community, that true sense of helping each other and get the services that we need to make a house a home and we really need to have that community building work that open house and other organizations do, but as sheriff mirkarimi mentioned 55 laguna has been in development for a long time and it was approved to prove lgbt welcoming housing at 55 laguna street. we have a great develop partner in mercy california and we wi co-co-operate and manage these facilities. it will be 55% of am i or behofl and i will get to the rent subsidy in a moment

and all apartments will be made available to low income seniors 55 and older. what promises to be a landmark with lgbt people in san francisco the project will include some sort of activity center as well as open house services and our vision is include not only housing for the residents but make it a real hub for the tens of thousands of lgbt seniors around the community who need community and support and assistance so it's not just about housing but the community building. why lgbt welcoming housing? i think we heard plenty about that. so many lgbt people have come to san francisco looking for personal freedom and acceptance. over 25,000 lgbt older adults currently live in the city and they feel great pressure as we have heard to go back into the closet as we have heard to receive quality care and housing and many face serious challenges

in finding welcoming and supportive housing and if not they have to relocate and leave their community and friends and leave san francisco which has its own traumas and own challenges. so what happens next here with 55 laguna? now that the planning commission has approved our development plan to proceed with developments open house and mercy housing california will work with the san francisco mayor's office on housing and we wouldn't be here without their help and support. we will work with them and financing models to put together the financing and we are off to a good start but we anticipate we will begin the first phase of construction by late raw 2014 and fast approaching and we are looking forward to that. i want to be clear who can live at 55

laguna. any senior that meets the qualifications can live there. we anticipate that again lgbt will apply to live there because open house is the co-owner and we need lgbt folks interested in affordable housing in general to get in touch of us and provide them and all qualified seniors about information about 55 laguna as it comes up. it's about that numbers game so it's important that we reach the lgbt seniors that need to get into this kind of housing because anybody that is income qualified drim nate -- we can't-- we are trying to

secure rent subsidies so people pay no more than 30% of their income and that's really important because without that rent subsidy the rents are going to be anyway from $600 to $1,000 a month and for people with ssi or social security that's too high of a rent and in san francisco that is described as affordable so it's important to get that rent subsidy. applications are not going to be available until construction is close to completion so the first phase won't be completed until 2015. that's when we will have the

applications available. however anybody regarding of sexual orientation or identity interested in updates about 55 laguna or other programs i recommend that they get on our mailing list. it's not official list for housing. it's our mailing list but it includes updates on 55 laguna and anybody that needs housing before that comes on line please contact open house and we can -- as allen said earlier work with you and getting the applications worked out and getting you in the lotteries and 14 of the units -- 110 total and 14 are set aside with people -- funded by opportunities for people with aids and 14 are available for

a diagnosis of aids. >> i am sorry we don't have more time for you and open house is important project and we are happy with what is happening. >> are there any plans in the timeline to acquire additional property for housing? i know this would be the first of our kind for our city and county. can you hit real quick on that. >> well, it's a huge project and it's a lot of work. open house is always keeping its eyes open for other opportunities out there and we would love to think about down the road developing future housing and those opportunities arise. hoaf anything to tell you right now while we are putting 55 laguna together but i hope down the road there are other opportunities for sure. >> great. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> thank you for open house. we're glad it's there. really glad it's there. i am

wondering if we could have robert and lupe come up together and we have to go>> i am lupe -- >> [inaudible] >> use the other mic. that one doesn't work. >> hi good morning task force

members. i am robert collins and the deputy deputy director with the san francisco rent board. the director regrets she can't be here today and i am here and want to present some information based on our most recent annual eviction report. >> okay. >> i will be very brief. >> okay. >> so one of the areas that the san francisco has been a leader in many issues including equal benefits for same sex and partners and lgbt health access and a lot has been in response auto human rights commission worked hard to implement some of the recommendations in the 2003 lgbt advisory committee report aging and the lgbt community. definitely one of the areas that we are talking about today is housing for safe affordable and stable housing for lgbt seniors. the price of the one bedroom

apartment now is $2,700 and the average ssi payment is $1,200 if that, so just numbers alone most seniors are not going to afford a market rate apartment in san francisco or anyone that is disabled and receiving a government subsidy. for us in terms of housing discrimination complaints and about 65% of the complaints are discrimination complaints are regarding housing and about 40% are alleged discrimination on disability or alleged sexual orientation and disability is the one that we get the most complaints about. a big issue for us definitely is reasonable accommodations which is reasonable change in policy and procedure for disabled people to stay in housing such as having a care giving, physical and

emotional support animals and food delivery and the third party subsidies. definitely if somebody is living alone and away from their families and lgbt or otherwise and rely on people and face discrimination of providers that don't understand the concept a family that isn't biological and we just talked about this right now but definitely a big -- it wasn't me. >> it's not you. it's not you. >> so definitely people growing older in san francisco in san francisco housing stock is a huge issue. the lack of elevators and available units and as we know ada housing is many years wait at best. definitely if the wait list is even open. so basically what we're doing right now is part of

is we investigate and look at complaints of discrimination. if someone feels th discriminated against we will investigate those complaints and by the lgbt task force and with [inaudible] and serving the lgbt community and senior community and figure out what the needs and definitelying in out what are possible solutions and we will continue to do that with this body and the mayor and the board of supervisors. >> great thank you. can i just ask. you said 40% are disable or sexual artation gender complaints so you don't break those down separately? >> about 35% are disability. about 5% are actually sexual

orientation and additional three to 5% are gender identity. >> okay. >> so it's a little over 40%. >> okay. great. thank you. can you stay up there for a few seconds if people have questions. robert do you want to give a run down and if people have questions. >>i would like to share with you the annual eviction report that came out. i have four copys. >> that's great. copies are always good. we have a lot of paperwork, so hopefully we are here for another 15 minutes. >> good morning. i just wanted to share with you some of our latest numbers from the annual eviction report that the rent board publishes every march for data that goes from march 1 --

in this case of 2012 to the end of february 2013, and so some key highlights. the number of eviction notices this year was up 26% to 1395. those are the eviction notices that are filed with the san francisco rent board, and then the second page has some highlights of the kinds of evictions that went up and down -- [inaudible] >> somebody has the cell phone on. >> mine's off but who knows. and it went up to 116 this past year with the year that ended

on the end of february, so we're seeing increases in room rate evictions, illegal rentals and as well as nuisance so i wanted to give those highlights. i will say in general all sort of traffic and distance picking up at the rent board if you would. rent petitions show a similar thing and the economy up tick and who knows what else is happening but these evictions are going up significantly at this point. >> i have a quick question. i know the board doesn't keep statistics by gender orientation or anything but is it possible for the rent board to do that? if this board makes that recommendation that all city departments keep records by

sexual orientation and age and is that possible by the rent board? >> there is a process that we're are talking about. when talking about the rent coal board and talking about eviction notices filed with the board. i think in most cases what we are interesting in -- the task force is interested in is eviction notices and those are filed by the landlord or the attorney and doesn't know if the person they're evicting at that moment -- they might know it, but they don't have a requisite need to know it, so the way that process works. they file the notice and then in the case of ellis the tenant has a right to request from a four month notice another eight months so for one year notice person for the ellis eviction so in this case we

know that happens when it happens but it's not with the original filing and then so that's the difficulty that we have. we can't really make demand or figure out the sexual orientation of the person they want to e -- evict per se. >> right and but you do have a map in your annual report. >> we publish data by zip code. >> by zip code so we could make assumptions and the castro area and make assumptions that the people evicted there are lgbt folks something like that. that maybe something we're rs toed to do as a committee and there is no data out there and it's frustrating to come up with recommendations when we have no data to base the recommendations

on. it's a very frustrating process but i think the map maybe helpful and i maybe contacting you and getting the last few years report with the maps. >> sure we are glad to assist you with that and get you other data if it helps with mapping that out. >> sure. any subcommittee members have questions of lupe or robert? thank you for being patient and waiting around. is there anybody else who wants to say a few words before we cut it off and another five minutes for testimony? yeah come up on. so if you could keep your comments to two minutes that would be great andful helpful and we are getting more time. >> okay. this is short and off subject. we're trying very hard to keep pages out of the hands

of sfpd and i know carmen announced it. it's different now. i want you to know we have a planning meeting tonight at the lgbt center on market street -- carmen what is it? five to six or five to 630? >> [inaudible] >> okay. it's tonight. so everybody come because this is a real problem. thanks a lot. >> thank you carol. we have two more people. >> hi i am edmund usey and i say in the ambassador sro. i heard great reports and police and how much they're people and we're not talking about the violence within lgbt and them and that has to with the evictions and mental health. we are san

francisco and fighting for marriages for all in this country. we need to make sure that any lgbt person in san francisco -- we need a fuller law to cover bullying with sexual minorities and others and as the sheriff talk. when i was in jail for winking at a man for a funeral a year ago i learned that the jail does better than the hotels do. they allow a lot of violence and people in the closet don't come out, still don't come out. that's why they want to get naked at 72. they are finally coming out. this is april's fool day and it's the first and they can't get visitors on the first and the third and san francisco we need to rise up and make it better for everyone in the nation and as we get marriages for all. thank you for bringing this year and look forward to working

with you and making san francisco a leader in lgbt human rights. thank you. >> thank you. and john will be our final speaker. come on up. >> good afternoon. my name is john shooker. i have worked in san francisco for bottom 40 years [inaudible] as a host of a radio show. put on about a thousand shows in this town. had wonderful support, battered womens' shelters et cetera. i am invested in this town and that means no matter what else is going on in my life i love san francisco. you walk around you can't get a bad view. there are lots of smart and engaging people to be with. cut to my landlord. what he does and what happens is a tenant goes to him and says he has a problem. the

problem could be bed bugs, mice, a ceiling that leaks for years and years and the landlord plays them. he doesn't do anything. if the tenant becomes striden and what are you going to do about the issues? he screams at them and "if you don't like it move out ." this saves him time with the lawyers and erksz vision time. he harassing them so much they move. his grandson pulled a gun on someone and split and got out of the area. this goes on again and again and has been going on for years. personally my landlord has taken me to court for three years, three different times over something -- basically i haven't

done a damn thing wrong. there was a bed bug infestation. he blamed me for it. one of the things i have done is work as a club dj. i have 5500 records in my house. it was the manhattannization of vinyl. they all went up to the ceiling and of course the bed bugs come and every record is a potential condo for the bed bugs so i called the department of public health. i was addressed by lillian dice san that said i need to see the bed bugs before i do anything and gave us a sticky trap and we are 35 bugs the next time she came to pick them up. worked for the department of health and it's

now on my record. my landlord said that the bed bug infestation was coming from my apartment. meanwhile he only treated my apartment and with a non county registered treater, al's bed bugs i think the name and in six months the bugs came back. somebody better feed that thing. usually i'm good at this -- >> is somebody's cell phone ringing? we're almost done anyway. >> i have a constant i can prove i was in rock and roll bands and dj so i'm deaf. i have a total knee replacement. i had seven surgeryos my foot. my landlord knows i'm disabled and

continually takes me to court. i tried to contact media. i got a superficial write up in the bay area reporter. it was almost after overview but it didn't say anything about what this man does. this man has been doing this for years. it's about very greedy individual who is are down right social paths and he over charged me for years. this stuff is [inaudible] it blew my

mind when i realized what was being done to me and it's not just me. it's my neighborhoods and "john says the most homo homophobic things that could say ." i don't know if i could use the words but i will. he called me several names. one is true and one is not. to make a long story short he didn't do it one time or five times. he screams at me every time. this is the business plan and he raises the rent and rent it out again with the bed bugs and the lice and the mice. >> john, let me inform you if he is illegally raisinghe rent you should see the rent board and final a petition for illegal

increase and have a hearing. if he is calling you homophobic names check in with the human rights commission because they handle those situations and there are organizations that testified here today that do that. >> yes organizations are all fine. ultimately it depends who you talk to. i went to the rent board with this problem. there are a lot of rent increases i don't have because at one point charging $200 more than the market rate. when i got the apartment in 87 i was happy to find a home, and like i said i laifed in the hague for 40 years and loved it. i now tell people i live on corner of hague and resentment. it's not the summer of love. it's --

>> thank you for having me. i have the two wherein testimonies and i was going to read them into the record before they cut me off. do you have a question? >> this is very quick. i want to say one thing that is lacking is there is a lot of people being ellis act and there is no communication between those people. someone named jeremy started a website and people that were ellis act and i don't have the resources to do it myself but there is no communication between everybody being evicted. thank you. >> that's a good point. so if i could read these into the record and i guess we will adjourn. i will entertain a motion to adjourn. this is to whom it may concern "i am unable to make morning meetings. as a lgbt senior i have many housing concerns that are basically no different from other seniors

housing concerns. while i am fortunate to have a section eight housing voucher if you pay attention to the news lately you know dealing with the san francisco housing authority comes with its own problems. while i am currently housed there are thousandos the list and many lgbt seniors and less and less landlords in san francisco rent to section eight tenants. they are interested in going after the corporate dollar and the new legislation passed regarding this prohibits less than 30 day rentals as 30 days is not considered short term in san francisco. ridiculous if you ask me. hasn't stopped the conversion in my building and i am sure others. they have basically taken the units off the market for san franciscans and one worries that the landlord will not comply with hud and with no one rent to

section eight where will i go? they got rid of the rats here and over flowing bathtubs and et cetera and i am in a building that has rentals for over $2,000 in the tenderloin. how can a senior utilities afford to live here in this is not workts the price tag that the authority agreed to v it's over the payment standard. hud has raised the standard in reason 10 years but rent is going up. >> historical they're charging so much rent here. i have lived here 11 years and inundated with construction and much without permits and a electrician th