just down the line, but employment is the basis of what makes our service providers so effective, because we have so many people in the programs, managers as well as staff who have come to our programs because they got services, made connections and decided they wanted to give back and make their lives about the work, and those are our best people. those are the people who have been there for ten years, they are rock stars, and whenever we have any sort of an opportunity for employment, there are people who say yes, give it to me, those are the people who won props he and those are the people i would love to see supported especially. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is melanie, i'm a human rights commissioner and also on the transgender advisory committee for the office of

transgender initiatives. i'm here to support the coalition. the homeless crisis in san francisco affects all of our communities, but especially in the transgender community. an individual is 18 times more likely to experience homelessness then the average san franciscan. when we do access the shelters that do offer services to transgender folks, a lot of the times we experience violence, discrimination, even sexual assault, that's why i urge you all to please join our coalition and support this program. we would like to provide rental subsidies for people that are about to lose their homes because they can't afford or they lose their jobs, and create

inclusion and safety in the existing shelters, and hopefully establish a dedicated housing program that is specifically for transgender people. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a youth commission representative from district eight. i'm a student college. i'm 19 years old and i'm transgendered. trans youth are far more likely to experience homelessness than average in residence try to access junctures housing services and programs, we always faced discrimination, violence and harassment. is long overdue for a navigation center and more supportive housing units. and during homelessness present -- prevents us to find a job, access to health care, and get an education.

i urge the board of supervisors to follow the youth commission's history of access to as recommendations this recommendations and support us thinking thank you, very much. next, please. >> good afternoon. every year we talk about this. nothing changes, today -- i work in the coalition on homelessness to take -- today i want to ask you to support the budget. i want to talk about the specifics so you can help to get subsidies for seniors with disabilities and families with children. the budget is pretty much about that, and it is about prevention when i'm talking about prevention, do you know, we have

displaced 1,000 people, but when we say 1,000, it is plus, plus, plus. what happened there? we will give you 160 housing units, there were so many numbers, but one thing, you can give us 300 housing units in one year to homeless people. how many people do you have left there? when willie and the homelessness the system is broken. we need to fix it right now. it is a problem. we have so many children suffering without housing in the streets. we have so many families. we need to stop these abuses and we need to create real solutions

, housing and a solution for every single one who is homeless. please, please put attention to this. thank you so much and i will see you next time. >> thank you, thank you very much. >> hello, supervisors. i just started working recently with the coalition on homelessness organizing human rights. i'm here to support the budget. i can say that in the time that i've been with the coalition and i've seen that has to works in a very participatory fashion to put this together. this budget represents as best as possible what the providers see, and what people actually need in their communities. i really emphasize that you support it, please, i also want to make a couple of other points it is easy listening to the public up here, i have been

putting myself in your she was like you're just channel sure -- channel surfing in their specific concerns that come up, but i want you to remember that this is a big problem, and i want you to remember that as long as the city continues to be a beacon for global investment, this kind of poverty and financial instability that we see will keep coming up. i urge you to please see the budget and what people are asking for here, not as something, you know, and ask that is very independent but as a major responsibility that you have to help the city actually work, in addition to that, is a human rights organizer, i want to point out one other thing, we are spending $20.7 million to criminalize homeless people, and the budget is only asking for $13.9 million, so i can tell you which one of those is more effective, but i'm sure that you already know. >> thank you, very much.

next speaker. >> my name is kelly cutler. i'm a human rights organizer with the coalition on homelessness. this is my new comrade, i am very happy. i am here once again regarding the heskett ask and asking you to support it, frankly it seems like a given because folks don't know the stuff that are on the ground and it is a really good process that they go through, and i don't know, i don't think i need to convince you, it seems like folks know that. the other piece, the specific piece i want to talk about is with the shelter advocates. that is a really important role within the shelter system, and we had to fight hard to get the advocates to be able to go into the navigation centers to be representing people and protecting their rights. so we finally got that, and then once he got that, we need to be filling in the staff as well to

be providing the support that people are needing. so there's a lot of needs that are out there, and so balance that out, the shelter beds increase, we need to be increasing the shelter advocates as well. that is it. have a good day. >> thank you, kelly. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is joey. i work for the homeless prenatal program as a family case manager i'm also a single father raising a daughter and i am able to live and work in san francisco and that is a difficult thing, but these are the things that we face at the homeless prenatal program, specifically with the share program. we have been able to house 25 families, 34 families that are enrolled, and nine families are currently in a housing search. four families have moved off of that subsidy, and tomorrow going to be happening, moving off of

the subsidy. we have been able to houses families and scattered site his, and developing relationships with landlords and with an intensive case management model in helping families develop action plans to increase their income, and also home visiting models. some of the stories that i've heard from the families is that they are displaced, we will also work with undocumented families, and some of the families also are definitely from san francisco and have been displaced in san francisco. so it feels like something that we need to continue doing, and i'm happy to be part of this particular grant, and i'm hoping that you guys will continue to support that grants because families that are from san francisco should be able to live in san francisco. [applause] >> next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, my name is

sue and i'm also part of homeless prenatal program for the share program, and i just wanted to add that we are talking a lot about what our budget will do, and the investment of our budget, and i think that just looking at it from a case manager perspective and the work that we do, we see what that budget does. we see the improvement of the families, and i wanted to bring that up to you guys that the funding that you guys give to us support us in being able to help the families. we see the improvement, and the solution to homelessness for those families, providing the tools to them to be able to support themselves and get out of the homeless cycle, so it is and ask for more resources, would it really is an investment

in taking care of these families , and taking care of these individuals that are struggling, and giving them tools and giving us the tools to be able to give them the tools to be able to succeed, and though we can't fix everything, we want to end homelessness, this will allow us to fix the families and individuals and prevent homelessness for them. so this is really important. thank you so much. >> thank you so much. next speaker. >> good afternoon, supervisors. and with the chinatown c.d.c. little bit like miguel, i was feeling like we are here every year. we are talking about these programs that we really want to see, but something moved me to come and speak, and it was supervisor viewer's impassioned talking about our seniors, we recently looked at some data

with chinatown c.d.c. that showed that the area median income for seniors is $19,500. so you can imagine if we continue to build senior housing that serves folks at 55% of a.m.i., not a senior a.m.i. but the area total area a.m.i., we are building housing that is, by design, unaffordable to seniors. so i think that and really thinking about a way to move forward the conversation around senior housing, and we'll be back here on this committee on monday to talk about it, but to think about who are we building for? i think it is a fundamental question, and today is the hearing about housing and homelessness. it is a fundamental importance to look for the air housing is

to build more senior housing, require more small sites, who are going to be able to use the services? unity to do some of the programs that are advocated for to keep people in their homes, which are short-term rental subsidies, but we need to be visionary and make sure that if we build more senior housing, is affordable to the senior that we talked about in san francisco. the data with ten seconds left, in the last couple of years, the a.m.i. went up by $10,000, a supervisor viewer was saying, do you know anyone else who got $10,000 more? >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> it afternoon, board. my name is maggie and i'm the district three youth commissioner. i'm here to patient by made

especially the ones that pertain to transitional aged youth. issues like the commission has been working on this issue for a very long time, and we know that it is mostly lgbt q. and foster care youth who are disproportionately affected by homelessness, so i think we should be doing a better job at taking care of the young people of the future. thank you. >> thank you, commissioner. next speaker, please. >> hi, thank you for taking this time and space. i'm here to represent a few women who were far too busy to represent themselves. they are positive success stories from hamilton subsidy program. one of them is currently balancing budgets for san francisco u.s.d., one of them is managing a local bank branch in one of them is taking blood and managing patients at the san francisco urgent care. due to the increase of cost and

lack of housing we have been talking about, even these valuable full-time jobs were not to put -- not enough to protect them from homelessness when they were faced with illness domestic violence. two of these families came to us from local shelters. they persevered and were able to rehouse them in the east bay. they have long commutes and a heavy bridge toll, but they have been able to succeed and stabilize out there. the third families one of the rare cases that i really want to fight for today because they get to stay in their home in san francisco during the eviction prevention program because they were able to do that, they acted quickly, and there was funding therefore it so children never had to enter a shelter, they didn't have to leave their community, they didn't have to disrupt a very successful educational path, and they never have to lose their home and their belongings and their pets,

and they voided the potential to experience the violence, trauma, beginning of that challenging cycle. not to mention they continue to add to the diverse population that the city seems to faster than it can cloth. so i'm here to support those families to support you in doing the same, and they have a lot of other programs that would fill the gaps for participants that aren't quite ready for such a short term subsidy, so i think they have a really good program for that. >> thank you very much. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, thank you to the board of supervisors for hearing our thoughts and hopes for the budget proposal. my name is april and i'm here in support of the budget. i'm a case manager with hamilton family rapid rehousing program for the heading home initiative. i work with families who were formally experiencing homelessness and i hear the stories of families who would still be experiencing

homelessness today if not for the rental subsidy program we operate. many of the families i work with were staying in a shelter before coming into the program. they're able to -- at the time and energy would have been focused on meeting their basic needs. finding shelter for the night, a meal to eat, a place to shower. children in these programs fill an important gap on the way to stability for many families. there are about 1300 people on the waitlist every night, and there's a clear need for more resources to serve this population. as a case -- case manager, -- while the heading home sent city -- so they could have a roof over their head cat increases their chances of moving into affordable housing by helping them reach the minimum income standards. one family i worked with was homeless for ten years and her daughter had never experienced having her own place to call home.

her life was changed in her story was changed because of a rapid rehousing subsidy that allowed her family -- rapid rehousing can work, which is one of the reasons that we support this budget proposal for the board today. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> good afternoon, board of supervisors, my name is jay, i am disabled and i am transgender and homeless, i have been homeless for over six years and i find that it is incredibly easy to get a denial of service from shelters based on a simple false accusation, that is all it takes, shelters are not aware and how to deal with complex issues that we have with our health and our socialization and find it much easier to just throw us onto the street. this is happened to me twice and i've seen it happen over and over again.

we need a better system. we need a system that can address us and our health issues and air housing issues, it is broken, like everybody said. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> supervisors, tony, representing senior and disability and action. every day we hear stories of seniors that can barely pay their rent, who are struggling, seniors that are losing their housing, and in many, many ways, seniors and people with disabilities are targeted, and we see that, or i see it, personally, as being violence towards them because what that ends up doing is making them houseless, making them more vulnerable to getting sick on the streets, acquiring substance habits while being on the streets as a way to medicate and then preserve one's self, so i

want to say that we do support the ask, particularly around subsidies. we have members of our organization that would come in handy for. we need long-term subsidies to help people stay in their homes, to remain housed so that they can thrive and maintain their health, and just to echo where the previous speaker said, we need to have that conversation, and i know it will be at a future meeting, about this notion or this idea of affordable housing that the area median income for seniors and what is considered affordable is totally out of whack, and we need to fix that. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. >> supervisors, i am a senior from district five, in district

five, it is estimated by the department of aging and adult services that 20 7% of our population in district five our seniors. the figures for the whole city of san francisco, the median was mentioned, but what it really means is about half of san francisco seniors make under $15,000 a year, and if you divide that by 12, you get about 1250, when you deduct to medicare and other medical expenses, you deduct food, you end up with about $500 left to pay her rent, so now these are ordinary seniors, ordinary social security seniors, so i definitely want to add my voice to urge you to do what you can to expand the funds for rent stabilization. it is saving many, many people.

it needs to save more. and needs to be expanded at the end of six months, you are in the same situation you are in before, so we definitely urge you to make that permanent. thank you. >> thank you very much. >> my name is emily garcia. i am here to speak on behalf of two homeless mothers. hello, i'm geraldine, i work on the coalition of homeless need like to see the homeless get more help and homeless -- i would love to see a better future for myself and my child and other homeless people to make a better living situation. another mother stated housing is hard, i go house to house. i am six months pregnant and i have a baby on the way and three more months i would like to get help in housing because i'm not going to go house to house with my baby. can we get help for this housing >> thank you very much.

>> i am olivia from the coalition on homelessness and i am in support of the budget every friday go to a woman judge of things talk to the women there who are a majority senior women and women with disabilities i informed them about the decisions that are made here at city hall. i would like to read one statement from cynthia mitchell who i have seen at the drop in every week for months. cynthia says, i am one of the women utilizing the homeless centers and shelters on a regular basis. i support the budget allocating a portion of the funds to develop more city housing for single, elderly women without children. there are dozens of women like cynthia who have grown up in san francisco and are displaced and live in wooden chairs at the drop in. it is disheartening to go there every week and see the same people sitting and sleeping in chairs and their ankles are swollen and it makes it hard for them to move. it is even harder to hear of the self blame that they carry for being homeless.

it is not any fault of their own that they said 24 hours in chairs at the women's place, but it is the perfect storm that supervisor fewer was talking about. and you and the city budget committee and officials have an obligation to remedy this, which is why ask you to fully support the budget. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> hi, supervisors, my name is ruth. i'm one of the women that is at the drop in. i have worked for the city almost 30 years and didn't complain, and i wound up getting sick and then i had an accident that put me in the hospital for two years, so he lost everything , so now i am at a shelter. they're the people who helped my -- get my career as a truck driver in the first place. long story short, you have women like myself that half of s. our seniors, and money is needed because we don't -- i just got

out of hospital for food poisoning because we don't have cooking facilities, but i would like you to consider this, and navigation center that is a stone throw away, and we were the last people that they considered to go to the navigational center because they said we are ready had housing, i just wish that someone would consider because i grew up in this city, i was born here and raised here and i love this city , but i can't afford to live here much longer, so i could at least just give me housing somewhere, to share rental, as a matter of fact, i'm even thinking of going back to work as -- to subsidize my funds, i hope you guys can consider helping us set up the center, and everybody else that you can. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i work with tenderloin housing

clinic and i'm here to support the budget. i'm fully in support of new programs and navigation centers and new housing. i also think it is really important to not forget the existing programs that are often really severely underfunded. we are seeing a lot of increasing costs due to staffing we are unable to offer competitive pay. we are increasing with staff shortages that really affect the residents of the building and affect the services that we provide. we are also facing increased cost do to the renewal of a lot of leases that were the original master leases 20 years ago and the increases that are coming along with renewing those leases , and the possible just a possibility of the increase is not sufficient in taking care of the increases that we need, not to mention within the last week or so, i learned we are not able to apply the cost of doing

business to our turn out cash buildings which is eight of our buildings, which means not -- which means we'll be $300,000 in deficit. we did not expect that until this week. so that is really difficult for us to swallow. i'm really in support of those budgets. >> hello, supervisors, my name is bettye trainor and i'm with senior and disability action. i'm here to speak specifically about the great need for these rental subsidy increases, we see this every day with our seniors and people with disabilities, that even though they live in rent-controlled apartments, we think, they are set, but even a small increase, even $25, $50 a month can be too much when you're on benefits under $1,000 a month, and just a small

increase community for between them being able to stay there and then being homeless, it is also so important to have it be a permanent thing because after six months, they have to be so concerned, worrying, will i get a renewal of this? for them, it is permanent. if they don't have this, they will die, i mean, it is one way or the other, that will happen, so i want you to really think hard about the great need for these rental subsidies, it is a difference of life and death for many of the seniors and people with disabilities that we see. thank you. >> hello, supervisors, i am a native san franciscan, a former youth commissioner and current youth commission staff. i'm here today not only in support of my commissioners but to put a face to the population

that you all have discussed so many times today, and that is youth experiencing homelessness. at the age of 22 i found myself homeless identifying as lgbt q., and although i am no longer experiencing homelessness, that experience change my life forever, employee to remember, not only my face but the faces of my commissioners, and other lgbt q. young people of color in the city who have experienced homelessness, and remember our faces when you're making decisions that affect young people in the city, and we urge you to complete the 2016 housing plan promised 400 units appointment -- permanent supportive housing, and to keep a critical eye on the data that is presented and not presented that addresses young people who experience homelessness in our

backyards. thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good afternoon. i'm with senior and disability action. i'm here to repeat what has been said in terms of the subsidies. they are so, so important, and there's so many people that god, if they just had $100 and a subsidy, that would give them so much peace of mind. they'll be able to buy food, they'll be able to call family members, they be able to remain in their homes. so tempter sometimes it is so very little and it means the world. and also means a difference between remaining in their home or becoming homeless. this is something we can do, this is also something we need to do, as well as supporting tenant protection. the groups of us that advocate for tenants to remain in their

homes, and yes, primarily seniors i what we are seeing in terms of having a target on their backs, when you look at a speculation that is going on everywhere in the city right now , it is about people losing their homes. so what can we do to make damn sure people remain in their homes and that they can remain healthy, because we also know that people will die. when my upstairs neighbor with the ellis act was searching for a place to live, wait lists were closed, she couldn't find anything, and she called every single month to check mac for two years straight, and then when our appeal was overturned any eviction was cleared, she said, as she was slipping into a coma, where will i go? so let's keep people in their homes. >> thank you.

>> good afternoon, supervisors, i am with senior disability action and also with the ministry, and i moved here in 1948. i will be 72 years old this year , and back in 1948, there is no such word is homelessness. i hang around before with, i'm blanking out now, with the memorial church. there's three of them that pulled together to get funds for food and they all supported supportive housing, i also support supportive housing. and like my co- people, we definitely need to those permanent assistance subsidies

for rental housing. i am just thinking right now, my housemate has a friend and they are afraid their rents will go up $25 in november and they might have to move out, and then there are people who work somewhere else. they had to move out because their rent is going up. another thing i'm thinking with what supervisor fewer was thinking is the root cause, and i'm thinking about the cycle of poverty. county seniors have county seniors have living wages? we need all of these things. it is a cycle. we need home a match for people to get hooked up with empty rooms for people who need housing, anyway, that is what the mayor's office on housing and community development can do thank you.

>> thank you. >> hi, supervisors, i work at the coalition on homelessness. i'm also born and raised in san francisco, and i'm here in support of the budget. i work in the tenderloin and take the bus to work. on my short walk to the office, one of the things they do every day his make sure that the homeless people sleeping on the streets are sleeping and they aren't dead. there are certain things that i check for, if there is movement, a fingernail slick blue, the position of their body, i never thought this would be part of my daily commute, but it really highlights the need we have to fully fund the budget and defund the police department that receives double what the homeless department receives. the other thing i want to highlight is the shelter client advocate program. when i first got into this job, i was shocked when i heard people could get kicked out of shelter, and here are some of the things you can get kicked

out for. plugging your phone into an unauthorized outlet, hanging close on your bed, using the wrong elevator. these aren't things that anyone should be denied service for, but it also highlights the need that we have for people to have representatives in shelters. one example happened on one of the storm yes days and there was a transgender woman who called her -- our office and she was kicked out of the women's shelter and the only thing that was available as a pop up shelter that only served men, and who was able to get her back into a women's shelter was one of our shelter client advocates. lastly, i know we have all listens to an incredible amount of public comment from us and from the department of homelessness and from the board, but please don't just take it from advocates or people who have never experienced homelessness. listen to the people have experienced homelessness were on the street and have the best

feedback to say. thank you. >> thank you very much. are there any other members of the public would like to speak? public not -- public comment is now closed. colleagues, i'd like to make a motion -- first i want to say thank you to everyone who came out and spoke today to educate us as your legislators -- legislature -- legislators on your area of expertise. you're working with homelessness in people who are suffering under this horrible, horrible issue we have in san francisco. thank you very much for your patients for waiting, and sharing with us your knowledge. i would like to make a motion to file this hearing. could i have a second, please? >> thank you. can i take that without objection? >> madame clark, are there any other items before us today?

>> there are no other items. >> thank you very much. >> my apartment burned down 1.5 years ago in noba.

my name is leslie mccray, and i am in outside beauty sales. i have lived in this neighborhood since august of this year. after my fire in my apartment and losing everything, the red cross gave us a list of agencies in the city to reach out to and find out about various programs that could help us get back on our feet, and i signed up for the below market rate program, got my certificate, and started applying and won the housing lottery. this particular building was brand-new, and really, this is the one that i wanted out of everything i applied for. and i came to the open house here, and there were literally hundreds of people looking at the building. and i -- in my mind, i was, like, how am i ever going to possibly win this? and i did. and when you get that notice

that you want, it's surreal, and you don't really believe it, and then it sinks in, yeah, i can have it, and i'm finally good to go; i can stay. my favorite thing about my home, although i miss the charm about the old victorian is everything is brand-new. it's beautiful. my kitchen is amazing. i've really started to enjoy cooking. i really love that we have a gym on-site. i work out four days a week, and it's beautiful working outlooking out over the courtyard that i get to look at. it was hard work to get to the other side, but it's well worth it. i'm super grateful to the mayor's office of housing for having this for us.

>> my name is alan schumer. i am a fourth generation san franciscan. in december, this building will be 103 years of age. it is an incredibly rich, rich history. [♪] >> my core responsibility as city hall historian is to keep the history of this building alive. i am also the tour program manager, and i chair the city advisory commission. i have two ways of looking at my life. i want it to be -- i wanted to

be a fashion designer for the movies, and the other one, a political figure because i had some force from family members, so it was a constant battle between both. i ended up, for many years, doing the fashion, not for the movies, but for for san franciscan his and then in turn, big changes, and now i am here. the work that i do at city hall makes my life a broader, a richer, more fulfilling than if i was doing something in the garment industry. i had the opportunity to develop relationships with my docents. it is almost like an extended family. i have formed incredible relationships with them, and

also some of the people that come to take a tour. she was a dressmaker of the first order. i would go visit her, and it was a special treat. i was a tiny little girl. i would go with my wool coat on and my special little dress because at that period in time, girls did not wear pants. the garment industry had the -- at the time that i was in it and i was a retailer, as well as the designer, was not particularly favourable to women. you will see the predominant designers, owners of huge complexes are huge stores were all male. women were sort of relegated to a lesser position, so that, you reached a point where it was a

difficult to survive and survive financially. there was a woman by the name of diana. she was editor of the bazaar, and evoke, and went on and she was a miraculous individual, but she had something that was a very unique. she classified it as a third i. will lewis brown junior, who was mayor of san francisco, and was the champion of reopening this building on january 5th of 1999. i believe he has not a third eye , but some kind of antenna attached to his head because he had the ability to go through this building almost on a daily basis during the restoration and

corrects everything so that it would appear as it was when it opened in december of 1915. >> the board of supervisors approved that, i signed it into law. jeffrey heller, the city and county of san francisco oh, and and your band of architects a great thing, just a great thing. >> to impart to the history of this building is remarkable. to see a person who comes in with a gloomy look on their face , and all of a sudden you start talking about this building, the gloomy look disappears and a smile registers across their face. with children, and i do mainly all of the children's tours, that is a totally different feeling because you are imparting knowledge that they have no idea where it came from,

how it was developed, and you can start talking about how things were before we had computer screens, cell phones, lake in 1915, the mayor of san francisco used to answer the telephone and he would say, good morning, this is the mayor. >> at times, my clothes make me feel powerful. powerful in a different sense. i am not the biggest person in the world, so therefore, i have to have something that would draw your eye to me. usually i do that through color, or just the simplicity of the look, or sometimes the complication of the look. i have had people say, do those shoes really match that outfit?

retirement to me is a very strange words. i don't really ever want to retire because i would like to be able to impart the knowledge that i have, the knowledge that i have learned and the ongoing honor of working in the people's palace. you want a long-term career, and you truly want to give something to do whatever you do, so long as you know that you are giving to someone or something you're then yourself. follow your passion and learn how to enrich the feelings along the way.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> the san francisco playground's hitsvery dates back to 1927 when the area where the present playground and center is today was purchased by the city for $27,000. in the 1950s, the sen consider was expanded by then mayor robinson and the old gym was built. thanks to the passage of the 2008 clean and safe neighborhood parks bond, the sunset playground has undergone extensive renovation to its four acres of fields, courts,

play grounds, community rooms, and historic gymnasium. >> here we are. 60 years and $14 million later, and we have got this beautiful, brand-new rec center completely accessible to the entire neighborhood. >> the new rec center houses multi-purpose rooms for all kinds of activities including basketball, line dancing, playing ping-pong and arts can crafts. >> you can use it for whatever you want to do, you can do it here. >> on friday, november 16, the dedication and ribbon cutting took place at the sunset playground and recreation center, celebrating its renovation. it was raining, but the rain clearly did not dampen the spirits of the dignitaries, community members and children in attendance. [cheering and applauding]

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