearing experts on the issue have have been working on this for some years. you'll be hearing today from people who have been doing this for a long time and who know the specific challenges that this community faces. week as a kenyan elite are not monolithic. i'm a gay latino man who also happens to be an immigrant. there are socio-economic issues that come into play. it is important that we are honest about how we talk about the needs of this perverse community. and the beginning of this discussion, not the end. our hope is that out of this discussion we can also think about specific steps that can be

taken at the local city government level to address this issue. i like to especially thank bill from the human-rights commission for helping to coordinate this hearing, and i also want to acknowledge and the audience to recent parks, it was the director of the human rights commission for the city and county of san francisco for her leadership -- to reset parks. and with that, i will turn it over to a supervisor winner. i want to think supervisor winner and supervisor olague for their great work on this. supervisor wiener: thank you, and what a pleasure is to have three members of the lgbt community on the board of supervisors. we have increased our ranks by 50%. when i was sworn in, i had spoken about my aunt who is now

70, and who came out before stonewall. she was helping take care of people through the height of the hiv aids crisis, some of the worst days, and she was always a mentor to me as a young gay man coming out so many years ago. when i think about all of the people who really were at the vanguard of the lgbt civil rights movement, helping us survive through the early days of a chevy-aids, -- hiv aids, these are people who we actually need to cherish and make sure that as people age, we as a community are sticking together and do with what we need to do. aging is a growing issue in san francisco generally as our population within the lgbt committee, there are some unique

issues. we know about issues around and come and jobs. of course, for all seniors, including lgbt seniors, issues around discrimination unique to lgbt seniors. we heard stories of people had to go back into the closet when they go into retirement communities or nursing homes. issues are around housing, the expense of housing, issues around people losing an apartment and not being able to afford to stay in the city. but also another issue have been trying to raise and have more front and center, issues around architectural barriers. we want seniors to be about to age in place and be up to stay in their homes. for some seniors to have stable housing, they own their homes or have an apartment there secure in, but more and more it becomes difficult for them to stay there because of stairs or other

architectural barriers, and i represent other neighborhoods including the castros, which is a huge concentration of lgbt people, and it is an aging population. castro is expensive. that are not as many young that lgbt people as there were before, and we have a wonderful and beautiful housing stock that is not particularly accessible. i selfishly, as representative to this neighborhood, but to make sure that holder lgbt people can stay in the caster. it is really situated in that neighborhood. i hope that we bring the issue of architectural barriers more to the forefront, because it is a key issue around aging in place. finally, health care. we now have more and more people living with hiv who are aging, and there are some unique issues

around growing older, living with hiv, and some of it is learning. so we need to focus on that. and also the broader issue of hiv, we're going to be really struggling next year with the $4 $25 million -- $4.25 million it cut to the ryan white budget process. we have to fight to make our commitment. before i start bringing up some of our speakers, i want to give supervisor olague an opportunity to make some comments. supervisor olague: thank you to supervisor wiener and campos for

giving me the opportunity speak tonight. i'm used to being on the side. members of the shack collaborative, which is the senior housing action collaborative. one of the issues we have raised is the time centered around the condition of seniors who are aging in place, particularly those who live in single room occupancy hotels. what i was funny when i was working as a senior advocate network advocate, it was impossible to find immediately available housing for people who were trying to transition from homelessness into housing or or in homes that were may be rent- controlled places 20, 30 years, had been here since the 1970's, 1980's. we have a lot of that that kind of prohibits what we can do

sometimes locally, but we have lost a lot of folks to evictions and things in the past few years. what we found that was most of the housing that was immediately available was affordable housing and single occupancy hotels, so we started looking at the conditions there and the quality of life and the circumstances of the people who reside there. so i am hoping at some point that we will have the discussion today, but maybe it is time to have one conversation instead of a lot of separate conversations about aging in place, and then specifically, of course, we will keep an eye on how different populations are aging in place in san francisco and issues experienced by those populations. as a bisexual woman, i am very aware. it's very stuffy and other areas

of the country. i lived in the central valley. it was not very welcoming. for many folks, this is a community, especially as we are aging out -- i'm 50, i came here when i was 23 -- we have seen a lot of changes, especially aids, agency. i know the lesbian population and san francisco has been shifting in part to to maybe choices in where they want to live, but also a lot of folks have been priced out of the city and it ended up in the east bay. i remember when valencia at artemis cafe, i could name the list. it was very centered, and that does not exist. i am not sure if there are many lesbian bars left in the city. so i think we need to figure out a way to make sure this is a safe place, where members of our community can remain, because

for us, many of us, as i have said before, during the hearing at 55 laguna, for many of us is not just out an option to relocate to other cities that are less tolerant. this is kind of something that is very critical, that we find ways to keep our community safe and here in san francisco. so i hope, again, as i mentioned earlier, we can have a broader conversation to talk about seniors who are living in shelters and what that looks like and housing issues and how we find more housing for seniors, and also as supervisor wiener mentioned, how we make sure that folks who own their homes remain in their homes. some people want to stay there, but they did not have the means to up keep their property. there are a lot of issues, but i think for our community, it is particularly sensitive because there are multiple reasons why we choose to be in san

francisco, and is not a trade- off of available housing in hand. it is not an option for us to leave the city. we are here for very specific reasons that in some ways are tied in with tolerance. i'm happy to be part of this conversation. i hope that a working group comes out of this. we are tired of having the same conversation. we have seen several reports on aging in place, seniors, and there are a lot of findings, but how we start a working group that can implement some of these findings, working with the three of us up here, try to find ways to legislate some of these things. there's a lot of work to do. we are in challenging times. but mental health services is something i'm very committed to. ii think the least we are starting to conversation today. supervisor farrell: thank you,

supervisor olague. we will start with a few five- minute presentations, and then we will go into public comments. supervisor elsbernd: first of all, for those of you standing who are coming in, we do have an overflow room down the hall. please feel free to have a seat there. also, for those who want to speak in public comment, we have elis speaker cards. -- we have yellow speaker cards. we will be calling folks in order. and the sheriff's deputies have some as well. lastly, supervisor campos and i have two committees today at the same time, so at 2:00, supervisor campos and i have to go to our other committee. we will be doing at the bit of musical chairs in about 30 minutes, just to let you know, but we are all very interested in this topic and look forward to being here for the time we are allowed.

supervisor elsbernd: thank you, we will start with anne executive director of aging and adult services, followed by the executive director of open house, and then we will proceed from there. >> first of all, but you for inviting me to the hearing, thank you for having the hearing. different hearings, either through our commission or other places, various topics, but we have yet to have this kind of conversation on lgbt seniors. thank you very much. there are three things that really impact how we age. there are genes, which we cannot do a lot about. then we have lifestyle and environment. although