us and it would be unconscionable if we did not reciprocate the blessing. thank you. [applause] >> supervisors, i think we, the seniors are undercut. we are getting more and more and stronger and stronger and living longer and longer. you'll have to deal with very soon everyone of you becoming a senior. we need a fourth -- a source of funding for the seniors. we cannot depend on what we get from the government or the state. i ask you supervisors to stop thinking about legislation. -- start thinking about legislation. we have funds for our library. we have a dedicated fund for

playgrounds for our children. the elementary grades through community colleges, they, too, received a dedicated funds. i think it is time for you supervisors to look at this direction. thank you. >> hello, supervisors. my name is bruce allison. there is a 50-foot, 20-ton gorilla in this city known as vacant units by renters renting buildings. in the u.s. it is 32,000 vacant

units in this city and only 10,000 homeless people. that is a 3 to one ratio. i am getting tired of opening up an official shelters. please come and open up some facilities for seniors kamal are you will have to put up with me for the rest of your life. thank you. [laughter] >> we want to put up with you, rompers. mr. allison, we do not mind putting up with you. [laughter] >> good afternoon, commissioners. my name is joyce. i belong to the senior action network and i used to be on the executive board for the san

francisco project, another community organization. after living in san francisco said most of my life, since 1948 -- that is all of them a lot of people here -- i might have to be joined the -- forced to join 50 million or more people who have had to move out of the city and live with friends and relatives because they cannot afford to live in this city anymore. i cannot get a job anymore because of the downturn. based on my social security i

cannot fix my roof. i need to pay my education and pay my utilities. i have more soup kitchens in the southeast near the calpers area. and if people do not want to pay taxes, begged. and we need to repair the 30,000 units for people to have enough senior housing as well as housing for everyone else. thank you.

>> [speaking foreign language]

>> @ bekker afternoon, supervisors. i am the case manager for mr. he. i represent the family services of san francisco. he suffered a stroke two years ago and is right now living in the basement of his in-laws. he is trying to find places with lower rent, but it has been difficult because people are just going to look at him because of his disability. they find it difficult to accommodate him. he is getting the support for the case manager and this is something ongoing until he finds stabilization in his life. please consider supporting the senior citizens.

>> i am with the senior action network and i'm primarily concerned with affordable housing and seniors with disabilities and pedestrian safety for these people. when i moved into the herbert her tell in 1995 -- herbert hotel in 1995, i would estimate 50 plus residents in the hotel, but current management is converting it into a student hotel as rapidly as possible, confusing the situation because students are technically classified as residents. at the beginning of last year there were 15 residents left that have shrunk to 12. a third one recently went to an

extended care nursing home and has eviction notices plastered all over the door. what i applied for a land line telephone to be installed in my room, the at&t jack was not working they asked if they could put the hotel telephone jack to an at&t jack and the management said no because when i left the room it would be converted to a tourist room. living there, i frequently have a need to cross market street. third -- at third and market, it is all i can do to get across the intersection with a walk in light on. but bicycles come ripping through and run red lights, and one recently said to meet "you better watch out" as he zipped past.

and last week, an automobile rolled into the intersection and i had to detour around it. i think it's time for education is passing and the time for enforcement is now. thank you. >> hello? thank you. i'm here to say you do not provide enough money in the current budget now for seniors and disabled. and that has destroyed my life and the lives of others. mainly, here to ask you to redouble your efforts to find more efficient and more economical programs. had you given more money to the legal assistance to the elderly i would not have had a problem, but i was outmaneuvered and lied to by my landlord.

he has hundreds of lawyers and legal assistance and does not have time to discuss most cases. i have currently eight two- bedroom section 8 vouchers for almost a year now be -- but i'm still homeless because i cannot find section 8 housing. and there is one housing person with hundreds of disabled clients that she is trying to serve. because i am a client i am a member of the hot team, but i do not use drugs or i call and that is where their funding -- or alcohol and that is where their funding is. i am costing them in their program. i could soon lose that bed. where will i go then? the shelters have denied the entrance, and that is why i am

with the hot team in the first place. if the hot team had more funding, i could perhaps be more stable. i have one or two meals a day at the senior center. they serve so many meals that sometimes they have to turn people away. and last friday they served more meals than ever before. they had to stay open 50% longer. but there are no extras, and a second, and it hurts me to see such an efficient program that feeds a lot of people for so little money struggle word they had a little bit more money they could have greater efficiency. could i just say one other thing? you have to encourage landlords in this town was some sort of incentives. tax breaks, i don't care what try to rent to the elderly and disabled and to accept section 8. >> thank you. [applause]

>> [speaking spanish]

>> good afternoon, supervisors. she has come today -- she is a participant at the 30th street senior center and her concern today is that she applied for housing about seven years ago. she went to check two years ago and noticed -- well, seven years ago she was on 5000 on the list. two years ago she realized she was no. 9000 on the list and wanted to know how that could possibly be. but there were circumstances where people were given

preference, and that was of great concern to her. she has also tried to apply for other senior housing and there were 500 slots on the waiting list. she was at four hundred 99. they said that possibly within 10 years she would get a place. and there is also the lottery -- right. >> [speaking spanish] >> she has 30 years of living in

your current location, and she did participate in a lottery for senior housing. she was number four hundred 99 -- 499 in that lottery, which did entitle her to be on that list. she rose on a fifth floor apartment -- >> [speaking spanish] cracks her situation is very complicated in regard to the housing requirements -- >> hur situation is very complicated regard to the housing requirements. david pryor her to leave the housing and and get back on a lower level, which -- they have required her to leave the

housing and get back on the lever level, which requires less spirit i do not know -- and get back on a lower level, which requires less. i do not know if i explained that well enough. >> i am a member of the senior center going on 10 years now. i appreciate all of your support for the senior centers. the program that i use increasingly more is the lunch program. and there have been some cuts in it, but we still serve twice a day during the week, one at 12:00 p.m. and 1 at 1:00 p.m. i want them to continue. i also depend on public transportation, and i appreciate the senior cards for clipper. thank you very much.

>> good afternoon. i'm victoria from the independent living resource center. thank you for waiting to the end for me to talk. i will talk about the housing needs for adults with disabilities who are not seniors. as mr. sloan, our first speaker, said, they cannot get into this housing. it has matured -- as mr. richards said, it is very hard for them to apply for the vouchers and it is hard to get the man arts to take them. one big disadvantage for the adults with disabilities in this city is public housing. this woman was not a senior when she came to san francisco and was not a senior when she lived in standard housing. she finally got into public

housing when she was a senior, but to others it is closed now. i have been working with adults with disabilities and i have material i can e-mail to you. thank you. >> congratulations, christina. >> thank you. it cracks i have a speech -- >> i have a speech impairment, so it is quite to take me more than two minutes, but i will do my best. i am here with my mobility service document to testify before you how these budget cuts have altered by life. i am a person with a disability, which is hidden and often misunderstood.

one, i have a brain injury. i can feel the discord burning within the city with regard to those of us who are viewed differently. i have endured a reduction in in-home support services and ssi benefits where i can no longer afford to buy food at my local grocery store, safeway. when i applied for food stamps i was told i was ineligible and that i have too much money. the cuts i have endured over the last five years have so increased -- cannot pronounced the word.

the legislative body chose to ignore. in short, because i am reduced to my reduction in my disability income, i cannot enjoy the full and just life that all of us want and deserve. who among you here before me would be content to have their life altered and changed and take my place? thank you very much. >> thank you. gregg's good afternoon, supervisors. -- >> good afternoon, supervisors. this has been a really important hearing and there has been a lot of sobering data that has come out in this, as well as sobering

personal stories from seniors and people with disabilities. i have to say, hearing that more than half of the seniors in our city are struggling to make ends meet, it makes me kind of ashamed in a certain way. and i feel like it raises, for me, fundamental questions about the direction our city is going. i know there is a real fear out there that san francisco is becoming a younger place and people with a lot of money are able to live here, and that you're well. a lot of people are being marginalized in the process. i know there are a lot of people here, both in leadership positions, and people in general in the community who want something different for san francisco and they want us to be true to our progressive history.

it will want to live in an inclusive city where everyone works well and we have a strong basis. we have partners who are very committed to ensuring the rights of people with disabilities and for seniors to continue living at home with support. but the proposed cuts to services happening on every level really threaten the ability to do that and we have to insist that the 1% pay their fair share. and unless we are able to do that, people with disabilities are right to continue to suffer. it is a fundamental question of justice and a fundamental question of the kind of city that we want to build. thank you.

>> good afternoon. i want to direct your attention toward this document. in 2005 ended in 2006, for 18 months there was a study done around health and impacts on the east side of the city. maybe to coincide with this profile that's they had given as is to get together with the department of health and that the next hearing, look at whether those numbers coincide with the demographics and roveri have in our document. housing and health and food

coincide with one another. if a person does not housing -- does not have housing, they will not be healthy. if they do not have food they will be a mess. we will be looking at turning co-ops into stores that will be accessible for people with disabilities. we have too many open spaces, places that are not being utilized. this is a good way tim utilize. -- a good way to utilize. before i leave, i would like to say thanks to su, who came and checked on one of our members. thank you. >> good afternoon. thank you for allowing me to speak today. i feel this is an important situation going on.

i would like to ask madame clerk to please put the overhead light on so i can put something that i would like to show about my landlord. i am a senior. i have lived in my building for 20 years before -- for 20 years. before i say that i would like to see and part of the action network. i am also part of the health organization. i'm very much a part of the community in san francisco. i have been at my place for 20 years and i pay my rent on time. i'm being threatened with an eviction from his landlord that i have on the overhead. he is being sued by the city and county of san francisco for numerous situations, along with

this one. i have another one overhead. he is swallowing gains in his buildings. there are drive-by shootings on leavenworth street, which is in the overhead here. i live at 428 post st. and its an apartment he paid $20 million cash for. he is a very ruthless man. i need help. i need this city to protect my rights as a senior citizen and a disabled woman i thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for calling this meeting. it is so much needed. i live in an apartment nearby the civic center neighborhood.

i've been there since 1978. with the decrease in my effective in crime and -- my affected in callum and with the rising cost of everything else i have to purchase i have to have a roommate. she is on ssi and i'm on social security's/disability and old age. we are food insecure. i had to step out for a few minutes to go to the aging and disability resource center to have lunch. it was crowded. it was definitely not overloaded. there was not a reservation list for us to sign up for tomorrow. it was all full already.

i had a good meal, though. i do not know what i would do without that place. i cannot afford to go to trader joe's and purchase everything i need to eat anymore. i am also a client of the trans thrive division of the asian pacific wellness center. i can get lunch there three or four days a week. thank you for calling the meeting. >> good afternoon. i am disabled and i have quite a few in visible disabilities -- invisible disabilities and i'm also a senior. i am concerned about city government and the services they give to rise as disabled and seniors. you need to retrain a lot of the

programs, such as policing neighborhood -- neighborhood policing. and some of our partner programs need to be retrained so they understand what the new laws are concerning disabilities and concerning seniors. besides that, i am concerned about the greatest illness in our community. and the greatest illness in the senior community is depression. that depression is going to continue to exist as long as people are worried about how they're going to eat their next meal, how they are going to stay out of the rain, and how they will be able to get the medications they need. i would like to suggest that the board come up with some eight -- some way of managing not for profits who service seniors. there's so much money wasted by duplicated programs and programs that are not doi