program. i want to thank you for doing the thing that you did next door, passing the meat to the desert. -- dessert. you did not have people splashing dirt all over you -- and making you just plain miserable, and maybe not even getting inside. >> thank you. >> i am 67 years old. i am a retired schoolteacher. with a master's degree, and homeless. not by my own oddness, but i have a unique situation in that i have been in the new york

system of homelessness, and also san francisco. i have been in san francisco for 25 years, part of the bay area for 35 years. i have taught high school for 38 years. there is no reason i should be homeless. i did when i was supposed to do but it was the government -- the system here, it treats people very badly. i have seen very sick people waiting for it their bed. some people cannot walk, and some people are hungry, they are tired and depleted, and some of them do not get a bed. it is a sad thing to see their faces. i have been in the next door,

and they sent me once to something called sanctuary, and i gave them the bed and said i would not sleep in this place, where the garbage and the beds are in the same place. and it smells like a pigsty. i was upset. next door is a little bit cleaner. some people who are there are a very mean to other people. they have been mean to the other people. [applause] i just want to say that i do not know how many educated people are homeless, i know i should not be. but i know that there are some and we actually see, with our eyes, and we here with our ears. >> where did you teach in san

francisco? >> wallenberg high school. >> thank you for your service. [applause] >> good afternoon. i am miguel calderon. i have worked for many years in the coalition of homelessness. what i am hearing every thursday morning, the homeless people express in front of us. well i want to say is that i hear -- what is your name? you are explaining the working of the shelter system in different states -- this is good to hear -- to know how the system is working. we have to focus right here in the city, where we see how we cover this -- this agency.

that organization has to focus and understand very well about the homeless people. we see the homeless people and the line, waiting for the bed. at 3:00 in the morning. these are all humans. people with disabilities, people who are handicapped, and people who don't have a place to rest. well i will say -- we know -- they carry no cash. this is not working because we have seen so many homeless people without a bed, overnight. thank you so much. i look forward to working together to resolve these issues as soon as possible.

>> thank you. >> hello, supervisors. i am tony frazier. first, i want to thank l.j. and cab street. people are angry out there. they really are. they want shelter. they want a place, bad. we have been in shelters and done outreach. i will say this. it was a guy who came in last week. he was at next door. he had a cap bed. he told us that he was rejected because he went to the general hospital for one day, and he came back and they said he could not get a bed. and somebody from next door

tried to sell him one of those monitors. they were holding the bed back for their friends. i am out of fear. [applause] -- out of here. [applause] >> i am the director of shelters, and a few things i would like to say, there is an increase in disability in the sheltered environment. with veterans and trauma and an increase in disabilities. we hear the increase in the need, we are expecting the shelter staff across the system to be able to deal with complex health issues. complex mental health issues with one or two trainings in one or two workshops.

we will not bring them up to the level that we need. in 2000 to the episcopal community services had 14 dedicated managers for 534 beds. 14 case managers. that was just for sanctuary and next door. in 2011 we have seven case managers for 1134 beds. it is beyond our capability. i am not a health physician. we ask you to look at these issues. for the podiatrist to come out twice a month is not enough. thank you. [applause] >> i will call 10 more names. ken armbuster, dr. jason

sincana, wayne garnett, will dailey. karen marie-riley. grace tellus. robert webber. deborah benedict, and jackie jenks. >> do i need to fill out a speaker card? >> you do. thank you. >> i did not call your name yet. we have over 50 speaker caredds here. >> thank you for having this meeting today. i think the clients speak well for themselves but i would like to address one other issue. we have had varying degrees of success with accessing this and i think the clients could back

me up on this. we have started keeping a log of all of the time together and all that i can see is that this depends on the dispatcher. there are some good dispatchers and some that are not very good. i would suggest that that portion of client services be examined. thank you. >> thank you, mr. armbuster. >> hello, supervisors. i am dr. jason sincanan. i am 0 volunteer for the call it -- coalition on homelessness. my greatest question is, why is it that in san francisco, the united states, one of the greatest cities in the greatest country in the world, our fellow san franciscans sleeping on the

sidewalk, in the cold in these deplorable conditions, to be turned away. why is there not more money allocated for these people to have their basic needs met, which, to me, basic human rights to be able to have a place to sleep and go to the bathroom and have a place to eat. these are things i take for granted. i manage, myself to maintain the home, but a lot of people can't. when i was younger i thought, someone will take care of them. but now -- it is my responsibility to help take care of them, it is your responsibility to help take care of them. [applause] and as far as what i have been told by people about the

harassment that they are receiving from the police -- it reminds me of stories my grandmother of stories my grandmother -- reminds me of stories my grandmother told me about surviving in nazi germany. >> supervisor kim, thank you for being here. i am a transgender male. and all the homeless people wnat justice. we need a better system and we need it done as soon as possible. all these homeless poeple on the streets are not -- it is inhumane. i think there should be more justice and more things for transgendered people. that is a speaking for the homeless and transgendered community. [applause]

>> i am wayne garnett. i work at embassy south. i am listening to the people talk about the access to shelters. what people aren't looking at, msc is 99% full each night. i looked at the other shelters and all of them were full. access to the shelters -- there are people getting the runaround because they have nowhere to go. the city is talking about making cuts, and i understand this is because of the economy. i also looked at the consent forms. october 1, 2011-december 31, in the south had 240 new guests coming in the system.

on a daily basis more people are coming in the system and less are coming out. >> thank you, mr. barnett. >> i am will daily, a member of the shelter monitoring committee. i am here on personal time, because i feel that this is a very important issue. hubert humphrey said that the moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children. those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly, those in the shadow, the needy and the disabled. we can clearly do better. was it -- we live in one of the most wealthy countries in the wealthiest nation that the world has ever seen. i want to talk about solutions.

the city has decided to flat- find this service providers for many years. if you are not going to increase funding, why not let the non- profits share in the discounts -- that the city enjoys for purchasing, because this would help a little bit. the other thing is that there was an article last week about the city of miami. for approximately 20 years they have had a 1% tax in receipts for restaurants over $400,000. at the time that this was implemented there were 8000 homeless people, and they have not seen an increase in the homeless population even in the economic downturn. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. i am robert weber and i served

-- served with the city and county -- on the board of bernice casey. i currently serve on the district attorney's neighborhood court system. i have seen remarkable changes over the years in the city and county of san francisco -- the necessary micromanagement to improve the system has become a financial burden. i say that we should look outside of the box for solutions in housing and funding sources, reaching to those with expendable and come, and these huge corporate profits, for a campaign to house individually would be easier than warehousing these people in shelters. and with the current system last for us to visit the mandate of 2003, to not base the

acquisition of shelter on and come. thank you. >> thank you, mr. weber. >> karen marie riley, a concerned citizen. thank you. i have a couple of things to say. one of them as i heard you talking about the shelters and people traveling back and forth all day. one thing i would recommend is shuttles. you can hire some of these people to drive the other people. taken to the other shelters. the other thing is i went to a movie the other night, and why don't we provide tax deductions for people to provide shelter? this is a huge space of buildings -- businesses to

provide buildings to have shelter for the homeless. i hope that this helps. and thank you for your hard work. >> thank you, everyone. i am 8 deborah benedict. i am housed in district 6. i was in the shelter system for eight continuous months and i have intimate experiences with the reservation system and the life in shelters. i will mention that i have seen the trans-gendered people be attacked in front of me, people who do not have english as their first language attacked, and bullying -- and intimidation by the staff and other client members. there is -- rampant covert racism, that i have experienced.

i have attended meetings that were held in this room, where a wonderful suggestion of someone who got up and spoke a couple of years ago said that they had come up with this fantastic method where all the systems would be coordinated under one umbrella and people would be able to go and have their needs met with one source. what i experienced -- has happened. and what you heard other people mention is the fact that you have people coming in with studies and information, and basically that information is recycled every couple of years and you get the same information and action does not seem to be happening. in common is a problem and i wanted to make a couple of proposals.

i came from key west, florida. they had a system where the grocery stores had given a card out, and 1% of all grocery purchases -- when this was shown they were given 1% to the charity of their choice. if the grocery stores did this year, there would be more than enough money for the people who are homeless. >> thank you, miss benedictus. [applause] >> i am one of the program managers of the city of san francisco start team, and we provide services and the largest adult shelters. i want to highlight that 10 years ago, we had four times -- 14 full-time case managers. and the care in the shelters -- this was part of maintaining the shelter bed reservation.

we have seven full-time staff members for a population of over 1100 people. we are serving people who are diagnosed with multiple disabilities. we are working as hard as we can. we are simply overwhelmed. we have some choosing between receiving emergency care or losing their shelter bed. we don't have a way to maintain beds for example if someone is in the hospital on the 5154 over 72 hours, we don't have the

ability to save this for them. we have no choice but to send for honorable people to wait on the streets. >> thank you.

>> i have been chronically homeless in this city since 1998. i was born in sacramento, california. i come from a family of politicians. this is a human rights issue. even the birds have bird houses. you might recognize me because i was recognized by the president of the united states of america, president bush. we were the awarded the volunteer service award for our community. i'm still homeless when i got the award, i was working for the

department of public health as an intern. i was a homeless advocate. i am a homeless advocate and i'm still living in the street. i don't have that job. i am back in the streets. this is sad. i got a salted for trying to get a bed i missed two minutes late for my past. i am back in the streets. guess what happened to me, i got rate, i got my jaw (town -- guess what happened to me, i got raped, i got my jaw broken. i got hard. there is a two years waiting

list to get into the city council in. i need help now. >> thank you. >> i was in the military and i fought in desert storm. they told me to go for it. one thing that they want to say about being homeless, this is nothing fun. i work at fedex, i have a job and i'm sitting outside because i was kicked at the next door shelter. i was not even a client.

i get off every morning it off of the concrete slab with a smile on my face. i wherewear diapers. i'm trying to get me and my dog off the streets. it is not fair. i worked at nighttime. i was kicked on to the streets for defending my wife. that is a lie and everyone knows it. i want to take a shower, i have to get up there and do those boxes every night six nights a week. it hurts. i'm in pain, i am sick.

i am in the streets because i protected my wife's rights. i want a bed so i can get some rest and take a proper shower. i did not do anything to anyone wrong. i fought for this country. >> thank you. thank you for your service. >> finally i am here, thank you. i spent 28 years of my life to fight for the people that came to fight for them. and ashamed that we see good homeless in this country.

to see a woman and a man to do what they did, that is very shame. they're going to support us. also, we would like to give a chance to the man here, who has been hired to be the big head of the homeless.

i don't need to have that anymore. we have criminal people taking the food and donation. no more apparent to wake up, i am here. thank you. >> thank you for waiting. i know they usually speak first. >> i work with the coalition on homelessness. i was not going to speak on this issue. you asked about the santa clara program for transportation for the homeless. the response was that you were unable to obtain information.

i was able to obtain the information very easily. on the first of last month, i did send you all of the contact information as well as the information on that program. i will read you a bit of the e- mail. this is part of the e-mail that i sent to the media representative. if it was also the information that i sent, i mentioned your program earlier today