dementia, hiv related or not and giving the loss of their partners and espouses. i have personal experience. i am grateful to scott and the supervisor campos and supervisor delonte -- olague. the need is great for more services. thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak. kraska afternoon. -- good afternoon. i am 84 and a member of the senior leaders group of open house. previously i volunteered as a board member from both operation concerns and believe services for our community. when new leaf was forced to close due to lack of funding, i became concerned about what would happen, what would become

of our senior program in san francisco? i am happy to report that with funds from the department of aging, open house is doing a spectacular job trying their best to continue aging services. i have taken part in an benefited from a griff group, an ongoing aging support group, nutrition sharing and various locations in the city. of special importance and in need of more funding is the housing referral program. this is essential to our more frail, often isolated seniors. and deserving of increased funding and recognition. members of our community live alone. having to keep their minority status a closely guarded secret. in the existing lawn chair --

long term care facilities. they're not-we're not enjodeserg of such injustice. i recommend we protect our seniors at the most quotable time of our lives, old age. please consider an increasing funding. >> good afternoon. i am 57. i am a psychotherapist in a community mental health agency that provides services to the gay and lgbt community. i would like to talk briefly about the mental health needs which are too often neglected in our community. health has about medical and mental health issues and there are unique mental health issues that our community faces. those of us that live -- lived through the devastation of the 1980's are experiencing ptsd- like symptoms as we grow into older age. many of us have been forced to

leave san francisco and increased isolation. many are talking about who will hear our stories? as many people have shown, many of our peers are gone and we do not have children. i facilitate a support group for men over 50 which frequently was full. with the change in funding i have had to limit my services to the hiv negative men although we have committed to provide services to everyone. they're more comfortable -- if you do not qualify for medi-cal and cannot afford private pay, there are virtually no services available to you. i would like to encourage the board to fund mental health services for the full range of people in the community.

thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am the director of the aids legal referral panel. i also served on the mayor's long-term clear coordinating council. -- care coordinating council. we have been around for 29 years. last year, i believe i am the same age as supervisor olague. i am paying more attention to the senior issues. we noticed 50% of our clients were over 50 years of age and over 15% of our clients were over 60. the good news is people living with hiv and aids are living longer. as you know, the challenges they are facing are grave. housing is the single largest issue that our clients face.

we know in order for people to manage this horrible disease, they need stable, affordable housing. there are many things that we can do in this community despite the loss of affordable housing funds. one thing is we can have an ongoing city conversation about how we use our limited affordable housing funds. the conversation is broken into lots of small groups. there used to be a concerted effort to combine all those conversations under the chads. it would be great if supervisors can support that effort. we can put money into homelessness prevention and provide housing counseling and eviction prevention to keep people in their homes. supervisor wiener mentioned helping people age in place. the city used to have a housing modification fund. a small bit of money but it went along way toward enabling it renters to do modifications in their units so they could stay

in their homes. it would be a great idea for the city to restart and it would not be a huge chunk of change. the other thing i want to second is a number of folks have talked about as people are getting older, they will agent of their long-term disability policies and they will see a precipitous drop in there and come. it is something we need to plan for. we need benefits counseling services in order to revise those folks. if you take a poll of everybody out here in the audience about whether they want to land in a nursing home or whether they want to stay in their home, i would suggest that everybody wants to stay in their home. the only way that will happen is with affordable housing and community-based services. thank you. >> i will read up more names as the next speaker comes forward. -- read out more names as the next speaker comes forward.

>> good afternoon. i am a program manager for the san francisco lgbt community center. i am here speaking for our executive director who had to step out to a meeting. we support any kind of movement that happens here under discussion as well as the task force and probably also a future plan to address the issue of lgbt elders. we have increased our services in partnership with open house and provide social, community- based services as well as intergenerational programming. a lot of the services that are current in the city are stopgap measures. they are in median. we look forward to being proactive in long-term planning by addressing not only the issues but strategizing a way to look forward to serve lgbt

seniors as we move into 20/20 and 2030. -- 2020 and 2030. there is a brain trust here. the would not be difficult to strategist something here. thank you. -- it would not be difficult to starter joe something here. -- strategizing something here. >> thank you. >> we need to do more of this. we need to activate and communicate with our constituency about the creeping crisis. it is creeping up on us along with age. i am 71. i'm very happy to be as healthy as i am. someday i will not be able to claclimbed to levels of step ton upper floor apartment. i am stuck there because i

cannot afford to move. the one has -- bill lumley has been rented ford $2,175 a month. -- the one below me has been rented for 2001 under 75 a month. i am looking forward to leaving for economic reasons. i am not the only one. -- who live in their cars and maintain a great facade of being well dressed. but they live in their cars to stay here. i don't know what the supervisors could possibly do with a given city budget. i do not envy you. that is a struggle. but we need to do more than maintain the service level that is available through our

existing agencies. as a psychotherapist, i was appalled when nearly went under. we need to do more than that. we need to do something like this. we need to issue a call to a crisis that is gradually sneaking up on us so that san francisco can make their response that we made to the hiv crisis. a generation ago. which was dramatic, unusual, and met the real needs. thank you. >> i am a recent transplant to san francisco. i lived here two years. i'm one of those people who was relegated to one of the places that were less tolerating of gay people most of my life. i finally made it appear. i am on social security. i have become disabled and

probably will need a double lung transplant within the next year. i have a social security. i have a relative i live with at this point. affordable housing does not seem to be possible. it is something i am going to need and affordable housing -- i have a relative. i am grateful for you all to -- for having this form and hopefully the rest of my years here will be as nice as i hope them to be. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am legal director adtran senger lot center. -- transgendered law center. thank you for convening this hearing. we regularly hear from transgendered here -- seniors who face serious discrimination and exclusion from essential services.

elders and people with disabilities in hospitals and long-term care facilities are sometimes forced to transition back to the gender assigned at birth because of staff or family members who are not fully informed of or not supportive of that person's gender identity or expression. some of the most damaging discrimination faced by elders is at the hands of medical providers. because of their despair -- experiences with discrimination, many elders avoid seeking treatment altogether which can pose serious risks to their health. it is essential that providers treating trans elders receive training. the city of san francisco should mandate competency training for elders and provide meaningful outreach efforts. it is imperative the city committed to finding solutions to the crises that the elders are facing. thanks for bringing much-

needed attention to this underserved segments of our community. >> i will read a few more names. marilyn hayward, dougles yep, and other speakers. >> i am a member of the health commission and an officer of the coalition of agencies several of the elderly. since the beginning like many kids have a service agencies, we have been serving lgbt seniors and helping them maintain their health and independence. we learned how to make services appropriate. maximize consumer choice and a scheurer cultural compensate and make sure that client

satisfaction measures are followed. maximizing consumer choice is important with food. the type of food, how you get it, how it is delivered. at the health department we designed help the san francisco so people could choose their own medical home. they could find out where they feel comfortable. i am the order of the ihss medical authority. the allow people to choose the person coming in to their home. some settings are where trace is not a possibility. as we heard, -- in areas like that where there is no choice, you have to assure culture competency. the health commission required cultural competency reports and measures of all programs. this is something you could

easily do in encouraging the department of aging to do the same. client satisfaction measures. they're often administered and forgotten. if measures are administered according to stratified groups and you compare the satisfaction of different groups, you will see that certain groups do not feel their cultural needs are met in the settings. you have a road map for change. thank you. >> thank you and congratulations on being supervisor. i am 67. i am a lesbian. i had an experience, i lived in this place and they sold the house and i had to look for another place. i did some applications but most of them, you have to wait five

years. the rents are too high. i could not afford it. i'm kind of homeless. my niece was kind enough to tell me to move over. i went to antioch and it gets me -- takes me three hours to get from san francisco and i miss my open house. i miss my meetings. and also for others and i wish they could do something about it. thank you. >> good afternoon. thank you for holding this hearing. i want to add my name to those who are encouraging you to sadr -- support services. especially for low-income housing as an open house is trying to do now. i must add that if it were not

for the mayor's office of housing, i would not be a homeowner in san francisco today. it would be impossible. those who are in the middle need to be remembered when you are providing funds or other sorts of support for housing for the elderly in san francisco. thank you. >> . afternoon and thank you for having this hearing. i wanted to go on record that i am here applying for jobs. i will tell you why. the last 28 years i have been employed in nonprofits such as the black coalition on aging. i was recently laid off.

this is why i think everything you have heard here is good enough for a job description i could apply for and serve as a liaison for the senior citizen position. i certainly would like to see that. i wanted to refer you to an article i wrote. that could be an introduction to my resume. i think and i have lived with hiv for 27 years and i have been clean and sober for 27 years. i have applied for a number of jobs such as the aids foundation four times in the past seven years. i applied for jobs for employment intake. i have not heard a word. recently i have had second interviews and i have come home distraught to my spouse and he said, it is aging.

and that shocked me. it was like a ton of bricks felony. it is the first time i felt i am being discriminated against because of my age and i'm 55. in that age. it was a shock. that is why i am here applying for jobs. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am a human-rights commissioner as well as the co-chair and of the lgbt advisory committee. when this topic was brought to retention at the committee, we thought it was a no-brainer to support it. to really look at setting up advisory committees and a

commission on aging and adult services and also to look at some of the unmet needs in the lgbt and other communities. and i think that a lot of people have already spoken on a lot of the unmet needs but some of the other ones could not be spoken about because they're no longer here with us. this will take you to a link in the san francisco reports in 2007 and 2008. the account for 40% of the 94 cases of suicide in san francisco. that says a lot. about some of the things we do not know about. because they list female and male. they do not address -- talk

about transgendere or whether they are lesbian, gay, bisexual or not. there would list 50 out of 100,000 in the national population of suicide our elders. compared to eight or nine per 100,000 of youth. those are the numbers we did not hear any discussion about. they do not stay there sexual orientation either. these are the statistics and issues that we need to look at why they would take this kind of. i think that housing like preventing social isolation is suicide prevention. hopefully we can come up with

smart planning and strategies to combat these kind of a man needs. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am a case manager from the senior center of san francisco. i'm here today on behalf of our agency and my supervisor to give our support to the lgbt community. ecs has always been a strong force to the pulse of the community through its cooperation with various agencies and organizations in the city which include open house and belief in the past. attendance at meetings involving lgbt issues, lgbt partnership and a venue for the use of space for regular lgbt open house support group sessions when needed.

we strongly believe that lgbt population needs to be recognized as a legitimate group within the larger community. they deserve fair treatment under housing, public places, health care, and government programs. lgbt people like anyone else should have their -- the freedom to build the kind of personal intimate relationship most meaningful to them. they deserve to be connected to opportunities, resources, and to each other, have the right to organize for their future and building resources to create a legacy for future generations. weekend -- a firm commitment to the population and make a difference by working toward a future that is free from prejudice and discrimination. ecs provide services to the population and from one of our clients, i would like to state

he was thankful to us and told us, "you are heaven sent, you have kept me out of trouble and understood my frustrations. i am living in new life again." thank you so much. >> good afternoon, supervisors and congratulations, supervisor olague:. . i don't think i can add anything to the comments that have been brought forth here. one group of lgbt people are still suffering an inordinate amount of discrimination and harassment. they are persons of the

transgendered community. at times it is very subtle discrimination such as i have suffered during my 30 years as a civil servant in san francisco. this form of bias is hard to pinpoint but it prevented me from advancing while a city employee. even larry brinken could not penetrate this problem when i went to him because of the subtlety of it. that fear that i suffered for 30 years has carried over, preventing me from contributing more to the community here in san francisco. it brings to mind that sank, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. and so when you discriminate

against people, you prevent them from flourishing and helping out the community as it would like to. thank you. -- helping out the community as they would like to. thank you. >> good afternoon. i would like to start by saying congratulations, christina. all right. i am with planning for elders and senior action network. i would like to say three things. i think it is -- thank you for having this hearing and calling attention to the lgbt seniors. something i would like to a knowledge in -- and honor is the level of things that lgbt seniors have had to live through and overcome and struggle with. i talked to seniors and they said back in the 1950's and this is no surprise to anyone here, i could not go on a date with my boyfriend. we had to meet at a restaurant

and we just ran into each other because there was a much -- in san francisco, so much overt discrimination and it is appalling. i want to honor the fact that people have survived not only layers of institutional oppression but also the a deck -- epidemic and limited housing and employment opportunities because of these discriminations. housing is a critical part. that is what is the thing that makes seniors, lgbt seniors, low income folks able to live in san francisco. if they can have affordable housing, they have a right, they have an ability to flourish and move forward. another thing i would like to echo what has been said here. some sort of mandatory training, some sort of mandatory requirement for compliance for sensitivity and consciousness among people who are city contractor. -- contractors.

they have to read-transition not by choice but by force because people will not honor their true identity. that is a glaring problem and a crime in my opinion. as lesbian and gay seniors having to go into the closet to access care because they do not feel safe, people have survived a lot of historical oppression in this country, that is known. something should be done about this. also, people with disabilities who are not seniors now experience some of these very same things. they rely on home care workers, they rely on medical professionals and treatment that does not recognize all the time their true identity and it is another thing to have to fight for. i want to thank you for having this and this is amazing. thank you very much.

>> i want to thank supervisor campos, supervisor wiener and supervisor olague for having this meeting and thank you, supervisor elsbernd for sticking through a period of want to congratulate supervisor olague. i am with pride at work that works with lgbt writes in employment. i want to know to as an openly transgendered per cent this is something that needs to be explored. their unemployment rates, high unemployment rates even in san francisco in the transgendered community. also at on issues around discrimination around age. i would be interested in looking at what the une