would certainly not be with you this afternoon. i feel that places like my tree and other places, laguna honda are so necessary for people who one such as myself don't have family, can't afford someone to care for them on a personal level. and these places offer so much compassion and care and concern and those who have no one, which hiv and aids is a very lonely disease because sometimes families turn their backs on people. you can find alternate family and support and these people who provide this alternate support need to be compensated and not pushed aside. i'd like to thank you.

and consider the fact that you can cut the budgets, but you can't cut the amount of people who are being infected or that are getting sick each day, each year. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. [inaudible] and i've been at my tree, my second time. [speaker not understood] my kidney failed and i didn't know my t-cell count was so low. they brought me back to life and to care. never had care like that before. i've been on the streets for 35 years. never had nobody love me, care about me, or anything. these people showed me how to love again and how to care about myself. this is my second round, now i'm on dialysis and i have lung disease and i'm not sure how long i'll be alive.

they give me strength. they make me happy. at least i wake up every morning now smiling. and i can look in the mirror and thank god i'm alive. before i didn't care. because these people unconditional care and love me, no matter what i did, they showed me more and more love. and anyplace like my tree is [speaker not understood]. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good evening or good afternoon. my name is serita. i am speaking slow because i do have my dentures in and i'm scared they'll pop out. i've had a rough life, but i'm very happy with it. and my tree has done something for me that i didn't think was possible. i've got hepatitis c, cirrhosis

of the liver, a heart valve that is needed, and a few other things that are wrong with me. if i didn't have this place to come to, i wouldn't have been here talking right now. and i've seen a person pass away there in a way that i think everybody's entitled to pass away, and that was [speaker not understood]. this place has made possible things like that to happen. it's a good place. thank you. >> next speaker. good afternoon. my name is jeff lawrence. i'm a man living with hiv/aids for 26 years in san francisco. and any thought of any more budget cuts would not be reflective of the flagship that san francisco has been to the

world in caring for hiv/aids people. i am a resident at my tree. i got there last november. the first two weeks i can't remember at all. and with the incredible care not only physical care, but the compassionate care that i have received, i am here living to be able to talk to you today and i beg of all of you, please understand that we're talking about lives, not sidewalks, not garbage collection, but people. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon. i'm a resident of my tree. i got there five months ago very sick and ill. but in the five months that i've stayed there, my tree has offered a very compassionate

place with everything that a person would require to recover. so, i really appeal to you not to cut the budget, but make sure it is matched so they can provide the same quality of service to others who are suffering from aids and hiv. thank you. >> next speaker. sir. my name is keith verner. i started at my tree five months ago. i guess i was 87 pounds. i'm '5 11 silk. i couldn't walk. i have no wheelchair. ~

under their hospice program which means they're pretty much going to make you comfortable [speaker not understood]. and now with their care, it looks like i'm going to be eventually walking out of there on my own two legs. so, i, you know, they're major important to so many people i've seen [speaker not understood]. i don't know, you know, i wouldn't have made it a week without them. so, thank you very much. thank you, supervisors, and dr. garcia. i'm stu smith and i've been a client and volunteer with [speaker not understood] for a quarter of a century. shante saved my life and gave me purpose in life. it trained me how to [speaker not understood] on an emotional support to others with terminal illness, especially aids.

it did more than that, though. this training, i just went through the training again so i can have another client to work with. this emotional support as well as the other services introduced me to ward 86 and i've been at ward 86 for almost a quarter of a century also. i feel i feel like i'm the beneficiary of the best health care system here in san francisco. the federal government ~ whittles away with the models we've created here. i ask you to consider backfilling whatever you can, as much as you can. the services we at shante provide and the other programs here today really do save lives and really make life worthwhile living for those who don't have good lives. i please urge you to backfill as much as you can. thank you. >> next speaker. ladies and gentlemen of the

audience and supervisors, for the record my name is emil lawrence. been a resident in the city and county 44 years. i'm a taxi driver in this city without any medical benefits either. we talk about budget cuts, but i don't see any cuts in your salaries and pensions. we've got 44 unions that run this town. not one of them have retracted their pensions, medical payments, or salaries. but we have a room full of people here that need medical attention and you're calling and talking about budget cuts. cut them down. throw them out, but leave my salary and pension alone. it seems like some of these programs are managed the way the department of public works is managed. throw cement, building blocks on people's doors while you're repairing the sidewalk.

the way this sfmta is managing the taxi business, they are pure chaos in the city right now. drive your own car, run a limousine, use a mini bus. they're all good taxis now. totally out of control. you've got a medical problem in this city out of control because you don't want to cut back on your own check, paycheck that is, and that's where the cuts should start, with your salaries, pensions, et cetera. i thank you for your time. >> thank you very much. next speaker. hello, my name is stan adler. i realize there are lots of demands on the supervisors, [speaker not understood]. i'm here today to ask you to revive the project from the '90s, to place all utility lines underground and clean up our beautiful city, a city-wide program -- >> excuse me, sir, this is

actually a bielenson hearing on projected cuts to the department of public health hearing. if you're here for general public comment, that will happen after this hearing. >> oh, excuse me. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, i'm dr. [speaker not understood] and distinguished professor of [speaker not understood] university, and i want to thank you for your support. i just wanted to make a few comments, more extensive comments i sent to you in a letter. but if these cuts happened as approved, argules will be forced to close by the end of this year. so, we're an hiv prevention program for latino gay and bisexual men [speaker not understood]. we're only one of two interventions that have been published in peer review behavioral health journals a mid thousands of other journals, articles that have been written. we've gotten awards from the mayor for our services as well as other dignitaries. and the city has a surplus.

so, i'm wondering why are we being cut. the latinos will be the largest residents of california by the year 20 42. so, why are we eliminating the critical health infrastructure to latinos and future and majority voters and residents of our state? i also want to -- my other hat, we're noting that in our pipeline in terms of work force, we're seeing a reduction of 20 to 25% applicants who are interested in entering into the behavioral health field in the universities. so, where are we going to get the people to do this work? and i think part of it is that people are hearing about all these cuts and their future is being threatened. so, therefore we ask that the funding be restored and the funding originally promised to the city in writing by city official through december of

2015 be honored accordingly. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. my name is eugene gordon, jr. so, where's the revolution 17 76 to 2013? speculation market, capital currency class rank divide, capitalism, imperialism. we the people voted for it. still continuing voting for it. so, where's the revolution? >> thank you very much. next speaker. garv, my name is melinda pierson and i am currently a mental health rehabilitation specialist at a woman's place. i have had the pleasure of doing some glamorous things to

raise money for hiv prevention and care. i promise you that there is nothing glamorous about a woman coming to you a she qualifies for your program, but you have to turn her away because it's full due to lack of funding. where i work today, there are women who really, really, really need and deserve these services, but we don't have the money to give it to them. and i really, really want you guys to understand that this is a beautiful city. i'm a native san franciscan. and if we can allocate funds for fountains and other things and beautify this place, we definitely need to allocate some funds to take care of our people. and my supervisor is going to talk to you now. she's going to talk to you about budgets, but i want to talk to you about people. i just want you to understand that people need help here in this city.

it's not all about the sky rise buildings and making this place a tourist attraction. we've got to take care of who lives here and you guys need to understand that that's the real job here. thank you. >> thanks. next speaker. hi, my name is rachel howard and i'm the program coordinator representing woman's place transitional housing for women living with hiv. we have six beds currently and we're facing a cut of $13,000 which will result in the loss of two beds. so, that would mean we only will be able to serve four women with housing and this is simply not adequate to address the needs of specifically chronically homeless transgender women in san francisco. i want to specifically address that there is an ongoing problem with violence against transgender women in this city and by providing housing and support services, we are able

to reduce the risk that these women face for being attacked on the street due to homelessness, due to having to perform and live doing sex work. so, the $6,500 per year is just a little bit over $500 a month to provide housing, case management, mental health services, food, hygiene supplies, and, you know, support from peers and other staff. i think that is a small cost for serving this important population. and i also want to echo what supervisor campos said with the reduction of just a small amount of funds, the $13,000. an uninsured resident can rack up that amount in a week in ambulance rides and hospital stays. so, with the services that we're providing, we're reducing the cost of medical and psychiatric services at sf jeff. ~ general.

i implore you to restore the fund to our program and assist the women in san francisco. greetings to all of you. my name is jasmine young. on stage i'm known as lady jasmine, and you can google that. i come from a very prestigious background. however, my life has had some twists and turns, and here i am. the woman's place is there and it's here to shelter women, including transgender women. i am a transgendered woman, from alvarious backgrounds with present struggles that they face. they also have a care program which is for those who live with hiv. i am also a victim of hiv. however, i'm living with hiv. and because of the woman's place, i'm able to pursue my college education, which i am pursuinging my law degree to be

a criminal defense attorney. ~ this is a vital need to have services such as the woman's place and we need more women's places here in san francisco. it's a wonderful place to live. i'm not from here, but i love it here. out of anywhere that i've lived, including -- i love it more than where i was born. but housing is difficult here to encounter that issue. and the woman's place helps a lot of women, including trans-women to not deal with the prostitution, stealing, robbing, killing and other acts of crime to survive. the woman's place is a necessity and not an amenity. and if we -- and we need such programs as this. without it, well, the two worlds will be calamity, more and more crime. thank you for your ears and i hope that you restore and keep it not just for myself, but for others that come behind me to give us a chance to make better of ourselves as i have. thank you.

>> thank you. hello, my name is [speaker not understood], a transwoman staying at a woman's place. i kind of had something prepared to say, but i was not prepared for the looks i see on you guy's faces. it shows me the cut has already been done because you guys are not paying attention like you really don't give a dam, and these people out here do. i came to san francisco as a tourist and i caught hiv in your beautiful city. it's not the city's fault, but i notice the looks on your faces are like the tourist as faces that come and see the people on the park, the street corners, the lunatics -- i'm not going to call them lunatic, hiv people, on the street corner right across the street in the plaza. i know you guys see them and this is what you're going to be getting when you cut those cuts. so, if it's already done because the looks on your faces say you don't give a dam and

that's a scary thing because even a tourist can't kao here and find somewhere to look. if you're cutting it, i hope it's investing money into really curing something or helping the people ~ because the looks on your faces are like saying it's done. that's a sad thing. it's a really sad thing because if i'm placing my life in the decision of you people, then i'm dead. let's just speak on that part. >> thank you. next speaker. honorable board of supervisors, i am karen [speaker not understood], third district. i did my chaplain is at saint luke that was in danger of being closed and while i was there the third floor, the psychiatric ward was closed just with no word. amazing number of beds were left empty. the oppression of ahsterity, screams with outrage, venom spills into the human spirit kurd ling the soul with

anguish. the snake rise in our mind demanding justice, demanding the right of care, demanding the right to health, demanding the right to life. you can cut the budget. you cannot cut out the people. thank you. good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for taking the time to listen to us today. my name is greg lawler. i'm with project of open hand. we pro pair 500 nutritious meals and provide 400 bags of healthy groceries to our clients as they not only battle hiv, but depression and poverty, too. medical research has shown that nutritious food is one of the most powerful weapons available for fighting the effect of hiv and aids. because of cuts in federal ryan white funding there is a $7 million hole to fill the san francisco's hiv and aids services. i'm here to ask that you approve mayor lee's budget which provides 4 million to partially fill that hole.

i also urge the board of supervisors to help cover the remaining $3 million gap. money that will ensure people in our community who are living with hiv and aids get the services that they need. it is unfortunate that while the cost of food goes up, funding to feed people with hiv and aids has decreased. any cuts, the ryan white funding will result in project open end having to reduce their services which in turn means some of the project open hand's clients will go hungry. for every $2 cut in public funding, there will be one less meal for a person living with hiv and aids. as a client, i rely on these meals. five years ago when i came to project open hand i weighed only $140 pounds. today with the meals and groceries i receive proproject open hands, i gained 40 pounds my lab results improved substantially and my life improved radically. my sole income after represent and expenses, there is little or nothing left for the food. i am so grateful the project open hand provides me with the

necessary food and nutrition allowing me to maintain my health. if the ryan white funding is not restored, then i will be one of the clients that will suffer the added pain of hunger. can you imagine going for a week or two with barely anything to eat? i urge you to keep in mind that the many project open hand clients that would benefit the entire $7 million returned to the ryan white funding. thank you for listening to us today. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is eric, and i am the coordinator for [speaker not understood] and an employee of automobile [speaker not understood]. it has been around for over 15 years. little over 15 years, we've seen over 2000 men in that time. we do hiv/aids prevention for females. we do support groups. we do testing, we do counseling individual couples counseling. we also do groups for men who are [speaker not understood] and men who are second generation la [speaker not understood]. these cuts would be vital for

our organization to the state organization continue. not the cuts actually, i'm sawyer, but the cuts will devastate what we're providing. if these cuts go through -- there is potential loss of services to over 700 of our clients, and over 1500 with the other latino providers in the city such as groups for [speaker not understood] and [speaker not understood]. and over 700,000 in funds lost for hiv prevention for lgbt latino community. so, as you see, it's a huge chunk of this budget and it is going to devastate our community. so, please fund all our agency. it is vital to the health and well-being of our community. thank you. >> thank you. before the next speaker, i would like to go back to our first 3:00 p.m. special order to give dpw an opportunity to report back. this will hopefully take just a few moments.

>> thank you. howard kwan again with the department of public works. we met out with the constituents and we have taken out 11 properties that are noted on the form that was brought to your attention. and i ask that the remaining properties for assessment be voted on and approved by the board of supervisors to be placed as an assessment. >> okay, thank you. do you want to read those properties out or name into the record? >> the properties that have been stricken through this block -- >> if you can just read the location description. >> okay. 114 1 plymouth avenue. 20 50 van ness avenue.

1 001 lincoln way. 38 14 [speaker not understood] street. ~ 1932 - 1934 jefferson street. 11 20 diamond street. 1567 42nd avenue. 7 36 kansas street. 165 roosevelt way. 337 mississippi. and 23 44 15th street. >> thank you. colleagues, we have newly amended copy of the report of assessments related to our sidewalk repair and improvement program. if we could adopt that without objection. that should be the case. [gavel] >> and thank you very much for that report, unless there are any questions to dpw. let me ask are there any other members of the public that wish

to speak with regards to this hearing? seeing none, the hearing related to the report on assessment costs has been heard and filed. [gavel] >> and if we could take a roll call on item 34. madam clerk. >> supervisor mar? mar aye. supervisor tang? tang aye. supervisor wiener? wiener aye. supervisor yee? yee aye. supervisor avalos? avalos aye. supervisor breed? breed aye. supervisor campos? campos aye. supervisor chiu? chiu aye. supervisor cohen? cohen aye. supervisor farrell? farrell aye. supervisor kim? kim aye. there are 11 ayes. >> thank you. that resolution is adopted. [gavel] >> and our first 3:00 p.m. special order hearing is completed. now let's go back to our second 3:00 p.m. special order, back to the bielenson hearing. let's hear from the next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is -- >> you can draw the mic to your mouth a little bit. my name is [speaker not understood]. i have five years in the [speaker not understood] group

and there are other groups latino gay community. these groups bring for the people for me especially the [speaker not understood] alternative, bring for me know more about my life and they bring for the positive people to live in a better life. this group here for the peep to lead to education, to improve to serve, to prevention. god bless san francisco for [speaker not understood] this community. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is [speaker not understood] and i am the director of programs at the asian and pacific islander wellness center. and our agency lives in the heart of the tenderloin

neighborhood and our clients accessing our center are amongst the poorest, the most marginally housed immigrant communities and gay bisexual and transgender communities. and i am here today to ask the board of supervisors to act now to backfill the $3 million shortfall to keep our city's lean hiv/aids services whole. we're not asking for new resources, for new projects or programs, but to really keep our cost-effective model of hiv prevention and care intact for the well-being of the city of san francisco and all its residents. the wellness center looks to receive $195,000 reduction over the next two fiscal years, meaning we will serve 75 less clients who are living with hiv in the heart of the tenderloin. when making your decision, i hope you factor in the following information. according to the data from dph, the tenderloin neighborhood and

san francisco's homeless population have the highest hiv community viral loads in the city. the five-year survival rate for aids cases in the tenderloin and the homeless population is the worst in the city, below 78.7%. and the study -- a study of people living with hiv show that those who do not have a viral load under control cost 2.6 times higher more for treatment, prescription, hospitalization than those that do, and destabilizing these clients will only increase the likelihood that they will fall out of treatment. i want to share with you really quickly incredible outcomes we're achieving in the tenderloin. through our innovative program model, our clients living with hiv have achieved the highest health outcomes in the city with an over 60% [inaudible]. >> thank you very much. next speaker.

hi, my name is jason and i am a peer advocate with asian and pacific islander wellness centers health clinic serving the tenderloin area. i am also a former client of the case health clinic, formerly tenderloin health and before that continuum. i've been conchronically homeless and used drugs since i was a teenager. in 2000 i was really ill with sepsis and it was at st. luke's hospital over a year. after release i was appointed with a nurse who connected me with continuum. i was in a wheelchair and wasn't sure i would walk again, here i am today. for some people it took hitting rock bottom and that's what it took for me to stay alive. at the day program in continuum i was able to get something to eat, a safe place in the tenderloin to learn harm reduction and find people who are rooting for me and help facilitate changes i needed to make.