avalos: 54 your presentation and for your work and for the attorney general's work on this problem that we have. just a few questions that i have. one, in particular, to start off with, talking about a settlement in san francisco. $18.10 billion. is that correct? >> that is the expectation. 12 billion in principal relief and other money. supervisor avalos: given the foreclosures are a statewide problem, and that there are places that are very hard hit, even greater in terms of concentrations on whole cities and communities that are impacted, how do you see san francisco benefiting or getting services from the settlement? and what can we do to make sure that we are pursuing that for households that are struggling?

>> i think that is a great question, and it is a question that we're answering ads similar informational sessions around the state. we went to long beach and are going to san diego sent to have a discussion very much like this one. there are a couple of things. first, there will be a ramp up of the settlement. the settlement funds are not going to be able to bathe or potentially next week, but after the judge approves the settlement, there will be a period for public to apply. those who are hardest hit are often those that are the hardest to reach. they feel they have been burned so bad by their bank, they do not want to call again to have their call lost or to be rerouted. using organizations like a leading organization that we work with in the attorney general's office as well, finding a way to do real, face- to-face retail engagement in the foreclosure hot spots in box d9 and d10 and d11, that is

important. we do have a payment from the banks. there will be more detail in the coming days so that people get hud counseling as quickly as possible. we found that the people have a head counselor, if you compare them to people who do not have a head counselor, the chances of modification goes up substantially for those that have them. to get your paper work together, and folks know, i think a lot of people in the chamber to they will tell you that this is complicated subject matter. i can tell you that. i prosecute these cases when the then district attorney set up the district from a team, and this is hard subject matter. there are a lot of terms of art. they do not make it easy for you. you need someone to help walking through that. it will be critical. i think targeting that will be

difficult for those who have lost heart, but help is on the way. supervisor avalos: kind of what you touched on right now, we have organizations that do the hut counseling as well. do you see that we have sufficient resources to meet the demand that we have out there for counseling and support, and what more do you think this city can do? you have worked at the city and state level. we are city and county, so we have some flexibility, but are there things that we can do more that would be economical that we can do to enhance the services we have? >> there are very few. there is a gap of resources really. there are very few resources at the state level. we all know what our state budget deficit looks like, and we have the house of representatives that when the

federal hud budget came up for a vote, they stripped of almost all of the funding for had counseling, so hug certified counseling is difficult to get. it is very hard to do. it is very difficult work. it is hard to train and pay people. so these hud counseling agencies are struggling. if i were to give some informal advice, i would say that an investment there will be bang for your buck. there are good organizations there. they are experts who have done a good job of recruiting and retaining expert staff that can really help navigate people through. they can build the infrastructure and add more people. they will help get more people through this settlement process and in addition to the summit process find other ways to keep them in their homes. supervisor avalos: funding? could they get funding through

the settlement to be allocated for that process? >> we are still considering all of the options. that would be my expectation, but i cannot say. we plan to have a transparent public process with experts to guide us and really where it is. supervisor avalos: that is good. i think a lot of us have experience in trying to make sure that this meets our needs. in terms of reaching out to be harder served communities? >> i would have to give that one a little more thought. the standard based on my experience both in the d.a.'s office and at the state level, and having gone statewide, they really are. i know that there is a real need in district 10.

there is a real need in district 9 as well. citywide, i would expect that if there is another way to get resources up and running, i think that would be a great thing to say. supervisor avalos: we will have others. there are others in the worm that are not with that one group that will provide more information, and before you came up, i did want to mention the overall flow of the meeting. we wanted to hear ultimately from the city departments, the mayor's office, the mayor's office on housing, the sheriff's department. we have the district attorney as well here, and we actually invite to the city attorney, but the city attorney is also working on investigating issues and is not ready to bring this forward publicly. we did ask some banks if they wanted to present here, but we did not get a confirmation from banks that they would be here.

i am not all that surprised by that. after hearing from the attorney general's office, we are going to hear from members of the public. the city department can give a response afterward. but there are some people who want to ask questions. i will give the microphone to my colleagues first before we go to other parts of our hearing. supervisor mar: supervisor cohen, and then i believe in the supervisor olague. supervisor olague: my office was involved, but how to people qualify or read some of the benefits from the $18 billion you said? i know you talked about loan modifications. what is the process? >> a lot of people do call

myself and, actually. i think the best way is that people are going to interface directly with their server sir, and so each individual, if you look at the envelope in which your bill comes, it is wells fargo, bank of america, usually someone like that in california, and those are going to be the folks responsible for interfacing with the borrowers. as i said, there is still a ramp up period. i understand that people are anxious to get the supplement benefits going. the settlement still needs to be approved by the judge in the district of columbia, and after it is approved, there is a period of time under which people have to file. eligibility would generally be for people who were 60 days more or delinquent or otherwise at imminent risk of default on their loans 60 days before the settlement was announced, said that is to make sure people do not default on their loans and

-- on purpose to benefit from the settlement. supervisor cohen: what about people who defaulted before? >> those are the people i am talking about. people who are 60 days or more delinquent. they have already defaulted, so they would be eligible for benefits under the deal. supervisor cohen: you mentioned that it has to go before the court. what is the time line on that? >> we should expect some news of an later today and get a schedule before that judge. there will be objections heard. any settlements like this, the judge has to find that it is fair and that it will be in the public interest, so i cannot speculate as to time. supervisor cohen: i am not an attorney, so what are we talking about? four or five months?

can you give me a range of when we will hear back from the judge, in the time it? >> well, supervisor, you said you are not a judge, and i am not a clear point, as you mentioned earlier. it will be set by the judge, and federal district judges, they sent and hear objections, and then they will make a ruling. supervisor cohen: thank you very much. supervisor mar: supervisor olague? >> i want to go over some of this. i worked for the non-profit housing advocacy and different agencies. the last one was senior action network, and we would receive calls, and then, of course, i would refer them to agencies that were dealing directly with this issue of foreclosure.

and i just wanted to mention that most of the nonprofits that are dealing with this issue are at capacity and beyond, so i think to the extent that we can figure out how to fund this resource, i think we really need to, because on the state level, i know that ace operates on the state level and locally, but i think there was the main agency that was working on this sue at the state level, so the tenants together, the housing rights committee, and there is a few, but again, most of them are dealing with a multitude of issues in san francisco, being one of the most told cities in the country, so i just think to the extent, may i will work with the other supervisors here. that will be the next for sure, because people do not know where

to go to get information on what they need to do in order to keep their housing, so it is really a crisis out there. >> if i can, a supervisor? that is well taken, and i deeply appreciate that advice. i think our office should work together with this body as appropriate. i was talking to dean preston that i just met outside, that when folks at a housing problem, they come into their counselor, and sometimes it is a tenant problem. the landlord tenant what is its own creature. sometimes people need direct " legal representation. they do not necessarily need housing counseling for a modification. finding a way to join this together and make them accessible is going to be critical. i am becoming more and more aware. i appreciate it.

supervisor olague: they do not know where to go to get information, and sometimes they cannot afford it, so they rely on these agencies. supervisor mar: thank you. so, supervisor avalos, would you like to continue? supervisor avalos: i think the next up with supervisor campos. supervisor mar: supervisor campos? supervisor campos: i want to thank you for the work that has been done, and she stood her ground, when they were pressuring the states to agree to the terms upon of the settlement, so i want to thank

our attorney general for that, and i want to thank you for the presentation. one question that comes to mind, how do we make sure that these banks and institutions do not engage in this kind of activity going forward. what assurances do we have that they are not going to do this going forward to someone else? >> i think that is the entire question. i think that is the entire issue, you are right. i think there are a couple of things that you would do if you are a rational policy maker, and i think in this particular settlement, we have done some other ones in the past, and it did not work out as promised, so i think we took a very hard look at things we would have done differently in hindsight and set up an enforcement architecture for this deal that i think is stronger, that i think will be more transparent and will have

more penalties that will hurt if there is the kind of misconduct that happened in the past and if it repeats itself. i think you need to have a group of people that are dedicated to it. the ag, one of the first things that she did was a point at california-specific watchdog for the settlement, one of the most renowned experts in this area, who is a professor at you see irvine -- at uc irvine. that will be the difference between what is promised and delivered, so we understand that, and i think the third thing that we need to do is we need to keep going. the settlement only applies to the 40% of people who have their loans bond by a private bank or have the lines owned by a bank itself, a private investor or a bank. 60% of the loans are owned by fannie mae and freddie mac, and

i think the ag has made a call that is starting to get some traction at the federal level that they not only need to engage in principle reduction but that there has to be a higher level of accountability for whatever role they played and continue to play in the foreclosure problems we are seeing in the state, and the fourth thing is, we have to change state law. state law needs to be adopted. this is a battle that has happened in the legislature for each of the past years, and we have a high level of enrollment at a high level and the legislature, and we have a big, broad, deep coalition, and i think we have got a real chance of seeing some lasting reforms to this process going forward. the penalties that we're calling for in the homeowner bill of rights, that the h.g. is calling for, they are harsh. there are penalties that are going to stick, and quintupled with the penalties that existed before, and i think those are the things i would point out could make a difference. supervisor campos: i am

wondering if you are looking at any criminal prosecutions resulted out of this whole mess? >> i really cannot speak to that, supervisor. at the state legislature, we said the same thing, and it is difficult. just as a general practice, i do not like to talk about criminal investigations in public. supervisor campos: i understand that. supervisor mar: thank you. supervisor avalos? supervisor avalos: thank you. i really appreciate it, and i think if we are successful legislatively, we will see a lot of teeth do what we can do to hold banks accountable and support a lot of households around the state. next up, i would like to call kevin from the california reinvestment coalition. they have done several reports on the foreclosure crisis, including the wall street wrecking ball, for preparing

legislation that would prepare a greater relief. >> i think we need to open up public comment. this will be to allow members of the public to give comment right now. there will be a few of them, and then we will have members of the city departments to speak after that. we will go back to general public comment over again. ok? superisor mar: i think supervisor avalos felt the public comment was so important on this item. the department had could hear the information so they could be able to respond to issues raised by the public. my suggestion is two minutes maximum per person. supervisor avalos: ok.

thank you for your patience. >> i will try to be quick. i am with the california reinvestment coalition. it is a statewide advocacy group that is located in san francisco. i am on the board, so i appreciate the comments. i would also acknowledge the efforts of the folks on the ground, who were the heroes in the crisis. all the folks who are here. i appreciate all the supervisors and their leadership. we are working as part of the refund california coalition. it is a larger coalition that includes unions, faith based groups, community groups, students groups, all trying to address the foreclosure crisis. i come here to support the resolution. i think it is very important.

local governments are trying to figure out what they can do to weigh in on this crisis. i think there resolution sets a template out for what other jurisdictions can do. i appreciate supervisor campos and cohen. i wanted to support a few particular points for additional work around to fannie mae and freddie mac to get them to engage in principle of production. also to support tenants, as others have mentioned already. i will focus my comments on the issue of the moratorium. it seems like this is a critical window that we are in. there is a ramp up period. peeper all calling supervisor cohen: -- people are calling

supervisor cohen. the banks are not ready to deal with the people who need help for the settlement. at the same time, there is a confusing separate process -- there is a huge demand and there is some limited opportunities for people to get help. the window is now. we fully support the resolution. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. the impact of immigrants tenants. >> thank you. we will be speaking about tenant issues. i want to focus on one

particular group of tenants that i have been sitting at the office and you are left out of the pictures we talk about foreclosures. that is immigrant spanish- speaking population. particularly from district 10 and parts of the mission. these are folks or often living in single family dwellings, often, the place is divided into two or three units. these folks are receiving no notification of anything that is happening to the house. nothing. even if they do, it is never in spanish. in fact, they generally do not even notice there is a foreclosure until every letter from the bank comes around. usually, there really does not speak spanish. when the tenants get to my office, they are absolutely terrified that they will be locked out of their place and all other things will be put on

the street. i have had attended say to me that there really told them that if they did not leave in 24 hours, three days, or whatever, the things we put on the street and the doors will be locked. a lot of times, these tenants are not willing to fight for a number of reasons. one of them is because of their immigration status. sometimes, it is also because they are afraid if they fight, it will hurt their chances to get another place. i am running out of time, wow. i can tell you about a number of nightmare conversations i have had with banks or realtors. tenants have rights in san francisco. immigration status does not matter. finally, i really wished the

board could simply puts a total moratorium on all foreclosures and evictions in san francisco. the reality is, housing is a human rights. foreclosures and evictions for profits are a violation of human rights. [applause] supervisor avalos: thank you very much. i have a few speakers, foreclosure fighters. vivian richardson, please come up. kathy bell does -- valdez. please come up. just to these speakers whose names were called. >> good afternoon.

i am here today to ask for support to call a moratorium on evictions and foreclosures until all the sediment and issues with the settlement have been acknowledged and figured out. thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you. next speaker, please. >> [speaking spanish] >> i will be interpreting. she is a little bit 6 she apologizes.

-- sick and she apologizes. >> [speaking spanish] >> i have been fighting with wells fargo for the past three years. i am continually asked to reasons in paper work. i was hospitalized for a period of time and i was still being hunted by the bank to provide

different information. there has never been an agreement reached. and so, i am at this point. >> [speaking spanish] >> i had a sale date for march 27 and i have been calling. i was not able to reach anyone. ultimately, we were able to stop that sale date. yet there has not been a solution that has been presented. this was a huge stress on my family.

my spouse was scheduled to have surgery on march 30. this has been very trying. >> [speaking spanish]

>> i have been so stressed by this experience. i had another terrible asthma attack recently as a result of this process. i am looking for a resolution. i want to work with wells fargo, and that has not been the case. >> [speaking spanish] >> the day before the sale date, i have been calling to ask what paper work they need. please provide me