deeply about the safety. i was very moved by his work and their sincere concern for the people of san francisco. you can only just say nothing but good things about him and positive things about him as a man, as a human being, as a person who believes injustice, and also as an artist much appreciation to him and his memory. >> thank you, sorry. see no other members of the public on this item, is there a motion to continue this one week motion made. we will take that without objection. madame clerk, next item, please. >> item number 6 is a hearing to receive presentations on the affordable housing resources for seniors, including but not limited to the existing portfolio, future projects and

analysis of present and future needs. >> before i turn it over to president he, i'm cosponsoring this along with supervisor safai , fewer, and mar. as a supervisor representing the district that has the highest concentration of low-income seniors in the city, many of whom are being pushed out of long term rent-controlled housing and north beach, chinatown, telegraph hill and throughout the district, i'm looking forward to hearing from the departments today on the strategy for ensuring the city does its part to construct safe and stable housing for the more than 50% of seniors whose fixed incomes do not currently qualify them for the affordable housing. this november touch affordable housing bond appropriate lee prioritizes this unmet need to.

president has to go to the meeting at the -- of the bond at 4:00 p.m. so i will turn it over to him. thank you for calling this meeting. i have one announcement, come up and say, there is an interpreter who will simultaneously interpret into cantonese and during public comment, those who speak in cantonese will have twice as much time so the interpreter can translate. >> it is actually not a service provided that we usually do, is a volunteer for this item, so they are just borrowing our equipment. >> got it. >> president g.? >> thank you chair peskin. i will have some presentations before we take public comment, so if you want to rest your feet

, for people who are already lined up, you may just want to sit down and rest for a few minutes before we take public comments. i want to thank the committee, my colleagues, the mayor's office on housing and the department of aging and adult services for attending the hearing today on the city's effort regarding the affordable housing needs of our elders. as you may already know, we have been going through numerous discussions with the housing bond work groups regarding the most urgent affordable housing needs citywide. it is critical that we understand the facts about what is in the affordable housing pipeline, what is missing, and how this correlates with our city's population and the most urgent needs. to call for this hearing because i have personal experience trying to address assisted-living needs for our

elders. my mother needed affordable housing that would include support for her daily living activities. i was able to secure that housing for her in this city, and this was in 1985. when my aunt needed the same care 50 years later, i searched citywide and there was nothing available. anecdote at lee, i heard from many friends and associates who had the same problem. then i requested and received a report about the unmet needs of seniors, and the data shows the anecdotes were correct. assisted-living beds have been disappearing at the same time that our senior population has been increasing. at present, senior housing is only 12% of the city's pipeline for affordable housing, that is simply far too low relative to

the growing need of the city's seniors. a majority of them whom are on fixed incomes that cannot keep up with the rising housing costs according to the census bureau, seniors 60 years or older are 24 % of all persons in the city who are under the poverty line. this hearing's objective is to establish the problem. i have two departments that will have presentations, and i don't know who will be coming up first , stand up so i know.

shereen mcfadden from the department of aging and adult services. would you like to present? >> sure. good afternoon supervisors. i am going to start off and i apologize in advance, i just got that question early this morning , so i didn't have time to put together a full presentation for you, but i was asked to provide some demographic background about the senior population in san francisco, and then to talk a little bit about some of the programs that we have to serve this population. according to the american community survey of 20165 year estimate, there were 172,450 seniors aged 60 and older in san francisco. about 24,000 of those, or about 14% had income at or below the poverty threshold, which is the federal poverty threshold. the projected senior population

in the city over the next five years is, we are projecting at about three% per year over the next ten years. we continue to see the population grow and to be expected to be close to 30% in 2030. i was asked to talk about the unique needs of seniors with respect to how, and in addition to meeting housing, other things , so there's often challenges of maintaining housing stability you are on a fixed income, when you have social security or s.s.i., the consideration of issues related to accessibility and the need for home modifications, as, you know, a lot of older adults are living with disability, so sometimes they need their houses to be outfitted to really make sure that they can get in and out, have accessibility that they need to, and that they are safe. there's also functional

impairment and personal care needs, as you probably know, in-home supportive services is by far the largest program that we run at the department of aging and adult services. we serve about 25,000 people in that program annually, it is just a critical program to help keep people in their homes. people are also at risk of social isolation, and at a higher risk of abuse with self neglect which leads to destabilization of housing. the median income for seniors taste waste on census data, the median income for a single senior household is $21,900, this includes both homeowners and renters. approximately half of senior households in san francisco are renters, another 25 are homeowners in the process of paying off a mortgage, and 27 owned their homes outright.

about 50 7% of senior households who are renters are considered rent burdens, even, though they% -- they pay more of their income to housing costs. the -- essentially the percentage of the homeless population that is comprised of seniors is about 30 to%, and that is on the 2017 -- that is about 32% and that is on the 2017 homeless count. homeless seniors are at risk for many more things, most of them that i already mentioned, risk of abuse, et cetera, certainly people who we know, who are even 50 years old, exhibit symptoms of being much older because living on the street is so hard. we don't have a lot of research out of our department on the

effects of older people living on the streets or numbers about who are homeless. we don't track that as well. our focus really is on preventing homelessness in the first place, so we worked really closely, as i mentioned earlier, our biggest program certainly is really critical to helping people stay safely at home. we have also started providing some other programs, though, one of which is housing subsidies, and so we have a couple different housing subsidy programs, one that is long-term housing subsidy, one is shorter-term, and we do this in cooperation with the mayor's office of community development, and they will talk about their own programs a little bit later, but that is something where we have really seen -- i guess it has been really helpful to keep people stay-at-home. it is a very expensive program, but it is a lot better than having people be homeless, so while it is limited, it has been very effective. we also have the community living fund, which helps people

with intensive case management, and also can help them sometimes to get into assisted-living. president yee, you mentioned the importance of that, and that program can really help with that, or can help people stay-at-home in their community with the added supports that they need, including nutrition services and in-home supportive case services management and all of that. and we've really been reaching out to the mayor's office of community -- housing and community development to partner better and make sure we are really coming up with good policy guidelines and policy recommendations for the city, and that work is being done through a long-term care coordinating council. we're doing a lot of work around that. we just released a report on assisted-living facilities in san francisco. we'll be talking with the long-term care council with the mayor's office about which of those recommendations might actually take hold in san francisco.

our role is to prevent homelessness in the first place, we are willing to be involved in any other conversations within partnership with the other departments that really focus more on housing. if you have any questions beyond the ones that you sent to me, president yee, i'd be happy to answer anything. >> okay. why don't we wait to finish all the presentations and then we will see if we have questions. thank you for putting your comments together on such short notice. >> thank you. >> okay. next up is amy chan who is from the mayor's office of housing. >> we have a powerpoint presentation. good afternoon, chair peskin, supervisor haney and board president he, my name is amy chan from the mayor's office of housing and community development and i am joined by her deputy director of housing, john adams. first of all, a little overview of our office's mission, which

is to support san franciscans with affordable housing opportunities, and essential services to build strong communities. we described that in four priorities, which is to create 100% affordable housing, mixed-income housing to transform communities and to provide affordable homeownership opportunities to preserve existing public housing, and existing affordable housing, to protect vulnerable residents and their communities, and to empower communities and neighborhoods and people seeking housing. first, i want to start off by providing a little bit of context for our office's work around senior housing. we recognize that the demographic of this population is growing, as director mcfadden has described, particularly in the homeless population, i think 30% of more -- or more of the population is at age 50 or above we know this is a challenge. unfortunately, our office has relied for many decades on federal subsidy through the

programs to provide both capital and operating subsidies to serve seniors, h.u.d. has, for the last few years, not provided new funding for this program. unfortunately, we have not had federal support for building more senior housing, we have largely been funded just through the city. related to that related challenge in providing affordable housing, especially for extremely low income senior households is this lack of rental subsidy. i want to say, despite these challenges, our office is still very much committed to serving this population, to expanding our pipeline, and as director mcfadden had said before, working closely with programs for the long-term care coordinating council and identifying ways we can work together better. so who is -- within the portfolio affordable housing, how much of that housing is

serving seniors? we have housing, 100% affordable housing that is specifically set aside for senior households, and that is comprised of 50 buildings with a little over 5500 units just set aside for seniors. this represents about a quarter of our portfolio of 20,000 units of affordable housing. within this 5500 units, about 1,000 or so units actually can have h.u.d. subsidies so that we are -- so we are able to serve extremely low income seniors at the 20% a.m.i. threshold or below. 349 units of these portfolios a set aside for formerly homeless seniors, up to 30% a.m.i., and then we also have over 2100 public housing public housing units that are set aside for senior and/or disabled residents

that typically also serve extremely low income households. this map shows you where our projects are located, our senior projects are in the city. you will see that they are spread out through the city with some concentration in district five and six. these sites are seniors at a minimum at 55 touch at 62 years old and above, and typically the affordability levels range from 20 top to 80% a.m.i. there were also a number of sights that are funded solely through h.u.d. that don't have local city dollars. these will be an additional 27 sites with over 2700 units through the following h.u.d. programs, and they serve seniors because they provide rental subsidies, they serve seniors at 20% a.m.i. or below. in terms of the public housing that i referred to below before, we have 29 sites that have been

rehabilitated or will be soon finished with rehabilitation through the r.a.d. program. these are set aside for seniors and disabled residents and therefore residents who are 30% a.m.i. or below, and we have done this work through collaborating with our nonprofit development partners. if you look at the entire mocd portfolio, we serve seniors and all of our affordable housing. seniors are qualified to apply for affordable housing, not just in the units that are set aside for them specifically, but for the general public as well. so just based on a snapshot of annual reporting from our developers and owners and operators in 2017, we actually served almost 10,000 units of our portfolio that has a senior households in our portfolio.

so that represents 45% of the portfolio. we are serving seniors more broadly within all of our 100% affordable housing, and i think something to note is that when we are providing affordable housing for low and moderate income people, they are aging in place in that housing, so the amount of housing that we are providing for folks will eventually serve seniors as they age in place. in terms of our pipeline, here is a map of the projects that are in our pipeline that have set-asides for seniors. these are nine sites was 778 units set aside for seniors. they are located in various parts of this city, as you will see mostly on the east side, and they mostly our new construction , 100% affordable housing, and then also on a small site in district one, which was an s.r.o. building serving seniors. and then finally, we recognize

the importance of not just building affordable housing for seniors, but really providing the important services that they need to continue to be housed, and our service connector model includes providing on-site mac services for seniors within the building, connecting them to intensive case management and behavioral health services, for formerly homeless seniors, and really connecting them to broader neighborhood services. we recognize the housing also must be complemented with important services for the seniors. with that, that concludes my presentation, and we are happy to take any questions. >> just a quick question, any. in regards to the 2015 bond measure, prop a, that $310 million, do you know how many units from that bond measure was dedicated to affordable housing for seniors?

>> from the 2015 bond, we funded two projects that were specifically set aside for seniors, that's 1296 shotwell and there were 94 units in that site. that project is still in our pipeline, and then we also funded find it 735 davis, which has 53 units, and davis specifically has 15 units that are set aside for formerly homeless seniors, at the 30% a.m.i. level. >> so in order to qualify at the 30% a.m.i. level, do you have to be designated as homeless before you qualify? >> that is correct. >> so if somebody were just addicted, for instance, because their rent -- they were just

evicted because the rent went up , they wouldn't qualify? if they were at the 30%? >> that is correct. the formerly homeless units are set aside for households that are getting referred to us through h.s.h. all the other units at the 50% a.m.i. level of the 60% a.m.i. level are obviously not serving the extremely low income households that you are referring to. for a household that is just getting evicted, you know, the challenge, as we mentioned before, is the lack of rental subsidy that is tied to that unit, for us to be able to serve the extremely low income households at the 30% a.m.i. level. >> well, this is certainly not directed at you personally, but this seems to be a fundamental problem here.

you are basically -- we know from reading an article a few weeks ago that many of the first time homeless individuals are seniors to the tune of 50% at this point, and basically we are saying to seniors at fixed income, by the way, i know you'll be losing your housing, but you'll be homeless for a little while before we even help you, as a safety, i think that is the wrong approach. it cost so much more to even bring people back in to being how list, it is not the housing itself, but also just the services and reaching out to them, and finding a way to help them. i think we need to change that. if people are losing their

housing, we need to help them at that point, and we need to allow for those individuals to actually apply, and we need to really look, as a city, whether we try to get the evaporated federal funding, or nonexistent state funding, that if we can't find it, we need to do it locally, because at the end of the day, as you know, what's his name -- the homeless person? he would tell you how much it costs to service a homeless individual, and in a way, when you look at it from that point of view, you're almost better off, you know, in terms of economics, to help people before they get to be homeless. again, that is probably not a question. >> yeah. i think we agree with that. we absolutely agree with that.

we also focus on preservation as part of our work, and in the pipeline, i mentioned we do have a small site that is specifically serving seniors, and so for us, we do agree that we should proactively do the work to keep existing senior households housed, and not be, you know, basically reacting to folks once they are becoming homeless, and then we need to, you know, get them to the coordinated entry system, which prioritizes folks based on how long folks have been homeless, and so we do agree that we do need to take a very proactive approach. >> i appreciate that comment. i can see that there's going to be some public comments, and i am time limited at this hearing, so i have other questions, but i also want to hear the public comments, but right now, supervisor haney wants to ask a

question. >> yes, thank you. i also -- thank you for this presentation and for this hearing. it is an external really important issue. the preservation side of this and a small sites, how does that fit into it, and his any of that targeted by supporting seniors specifically, into than also, there was some mention of a subsidy program that we operate. what is that, and how many people does it serve? i don't see it in here. i see the h.u.d. funded ones. >> in terms of the small sights program, there isn't specifically a call out in the program for specific categories or demographics of people. the program prioritizes sites where there are residents at risk of displacement, so often times where there is an active ellis -- eviction or a risk of conversion to market, our

nonprofit affordable housing developers who are doing this work in the communities are bringing sites to us, so we are prioritizing sites based on need , and the site that i mentioned before also happened to be in a situation where they potentially could have been losing their affordability, so that is an example of a case that we would want to continue to prioritize, and then in terms of the rental subsidy, i believe we work with the programs to provide rental subsidies to individuals who are seniors, and i don't have the numbers in terms of how many folks that we are serving. i think about -- i will ask director mcfadden to provide data on the numbers of folks that we are serving, but that is funding them. >> do you have that data? >> it sounds like 275.

>> the department of aging and adult services, we have 275 ongoing subsidies in two different programs to keep people housed. >> right. >> thank you. i know there will be public comment. i also just wanted to appreciate president he, your work to make sure that this is prioritize as part of the bond. i wanted to add my support for that as well. thank you. >> thank you. so what i would like to do is, you know, we are just scratching the surface of the needs, and right now we are talking about independent living for the most part, and one of the things that we have spoken in different situations about is this whole other category of need, which is assisted-living, housing, making sure that we can reverse the residential care facilities for

elderly. as you know, the pattern for those facilities have been -- we are losing a lot of those beds. when we actually need more beds, so that is sort of a subcategory of this whole discussion, and i wish we had more time to get into it, because i think that needs to be addressed as much as this affordable housing for seniors living independently. so right now what i like to do -- thank you for your presentations, right now i would like to call a bunch of cards here. i will call you in the order that i received it. [calling names]

>> on up, line up. [calling names] >> okay. come on up. if your name is called and you're standing in line, just come on up. >> hello, supervisors. my name is karen, i am on the board charge of senior and disability action sta and haight-ashbury neighborhood council. i am not here today speaking on behalf of myself. thanks to my parents, my housing is secure, but this is a very important issue to me.

as an msw and in lcsw, i worked at a number of nonprofits serving seniors in san francisco for over 40 years. still, my s.s.a., my social security is just under 24 -- $20,000 a year. as you know, the nonprofit community is a way for the city to save money and provide services, so they are low-paying agencies, but they are providing wonderful services. i attended what is called choo-choo, council of community housing organization. i attended their meetings for a number of years. this group is populated, for the most part, by nonprofit housing developers. i thought i sat amidst low income housing providers. imagine my shock and surprise to learn recently that i only received income of about one half to two thirds of the income required to apply for one of their units.

really disappointing to hear. the last point i want to make is , police, when you're speaking to the community, speak in terms of actual dollars. affordable has lost its meaning, it is a huge range now, and people don't really know what you are saying and as far as a.m.i. goes, who knows what language that came from. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker is,. i'm sorry, i have a bunch of cards, come on up,. [indiscernible] >> if the people in line would allow him to speak first, go ahead, michael.

>> you waste more time with the cars in the amount of time we get to speak. you only get two minutes and you're shuffling those damn cards around. jesus christ. one reason you're having this problem. [indiscernible] >> it's affordable housing, like mission rock. if you take a female whose living in a boarded house and make her be your pitch person on the commercial on regular t.v. and cable t.v., and claim that they would like to be a tenant at mission brock, a department -- an apartment building complex like this, you have her and her daughter be on their own commercials and claim that they can be a tenant at this apartment building complex that is 115 units. you claim it is affordable housing, when the truth of the matter is, the lowest income, the 40% is 2% of the 40% pie,

and that's at $36,300. you've got instructions and data path that says 15% of those apartment units that's 1,500 is supposed to be for very low and low income bracket people, the same income that these people here today. that means 225 of those apartments at mission rock is supposed to be for people in the same income bracket that is in here claiming about getting housing. then, every time you set an income level, you set the income at 60%, so everybody's income that is below is -- that is below this $14,400 is not being included in the inclusionary rule. and then you turned around and wonder why people don't have housing. you're contradicting yourself. that's price-fixing. >> thank you. next speaker.

>> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for this opportunity to speak on this very urgent issue. my name is,. i have been an active in senior disability action for many years as you might know, we have a history of working for the right to basic needs, a living wage, food, employment, healthcare, and housing across a spectrum of age, gender, and ethnicity. today, we are putting in a plug for ourselves. the aged and the disabled. i live in no eval he, which is supposed to be a rapidly gentrifying area, and i know of three cases in my neighborhood of seniors who suffered terribly because of the pressure to evict them, when was disabled by aids, he lived on church street, and he was a nervous wreck when he found out he had to move. they were doing an owner by out,

and he became very depressed. he finally found a place to live , but he went through hell. another couple, mexican-americans, michael and connie on 28th street, they have been under pressure for years, only because of neighbors practically blocking the way, physically, to prevent ellis act evictions. they are still in their home, but they have gone through hell, too. lastly, there was a gentleman, 90 years old on 26th street who was pressured for years to get out by a speculator. they finally got him out and he died a month later. please get this important bond measure in the pipeline as soon as possible with the excellent three recommendations from the senior housing bond work group. also, you may know that affordable housing is vanishing as rent decontrol brings a

vacated unit up to lecture units [indiscernible] >> thank you very much. thank you. erica? >> hello, supervisors. i'm with some cam, south of market community action network. i'm here to support this action and others to emphasize the need for more truly, deeply affordable senior housing. as a service provider, i can say from experience that the current san francisco housing portal for below-market rate housing applications creates incredible false hope for the majority of the people who apply. there are seniors facing evictions every single day that are then forced into the pool of those looking for affordable housing, and not only is there a lack of affordable housing, there's a lack of deeply affordable housing. on top of that, there's a lack

of deeply affordable senior housing that meets the needs of those making 30% a.m.i. or less. our city's senior population is continuing to grow, and we need to ensure that they are housed. we must expand to the proposed affordable housing bond to drastically increase funding for deeply affordable senior housing that would be affordable to the majority of seniors below 30% a.m.i. thank you. >> thank you. mary? >> it afternoon, supervisors. i am the transit justice organizer for south of market community action network and i'm here today in support of the senior and disability action and other senior serving organizations across the city, asking that you prioritize affordability for seniors below 30% a.m.i. and the proposed affordable housing bond. i have a 67-year-old aunt who lives in a studio in the tenderloin with her two sons. one of them being disabled. he receives benefits and most of that goes towards her rent.

she also has a daughter and a granddaughter who live in the studio. she has lived there since she immigrated to the city in the seventies, and has worked for the city for over 20 years. she is retired now. the studio that she lives in is decaying with black malt. the paint on the walls or peeling off. the tiles in the bathroom is caving in, and the living room lights haven't turned on in over five years. she refuses to leave because her income is so low that she wouldn't be able to qualify for affordable housing, and if everyone in that house were to combine their income, then they would be too high for affordable housing, so she would much rather stay in those living conditions if it means that her family gets to stay together. our senior population continues to grow, and they should be able to live and grow old in the city they grew up in, i put down roots in, and have literally helped build themselves. they should not be spending the twilight years in the conditions at my that my aunt is currently experiencing or worse. please show our seniors that the city cares about them by prioritizing deeply affordable

senior housing that meets the needs of those with 30% a.m.i. or below. thank you. >> thank you. teresa? >> hello, my name is teresa. i'm the director of the housing program. over the years, bishop has served about 1500 households since 2009 by providing case management, outreach, and housing education. many of our clients are accessing different services and applying to different affordable housing applications. however, the building of affordable housing is not building fast enough, nor targeting the population who are already homeless, or one step away from homelessness. for this year, we have already seen a 20% increase of our homeless clientele. about 40% of our clientele are seniors and people with disabilities, in 90% of our clients who are visiting our offices or inquiring about how to access different kinds of affordable housing. the average income of seniors and people with disabilities

reserved citywide is $23,000. in district six, the average income of our clientele is $21,000, in which there are 30% a.m.i. and lower. currently we have senior clients who are applying for b.m.r., multifamily or tax credit housing where they are applying together other seniors or friends, and we have helps them, however, they are competing with other families and other low income populations, which leads to seniors and people with disabilities to have lower chances of being housed. this is not a good policy. housing pipelines should be increased for seniors and people with disabilities, and explore different strategies that are innovative to secure and increase senior housing. in addition, affordability for senior housing should reflect the real income of senior populations, and the rent should be at 30% of their income. because of this, bishop will endorse the three recommendations for senior

housing working groups. thank you. >> thank you. before winston and karen come up , i would like to call a few more names. there are still a bunch of cars to go. [calling names] >> sorry, but i can't read this. [calling names] >> come on up. i think it was winston who comes up. i still have more cards.

if i haven't called your name, don't worry. >> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is winston parsons speaking on behalf of the richmond senior center. we are here in support of the dignity fund senior working group recommendations. we think that there needs to be a greater ratio and more funding for housing for seniors at 30% of amr -- a.m.i. and below. we feel that people should be able to age with dignity and their communities, and many of the clients in my center serves are on s.s.i., living on $1,000 a month. the market will not provide housing for them. fifty% of a.m.i. or up is not going to meet them where they are at. just last week we had a client come in to is a 77-year-old individual who has been living out of his car for years and been trying to get senior affordable housing, but with no luck. a personal story, i live in the richmond district, and a few

years ago, if i could have the viewer, please. a few years ago, i met this woman in the modal on the streets. she was living out of two suitcases, often living on should -- in shelters. she is 80 years old, well educated, lived in pac heights and the richmond district, and luster housing about five years ago and has been chronically homeless since then. it took the efforts of myself and staff at the independent living resource center and a dedicated social worker to help find her housing. she is lucky, so to speak. she was constantly in and out of the hospital, which decreased after she got housing. slipping at bus stops. when i would run into her summed over asleep, i would worry if she would still wake up. it is really hard seeing people who are on housed, but when they look like your grandparents, it hits you. she would like to live in the richmond district, but that wasn't possible.

that is her home. i would like for people like her to live in their neighborhoods. please increase the ratio for seniors and make it truly affordable. thank you. >> karen? >> good afternoon, my name is karen, on the executive director of rebuilding together san francisco. i heartily support this housing proposal. we certainly need more housing for low income families, and particularly seniors. we need rent support for people who have been renters for a very long time. i love the idea of small site acquisition, and i wanted to also let you know about a third option for affordable housing for seniors, which is the homes they are living in right now. there are hundreds, if not thousands of very low income families in san francisco who are living in the homes that their parents and grandparents purchased many years ago. these homes are affordable

because the mortgage is paid, because property taxes are low, but these are families, older people who have been retired for a number of years, and really, as they were saving for retirement, never expected the cost of living in san francisco to grow this high. they are living on incomes of $21,000 a year, and they are making choices between whether they fix their homes, whether they get their medication, whether they get food. the home is always the last thing to pay for. this past weekend was our national rebuilding day. we repaired six homes for seniors in san francisco. a five generation family, if rafa generation family his first granddaughter was born in the house, and the family was about to lose their house because of the vast number of repairs. i think we probably completed a market value of $50,000 worth of repairs with volunteers and donations. so i really -- there are hundreds and hundreds of people in the city who we don't see and we don't hear from who need safe and healthy housing and i urge

you to continue to support this proposal. >> thank you. next speaker, i guess it is annie who usually is not speechless, but i guess she will be speechless today because of laryngitis. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm speaking for any child who lost her voice and is unable to speak today. i am appointed to chair the senior housing subcommittee for the housing bond working group. our committee met twice in the past two weeks with many housing providers and senior advocates attending. our committee approved the following three key recommendations to the working group. recommendation one, they should increase the number of senior housing units in production pipelines right now. seniors at 60 years old and older make up 20% of all persons living in poverty. allowable uses for the bond should include construction of new, independent senior housing

and residential care facilities, utilization of public land suitable for session developments, acquisition of small sites and housing that can address the needs of low income senior homeowners in each transition to accessible housing , and acquisition of sites for seniors housing to be constructed beyond the life of this housing bond to achieve parity relative to need and we recommend an additional 750 units of senior housing over the current 659 units in the current pipeline. senior housing rent must be affordable, more affordable then the current amounts presently demanded by the city housing programs. median income of all seniors living alone as you heard before his it's $21,900. below the 30% of the a.m.i. for the general population. the current affordable housing sets the lowest rent for people at 50% a.m.i., which is 21,450 a year. our senior viable housing program should serve seniors his income falls below 25% and 30% a.m.i. if the general population

in the bond program should prioritize projects that serve such needs. they recommendation is grabbing balance. this should make a commitment to increase the location of future senior housing developments to reflect the distribution of at-risk seniors in the entire city, such a distribution is not reflected in the current pipeline. it is therefore critical that the housing programs do more to offer seniors an opportunity to recite near their existing networks of support. these are our recommendations. we hope and courage your committee will support these three recommendations. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker. [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language] >> voice of translator: san francisco cheshire economy is booming, but they cannot keep up with the rocketing housing costs the communities gentrifying residency, many speculators would affect long-term tenants

this is happening every day in chinatown. do you know how much frantic cost for an s.r.o. that cannot even put to watch what to embeds and $1,000? [speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language]

>> voice of translator: there maybe something some people who can work at the age of 70, but due to our health situation, most of us depends on our fixed income and savings. low income or fixed income is about $800. once they are effected, they cannot afford $1,000 for an s.r.o. units. many owners refused to rent their units to seniors. our members cannot stand eviction pressure and will move out of san francisco. she neither can afford the rent here nor senior housing for her to apply. guess where she moved now? san mateo where she doesn't have a single friend. [speaking foreign language]

>> voice of translator: what contributed to society when we were young, but now we had -- without economics it prosperity, seniors don't have a place to stay. we hope the city can care for the needs of low income, senior and allocate more resources to develop more housing so we can stay in our home. >> thank you. before the next speaker, i want to say that i have to go to the bond committee meeting at this point, and i really apologize that i can't hear everyone from the public who provides testimony.

i also apologize to my colleagues on the committee that i have to leave, and hopefully you will continue listening to the important messages of the public. i heard your messages today, i've been hearing it for a long time now, and what you are saying is something that i fully support in terms of we need to more more, we need to be able to not only create more affordable housing units, but they get really affordable for those who are on fixed income throughout the city, so i will carry that message that you have articulated today, and i really want to thank the public for coming out and waiting patiently to provide your comments. it's an important issue for all of you, it's an important issue for me, i will promise you that

i am fully behind what you would like to see on the housing bond. again, i will turn it back to chair peskin who will conduct the rest of the public comments. thank you very much. >> thank you. i think the timing is perfect giving the meeting that you are departing to. i know you will carry the message that we are hearing today into those meetings that hopefully will be reflected in how the bonds bond that goes before the voters in november is constructed. with that, misses fung? [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language] [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language] >> voice of translator: i live in an s.r.o. building in chinatown. my daughter advised me that i need a sanitized private bathroom, but as many as you know, tenants do not have the luxury to a personal bathroom. we all have to share a communal bathroom. there is no elevator in my building. i have to walk up the stairs using my walking stick. i don't leave the house often, even if i don't go out to shop for groceries, i still have to live the house for doctor's appointments, however, as my health continues to deteriorate, i might not be able to walk in the near future. a lot of seniors she share the same problems and situations with me and we need housing that can accommodate our needs. the city has left many seniors

with no choice but living in an s.r.o. i sincerely hope that our city government can build more truly affordable senior housing, let seniors enjoy our retired years. >> thank you. >> thank you. misses lee? [speaking foreign language]

[speaking foreign language] >> voice of translator: my name is misses lee. in 2013, my family of three was evicted by the ellis act. we negotiated with the landlord and in the end we still get evicted. so we need to live in the shelter and hostels for over three weeks. i have a disabled daughter. some landlords know, there are two seniors and one disabled daughter and they will not rent the units to us. even, though we have applied for the certificate from the ellis

act to now, is already five years. we applied for almost 40 affordable housing units, but there is nothing for us. no, we don't apply anymore because we cannot even meet the income threshold. the minimum income qualification is so high that we cannot even get into the pool to the affordable housing. so there's nothing we can do, even with the certificate. after five years, our certificate is almost expired. i hope the city listens to our needs and our situation to build more truly affordable housing. thank you. >> thank you. for the record, the individual who did that ellis act eviction is named matthew miller. next speaker, please. >> good afternoon, supervisors. thank you for your time. my name is marco sampson, i'm here today with my colleague greg.

would come from an organization called a.p.i. legal outreach, specifically from the housing department, the housing project. our work involves defending tenants who otherwise could not afford the cost of eviction defence, and in our work, we have seen on a weekly basis several evictions, and in these evictions, more than half our elder evictions, and we supports this proposal for affordable senior housing. stressing the import -- the importance that it truly be affordable because it is the right thing to do, and it improves the lives of people in san francisco and could potentially save lives. the work that we have done, defending evictions, we