committee meetings and there are some programs that are not spending their total allocations. so, that's basically being lost by the continual care here. there are other applications that have just scored very low in terms of their efficacy, the number of people that they're reaching with their programs. and, so, we need to take a look at those programs, help them real toy raise their level of effectiveness. and then, you know, kind of revisit and make sure that this funding is being used appropriately by this program. i think also that it's important to reach out to the business community, the high tech boom is one of the things that's contributing to our homeless problem. i think they need to be part of the solution. so, that would be my, my initiative which would be to kind of engage on that level with the community. >> so, just a follow-up question. do you think that an application alone is an indicator of whether or not an

entity is capable of actually doing the work in serving the population or are there other factors that also contribute to that? >> well, part of the application is also rigorous set of interviews by the consulting organization that works with us through this process. so, it's not just pieces of paper. there are interviews with clients and getting feedback from the people that are getting served by the organization. there is an in-depth analysis of what is going on in the program. it's not a matter of submitting an application. it is a best appeals process. so, the organizations do have a chance to speak on their own behalf. just kind of ensuring that it is a fair process, that it's not just about who is the best handwriter that's getting the funding. >> all right, thank you. >> i'm just curious. what's the big motivation -- motivating factor for you to

want to be on this body? i believe that i'm the best candidate to serve on this board and it's my passion to make a difference to the low-income families and the homeless population in san francisco. i want to do everything that i can to make sure that we as a community and the continuum of care are being effective in serving these people and that we're really kind of addressing the problem and not just inserting stopgap solutions. so, when i switch careers, i what in the high tech sector and i decided i wanted to be doing something that's more in line with my passions and beliefs. i think this is just a natural continuation of that where i'd like to be engaged on a city-wide level and hopefully in a position where i can reach even more people with my decisions and with my passion. >> thank you.

i think that's it. thank you. >> so, the next person is deleano seymour. good afternoon, supervisors. i submitted some last minute letter recommendations from service providers in the homeless community. my name is del seymour. i presently operate the tenderloin walking tours which i've been doing for 4-1/2 to five years in the tenderloin. i had a period of homelessness in san francisco. i've been in the tenderloin 30 years all total. so, i spent 15 of those years in a homeless situation, whether it was actually having an intimate relationship with your concrete sidewalk or an s-r-o, but i did my time in the tenderloin. i learned a lot in the tenderloin.

if you're a site walker or -- i would have a doctorate. i'm very familiar with the situations of homelessness in the tenderloin and other parts of the city. [speaker not understood] spend a lot of time and effort putting sheetrock over a guy's head or person's head. you need to reach the effort of not being homeless, you need more than a sheetrock over your head, which you all do a very good job of. we almost need like a boot camp. when you've been on the streets and been homeless, you need grooming every kind of way. in hygiene, health, habits, being able to get up in the morning and go findv a job, being able to get up in the morning and actually be at a doctor's appointment. there's a lot of other things we don't do for the people, the newly housed people. we just give them sheetrock and a social worker who they see once a month. this should be a partnership between the property manager, the tenant, and the city of san francisco. it should be a partnership, a

contracted partnership that if i do this for you, you need to do this for us because just putting sheetrock has not worked in most situations. i work with a lot of service providers now. i work with st. anthony's, i work with glide, the [speaker not understood] project, and i work with a lot of merchants in the central city downtown, the theater district which is sometimes called the tenderloin. so, i would like to be able to offer my help to the city from a street smart situation and incorporate that in the board because i'm with the same goal that the board has, that is to achieve permanent housing. just giving a guy s-r-o is not housing because he's still in a situation where month to month he's got to go through a program. my goal is to provide permanent housing to the people in san francisco that are called homeless right now, and i would be proud to serve on your board. >> thank you. any questions?

okay, supervisor cohen. >> you need a residency waiver? >> yes, i do. i myself, i'm in subsidized housing with the veterans administration. so, my house on this street a year ago went up for remodeling. so, my housing, in fact, i talked to my housing officer yesterday, my san francisco rehousing officer. he could not find me another residence in san francisco and it was a time element so i'm temporarily housed in fairfield and we are working to get back to san francisco by november when my lease is up. so, the situation -- and i did not want to be housed back in the tenderloin because i have demons from 15 years ago. ~ i want to avoid. i need to put space between my recovery and my sobriety. so, i did not want to seek a place right in the tenderloin because of my past. i've been clean 15 years. so, i don't want to play with that. so, i will be back housed in san francisco by november. as i say, i spoke to my va

housing officer yesterday so i would request housing. i got 30 years here. i attend here church here every sunday, i'm here six days a week. i go out there to sleep. >> thank you. i'm not trying to be [speaker not understood], but i go there to sleep. in fact, i saw him the other day. he's a neighbor. [laughter] >> okay. >> mr. seymour? yes, sir. >> what would be some of the things you would like to accomplish if you were selected to be on this body? i would like to accomplish getting a pact between the city and some of these landlords. first of all, i would like to increase the lot -- you know we have -- all-new housing has to have a certain amount established for low-income housing. i would like to raise that bar because, you know, we need more space. we got programs. we got funds where we can put housing, but we don't have the space. so, a lot of landlords are reluctant, of course, to rent to low-income people. maybe we need some kind of, some kind of -- you've got to

give something to get it. maybe we need some incentive for landlords to allow some of our low-income residents to occupy some of their space because there really is space. but, you know, when you can rent to market rate -- market rate, and even if you subsidize it, you make that apartment market rate for a low-income person, but you don't have the same quality oracle beerv of a person, so, we need to maybe improve, do a pr program for the property managers that we do have, have market rate type people that we can move into that. ~ believe me, behind the lines that is their reluctance to redthctionv. they don't get the same amount of money whether they go market rate or subsidize. they feel they will not get the same quality of person. so, that's the educational thing the city might be able to run a program to try to do a pr battle to try to get the landlords' mind a little differently. we got the people, we got the space. >> i know you've been around

this issue for many years. i'm just wondering from your perspective, what are some of the successful programs you have seen the city implement in terms of homeless prevention? oh,gavin newsom's program. first of all, the hot team. number one, homeless connect. those are outstanding. i was housed with homeless connect. i went to homeless connect 6:00 in the morning, 8 o'clock i had a key to the place. right across the street, bill graham. when they gave me the key i fell to the ground in tears. they gave me a key in two hours. i stayed there 18 months. the hot team paid for every penny of it. i was able to get everything else together. like, you know, you need a lot. when you're homeless and you get a place, you need a lot, man. you need to know how to wake up. the first month i didn't sleep

in the bed because i was so used to sleeping on the sidewalk. i never slept in the bed for the first month. i was just so used to curling up on your wonderful concrete. so, you know, it's a lot of things that come with it. and, so, that's one way. to answer your question, those are the two most successful programs. i have leapt in every one of your shelters. >> any other questions? >> i have a question. yes, ma'am. >> i wanted to get your ideas and your thoughts around a proposal that is being considered of opening or establishing a shelter in the bayview community. do you have any thoughts on that? ma'am, what they need there is [speaker not understood] i slept in mother bound and providence, both shelters in the bayview. people won't say -- moatv of our people walk through the tenderloin thinking this is the homeless center of the city. it's not. bayview has as many homeless -- they're real homeless, homeless in the bayview.

they sleep in tents, they sleep in campers. of course there is a need for that in bayview. again, like everyone else, whether it's in and out, [speaker not understood] not in my backyard. people in bayview have had the attitude not in my backyard. but mother bound needs help because she's full every night. provident is full, i slept there every night in the cafeteria. most certainly. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. gary lewis, are you here? good afternoon, supervisors. my name is gary lewis and i'm here applying for the vacancy on the homeless planning board. i have been working in and around the tenderloin with low-income individuals and those at risk with homelessness five years now, plus two years a the executive director of the general a assistance [speaker not understood] a daily drop-in

service in the tenderloin. we offer a wide range of services, significant focus is on helping people with income issues, particularly around benefits, although we take a very holistic approach to the issues. we understand that no issue comes to us in a vacuum. there are many, many tangential concerns that need to be resolved. so, we try to approach each individual with the idea that we -- there's a whole range of things that we can work on that may help alleviate the immediate problem. prior to my time at general assistance project, i was with [speaker not understood] hastings three years in the tenderloin. i spent a lot of my time there working on projects in and around the neighborhood. i helped run a clinic out of msc south. we developed a program that enabled people to resolve out of county warrants which was blocking them from getting their federal disability benefits. i also work in support of local community organizationses and individuals, they are engaging with california pacific medical

center on proposed dba that the board of supervisors and the mayor eventually were able to resolve. i also did some work, legislative work not in the san francisco county area, but out in merced working with low-income tenants on housing issues. my five years has been focused mainly on housing benefits issues, but i do have a general overview of a lot of problems that face the community. i also teach a class on homelessness to the local [speaker not understood] at the school. i'm strongly interested in being a part of this board because i believe that while the local ngos that a really important role to play in trying to relieve some of these problems and necessity means we're very focused on specific areas. the city and county and local government has both a mandate and ability to look at the wider problems and try to create an environment where we can get some things done. i would like to bring some of

my views and experience into the effort of trying to help the city come up with ways of addressing the problem. i think we see from the most recent homeless count reports we've kind of stagnated in our efforts a little bit. we're the people the number of people homeless is consistent the last few years. cycling in and out of housing. when we do find housing, there is strong motivation and understanding we're not getting something quite right and i would like to be able to get involved in trying to figure out what that is. i think i come to you with a strong problem solving background before law school, before doing the work i do now. i was working in science. i spent my entire professional career trying to solve issues. the last five years have been focused almost entirely trying to look at some of these issues around homelessness. i'd be honored to have the opportunity to work with the city on this. >> okay, thank you. supervisor cohen. >> thank you. mr. lewis, you said you teach a class on homelessness? i do. >> where? hastings high school.

>> where is this -- [speaker not understood], it's essentially a survey of a lot of issues that are involved in homelessness both in terms of like legal barriers that people face, but also some of the behavioral health issues. we look at things like mental health, looking at the system that's in place for that. we look at housing and supportive housing. we look at the benefits programs that exist and we look at just some of the wider issues, drug abuse, that kind of stuff. >> thank you. and how long have you been around the tenderloin housing since this program? >> i've been at gap for -- i just ended my third year. >> what did you do prior to that? >> law school. i was in law school in 2008. prior to that i was working at a biotech firm as a chemist. i took on the role at gap immediately upon finishing the bar in 2011. >> thank you. >> supervisor breed? >> are you an attorney? i am inactive.

i passed the bar but ultimately chose not to become active. my role at gap -- i have a split role where i'm working with clients and also running the organization, fund-raising, that kind of thing. we do administrative level stuff, alj type hearings that don't require [speaker not understood]. for various reasons i chose not to activate. >> so, what was -- was your focus in law school centered around homelessness or any issues related to this that you know when you were in law school you specifically wanted to do work in this field? absolutely. my first year of law school, after a come weeks of arriving i started to volunteer at the clinic msc south, shelter on fifth. i stayed in that organization a couple years and helped develop that program. my internships were all specifically related to work around housing and issues

affecting the tenderloin. so, i spent sometime working on eviction defense type work. >> eviction defense for just general -- low-income, [speaker not understood]. >> how successful were you keeping people in their places? pretty well. some difficult situations -- some difficult cases where, you know, a lot of -- that specialty is clients with no health issues. so, a lot of it is related to behavior as opposed to, say, nonpayment of rent. so, it's a lot of what we would do would be kind of looking at, okay, what's the root cause of the problem here. not just this person acted in a way that upset somebody else within the building or upset the manager. but, he okay, what is the underlying issue. if we can address that, can we affect behavior in the future so this person doesn't actually create problems going forward? ~ you know, it takes a lot more effort to take that approach, but the overall results are far

greater. you get a lot less longer term recidivism people coming back through the eviction system. if you can find the underlying issue rather than just trying to block an eviction and saying, no, [speaker not understood]. understanding there may have been a genuine issue. >> and have you ever been homeless before? i have not, no. >> thank you. >> since you've never been homeless yet work with people, how are you planning to incorporate feedback and concerns from the homeless people themselves into your decision making? i meant gap is dropping topic in the tenderloin and i haven't had a lot of contact with people in the community member. my feedback is the same as running my organization. everything needs to happen for a purpose. we don't just do things because

we think it might be a good idea. we want to know it's working so we talk to our clients on a regular basis. we often run surveys that, you know, are anonymous surveys so that client clients can give us feedback, what things they think can be changed, where we see issues we do try to resolve them. a lot of the last couple years has been really attempting to sharpen up what we do so we're actually providing the services that are going to be useful to the community wrathver than just providing the services we think might be useful to the community. ~ rather than >> thank you. any further questions? is there any public comments on this item? please indicate your support on a particular appointment. i'd like to put in my 2 cents for del seymour. i think he's very knowledgeable. he's passionate. and he understands the people here. i'd like to put -- >> and your name also?

excuse me, sir, sir? alan? thank you, alan. thank you. hello, supervisors. my name is susanne [speaker not understood]. i'm the managing director of the cutting ball feeder which is located at 141 taylor street. i'm also on the board of the north of market tenderloin community benefit district and i'd like to offer my support for the candidacy of deleano seymour. [speaker not understood] and i've also taken it several times so i've been able to experience both the many connections that he has with the many organizations in our community and the effectiveness of the ways in which he's communicated both with nonprofit organizations and also local businesses. del has done an incredible job of bringing groups from twitter and yammer and san dusk. so, north of market or central market, large high tech businesses into our office and

into many of these organizations around the community. i think he is incredibly capable of working across many different groups. so, he is able on his tour both to say hello and meet the people on the street one on one but he's also able to connect with those of us in business and nonprofit community in a way he understands what our concerns are. so, thank you for your consideration of his candidacy. >> thank you. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is martha ryan and i'm the founder and executive director of the homeless prenatal program. and i'm here to throw my hat into the ring for dan bowersox. what dan didn't tell you was when he left the tech industry, he actually volunteered the homeless prenatal program for about six months. he did an exquisite job there and we've been lucky to have him the last 2-1/2 years. and of the thousand families that he's housed over the last 2-1/2 years, more than 96% of

them are still housed. he's an incredible listener. he cares about the people that he serves. and he is not a person that acts, but reacts, he acts. he gathers all the information he needs. he's bright. he's thorough. he cares. he has what you want for someone to sit on this -- in this seat. and i have written a letter of support which i will pass on to you here and good luck in your decision. good afternoon, rules committee. ♪ if i were a city carpenter and i was homeless would you save me and i thank you very much for all the help you gave me save my homelessness through loneliness save my homelessness through sorrow will you give me guidance now

help me through tomorrow so, make a good appointment today doesn't anybody stay in one place any more it would be so kind to see more keys at more homeless doors and i sure hope this city road don't hope to lose me and we need some more help so please get it now we bring it now appointments today hey, hey, hey bring good appointments today he's a hard act to follow.

supervisor, hi, amanda from the mayor's office of hope. i did want to take a chance to thank everybody who came forward to apply. it's exciting to see such qualified applicants for this body and take a moment to thank the staff at hso, megan owens and the whole team at housing and homelessness. the local coordinating board is really an essential body in our city. we work with them extensively and the membership is really important to us. i think their committee structure is functioning at a really high level right now and it's informing a lot of high level policy discussions we're having into entry into the system and strategic planning, thinking ahead. so, i just thank you in advance for your decision. it's not an easy one with the quail if i had applicants and thanks to all my colleagues at hsa for making it an exceptional body right now. thank you. ~ qualified >> thank you. i'm charles sommer. i want to put in a word for

deleano seymour. i know him a someone who came into the dining room to eat. as he grew from homelessness, he brings his tours to the dining room and has shown a great lovely for st. anthony's. i believe deleano can provide a [speaker not understood]. >> thank you. ~ hello. so, my name is henry [speaker not understood]. i came from france five months ago to do a documentary about homelessness in the tenderloin. and when i was trying to understand how -- what are the issues with homelessness in the city, i was asking people who, who i can talk to to give me all the best, the best information and all the best advices to work on this

project. when i asked people, everybody was telling me you should go see dell seymour. since i've known, del helps me do this movie, he knows what he's talking about. he's got all the knowledge and the experience, and you want somebody with good advice to help san francisco improve the life of homeless people and low-income people, you should choose del. >> thanks. >> thank you. seeing no more public comments -- come on up, then.

i believe i'm connected. if you can show with the laptop. right there what i'm showing you is basically the bylaws. for me, it implies that the local homeless coordinating board should be the most creative and innovative body to help end homelessness in our city. and at this point i really feel that [speaker not understood] local homeless coordinating board has turned its back on the homeless. i feel their primary goal at this point is more to just get funding for the shelters and whatever programs. with that said, on top of it,

they just lost two sunshine ordinance hearings regarding -- really basically regarding treating homeless activists with dignity and respect. so, i mean, the local homeless coordinating board has some major problems. so, part of my thing is i'm looking for someone with enough dream and vision besides getting funding for these programs, you know, something to help homeless spiritually and intellectly and then like the housing. and we have a problem where if you take -- if you look at a person that's in the city for 10 years, they keep siege ~ cycling in and out. that's a problem. we need someone who understands policy and procedure of these bodies. then we have a problem with attendance of the local

homeless coordinating board because the attendance of the local homeless coordinating board has been very shaky. i fear some of them are really on the edge of being disqualified for being members because their attendance is so shaky. i just want to say we need a dream and a vision to help the homeless he escape poverty. i just really see that there are -- we should be coming up, that should be the body that is, you know, trying to help people live better, do better. create their own businesses, buy their own housing. >> thank you very much. were you up here to support any particular candidate? i do like the black guy, but i do wonder if he's strong enough to break past the

stagnation of this body. >> thank you very much. any other public comments? seeing none, public comment is now closed. [gavel] >> okay, colleagues. >> i have a question. >> sure. >> i wanted to know if there is anyone from the local homeless coordinating board here. hi. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i want to be clear i'm not an appointed member of the board, i'm a staff to the board. my name is megan -- >> perfect, megan, you're the person i'm looking for. can you tell me how many people serve on this body? >> nine. >> nine people total. today we have an opportunity to appoint one person to three vacancies? >> there is one currently. >> correct. can you describe to me the current composition of this nine-member body.