welcome to the board of supervisors san francisco budget & finance committee for wednesday, may 21, 2014.

my name is mark farrell i'll be chairing this committee i'm joined by the supervisors. i want to thank sfgovtv jonathan and the clerk madam clerk, any announcements? >> yes. phones, devices are prohibited at this meeting. may order the removal from the meeting room of any person(s) responsible for the ringing or use of a. items acted upon will be acted upon otherwise stated >> item one the hearing for the veterans and others exercising homelessness. >> colleagues that is the fourth in our series even if hearings i called a while ago around our homeless population thank you to all who

participated in the hearings. this will be their second hearing focusing on the sub populations to analyze hopefully is programs and policies in place and into the future can be put in place to have a large effect. 0 today's hearing for the veterans and citizens that are experiencing homelessness we've talked to community leaders and others including the va we'll be hearing from them shortly. our homeless people over the age of 50 in terms of homeless they fall between the cracks of the safety nets because they're not old enough to quality for medicare and they have a hard time vnltsd heirs in san francisco. for any the ssi is not enough to

cover the cost of housing we've had a 9 percent drop of non-veterans receiving ssi. 35 percent even if homeless people didn't think they were eligible for assistance and that doubled in 2011. image e i believe there's a city for elderly we have to make sure their importing gold in ssi and there are a number of agencies that have taken steps to increase the enrollment and the life septembercy is between 42 and 52 without homes and we need to do more. in terms of veterans certainly hits home to me my father

additional many veterans are placed at an increased risk for homelessness and drugs and alcohol are the main cause. the veterans are more likely to live on our streets compared to non-veterans veterans report fewer episodes of non-homelessness and 63 percent live on the streets full-time. we see a reduction in the homeless assistance and we need to continue to do better so thank you to the speakers and would like to invite up hope to

mr. duffey to kickoff the hearing. thank you, mr. duffey >> thank you so much for having this hearing this is incredibly helpful to have the committee look at the aspects we're grammatical ill with. as the chairman indicating indicated the citizens are a growing population within the homeless population and the board will have more medical supports in terms of making a connection and making an intervention and supervisor kim has worked with barbara gaza garcia through the public health department and also connect we have to be fluid and respond creatively so congress

recognizes some citizens are not moving into the veterans housing but be ableing to respond we'll connect more citizens. i'm pleased to share i received an e-mail from our 311 team talking about the using the 311 for the last allocation of homeless beds but the homeless agency has been recognized with a public technology award as one of the best e government consortiums to make those changes we feel are dramatically important for the citizens and disabled not to be part of an allocation of 90 daybeds that's an example of recognizing the issues. and h s h has helped with the

housing authority and many of the cases we work with individuals that are homeless. i want to touch on veterans i think this is one of the areas i go out and talk i think we can show with more investment and with the participation of the federal government we're able to have a much, much stronger impact and the numbers well over, you know, close to 25 reproduction in the last two years if in the veterans population and you'll hear from our partners the city over the past two years with the inception of the hope office we've been active and catalytic combination of federal and local agencies and nonprofits that really is responding to the difficult housing market and to the and a half of the homelessness and we certainly

are grateful for what obama and they've set up a goal to end homelessness it was taking 2 hundred and 83 days from the time a veteran moved into housing everything from the unit inspectors that is something that the housing authority was taking 4 to 6 weeks to schedule and for many private sectors we were not willing to wait. the va shared one instance one veteran was rejected in apartments throughout the city and he went back into shelter and as a result of us working together and meeting on a weekly basis we were able to streamline

and get it done in 24 hours and to insure we were 0 doing the most to advance the veterans into housing. one out of every 5 african-american veterans in the united states is homeless we know how disproportionate the effects are we need more strong programs and joyce will be presenting and joined by mistakenly and mistakenly has been a steering wheel leader of the homeless for heros effort she serves as a staff corridor and her connections is really been pivotal in this success of our overall efforts i can't say enough about the va and hud they're no longer two dimeal

entities but people we've learned to respect and understand the obstacles they have to overcame in terms of the bureaucracy but the va has been pro-active and willing to be initiative active and hud has been responsive one of the things in the department of real estate think when vouchers it's enforceable for san francisco had they're absolutely no where within the realm of what is take place in the real estate market we've been aggressive and tied up a building at the 2524 mission street and had 34 units of housing for homeless veterans it's required going beyond the vouchers and required that the va help to cover through peer support 24 desk operations that

the city scramble and the city had money to support this building but those buildings require subsidy and it recognizes from this be market it's difficult to school bus of vouchers and if we're going to eliminate the chronic homelessness. one of the most exciting buildings is 250 street it's a hotel off-line in the financial district in a neighborhood where many veterans especially with vouchers they're to live in the tenderloin because of the problems that exist there and the way it progresses a veterans progress to get into how's 250 karen caesar many is in the financial district all private bathrooms within this building and two 50 kearny is one of the

better training grounded for narcotics by the police department if you walk into as to how building it's bright and light in it, it's brightly painted and a kitchen with rooms dedicated to staff to provide support that's one of the most sponsor important about the bash program it comes with a social worker per population it required a lot of forest on the part of john updyke we're competing with technology companies and others that were looking to master lease this this this is one of the most important things it's a time of building and putting in the bash the bash voucher is a section 8 where an individual veronica find a unit to rent or attach

them to a project base we attach it to the unit a it remains assessable to veterans so one of the things with the leadership of mistakenly and working with other colleagues in the city we've applied for 70 private place vouchers to dedicate to this building and but all the buildings really require additional investment on the part of the city i'll offer to you it's a good financial investment we're leveraging to 85 percent of veteran support against 15 to 20 percent of the city to make the building pencil out i want to acknowledge the staff they've been committed and helpful to secure veterans heirs. the san francisco housing

association has a virtual security deposit they'll provide up to one thousand dollars that's available once an individual moves out of the apartment it helps to streamline and move veterans in i've gotten to speak to the small property owner property organization and the aspects of the section 8 they've been reticent to participate and made it difficult and we've had to be more creative it is may or may not thinking. i know that ah a we're going to pilot programs to look at people that are homeless the allocating and this is an important part in addition to hud and the va and the human services agency and the plowshares the housing

authority gets a lot of criticism but nicole tour lead point of contact with barbara smith they've been incredibly focused focused in helping us to audio identify on the case by case basis and i'm excited to hear from our partners >> thank you, mr. duffey. i want to invite joyce up from ah a >> good morning, supervisors. i want to point out on the slide when scott gets it up are the two housing buildings under the umbrella of the human agencies. we have veterans common to our left and in so moved, commissioners, that item passes district and mary helen rogers

to your right in supervisor london breed's district veterans common is dedicated to 73 unit in the building and mary helen rogers how many units. a hundred units 20 set aside for homeless citizens. so as what is referenced earlier in the 2015 count approximately one hundred and 70 veterans were identified which is a reduction from the 2011 homeless count. 17 percent of the homeless count and survey responded said they were 55 and age-old and 3 percent of approximately one hundred and unnecessary were age

60 plus. let's talk about the seniors in our adult emergency starts the veterans are identified in the in take process into changes so we don't do a monthly or daily cut because shelters are always moving by a person can answer the question whether or not they're a veteran so let's look at 2012 through 2014 and the consistent between individuals 60 to 99 years of age has been consistent. in 2012 it was 15.42 percent and

2013 it was 14 with the 67 percent and january through april of this year we're at the 15.3 percent. so the percentage of the seniors has remained consistent we set aside senior beds we've identified 12 beds that are managed by the mission resource center they identify individuals in emergency of short time services and they can directly enter them into the system and have 90 daybeds for the individuals whom those 3 agencies feel they need stabilization in tr