people housed. we just haven't. so here in the city we are lucky because people care about making sure people are housed. the 600 million-dollar affordable housing bond passed by voters will be a great opportunity to invest in building more affordable housing , but we can't build it fast enough. so having access to the abigail, having access to the post street -- post street site and the bristol where there is another step up housing, those are so important to getting people housed now. so i just want to thank everyone who is here today and all of your work that sometimes escapes under the radar and people are not completely familiar with everything that goes into making an opportunity like this possible. it is appreciated, it's going to make a difference for 89 people at post street and 62 people

right here at the abigail. it's going to make a difference for so many people and i'm so grateful we have this opportunity to do just that today. how the person who has helped in our efforts to move the needle on homelessness, who probably every time i call him, and i tell him about somebody, he not only knows the name of that person, with the whole story about their medical history and family, and when they came here and everything else, believe it or not, it's a tough job to manage our homeless department in san francisco, but jeff kaczynski does it because he cares and because he knows that last year when we helped 2,000 people exit homelessness, that's 2,146 people that are not sleeping on our streets tonight and that matters. ladies and gentlemen, the director of the office of

homelessness here in san francisco, jeff kaczynski. [applause] >> thank you, mare breed, for those kind words and thank you for your leadership to expand critical resources that we desperately need to help people living in crisis on our streets. she understands that shelters are only part of the solution. we have to create housing opportunities are all types of low income households, especially for people who are experiencing homelessness. every single night, the city houses nearly 10,000 formerly homeless people and every week we help 50 people of -- permanently exit homelessness. however, for every person we help exit homelessness, there's three newly homeless people coming behind them. obviously we have a lot more work to do. housing is a big part of the solution to homelessness. and thank you to mayor breed's focus on leadership on this issue, we have 1700 units of

housing and housing subsidies in the pipeline in addition to those that we are celebrating here today. there's a lot more of these openings to come. it's also really important to remember that behind all of these numbers are people. each person with lived experience, each person who has struggled with homelessness has a unique story. however, the one thing they all have in common is resilience and courage and taking the steps to move beyond homelessness. it's hard work and it's a challenge and it is a great honor for myself and for my colleagues to play a part, a small part really, in helping people overcome homelessness by bringing buildings like the abigail and the post online. doing this work, i don't want to diminish how hard it is, because it is tremendously difficult, it takes a lot of people, a lot of leadership, a lot of hard work, a lot of funding, so in addition to the mayor, i want to thank other people that she already mentioned, but i want to thank them as well. of course, i want to thank

daniel from tipping point. tipping point community is contributing $3 million towards opening the next 300 units of housing including these two sights. we're very grateful for the support that they have given, and also want to thank not only deepak and sam patel, the owners of the post on the abigail. there is more than 3,000 privately owned units that were masterly -- we are master leasing throughout the city. they're responsible for nearly half of the permanent supportive housing in the city and they are unsung heroes and very important partners. i want to thank them and their colleagues and all of the owners of the board for the 3,000 units that the city is master leasing. and i want to acknowledge all the amazing staff who have worked on this issue, all of my colleagues at the department of homelessness and supportive housing, my colleagues at the mayor's office, the city attorney's office, the mayor's office of community development, the real estate department, all

of these staff work tiredly -- tirelessly on these projects. before i took this job, i spent most of my career running affordable and supportive housing in texas and in california and i know how hard it is to operate buildings like this and to do the work and turn housing unit into a home for somebody who was experiencing homelessness. these sites operate 24/7 and the nonprofit organizations that run them do an amazing job of helping the people who are struggling to exit homelessness or to move on from permanent supportive housing to be successful and to become their best selves. i especially want to acknowledge and thank beth stokes from the episcopal community services and everybody who is here. tabitha and randy who couldn't be here from tenderloin housing clinic. they do an incredible amount of work making these projects happen and we are grateful to them and to everybody else who is part of this. thank you for being here today.

>> thank you, jeff. again, as i said, we can't do it alone. we are fortunate to have an incredible partner in tipping point, and tipping point provided $3 million to help make this possible, which moves this project along sooner rather than later and to speak on behalf of to think -- tipping point is daniel. >> thank you. thank you to everyone who is making this work possible. we started tipping .15 years ago with a promise to invest in the best solutions that prevent poverty, including housing, early childhood education, and employment. the silver lining to the homelessness crisis that we outlined is we know that -- what it takes to get people housed. that is permanent, supportive housing and it works. over 85% of people who enter

permanent supportive housing never experience homelessness again. the opening of the post and the abigail exemplifies the role that philanthropy can play in supporting effective solutions in partnership with the mayor and the city department. tipping point is providing $3 million in flexible dollars for a wide range of needs from apartment repairs to new furniture. these are funds that service providers can use to do whatever it takes to get units online fast. mayor breed, thank you for your leadership and your commitment to this issue. i want also think the tenderloin neighborhood development association for your tireless work on behalf of our most vulnerable neighbors. i want to thank everyone who is saying yes to solutions. we can do this, but it will take all of. thank you very much.

>> thank you, daniel. randy shaw has been a serious advocate for step up housing and i'm really excited that we are partnering on the abigail to make this possible. we also partnered on the bristol , and so these are two incredible properties for step up housing. here to represent tenderloin housing clinic, since randy couldn't be here is tabitha. >> randy sends his regrets. he really wanted to be here today. this is a really special project to him, a special building to him. he counts stories of the history of this building and him as an organizer in 1980 when he organized residents in this building to prevent the then owners from starting a bed-and-breakfast in this building and they were successful in doing that. he has very fond memories of that project and his work with this building.

we are really excited to partner with h.s.h. and the city to open some additional step up housing. this is a really beautiful building. sixty-two units, all bathrooms. we will have a nice community kitchen and laundry room and community room for the residents here. i also want to thank deepak, the owner, for this partnership and h.s.h. and the mayor for providing this opportunity for the residents that will get to move into this building. and then i also internally really want to thank our director of facilities who has spent countless hours on lots of time already on her work making sure that this building is a success in making sure that this building is going to be a wonderful building for the residents that move in. thank you. >> it is also really great to open up places like this because they provide opportunities, and

almost every time we do it, episcopal community services, they are always at the forefront of not only helping with properties like this, but some of our shelters and navigation centers, and so we are grateful for their partnership and their work. here to represent the organization is beth. >> thank you, mayor breed. i got an e-mail last week during the holiday week to see if i was available to participate in an announcement of 150 new homes. i was delighted. i was super excited to start the year off in 2020 with the announcement of new homes for our unhoused community members in san francisco. it is a great way to start the year. i'm so happy to be here for this announcement. i want to thank everybody who invited us to be part of the celebration and for the opening of the abigail and the post. it's truly a celebration of

homes. i want to stress that. i want to thank the mayor for her continued leadership and unwavering commitment toward proven solutions towards ending homelessness in san francisco. it really takes vision and it takes a community. thank you. housing ends homelessness, right we know this. yet supportive housing is a proven intervention for the most vulnerable, chronically unhoused in our community. providing needed housing and stability for folks to address they're overall health and wellness. quite simply, supportive housing is healthcare. i say that all the time. it effectively reduces emergency room visits, we know this, inpatient hospitalizations for our highest need neighbors who are living in homelessness today supportive housing works, as daniel said. again, we really believe this and we know it's proven. power board and our staff that

are here thank you for being here and we are are super excited to partner with mayor breed and h.s.h. and sam patel. thank you. eighty-nine solutions to ending chronic homelessness in san francisco. thank you so very much. >> thank you. today we have a resident of the bristol, mitch, who wants to talk about his experience and why this is so important. >> good afternoon. i'm a tenant at the bristol hotel and i would like to emphasize that supportive housing does work. i was in supportive housing for seven years and i got the opportunity to move to a newly remodelled bristol hotel. i love it. it's a home for me. i don't expect to leave anytime soon. i'm very happy with the whole process. and anybody who gets step up housing like the abigail is very lucky. thank you. >> thank you.

thank you, everyone else for being here today and all the folks who helped to make this possible. again, the solution, as beth said to ending homelessness, is housing. it takes opportunities like this , it takes building faster, and thinking about ways that we can get more creative to get more access to opportunities so we can get people off the streets and we can keep people who are vulnerable housed in the first place. that is our goal. that is the opportunity we are providing today, and i want to thank each and every one of you for being here. thank you so much. [applause] [indiscernible] [♪] ♪ homelessness in san francisco is considered the number 1 issue by most people who live here, and it doesn't just affect neighbors without a home, it affects all of us.

is real way to combat that is to work together. it will take city departments and nonprofit providers and volunteers and companies and community members all coming together. [♪] >> the product homeless connect community day of service began about 15 years ago, and we have had 73 of them. what we do is we host and expo-style event, and we were the very force organization to do this but it worked so well that 250 other cities across the globe host their own. there's over 120 service providers at the event today, and they range anywhere from hygiene kits provided by the basics, 5% -- to prescription glasses and reading glasses, hearing tests, pet sitting, showers, medical services, flu shots, dental care, groceries,

so many phenomenal service providers, and what makes it so unique is we ask that they provide that service today here it is an actual, tangible service people can leave with it. >> i am with the hearing and speech center of northern california, and we provide a variety of services including audiology, counselling, outreach, education, today we actually just do screening to see if someone has hearing loss. to follow updates when they come into the speech center and we do a full diagnostic hearing test, and we start the process of taking an impression of their year, deciding on which hearing aid will work best for them. if they have a smart phone, we make sure we get a smart phone that can connect to it, so they can stream phone calls, or use it for any other services that they need. >> san francisco has phenomenal social services to support people at risk of becoming homeless, are already experience and homelessness, but it is confusing, and there is a lot of waste. bringing everyone into the same space not only saves an average of 20 hours a week in navigating the system and waiting in line

for different areas, it helps them talk, so if you need to sign up for medi-cal, what you need identification, you don't have to go to sacramento or wait in line at a d.m.v., you go across the hall to the d.m.v. to get your i.d. ♪ today we will probably see around 30 people, and averaging about 20 of this people coming to cs for follow-up service. >> for a participant to qualify for services, all they need to do is come to the event. we have a lot of people who are at risk of homelessness but not yet experiencing it, that today's event can ensure they stay house. many people coming to the event are here to receive one specific need such as signing up for medi-cal or learning about d.m.v. services, and then of course, most of the people who are tender people experiencing homelessness today. >> i am the representative for the volunteer central. we are the group that checks and all the volunteers that comment participate each day. on a typical day of service, we have anywhere between 40500

volunteers that we, back in, they get t-shirts, nametags, maps, and all the information they need to have a successful event. our participant escorts are a core part of our group, and they are the ones who help participants flow from the different service areas and help them find the different services that they needs. >> one of the ways we work closely with the department of homelessness and supportive housing is by working with homeless outreach teams. they come here, and these are the people that help you get into navigation centers, help you get into short-term shelter, and talk about housing-1st policies. we also work very closely with the department of public health to provide a lot of our services. >> we have all types of things that volunteers deal do on a day of service. we have folks that help give out lunches in the café, we have folks who help with the check in, getting people when they arrive, making sure that they find the services that they need to, we have folks who help in

the check out process, to make sure they get their food bag, bag of groceries, together hygiene kit, and whatever they need to. volunteers, i think of them as the secret sauce that just makes the whole process works smoothly. >> participants are encouraged and welcomed to come with their pets. we do have a pet daycare, so if they want to have their pets stay in the daycare area while they navigate the event, they are welcome to do that, will we also understand some people are more comfortable having their pets with them. they can bring them into the event as well. we also typically offer veterinary services, and it can be a real detriment to coming into an event like this. we also have a bag check. you don't have to worry about your belongings getting lost, especially when that is all that you have with you. >> we get connected with people who knew they had hearing loss, but they didn't know they could get services to help them with their hearing loss picks and we are getting connected with each other to make sure they are getting supported. >> our next event will be in march, we don't yet have a date

set. we typically sap set it six weeks out. the way to volunteer is to follow our newsletter, follow us on social media, or just visit our website. we always announce it right away, and you can register very easily online. >> a lot of people see folks experience a homelessness in the city, and they don't know how they can help, and defence like this gives a whole bunch of people a lot of good opportunities to give back and be supported. [♪]

>> good morning, everyone. the meeting will come to order. welcome to the thursday, january 16, meeting of the government audit and oversight committee. i'm gordon mar, the chair of the committee and joined by supervisor aaron peskin and supervisor matt haney. thank you to the committee's clerk and i would like to thank maya and michael, sfgovtv, for staffing the meeting. any announcements? >> please ensure you silence your phone. speaker cards and any