>> good morning, everyone. welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors budget and finance committee meeting for wednesday, february 5th, 2014. my name is supervisor mark farrell, i will be chairing this committee. i am joined by supervisor and committee vice-chair eric mar as well as supervisor john avalos. want to thank the members of sfgov-tv covering this meeting, charles kremenak and jennifer low as well as the clerk of the committee, ms. linda wong. madam clerk do we have any announcements? >> yes, mr. chair. please make sure to silence all phones and electronic gao vices. completed speaker cards and copies of documents to be included as part of the file should be submitted to the clerk. items acted upon today will appear on the february 11, 2014 board of supervisors agenda unless otherwise stated. >> thank you. so, for those of you in the audience, we have about four regular agenda items as well as two hearings taking place.

so, madam clerk, if we'll start the first one, if you could call item number 1. >> item number 1 is the hearing to discuss and evaluate san francisco's 10-year plan to abolish chronic homelessness, which is due to sunset at the end of 2014. >> thank you. so, colleagues, our first item today is a hearing i called for a few months ago to discuss our city's ten-year plan to abolish chronic homelessness here in san francisco, a plan which is set to sunset this year in june. leading up to today's hearing my staff and i spent significant amounts of time meeting with city, nonprofit and community leaders as well as outside organizations who tackle homelessness issues in other jurisdictions to find out what's been moving the needle on homelessness and what is not. we have accomplished a lot in the last 10 years, but despite our successes, the facts are that our homeless population count in san francisco has remained flat for the last 10 years and i do believe the new ideas and policies beyond and including those that have been previously i am meved are needed if we're going to move forward and get serious about providing tangible solutions to reduce homelessness here in our sdi.

one conclusion is indisputable. there is no silver bullet to ending homelessness here in san francisco. tackling the issue is going to take vigilant attention across all disciplines to make a real impact and difference in people's lives. met me clear up front. homelessness is above all else a human issue. these are fellow human beings on our streets in san francisco. they're mothers, sons and daughters and many families and that should be our focus. there is also a public safety and civic pride issue and something i believe deserves our full attention. today's hearing will help kick start a much needed dialogue and renowctiontion us on one of our city's most persistent problems over time. in terms of the ten-year plan, in 2004 then mayor newsom established planning council that brought together individuals from a number of different backgrounds to produce this ten-year plan to abolish chronic homelessness. the central goal is to create 3,000 new units of supportive housing over ten years to house the chronically home sexless move the city successfully to a

housing first policy towards homelessness. the addition of over 3,000 permanent supportive housing units in fiscal 2004-2005 result in successful implementation of this housing first policy. there were successes stemming from the ten-year plan that deserve to be applauded but also areas we've fallen short and need to be revisited and reevaluated. or today's hearing i've asked homeless stakeholders to come together to discuss this plan, give a broad overview of their services and responsibilities, and discuss solutions that they see towards reducing and ending homelessness here in our city. in terms of speakers, we're going to have bevan dufty, former district 8 supervisor and the director of the mayor's office of housinging opportunity partnerships and engagement or hope. we'll provide a general overview of the general housing plan while touching on goals and recommendation of the plan to see ho the city has faired since. we'll also ask bevan to talk about trends in his office's budget and areas where he sees successes over time.

going to also have trent rohr human services agency who is integrally involved in the initial ten-year plan to also provide a perspective on success he and failures and present responsibilities to providing homelessness services here in san francisco and touching on trends in his budgets over time and ideas for the future. there is a team from applied survey research that helps hsa combine the homeless count and survey to provide an overview of the methodology they use to print the current data we have regarding the city's homeless population from the latest hsa survey and comparison of other populations's homelessness and trends. barbara garcia, department of public health, will present on dph's responsibilities in this area which are extremely large in this area, touching on trends in their budget over time and in the future. i do want to thank barbara in advance for all of the hard work on this issue. she has been terrific to work with.

and also jennifer freed balk director of co-lick on homeless in to provide an overview of the services that her nonprofit provides, discuss the successes and pitfalls, and her vision for how we can make tangible progress on this issue moving forward. ultimately, i do believe that would focus attention we can make a significant dent in the number of homelessness on our streets. it's a complicated issue. it is a costly issue, but i believe it's a challenge our city government should focus on and embrace. as a city we have to help those who are currently on our city streets with no roofs over their heads. today is the first hearing regarding the discussion of this issue and the coming months. although we may agree on some issues and disagree on others, i hope everyone will agree on the importance of the issue and turn a deplorable situation in our city to one of hope and promise. so, with that, would like to invite bevan dufty up to the podium to speak. thank you, bevan. >> good morning, everyone. it is great to be here.

let me first start off and acknowledge my colleagues in the hope office. so, amanda freed is here who is our policy director, and then dee sheck snyder who works with people who come in the office and also christine keener. i also want to acknowledge the individuals responsible for draft thing plan 10 years ago. so, first off would be angela alioto and mayor newsom at the time. angela brought a tremendous amount of passion. if you look at the group of individuals that came together, it was a very difficult verse group of people that were involved in developing the first ten-year plan and i think it really is instructive to look at it and see where have we been successful, where maybe have some of our needs and objectives changed, and what can we do to rededicate ourselves as a city to achieve these goals. i think it's great that we brought here with us today the consultants that work on the homeless count because initially when the numbers came

out in 2013, it was, you know, it was hard because the number had only reduced by 19 people from 2011 to 2013. since that time we've seen cities such as los angeles and new york grapple with major increases. new york is at a six-time -- six-year high for homelessness. los angeles has had a 16% increase in its homeless population and, so, we've seen that other municipalities have really struggled because of the lingering effects of the economic recession, and that perhaps even gaining ground by 19 people is good in comparison to some jurisdictions. and also in looking at these numbers, recognizing that when you say 6,4 36, it is a bit of an overwhelming number. but when you consider that 3,400 are individuals who are homeless on the streets of san francisco, 1145 individuals are in shelter, other individuals are in treatment, in jails, if you start to look at the

progress that we've made with veterans, because of the president's commitment tonding veterans homelessness that we've seen just in the past two years a 30% reduction among homeless veterans from having been 17% of our homeless population, now down to 11%. and recognizing to work towards our goal that we can achieve an end to veterans homelessness by 2015. we're talking probably around another 700 veterans being housed. and i think that that makes it more attainable. when you recognize for the first year we did a youth count this year that identified 905 homeless young people in san francisco between the ages of 16 and 24. and when we look at that number and say, well, this is one of the reasons why the board and the mayor supported 3 74 5th street, that's going to provide 40 unit of housing, this is why booker t. washington and larkin street's -- edward ii are very important projects coming forward.

then you begin to pull these numbers apart and recognize what's possible to be done. i want to say that the local homeless coordinating board has been an incredible partner in this effort over the past ten years, having been sort of a watchdog consistently looking at our mc kinney applications for federal funding, policy committees, and i know some of the local board members are here. i certainly am one that would feel like a larger overarching role for the local homeless coordinating board may be a good thing. it really rests within our very important human services agency department, but it's [affectedeffected]} by work that is done by the health department and other city departments. and i think that there is some, some reason why having something more akin to what the u.s. inter agency council on homelessness is could be good as we go forward to the next ten years and to seeing what we can accomplish in achieving it. i definitely want to acknowledge our departments and the members of our city departments that work in

homelessness, everything from street outreach to processing people for ga, to providing care for people at the tom wood el clinic, intensive case management and our support cases at supportive housing. we are blessed with an incredible group of dedicated individuals that provide this work and led by barbara garcia and trent rohr and certainly trent's experience of having worked through the evolution of care not cash, having worked through the ten-year plan for chronic homelessness, i'm interested in hearing what his testimony s. when we consistently meet with our department heads and interact around ideas that we hope to implement and changes that we want to d. and i recognize that the job that i have has existed in mayor's office's for 30 years and everyone that's ever had my job has made their colleagues in city government pained and suffered. [speaker not understood], this crisis at the moment and trying to respond to an issue which really is in the forefroth of

public's mind. i do agree with the chairman of this committee, and i think this is such a great committee to work with. and i really know that we're going to go forward and have other hearings. we need to have a hearing around veterans. i know that's been a particular concern for supervisor farrell and we need to look at what has worked and how do we make that applicable to other communities that are struggling with chronic homelessness. and i think that we need to have hearings about the criminal justice system. you're going to see that many of the recommendations in the ten-year plan were about linkages for people coming out of the justice system. i think jennifer and the coalition has done a great job reminding us as a city too often we look to law enforcement, we look to racking up citations on individuals that in and of themselves become barriers to people exiting the streets and being successful and independent. and i think that that is a struggle that we have for people that want to live in safe and clean neighborhoods and i respect that and i think every neighborhood should have that opportunity. but i think we as a city have to recognize that continuing to

cite people is not citing people is not giving them an exit for homelessness. i've shared with you an outline of the ten-year plan. and if we could talk for a moment and go through some of the recommendations and talk about where we are. barbara's tent and trent's testimony will elaborate on that, but i think it gives us a framework. so, obviously the largest recommendation was around 3,000 units of permanent supportive housing. as we've looked at the pipeline and what's been developed by the end of this fiscal year will be at about 2800. so, we'll be very close to achieving that goal with about 200 units remaining. we have been very successful in building the portfolio to the direct access to housing programs and new buildings that have been brought online on the losp program that hsa has been involved with. so, i think in large, we have achieved that goal. i think going forward, there are relatively small number of units pending in the pipeline. i think out of about 9,000,

more than 9,000 units within the mayor's office of housing, there are less than 500 that are dedicated towards the homeless population. and it is very complex to deal with the issues of affordability in san francisco and the need for affordable housing at very different levels. but i definitely do think that these hearings could lead to some consensus between hopefully the mayor's administration and the board about some additional housing investments. i mean, you saw the stories about utah going out and the state of utah renting 2000 apartments and directing people into those apartments without prequalifying them, without jumping many of the hurdles that exist in traditional housing programs. and i think that's something we have to consider if we want to do something dramatic. as someone who had been a supervisor and served during many of the lean years, it would be impossible to think about making that type of investment and bringing down the number of people on the street. i think this is a year we can consider it and look at what exists. so, yes. >> just one question. as we go

through these, and i think this is something we'll be talking about today and going forward with the statistics. i think one of the successes seems we have built the amount of permanence of housing units that were called for in the ten-year plan which is pretty amazing. >> yes, incredible. >> at the same point in time, though, the homeless population has stayed flat. >> if you look at the numbers it's 2000. according to the homeless count there's 2000 in the chronic homeless. it puts us in top 10 in the country and it was 3,000 at the time this report was done. and i think trent can elaborate on some of these numbers, but i'd say we've come down about a third in terms of those numbers with the investments we've made. >> in terms of chronickness, but the homeless count on our streetses a you stated earlier, stayed flat the last 10 years. how do you think about that or how should we think about that as a city where we have built more housing and housed people, thank goodness, but the numbers have stayed flat?

are there more additional reasons? people are homeless at this stage and numbers haven't doctionv down even though we've added people into our housing? >> well, i think again, given the city's fiscal situation, the fact that we've been able to achieve this level of new permanent supportive housing is laudable and i think amazing. i think it's unquestionable that 3,400 people being on the street tell us that we need more. the most dramatic change you've seen in the homeless count was around the implementation of care not cash and the beginning of the commitment to being a housing first city. so, you saw i think about a 2,500 reduction over a two to three-year period. and i do think we have to think dramatically about it. i don't know that there is a policy change that is going to have the magnitude of effect that care not cash and housing first have had for san francisco. i think that there are many things that we can do that are important. for example, housing ladder. one of the things has been that some people have been resistant

to move into, let's say a master leased s-r-o on sixth street because they felt that's where they may be for the rest of their lives. so, their tendency has been to hold back. it's complicated things. i think we've really come in the past few months to understand that an individual entering our housing system as homeless should have the opportunity to move into other housing opportunities. public housing is an important aspect of this. below market rate housing. other affordable housing that i don't think that we viewed housing from a ladder approach that people had the opportunity to move up into different types of housing which in and of itself creates more openings for people. and i think that that's really -- it's an important concept. i think it's really important that people not feel that they're stuck. none of us who necessarily want to move one place and live there for the remainder of our lives. also, one of the things the ten-year plan calls for and i think is best practices nationally, is to really do a

coordinated assessment. are we really having people chase where there are vacancies more or are we understanding what that person's needs are to be successful? that is something that the health department is -- we're going to be piloting that and really understanding what are mr. jones' needs to be successful? it's not just that there's an open unit at this building. if the building doesn't have services in it and he's a hoarder, is he he going to be successful or is he going to be among the 5% of the people who are in support of public housing who get evicted? who in this equation, we're paying for the supportive housing. we're paying for the attorney that's evicting somebody. we're paying for the attorney that's fighting the eviction and ultimately paying for the services is going to need that winds up on the street. and i think that's a conversation we are having. and i think the eviction defense collaborative and other partners who are working with us have very strong feelings that we've got to get our

providers to work with us and give us advance notice before people are being evicted for financial reasons or hoarding issues, when those are things we believe that the health department and i know that barbara and her team are looking at having some roving inter disciplinary intervention teams that can go and address those issues. >> sorry. supervisor mar? >> yeah, i know you're going to get to -- supervisor dufty, you're going to get to your lift. i want to thank you for always being so responsive to our office on different issues. i know that in the past ten years there's been -- always a political question, a climate of scapegoatling homeless people whether it's care not cash or [speaker not understood] and politics, pushing them out of the city instead of more of a approach to support people and provide that ladder of housing, supportive housing, dealing with mental health issues, but also transitional aged youth as

you mentioned, and lastly, drug abuse and drug treatment programs. but i'm just wondering have we moved beyond the politics of scapegoating and how under your leadership are we changing that in our city? >> i think this is a unique time in city government. i've worked in city government for 20 years now, and i don't find the polarization within the decision-makers, the elected officials that lead our city. i know that there are differences, but they just -- i don't think that people walk into this building trying to figure out how to blunt somebody else's agenda, and i did feel that way for better on for worse on some issues. so, i'm open to any criticism and i'm open to anyone saying we're not succeeding because that person is saying they care and they want to see things done differently. and, so, i never mind -- i do ask people to think about homelessness like a fourth grader would. all of you are parents and i think when you see children

look at the issue of homelessness, and i see it through my seven-year old all the time. i see how she looks at people, when we interact, which stop to talk to people, when i give them a card to say call me, come see me. but i think for a hie they look at homesness and say, people need homes. it's really very simple. at one stage of my life i thought that was naive. i think when you get down to the policy level, that's what people need, they need homes because we're spending a lot of money no one comes up here, we shouldn't spend x amount of dollars on police services, x amount of dollars for the sheriff's department to move people's things out of their homes, x amount of dollars for street cleaning. no one ever comes and says we shouldn't spend that money, but people say this jurisdiction is a magnet for people who need services. i'm grateful the people who did the homeless count here because we can let some air out of this

big room. let's look at alameda county, santa clara county, san mateo county. yes, some of them will have more success than us, but if you look at the base being parameters of the numbers, the truth of the matter is, yes, people oftentimes come to urban areas for opportunity. sometimes those opportunities don't pan out, whether it's living with a brother-in-law, whether it's a job you come for and people wind up being homeless. and i think the numbers are fairly consistent, 40% of the people in our case, 39% of the people who are homeless have come here for an opportunity and wound up homeless in san francisco. and i think if we can be honest about it, i think it does sort of repurpose us to focus more on housing people and recognizing that ultimately the city is going to save money in having people barbara's clinics and to participate in affordable care that trent is signing people up for than it is for people to be in the emergency room.

we are hemorrhaging money absolutely the wrong way. so, i'll try and move quickly through some of these recommendations. one of the recommendations is really about phasing down shelters and transitional housing, transitional housing as you know is really at the federal level, become a tool i think people recognize why how somebody temporarily to rehouse them it is so traumatic for families to be homeless. so, rapid rehousing is what the city is doing and it's really the best standard. there were 1900 plus shelter beds, 1903 when this report was done, we're at 1145. i don't know if we see phasing out of shelters. i think there is some discussion that we're having about the medical needs of people in shelters. so, that's a very important element of it. we are looking at long-term shelter stairs and how to get those individuals to move successfully to housing. we're opening up a lgbt shelter which i think is very important because many transgendered

individuals and lgbt individuals have been reluctant to access shelters because of being fearful. so, i definitely feel the city has become housing first. we always have to rededicate ourselves because there are time we do put barriers to people for getting help if they qualify. i think we're substantially toward that goal and understanding where shelters fit in. the recommendation number 3, and this will be on our website and i think some more copies are coming up. the treatment program should be linked closely to housing placement. move funding away from services that are not linked to housing. and i think we have done that. i know barbara will talk about some of these issues. the next is about requiring city housing funding providers, notify an agency before initiating eviction proceedings. i think in the context of all the eviction attention received perhaps this is something to have a hearing on to really look at evictions from supportive housing.

since we are funding that housing, we should have more control than we have in the environment of ellis acts and [speaker not understood]. the next is public housing. this is an area where two years ago we would have come before you and said, gee, we're just getting start. ~ started. i think the past year the mayor and the mayor's administration have been dedicate today reimagine what public housing can be like of. again, public housing in cities that are more successful at responding to homelessness is a major tool particularly in ending family homelessness. so, it's very important, the housing authority has been working hard to pull up their lists that they've had, new practices. our nonprofit is going to be involved in, you know, managing senior and disabled properties. the housing authority commission, the level of city expertise, the phil arnolds, the joaquin torreses, the people who have gone on that

commission it's changed the environment and i hope the housing authority will be a major tool going forward which we have not had in the past ten years. >> supervisor avalos? >> thank you. has there ever been any discussion about ways that we could expand section 8? there's actually i know money from the federal government, but actually having some kind of match from the local level that could expand section 8. we can't build ourselves out as quickly as we'd like to, but services under the rubric of public housing, section 8 could be a tool we might be able to apply here. yeah, i think on the section 8 programs -- trent will touch on that. ~ >> one of the great things about losp we're able to assist undocumented families. that is one of the challenges of section 8, undocumented family can't participate in that problem. so, i think that is a difficult it. one of the big things about section 8 is you're as

successful as your landlords are happy. i guess by that i mean there have been some paperwork and bureaucratic issues around processing section 8. so, when we got started in the home to heroes campaign a year and a half ago, it was taking the vast voucher is a section 8 for veterans. so, it was taking 283 days from the times a veteran intaked it will they moved into their partv. its was taking the housing authority to go in and inspect the unit. i'm a veteran with a voucher. you looked at me a little ragtag. your dad was in the military. you're willing to rent the apartment to me at $100 less than what you would get in the marketplace. now i tell you i can't move in till the housing authority inspects. i think that's what the deal breaker had been on many occasions. why are you going to lose two months' rent for that occasion?

the hsa, housing authority, hud, hope, other departments working together we were able to get inspections done between 24 and 24 a hours. sometimes section 8 holders are challenging a tenants, i don't think we've wrapped enough into supporting those families. as a result i think the number of landlords that have participated in the section 8 program has shrunk rather than expanded. we have about 10,000 vouchers, i would want to say. and one of the other things we did with the vouch program, there was a 20% cap on project basing. project basing means attaching the voucher to the living unit versus the individual having their own voucher. and i'm a believer and i think many people in the city are believer and more project basing because you're not going on the roller coaster of people having to go out, find a landlord, find the property, have all these rents changing.

instead, you're basically holding onto this unit. but i think that that's -- you know, that is something. we got the cap lifted on project basing for vash. we're able to move on, a veteran moves on, passes away, we're able to access it. section 8, there has been a lot of work bill the housing authority. they're looking at how to be customer friendly with the property owner. i met with the association of realtors, association of apartment owners. people have tough problems that has made them reticent and i think that's something we have to work on a great deal. the next -- on the next page, looking at permanent sub important i have housing and all-new a forwardable housing developments, i do think that that's something we should talk about in term of the pipeline

because again there are not that many ssi advocacy. barbara is going to be able to talk about some of the incredible things that happen at dsh and qualify for ssi. when i came into this i saw more people getting on ssi which is disability assistance as being an important step. but i have to say because of care not cash, those individuals on g8 are on a defined housing path. oftentimes people on ssi are not. it can be challenging and there are people that are lost and i think wind up being homeless and not having, you know, the success in securing housing that they might be able to otherwise. and i think as we look at long term shelter stayers, it's going to help us identify those individuals. also in the area of ssi advocacy, there are many advocates that are looking at the possibility for structured employment for people who are

on ssi who might be able to work to supplement their income, might make them more successful in the private market. give them a little wherewithal to give them opportunities, i'm great to work with the homeless collaborative funded through mc kinney dollars through the [speaker not understood], heck as we call it, in conjunction with many employment development agencies that include tool works that works with individuals with disabilities, mission hiring hall, a number of different agencies, the hospitality house, episcopal community services. we are really in this era where some of the hack leadership a trying to engage around homelessness. we'd like to see this because much of the jobs that come into san francisco are not relative to people who [speaker not under