provides resources such as shelters, legal aid and mental and health care and helps us meet the routine needs of our visitors and help our staff provide excellent service and helps them maintain their own safety well being and knowledge base and just to give you an idea of some of the trainings that we've provided to our staff and staff development on such things as the history of homelessness, understanding, substance abuse anger management techniques, limit setting and understanding mental illness and we've partnered beyond public health but we've reached out to the national mental service for staff and public on mental illness, most recently last month. that's some background. at this point i would like to

ask le ah to come up and i will conclude when she's finished. >> good afternoon councilmembers. my name is leahes guerra the social worker for the sf public library and public health employee and member of the homeless outreach team. being the first full time social worker to be assigned in a library setting. the real challenge i had was this has never been done before for how to be a social worker at the library. my initial challenge was how to serve needs and meet the needs of the homeless ofand indigents at the

library and it's a safe place when they don't have a place to go to and many find a place to sleep and rest even though people at the library the homeless are not really enjoyed and mostly the homeless enjoy the programs that are offered such as reading and borrowing movies. the library's goals is to connect the homeless and indigent and basic resources such as food, access to medical care and sometimes abuse can be addressed. the san francisco public library became the first in the nation to have a social worker to address issues from the homeless and anybody that comes in the doors. the program has become so successful in reaching the

regular library patients and provides support and they can provide information. but a lot of the patients at the library need more than that. every year i refer approximately 250 patrons. about 30 very ill patrons become client of the sf homeless team to access to the library's social services. despite the limited housing in san francisco, approximately 30 patients at the library obtain permanent housing through the library social services. because it's so successful, many libraries in the nation have actually followed the sf library's function. other libraries have employed, social workers and

workers and counselors. day-to-day as a social worker these are the services that i provide. i provide information and help to access shelters and storage for belongings of the homeless folks and how to provide public benefit such as general assistance and social security and how to get back to the workforce after losing their jobs. i provide resources but also ensure that the patrons have access or successfully linked to these resources. with each patron i meet with them many times up until they are successfully transitioned. but mostly clients are interested if finding permanent housing here in san francisco. so in the course of my communication with them, other issues come up such as mental health and substance

abuse issues and there i come in to help them access though resources. i supervise the health and safety associates. it's a form of homeless people of firsthand experience of san francisco social service system. the program is a paid training programming. they walk the library floors and share their story about how they recovered from homelessness and other issues and how they have utilized the services in san francisco. some were library patients who were outreach at the library and gone through a homeless program in san francisco and come back once they are stable and address their issues with homelessness and other issues often associated with

homelessness and such as mental health and abuse and they say i would like to give back. when the program was first implemented the initial plan was for the outreach patients in the library bathroom who might be inappropriately using the bathrooms for bathing or drug use. they are not security staff. they are using those interactions to be able to talk to the patron and say, you know there are actual community places where you can take a bath. there are places where you can sleep today before the shelter opens up and i have been in your situation before and i can tell you that it is possible to recover from your situation. many of them and many of them share their personal experiences and many of them have express and interest in developing a career in social

services or peer counseling or outreach. i felt they had so much more to offer a lot to offer as a result of their personal experiences. from the help of the personnel training educator, russel, he and i provide them training and skills that they can use when they enter the workforce. i'm very proud to say that two of our persons that were homeless are working full time. one is working for the department of public health and the other one is working for the san francisco homeless outreach board. so thank you very much and karen will wrap up the presentation. >> that wasn't part of my

planned remark. >> so we just wanted to give you a flavor of how we approach provided the service beyond books to people in need. and we certainly as we've been working with the department department of public health as we've been making an effort to see where we can make connections to other services and resources we have noted there is a need for additional kinds of where do people spend their day resources in this city. and the kind of drop in places in san francisco that are different than the library that may have overlap but are different where people can spend their day eating and activities which are disruptive in a library but not in a drop in place like

the self-help center like 6th street and the tenderloin just places that can go far in assisting a need. we haven't had commitments but we know that the library that would be interested in talking about and doing partnerships on such persons that were on the radar and thinking about seeing what role that you can play. we certainly would be interested in partnering up and having conversations as well in providing resources there. that concludes our presentation and we are available for questions. >> thank you. are there any questions or comments from the council? councilmember wong? >> thank you for the invitation and the presentation. i'm just wondering where the people go to the main library, is it

like a clinic and what floor do the people receive the services from at the library? >> you are talking about the social services and health and safety? a great question. it is an outreach or in reach model that we use. i walk around the library and the health and safety associates walk around the library. we go look for people who might need the services. we are also very visible. i have been at the library as a social worker for 6 years now and people know us and they ask questions about social services. i meet with people, the approach i use is very, i want it to be safe and non-threatening environment. you will see us around the vicinity of the library talking about giving up flyers

and information except when it's an actual clinical assessment then we go to one of the rooms. >> okay. can we get your contact info and a business card? >> sure. >> okay. thank you. >> i have a question. i guess for you ms. straus. you are very active in the library but there is controversy about outside of the library and activities around there. do your social services extend to those people as well? >> the homeless outreach team actually does spend some time around the library. in fact when our partnership started with dph we had caseworkers from inside and outside the library patrolling what's going on. right now it's not an ex- exterior service because we know there are

services that identify that goes along. >> we are doing more than just moving them along. >> we are not doing police sweeps and moving people along. we are all about wanting the library to be a place where people feel comfortable not just being inside but coming to and that does address and touch on the issue of what's going on in the exterior. that is a public place and that is a place where people can congregate in a seating area. if there is illegal activity, we have pd having eyes on it because we don't want people confronted by illegal activity and inappropriate behavior. at this point we work with leah and the services we are providing is a very interior program. >> thank you. any other

questions from the council? do we have any public comment. i'm sorry, carla johnson, director of mod. >> i'm not on the council. i would like to make a comment. i would like to thank you for your efforts. everybody appreciated the incredible service that the library proichls -- provides. it's a one stop service and you spoke about people that may have mental disabilities or homeless issues and you have great services. we look to you as a radiant light. so thank you. >> thank you so much. we enjoy our partnership so much with mod. i think we have the same impulses in mind. thanks for saying that. >> now we'll take public

comment. we are going to limit public comment to 2 minutes from this point on in the meeting because we have a packed agenda and we are running behind. >> hello, my name is larry. i like to be called juicy. the library is a great place. i have been going to libraries and museums since 1972. but the library is a great place where people, i don't like the word homeless. i think this is an american slavery name. i think we should be anti-homeless. people are not house less and don't have a place that homelessness makes feel people left out. homeless means they didn't have a right. the statute of liberty

tells us that you do have a place to be here. i think word should be anti-homeless. i went to the board of supervisors we've seen some pictures of women in the restroom and it was disturbing and reminded me as 12 years as a slave and we don't know where you got those pictures. the library is a place where you can go to read about homophobia, xenophobia and anything. the library is always the learning tree and i go there every first and third they have the library commission that meet there and they give us 3 minutes like you all. the board of supervisors are the only ones that need to catch up. instead of 2 minutes you know it's important to give people time to make they are points to give them locations and

giving them two 2 minutes is not enough. 3 minutes is more appropriate for people with disabilities and the library. i know library is a great institution. i remember when the asian art museum was there and i used to sit there and read. i know it's a good place for me when i'm going through good and bad times. the library; on thursday and sundays i like to go through different floors from the black african american section to the gay section. it's on the same floor. i'm glad their right across from each other. it's a lot of knowledge there and it helps people get through things. >> thank you very much. more public comment? yes, sir? >> my name is dave. i do an awful a lot of research at the public library. it's my

second home. i do enjoy the six floor history room. it is unique and very special. it is also a very safe place to work. regrettably a lot of the other areas of the library, i work primarily on the 5th floor newspaper. i order micro film and there are a lot of come portment problems there and they are the public restrooms which are used for laundry and bathing and other things. unfortunately i had a health problem involving colitis and i had to use the restroom on the floor and it is a problem. i do appreciate the fact that they do have the social worker on hand. it's terrible to see

librarians having to mediate disputes between some irritable patrons. but, all in all, i think the library is a find place and i believe they are doing a great job and are to be commended. >> thank you. any other public comment? all right. thank you very much. >> next we are moving on to item no. 8. lava mae. this is denise sandoval. >> yes. thank you for the opportunity to present council this afternoon. lava mae is a mobile shower and toilet service that is meant to address the massive shortage in showers and sanitation available to the homeless. we are not out on the ground yet. we are a brand new organization. we are working on our first bus which we

hoke -- hope to launch in may and provide up to 45 showers a day. i will give a little bit of background on the buses and what they look like and how we'll be working with those with disabilities but i wanted to show a quick video to frame the issue first. >> we need captioning for that video as well? >> [inaudible] >>

>> hold on, please. >> denise can we pause for a second. the captioning doesn't seem to be working with the video. can we put the microphone closer? let's start again. >> [inaudible] >> >> that's okay. i don't want

to log jam the schedule. you can find our video on our website which is a lava may.org. basically it just frames the problem. the number that was listed in the video list the 2011 homeless count. but the official count is 6350 people and half of them living on the streets. there are only seven facilities offering showers and sanitation to the almost 4,000 people and thus we find libraries being used for laundry and bathing facilities. lava mae was created to address this challenge. we decided to go mobile for multiple reasons.

one being to get people where they were and gentrification is pushing real estate and rental prices through roof we didn't want to be subjected to rents for people with deep pockets. the buses essentially will have two hygiene pods. the fronts of the bus. these are retired muni buses. we received four of them from mta. each of these buses will have a two hygiene pods. the front portion will be completely ada compliant and they will be able to take advantage of them there and we are working to provide up to code and space that we need to address the needs of the disabled. we are running a

little bit behind on the bus because the buses are very tight in terms of space constraints and we have to be careful how we wire electricity and make sure we are fully compliant. we will launch our service in may and we'll operate in partnerships with other non-profits already serving the homeless and we'll partner with the research center and bayview and youth with the mission in the tenderloin. essentially we will have this em -- them do the scheduling and work in the morning and pull permits for water from fire hydrants. the cleaning products we use are green and they make the water better. so the idea is that we will be

working with volunteers who are retired emt's and nurses. we've been contacted by a number of people who have had that experience and passionate about working with this population to deliver our service. we hope you will see our first in may and the total four buses beginning in 2014. >> are there any questions from councilmembers? identify -- i have a couple comments. first of all my question is are the buses going to be running on the cables or out of diesel buses? >> these are diesel buses. >> so they can go anywhere? >> yes. >> you said, will you have the capability of doing 45 showers per day?

>> it could be more, but depends on how long it takes us to do the pilot program. we want to give people as much time and want to be able to serve as many people as possible. the showers are on 10-minute timers. they will be on 10-minute timers and another 8 minutes to allow people to do something else. in the shower area and toilet and changing areas and a bench for shoes and socks. >> 1/2 of those facilities will be ada compliant? >> absolutely. >> wonderful. great. thank you. >> absolutely. all right. any public comment on this item? >> believe it or not. larry juicy. i went to city

college to shower. when i was homeless, i knew i can be a student and go to cook school and take a shower in the men's locker. you will not know how long this has been a problem. i have been here 25 years now. you know, one thing that i know about our showering is that showers are so important. even when it rains, i say to people to go out and threat water fort -- let the water fort washington them. we tell people not to appreciate the rain when it rains, but that's the same water you get in the showers. it's the same water. we don't get any water, then we messed up. we do -- are not taught to appreciate the

water when it rains. it's sad that people can't shower. shower is not a homeless thing. it's an american thing. the slap for san francisco is before aids we had all of these shelters were actually bath clubs. even in rome you were supposed to be able to have a shower, orgy or whatever. showers are very important and that's how a lot of illnesses and disease get by people not been. we should have showers in this city. there is loor doctor a -- a lot of facilities to get showers. we like spending money on something that when we can be used in common sense. open up those vacant

buildings and make showers and restrooms. thank you. >> thank you councilmembers and thank you for the presentation. my name is charles men stir. senior. i was born back easton baltimore. this -- they had public markets and they made a law to have shower facilities adjacent to these markets so people that worked there handling food would be able to maintain hygienic quality of life. i was where fred douglas and between use i used that shower and you would get a

towel and soap. like the brother said in rome, we had public baths in rome about 2,000 years ago. here we are an advanced society and we don't have public baths to take care of the hygiene problem which of course for communicable diseases is a major public health problem. so this is something a little late, it's something that is little but we should have facilities that people passing through and certainly a lot of people pass through this town on a daily basis and people that don't have a roof over their head can clean up. it should be a minimum of any civilized society. that's what they call this, a civilized society. thank you. >> thank you. any further comment? thank you ms. sandoval. >> we'll move on to item no.

9. the community ambassadors program. we'll hear from richard whippel. >> good afternoon councilmembers and staff. i want to thank you for the opportunity for being here today. i really appreciate it. i'm going to explain what i will be talking about today and i will leave the balance of time for questions. basically overview on the community ambassadors program and the office of civic engagement and immigrant affairs. a long title. i will explaining a little bit about what we see about the marketing stream of the community ambassadors and look at what's happening along the mid-market corridor. in terms of our background of our office, the office of civic engagement in civic affairs was established in 2009 to address functions in the city, the language access, immigrants rights commission and the