we shouldn't repeat and at the supplemental hearing that we had a couple of months ago i think i heard unanimous support for seriously addressing this permanent fix and it's to see we're having a hearing now and moving towards that. one thing there are a lot of nuisances and complications with this, but one thing that we can't do is neglect non-profit workers while we address this long-term fix. i do think that we may need to study and put together a working group to look into this in a more detailed way how we do something permanently but we need to establish a cost of living increase bridge that we can walk across while we get to this permanent fix that we will be discussing. non-profit workers -- if we're going to hear acknowledge this situation is real and going on we can acknowledge it in the future but

not address it in this budget year and the next budget year and i will say that the non-profit workers every year are doing amazing work with less and less money in their pockets and less money in the agency. i talked to non-profit workers. i never heard them say the requirements who we serve is going down because we didn't get an increase. the requirements stay the same and go down for the requirements and we need to provide those services. >> thank you. i will call some more names. [calling speaker names] mr. o saki. >> good afternoon supervisors. i'm here as co-chair of the api council as well as a member of the human service network. i am very pleased to be having this conversation not just about a conone time fixz but a solution

to the cost that non-profits have beening. supervisor mar summarized this issue succinctly and if the city values and wants these services we have to be willing to pay for what they cost. now the api council submitted to the mayor a cost of doing business proposal for 5% for the coming year and addressed prior years of getting zero or funding decreases as well as to address the impacts that have been mentioned today, the rising minimum wage, not just in terms of the direct costs but the indirect costs on employees in the organizations and i want to stress this point and that as pointed out earlier many of the non-profits look very differently and our structured differently and funded differently. my organization is funded through a blend of city funding but

federal and state funding so i think it's very important to take that into account that a one size fits all solution doesn't necessarily work for everybody that we have to be careful about strings that we attach to this. i know there has been mentions of performance measures and direct pathways to employees and it's important to keep in mind this issue has many levels. it's very complex and i urge us to take the time to review it carefully and come up with the best solutions so we can provide the best services to those that need it in san francisco. >> thank you. >> hi. i am rebecca and intensive case manager at hyde street community services and the out patient clinic in the central city. i know that one of the focuses is creating safety and we're talking today about hiring police. we're talking about a new jail, right, and i believe that we don't need those things to be a safe city.

i think what we need is make sure we're taking care of our workers and one way to do that is make sure that our non-profits are really taken care of. my agency is having a hard time staying open, right, and our salaries radio so much less than people. >> >> doing similar work in other arenas and we have to address that if we're going to make our city safer. we have outcome measures that show the longer the clients work with us the more likely they will be housed and connected to vocational programs and primary care and the outcome measures are there. we're doing good work but it's harder to do that work. we can't even afford to live here even more. even 3% doesn't account for the cost of living increases happening so if we can actually start to build some measures that make this work sustainable then i think we will see a safer city. i think we

will city -- like san francisco be this thing that we want it to be, and so i think that's something to really think about. i think always we should talk about like mobile crisis is having -- they should be the ones that are responding. we should have non-profit workers and case managers. like we should have enough people out there to respond to mental health emergencies and not rely on the hospitals and the police and jails and things like that so i hope you guys can create like a really beautiful and sustainable plan for non-profits. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is jane and i represent the non-profit sector for opeiu local three and i wanted to address directly something that i feel like we talk around a lot when we have these conversations about non-profit funding, and i

want to ask you to see the services provided by these community based agencies and these non-profit workers as services on par with the services provided by the workers who do wonderful work and are employees of the city of san francisco. the non-profit community based agencies are funded by the city and rightly so because they are community based. every survey ever done will tell you that services are accessed more frequently and more effectively and have better long-term outcomes when they're located and in and culturally competent within the community and all of you know you represent different populations, very different areas of the city and the folks in your district want services that speak to their needs and that's what our non-profit workers do, so the city needs to see those folks

as important as the city employees, their work as effective and as professional, so we're asking you to provide some leadership here and help us get to a long-term plan. i'm in agreement with folks who spoke about how complicated that plan might be. the need for that, the need for something going forward, so we're asking you to provide that leadership today, and to support and recognize the work of our non-profit folks. thank you very much. >> thank you. [applause] a couple more speakers. [calling speaker names] ms. adams. >> thank you. cheryl adams with larkin street and co-chair of the human services network. i

want to echo the comments that steve and john made and we greatly appreciate the hearing today and the opportunity to really talk about the complicated issues that face all of us in tries to address having a good cost of doing business increase or methodology for determining out of the budget process what that should be to sustain a healthy non-profit community that is providing critical services to vulnerable populations in san francisco. we are a diverse group of non-profit providers that provide an array of services and i think having both some mechanism for looking at how best to do that over time while addressing the immediate need for this budget upcoming year and the year following it to have some stability for the non-profit sector, so to have a cost-of-doing business increase -- i will go with john and 5% and api and have a process that actually addressing all of the

issues that come up when we try to have this dialogue and i support and appreciate this opportunity and look forward to continued dialogue. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. i am jonathan vernic and the executive director of baker places. i want to thank you again for having this hearing this afternoon and better than june 20 something and at that point normally this room is filled with people and there is a human cry and decisions are made, not really in the light of day but in the rush of too many need and too little time. i have worked for baker for over 30 years and baker places has been around for 50 years and we like many other organizations represented here have tried as best we can to respond to the changing needs of san francisco

and to the many social and cultural crises that have occurred over time whether that was the aids epidemic or the substance abuse crisis over time, the changing face of mental illness and a variety of other things and we come up with unique and creative and innovative programs that we take great pride in. for 10 years myself and my colleagues came every year simply to try to survive the year literally, to try to save programs, and what ben's graph doesn't really capture by drawing a straight line is the sense of uncertainty during all of those years as to whether or not specific programs would even survive, and now that we've gotten back to having a conversation about these things we encounter times when people look at us and say -- supervisors will look and say "you know we gave you something

last year." there needs a permanent fix, solution to the ongoing problem. that process doesn't work. these are serious long-term issues and the workers who provide the service to san francisco need to have a permanent solution to these problems. thank you for your time. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. i am with hamilton family center. i wanted to start out by sharing the waiting list for family homeless shelter hit a high mark of 287 families a few years ago and now down to 137 families and that is not due to a reduction in demand but due to hard work at our family center, catholic charities and other non-profits in the city and ts embarrassing frankly that we're not able to pay these workers a fair wage that allows them to stay in the

city that they have given so much to. a couple of facts i. ed to point out. >> >> yee you asked about the cost savings and contracting out with non-profits. a case manager and the fully loaded case working for the city is $140,000 a year and the fully cost at well paying non-profit is only about $80,000 a year. multiply that by the number of case managers that you're paying for and i think it's a significant amount of money that the sector is paying -- the non-profit sector is saving the government, but this shouldn't be done on the backs of workers. i think it's great we can save money and provide excellent services but should do so in a way that is fair. we're under a lot of pressure in the non-profit sector. some of you may know due to changes in the health care reform in january organizations that are between 50 and 100 employees are looking

at double digit increases in insurance and we can't increase wages with this and philanthropy isn't the answer and not to back fill government contracts and it helps the mission and be innovative and grow and be better. we look to you to solve this problem and i appreciate your time and interest in this topic. >> actually the numbers that you gave 140,000 versus 80,000 -- that's about a 40% -- you operate at 40% less than a city employee or department might operate under? >> i can't do the percentages in my head -- [laughter] but i know the $140,000 number is correct if you look into it and the $80,000 number comes from our own budget. >> thank you. [applause] >> next speaker. >> hi. my name is william camp nelo. i'm a crisis

counselor at progress foundation acute diversion unit called the avenues and member of the seiu. i have been working in the non-profit industry in san francisco for 15 years now and i never got into it for the money, but the fact is in those 15 years my salary has gone up almost zero in 15 years of working in the non-profit sector. now granted i could have taken an administrative job and sat in front of a computer all day but that's not what i want to do. i want to work with clients. not only has that been the fact but the fact is over that 15 years the a cue itd of the clients that i have been working with steadily increasing, increasing, increasing, increasing. we're dealing with people who are basically completely incapable of taking care of themselves

with very inadequate funding and a very inadequate infrastructure. the other thing i would like to point out is that that the san francisco department of public health has been providing these services now for many, many years and i laud them. there is no where else in the united states that provides services to the homeless and to the mentally ill that san francisco does, but the department of public health has been balancing their budget on the backs of non-profit workers now for a very long time, and i think it only fair that we get paid what they pay themselves, and even if it were within 20% which it isn't. now he mentioned earlier the speaker before me the difference in the case management costs. most of that difference is the salaries and it's just -- we work with

the most difficult -- we are on the front lines of the problems that all you have to do -- >> thank you so much sir. >> thank you. >> thank you. i'm going to call a few more names. [calling speaker names] those are all the cards that i have. next speaker. >> hello. i am vivian davis. i am here to represent baker places, non-profits specifically, jo roughin. we are a residential treatment center housing 16 people. a little bit on perspective. i recently moved here from out of state. i am from tulsa oklahoma and moved here in september and when i left the state i was making about $40,000 a year and

i know in tulsa the median income is about $47,000. i have a house and mortgage payment that is 550 a month and moving to san francisco and i love this beautiful city i expected to make a little more due to the cost of living but as a masters level licensed clinician i make $18.44 an hour and my rent is 2700 a month, so for the first time in my adult life i had to be financially self sufficient on my own. if i didn't have a partner here i'm not sure what i would do and it's a very vulnerable place to be and i love what i do and i love the non-profit work that i do but if any assistance would be greatly appreciated for the non-profit agencies. thank you. >> thank you ms. davis.

[applause] >> hi. my name is jordan wigins and with the local non-profit. i have been in this work for 15 years and i am here to reiterate that i think the 5% would help the case managers like myself very much so. i don't know if you know but we work -- as everybody said the most challenging clients, families and children in the city of san francisco, and other places as well. i feel that overall you have to take care of your workers period point blank and i work with a lot of people who are homeless and i make a running joke. maybe it's not funny to them but i am one paycheck from being homeless so i think the 5% will definitely help and i think that you guys should take a look at that. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, mr. bradshaw. >> hello supervisors. larry

bradshaw seiu 1021. i think we remember the wal-mart store that sponsored a food drive for needy families during the holidays and america was shocked that the recipients were full time workers at the same store and similar outrage that mcdonald's had a resource line for employees to call to find out what public assistance they qualify for. i think in san francisco we think we're more enlightened than these companies but we come to you every year to tell you that the policies regarding city funded non-profits is not more enleidenninged. we had a conference this weekend and the workers shared stories of the programs they administer and the same ones they qualify for based on income. we have a member working at the native american health center and what it's like to line up for the wic benefits

at her place of employment so as we talk about the permanent fix and i am thank will we're finally talking about a permanent fix we want to talk what it means to be a full time worker at a city funded non-profit that you qualify for the programs that you administer or that many non-profits do not offer family health care and the few that do offer health care it's about a thousand dollar per month which assuming $15 minimum wage is half your salary so as we move forward we would like to find a permanent fix that's dignified that's enlightened and something we can be proud of as san franciscans and we have better labor policy than some of the bad actors. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. name anymore is natalie nailer and i am the elected leader of

opeiu local three and i want to say i am extremely grateful to be speaking on this topic and not fighting to retain basic services and retain the jobs of our members so thank you. what i would like to stress today is now is the time to work on the permanent fix. local three, our members, our employers, we all are here to work together to create a permanent fix whether it be the convening of a task force to do that, but now is the time. also i would like to encourage while we're working on this that you consider the 5% cost of doing business increase. thank you. >> thank you want next speaker. >> >> hi. my name is kaitd lynn and the research coordinator with seiu 1021. it is high time that the city do right by non-profit workers and the city's moral imperative and the city can afford it and san

francisco is experiencing economic growth in the country and the controller's budget report that was just released projected an end year balance of $250 million but the people providing these critical services to san franciscans who need it the most they're not seeing any of that money. for the 10 year period cited inflationary costs have sky rocketed for non-profits and increased 143% for some cases and average rent in san francisco went over average of 80% and cpi increased 24% and the non-profits between 2009 and 12 received zero funding which basically is a cut and we're left every budget season during the process fighting for scraps and maybe getting 1.5% here and there and it's not sustainable and we need a permanent solution

to provide adequate stable funding for non-profits and as larry said we hear reports from the field of non-profit workers and reliant on the services they provide to their clients. it's a disgrace and i want to point out since we're talking about public safety later our members are providing public safety services in the true sense of the word and mental health care and supportive treatment and work force training. we don't need to invest in policing and incarceration but invest in services that benefit the communities. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> i am jessie and a mental health worker in the city. there was a question about how much funding goes into new services and how much used to maintain existing service and i took issue and made me think of the bay bridge and there is a new bridge but if you travel on the old one you would fall into the bay. if you think we can

provide the same services next year with the same money you're wrong and if you think we can provide the same services with stagnant funds over 10 years then you're deliberately dismantling the safety net and if you need proof of this you can look at the increasing number of san franciscans that end up in jails and you can talk to any non-profit worker and one paycheck away from falling into the safety net they're trying to maintain or walk across to hyde street and why are there mentally ill people living in the shadow of city hall and i encourage you to ask yourself what san francisco you're living in. thanks. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon. supervisors. i am seiu 1021 and also a non-profit work everybody here in san francisco.

>> >> i want to thank you for giving us the space and public comment and time to come up and speak. i know i have been here before to advocate for non-profits and years ago for myself and make sure my job wasn't cut when things were really bad but as you see today we have many different parties involved and wanting to find a permanent solution. there has been talk about doing working group or a task force or personally i feel i have been part of a task force and working group over the last decade with the people in the chamber today and what do we do with the large non-profit industry that san francisco created for good reason and provide the services that we do and if someone is working in a non-profit sector i think this goes a long way. right. this helps our community

and makes san francisco what it is and now is the time to put the extra effort in to look out for us and help us out as workers and we know what are the services need to be given and we're at them everyday but honesty i i am speaking as a worker and we need to being looking at as well and when i come from my house and out here and i find low wage workers everywhere and not just fast food and fighting hard and non-profits and working two, three jobs and all of this work and we're seeing a lot of that in the non-profits and a brother spoke earlier and one paycheck missing from receiving the services and being on the street and that's the first thing i learned working in non-profits 10 years ago and that is still evident today and still real so find a permanent solution and make this happen. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> good afternoon supervisors. thanks for holding this hearing. san francisco is facing an affordability crisis and it's now one of the most expensive cities in the nation to live and work. median rental -- rent has increased to $4,021 and non-profit wages have remained flaft for years and still never caught up from the recession and meanwhile for profit contractor's wages increase automatically every year. and this is highlighted by for profit contractors and minimum wage is $13 two and nonprofits is a dollar less. that is unacceptable. thousands of our non-profit members continue to earn poverty wages, pay thousands of dollars for health care, do not receive a pension.

every year we come to you to ask you to give us a handout while the for profits never have to do that. that inequity, that injustice has to end and we think the time to end that is now. we don't have too much time. we are tired of going through this process every year. i'm sure you're tired of it too and tired of seeing us here so we're asking you to fix this finally and asking to you fix it now. these folks deserve nothing less. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] also bobby blackman from the tenderloin housing clinic and anyone else that would like to speak we're going to wrap up public comment in a moment so please come forward. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. thank you so much for the opportunity once again. i am a member of the opieu local three. i came last time because in

front of you guys last time just to help us move forward to all that we have so you know all the services the city give to us, like -- [inaudible] higher and higher. and also the rent is getting high so we as employees have a really hard time trying to get to work and [inaudible] ourselves. i want to know how the city can function -- we call san francisco one day without non-profits, so let's see -- let's put a test. let's shut down all of the system and the non-profit organizations for one day and see what happens and that's not our intention. the intention is to help you do this budget better. the 5% increase would really help us to serve and also it would help us as a members, the entire non-profit

organizations to be a better person. we are better people and [inaudible] who we are. we are people united. we are people with really good heart. san francisco is very kind city and also the people who represent to us. you supervisors really, really are doing hard work but at the same time we need an extra mile to outreach or to reach what we really need. i just want to say thank you for your support all this time doing for of us and i hope i don't see you next year asking for more money. thank you so much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi. my name is stephanie lay and i have spoken here before and a current employee at edge wood and i don't want to bring that up because it distracted from the conversation and they're funded and they don't need me here and i am here on behalf of the teamsters and