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 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