the floor is yours >> did you found out find out that question about your father what year. >> he did i'm blanking on the year he had a big smile on his phase my father as a veteran was laid up in traction around vietnam i'll get that to you. >> i wanted to see who was his social worker. i'm bobby the transition coordinator my territory i coordinator for northern nevada and to bakersfield and the fun part hawaii and guatemala so we have a small territory so when i

start out by saying thank you to all the folks here it's a great team effort i say that because i go to a lot of community cares around the country we're lucky we we have a partnership. i don't know if you know that but the va has been in the homeless business since 1987 and san francisco was one of the first sites there was about thirty everything we do in the va is a pilot project so in 1987 we hired folks to see about the vets and in our year we had our first contract of social serves michael and i have been doing this awhile. when we first started to keep

track of vets it was 2 hundred and 50 thousand. the number now is down to 57 thousand 8 hundred and 49 in 2013 still way over it should be zero. at the stated in november of 2009 secretary that announced a competitive plan no veteran should remain on the streets. he stated that we needed to work on medical, mental health, substance abuse, jobs and depression and safe housing. together with our partners in san francisco we're trying to address the department of veteran affairs in that we have

boots on the ground as you've heard for every program we also hire and go ahead funded for social workers. we in san francisco are proud to have a competitive homes center we offer mental health and medical and provider and we offer showers and washers and driers and a place for veterans to pick up their mail and hospital transportation a computer lab and legal services we have substance abuse groups and as well as benefits because we talked about this to make sure that conveniences get all the benefits they're entitled to. on your sheet i put the number

of developers that we see every year and every year it's going up because of the effort being made to publicize the work that the va is doing or the publicize the program you'd be surprised how many veterans on the street people on the streets don't think their veterans so we ask them have you ever served in the military and make sure that veterans quality for services if at the don't and feel they could quality we'll offer them legal services and refer them to employ shares. of interest this year is 7 percent of the homeless we've seen on third and harrison were females and females are the faster it growing homeless if

this country. 8 percent were o i f vets and vets between the angle of 55 and 65 were 43 percent and this year 20 percent so far have been over the age of 64. so i'm going to quickly i was told i have 5 minutes go over the services we have here in san francisco. you need to understand that when we offer some of our programs you have to apply it's a nova so a competition we work closely with our nonprofits and with the city and county of san francisco to insure we can apply and hopefully awarded those services. our first program is our h contract we talked about that and joyce talked about how we have thirty beds with the city

of san francisco so we in san francisco get money into a pot in which we develop local contracts for emergency housing. i call those assessment and stabilization beds beds we can put a veteran into and figure out where they go from here. we have 6 contract and 74 beds and spend $140,000 veterans can stay in those beds to 65 days we're finding a lot of elderly veterans can we found a way or have the vet stay longer than they need longer to figure out how to get into them into permanent housing and are you going to utilize those contract

beds in san francisco. those are transitional programs 5 programs and one hundred and 83 beds. we have contracted with the salvation army and sorts to plowshares and the unit services of homeless people can stay in those beds up to 24 months. our exciting program is secretary was very smart in order to not have homeless you have to prevent it we give money to nonprofit so something to prevent people from being homeless and in san francisco we awarded 1.3 million last year

and this year we have a priority one category in which we tied for $3.02 agencies that have applied for that. that's the highlights i'm not going to take up much more time you is have a sheet of the services. there's a call center so we're going to leave cards for you to put in our office it's a 1877 number it is manned everyday and if a vet needs help they'll call the number to the local va and one thing i think is mentioned talking about the vouchers and others coming down the pipeline i think it's exciting for san francisco >> yes. >> until there's no one on the streets that is homeless this is

a positive step in the future. >> it was on the audits so i missed it but basically, we've been doing permanent housing one to 25 and 35 ratio so for every voucher we have a social worker for so many vouchers. it's hard to stay in housing here and our social workers will help to keep the vets in housing and graduate out from needing hud bash and giving that voucher back all the vouchers in san francisco we have 5 hundred and 70 vouchers all of those remain here in san francisco with that a vet graduates out the voucher stays here we're waiting for our

2014 long time ago and it should be coming out soon we're competing for sure one more awe long time ago of vouchers we used some vouchers to be project based that's a great system it is great because the va is looking at heirs the most needy the chronically needed vet and we want to put those folks in where they need to be so veterans can have the services on site we have two social workers there permanently talking about the mission project we worked outside the box to get the 32 vouchers in the hotel it's ongoing and we should tell the system and

again, i want to put my plug in for the two 50 kearny project we've applied for 75 additional vouchers on top of what we have and get next year and the year after. >> thanks bobby and for your hard work it it concludes our speakers so. anyone any public comment on that item? please step forward everyone will have 2 minutes >> my name is ann dra drew yep the chinese for american citizens and the answer there is no answer frankly speaking no solution final solution forbid

the homeless issue for the people with disabilities e.r. the veteran or the seniors the best testimony search warrant is for the mayor and the supervisors just to resolve the problem building a massive building that can accommodate all those folks just try our best. thank you >> thank you very much. next speaker. . i have cards dr. espanola jackson and (calling names) >> thank you. my name is michael i'm the director of plowshares and want to appreciate take the opportunity to speak i want to

resist the temptation to brag about a what we're doing we're doing a lot but being part of the community we don't do it alone but i'll you say our impact we've been around since 1974 but we're a veteran's rights organization and most recently operating 2 hundred units for veterans organization. we have about one hundred beds around transitional housing on treasure island and near city college we engaged with the va we've rapidly housed 3 hundred vets and have a legal department of lawyers 5 lawyers that help with coming for the va powerful is the number one reason for

homelessness commonality so the issues how to address it income assistance through the pen revision california does a poor job in terms of the veterans in the state of california that receive coming and pen if the federal government. can i have a minute beyond my time >> did he ingress. >> okay. i barrel got into this we do jobs so it's been good for san francisco primarily we the evidence will then show all the private and government resources. >> what's going on because we're on it we're aware of the other issues around vets we've brought a lot of resources to

bear for veterans the city has been good we've gotten opportunity like the presidio and treasure island and otis street but not possible woody allen without the hud and the city, etc. without the coalition of homelessness etc. it's all in the community you've got to work together that's all you'll be able to make a difference. thank you. thanks for your organizations incredible work in our city. >> next speaker. >> come on up. >> good morning dr. espanola jackson. you know, i sit and watch to see your moves and things and give me two minutes to speak. but i have brought information

to you to this committee and i know you've received it and it deals with hud section 3 of the what this city do not follow it does not follow nothing for the people of san francisco. so i know you've got the solutions we've had the solution for the citizens of san francisco but this city is not following it. number one there the hud guidelines a that'll i'll get that information to you because when you first became a supervisor it city do in a a compliance officer to make sure things get done and when i look at the agenda number one, number 5 and number 6 and 7 they should all been together because of the fact it deals with with you're

talking about here the homeless, mental health and the veterans. now what you need to do and i'm going to ask you to do this for me why don't you set up a watch committee put me over it so that way i can give you and make sure you have all the information you need and then we'll deal with the solution. you've got people working over the years they know me when i cam come here for the support that's needed it could have been done. the housing authority you all support those big developers that come in here and turnout housing and that's why we have the number of homelessness because of the eviction of people living in public housing but you're not hearing what i'm

saying >> >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> >> there you go next speaker please. my daughter ask me why mom do you go to city hall they don't listen. >> good morning. i'm kathy i work to the enhe emancipation proclamation california services we have a senior center and the team will be partnering with the assessment project and we'll have the internal behavioral health specialists. we believe this is a great idea that people have been homeless the longest will have the shelter plus care units and

staff will be able to offer them we collect data in the upcoming year if people won't accept the housing benefits so again, we're thrilled to partner with the city and thrilled to be part of the pilot program >> thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> >> good morning. i'm gwen listen director the human resources and the homeless housing program where we house over 60 beds. and i want to say that the veterans we get are older in angle they are seniors and have mental and physical health problems your biggest concern is after the 24 most of transition housing after the 24 most we scramble to get them into

permanent housing i want to say you guys need to work to increase the beds program to help them either buy they have veterans benefits or have some type of rental and i want to say i agree wholeheartedly with dr. espanola jackson they talk about closing down the housing authority project and not building the same number that's increasing the number of homeless folks in san thank you. thank you very much >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, supervisors. i'm from the senior center we have a senior center opened 5 days a week we have people

coming for case program and we're a support group that runs every tuesday more than these and have 6 seniors with homeless disabilities that help us we have help with the beds to the seniors they can stay there for 90 days and another thirty gais days but after that we don't know. there are more and more seniors with medical conditions and i've been working with d c s and i've seen seniors that are really, really needing help and would like to stay in the shelter because if they stay in s r o they tell me if something happens to them no one b will

know we still have veterans that are part of our case management we do the housing information that comes out every month i don't have any more fumdz for that after june that's with the aging services and there's other serves but they don't give services to the veterans coming from the hospital. thank you to supervisor kim, jane kim they funded american people outreach worker in the city and what's happening we'll have some services at the bay in for the homeless seniors >> thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon - good morning. i live in district 2 john f. kennedy towers i

recently i'm a veteran and i recently received a 14 day notice to leave my premises. for the past 4 years i've been paying my rent faithfully on time i have a service connected disable because of my benefits there's a backlog of cases nationwide i'm looking forward to my veterans checks to pay the rent but san francisco does have a policy all the veterans that are waiting upon their benefits to be retro process i've been paying my rent for the past 4 years never been late those are things that perhaps some of our staff the president of the housing authority if they can

create a safety net not to lose their housing i was homeless for many years i live in a stable place and i'm starting again to receive my full one hundred compensation from coming and pen but i'm asking our committee mark farrell to ask the poor veterans because our money is good and i believe bobby roman field can help to establish that for conveniences so we don't have to be back on the streets and go through the shells. i also oppose is negative stigma of veterans{mentally unstable we're stable >> thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker,

please. >> good morning members i'm dale i'm a member of the city of san francisco corresponding board but this morning i'm here hasn't to represent the formerly homeless and veterans. sometimes, i feel that the homeless situation in san francisco is becoming an industry much like our prisons have become industry where the online only people with benefits are the people running the program i'm going to stop that from happening we're homeless veterans when you ask us to go fight four for our country when we slept and he didn't don't play with us. we couldn't find room let's house our prisoners from another county we don't have room for our homeless in the city you

don't fit we've got a size 9 foot into a size 7 shoe why can't he hours our veterans i'm a homeless vetted and i've will fought all the way to washington i didn't want to live in the tenderloin for what we did for our country we don't deserve to live in the tenderloin so you can house our veterans outside of the county we didn't play with you so don't play with us thank you very much >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> i'm dave with the curry senior center we're in the tenderloin supporting seniors. i want to point out a couple of

things first of all, we provide 10 percent of the medical care for the housing unit that's one of our recommendations to expand health care in the community and not only to the housing unit that are for homeless but for the non-housing units so center medical expert services we have 3 hundred veterans that walk so what our centers at risk for homelessness we've seen that more people doing the financial resources they have less money to pay rent so wee one of our recommendations is for the city to move forward with policies that provide other services for veterans to pay there's the food stamps and jobs for vets where

they can work and not lose ssi. so revenue so they have more money or we give them food so they have more money for themselves >> finally, i want to thank hope for taking a step forward and pitting aside the beds for the vets thank you very much >> is there anyone who wishes to speak on the item? >> one last thing there is a this is a city known for its sex all freedom members of the board let it be a city for economic freedom it has the capacity to build shoe box unit but not at a

market rate but seekers of the city that is transitional. another thing there's a street bigotry it's still with us. let us have transitional housing like shoe box units that can be built to house people to rehab this demographic instead of being the useful throw away population the stigma rests upon us and people are tired of taking care of my ethic groups but we have capacity inside of us so let's us sit at the table we're not. everyone is asking for money let the shoe box units be a

demonstration if you're capable physically and mentally 6 months and you've got to be on the way let's us prove ourselves and have rapid reemployment programs and redeny manufacturers you don't have to have people be without shoe box housing >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning i'm to relate a perm experience being a senior and homelessness how sometimes city policies enhances homelessness rather than eliminates it when you was 63-year-old i was