center seeking help in housing and workforce and such and i have come to realize that in san francisco, as in lgbtq person you are basically an eviction or a job loss away from homelessness and that is really the condition for virtually all members of the community that you are very much at risk and we have an exceptionally high rate number of communities who are on ssi and i have said that in contrast to being on cap or, general assistance, are they eligible for programs? yes. are they elible to get into the housing ladder that we talked about? but, by its nature and an individual, who qualifies for ssi is going to face more difficulty in the very difficult housing market place, that we have, even in the affordable housing sector where you have to apply multiple places. i do want to point out that of my work as a supervisor is what

i am proud of is focusing in on the economic opportunity and insisting that the lgbtq center offer an array of programs from transgender employment and the workforce and the housing programs and the services for financial planning and recognizing that as was stated that being lgbtq does not mean that you are afluent and i do believe that some of the projects that i have had the individual of working on now at hope and working with brian and tommy and supervisor campos to close the bed for the shelter and the first for the homeless youth alliance and i have come to appreciate how many of the young people are lgbtq and the attitudes that i experienced when i represented the castro that seeing these young people who look different and may respond differently but they are not different. most of them are us. and that way that we responded to them and said go back to the hate or go back to golden gate park is really disgusting. and i think that it absolutely has to change, and i challenge

members of my community who can't see the humanity of some of these young people. and i would also point out that when brian comes and testifies on the housing alliance and anyone who is involved in fighting the epidemic, housing is prevention and care and it is absolutely is a marker for preventing young people from becoming affected by hiv and aids, and the housing is absolutely care to enable people, to stay on their medicines and to be healthy and to live better lives and not to wind up in the er and debilitating their health and so i look forward and i share the goal that has been expressed of reducing lgbtq homelessness by 50 percent in five years. it is absolutely attain able and the work that we are doing in having this hearing and the work that people and adams from the street are doing are extremely important. for the moment that i want to reflect on the transitional aged youth population. a separate youth count was done

this year and this is the best practice in the homeless count and hsa will talk about those numbers, but 914 people under 25 are identified as homeless. and 25 percent were former foster youth and 30 percent lgbtq and we understand that we are just seeing a snapshot, or a portion of this problem, because getting an accurate count of homeless young people is extremely challenging because many transitional aged youth, especially young people of color do notify as homeless even though they are homeless and they are couch surfing. and a researcher at uc berkeley has been working closely with us and she is a national leader in developing new methods for accounting and assessing the needs of this population. and she is here today and she will speak during public comment. and a 300 street based youth that she interviewed, 41 percent were actively trying to leave the street, including signing up for drug treatment

and enrolling in school and trying to save for a apartment, and this shattered the myth that somehow the young people want to be homeless in san francisco and i do understand that there is a bit of mobility among the young people that come here but by and large we know that not intervening and not helping to house is really relegating these young people to very, very difficult lives where they will be more dependant on public services and potentially, the next wave of the homeless adults and to successfully reduce the homelessness and we need to support the short term assistance as well as long term housing and the cost of failure and the delay of assisting this population is tragic. 42 percent of homicide viems are 25 years or younger and 80 percent of young adults supervised by adult probation lack a high school diploma or

ged. and this is going to enable us to connect the residents of this street to the healthcare and help to finish the education and get a job. even when the young person was identified for a housing unit, the application process can take months and even vulnerable young people on are the street and i asked someone to join me today and i know that when i talk my presentations are not numbers layden but they reflect the contact that i have had and the people that i have engaged with and over the past six months, i have been involved with hillary smith to came to me through the homeless youth alliance and i want to acknowledge that mary, who leads hya, is a little skin cal about the government and i am not sure that she is here today.

but the young people that are beyond help or that the law enforcement is really the answer that she is a believer and she does incredible work and so i have the opportunity to meet hillary and there were barriers that she had that were preventing her from successfully applying through hsa, and chp and it took a long time for us to be successful and she was homeless, and she lived in golden gate park during that time and she did not want to live in the park and that was not something that she wanted to do. but, it was something that was happening. and it is really been perfect and we have loved working with one another and i am proud to say that she is one of the 44 residents and i would like her to come up and share a few words before the colleagues from the city continue. [ applause ] >> hi, and i am hillary smith andvy been working with devon for the last six months and until then i was homeless,

living in golden gate park on and off for eight years. and i became homeless at 15 when my parents died. and pretty much just got abandoned and thrown into the... you could call it i guess. people ignored me when i was homeless. you know? asking for help was not just something that i could go and do. asking someone for anything even what time it was as they passed me on the street most of the time was completely getting ignored and you know what? in fact most of the time when i asked people what time it was they would say no thank you. and i had to get used to that and i had to learn to live in the park and to be a part of that society that was completely ignored by main stream society. i had a dog and that was about all that i had to my name and mary, with the homeless young alliance was pretty much my own resources that i was accessing you know the only way that i could get a shower in the area that i was staying.

and the only people that were giving me food and the only people who were treating me like a human being at all. and overcoming that was a really hard. getting in a house was a lot of work, you know it tooks months, i had to get on ga, and i had to get, well i had to get the food stamps to get on ga and i had to go to so many appointments and i didn't have a watch or a cell phone at the time, you know? and i had to go resolve the court issues and do many things that made it really hard. but, i am proud to say that i do live at g74 fifth street and i have a house and even though it was really hard to get in, i think that there should be a lot more people that have the story like mine. thank you.

>> thanks for sharing your story. so up next we will have joyce from the human services agency, and tough to beat that one. >> i was going to say that is kind of hard to follow. but thank you for your story. i would be remiss if i did not stand up here and pay homage to someone from afar, that has been a mentor to me, dr. mia angaluo who passed away today, and so i wanted to pay homage to her. and so it has been referenced a couple of times here about the 2013 homeless count. and we do a homeless count every two years, and in 2013 at the direction of hud we did a specific youth count, and it was a survey that was conducted on a particular day, and in

january. i think that it was the 31st because it was my wedding anniversary. and the youth count was from one to five during the day. the general homeless count was that particular day, that it began at 7:00 p.m. and so, there were 854 youth, who were the ages of 18 to 24, that was identified in the general count. 3 percent of the total population said that they were transgender, and 29 percent of that population was lgbtq. of the specific youth count, 914 youth were identified. 134 youth, under 18, and 780 youth ages 18 to 24. let me talk a little bit about that youth count it was

conducted by youth. in addition, the youth who conducted the count they were paid $11 per hour for their time. for every completed survey, they were paid an additional $5. and our provider who conducted it with our help is applied for the survey research, and they made all of the payments to the youth. so the majority of the homeless pay youth lived outside or 80 percent were unsheltered and 14 percent were sheltered. this number increases for unaccompanied homeless youth undered age of 18, 93 percent live unsheltered and i think that we should note that the

demographics were overwhelmingly male. and white male. in this particular count. 72 percent were male, and 41 percent of that 72 were white, and 20 percent, or 26 percent identified as lgbtq. but, what we found astonishing in this particular count was that 71 reported that they were unemployed. 57 percent received some type of a jail, government assistance, and 25 percent reported a history of foster care. and as devon mentioned earlier, 25 percent has not completed high school or gotten a ged. and so homelessness crosses all barriers. 18 percent were on probation,

or on parole and 16 percent indicate living in san francisco at the time that they became homeless. so i notice that some behavior health issues here but margo from dph will go into a little bit more information about that. but 27 percent experience chronic depression, 23 percent experience a substance abuse disorder and 22 percent experience mental illness. so, last year, lobbied for additional funds for what we called the lgbtq 2, youth, out reach contract. and it was in collaboration with mary housed homeless youth alliance and it was, it in the hands out reach to reach out to those young adults in public areas and partnering agencies

so that they can lessen their services that individual youth providers provide it. and it was a one time only grant. but that is due to end june 30th of this year. and so let's move on to shelters. we have one, what we call self-contained shelter and it is the lark inn and it is funded and it is managed i am sorry, it is managed by the lark inn street youth services and it is 40 beds, youth ages 18 to 24. and there is a strong array of services there. and what is most meaningful about this shelter is it is the major access point for tay housing and the local operating subsidy housing units. and what we mean by self-contained is as you know,

shelter reservations are made right now through 311 before it was through the resource centers. and lark inn makes their own reservations at their own particular shelter and so they are not a part of the big shelter piece in terms of shelter reservations. that is helpful to them, because kids come in and out of the shelters, and in and out of their service provider, and they can make shelter reservations immediately. >> and other san francisco programs, not funded by hsa, but as is a part of the out reaches, the diamond youth shelter and huckle berry house. >> last night, 5.5 percent of our shelter population were youth, 18 to 24 and ten percent of our families shelter populations are youth, 18 to 24.

and of course, with the family, it is 18 with a child. supervisor campos spoke about the lgbtq shelter, and in our adult emergency shelter, about three years ago and he had a hearing, and based on complaints and issues, and that the community was feeling about the shelters, and not being welcoming to the lgbtq community. and so, we have been working with... street and along with supervisor campos to expand our shelter system and we are expanding it to 24 additional beds, that are going to be designated in a system. as is with any project that you undertake, construction are in process.

and it has been in process for quite a long time, but, that is the nature of construction in buildings that are not owned by the city. and so, in this particular shelter, you must be 18 years of age. and in order to move into it, so we are hoping, and supervisor campos, we are hoping by the end of this year, we will be able to move forward with expanding the shelter. and the shelter, in this particular shelter is managed by doloris street. and so let's move into the transitional housing. devon spoke about the youth castro street initiative which he as a supervisor lobbied to get. and so we currently have a total of 57 transitional housing beds. and avenues to independence is a lark inn street program but

it is funded by hud. and so those are the list of beds that we have. and housing units i am sorry. and ghouse 20 and the castro street, and initiative 23 years of age. permanent housing. currently these are all dedicated to youth. and there are a total of 68, and dedicated youth, units. and 864, ellis which is our longest permanent supportive housing program and it has been in existence, ten-plus years, and then, the new one that devon mentioned, 374, 5th street. and it is actually a collaboration with hud and funds the operating cost of this particular building and city general funds supports the support services in the building. >> and 44 units, and i think that we are one shy this week

of being totally rented out, but there is something waiting to get the paperwork cleared. and so, a couple of things came up earlier, in the discussion, about the enormous amount of paperwork that is required for moving into housing and it is true that the process and it is indeed long but what we don't want to happen is to be audited and to have this allowed cost because of missing paperwork, or emitting something into the housing that really did not qualify and so we are looking at ways of stream lining the paperwork, and hopefully, we will be able to speed up the process. and move in. and so fifth street is focused basically on the chronic homeless youth, which is a hud definition. and it is a direct grant to chp, and some of the access

points for making referrals into this particular housing unit is hsa's family and children's services and youth and adult probation, and that is cross roads. and the first place for the youth, and homeless youth alliance, and lark inn street youth services and leric. >> so let's move on to permanent housing. and supervisor farrell talked about what was in the pipeline, we are fortunate that we do have 73 units that will be rented out probably within the next two years. and there, and diverse neighborhoods and at with the second is in supervisor farrell's district. and we worked very closely with him and the neighborhood association to make this building and this housing

project come to fruition. and there is 1100 ocean street which i believe is supervisor avalos's district, am a correct about that? >> okay and booker t. washington is also supervisor farrell's. booker t. washington is kind of close to my heart and i remember, moving to san francisco, and i will not date myself but many years ago. and partying at the booker t. gym and so, i think that it is, and it is fitting that this particular building is now going to be housing for tay youth. so we have something called transitional housing plus or a thp, plus as we know it. and it is a 24-month program for former foster youth, once again, ages 21 to 24. and this program was previously

operated by family and children's services in our department, but, in early 2014, of this year, it was actually transferred to the housing, division, along with me being able to get a dedicated staff position for all of the homeless programs and the youth programs allie as we know her is our youth coordinator and she brings a wealth of experience there are four. lark inn street services, first place fun for youth, edge wood, and the salvation army.

another program is the extended foster care. but i will not read the slides, to be eligible, you must meet one of the following criteria. completing high school, ged, and enrolled in college, and community college, or a vocational education program. and employed at least 80 hours a month, par participating in a program or an activity designed to those barriers to employment, and number five, unable to do one of the above requirements because of a medical condition. it is a licensed supervisored placement available to the youth, ages 18 to 21. so there is the difference, 18

to 21. and it is modeled after the existing thp plus, program for non-dependent and provides the youth with the high, and the support services and an age appropriate setting. so last i want to talk about a future, and at work, and so we are looking at evaluating ways to access the most appropriate housing for oping for our tay youth. and the good thing about this is that there are different options. and they are not a lot of options, but, it is not just one model that fits all. staff will be participating in the tay san francisco housing committee. and working with the tay commission and the advisory board, and we will be first and foremost on the 2015, youth, homeless. and so that concludes the presentation, and i am here if

you have questions for me. >> thank you very much. >> supervisor weiner? >> thank you, for the presentation and i have a very specific question for the clarification and so last year, in the budget process, and it is an ad back, we put into the budget two things for addressing tay homeless and the housing issues in the upper market and one was to expand the numbers of rooms at the hotel and that has happened. which is great. but we also did was put funding in for additional out reach capacity to try to help get youth off of the street. >> correct. >> and i think that this is some confusion and that was, i have heard and i think that you may have referred to it and that was somehow one year funding. >> yes. >> and that was not what that was intended it was intebded to be two years, it is an issue that as you know is ongoing. and so, i hope that hsa, will

address that and in its budget and i would really don't want to see that come back to the board at some sort of a one time, one year thing because that is not what it was supposed to be. >> i will definitely take that back and so we were told one year. >> i appreciate that. >> no problem. >> it seems to be effective and so i would like to see it. >> okay. >> colleagues, any further questions? >> okay. all right. >> thank you so much for being here. >> as always. >> thank you. >> and we are going to have mark from the department of public health to come and speak with us as well. >> thank you for being here margo. >> thank you for the opportunity of this hearing. i have with me an expert on the youth programs and for us to allow the information about the lgbtq youth. i am going to go through the presentation rather quickly and aware of the time and the amount of people that would

like to speak. is that..., yeah, okay. and so in front of you you see this, and we will comment on that later and that is one of our tay housing sites. it was 40 units and so i put together some tay and lgbtq data. i do want to acknowledge that it is very difficult to track the lgbtq community, for us. and most data bases do not ask sexual preference or the data incomplete or in correct. and according to the case management data base, which was specifically on the data around the homeless adult and youth, does not ask about the sexual preference and neither does the life long clinical records. and so, transgender if, and it is track and some data bases if not all of them.

and so, if you are ready, now with the information and to join us about the homeless count and so, there are over 25 percent, were found to be transitional aged youth and as the lgbtq data that they have, was 26 percent, plus, we and 29 percent, together. and in areas which as the hiv, services and the youth in san francisco. and we share, 1.7 percent, case, and we share a total of 74 percent of the lgbtq clients. in the data base we have 6.2 percent, that are homeless, and the don't track the lgbtq sexual preference and we do track transgender, but again it might be under reported. >> but we do see in it, and i think that is to be expected is that the tay population tends

to not be as highly or five or ten or more years homeless and that is to be expected given the age. and however, there is still 8.3 percent that are over five years homeless. and over a while, most days, it is 2.1 and 5 years homeless. transgender and i mentioned that in the women and in the presentation, and we have 64 percent of the more than 5 years homeless. and next slide? >> yeah, great. >> and this and these, numbers and definitions came from the ccms and i want to talk a little bit about that and the conditions, and in the first column you see the percentage for all homeless consumers in san francisco, and so it is one way or another, they have received the services and through the health department. and the other departments. and then, the serious medical conditions and there are a

number of 31 occurring conditions that track in this data base and in the serious medical conditions you can see that in the population is lower than the over all homeless population for transgender and for this year's populations and again you can see the data which is a little bit lower, and not much, transgender is higher and the subject abuse and conditions are dropped and alcohol. and tay are at 43.3 percent and 81 percent and then, to put more in it and the people are diagnosed with all three medical, serious conditions, and substance abuse conditions and that makes up on a 35 percent of the homeless population and also makes up the gay population and the 61 percent of