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 understood] homelessness. [speaker not understood] and help connect with it. the next recommendation is around expanding reunification of individuals and trent has tremendous amount to be proud of. there's been a program home ward bound which has existed

for anyone years now. we have close to 8,000 individuals and our city does a good job making sure and confirming people who are returning home are being rejected with family or friends that are going to support them so that we're not seeing people dumped, but it has been overwhelming successful, handful of people have come back to san francisco. police officers, a lot of -- all the agencies that work with homeless individuals really know to ask people if they're not being successful in san francisco, to reunify. the next point is around an oversight committee. i think that is the local homeless board. they'll want to dialogue about what their role is in term of the next recommendation about behavior health and outreach, we do have i think some incredible work going on. kelly hiramota who works with

barbara garcia. she work in director of placement. we've worked with challenging individuals who have been on the street or been chronically homeless and they have devised very thoughtful plans that also involve the adult protective services and other partners in housing, challenging individuals. the centralized information system, the hmis system, there is a recommendation about staffing problems and it really talk about staff and pier council recruitment and selection. and i think that's something trent and i do talk about, about investments. supervisor kim and the budget committee supported new investments in our shelter system to make them better and cleaner and more case management and support. and i do think we talk about up lifting the people that work in that environment so make sure they are healthier and more welcoming. the next is treatment garden spots and i'm going to let

barbara speak about that. next is case management for people exiting the jail. wendy still has done an outstanding job of thoughtfully thinking through how adult probation should occupy this realm of working with homeless individuals. they do have case managers. they are funding stabilization units and housing. and again, i think the justice system coming here and talking about their role -- one of the things i think we can be proud of is that 10 year ago, 40% of our jail population identified as homeless and that's down to 20%. and i think that that -- you know, as we brought down the overall jail population, i think that that is an important element. our recommendation about diverting repeat offenders into treatment. i think that gets involved in our therapeutic court system and more residential treatment and care. i'm going to defer to barbara to talk about. crisis intervention resources, and then chronic mental illness. and this is around the area of

laura's law. i am very supportive of the cipp court that the health department and our courts, our public defender and our da have been involved with. i think it is a very important model. there is push for more tools in the tool box which i think are appropriate. i think the tools in laura's law that allow family and friends petition when they're concerned about the well-being of a loved one failing in and out of the mental health system is very important. there are other tools around intensive case management and also our mobile crisis team. you know, our health director is not able to ask for more resources because of the difficult budget environment. i've got to say for me, the mobile crisis team which obviously struggled during the different year for the city is an area we can staff better. i would estimate from their

high point they're maybe at 50% right now. they've got a grant application for a couple of vehicles because they only have one vehicle that's got a cage in it where someone who is dangerous to others can be placed in. but, you know, i think that mobile crisis is an important part of this. i think the police officers and see whoctionv who is in severe psychiatric crisis. i think at this stage it is not a robust as we would like it. if we are going to focus on a better tool box for responding to this population. >> supervisor avalos? >> thank you. just on this issue, i think it would be really good to see how the mobile crisis team has -- the staffing levels have changed over the years and if there is any correlation to what we see [speaker not understood]. i know there was a time -- when you were on the board, i believe -- we we actually put in several new stanching positions for the homeless

[speaker not understood] team, is that right? >> yes, we've expanded that to 24/7. >> if we look at that expansion again, i'd like to see what's been done in the past and what we can look at in terms of results with that expansion. >> you bring up a great point. sf hot wasn't focused on in the 10 year plan to end chronic homelessness. the sf pot team has gone 24/7. there have been positive things that have resulted from it. there are 15 outreach staff and i think 30 plus case managers that are there. but when you look at this very difficult population that's on our street, people that are dual and triplely diagnosed, we have people that are oftentimes at a peer level responding to this person that's in real crisis. and i think that there is agreement with trent and barbara and myself that for s.f. pot that if we wanted to be successful, we need to up lift the clinical component. we probably need more

psychiatric social workers leading the peer based teams to be able to deal with these situations and then i think that, you know, i met with mobile crisis last week. i think at the high a few years back they were up to 15. i think they're down to 9 right now, but i think that, you know, that notion of what's the interface between mobile crisis and hot would be a good area for discussion because that's what people are looking for. they're looking to be able to reach out. and the difficulty is just today i ran the numbers on our shelter availability last night. our shelters were 94% full yesterday. that meant that they were 68 vacancies. of those 68 29 were at prove against. ~ providence. providence is a place you have to leave at 6:30, 7:00 in the morning. people are sleeping on matts on the floor. there is an organic outreach and exits for having people to go to.

i definitely think the discussion about the clinical component of s.f. hot and mobile crisis would be an excellent discussion point. >> i was president clear of the distinction between the two. if you could summarize that. >> mobile crisis is people 51/50. those who are a danger to themselves or others. they're in extreme psychiatric distress. s.f. hot does respond to those individuals. mobile doesn't operate on a 24-hour basis. it doesn't operate on sundays. so, s.f. hot will respond to that. but i do think that overall, that having jason albert son like the lead clinical social worker for outreach, i think having 4 or 5 people of his skill set leading these teams would probably make it more effective if we also have housing to place people into. so, and the last point is about engaging the public and supporting solutions to chronic homelessness and barbara is

going to be able to talk about project homeless connect which i think is amazing. everyday connect has been another dynamic tool that we're using to respond to people. but i think that the most important thing is to be unafraid to talk about homelessness. i think the city has a tremendous amount to be proud of in terms of having compassion, having desire to be a housing first city, having a desire to recognize that, that even though family homelessness is not as visible as single adults, getting involvement with sales force, for example, has been transformative in how our family homeless system has been responding. and i think that only results in being engaged. i mean, just a story that appeared in the chronicle about a child in public school and what they are experiencing, not knowing where they went home at night, motivated [speaker not understood] to make an investment which has led to the investment of star community. i know supervisors mar and farrell have been involved

with, and their own neighborhoods where a convent has been repurposed for 12 homeless families. and this past year we added three mom with newborns not to have them be in shelter environment. just to briefly touch upon as we continue to look at these issues and hear what department colleagues have to say and what our advocates and service community, clients have to say, redesigning street outreach is a very high priority. i'm hoping for some members of the board and departments to go and look -- philadelphia has been cited as a model of having overnight outreach that pulls people into a navigation center, focusing on long-term shelter stay and housing resistant individuals and families, making sure, again, about preventing evictions from supportive housing. one housing i think is vitally important and i'm making a push right now for another building that we need to do, and i think in areas where our city

treasurer has distinguished himself which is around financial empower many. me ~ empowerment. when you're interacting with families exiting homelessness, individuals, helping them untangle credit situation, untangle debts is important for people being successful. the reason people get evicted for nonpayment of rent they go into court and get a stipulated agreement which doesn't change any of their credit situation. but just getting someone who is skilled as a credit counselor, get on the phone with some of their debtors and say they're not paying this interest. this $200,000 you're dunning them for, you're getting $200 and it's going to away. new york city has used that tool and it is an important tool. i have not focused a lot for lgbt homelessness. this is a passion for me. we've done well having lgbt connect. these numbers are staggering. 29% of our homeless population identifies as lgbt. we've seen those numbers for

the first time tells us that lgbt individuals are experiencing homelessness at double the rate of their population. and that for any major city, you would understand that they have numbers at 29% for 16 to 24 year olds because many young queer people leave their household, they're thrown out, they leave communities where they're not safe. they've seen the milk movie. yes, they will come to san francisco. but if you look at other cities, all adults and seniors, homeless population drops to 29%. it's 29% across the board. that says a lot to us. they have a higher rate of being on ssi, not a defined path to homelessness. many people have lost partners due to aids. many have lost assets because they're older. to be an lgbtes are identified of san francisco, [speaker not understood] which is a major challenge. i'm really grateful for this. i'm sorry, i know i had a lot

to get in. i don't view this as a one stop. i really think that a consistent set of hearings and discussions can help to focus us as a city how to do a better job and i'm really excite today partner with all of you and the supervisors have been very -- my best partners and colleagues in addressing this issue on small bases and larger so i'm excited to work with you on this. >> well, thanks, mr. dufty. colleagues, i don't know if there are any questions left, about i want to say thanks for all of your hard work ~. we're extremely lucky to have you. you've been a great partner. this is a first step. thank you for all of your insight as well. >> just quickly, i think you touched on it toward the end before you talked about just the understanding of the lgbt component within the homeless population. the families are also something we've really noticed recently. there's been a lot of press about that especially last year and the cost of the housing in san francisco skyrocketed and put a lot of families in very

tentative situations and a lot of them have become homeless. so, there have been emerging needs that have come out since the plan was adopted or put together, you know, ten years ago and i'm wondering -- i'm sure we'll talk about it here today, but offhand if you can talk about what we're seeing in terms of response and the rise in families with children who are homeless. >> so, i guess i come back to public housing as being a major tool. and just later this week, barbara smith, the director of the housing authority, is convening her staff at our office facilitated a meeting with coalition on homeless and other family housing providers. and i can say that all of us that are working in family housing are just hungry and hopeful that some of the waiting lists are going to be open. our section 8 waiting list has been closed since 2001. our homeless family -- our family waiting list, excuse me, has been closed since 2008. one of the things we did in our

first year at hope is we partnered with the coalition and family service providers to establish a homeless preference which didn't exist. so, if we open the list, people are going to be able to rise up on that list that are homeless. and i think if you talk to the family providers, you'd see oftentimes families with subsidies are leaving san francisco because that subsidy will take them further in the east bay or someplace else. and i think that that's very challenging. this credit component is very important. i'm also grateful that maria benjamin has come to the mayor's office of housing and, so, she is overseeing the below market rent program. and i can tell you, you know, i have this experience with the ramirez family and it's unbelievable to me. these people building rental housing, they're making a lot of money. i calm them nema, darth bader, this looming dark presence at the corner of 10th and market and they would attempt to use

fair housing as a shield to ding a family that won a lottery. how lucky that family was to be one of 38 families, a family of four that lucked out to get a one bedroom apartment. so, i don't want people to think that, you know, it's luck from that standpoint. and the fact they had a 5 61 credit score, was going to block them from moving into that. we as a city are responsible for that. we approve the marketing plan and that's why i'm grateful that maria has come there because we should not allow buildings to ding people for 39 points on a credit score. i've had a woman that is not being allowed to move into the nema because she was -- she was found guilty of a felony in ohio where she served a year of time. that felony was because she was addicted to drugs and she didn't pay child support and, so, right at this point she's not being allowed to move into a building. we had a veteran that they

tried to block us in. this is really disturbing that some of the tools that should be much more usable and relatable to people. you should not be using a felony for failure to pay child support to block somebody from moving on with their life and she's cried in my office because all she wants to be able to do is invite her teenage children to come and see she's successful and not that person she was. so, you know, it is in the details and, you know, i'm much -- i was much sweeter when i served with you inside there. i'm not as nice as i was then. [laughter] >> supervisor mar. >> yeah, i wanted to just add to the homeless families comment that i think it's wonderful when the [speaker not understood] can contribute from the private sector to the star community on eighth and geary. [speaker not understood]. i know it took a lot of work around christmastime and new year's time to make it happen.

and i just appreciate all of your efforts. but i know that as you said earlier, it's really the commitment of the city putting our money towards effective programs. i liked how you said letting the hot air out of this room so that we're not too bold to look at other cities maybe with the exception of seattle. [laughter] >> but the benefit budget issue and looking at best practice advertisevs from other areas. i also wanted to say i really appreciate that you brought up that you look at the issues as a parent in how you talk to your daughter about that. because i know that whenever it's freezing in the morning my daughter and i talk about how it would be to have to sleep on the concrete or if a certain area of golden gate park is chained off now that used to shelter you from rain, at least we have that conversation so you're approaching things from a position of empathy and compassion as opposed to the other end, treating people as the other. i just really appreciate that

about you. >> the leadership here, jeff [speaker not understood] recently went to family hamilton center. jeff was the president of housing [speaker not understood] partnership. he ha brought that level of energy and engaging his colleagues. and i think they are developing a proposal to dramatically change the landscape of family homelessness and i think that is something we should very seriously consider, is investments that we could make ~. so, i think that a lot of the providers here really understand even better than i some of the barriers that we've allowed to continue here. and i think that's what this hearing and this effort is about, is about embracing best practices, looking at money that has been spent, looking at what we need to spend to change this. >> great, thank you. >> thank you, mr. dufty. (applause) >> all right, up next, mr. rohr who runs the human services agency, thank you for being here.