>> neighbors. nonprofits help make a safer neighborhood. police, nonprofits help keep people off the street. participants have a safe environment, shelter from the elements, a phone to use, a microwave to use, housing case managers, therapists, job counselors and scarcer even bathrooms. employees pay taxes and are an asset to the community. many of whom rebuilt their lives by coming out of drug addiction, prostitution or just plain old engrained poverty. last but not least, the city and county profit through nonprofits with less crime is, less homelessness, less medical costs, better citizenry and citizens who pay taxes.

it's imperative we turn things around and this country that means money. let san francisco once again be a leader in this country for what is right and just. thank you. >> thank you very much. if i can ask folks to hold their applause so we can get through public comment. of course, please respect the two-minute limit. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm the shelter program manager with central city hospitality house. my statement will be brief, but we're here basically to request the increase in funding. at this point our program is operating at bare minimums with staffing and with all of the safety concerns, with all of the shelter systems, it would be a great benefit for us to provide adequate services to our clipets with this added funding to be able to add additional staff in order to provide a safe

environment. in addition to the case management services that we're attempting to provide on a daily basis. so i'm here just to ask for consideration on that. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> greetings, supervisors. my name is tracy bell. i'm the program manager for the sixth street self-help center for hospitality house. one of the reasons why i'm here is because i'm asking for consideration for the increase in funding. sixth street, if you have ever been to sixth street in the tenderloin, just trying to find a bathroom is a challenge if you're homeless or if you're marginally housed or if you're in the community, you need a safe place. we have a safe haven there on sixth street. sixth street corridor, which is in the process of a lot of changes, we're there and we have

a lot of people that are homeless there and marginally housed that really need the support that they provide. we're the only place you can can get clean bathrooms in the area without having to spend a dollar if you don't have a dollar or five cents. we have telephones so communication can be made there, in plymouth resource center and provide harm reduction therapy for our participants. our case management, just getting laundry done at times is a challenge so something that would be done provide. the biggest issue for me is that in the last two years we have taken significant cuts and safety is a huge issue for me at my program right now. we have had -- we're right now in the process just to be safe enough to provide services that we need to for the community, we're consolidating our services. so what we are asking for is just consideration and real will

you think about the participants that are in the community but also our staff that need the support in order to do the business and to do business as usual in the city of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker? >> how are you guys doing? i'm representing the united council human services. last time they did the homeless count, bay view had the most homeless but we don't have adequate shelter, providence is not set up that way, and where i come from, a drop-in center, i'm asking for consideration in here for considering bay view and increase the resources in bay view as well. we have the most homeless, and

also we're underdeveloped where we're at. with everything going on, you need to increase services to develop these communities. and i'm not much with public speaking so that's pretty much all i had to say. god bless you all. >> hi, i'm tammy with the coalition on homeless and hospitality house. please excuse him, he's excited to see his facebook buddy, supervisor wiener. there he is, charlie. the community needs to grant this raise to our nonprofits, to our drop-in centers and our shelters. if we have a decrease in services, what will happen, we will have more people using our streets as' public rest room. we will have more syringes in the parks on the walks and more

people committing crimes to get by. >> good afternoon. my name is joe wilson. the stories you heard today have been poignant and very compelling. and i think in a real sense the stories reflect, you know, a community of seekers and dreamers trying to make a place for ourselves in the city. i know that your jobs are extremely difficult in terms of working through a lot of these proposals. i'm urging your support for the homeless funding proposal put forth by shelters in resource centers. in a real sense, it's more than money that we're talking about. we're talking about our values

as a city and our at once home to multibillion dollar corporations, a world famous engineering marvel and also the stories of life on the streets. people, lives on the mend, people seeking to turn pain into possibility. 30 years ago i was a shelter resident at hospitality house. i managed to move from personal blame to personal belief. and it is the community that binds us and sustains us in these times of trouble. i think the controller's office would probably confirm that there's no cavalry coming from the state, the rescue mission is in this room. we urge you to listen to the appeal, the desperation in a lot of those stories.

yesterday at the self-help center, a woman has an epileptic seizure. she falls head first out of her wheelchair onto the hard floor. a staff member reacted the only way they knew how holding her head, keeping her warm, keeping her as calm as possible until help could avoid. that is a reflection of the stories that are played out in larkin street, in numbers of shelters on the street. >> thank you, sir. >> those are the -- >> thank you very much. i have to ask you to -- thank you. thank you. >> afternoon, supervisors, i'm jackie jenching from hospitality house. also from the shelter and resource center association. over the past five years, we have seen a drastic shift in the stability of the emergency homeless services system. we've lost one-third of our shelter beds and half of our

drop-in centers. we have 1,100 single adult shelter beds for more than 6,000 homeless adults on the streets of san francisco. in the family shelter system has six to seven months just for families to get into basic shelter. as funding for safety net services has become less prioritized in this city and we're looking at federal and state cuts next year, the need has increased in the remaining shelters and resource centers have reached a critical state. as you have heard insufficient staffing levels and unable to meet in some cases basic standards of care we truly believe in. one of the biggest concerns facing homeless services system is safety. cuts in staffing levels left us with the lowest staff-to-client ratio ever at a time when the acuity and need is at its highest. in my 17 years at hospitality

house, i never had a staff assault until three years ago and we had five staff assaults in the last three years due to people in desperate states needing things and not being able to get the services they need and not having enough staff to deal with situations that happen. so in developing this proposal, i just wanted to say, this is a very, very basic proposal. it doesn't include salary increases. it doesn't include anything extraneous to meet the basic standard. we're working with the day every san franciscan can have a place to call their own and until then we need to preserve our safety net for our homeless neighbors. we hope you will seriously consider this $5 million proposal. it's much needed. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. he >> how are you doing? good afternoon. my name is james jr. i can touch on pretty much my

experience, my job. but i can touch -- i went through -- i'm sorry. i went through 2002, i got released from jop corps, found myself at embassy south. first i was on the streets. found myself at embassy south. then someone told me about larkin. and through larkin, larkin really helped me out. that's the reason why i'm here today. pretty much now i work for embassy south and i'm actually the union -- i'm actually the union shop stewardess for the co-workers if they get in trouble can come to me, call me any time day or night and get up there and do what i can. pretty much i'm asking you do not cut this funding because pretty much i'm an example of larkin, guy here. i went through his program. i'm an example of all of that. if their program wasn't open, i probably would be dead somewhere.

through all of the education they helped me and now i'm trying to give back. i'm asking you do not cut this funding. if you all heard me, i'm sorry. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> supervisors, thank you for your patience. thank you for listening to all of us. it's really an honor to be here. my name is connie ford. i'm the secretary treasurer of opie local 203. i'm fortunate and my union fortunate enough to represent many of the workers and members of the speakers' bureau you have heard today. i'm here to say just three numbers, and this is if you take away anything in my humble opinion, these are the three numbers to remember -- 9, 5 and 40. so 9 million represents the best way that many of us, whether we're union, whether we're an h.s.n., it's the best way to help all of these organizations survive. $9 million is the cost of 2% cost of doing business. i would like to thank the mayor

for the first time in five years for putting a cost of doing business in the budget. now we're asking you to help us rise to that 3%, $9 million. second one is the $5 million. all of these 100 people who just spoke before me told you about the importance of the homeless shelter adjustment category that cost $5 million. i urge you to consider that for the people who are most in need. the last figure is $40 million. $40 million and i would like to thank the supervisors here and throughout the system that have been sponsoring revenue initiatives to put on the november ballot. we're trying to get a progressive revenue on the ballot that will be one initiative, that will equate to about $40 million that will have money for the general fund to replace or substitute or add of what we're asking today, plus money for the mayor's housing trust fund of about $13 million.

progressive revenue, one initiative on the ballot, this november. we will all work really hard to get it passed. and then this kind of money that we're asking you for today, $9 million and $5 million will be affordable. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm bobbi lopez from sc 121 but i'm not here in that capacity. i'm here as manager latina. we're scattered throughout as you can tell. so first i wanted to really thank the collaborative and thank the folks who came out and supported us because it shows what we're about, which is about collaboration and solidarity and creating a tenderloin which is a community has and has sense of community. that community includes thorough residence and includes immigrant families and everyone who resides there and has a wish to make it a better place. i wanted to briefly touch on what it's about. when you ask me what level, i

went through 20 post-its. it does a lot. basically we have done everything that people ask us. to help with taxes and filling out housing applications two more of our education work helping youth fill out high school applications. it's competitive at the high school level. college applications. i can't remember i.p. meetings, school counselors, truancy meetings, parent/teacher conferences, that's the kind of work you don't see that we perform. even some of the heavier stuff of dealing with victims of crime and violent crime. those are things we helped with. the system was very hard to do, work just not being a model spanish speaker. we really were there to support a lot of folks through it. one of the biggest things i think we do that we don't always talk about is expectations. that's something we pride ourselves on. when we work with youth and family, we have expectation they're all going to go to college and build that from the age they're 2, 3 on upward.

we have those discussions about what it means. i know the proof is there because i ran into -- i have been running into a lot of my kids and they're going to see and state. i got into berkeley. and it's wonderful. i almost cried last week when there was a dream act event. one of my kids was there. she's like i'm not afraid and i'm here and i'm in college and i want to be a lawyer. it's like that's awesome. is my time up? it is. >> yes. >> thank you. >> i love san francisco. >> thank you. >> hello, my name is darnell board and i'm tenant organizer at central c.s.o. collaborative. i want to say yeah. but i'm here to support lavos. it's the only latino organization for families in the tenderloin. they do a good job. initiate safe passage and also

fighting against unjust deportation. we need lavos in the tender loin. to fight for them, support them. we need to lift them up. they are a great organization. please help them. thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is c.w. johnson. i'm happy and i know it. as a tenant organizer in the tenderloin, a place that has very little resources and a lot of problems. however deerks spite that, we have a lot of hope and we have a lot of pride and passion. as a community organizer, i carry a lot of tools in my toolbox. nonprofit agencies and commun it-based projects are those tools. one of the greatest tools for me is latinas and the reason that's great is there's not a lot of places latinas can go to get help with housing, to get help for safe places where their children can be or just become leaders in their community. kind of leaders that started a safety program so when kids don't feel safe, they have safe

zones they can go to. this is important as community organizer for me to keep that tool. the more tools i have, the more organized i can make tenderloin. the more organized i can organize tenderloin, better quality of life we can have for all. we can't just serve one part and not the other. my name is c.w. johnson. have a good day. >> thank you, too you too. >> i am here to speak as an individual san francisco resident. i support lavos latino, invited to the event and i would like to acknowledge supervisor kim, district six, one of the greatest politicians in the city. i would like to use the opportunity to advocate for community services, central city throughout, homeless dropping center, asian-pacific, immigrant legal outreach and most

importantly blacks in bay views, businesses need funding. i want you guys to fight for them. all of the program that's support low-income individuals and families. i don't know how long we v. but i have a note to say. it will be a little controversy. -- little controversial. but i will use my first amendment. it seems san francisco is not cooperating with blacks and brown people in our community. slashing funding from the latina center sends the wrong message. trying to destroy critical services for families in our community is counterproductive. we should support, encourage and respect women empowerment and families. not silence them. san francisco is supposed to be a city model like the united states or united nations -- sorry, in the city, san francisco the united nations was

funded -- >> thank you very much. >> on the first of january 1942 by f.d.r. i have 20 minutes. former mayor and current california state lieutenant governor, planning for san francisco ultimately will fail with the appointment at least for -- >> thank you, thank you. if i can ask, if you have extra information to share, perhaps give us the hard copy and we will make sure every single member has it. please if you could, i think there are other people who have asked to --

[inaudible] >> thank you. ok, thank you. we will make sure to take your letter and make a copy and share it with the board members. thank you very much. thank you. ok. >> we have the next speaker. if i can ask folks, it's very quick we're asking you to do the two minutes, but at the same time we have to make sure -- thank you, sir. thank you, sir. i know that the two minutes is hard to stay by but we're hoping people can so we can be fair. thank you. go ahead. >> good afternoon board of supervisors. hi, my name is star gold and i am a pair of voices leader where we advocate for accessible, affordable and quality childcare.

i basically have utilized affordable childcare where i have kept a job for more than a decade but unfortunately due to the conditions that are economy is facing, i'm not working in that field any longer and i am in school full time and i work part time. i would like to say we also took this -- we went on the state level as far as my 10-year-old daughter spoke at the rally and sacramento, regarding advocating childcare and making sure we have our money set aside for childcare. we have done our part. we're asking the city to backfill and that's the remaining cut from $5 million tos to 10 million. and asking early funding cut simplify streams considering all of the early care and education funding and that includes

preschool for all. make community voices, community voices are heard in the office. and please keep california working by making sure children have quality childcare and childcare keep san francisco working in sacramento. thank you very much for listening. >> hi, everybody. good afternoon, supervisors. it's nice to be here. thank you for the time and patience. i know you do these with all of your passion we are concerned as much as you are concerned about the budget and process and i'm here as a mom today. as you may know, my daughter is 14 and she goes to lowell. and my little william is in second grade. i'm here as a parn the. i have been part of parent voices the last seven years. we advocate for childcare,

accessible, affordable and quality and thanks to the leadership, governor brown was able to reach a budget deal yesterday and we're so happy for that. unfortunately, even though a lot of the cuts were removed but not all of them on childcare, not a lot of help. we still need $5 million. and it's sad to see, i was never able to benefit from childcare. i was wait listed when i need it. called me five years later when i was working. so i became an advocate for childcare. it's important. i wanted to make sure we understand that a lot of the mothers are able to get out of poverty, start working and start childcare. i know you understand this and finally getting a check and moving on and the childcare they get is cut and they have to go back to the -- back to general

assistance and cycle starts again. i know you understand that. we are working hard in sacramento to make sure hopefully the revenues measures are passed and we will have according to senator lee a surplus in three or four years. i just wanted to say a little bit. thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you board of supervisors for your patience. i'm the organizer of parent voices in san francisco. you told us -- when we met with you, many of you told us to go to the state and advocate there. most of our childcare funding comes from the state and federal government. like the parents said before me, we've done our part yesterday. we were in the state capital and spoke with my client who told us it's better than we thought it would be. so the backfield we need for childcare is not as much as we thought it would be.

initially we were looking at $10 million and now it's down to about $5 million or less. we hope the figureless get better. we hope to look at that because childcare keeps our children learning and our parents working. the senator mention wed need revenues and we have been telling them we need rev nighs dv revenues and said if we passed the governor's proposed measure in throw to four years like gladys soto mentioned, we would be in surplus. but in the meantime, we still have a deficit. the other issue we want to bring up is office of early care and education. so we have seen the draft of the proposed office of early care and education. it's not perfect yet. we still have some work to do with it. for instance is, the idea was to consolidate all funding for early care education and streamline it. we haven't streamlined it yet because preschool for all or

p.f.a. under prop h was not included. i think the intention was to include that in the office of e.c.e. so thank you very much for listening. thank you for all of the good things you do. and i hope we get the budget that is fair for all. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is angela. i'm interning this summer at saint anthony's. i would like to talk to you about the homeless funding proposal and tell you why i think it's crucial that you appropriate the suggested funds. i have been working at saint anthony's for a little bit over a month now. during this time i have been doing a lot of outreach with the guests, with the people that come to eat at saint anthony's dining room. most of my outreach has been focused on shelter access. i have been truly struck by the intense and passionate reactions that people have when i talked to them about their experiences with shelters and drop-in

centers in the city. currently many of the shelters and drop-in centers are experiencing an overwhelmed and burnt-out staff as well as lack of supplies and resources. without restoring funds, there's no chance of ameliorating any of these issues. i have also spoken to different people in housing work groups that expressed gratitude for hprp. many of those who received the benefits of that funding have been able to stave off homelessness for themselves as well as for their families. and this in turn heightens the possibility of their children being healthy and succeeding in schools. in order to maintain hprp and help homeless people get back on their feet, i strongly urge you to support this proposal. when the schleder system did not have the resources to support staff and residents' basic

needs, tschetter residents will be out of the loop and disconnected from access to other beneficial health and social services and this takes a toll not only on the homeless people but on the entire city of san francisco. thank you. >> hi, supervisors. my name is colleen and i work and volunteer and serve on the board of directors of a handful of different organizations that provides assistance to homeless san franciscans. i want to make my comments today simply as a resident of this city. a city that has provided refuge to me as a refugee from the midwest. i have noticed over the seven years that i lived here, that there have been a lot of attempts to deal with homelessness by criminalizing