are so happy and so safe. thank you very much. i'm also a survivor of 13 years of tenderloin. under the rule of tenderloin housing. i believe the mayor's office has some familiarity with them. i used to live in new york. landlords like that used to be sentenced to several months in their own building. i am not exaggerating. what didn't happen to me. sexual, physical harassment, assaults, attempted rape, blah blah. the list is longer, but, i'm also very concerned once again thank you city and county, thank you adult protective services. we are very happy. i understand there is a

transfer of housing authority properties to private ownership and management to private companies unlike housing authority private county as my experience tells me break the law some more than others. i saw the list of management companies. they are the better ones. thank you, but still. laws will be broken. housing authority doesn't do this. i'm planning a protest. let me introduce myself once i grab a hold of something. i hope this is addressed somehow because we are concerned. >> thank you very much. >> thank you. >> all right. any other comment on this item? yes?

step forward. >> dave tippel. i have been involved with taking care of a number of my elder neighbors and on two occasions have had to call protective services. this was in 1993 and before. there was a particular problem in making people sensitive about the signs of either neglect or somebody borrowing money from someone, someone coming into house and taking things. i'm a great fan of inter agency involvement and have used 311 before. and there are definite signs of like a neighbor not being around and somebody else selling the house sort of a thing which i ran into about 10 years ago. one of the

things that i did learn was that at that time the police department was about the only portal and i would ask that some sort of guidelines be assembled for 311 as well as the police department call centers so that when people have questions they can be certain, it's almost like a formula that you anticipate what you need to ask people to identify a problem. as i said i have had to identify somebody who was borrowing money from one of my neighbors and put together a holographic contract which is illegal but

a list of services that he had written in his own hand that he had borrowed $1500 from the owner. there is a better intake formula than there was in 1993. >> thank you. >> hello, my name is larry juiceey. i want to be put on your e-mail list. myself, i stayed at district 6 in ambassador hotel. i was happy to see ms. jill nielsen. it makes me happy because the first time i ran into them at city college courses and i

know these licensed social workers, they are really great and listen to us because in the hotel scene, i know that there is a lot of people who like the gentleman say exploit, even myself, i'm a person, i have a disability because i'm positive. but i know that i try to go everyday and have a better life. when you get home there is so many people in the building asking for money and they won't go to groups. often for 10 years i have been there 12 years at the ambassador hotel and i have asked the property manager to tell people not to ask for money or food on the weekend when they can get that from the case manager. if they see it that will cut down some of them from abuse deal and harassment and neglect. i'm a

person who likes to cook and share food in our building. roontly what's going on in the building is we have been having people who have moved in in the last few years who hit us and abuse us. the cameras, if they are not catching it they can't do anything about it. they sometimes hit us and they sometimes volunteer when we get the food. they are like a trustee. they can volunteer and get the food and take your money. then they move into a different apartment. it's something that goes on i know in tndc. and the ambassador we have so many people who abuse people who volunteer and they get what they want and try to

sell to you if you are not there in the nighttime. it's like constantly been asked for things and hit and we won't mention to telling people not to do these things and they put this on the first and third and we can be hampered on things that cut down on abuse. i'm a member of -- i have been going there since 2011 to deal with violence. this you very much. >> thank you very much. >> hello, i'm cw johnson with the organizing group. i just want to commend you on all your hard work and stuff. for 20 years i have lived in sro hotels in tenderloin and one of the thing i'm looking at is maybe we can work together with the city collaborative

programs to volunteer to go and get what we call wellness checks. i see who is disabled in the hotel and who is having problems and maybe have a city worker go with some of the tenant organizers to do a wellness check once or twice a month just to check on people because i have seen so many death of senior and disabled people and left three or 4 days dead. this has to stop. i think working with the cohabit ors for collaboration, maybe we can prevent some of those deaths from happening and start to make a change. thank you. >> thank you very much. any other comments? great. we'll take a >> we are on agenda item no.

7. we'll hear now from the san francisco public library. the psychiatric social worker leea es guerra. >> we'll start with me, carol straws. thank you for having us here today and you will be hearing from me and also my colleagues leah, the public library social and we'll talk about the departmental partnership came to be and we'll talk about other services and leah will talk about day-to-day services. in 2006, the homeless team surveyed 200 library users

and people who spend the day at the library maybe housed, maybe homeless, may have jobs, maybe unemployed and may have no where to go for the day but they enjoy what we have to offer. we don't ask people to identify themselves and we try very hard not to make assumptions about people's housing, health or job status. we welcome everyone in the library that follows the rules. there are consequences for those who violate the rules and an -- appeals process as well as guidelines. there are an -- appeals process by mayor lee. all of the features are reducing

unwarranted behavior rather than targeting groups of people. with adopted an approach where we develop partnerships and work order departments. we offer three-legged stool. public works help us with interior and exterior cleaning. another with the san francisco police department, he is in charge of our security, workers, he helps the library staff, security staff to enforce our behavior guidelines. he makes sure that training for security staff is provided and ultimately that partnership is in place to enhance the environment for everyone. and our third main partnership is with the department of public health. that's what you are

particularly interested in hearing about and that is what funds our embedded social worker and health and safety associate program which leah will talk to you about. it 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 sanl.