tv [untitled] July 17, 2014 4:30pm-5:01pm PDT
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heritage foundation. i'm in support of the housing balance measure that's been introduced by supervisor kim. majority of san franciscans now are overwhelmingly rent burdened. 43 percent of all san francisco house hoeltdz -- households are rent burdened. individuals are paying more than their income on rent. not to mention the burden on elders, the impending fear of evictions that have plagued our city while at the same time you have developers and you have speculators that are totally oblivious to this crisis and we are shouldering as working people the majority of this tremendous burden. i
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think 30 percent as previous speakers said is moderate. we definitely need more. contrary to popular belief by some folks, building market rate housing is not going to bring down the rate for housing. we need to bring accountability in this process. there are elements in this city. they are acting with complete impunity and lack of regard. quite frankly the real estate industry, is completely immoral and causing much pain and much damage to a community. i speak as a fifth generation san franciscans. thank you very much.
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>> good afternoon, supervisors. a nice long meeting today. exciting immediate. my name is connie ford. i just want to say three things quickly. one thing about the idea of affordable housing and housing plan for the whole city, this begins to address that. it takes care of families up to 120 percent ami. 120 percent ami is two teachers and a child. it's many of our union members who would qualify for that. so if there are supervisors who would like that am i to go higher, i don't know why you wouldn't address that in the future because i would support it as well. this is the first step in the process we are trying to address here. the sending point about the
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diversity of our city and the importance of that, it's not only the racial diversity, the gender diversity, the economic diversity. we have all lived here for decades. this is a place where it's just for the rich and poor. this is a measure that will begin to address it. it doesn't solve all the problems but begins to address this. we have to act now. this david binder, this poll, to pass it out. this is a great poll. it reminds me of the minimum wage poll that happened last january and created this whole movement where we were this afternoon with the minimum wage. this is a good poll. san francisco likes this idea. i think we should go forward. thank you. >> hello, my name is harvey
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lang. i work for san francisco housing. i'm a laborer and with housing for 25 years. this has to do with asking for a meeting with the district attorney on fraud. this is what i would like a meeting on and related to other things. >> this item is on the housing balance measure. >> it has to do with building as well. >> okay. we ask the comment is limited to housing balance, the legislation before us.
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>> i'm make mac tosh. we are talking about labor and talking about corporate fraud. it's time for a change-up in here. everyone counts. as many people have said it. we are calling for a meeting. it is very important that we get meeting. if we don't we have to do legally what we have to do. >> thank you supervisor kim for introducing this. i campaigned for you a long time ago when you were running. i'm glad to see these kind of measures being brought up. i guess we all know i have seen
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a lot of propaganda from oil companies and how people can be swayed the wrong-way. i have seen it here with the gmo thing that happened in california. i was surprised that didn't pass. i want to make sure this measure passes. when i go to other cities, i see more of the diversities that i'm comfortable with. i want the art community, the non-profits, the activist, i want to see them stick around.
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a lot of them move to oakland. when my friends say they want to move here, i say don't. it's not what it used to be. it's changing. it's losing it's flavor. i'm glad these measures are brought up and i want to support it anyway i can. thank you >> good afternoon supervisors. i'm here to talk about the housing balance. we need more affordable housing for families, seniors, disabled. we don't need condominiums. we need real housing for families and disabled and seniors because where are they going to be? they are going to be in the street. we need affordable housing. no more
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condominiums, okay. >> thank you. before our next speaker, i want to call five more cards. >> i'm here to support what you have done today in terms of minimum wage and 30 percent balancing. i'm hoping that they both pass. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is stephanie with the after school program. the kids behind me are the youth that attend the program. they also live in the south of market.
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i stand behind them and behind the faces behind me. i think this is a very pressing issue and it needs to be resolved for the kids who live in this city who want to continue to live in this city. if we could not revolve it now, how can we revolve it for the youth. i'm representing michael who wanted to speak about affordable housing. >> my name is michael ruiz and i go to west bay in soma. i'm here to support the act for affordable housing. everyone has a personal story. everyone knows someone who capital afford to creator maintain a life here. we need a long term commitment to improve urban planning that doesn't just make money, but built to
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create sustainable communities in my neighborhood. >> good afternoon supervisors. thank you for having us. district 9 resident. i'm here today to add my support in favor of the housing balance measure. i think it's very important. it goes hand in hand with the $15 minimum wage. we are facing inequity problem and even personally myself, i haven't lived in this city without a roommate. right now i'm living with three people and that's the lowest amount of people i have lived with in san francisco. i have had up to six roommates. you know, honestly, i'm lucky when i think about it. when i think about there are people
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7 people living in a room at any given day. i think about that and i think that's really really sad. so supporting something like this would be quite helpful for our city. it's something to weigh on. this particular measure in question is to go for. i would stress the unanimous support. anyway, thank you again for your support. i want to say myself, supervisors daughter, i'm going to be married in a year and i would like to stay in san francisco with my wife and have an actual place to call home. that's something to think about too. there are a lot of people that really love this city and we would love to stay here. thanks again. >> thank you and congratulations on your
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engagement. >> good afternoon, my name is kathy lip skon and i'm involved with senior disability and ace. it's very touching to see so many young people here. thank you supervisor who helped this get on the ballot and all the circumstances -- years of work you put into this. i'm glad you are mentioning this housing element. it says that 60 percent of all new development should be for very low and motion derate -- moderate income people. this is a motion dest one. it takes account affordability and sunshine. i think this administration was very cavalier and careless and in sensitive to let the tech
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companies come in with a big tax break, maybe there is a big plus to that but not taking into account where the thousand of these workers were going to live. you can't say the workers and the tech industry did so much. but the speculators saw something very right for picking and they came after our rent control units where a lot of elderly and people of color were living. i look at this new housing affordability floor where the new minimum wage floor. this is something upon which we have to build and fight for. i think we will. thank you so much. >> i'm charlie and a long time resident of the bayview. i have lived there for over 30 years. i'm here to support this affordable housing act.
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i see the damage that it's causing and i see how the bayview has changed, how the whole every san francisco is changing. my neighbor on the left she was a senior citizen and she was a foster care provider for special needs children. and my grandchildren and i watched the sheriff come over and get the locksmith and changed the locks and i haven't seen her since. that was two 2 weeks ago. my grandchildren ask, is that going to happen to us? my neighbor on the right, her landlord wants to raise the rent $1,000. who can pay that extra because the landlord wants you to move and you don't want to move. that is
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just not right. i'm here to ask you to please pass this legislation so that everyone in san francisco that wants to be in san francisco can stay in san francisco. they have been talking and talking about the out migration of the african american from san francisco and talking about is good, but this legislation can do something about it. thank you. >> hello. my name is santiago lerma. i live in mission in the epicenter of all the new development and controversy. as i was standing up there deciding what to talk about, it made me realize that everything i have worked for and what i have done in the city has been the work for
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the community and with people in san francisco. as i was standing there it made me reflect on my own situation. i have a law degree, i have a good job and i have a good future. but, that being said, i don't have a future in san francisco. because i don't know, my feet are not grounded on the ground because there is no where for me to go. i live in a rent controlled apartment. hopefully we are able to maintain that. what i really ask you to consider is that there are very many people in need but also people like me who want to work hard for the people in san francisco and want to work hard for a place in san francisco that is a destination all over the world and a place that produces ideas and innovation and when we protect the intention of
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wealthy people, that takes away from people like me and others who want to fore go the big pay checks and really work for the community. when making the decisions for this committee, please consider the future of the people who are making this city grow and change. we all want to be here and we all deserve a place. thank you. >> thank you. before our next speaker, i want to call up five more speaker cards. >> good afternoon. my name is pat valentino. i'm a district 6 resident. i strongly support building more affordable housing, more middle income
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housing. hopefully we can get more than 30 percent. i support the anti-speculation tax. i think it's an important move. i support all tax reform. my biggest concern is that we've got to focus on funding, the additional production of affordable housing. i agree with the goals of supervisor kim's balancing measure. i think it's a very thoughtful measure. i'm concerned that as a ballot measure, it gives hope but not a specific solution to funding the additional production. i would hope we can come back and support a legislative big 10 solution that identifies specific funding measures to create more affordable housing and more middle income housing. there is this idea of the housing bond of this next election. i think that would be very important because it would take in funds from the
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additional market rate production and turn those around and provide a funding source for affordable housing. i do appreciate the effort and thoughtfulness and intent. i think we all want the same thing. let's go greater than 30 percent. >> good afternoon. >> we have seen firsthand the effects of gentrification within our workforce about 10 years ago skwooif -- 65 percent of our workers people
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are commuting from sacramento and stockton and one of the most heartbreaking things that i have seen is that many of our workers, our lowest paid workers particularly who worked night shift in the hospitals would pull their resources together and they will rent a studio apartment and go there and sleep because they are too tired to go home after their shift. this is in humane when asking people to do this.
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>> i fully support this. i was hoping for this for so many years. i certainly hoped for at least that long. actually i helped work with jim with the western soma plan and we talked about improving the code. i'm glad that the planning code will help with more affordable housing. i also want to say what patrick valentino said about the bond that will pay for affordable housing. making a provision in the code is one thing but to make the money, to finance it is to really make it a reality. while this is not about the housing bond. i hope in the future that there will be thought given to having to pay for this. thanks for your
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time. >> thank you. i would like to call up the remaining speakers. james ward, marian and los atonya jones. if you haven't filled out a speaker card. please feel free to lineup. >> hello. i'm a member -- i come here to support the housing balance. this has already been mentioned already. i would like to say we ended up on affordable housing for everybody. >> thank you.
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>> my name is james ward. i have lived in sixth district where i also served on the council for a while. my fixed income is 55 percent of that income. it's hard to live with that. it's over half of what i bring into house goes out for my rent. my mother worked for entrance america until she died. she had to move out of richmond and across the bay to san ramon and i watched her almost die driving. as a middle class woman, we can't lose the middle class. right now we are a tourist city and most of our industry is service. most people can't live in the city they work in. half the people in this
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building that work here can't afford to live here. i have worked for 30 years before -- i lived at golden gate park for 7 years. i was never homeless but i was house less. it has to be 35 percent for low income, 35 percent for the middle income. have about 10 percent for the upper people and there is extra that can go to the moderately wealthy. [ spanish speaker ] >> good afternoon, my name is miriam. we have some things
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appreciate the presentation done earlier on the measure. it would be great if i can get a copy because some of it was really fuzzy on the screen here. i guess what i'm seeing is the most important thing is the housing balance requirement in the 30 percent piece. as someone who mostly in san francisco to seek a better place it's very important because i actually grew up in the city of las vegas. if you know anything there about development and housing, it's straight up the wild west of development. they will build something one 1 day and 10 years later they will implode it and make a show out of it and build again. but what they don't tell you that kind of constant development and lack of care for the people that live there have a huge impact on the community. i grew up there as a kid not
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knowing what a community meant. it took me going to san francisco and living here and becoming part of this community to understand what that meant how diversity and how we look out for each other and care for each other. i talk to my mom, she says whatever san francisco does we hear about it here and phoenix. my family is in the rest of the country because san francisco shows that it cares about it's community and does a lot for it. i think this proposal ballot measure that will do a good thing and put us away from a place that i think is very unregulated development. and one we actually go on the line to say this is important in san francisco. people are had -- here and it's a way to have public comment and being accountable to the entire community. i want to see it in november so i can vote for it.
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>> good afternoon. my name is -- i have moved here over 23 years. i was in the m igs district and was a victim of owner eviction which displaced me for several months. it was the most terrifying point of my life to be female and homeless. currently i organize the community center which depends on donations of people and many of those people are working class and middle class in the city that have supported my work and supported what i have done. i recently have experienced a rent increase and i wasn't sure how i was going to handle that until someone came along
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and said i will cover your rent increase. i'm a lucky san franciscans and lucky advocate that someone is willing to help me with my rent increase. i just paid today. i wonder how i'm going to pay that next month without your support. i want to thank everyone for bringing this forward. it reminds me what seattle said, still seven 7 generations ahead, i'm not sure the mayor's plan is. thank you for hearing me. >> i was once evicted and all my stuff ended up in the dumpster. i have lost everything and it was devastating. it
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