seeking case management services, but it does a good job of covering the ones that are seeking out. what's good about the roving team is that if by chance you leave one shelter and go to another, the case management is not stagnant at that one shelter. the staff person actually roams all of our shelters and provides case management to individuals as they move throughout the shelters. language services, i whispered in my staff's ear, i said, i thought we were provided the language services through hsa where it would not be a cost to our shelter providers. so, we will definitely have to check that out and report back to you. one thing that we struggle with in terms of funding is tokens.

tokens are expensive. tokens comes out of hsa's budget. so, we have a policy as to how tokens are distributed. they can be given for medical appointments. they can be given for leaving the resource center going to a shelter. they can be given for housing appointment. at one point when we looked at how much it would cost to give everyone two tokens a day, every 1,134 shelter folk times 2 -- >> tokens for? >> tokens for transportation, between doctors appointments, housing appointments, going to aa meetings, so on and so forth. it was just astronomical. we just couldn't afford to provide everyone with a token. but the rule is everyone

seeking a token should ask for a token, and we do have tokens available to clients at the shelter, but they must ask for them. or it's offered to them when they are at glide seeking a shelter and they have to go msc south or go out to the bayview. a token should be given from glide to the bayview and back. so, those are our comments on the report. we were fortunate this year in the add-back budget to get additional funds to support the shelters. a lot of our shelter providers are using it to enhance the standard of care of which the shelter monitoring committee monitors. so, if you have any questions of me, i'll try to answer them. >> supervisor breed. >> thank you.

i do have a few questions. i just want to say thank you for all of your work and trying to continuously make the shelters better for the folks who use them. and also i know -- i've actually visited shelters in the past, but more recently, not too long ago i had a chance to stop by the shelter, one of our family shelters at friendship. and there's a lot of work that needs to be done. i know we fought for support to get the improvements necessary to make that shelter -- well, at least make the location better for a lot of the families who use it. right. >> and i'm wondering how things are going and have any improvements been made? are there delays or challenges that you face in order to get

work done to make these places better for the folks that use them? >> so, the biggest challenge is if the city doesn't own the building, then you have to -- you're making improvements to a private landlord which means any improvements you make, you have to pull permits. with first friendship -- and i'll speak directly about that -- we did get additional money to make it year round. it has been just a nine-month shelter. but challenges that there are no showers there. and our challenge, our biggest challenge is once we go in there to do the work to build out a shower and an a-d-a accommodated bathroom, the permit might show us that additional work needs to be done within that facility, and

it's taken us three years to get through the challenge of building out the shelter at deloris street because as we had the money to begin the rehabilitation over there, it just opened up a whole bunch of cans. so, that's our biggest issue. >> and the other question i would have, because i know that there are some families that have been there for sometime now. >> um-hm. >> the kids are going to school in the morning and i'm just wondering is there anything that could be done to help get permanent housing for some of these families in a more timely manner? i mean, is the system not working well? i know that we struggle with even public housing and the fact that we have so many vacant units and we don't necessarily have the money to

prepare those units for families in the wait list, so on and so forth. >> right. >> i know there are challenges, but can you give me a little bit of information around what's happening to get some of these families into more permanent situations and where is the support needed? >> okay. so, first friendship is what we call our emergency shelter for families. so, it's the low threshold. so, each family utilizing first friendship, they go to connecting point, which is our entryway into family shelter and referrals to family housing through our nonprofits. so, a family is encouraged to get themselves on the wait list. the challenge that we face is that there are more families on the wait list than we have housing available. but the good thing about the

family wait list and families in our shelters is that we get preference points for public housing through the housing authority. so, as people's names rise to the top and units become available, we are able to move families in. and we do like three or four in that process. >> in some instances those families might be coming out of public housing and they might be in a situation after being evicted from public housing. >> not the ones that we work with. that could be true of some of them, but the ones that we -- that are in our shelter generally have not been in public housing before. so, but you do have folks that have been evicted out of public housing that might go right back into homelessness and appear on our wait list for shelter or for other housing.

so, what we are getting ready to do is to reduce that wait list by, let's see, 17 minus 73, i think 50 some odd families going into our very first permanent supportive housing project in the bayview called bayview hills garden. so, a lot of those families, either in shelter or in the wait list or our other access points, are making referral. so, our move-in date is october 10th. so, we're hoping to reduce the wait list. we have two other projects that are -- will be opening up june of 2014. it's 74 units at development with ecs and bridge housing at 11 82 4th street. and then january of ~ 2015 we

have broadway and sampson and we're looking at about 40 to 50 units there. so, that's a challenge that we have. what we do is every time there's a vacancy, we fill behind the vacancy in a unit. but, you know, people want to be stable so they don't want to get evicted so we work with them. so, they don't get evicted, but our vacancy rate is very low in terms of units turning over for someone on the shelter it wait list. >> thank you. >> okay. seeing no other questions, thank you very much. >> all right, thank you. >> and thank you for inviting us to visit the shelters. i was very glad [speaker not understood] and refresh my memory. >> okay, thank you. >> okay. yes. >> thank you. i also want to say thank you. you don't have to come back. i just also wanted to say thank you for taking me around a good

chunk of the afternoon to several different shelters. actually a very eye opening experience. i want to recommend the board or anyone in public service to better understand the systems to see firsthand where the flaws are and where the gaps are. and how the need is very pronounced and how we do provide a very good service. and [speaker not understood]. i just want you to know i appreciate that. thank you. >> okay. is there any public comments on this item? you have two minutes. hello. for starters, i think i wasn't even able to get a copy of the quarterly report. it wasn't at yesterday's shelter [speaker not understood] committee. and i can't find it online anywhere. so, to me that's a major problem. >> what's the problem? >> that i couldn't even find a

copy of the quarterly report online. i mean, i can't find it online. it wasn't at the shelter monitoring committee yesterday. so, what this thing says, who knows, but i'm really concerned because i do believe that we do need a major -- a revamp on just some of the policies and procedures because i think we do have some problems regarding hiring standards and then on top of that, i believe we also need to figure out how we're going to, you know, we need to really start focusing on helping people escape poverty. i mean, the thing is one should be asked, how long are people staying in these shelters. my understanding is one sheltered person has been sheltered like 20 years. there's other people that's been in the shelter 5 or three-year.

when do we empower the poor and impoverishes so they can escape poverty? [speaker not understood] you can have your own house or your own apartment. we do have -- they've also had a problem with the mass exodus. i mean, like 90% [speaker not understood]. i looked up and there was like, nope -- when i started watching the shelter monitoring committee five years ago, now there's only one person left and it's just -- has been a continuous turn over. i mean, we need a major revamp so that we can just -- the homeless are still going to these shelters and getting traumatized just like 10 years ago when i was -- when i visited these shelters. >> thank you very much. actually, a quick question, maybe somebody can answer it. for these quarterly reports, do they actually go online or where does one pick up the report?

>> [speaker not understood], [speaker not understood] director of health. i took over this last year for goals and staff which is overseeing the shelter monitor. [speaker not understood]. the other person actually takes in the grievances from walk-in clients and then also verifies whether there is credibility of those grievances. in regards to report -- i'll have to look into it. it should have been posted. it's usually posted online. we are having at least our quarterly reports backed up. one of the things we're looking at doing right now and that's going to come in in regards to offer the standard of care legislation -- the committee is examining whether -- what i'm examining is where are some of the areas we can speed up our process because on the grievance piece, too, there's

pieces which goes through the provider, goes through dph and then there is [speaker not understood]. the other piece on those numbers were beginning -- hsa shelter monitoring officers and dph. we had discussion at the last meeting about the quarterly reports being so long. it's hard to react afterwards as a management tool. so, we're looking at trying to provide a numbers page monthly so we can do things more jointly. but, again, the communication, we should be getting that together. i'll look into that. >> for next quarterly report, will you include that as part of the report to see how we're doing in terms of posting these things. yes. >> thank you very much. supervisor breed, did you have -- >> yes, i just needed to

clarification about the hearing that we're having because what is provided under the agenda item is really the overview, but not necessarily the report directly. and i guess the report is pretty lengthy is what you're saying. so, it's not possible to provide it online? >> no, it's usually posted online. one of the things that we're examining is by the time it even leaves the rules committee, the time gap is so low the period that you're examining, there is a management tool, one of the things i and, also [speaker not understood], it's hard to use a new management tool if it's like six months behind to look at a quarter. >> so, what are we trying to do in this hearing? he what's the purpose if we don't have other than a verbal presentation? >> you will have the quarterly report. i thought -- you will have it on time from now. >> okay. do you know when it will be

posted so we can make sure we notify -- >> i'll look into it, i'll get back to it. thank you very much. >> so, i closed the public comment, didn't i? okay. so, colleagues, can i have a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair? >> can i make some comments? i just wanted to just thank everyone for their commitment to making our shelters a better place and i know we have had our challenges with many shelters that have been used over the course of the year with temporary locations and may have turned into permanent locations and may not have had the necessary facilities to accommodate some of the people that we're trying to serve. i am very concerned about the

shelters that support families, which is why i visited the first friendship -- quietly visited the first friendship shelter to get a clear understanding of what's happening there. i just was really inspired by the spirit of the families using the shelter. no complaints, not upset, not frustrated, but just, you know, dealing with the situation. and it made me want to do more as supervisor to figure out exactly what we can do to make sure that we are taking care of families the best that we can in san francisco. ~ in the right sort of environments. and there are a lot of churches, there are a lot of other organizations that exist throughout our city and their doors are closed. and i do know that sometimes it is challenging to open a

shelter in a particular neighborhood because you get people who live in those areas who complain and don't want to see it happen there. but we are an urban city. we are a place of compassion, and we do need to figure out better ways to address some of these issues and not necessarily concentrating our homeless population in shelters that are concentrated in a particular area. san francisco is a big place. there are a lot of other opportunities throughout our city. and, so, i would like us to try and explore where there are more appropriate places for families to be on a temporary basis as it relates to shelters because these are -- for example, the kids at first friendship are going to school every day and there are no facilities. so, where are they taking showers?

where are they able to take care of their hygiene? the kinds of impacts that happen as a result of even being in a shelter i'm sure is already challenging enough for these young people. but to not have the ability to take care of yourself could be even more devastating. so, i want to figure out a way that we can do a better job at making sure that we are really focusing on the families, especially the children that are getting up every single morning and going to school in our city. so, thank you all so much, and i appreciate the fact that this report will always be posted in a timely manner in the near future from this point forward. thanks. >> thank you.

~ supervisor cohen. again, can i have a motion to continue this item to the call of the chair? >> so moved. >> second? motion by consensus, moved. [gavel] >> madam clerk, can we have item number 6? >> item number 6, hearing to consider appointing two members, terms ending november 23, 2014, to the shelter monitoring committee. there are two seats and three applicants. >> thank you. we will now hear from the applicants in the order they are listed on the agenda. ms. amanda reichmuth. hello, my name is amanda reichmuth. i currently work as a victim advocate with the district attorney's office. but in my background i used to work at hamilton family residences, which is the biggest family shelter, and i was there as a case manager. so, i have a lot of firsthand

experience working with folks within shelter and being familiar with the shelter monitoring committee in the capacity that they were coming to visit us and to see how we were meeting with those standards of care. for the past five years i've worked between there, also with [speaker not understood] and rosalie house which i know are not shelters covered by this, but other experiences i've had in seeing how shelters can work effectively and where there is room for improvement. also in my work, la casa de las madras, [speaker not understood] received all the referrals from residency directly from the city shelters. i also experienced working with people who come directly from the shelters and hearing how i experience [speaker not understood]. and having people on the brink of being evicted for caring for going back into that system. so, i'm very familiar with the

workings of the shelter system and i'm interested in being part of this in order to assist the shelters in maintaining the standards of care and working on making sure that those standards of care are really what we need and want for both families and single adults who are -- who are without housing in our city. and where we have set up for them to stay are those places that allow them to move forward if that's something that they're ready to do, that they have access to case management, they have access to those services. though the housing is difficult to find, but if they're working toward it that there are people to help them with that and they have a safe and clean place to stay. thank you. >> any questions? seeing none, thank you very much. >> thank you. >> next one is liz pocock.

hi again, supervisors. thank you. my name is liz pocock. i'm the director of housing development and asset management at episcopal community services. as was discussed during the shelter monitoring committee report, ecs has 5 34 of the 1100 shelter beds in the city. we're the largest shelter provider ~. and actually i don't actually work in the shelter division of ecs. i work with the asset management and housing development side. we work very closely in permanent supportive housing with clients who are coming straight from the shelters. whether they're single adults or families. i have been working in supportive and affordable housing for 14 years, 8 of them here in san francisco, and i've been at ecs for the last four years. part of my role at ecs is

working very closely with our property management and support services on our permanent supportive housing sites. we have three that we own and five that are leased through the housing first s-r-o master lease program, and they're very different. our newest problem, 134 units of permanent supportive housing for single adults, bishop health community house, is really what i like to think of as the shining example of what permanent supportive housing and housing people coming from chronic homelessness, coming from the shelters should be. a lot of the s-r-os in our master lease program are more challenging buildings. they're old. they are not owned by us as joyce kerr mentioned. and part of the -- the part of the job that i really enjoy is going into those buildings and trying to raise the bar on the

standards of the facilities and the operations to make it more efficient and make it better for the clients and the residents. and i would like to bring that to the shelter monitoring committee, although i do think that amanda seems like a very good qualified candidate as well. >> thank you. >> thank you. thank you very much. next up is tony faataui. i do not see tony. so, at this point i would like to see if there are any public comments on this. come on up.

good afternoon, supervisors. my name is cathy [speaker not understood] and i am the director of shelters for episcopal community services. and a has been mentioned previously, next door has 334 beds and sanctuary has 200 beds so we hold 5 34 ~ beds. what i'll say in the short three years that i've acted as director is that both the shelters that i manage are buildings with -- that are really -- we struggle to provide decent, clean, safe housing, but they're really buildings that weren't made for folks to live in. that being said, i would recommend liz with her background in asset management and development, that i think she would bring a focus and expertise on not only the client staff that she deals with. the same clients that need

supportive housing, but also she has a focus on building the physical plant. and i think that's something that's needed on the monitoring committee. i think that she would bring solutions to all of the various shelters that she would be doing work through and inspecting. so, i would recommend both candidates are great candidates. i would recommend liz pocock. thank you. >> thank you. these are some of my concerns. i just -- one, we have to make sure we have someone that's going to be dedicated to the shelter monitoring committee and, you know, you're given a position where it's like a full-time job. and you don't really even get paid to like travel back and forth to your inspections. so, that's one thing. but then i'm also hoping we can

find someone that understands the history of the legislation that comes from that body and basically just the history of the shelters. and i think the other problem is we're running into a problem because i think the legislation said that you're supposed to have the shelters reflect the ethnic diversity of -- the ethnic numbers of the shelter. and right now i went to the shelter monitoring committee and i didn't see any black people. the shelter -- the local homeless coordinating board appointed a black person, but i don't know if she's [speaker not understood] seating, but the boa of supervisors hasn't appointed -- i don't think they have a black person sitting on there. so, you have a 50% population of black people in the shelter system and one or no people in

the shelter monitoring committee. so, to me it's a major problem and violation of the legislation creating the shelter monitoring committee. so, those are some of my concerns. >> thank you for pointing out your concerns. >> mr. chair, i'd like to just speak to the speaker. you've come up here at least four times and spoke on different various item. you know what's really helpful is solutions. you identified problems. it's okay to be critical. certainly we're used to that. but solutions, you talk about lack of an african-american representative. so the next step in my mind is you furnishing this body or the monitoring committee with a name of qualified people. we're looking for action steps to help make things better. you were concerned about the posting of the report. that's a very valid concern. certainly supervisor breed shared that concern.

so, your level of criticism is helpful in continuing to help us better our best. but in order for us to also get better, this is a team effort. if you see something or you find a person that you think is good and solid, you should be making these recommendations. and when you find a problem it's most helpful also when you have a solution to go with it or a suggested course of action to help us bridge that gap. i think i'll say that i do have -- i do have ideas and solutions and philosophies regarding how to make the shelter systems better. but one, i just feel like this might be the first body that i've stood in front of that might have the political will or desire to implement some type of