want to thank everybody, thank episcopal community services and that's it. >> thank you very much. [applause] >> hi. good morning. my name is jennifer and i'm the executive director on the coalition of homelessness. this is bittersweet time are for the hearing to take place when we have the massive displacement on division street as we speak displacement from the areas around division street because in many ways the navigation center is an example of how to address encampments in a humane way and grew out of a 2012 experience on king street where an encampment was located with dignity where the residents were engaged and involved and transparent communication and timelines. the group was moved to the church and 100% successfully housed, storage containers provided,

relationships were respected and pets came and very different from division street. instead of utilizing new resources like on king street pea 80 which was meant to be a rain shelter for the 700 people waiting for shelter in san francisco and the general population and taken away and given to the folks at division street. no communication, no relocation plan. half of the beds -- we had 300 people at division street and 150 beds at pier 80 so moving forward we're looking at navigation centers which are highly anticipated. we must also remember we have 6800 people passing through the traditional shelter system last year and they are stuck without exits of the system and in between stays on the streets. on division street we spent a lot time dialoguing with folks and didn't meet anyone that wouldn't jump at the chance to

go to the navigation center and around the services and the housing that needs to be replicated not just the new navigation centers but for the entire shelter system and move people along and want to see a sustained commitment, progressive revenue that we can move forward with this. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> hi. my name is laura flat erty and the executive director of the grub i don't project and it's an independent space and not a shelter. it's refuge and safe place to stop and get service. when i started there were 60 people each day in the tenderloin sleeping and today there is 150 and another hundred coming for

services. we're full. we opened up site in the mission, saipt johns about a block half from the navigation center. yesterday there were 40 people sleeping there during the day. 90% of the people staying with us say they sleep on the streets at night. 85% self identify as having a disability. we have a guest staff ratio of 1- 60. why are people staying with, sleeping on the pews of a church which believe me are not comfortable? they don't go to the shelters because they can't get in because there's that waiting list of 700 but they feel it ends. supervisor farrell i wanted you to say "my folks." they want housing and drug and alcohol treatment, want mental health. everyday we have requests. how do i get to the navigation center? how do i get to pier 80? they have heard

the hype. they want to be housed. if they could go to msc south or next door they would go and put on the name on the list so what i want to advocate for instead of more navigation centers let's have more navigation center-effect services. let's have the staff guest ratios and the navigation center-esk exits for folks. thank you very much. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> good morning. i think it's now afternoon -- >> real quick so we know so we can get through public comment. we have a tradition that clapping is not allowed in the board chambers. you can wave your hands or signs. that's fine but we want to get through and have everyone have a fair two minutes. >> good afternoon supervisors. thanks for the opportunity to talk about this important issue. i'm bill herch with the aids referral panel and it's not

terribly surprising when there are additional resources directed at a service like emergency shelter that there are greater successful outcomes. we're not surprised. i hope you're not surprised. we need to resource the entire system. i want to express my frustration that there has been a lack of dialogue with the city around solutions to homelessness. the homeless emergency service providers has been working for years with some comprehensive solutions and has had very little transaction with the mayor's office to advance the solutions. i want to say that we need to put more money into prevention. there are many legal services providers who are completely overwhelmed with the number of evictions that are coming into their offices. we could do more to keep people in their current affordable housing with resources, and the final

point is around exits. the city needs to establish its own equivalent of a section 8 program where we use local dollars to subsidize people who aren't really not able to afford housing on the open market. it's not too hard to understand that people cannot afford housing, and the federal government is not stepping up so we need the city to step up. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon. my name is daniel hill and thank you for hearing us. i am here from korean senior center and here to support in the luxury of strategies that were employed at the navigation center to be spread throughout the existing system. we serve

approximately 675 homeless seniors today. out of that number we have one into the navigation center. we have 674 to go. but we offer medical clinic, case management, substance use and mental health programs. we also have a dining room. we believe that we like many other clinics and drop in centers and shelters and neighborhood agencies are already to a great extent navigation centers. we do tremendous work for the people in need. let's see. i wanted just to pull out one example. the week before christmas i sat with a homeless client of ours in the clinic and the rains were coming and lost the shelter after two days in the hospital. we couldn't get him to a senior bed shelter and was too fragile

to go to a shelter and went to a hotel and spent $200 for the night and when i told him what hotel on the corner of eddie and polk was charging that? and asked the elder it must have been the bulk of the money and it was all he had and took six months to get all of the things that he needed and into a substance abuse program. we got him on one housing wait list. we were notified yesterday he was number 2224 on the sceern -- wait list -- >> thank you simplt i appreciate it. >> [inaudible] >> thank you very much. we're limiting this to two minutes to everyone so we're fair to everyone. thank you. >> the true and correct way to take care of the homeless program for people on low income and fixed income problems and

first we have poor management and supervision of the taxpayers money. high-tech companies like twitter owe the city and getting tax breaks and twitter and other high-tech companies cost the 33 over $33 million in the year 2014 and this information comes from the tax collector and says it costs the city 6.1 dollars in previous years (paused). from the twitter organization because twitter has their own in house tax payroll company. more over the city spends a million dollars a month for the shelter system at pier 80. homeless people don't need more shelter homeless programs. they need

permanent housing and about the $310 million housing grant that the mayor hand odd when you asked where the money is going. that money is going for proposition d and 5m projects and those projects where the land use committee is advertising [inaudible] low income housing. the truth of the matter is 10% of the 40% pie is going to income people in high brackets making $122,000 a year. since when does a person making that much money needs to be part of a low income affordable housing program? and 2% of that overall pie goes to people that's just making $36,000 a year. more over the mayor is talking he wants all departments to focus in on the budget because of the negative cash flow -- >> thank you sir. >> [inaudible] >> thank you sir. next speaker sir. i'm going to call a number of other speaker cards

and you can line up. [calling speaker names] >> good morning supervisors. i wanted to speak with supervisor campos because he hit it right. we need the programs right now and the longer goes the worse it will get. i am homeless myself. i'm not using the services but i know the people on the streets and the thing of it is you don't know what homelessness is until you're out on the streets. go sleep on the streets for a week and a half, two weeks. people treat homeless people like they're not constituents. this is not russia. this is the united states of america. navigation centers resocial them. that's why they work. these shelters -- it's like i

would rather be in prison than a shelter and there are so many rules and obligations and hard to stay there and they need to put them in habitable housing and not sros like the henry and settle for 2500 and not habitable and they're taking advantage of people and mental health issues. you know it's against the law to take advantage of people with mental health issues. you can go to jail for it and they take advantage of them. you need to get it together. you're the supervisors, go ahead and supervisor. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good morning. my name is wendy click and from hospitality house. i am excited about the success that the navigation centers is doing. if we had the funding and resources for other agencies and organizations that were established in the city where could we be? we wouldn't be hearing about the tent city sweeps. we would have people

housed and hose that don't have homes. people that come to san francisco don't come to sleep on the street. they come here to get escape from violent environments in the homes or be part of the lgbt community but instead they're passing out home ward bound certificates for them to go back to the same place they came before so what are we doing as a community saying it's safe to come to san francisco but we're going to give you a certificate to go back to where you came from. by expanding the resources and giving 16 housing slots for one navigation center bed we would have so many people off the streets and people that are in shelters and funding for housing case management already established agencies we wouldn't be hearing about any of these homeless beings so please stop the vicious cycle and give resources and funding to the ones that are already established in the city. thank you. >> thank you very much. next

speaker please. >> thank you supervisors. my name is julie and i also work at hospitality house which you know is a drop in. we also have a shelter. we work with folks in the tenderloin and i am encouraged by what i heard today. i am really glad this issue is moving towards a priority and i heard a lot of the solutions in the presentations today. staffing was a huge one. that was more staff the navigation center could help more clients more quickly and exits and also housing. that's what we need is affordable housing in the city and i heard the question asked how could the board of supervisors help? so i think that is more of a long-term solution so looking at the policy you all support that includes not allowing the police to sweep people off the street when there is nowhere to go. that includes supporting affordable housing. that

includes funding non-profit workers. i think another big key is i hrld a lot of frustration about where we will have the next navigation centers? and i want to remind you all that we have shelters and we have drop in centers that already have space. we have clients and what we need is more resources so we can do better by the community. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good morning and thank you for holding this hearing. my name is jordan davis and i'm just a local concerned citizen and i was exited from the navigation center so i have experience here. first i think the navigation center should be emulated everywhere and the old model be dispensed of. the fact there are no ridiculous rules and laid back atmosphere drove me to accept shelter after six months on the street coming from the east coast and i believe one should be set aside for women

only. men out numbered women three to one and resulted in complications including harassment. women are under served and high better the we're more likely to economically deprivileged and especially transgender and women of color and there is a bias in the systems. the other concern is lack of stable exit options other than the tenderloin housing clinic. a person living in my dorm was on the street for years after unfairly evicted and they were trying to get the individual back in the agency. the concerns of the tenderloin housing clinic are not limited not pay by check, shortage of bathrooms, pets and problems and a lot of convicted rapists live and violence against the lgbt community. we need more

options for exits. there should be more options for exits, better options for exits and of course i was like removed from the navigation center because i wouldn't go into a thc building and i just want to conclude by saying to all the stakeholders here and especially those running hope are you for the people you serve or for lining randy shaw's pockets? thank you. >> thsh. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. i'm matt and the program manager at the [inaudible] referral center on larkin street and say thank you to supervisor breed for expanding the program and the daily program and outreach and supporting a housing first program called taking it to the streets. i would like to highlight the need for continuing progress of the navigation centers. there's a definite need for navigation centers specially in the haight that prioritizes homeless youth and we have el nino shelter beds

they're actively using and once they're used to be housed they want to expand their surroundings and engage in the programs. i want to emphasize the programs and finding a spot for the homeless youth alliance and operate on the street and homeless themselves and youth specific programs and addressing behavior heal and mental health programs and i would like to have services with pets and the population in the haight and there is a value in understanding the trauma one experiences while being homeless and not punishing clients and work with a restorative justice model approach and emphasizes the community and value and respect and from trauma informed care and i want to remind everyone that homeless people are community members as well and they can be someone's old roommate, a son, a daughter, a

brother, a mom or a dad. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is jose and i'm at bilingual case management at the shelter program. i want to commend and applaud the success of the navigation center. it certainly is something that's needed in the city and i applaud everyone on the ground and behind the scenes. i want to advocate for the shelter residents in the shlter. at our shelter we have a number of senior citizens. we have transitional youth. we have members of the lgbt community. we have refugees. we have people with dual diagnosis and severe mental health issues. we have all these things and we have but one case manager assigned to work all of that.

as much as i advocate for them, as much i get on the phone and write letters and utilize and tap into the resources that we have available the resources are scarce. and i am literally watching people die in front of me, and the only thing they want to encourage you to look into is to allocating some of the resources at the navigation center that is utilizing and putting those over to the existing shelters, the drop in centers, the existing organizations that have been on the ground for a long time. you know i just want to really, really encourage that. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> hello. i'm standing here today really baffled. with the success of the navigation center it's beautiful. i heard that but everything -- the last two

hours has been like listening to charlie brown's teacher. i am wondering do i have to go climb into a tent and hope that the hot team finds me before going to a navigation center? is that the only way i will get help? can i go to work or school and still get support in this city? i mean i do have to be completely homeless on the sidewalk? because that's all i am hearing this morning. there are street people and there are homeless people. street people want to be on the street. homeless people have a situation. what about resources for them? can i raise my hand and get help in the city? and i see a lot of successful people and you talked about the five year thing earlier. you put it up on the screen. imagine anybody in this room with house keys right now giving up the keys for five years. i don't want to be part of that statistic. i want some assistance and i want it now and i know it's here so i am asking

what do we do? are we talking to the right people now or spinning our wheels and running our mouth? thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello supervisors. margenglish executive director of the st. paul society. we manage and staff the shelter -- on fifth and bryant. we have a drop in center on fifth and bryant and we are staffing the pier 80 winter shelter. with that as context i want to mimic what everyone is saying and the head and heart seem to be coming together in the room today. when the controller's report tells you what the social service providers are telling you. replicate these services in the existing infrastructure and you will see results. i have been in my role for two year and the success i had and how far we have come. two years ago i had to beg for a crisis center intervention iftd for

the drop in center. begged that role. joe donahue is doing so much and created bandwidth so that our supportive services team which is two for all these 410 people are on corny of fifth and bryant in need and built in bandwidth and 30 exits to housing stable and permanent instead of being on a corner and it's evidence these services work so remember there are drop in centers and shelters that need these services. thank you very much. >> thank you. next speaker. >> thank you supervisors. michael kirby. i'm a long-term homeless senior with a life-threatening condition. you all need to keep things in perspective. the amount of money spent on homelessness is only 2.5% of the budget of the city of san francisco. okay.

i have been languishing in shelters for fricken years waiting for another place to live. i have watched my friends die on the street because they're seniors that gave up trying to navigate the shelter system or the 311 system. i spend at minimum of five weeks at a time on the street while waiting for another shelter bed through the winter. [inaudible] life-threatening condition. would you want your daughter treated that way? okay. if we open the budget to 4% we did do it folks. if the state of utah can do it, if the city of seattle can do it damn it san francisco can do it. >> thank you. next speaker

please. [applause] >> good morning supervisors. name theresa del lacruz and a pier advocate and i work in the shelter system and you know i really want to congratulate everyone on the navigation centers. they're a great success, but i would like to see that in the shelters we currently have because you guys can't forget about the residents that are in the shelters who have been accessing these shelters for a lot of years. they have been homeless for a lot of years. they have mental health issues, physical issues. they're seniors and the shelter beds are only for four months, so they're being retraumatized every four months because they're homeless again. they have to stand in line everyday for five weeks for a one night

bed. some people give up because flare they're seniors or not in the healthy. >> >> they can't physically make it everyday to get in line. how many more people do we have to see die? you know six months -- we are in a state of emergency. six months for another navigation center? how many people are going make it six months? so thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi. good afternoon supervisors. thanks to those looking at when we're talking. we appreciate that. thanks for having this hearing and thanks to everybody who has been working on this issue. we really appreciate the focus. today i wanted to talk about the tale of two shelter systems and you heard about this and i

fully support the navigation center model definitely having a place to go. they have plent of space. it's plexible and -- flexible and the p's and guarantee to exit to housing. that's what every shelter should be. and for the 75 people at a time that have the flexibility and case management on site making phone calls for them getting into housing there is no question about the navigation center is successful and contrast this with the traditional shelter system where people wait for months to get in and wait longer to get out because there are few housing slots and few case management services. yesterday i looked we had 689 single adults on the waiting list for a shelter beand we know we have 1200 adults languishing in shelters waiting for the shelter slot heading

our way. they have increased when the navigation centers came on line and the slots focused on the navigation centers. we're begging to you make an investment here. to expand what we heard as a national model citywide. can we do it citywide for all of the shelters and drop in center that need support. we take people in even though we can't guarantee housing but we would see outcome focus we have an investment of real support. this is a budget committee and looking for it this year and thank you very much. >> thank you very much. i ask again not to do clapping. thank you so we can get through. [calling speaker names] thanks. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is [inaudible] and the public policy manager at

community partnership and staff to the housing providers network which si collaborative of providers with over 20 years of experience in this field. we heard today about exits and supportive housing so i want to reiterate what was said earlier. we need housing to address homelessness. we value and want to advocate for housing across the spectrum access to housing will allow for providers to meet people where they are, allow for people to get into supportive housing which is non-profit owned and ensure we're closer to achieving equity in san francisco and increasing the supply of shelters to enriched housing is necessary. >> thank you. next speaker please. i will call more speakers. [calling speaker names] >> all right. my name is kelly cutler and a human rights

organizer with the coalition on homelessness and actually account for the shelter right now the wait list is 702 so it went up and i have been doing outreach down on division since last summer because we started hearing concerns and i hear people are service resistant or trying to convince them. that's just not true. people are out there and they're wanting help and pleading for help and what has been going on down there with the sweeps and everything has been just shameful and so yesterday i started off with people with tears, seniors with disabilities, they're just crying because they're traumatized on top of what they're experiencing and the question is where should we go and there is no answer to that and yes we are getting folks in

with pier 80 and the [inaudible] center and they're thrilled about that but another thing with pier 80 it went out in the media and we're dealing with this at every meeting that comes up. the media -- okay there is 150 spots but only 20 people went but we need to be honest about it because they have to get things together so the capacity they could take in was 20 which is understandable. you know it's a process, but they're putting out -- not them necessarily but general going out to the media and people are refusing services. there are 150 but only 20 went. it's not true. people are wanting help and they need it. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> laura guzman. good morning, good afternoon. i have the benefit of being a resource director as well as a navigation center partner so i can attest to the fact that we need to

replicate the navigation center and our resource center in the shelters because it worked when the mayor's office invited us to be partners because of the expertise we took the challenge because we would work with the homeless that were for ten years or more because the city wasn't paying attention and i want them to pay attention and i did it last week supervisor farrell and [inaudible] and exceptions of yourself and supervisor jane kim they are not giving attention to the issues and supervisor tang as well. it's time that they step up to really look at this issue so we can have a comprehensive answer. by the way we had [inaudible] obama administration saying to us because we got his attention for the navigation center but we also hear best practices he said let's replicate it throughout the united states the navigation center model. let's do it in

san francisco. we have enough people that we need to serve. your challenge would be to find out how many more millions we need not and just 2% of the budget that the homeless in san francisco is rare and episodic. >> thank you. come on up. a number of other speaker cards. [calling speaker names] >> good morning. my name is michael [inaudible] and the director -- [inaudible] veterans rights group and we run a drop in program and have a number of housing slots but besides our residential treatment beds and housing i want to say that veterans is -- [inaudible] in san francisco benefited from this investment into the subsidized housing casted the units and supportive service for veterans -- i'm sorry section 8

subsidy for vets and the success wouldn't have been possible without the coordination of the city and the funds were leveraged and the coordination was made possible and we had good ruts and i say that when you invest in the resources and pull the community together with the expertise out here it can make a real difference and if we can invest in the shelter system as a whole and the exits are there and we build the resources we will have -- again we're going to make a big difference. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please and last speaker cards i have. [calling speaker names] >> i'm bin min [inaudible] and one of the worker bees there. what i do as a veteran i work for theless veterans and sam

dodge has been generous giving locations and we were at division before being cleared out. we did the processing and fortunate that the team came out and pointed out the veteran and the hot team got him to pier 80. all of the agencies came out and it was good for the team and with the navigation center last summer someone from the veterans administration needed someone to escorted to dmv and we got them there and the staff and taxpayers there were very understanding of the people we brought because they were not so quite pleasant to be with but with all of the agencies coming together, the navigation center, we're able to help veterans and get them off the streets and anything that would expand the model like

with st. vincent de paul is wonderful and worked with sf start at the shelter as well. there's a lot resources here and generous with the time and everyone has always been helpful starting with sam. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> i'm karen and the associate director of erks piiveg cal community services and we book end our presentation by speaking for all of those who have been languishing for years in our year round emergency shelters and join with others to express the very clear message that the navigation center model needs to be spread throughout our single adult shelter system. the controller's office was telling you about their report, and their first report of a navigation center said this about why clients did not use the shelter system. "perhaps

most notably a recurring perception that shelters are a dead end road with little or no hope of being connected to housing or more permanent accommodations. shelters don't do anything. you get complacent. i got lost in the system" so we say that the housing exits need to be shared across our system and pro rata basis and right now the folks in the shelters and resource centers versus the navigation center would be that for every exit given to the navigation center there would be 16 exits for the rest of the shelter system. the controller's report also said that clients uniformly identified as the positive and rememberable aspect of the program operations and staff and case managers. we hire folks at next door, the sanctuary and navigation center the same way,

the same processes and train the same way, and same values and standards. the difference between the two is the number of folks we get to hire and the positions we get to hire. we have 4inr specialists for 435 residents in the shelters and not a single case manager. we leave it to you to make the investment that must be made. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> my name is jonathan price and let me thank you for the service to this city. i am currently a resident at hospitality house. nobody is more grateful than i that the shelter system exists. i'm one of the lucky ones. i sign a lease tomorrow. in my observation i want you to know when men get there -- it's a small community but i see hope and when they have to leave the shelter the hope gets smaller. anything that you can do to

help the staff the shelters especially jose and theresa accomplish what their goal is help the homeless get housing would be appreciated. i can feel from each of you your passion for this issue surrounding this issue is genuine. anyway i don't want -- at the fear of getting dinged thank you for listening to me. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> thank you supervisors. i want to thank you for your efforts and work so far. my name is tanya mcneill and a potrero hill resident. i shop and drive around division street. i never felt unsafe throughout the crisis. there are thousands of us next door that feel the same way. we haven't been knocking on the doors but we're out there. i agree with supervisor campos. i am appalled altuprooting of

theup campments especially when there is no place to go but the answer is not dismantle the navigation center at this point. i think they're beginning to make deep change in the city's bureaucracy as a 20 city employee i know just has deeply engrained those programs are and how much change needs to happen to be really effective at getting housing at building shelters at providing the services that need to be provided for the homeless, so i just want to say i totally disagree with the controller that's anne either /or situation that we keep the navigation center or spread the wealth to the shelter system. it needs to be both and. it needs to be be this really great success center that's making a real difference. it needs to be providing better

services in the shelter system. it needs to be expanding the housing stock. i want to be able to come away from this meeting so that i can report that this committee has approved the expanding the navigation center and is committing to broadening those services to the other shelters throughout the city. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> hi. my name is sharon noel. i'm from the currently and now homeless youth alliance. i just really wanted to say that the navigation center model has been something that not only our participant and citywide and i do work on division street, very very excited about and something we don't see as resources and able to fit the individual and they're very excited to utilize. while we have so many resources

in existing shelter systems right now that we can utilize but at the same time we have resource centers, drop in centers that are closing citywide at the same time we're having a huge amount of luxury condos go up. i feel we could find a budget conscious solution to all of these to able to provide better exits for people in the shelter system. i would like to mention also that we spend so much are criminalization and harassing and ticketing and moving the encampments. our youth come up to me all the time. i am hearing about stories of ptsd compounded and traumatized more because they don't have a place to sit down because the drop in center closed or a place to sleep. we're seeing more cases people really need to rest and we're spending this huge amount

on the criminalization but if we put that towards housing and the resources that we have and also to expand and protect the resources that we don't i think we could see a really positive change and a real solution to homelessness. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hi supervisors. my name is colleen and i work at st. anthony foundation and part of the home little emergency providers. a lot of the things i wanted to say have been said so i want to underline the importance of housing exits from the shelter system and a system that works for people, not just a bunch of -- you know arbitrary rules that really don't contribute to safety or to creating a good environment. at st. anthony's we have a temporary weather related shelter with 60 people every night. we have been full every

night since we opened. we're not seeing that we're having trouble attracting people to come into shelter. this myth of resistance -- anytime you read about or hear about it i encourage you to go to the 311 website and look at the number of people that are currently waiting for a slot in the shelter system. it's 700 people long right now and probably close to 800 bietd end of the week. i want to also just i have been doing this work for 11 years now and over the years have been coming to this body, the board of supervisors, begging and pleading not to shut down shelter, not to shut down drop in centers. we lost 400 beds in the system over the time that i have been living in the city. and we have been fighting so hard at this body to invest and i hear a lot of questions about why has it gotten so bad? that's part of the reason it's so bood because we disinvested

in emergency services and we don't have enough housing and this body has the power to rectify that and so we need to work together to make sure we have the exits and supports and start this year in the budget with more services to see more successes like the navigation center throughout the system. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisors. thanks so much for being here. i am cheryl adams and a member of hes bai and want to say what colleen said and she said it brilliantly and we need to work on the being of the navigation center and embed services and housing exit and the resources that exit at the navigation center at our shelter systems across and drop in resource centers. at larg larkin street we have a staffing pattern and helpful for people to transition out but it doesn't meet the need in haight or across the city

for young people and certainly take the lessons learned from the navigation center and apply it across the board and fund the resource centers and drop in centers and shelters and go a long way to address the homeless people. >> thank you. next speaker. >> hi supervisors. i'm the founder of the st. francis homelessness challenge and i support the navigation center and spreading the learnings throughout the system in san francisco. also i'm part of a enjoying movement of thousands of housing and unhoused neighbors advocating for immediate action building off of what you were saying supervisor campos and laura from saying and i have been spending time at division and cesar chavez and 101 over the last month and a half. i think it's disingenuous for the mayor's office and the department of public health to be a hazard for people not to

have bathrooms or disposals and those services and not provide them but displace them without adequate options so how do we get ahead of this is the question? we know that the department of public works declared a crisis, state of emergency to move the contract process forward with the navigation center to build it. that's what we do number one. we're in a crisis and a lot of people have grown accustomed to the crisis so they're not wanting to take immediate action because they don't want to condean interim solutions that don't have an end goal of placement and i know that and permanent housing is important with shelter but we can't snap our fingers and have enough for the next few years so why don't we select 50 places and the mayor's office and community advocates and the unhouses can come together and these are the key places to direct people.

we will provide baseline services and secure sleep and toilets and disposals ands ises. s is services and the pier 80 and let's have the money to [inaudible] >> thank you. next speaker please. >> [inaudible] >> good afternoon supervisors. in december mayor lee announced the creation of a new department with a mandate to end homelessness and consolidate various housing and homeless programs into a single department and called for a bold division and scale of cooperation between city departments and community based organizations and advocates and national experts. in response to the mayor's proposal a broad group of san francisco human service providers came together

to share our expertise and our insight through a policy paper. policy recommendations from the mayor's department of homelessness and serving the homeless populations. they summarize the perspective on the new department's structure, priorities and approaches. it's gone out to all members of the board, the mayor, department heads and other leaders and for the public it is available on our website at sfhsn.org. the authors are the community organizationness, the home emergency provide ares association and the collaborative, san francisco -- [inaudible] aids provider network, the san francisco human services network, the supportive housing providers network. we represent the front lines of the city's struggle to address homelessness. as service providers and advocacy organizations we see the barriers first hand that homeless people face and the gaps in our system of care.

the mayor's vision presents opportunities to expand services that are doing well and create change in areas that are not. during comment today we didn't present a full presentation but you heard many of the recommendations particularly relevant to the navigation center. we offer this in the spirit of partnership and in working together for a better system that can serve as a model for the nation and i have copies of the paper for you today. we hope you review it and carefully consider the recommendations. thank you. >> thank you. are there any other members of the public comment that wish to speak? okay. seeing none. public comment is now closed. [gavel] i do want to thank everyone for attending today both from the staff's perspective as well as all of the members of the public that spoke in public comment. thank you for all that work at the navigation center. thank you for all of the hard work. i do believe with the navigation center we have a model to seek to replicate throughout the city. i think it has been a success and obviously lessons

to learn and things to do better as a city. we have to combine it with aggressive efforts to pursue housing exits. beyond that it doesn't work one without the other and we will have that dialogue. i know here at the budget committee and moving forward as a city and track the outcomes better as well and i want to thank all of the staff and particularly mr. dodge for all of the hard work. we simply have to do better for the people on the city and on the street and i look forward to the upcoming conversations around it in the next months and with that supervisor yee. >> thank you. i also want to thank the public for coming out and the staff members working on this issue for a while. and today has been a good hearing. i want to thank both supervisor farrell and supervisor campos for bringing this forward. i have heard several potential

paths, some solutions here, and there was a discussion started with we're looking for alternative site for a navigation center and go ahead and pursue it but i heard quite a few people saying "why can't we take some existing programs that are shelters centers and see if they're willing or can convert into a navigation center?" there's two pieces of that and i don't want to get it confused. one gets more resources for a shelter to do the social services and so forth, and that's one aspect of the navigation center. i am wondering mr. dodge whether or not there is analysis done to see any any programs we're talking about in terms of shelters can actually convert into a navigation center where you have not only the

additional resources for staffing but the flexibility of rules that are -- that the shelters use now and to not use them similar to the navigation center? that would be interesting for me to know sort of know about. >> supervisor, sam dodge mayor's office of hope and yes, there is a work group that has been looking at it from the provider's perspective. supervisors we have an opportunity with the health and safety bond on the ballot for june to look at some capital investments to make with homeless service sites and would be helpful not just to make investments in the long-term viability of the city owned sites but to help convert some of their practices to be more inviting and welcome being and accommodate the things that we

have seen at the navigation center work very well whether it's being able to come in as a couple or storage belongings or the accommodation of small pets so some of the practices can definitely be done. they're going to need some investments made in some of the older service sites but it can happen and we're actively looking at that. i think one thing i want to remind that actually the present shelter system isn't the answer for everyone but it's the answer for many people and so as we talk about different models i think it's important to keep in mind that we don't just take away an answer that's working for one part of our population while we look for answers that the current system isn't serving. >> yes. i appreciate that statement because part of my question would be if there were a shelter center that's ready

or willing to convert into what exists into a navigation center, and that's a big "if." i know it's very difficult to move from one set of rules to another set of rules. then my follow up question would be would that create a void in the shelter system? >> yeah. we see the shelter system currently being well utilized. hsa has a system that keeps it very -- so there's always emergency beds but there's long reservations for long-term shelter beds. there is a long list waiting for the 90 bed day reservation so the truth is that the shelter -- traditional shelter is in high demand. there's also other parts of the homeless population that need the wrap around care and long-term housing exits but i wouldn't want to cannibalize

our shelter stock which is full. i mean 95% full every night just about, so thank you. >> supervisor campos. >> thank you. i want to thank the chair of our budget committee, supervisor farrell, for hosting, for holding this hearing, requesting this hearing. i know it's not going to be the last time we talk about this issue. we're going to continue to focus on it, and i want to thank everyone who came out here. what i would say as we move forward is you know my experience, whether it's a navigation center or a homeless shelter, what happens with the establishment of these kinds of places is that people don't usually come forward and say "you know what? i want to open a navigation center next door

or a homeless shelter next door" and in fact there is a lot of trepidation that comes with that, but i think it takes reaching out to people but takes someone to make it happen to make it happen and i would say to san franciscans out there we all have to do our part when it comes to this issue and it's not going to go away on its own, but i would think that when you tellly look at the situation that most people would agree we're better off -- that they would be better off dealing with a navigation center in their neighborhood that is done after a careful, you know, community process that actually having people camping out in front of their house because one of the

things is going to happen. the people camping out is already happening and it's not going to go away on its own and we can buy as many bus tickets out of san francisco people are going to continue to come to san francisco, and so we got to do something. i really wish we weren't where we are right now and to be honest i know there's a huge challenge before us this department. mr. dodge and his staff are good people but the problem is we should have done a lot of these things a long time ago so we don't have time to waste. i know that the six month figure is just a target. we can't wait six months. we're not going to wait six months. what i would ask is that simply if we can have a follow up from the various agencies on the issue of when the next navigation center is going to

open, and again how that's going to be tied to housing, and then on the fund that was create the by the mayor, that $3 million, did we get anymore money? and quite frankly if we haven't gotten more money i hope money doesn't stand in the way of opening another navigation center because i think in the end we're going to spend money anyway and i think it's actually a lot more expensive not to open up these navigation centers. i think you end up spending more in terms of dealing with people on the street and that's not counting the human toll and the human cost of letting this continue, so thank you very much to everyone and i know we're going to continue to work on this issue. >> thank you. supervisor tang. >> thank you i just want to say thank you to everyone who is working so hard on the homeless issue and for really i think

educating us about the tree needs are. i appreciate all of the different perspective and everyone has their own opinion about homelessness but all of you who have presented to us really are working on the front lines and can tell us and when you see head line after head line in the news and not just recently but year after year on the topic and i am sure you feel frustrated too so i look forward to the continuing conversations during the budget deliberations, and so again just want to thank you for your service. >> okay. thank you everybody. colleagues at this point i would love to entertain a motion to file item 4. >> so moved. >> okay. motion by supervisor tang. we can take that without objection. clerk elect is there any further business? >> there is no further business. okay. we are adjourned for about two