saying, ok, this is painful and especially the merchants, but we know once it's finished, it will be amazing and $21 million later, yeah, it looks pretty amazing, i'd say. i want to thank people and i have to read this because i always forget one person and then i get in trouble after wars. afterwards. so thank you, mayor, breed for starting it, city administrator, naomi kelly and mohamed nurue from public works. i mean, this is something i have to say was -- he really jumped in and said, let's make this happen and let's make it as less painful as we can. acting director for sfmta, tom mcguire and san francisco's puc. i would call everyone on this list and said if there was a pile of dirt and they couldn't park their car at 7:00 at night.

so the responsiveness of their teams were amazing. i want to thank all of their teams because every week we had an issue, whether it was the veterinarian or people getting dirt in their driveway and couldn't park their car. park driveway, this is all things that they really stepped up. i put 75k into budget so we could do a pilot programme called curb management. and this something i would think about because barbara, i don't know where barbara is from the

neighborhood, she would tell me everyday when i walked by her house how we had people parking in her driveway or double-parking to run in and get the ubers and stuff to get the food from the merchants. we said, how can we solve these issues? they said, parking is so horrible here. i heard that, no -- [ laughter ] with these parking, so really having to look at creatively looking at curb management, so we're in the process of right

now of actually having a community engagement of this curb management and how do we make it easier for people to park and easier for businesses to have people be able to come in and get what they need and get out so they're not parked there for hours. how do we, you know, get the uber eats and all of the other deliveries, where they have a place to park and can get in and out so they're not parking in barbara's driveway? so this is actually happening now and once again, the inner sunset park neighbor and merchants are at the tables saying we'll work with you and this is the only way i like to work because i came as a neighbor activist and i didn't like it when people did things in my naked an neighborhood andt when i walked out the door that it was done. so thank you to everyone for being here today. i'm really excited for all of the work that's done. it's amazing. and should i bring up naomi?

naomi! so now i would like to introduce naomi kelly, a city administrator. this was her baby to manage, all of the different people to make sure it was done right. and so naomi. >> thank you. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, supervisor brown and mayor breed and director of public works. this project has more meaning to me because i live in the neighborhood. i spend so much time here on these corners, going to amazing fantasy with my kids, burn sf, jamba juice, you name it, so i live through the construction and understand the merchants and the pain you went through. but boy, did this turn out beautiful! i've been to many scape improvements in different commercial corridor and i have

to say these seats and planters are some of the best i've seen in all of san francisco. so you all did a great job on that. [cheers and applause] >> again, i want to thank mohamed nurue and john thomas is completing this project because it was done on time. public works delivers many key construction projects throughout the city and having it done on time so we're not disrupting the merchants for longer than we should is very important. you heard this specific project was $21.3 million and it's connect the to residents and we're more resilient. as chair of the ten-year capital plan committee, we have done a lot to make sure that we have coordinating our projects.

it was putting in our new sewer lines and water line and that's important for someone who lives in this neighborhood because i can tell you where every sinkhole was. i was drawing diagrams and handing it to the sf puc saying these are the most important parts to touch in the sunset. underground, we've put in more than 4,000 -- the mayor is right. that was the large effort budget item at 7.$3 million. , along for the water and sewer

line to appreciate upgraded protection for this community in case of a potential earthquake. also groun underground, we put n municipal fiber providing secure signals to this community. at the street level, pedestrian and muni riders will see improvements as you can see with the curb ramps and that was approximately $5.7 million. but not just here in the inner sunset aisles, but public works have resurfaced 644 blocks across the city this year and we work together as one city, connected, and i'm pleased to introduce tom maguire, the interim director of transportation. [cheers and applause] >> it's great to be here and celebrate the puc, public works,

city administrator and the elected officials who helped get the funds together and get the wills together to make this happen and the street scape is basically but when i look at it, i don't just see beautiful planters and trees but safety. i see muni riders getting on and off trains going by and we see them getting off on a nice, safe sidewalk. they're not getting off into traffic like they do elsewhere in the city and this is the experience we want. we know this is the lifeline of the sunset, one of the busiest corridors and the streets in this area are some of the streets that are high injury vision zero and we want to make sure transit riders are safe, not just on their journey on the trains but when we get on and off on beautiful street scape. so thank you to the community for your patience as we have been working with our fell let's agenciefellowagencies to get thd thank you to everyone who fought for the funding and fought for the design to get this project

done. thank you. >> now after listening to all of us, after i'm sure you're bored, i want to bring up andrea jabli to give her viewpoints of this project as a neighbor, thank you. >> to the people who live here and work here and the merchants who come here, we didn't just do this as a photo-op. we did it because there are two important reason for people in this neighborhood to have this happening and one is the muni, the end juda will be faster. you'll get to work faster and home faster and anyone who does that everyday understands how important that is. it's also going to be safer for you. now you're not going to be hit by cars trying to squeeze in between the boarding ramps.

most importantly, ninth avenue and irving is an intersection that is painful for people who walk around this neighborhood on a frequent basis. you're sometimes stopped at a light for up to two and a half minutes while waiting for trains to come and go and bikes, muni, all that stuff. now that the stops have been reconfigured so that the buses get through the light before they have to stop, that intersection will be so much more pleasant for all of us to experience. so that's why we're here and why we did it and everyone who has put up with the noise and all of that, give yourself a round of applause. [cheers and applause] >> thank you, let's give the project is big hand. this is a great improvement. our mayor is challenging us to continue do more projects like this and public works and the partnership with all of the agencies will continue to deliver for you. so with that said, we will cut the ribbon and so, where is the

ribbon-cutting team here? we have behind us. >> and would the folks like martha, barbara and other community members feel free to come up and cut this rib bin. ribbon. this is for your community and we want to make sure you're a part of it. are we ready? >> yes! >> we sure? 5-4-3 -- you're not even counting. are we ready? >> yes clam 5-4-3-2-1!

thank you, supervisor vallie brown, ryan lamb, nopulo. >> did i get it? >> and dean preston for attending tonight's forum. thanks to all of you also. we'll start off with one minute opening statements in alphabetical order. miscellaneous brown, tu may begin -- you may begin. >> i'm vallie brown and the privilege of being your district 5 supervisor for this last year. for over 25 years, i've been your neighbor and i've been an activist. i have helped make sure that we keep a neighborhood school open in the violence in this

district. and also work to make vibrant and safe neighborhoods. i've been sole endorsed by the san francisco democratic party, san francisco firefighters, s.c.i. local, planned parenthood league of conservative voters and many other committees and san francisco political committee, too. and also state and local elected leaders. and since i've been in office, i have passed over 29 pieces of legislation. i fought to keep -- but we have so much more to do. we have to fix muni, we have to build more affordable housing and we also have to solve the homeless crisis. so thank you u.c.f. and the league of women voters for having us tonight. >> okay. [applause] >> mr. lamb. >> hello. hello. my name is ryan lamb. i'm running for district 5

supervisor. a little bit about me. i emigrated to here in 2003. my professional history includes, i was a former political journalist, a high school tutor and also a former businessman. and the reason i'm running today is for three points that i'm really, really passionate about. and that's maintaining the cleanliness and safety of district 5, having -- fixing our affordability crisis and i promise a decrease in homelessness. and fighting for local businesses to mr. a strong economy -- to build a strong economy, where the american dream is a reality and it's true. that's me, ryan lamb. >> thank you very much, mr. lamb. ms. o'mara. >> i'm go to try to be really quick. 60 seconds isn't really long to introduce yourself.

but ready, set. so, hi, everyone. my name is nopulo o'mara. i'm the mother of children, whom i have raised and co-parented in san francisco. this is my first neighborhood in sunset. i lived here for eight years and still know most of my neighbors. and tiff run into some of them, our children went to the same day ericas together, small village. i have a long history in this neighborhood. to be very quick, the reason why i'm running is because all of my children are millennials. they range in age from 11, 19, 23. the oldest being savannah, graduating in pre-law and computer science. when our children graduated, come out of school, they can't afford to pay the rent here. and it's just not my children affected. any child of college age, 18 years old or millennials cannot. that's the main reason i'm running. prioritize housing, expand

housing. improve the performance index in public schools. that's just some of the matters. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. mr. preston. >> thank you. haney, everyone. i'm dean preston. i'm running for supervisor because the status quo in san francisco is just not working. with the least affordable city in the entire country, with staggering inequality. and we are absolutely on the wrong track. district 5 deserves an independent leader with a track record of accomplishments, ready to take on the root causes of our problems. i have never been a city hall insider. i'm a civil rights and tenant rights attorney. i founded the statewide tenant rights group, which led the fight to save rent control when it was under attack. i'm a democratic socialist, who believes everyone deserves affordable housing, health care, fair wages and equal access to power. i have been on the frontlines

fighting in district 5 for the last 20 years and my campaign is about taking bold steps, a green new deal for san francisco, free public transit, a public bank to reinvest in our communities. and social housing to reverse displacement. we cannot afford the status quo. we need to rethink what's possible in our city. >> thank you very much. thank you very much. [applause] >> now we're going to begin with the questions asked from the audience. the first question will be very good in giving us an idea of how you see or how you wish to approach the position of supervisor follow district 5. could you tell us what specifically will you do to engage with district 5 residents, when it comes to quality of life issues like development, public transportation, homelessness, and public space.

and the first -- ms. brown, you get this question. >> i have done a lot in a year perform i have passed 29 pieces of legislation, housing. i actually legislated housing with 20% affordable. at the time that was the highest inclusionary housing in this city. i have also -- the affordable housing. so i identified public and private sites, so we can build 100% affordable. i also put $40 million with my colleagues supervisor fewer to buy buildings, that people were being evicted. we bought a building on shader, all seven units, everybody was saved. to these are some of the things i've been doing. rivals been working on homeless. i navigated the first center for vehicles. we know that's our biggest increase in homeless. i actually today cut a ribbon at

st. mark's church to make it actually -- it's a resting place for homeless to go in the daytime. so there's many things that i could do. but the minutes to tell you -- the minute is too short. >> thank you. mr. lamb. >> one thing i take pride in is transparency. you can access my team's number, my email. all of my policies and when it comes to affordability, homelessness, me personally i was formerly homeless in 2017. i'm the only candidate with a well-rounded knowledge of homelessness crisis that's gone up for what is it eight years straight. in my campaign i promise a decrease in homelessness. when it comes to affordable housing, i want to build 100 plus units in district 5. yeah. >> okay. thank you very much.

ms. o'mara. >> if you could go over the question again. i wanted to make sure i understand every point. >> what specifically will you do to engage with district 5 residents, when it comes to quality of life issues like development, public transportation, homelessness and public space. >> okay. perfect. first of all, i just warranted to make it very clear that i'm in disagreement with ryan when he says he knows homelessness from firsthand experience. i didn't share this as part of my bio. but it's in the department of elections bio that i've let everybody know is that i did actually experience homelessness. and that was after living -- i lived in the inner sunset, a few blocks down from here for about eight years. i experienced homelessness for a year, with three young children, by the way. and i was actually doing my masters at the same time, with a newborn baby.

so i'm very, very familiar with that. not only that, i also worked as a case manager in the city in dual diogenes programs. how to tackle the problem of homelessness, well, expand housing for one. have better renters' rights, create better renters' rights, such as the work dean worked on with prop c. you're going to have better quality of life if you restrict landlords, especially corporate landlords in terms of gouging. sorry. okay. >> okay. thank you very much. mr. preston. >> thank you, well, in terms of engaging neighbors, we'll continue doing what we've been doing. our campaign has knocked on thousands of doors, talked to many of you about the issues that matter most in the district. and, you know, what we're hearing is that people are fed up with a city with a $12 billion budget and cannot seem to meet the basic needs of what folks in the district want, affordable housing, to be able to get on a bus without being so

crowded that you can't get on. and to have basic quality of life. most of these problems are caused because someone is getting rich off of these problems. we have dysfunctional public transit in part, because of private companies that are privatizing our public transportation system. we have unaffordable housing because a small handful of corporation investors are making money, by making housing unaffordable. to the folks in this room, the people who live in the district. we'll continue to take those folks on, to make this a liveable city. >> thank you very much. i'm sorry. if i'm looking kind of befuddled up here, it's because this thing keeps going down. [laughter] and i don't know exactly why. okay. but i'm going to continue. okay. we'll cull -- come up to question two for mr. lamb.

i believe that we should stay on the issue of housing in district 5. do you believe, and if you do believe, how -- what ideas do you have for speeding up the permitting process for creating more housing in our district? >> okay. one thing about building housing, i think it should be based on supply and demand. we have candidates on the stage that just want to build as much public housing and affordable housing as we can. some people actually suffer from that. i think it's more about planning and taking the time to plan, to make sure that this affordable housing is going to be good for district 5. i mean, if you look at the 350 building project. i know vallie has reached out to them. we have to build so much -- we have to build more affordable

housing right in front of their front yard, by cutting the trees and building more units. i think it's more about planning and making sure we have enough affordable housing, based on supply and demand in district 5. >> thank you very much. ms. o'mara? >> well, i think the amount of housing in san francisco far he'ds the supply. there's deaf huge kha -- chasm. the millennials between ages 18 and 25 are the ones most affected by it. and that's important to consider. and that's not to disclude seniors. so what my suggestions are, prioritize housing and expand it

reintroduce certificates of housing for formerly marginalized communities like african-americans and brown in the fillmore district or hunters point. really protect our renters and tenants' right will go a long way, by repealing hawkins, for instance. >> okay. >> thank you. >> thank you. mr. preston, how would you speed up the permitting process? would you speed up the permitting process for housing? and hopefully create more housing and also protect existing houseing. >> for affordable housing, sure. and i think we need to distinguish between affordable housing and market-rate housing. market-rate housing is in san francisco today unaffordable to most working class people in this city. we need to look at the fact that as a city, we have built nearly

double the goals for market-rate housing and not even half the goals for affordable housing. so i will be proudly the affordable housing supervisor, if i get into office. i believe that's what our city desperately needs right. i do not subscribe to the theory that building housing, that costs millions of dollars, will trickle down and benefit low-income and working class people. it hasn't worked in san francisco. it won't work. i will prioritize building affordable housing. thank you. >> thank you very much. [applause] ms. brown. could you hold your applause until we're all done. thank you. >> well, when you look at housing in district 5, we have created 430 units in ten years. now you tell me if that creates a housing crisis. 430 units in ten years. and this is apartments. this isn't, you know, -- i'm

talking about apartments. so when we're looking at building apartments, i just don't understand why people, who are tenant advocate, are against apartments. because tenants live in parliament e-apartments. -- live in parliaments. we've been streamlining planning processes. you know when you're trying to build housing in the city or anything in this city, that we have this huge process. i feel like we definitely need to make sure we keep the community input, because that's really important. i have seen many developments become a lot better, after the community input. we also have to make sure that we protect tenants. i don't want to see anyone building anything that displaces tenants. so for me, as we're going to have to build housing. and also -- oh, yeah and also protect tenants. >> okay. thank you very much. ms. o'mara, this next question will be for you. going along with housing, we

also have rent control here in san francisco. so the question came in, how do you propose differentiating between small and larger buildings, with regard to rent control. and do you propose stronger or more lenient rent control? >> i think there should be stringent, more stricter laws protecting tenants, with regard to rent control. currently there's a measure for the state of california, where voters will sign a petition to actually have rent control throughout the state of california. so i think that will be impactful for a lot of the residents, when that ballot measure goes on the ballot. and it's -- it's going to come. it's going to happen. and there are restrictions with it. you have to have been a resident

since 1995. you it may not accommodate everybody. but it's a start. >> okay. thank you very much. mr. preston. >> thank you. so i've spent the last 20 years protect -- fighting to protect rent control and protect people from eviction and displacement. believe me, there's a constant real estate-sponsored attempt to rent-control protection for tenants. it happens in the city constantly. supervisors are presented with that and it happens at the state level. and i've been fighting against that and to protect rent control, it's the biggest reason that we still have a working class here in san francisco. i also was the author of proposition f last year, which is the right to counsel measure, which guarantees any tenant in san francisco the right to an attorney, if they're facing eviction, so that we don't have our rent-controlled tenants being fraudulently driven out of their homes. that measure is expected to decrease evictions gradually. it dropped by almost 50%, when

the only other city in the country did it, new york. evictions dropped 50%. so i will be a steadfast supporter of rent control and not supporting any efforts to weak continue. >> thank you. thank you very much. >> excuse me. excuse me. please. thank you. [background conversations] >> how do you propose differentiating between small and larger buildings, with regard to rent control? do you propose stronger or more lenient rent control? >> well, everyone in san francisco agrees we need rent control. it's something that we fight all the time -- actually a state level. because hawkins is a state level, that keeps rent control or doesn't untie our hands. we need to untie our hands for certain things that we have to protect tenants.

until we can overturn hawkins, that's not going to happen. we're always looking at ways to protect tenant. one of the things that i did is i actually funded a housing ombudsman. this is a mediator that any tenant in district 5 can use, if they're having trouble with their landlord. and this is something i think is really important, because, yes, we give people a free attorney when we're, you know, they're getting evictedded. shouldn't be working upstream and have someone work with the landlord and the tenant before it gets to an eviction. if anyone has been through an eviction, it's stressful whether you're a landlord or a tenant. i'm all about working upstream. i funded open-door legal to also work with people. >> thank you very much. mr. lamb. >> hello. i think there needs to be more lenient rent-control laws. that barely covers inflation in

the united states. an alternative i think that rent control could expand across san francisco. and also i think that we should have benefits to defray rental cost for tenants, instead of certain policies. and like what dean said, i'm for the right to counsel for all. and it's usually on a defensive side, if somebody making a lawsuit to you, then you have free attorney to help you in the housing matters. >> thank you very much. mr. preston, this next question will be for you also on housing, as i indicated, there are many questions regarding this. tell us about your commitment to building affordable housing in san francisco and what sets you apart from other candidates. what part do you see district 5 being in being part of that

solution of affordable housing? >> i think district 5 has been a leader in howing. the numbers as the supervisor points out, is pretty grim over the last decade. i think that's one of the biggest reasons that we need a change and not to be represented in district 5 by the folks who have been in control during that period of underproducing affordable houseing. i strongly believe that our city needs to embrace social housing, a different model of affordable housing than in the past. there are other countries that have much more successfully done this than the united states. if you look at vienna, of 0% of the population -- 60% of the population lives in municipal housing. if we're going to see a day in

the city where rents are affordable and people have long-term stability, district 5 is a district that will support that. >> thank you very much. >> sorry, 430 units everything, affordable housing. that wasn't just affordable housing in the last ten years. so i'm really the only candidate that has actually worked in affordable housing. i actually worked in it for two years afters left as a legislative aide. i know exactly what it takes to build affordable housing. $800,000 to build one unit of affordable housing. this is really expensive. when we talk about social housing, we already have social housing and n-district 5. we have the largest social housing complexes in district 5. they're called h.u.d. housing or the co-op models. so we've done this before. it's not brain surgery.

you don't need to be a brain surgeon to figure this one out. one of the things i keep hearing is how do you build housing. look, $800,000 to build an affordable unit. we also should be buying existing buildings with tenants in them. this is our affordable housing stock, too. so we have to start thinking different and creatively when we're thinking about affordable housing. >> thank you very much. mr. lamb. >> for affordable housing, i want to build 1,000-plus units. vallie just said it, 800,000 to build one unit. but i think that we could do better than that. we can upscale certain places, we can buy out unused or improve old buildings to house more people. and when it comes to housing i have to disagree.

because the problem with social housing, eventually you run out of other people's housing. and i think we stick to building hor housing, so that tenants have more options. they can choose where they want to live and choose the prices of where they want to live. >> without reiterating some of the points -- i think without trying to reiterate some of the points that dean preston just made, i'm in agreement with the suggestion of building or expanding affordable housing. the numbers, though, that vallie gives to me are pretty -- not affordable at all. and what seems to be happening, at least the dynamic as far as our housing crisis goes, there

appears to be a lot of attrition between those that have and those that don't. so when you live here, like i do as a renter for 25 years, the looming prices of rent and price gouging and in the insecurity that i live with personally, as do most renters, our millennials, it's a serious crisis. so i think whoever decides to be eventually the final supervisor at city hall, needs to do a far more progressive job than the one currently done. i'm not impressed. >> thank you very much. the next question will be for ms. brown. >> yes. >> and we've spoken about housing, affordable or market. but the question that always comes up is how we're going to pay for it. so where would you look to enlarge or cut the city budget,

to deal with the issues that we have within the city of san francisco? >> well, i actually worked on a housing bond with the mayor and the other board of supervisors for $600 million, that's going to be on the ballot, prop a. that's one way that we can help build affordable housing and buy existing buildings with tenants in them. but it's also looking at -- i actually did a blueprint and found city land, private land. i actually found private land over at mcdonald's, when they wanted to sell on haigt and stanyon. we should be looking at city land to build it on, too. that's a lot cheaper to do that. still because of the cost of construction, it's still $800,000. so we have to look many different places of how we're going to do this. but this affordable housing bond will help us with the start. we should put it in capital planning. we should put housing funding in our capital plan. this is what's really different and people keep saying status

quo. but they're doing different things as we move forward. it's not status quo. and i feel like as we move forward, people will see what's going to, you know, what will happen. >> thank you very much. mr. lamb. what will you do? how would you approach it? >> one thing i really don't like is inefficiency in city hall. the city and county of san francisco has 700 homelessness services. and each one of them with an executive director, that gets paid $173,000 on average. for me i'm going to cut half of that. because i don't -- homelessness has been on the rise. and i don't see -- i don't see that helping. i want to find efficient homelessness services. and then that money, that $173,000 from 700 homelessness services, i'm going to use that to build affordable housing for our homeless and for hardworking renters. when it comes to proposition a,

i have -- i disagree with it. in the long run we're going to be paying over $1 billion selling these bonds for affordable housing. >> okay. but what would you do? how would you cut the budget or enlarge it to take care? >> i understand that. >> okay. thank you very much. >> well, first of all, i think that it helps that i don't come from -- well, let's just say that. i am more into creativity than i am into politics. so it's creativity that makes me ambitious about my dreams, our dreams, our children's dreams about what needs to be done. and i'll put it in very simple terms. when f.d.r. was president in this country, about a third of this country was ill-housed. right. so that was part of the reason

why you started the new deal. and so my idea of what f.d.r. has done is what needs to be implemented in san francisco with the serious housing crisis. the budget that we have, that's being proposed on the ballot in november, we need to recess some of those. if you say prop k is a high seawall that needs to be built and requires $400 million, well, it's not really urgent. reallocate those funds to what's really necessary. what's imperative is housing. >> thank you very much. >> i would shift the budget around. >> thank you. mr. preston. >> well, i think three points. first, the inclusionary housing program, which is requiring as much affordable housing from developer as possible. that's actually free to the city. and i've been at the forefront of every effort to increase the efforts on developers. there's a reason that big developers are not behind me in this race. because i will continue making them build as much affordable as

possible. secondly, housing bonds, which i have fought for affordable housing bonds at the local and state level. part of the push with progressive supervisors like matt haney to increase the affordable housing bond. we called it for it to be $1 billion. and through all of our advocacy, it's at $600 million, as the supervisor just mentioned. and the last thing is we -- there is an appetite in this city to tax the biggest corporations in this country and in this city, who have benefited mightily from the trump tax break. we taxed them last year in prop c to address homelessness and we can tax them again. we always say they're going to leave town if you tax them. and it's just not true. they're better off right now than before trump. >> thank you. thank you. [applause] thank you very much. >> we have spoken of housing and homelessness.

and we've spoken -- but we haven't spoken about our homeless youth. haight ashbury is home to many homeless youth. what plans do you have to provide support and services for these youth in need? and we're going to start with mr. lamb. >> so i want to bring formal navigation center to lower haight where people can register and use the services there. i want to continue the services of people going around the city, looking for homeless families, homeless youth and giving them the resources to help them succeed, so they can have a job and start rebuilding themselves. when it comes to homeless youth, i was a homeless youth in 2017. i would be about 16 years old. and i had these services reach out to me. and they were really helpful.

i didn't use them. but i would continue those resources for our homeless youth. >> thank you very much. ms. o'mara. >> i think i would agree. i think ryan offers some insight into how he's dealt with it. and i kind of felt the personal sense and connection in from him in describing that. that's very valuable what he had to say. i would go with some of the points he's made, which is ensuring that the youth do complete their high school education. that's key. and go beyond high school, make sure that there are programs within high school, whether they have a vocational skill. we really need to assess the education as it's standing in our public school system. it needs to be diverse, it needs to be varied. it needs to address that when -- not everybody has to go to college. they may go and learn a skill

somewhere. that's very key. i think the -- and the inequities of affordability are also impacted by the lack of education. and that's key. in that respect, i do agree. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. mr. preston. >> thanks. my priorities, first off, would be to stop the sweeps and the criminalization of homelessness, that is occurring. i think it's ineffective. i think it's immoral. and i think it's a waste of taxpayer money. second thing we need in the haight is the homeless youth alliance has been without a permanent site in the haight for years now. it's ridiculous. and we need some advocacy from our supervisor's office to find them a permanent location. it's an amazing organization doing essential work. third, we need a navigation center in district 5. we've now been promised that since i first raised it in 2016. year after year we're told we're

getting a navigation center. everyone agrees we need one. we still don't have one. last thing i would say is the mcdonald's site is frankly an embarrassment. that is the site -- that was a strong proposal from the community. one of them actually involved public uses, as well as services for transitional-age youth. it would have been a great idea. the city abruptly withdrew the r.f.p. we were promised to have years more of a vacant lot. >> thank you very much. ms. brown. >> yes. when i first came into office, i brought take it to streets to haight ashbury. it's an organization that works with the homeless youth. they actually pay them and find them housing. so that's been going on for about eight months. and that's something that's working. when this housing bond passes, that will be breaking ground

within a year and a half, two years. i put the predevelopment money in there. so you have to have -- if you put -- millions of dollars into a navigation center, they want it three to five years. just like when i worked to build -- for booker t. washington for aged-out foster youth. that's something we need to do. we need housing for the homeless youth, because if anyone is getting out of the cycle, it's the transitional age youth. we have to have housing for them and education and jobs. and also we have a housing program or project that's being built, that's going to be built in hayes valley. these are the things that we need. >> okay. thank you very much. continuing on on the issue of homelessness, i've got a question here that it appears supervisor haney has legislation

or proposed legislation to create a commission overseeing homeless services. are you -- do you support this legislation? if you don't, why or why not? excuse me. >> was it me? >> not yet. it's miss o' meara? >> do you support the commission overseeing homeless services? why or why not? >> i certainly support supervisor haney's proposed -- his proposed legislation to have housing commission? is that correct? >> homelessness. >> homeless commission. >> homeless services commission. it's imperative. i'll reiterate some of my

stances. i think that we've discussed prop c a little bit. and dean touched on some issues about having increased that -- prop c raised about $300 million towards the housing. it was -- it got a vote of about 60/40. two-thirds would have made it with less entanglements. a lot of that money is tied up. by having a homeless commission, it is imperative to impact that gap that's required in the housing crisis. >> thank you. mr. preston. >> i fully support supervisor haney's proposal. it's absolutely essential. really right now two people direct and decide about all of our homelessness money. it's the mayor and jeff, the head of the homelessness department. that's it. >> that's too much power for just two people. >> excuse me. >> hundreds of millions of

dollars controlled by two people. what the homelessness commission would do is have actually oversight of how those funds are being spent. have transparency. and this is one -- i just want to emphasize. i think it's essential that district 5, whoever you pick, be independent of our mayor. >> [applause] >> when it comes to things like the homelessness commission, it is clear the mayor is strongly opposed, because she wants exclusive control over how the money is spent. i disagree with that. and our -- the incumbent supervisor cast the deciding vote to kill that commission. it's a huge difference between us. >> thank you very much. ms. brown. >> yes. the majority of the supervisors actually had voted against it, because of -- it wasn't that we were against the commission, we were against the timeline. the mayor had asked us to wait until march to actually put it

-- bring it forward. we said yes. that was the majority of the board of supervisors. when the mayor asks you to do something like that, for a few more months, why not. the fact that the supervisors do not have any control over the budget, that's not true. i actually put money in the budget for take it to the streets. i actually put money in to open up project homeless connect in st. mark's. so this that the mayor has all control is not correct once again. and i actually supported prop c. i legislated that we have a prop c commission and oversight commission. and that's going to be starting to show, so we can actually know how to spend that money when it comes in. i also did legislation that any company that wants to give us -- let us spend the money now for prop c, they'll let us. we have two companies letting us do that around $14 million so far. >> thank you very much. mr. lam. >> so are you for or against the homeless commission? >> yeah.

i said -- i said -- i don't think we're suppose to do this. >> no. we were waiting until march. >> we'd like your -- >> okay. >> i'm 100% supportive of this homeless commission, as long as it makes sure the homelessness services stay have integrity and check whether or not the services are actually needed. and and used by the homeless people. the city and county have a record of funding a lot of third -party organizations, such as the cbad and greener benefit districts, that just redo the jobs that the city and county promise to do. this homeless commission i want to make sure that there's divided leadership on that. so that they can make a good decision on how to make the money and make sure that the money is spent, actually helping homeless people. >> thank you very much, mr. lam.

mr. preston, this next question is for you. we're going to move into the issue of crime. could you tell us what will you do to help lower crime in the district and be as specific as you can. >> we obviously have a rise in high levels of car break-ins, property crime and increasing gun violence in the district, of particularly in the fillmore with two shootings right near the police station. let me just say right off the back, i don't think ramping up police presence, police budget and incarcerating people no a longer potrero, a failed approach. that's put us where we are. it doesn't mean we don't do anything about crime. we have to take a harm reduction and prevention approach to crime. so when we're looking at something like gun violence or

something like war break-ins. we can work on prevention. they created neighborhood safety, that hired neighborhood advocates, created fellows of people who were likely to commit gun violence and had them checking in daily with the neighborhood advocates. >> thank you. >> turned the city from the worst violent crime rates in the country around in just a few years. we have to start taking that kind of approach in san francisco. >> thank you very much, mr. preston. ms. brown. >> well, we actually had six shootings, dean preston. and one of the things that we have done in this district, because we actually really turned this district around. most of you know years around, it was really violent. and what we did, we put beat officers on the street. so they would get to know people

and i pushed to put more officers on the streets this last budget cycle. we also have to make sure there's programs there for people to have choices and get opportunities. we have that program. it's called mo magic, preston. so i'm just saying, you know, you talk about some program enrichment. we have these programs right now. >> excuse me. >> in the western addition. so i just want to make sure that when we're talking about the violence and the things that we've done, i'm really proud of the district. and we've also stepped up. the community has helped up with the recent violence and also done peace marches, gone through public housing and other areas saying that this is not acceptable opinion it's the community that actually makes the neighborhoods safe. >> thank you very much. [applause] also i ask you again, before we get to mr. lam, i ask you again to be respectful of the of our

candidates up here. this is a lot of hard work, y'all. [laughter] and so, you know, and they're up here trying to answer your questions. and we want to get as many done as we possibly can. so i think we can do this. mr. lam, what will you do to help lower crime in the district? >> last month i was at the freedom west homes. one of the main things they were talking about was car break-ins and crime and how to prevent it. i do think enforcement and funding the police is a good way to stop crime. you look at bart, when there's a police presence at the entrances, you see 80% decrease in fare evasion. i hate to say it, when it comes to gun violence, shootings in school happens because schools are gun-free zones. and it takes a lot more time for policemen to get there and actually find a strategy to take

out a gunman. so i think police enforcement is very critical. i think there needs to be a better, smarter punishment for people who have committed crime, especially younger people. i definitely agree with taking out juvi. it was an interesting move by city hall. >> thank you. >> that's my view. >> moderator: thank you. ms. o'meara. >> everyone has touched on very sensitive issues here, regarding the police. i'm going to keep my answer really simple. i think the process needs to be community-based, just as dean suggested. i think having some sort of neighborhood watch that's all-inclusive and diverse is a better problem to -- a better solution to the problem than -- what happens is -- forest hill,

in the sunset for eight years and the lower haight where i lived for ten years. i think i have a fair sense of my neighbors, who they are in district 5. and i think taking a more -- what i call a humanist approach to protection is more p paltable for neighbors a strong police presence tends to -- people make half expressions on police for historical reasons, that we all know. and i don't need to be here giving you a lecture on that. >> moderator: thank you. thank you very much. okay. the next question will be for ms. brown. there have been police shootings in san francisco in the past.

what's your position on what we should do or what the board of supervisors can do to address police shootings in san francisco? >> i think also would be really retraining the police. the training that they have received, especially with mario woods. i think when you watch that tape and you watch them surround mario woods, that's the way they were trained. i think they completely need new training. i think that, you know, i don't agree with tasers. that's something that i'm against. and i just feel that we have to really look at the police in a different way. i have to say, you know, when i was a legislative aide and we actually had, you know, youth that were committing violent crimes, there were cops, beat cops that knew these youth. one youth had a gun strapped around him. and the cops had him surrounded. but he was lifting the gun to throw it down, because he was

only 14. and because the cop knew who he was, he told the other cops "don't shoot." this is what we need. we need the police to understand and engage the youth, the community to make sure that everyone is safe. >> moderator: thank you very much. mr. lam. >> one thing i support is again training. i think that police need, similar to starbucks and other companies, i think they need weeks off to make sure that they're following procedures. it's more like yearly you have one week off to do training again. to make sure that discrimination or some other effect may not be interfering with your police procedures. i'm also against tasers. of course, i speak with so many police officers and their belts are filled. they have their batons, they have their -- they have their walky-talkies