>> good morning, everyone, welcome to the san francisco board of supervisors budget and finance committee meeting for wednesday, may 28, 2014, my name is mark farrell and i will be chairing this and i am joined by avalos, weiner and breed and campos and i want to

thank the members of sfgtv for covering this meeting as well as the committee miss linda wo n. >> do we have any announcements? >> yes, silence all devices and speaker cards should be submitted and items will appear on the june third, 2014, agenda, unless otherwise stated. >> thank you very much, could you call items one and two together? >>hearing on services and solutions for unaccompanied and transitional-aged youth who are experiencing homelessness. hearing on services and solutions for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender individuals who are experiencing homelessness. . >> this is the fifth hearing that we have had over the past two months, surrounding the homeless population in san francisco and this will be the third and final hearing that focuses on subpopulation and we have taken a stance at these

hearings to analyze the programs and policies that are working here in san francisco and also look to suggest different policies and programs that we can go into the future to make a real difference. today's hearing is around services and solutions for transitional aged youth and the lgbtq population and we have as always met with the different department heads and city staff and i want to continue to thank them for all of the hard work on this and the different service providers and i want to thank all of them and advocates and community leaders. for transitional age youth for the first time this past year, the city conducted the survey of homeless youth. and in order to address a lack of data about the homeless youth and to improve the understanding at the local level. we found in the count, 914, unaccompanied children and transitional aged youth, which represents close to ten percent of our over all population homeless. and unfortunately, roughly 90 percent in this population

remains unsheltered and half of this population are reported to be homeless longer than one year, and one in four in foster care before coming homeless. 28 percent cited job loss, 21 percent, argument with a family or a friend who asked them to leave, but you see a disproportion ate youth that are experiencing domestic vie excellence and for the safety and well-being for their homelessness. and 21 who identify as lgbtq, and forced out of the home due to family rejection or ran away due to family rejection and the youth experience the greater rates of victimization and abuse. and that is one of the reasons that we called these two hearings together and because there is an overlap among these two populations that we cannot ignore from the statistics and i look forward to hear from the

representatives on these issues and in particular for the lgbtq issues for the first time on the homeless count, the survey response were asked to identify their sexual orientation and as the statistics will show you, 1 in 4 identified as lgbtq or other. and lgbtq members are experienced homelessness, also had a greater rate of disability when compared to their straight counter parts, we saw a greater percentage of individuals who identified as lgbtq who came outside of the city limits when compared to the other populations and we know that many come to the san francisco because of our tolerance for everyone, regardless any demographic, unfortunately, many in the lgbtq community experience greater rates of victimization solely based on their sexual orientation still, and as much as that shocks us in san francisco we have to be realistic about the friends and what we can do to prevent them

in the future, we have the stories of discrimination in the shelter systems and we need to do better. and today's hearing will dive deeper into the specific resources for the lgbtq population as well as for a transitional aged youth. we are going to have a number of speakers today, dufty is joining us and joyce from the human services and margo from the department of public health but i want to thank the co-sponsors of this hearing. and supervisor campos and weiner, i want to invite them if they have any comments up front to please feel free to voice them now before we hear from mr. dufty. >> great, thank you very much mr. chair and thank you to the members of the budget committee, and you know that serving on the budget committee is one of the most challenging tasks because of the intensity and the volume of the work, so we really appreciate the work that this committee is doing and will continue to do through the end of the budget process and we are here today to talk

about lgbtq homelessness, and to talk about transitional aged youth, and i do want to begin by thanking the chair of the committee, the committee chair and so for, the emphasis on the issue of homelessness, and the various hearings that he has held and i am very proud to be a co-sponsor of this hearing. the fact is that we as members of the lgbtq community have come very far, and today, it is a very special day for us. we will be celebrating later today, the dedication of the milk stamp here in city hall and it will be an important ceremony that we will be holding in this building, right with the bust overseeing that celebration. but, as much as we have a lot to celebrate, when it comes to the issue of homelessness, we in the lgbtq community have a lot to be worried about.

in specifically, we have to recognize that the issue of homelessness is a disproportionate problem within the lgbtq community. and right now, 29 percent of all homeless people, in san francisco, are lgbtq. and if you look at young people, and young people who are homeless, 40 percent of homeless youth are lgbtq. and i say earlier in the prior press conference that we had before the hearing, you know, how harvey used to talk about the kid and in pennsylvania and how coming out was important because you know he wanted to send a message to young people throughout the country and including that kid from pennsylvania that it is okay to be queer. but what is happening in san francisco, is that kid from pennsylvania and other parts of the country, is moving to san francisco. has come to san francisco. and because san francisco is a

safe harbor, it is a place for the people can be who they are and where a queer youth can feel that it is okay to be who they are. and because of that, because san francisco has been a becon for so long, we have so many young people that are coming to san francisco without any family, without any connections to the city, and they are homeless. and i do think that we have a responsibility as members of the lgbtq community and we have a responsibility as a city and as a city government, to make sure that we provide not only shelter, but that we provide the services for these young people. and so, the goal that has been outlined today, by the community, that has been working on the issue of homelessness, and lgbtq homelessness in particular, for so many years, is that within five years, that we reduce lgbtq homelessness, by 50 percent. and i believe that that is a goal that the city should

embrace, that is a goal that the lgbtq community should embrace and we as a community, specifically the lgbtq community to make that objective a top priority for our community and i think that embracing that goal is probably the most powerful thing that we can do today, as we celebrate the dedication of the harvey milk stamp, and i am very proud to be a part of this objective. and i really believe that it is possible for the city and county of san francisco to reduce lgbtq homelessness by 50 percent, within five years. and we are arguably the wealthiest city in the country and if anyone should be able to do this, it is san francisco. and so, we look forward to the conversation. and the last thing that i would say is that we have been working in the community

activist with dufty and other folks to open an lgbtq shelter and we are in the final stages of that as we are trying to finalize ada compliance and we are working with the mayor's office of disability and working with the department of building inspection to open this as soon as possible and this will happen soon, and even when that opens we are talking about a limited number of beds and it is not the answer, it is part of a solution. we have to do more than just build an lgbtq shelter, we have to address the root causes of homelessness, and that is why this hearing today is so important. thank you. >> thank you, supervisor campos. supervisor weiner? >> thank you. and mr. chairman and thank you very much for calling this hearing. and thank you for campos for your remarks. and i agree with them. we know that there is a myth of

lgbtq aflu ans and that our community is somehow healthy than other communities because we are less likely to have kids or whatever else or what other narratives are out there but we know that many in our community are not afluent and many struggle particularly in a city as expensive and challenging as san francisco. as wonderful as this city is, is challenging in a lot of ways, if you don't have the stable housing if you don't have city employment, and if you don't have a social or a family network, to support you, when you need support, and so, it is so critical that we as a community take care of our own. and that we are there, as a community, to support people who need this support and who need that safety net. and it manifests in our community in a number of ways and i agree that it is incredibly important to provide

particularly housing and job training but particularly housing for our youth. and we were able in last year's budget to get some additional rooms in the upper market area and we have to get it for the transition aged youth. and it is critically important and we have the various organizations that do wonderful work in terms of working with our lgbtq and in particular, and we need to make sure that we are supporting the work that they do in allowing them to do more of that work because the needs are so great. we also need to be very, very focused on our lgbtq senior population, which is growing. and supervisor campos and i co-authored the legislation to create the lgbtq aging task force, and that task force did absolutely fantastic work and came back to us with a series of recommendation and we are moving forward on some of them and now, some of them are

longer. and term, but, we are blessed to have a growing lgbtq senior population, that was not necessarily the case a few decades ago. when so many in our community were not living to see our older age. and we are seen now that people are living longer and healthier and we don't have the supports that we need for our growing lgbtq senior population. because we know that we have a lot of seniors, who are hanging on by their if finger nails and the rent controlled apartments and if they lose those apartments they are not going to have other good options. and we know that we have seniors, or people who are approaching senior status who have been on long term private disability, and because of hiv status. and who are going to experience a drop in income when they hit

62 or 65. and are forced on to social security. and that could be a difference between making rent and not making rent. and so we have this growing population, that has a lot of needs, that we have not focused on, enough, over the years. and we need to make sure that we are creating senior housing and we need to make sure that we are creating housing that may not be subsidized but that is going to be more affordable, and more physically accessible for an aging population such as inlaw units and we have to try a lot of different approaches to make sure that we can keep our population housed. and so i look forward to the discussion today and again, mr. chairman, thank you for convening this hearing. >> thank you, supervisor, weiner and supervisor avalos? >> thank you, chair farrell and i want to thank you, and the co-sponsors for this hearing as well. this is such an important subject that is or has brought a lot of people to the room and we also have had several other

hearings on the top of the homelessness in san francisco, and i am very grateful that we are looking at the great diversity of san francisco residents who are dealing with homelessness, and the lgbtq community, here today, and veterans here today or last week as well. and we have had the homeless family and we have had the people who are on the margins of living in the shelters and sros coming here and presenting that is really impressive and has been the voices of people who are actually struggling with the housing issues and we have come here today and all of the days past and i want to thank you all for being here and being part of this process. and i am very moved by this story of harvey milk. and talking with the young man from pennsylvania. and how that man was seeking hope in his life and that story resonates with me greatly in san francisco. is a sanctuary for many people for many, many reasons and it is also because of we are a sanctuary, or because we actually struggled with people

coming here from other places, finding their sanctuary, we are very compassionate city and a tolerant city and an accepting city and so i just want to you know voice my thanks for supervisor weiner for supervisor chair farrell for having this hearing today. and i want to make sure that we can have action that comes out of these series of hearings that we are putting resources where they need to go. and we are actually building all kinds of housing in san francisco and we are looking at our pipeline and be it for housing for family and for the youth and seniors and all of these need to be in the mix. what we have so far is not very dramatic, we need something very dramatic to save our populations here in san francisco and our low income and our communities of color and our queer communities so that we can see san francisco 20 years from now has diversity, i don't want it to be carm el by the sea, that is where we are heading to, that

the hearings are putting that movement and the motion into action and so hopefully we can have that come out of this hearing today. and we can have the ideas that are represented that can be brought forward with the ideas that come from the other hearings on homelessness and we can move this city forward, thank you. [ applause ] >> thank you, supervisor, avalos. and okay, at this point in time, i would like to have dufty, or director of hope come up to the podium and kicks things off. >> thank you, if i could ask the clerk to share these documents and i am very grateful for today's hearing and i would say that first off, when the homeless count was done, this past year, and the numbers came out because for the first time we asked the individuals identified as lgbtq, and the results were staggering. and they were staggering looking at 29 percent of our young people and, young adults being homeless identifying as

lgbtq. and more than that looking at adults and seniors and so basically these numbers were static across, whether you are an adult, senior, in san francisco, you were twice as likely to be homeless as members of the general population. and for many big cities, the numbers are high, for lgbtq young people, and you understand that. and you understand that many young people have to leave their homes. and examples that each of you gave, in your remarks. and but to see that that continues, for adult and for seniors, really demonstrates that the lgbtq people, experience homelessness in a different way and there are in fact, policy issues and we have shared with you some of the results from the questionnaire that we did at lgbtq connect and i want to thank the mayor and i want to thank the project homeless connect and the project of public health and where after these numbers came out in october and supervisors weiner and compass came and joined us and as did the mayor and we had well over 400

individuals come to the lgbtq 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