supervisor farrell: good afternoon, everyone. welcome to the meeting of the government ought and oversight committee meeting. i am joyous today by supervisor elsbernd and president chiu. the clerk is alisa miller. i want to thank sftv john ross

and -- >> please make sure to silence of funds and the electronic devices. in the documents included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. supervisor farrell: item number one, please. >> hearing on the recent statistics and potential policies to address family fight. supervisor farrell: i called for this hearing last year, and i want to thank all the members of the different city departments here today that deal with family issues in san francisco. we actually have a pretty robust line of speakers here, thank you for taking the time to be here. i also want to thank my staff and miss stephanie that has

spent a lot of time putting this together. after the 2010 census was released showing a lot of family fled from san francisco, this has been a personal issue as a father of two young children. i have seen for years, friends of children that my children go to school with leave our city. as a kid born and raised in the city, a number of my friends live outside of the city right now as well. it is a very personal issue that concerns everyone in the city, everyone on the board, and it is something i thought we should make sure to bring to the forefront. the reasons vary. but the facts are the facts. the recent census figure shows that most are younger than age 18.

in 1960, that number was 24%. we have struggled to attract and retain young families. the city has 3000 more children than it did 10 years ago and has lost more than a thousand children between the ages of 5 and 18. speculation as to the causes of family fights, -- flight, the cost of housing, the education system, the cost of living in general. and quality of life issues like safe streets and neighborhoods. i of the issue of family flight has been looked at, but i wanted to call this hearing to bring everyone together to get the data together in a once in the place and start thinking about and having a dialogue about what we are doing in the future.

why does this matter? to me, it is quite simple. keeping families in san and it is is important for a diversion city. having children in our parks endorse goals is important to the vibrancy of our neighborhoods and of our city. i think all of us in city hall want to fight to make sure that that continues. hopefully this is a first step in that direction. and whether out of this comes legislation to be introduced or other policies that are created, today is a first step in that dialogue and i hope that everyone will continue to work together. i will continue to stem this tide of what has been happening over the last decade. we have the number of speakers here today to get this dialogue started.

colleagues, do you have any comments or questions? president chiu: first, i want to thank supervisor farrell and supervisor avalos for taking the lead on this. this is a topic that every single member of the board should technically be listed as sponsors. it is a perspective that this is one of our cities very top priorities. in addition to figuring out how to move the economy forward and to bring the families back, i have often said that if we did a better job of keeping families here, literally hundreds of friends of mine have had believe the city -- to leave the city, they would still be raising their children here. it will take not just elected leaders and our city officials, but it will take a real commitment on behalf of every

community to think about how we prioritize parents, children, our students. >> today we have a number of speakers. i wanted to set the stage of a lot of the data that has come out recently. a number of the different city departments have talked about what they are doing on the issue. and the number of community partners going forward, i like to ask adrian pong to come up. hey, adrian. >> thank you, supervisors. i would like to introduce danielle lamb. she has been working in our office for the past year and is the author of our baseline study on family out migration in

san francisco. i am the executive director of office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs. thank you very much, supervisors, for including us in the discussion today. my office oversees several initiatives ranging from census education, community safety, access and services, and immigrant affairs. last year, following the american community survey data, we began to look at the changes in the city population for communities -- community needs. we looked at many datasets, and we look at this through a civic engagement of participation and equity, a safety lessons thrown in with race relations in the

general quality of life, especially for the limited english speaking community. we will look at race relations because we have had some of that in the city. and the impact that all of these will have on the city resources and people. we also start to look at family outmigration that mirrors a national trend where large numbers of families are leaving major cities and metropolitan areas, moving to the suburbs. i am a third-generation chinese- american, and all of my family have moved out of the city for some reason. lee asked that a lot. in this issue was also a topic

of discussion at the conference of mayors in 2009. it was seen as one of the most pressing issues. we will analyze a number of studies and put them off together. look at reports that have already been typically conducted by the department, children, youth, families. trying to look at common factors in key reasons why this might be happening in san francisco. you can call this a baseline study or analysis of issues are around retaining and attracting families. hopefully you can use this as a framework for this deeper discussion of how we are calling to make san francisco a better place for our families. first of all, went and looked at -- can lease with that over?

this is what san francisco looks like today. our population over the last 10 years is now over 805,000 people. that is packed it in 47 square miles. some say 49, but it is 47. we have one of the highest density rates. we have a stronger economy. we also have some challenges. over 112 different languages are spoken in the bay area.

we have the highest cost of living, the third highest in the united states. the widening economic disparities between the high end and the low wage earners. the older i get, the more sensitive i get to that. it is about 38.2 years. we also have an out migration of the poor and the african- american population has declined. we have to factor in all of those issues. >> how does that compare with other metropolitan's?

>> and the median age is 34 years. if you look, a lot of the population are seniors. it is when you start to live in the issue. >> thank you, supervisors, for this opportunity. i am a recent graduate from cal poly with a degree in city regional planning. here is a snapshot of children's families in san francisco. the three main takeaways, from 2000 to 2010, the population

increased by 0.3%, versus the -- so overall, the city has lost about 5000 youth under the age of 18 in the span of 2000-2010. president chiu: do you have extra copies of these presentations? >> will be glad to provide that. president chiu: i am curious about drilling down into those numbers a little bit. will you put those numbers back up? it looks like for under five, we have a little bit, but between five and 17, we have the lot more. >> [inaudible] president chiu: do you have this

data broken out by geography in send an it is? -- san francisco? >> i have seen that through districts, but i don't have it with me. president chiu: i would love to get whatever copies you have. there are some parts of town but i think are doing better than others. if you have any information about that, i would like a sense of if there is a mix of cities and services making them more conducive to families staying. >> just to set the stage with those numbers, we have more children being born, but we are losing school-age children. >> that is really what we are seeing. when they get to school age, they are moving out of the city.

we wanted to summarize the policy considerations. supervisor elsbernd: i know we are going to be here forever if we keep jumping in like this, but can you put the chart backup? up? the number of children under the age of 5 is nearly the same. so these numbers might not be accurate? >> [inaudible] >> i think there is a different data set produced by the seven it is planning department that breaks it up by supervise oriole district. you will get a better snapshot -- supervisorial district. you will get a better snapshot that way.

we will close by outlining the policy situations. if there is an out migration of families, what are the issues impacting that? because a lot to live here in san francisco. -- it costs a lot to and live here in san francisco. housing and both romfrom and affordability of housing stock, it costs a lot to tell the house. the median prices well above most markets across the nation. the perception and reality of safety in the city. the perception of quality education.

if you look today, the affordability of private schools, i know a couple of the weather there. if you looked at the san francisco bay school, a lot of kids came from there, $26,000 a year. if you go to university high school, the private tuition is close to $33,000 a year. families can barely afford to live here in the city, whether they are low or high wage owners, you have to factor that in. hot dog of the, congestion and density, it takes me 40 minutes to get from my house to downtown.

it could be infrastructure, but it is a long time. if i take the bus on a regular who bases, hit only takes me half an hour. we have open space, but where are those located? do people have accessibility to those places? the cost and availability that we experienced. >> when you listen to those out, they resonate. are you able to quantify? this is number one, this is no. 2 in this is number three? i wonder if there is any other raw data.

>> we have a community ambassadors, three surveys that was really geared at looking edit perceptions of safety. but we did ask residents to raise the top four issues for them. prior to the community ambassadors coming on board, i believe that safety was the number one concern followed by the economy and education. we did at exit interview and more safety ambassadors. >> what are factors in san francisco? you move away because of your family? >> there has never been a survey conducted.

there is a better sense hon more specific studies. president chiu: that was a question i was going to ask as well. i guess different priorities might be heard, but i have heard from folks. if any of the other presenters have data on that, it would be graeat. parents that are in danger of losing. >> i think some of the policy considerations when you are guilty deeper into the issue, whether they are rich or poor or in the middle, there is a reason that something triggers an exodus.

one of the issues is the economic impact of the residence and income levels. how do we leverage resources so that we can attract and retain families? they're probably more in this city than any other city in the country. it may not be a major consideration. there are a lot of other factors affecting this. with also want to look at maintaining a diversity in the population. low-wage earners, who also providing many of the services that we depend on.

maintenance, we don't want the low wage earners are leaving the city. we want them to raise the families here. the real question is, how do we shift resources and approaches in the infrastructure and the most important, development capital. what is the game plan? where do we start? i'm sorry that this did not have all lot of specific data. we were trying to present this as a snapshot with the family fight issues. we would be glad to provide you with significant information later on.

supervisor farrell: next, i am going to ask chris from the seine and cisco unified school district to come up. do you want to talk real quick? i know you have to leave by 1:45. here we go. >> i will tell you, we are focusing on trying to help the solution. >> we have the population and

the neighborhood. supervisor farrell: from members of the public, can you mention what first five is and the organization? >> we are a city department the comes from two sources. one is from california. this is a tobacco tax dollars set-aside. the other funding stream we have is the local money for a preschool. that is a real strategy for helping families today.

>> sorry. i wanted to quickly tell you what the overarching goal is worth. they're all about children's readiness for school. the first one is that they be supported by high-quality preschool experiences. the second is that their families will be strong and nurturing. he also wanted our children to be supported with other prevention services. we do a lot of focus in on that. we have a strategic plan, and some of the factors that we took into consideration were that the city's population is definitely growing. we have to raise and the number

of babies born and staying here until 5. we are concerned that one in three young children live in local households. a latino and african-american children are disproportionately affected by poverty. and we have a lot of neighborhoods with a distinct characteristics. we are trying to address those. supervisor farrell: we are joined by supervisor avalos, co-sponsor of this hearing. when you mention low-income families, how do you define that? >> one of the things that we do our children that are eligible for subsidies and child care subsidies who are participants in title v and for low-income. these are the things we're trying to do in our strategic plan.

we want to identify in st. special care. we want to address early literacy. it involves families to strengthen and support. the first five funds, we're doing this with community foundations. currently, the address them the citywide. are we served about 9100 families last year and 3000

children. in the demographics are 40% hispanic. this support parent leadership, child interaction, we're doing of a lot of family in the early literacy work. what we know and what we're hoping is that access to support early on, most of the families are young children that we are going to have a safety net and a strong connection in the city. we are now out in 130 sites, 230

classrooms. we served over 3000 children, 4- year-olds. and we serve about 2003-year- old the attendee preschools. 80% of our children the purchase of pay -- who have seen from policy changes that there has been a 20% increase of children, and that is because we are requiring that all of our preschools serve at least 25% low income families and also accept vouchers. this is the first time we have ever done that. 83% of kindergartners have been enrolled in preschool, that is about a