>> good morning and welcome to the rule its committee of the san francisco board of supervisors. i am the chair of the committee aaron peskin joined by supervisor mandelman and supervisor chan. >> clerk: due to protect city board members and the public, the board supervisors legislative chamber and committee art room are closed. members will be participate engine the meeting remotely. committee members will be attending the meeting through a video conference as if they were physically present.

call (415) 655-0001 the meeted id is 187 450 8115 and then press pound and pound again. you will be muted and in listening mode only. when your item of interest comes up, dial star 3 to be added to the speaker line. best practices are to call from a quiet location. speak clearly and slowly and turn down your television or radio. you can submit public comment to myself at victor.young@sfgov.org. it will be included as part of the file. that completes my initial comment.

>> chairman: thank you, mr. clerk. can you please read the first item. >> clerk: yes. item number one packs advisory committee. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. in this case, colleagues and you will recall that a couple of months ago, we considered appointments to this body and this nominee one applicant for one seat that has to be nominated by the san francisco unified school district diana kathnaro is known to us because she was before us when we first considered this and is before us today and we'll have an opportunity to speak in a minute. but there's one issue that i

want to touch on very briefly is that unbeknownsed to this committee back on march 8th i think that [inaudible] that there had been an informal practice of reserving seats 1 through 3, the community seats, representatives of the african american community, the asian pacific islander community, and the latinx community. dph and i say this gently did not inform us of that and, indeed, those designations are not set forth in the law nor are they set forth in the mate act. so we were not aware of that

informal practice. we did appoint every api person who applied to serve on the body. al beit we moved around the seats so we could get as many folks involved as possible. so it is true there's not a person in the api seats. so there's nothing we can do at this point but i do want to acknowledge that confusion and gently admonish dph staff that while we appreciate and encourage as being resolved for specific groups. so that's all i have to say about that and, with that said,

i'd like to return to the matter at hand and here from ms. cavagnaro for seat 15. >> thank you chair peskin and supervisor mandelman for having me today. i was unaware when i originally applied for this seat that i was to be nominated by sfusd pack. in the meantime, i did reach out to them and for better or worse, the person that was originally appointed to the position was unable to fill the seat and so i spoke with the leadership over at the pack and had great conversations about my background and interest which i'd be happy to go into again here. as we've mentioned, we talked a couple months ago about that and i'd be delighted to be considered for this role and to

also be a great representative to the pack and as an sfusd mother represent what parents and the pack is really looking for as a member of this specific committee. >> chairman: perfectly stated in my humble opinion. are there any questions or comments from members of the rules committee? i think my chat box is working. i don't see anybody. so why don't we open this up to public comment. >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment on this item please call (415) 655-0001. the meeting id is 187 540 8115 and then press pound and pound again. if you haven't already done so, please press star 3 to line up

to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comment. at this time, we have nine callers, but nobody is in line to speak at this time. >> chairman: okay. well, with that, public comment is closed. >> clerk: actually, we have one person who just logged in. >> chairman: okay. and public comment is open. >> hi there. this is naoni laguana and i'm the chairman of the parent council. and our coordinator is unable to be here, but we just wanted to support dianna. we were the ones to interview her and feel like she's the right fit for the position.

we feel really lucky to have her. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. are there any other members of the public who would like to testify on this item number 1. >> clerk: that was the last caller in the queue to speak. >> chairman: okay. public comment is closed. and, colleagues, if there's no objection, i would like to make a motion to send ms. cavagnaro to the full board for seat 15. and there's nobody in the chat box which i'm sure john c. fixed last week. so on that motion, a roll call please. >> clerk: yes. on that motion [roll call] the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. could you please read our second and final item.

and, we'll see you at the full board next week. >> clerk: yes. item number two is consider appointing one member term ending january 31, two thousand twenty-three, and two members terms ending january 31, 2025, to the veterans affairs commission. i'd just like to note the neighborhood for the [inaudible] commission allows waiver by ordinance only. so that is a little bit different and, if you do wish to waive residency, we do need to get some advice in from our deputy city attorney. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young. i was actually going to point that out in my open comments, but i wanted to start by thanking all of the applicants not only for applying, but for their service to our country

and for their desire to continue that public service in the context of this long standing policy body that i've referred many timings over the years. this is a body that has 17 seats, 12 appointed by the board of supervisors and 5 by the mayor. they have staggered terms. and, today, three of those seats are open and, we have as mr. young indicated twelve applicants before us. although, i note that in the intervening time, the mayor has appointed one of the applicants joseph baba to one of her five seats. so that takes us down to 11 folks who are vying for the

veterans affairs commission. one of them i note is an encumbent and as mr. young noted, unlike many other bodies that the rules committee deals with, a residency waiver would, indeed require an ordinance by the board of supervisors which would be rather extraordinary which depending on what this committee thinks may take us down to nine seats. additionally, i wanted to note that section 5.102 that creates this body requires that at least three of the body of 17 members be women veterans and i asked my staff to do a little research about how many women are in the armed forces and are veterans and depending on what source you look at, women are

between 10% and thirteen% of all veterans. two of those women must be appointed by the board of supervisors and one by the mayor. and, the board does have two women appointees. but, despite that, i know that we all strive to get much more gender equity on all of the bodies that we deal with. so, with that, colleagues, i don't know if you have opening remarks and, of course, we'll hear from all of the eleven applicants and while they are free to say whatever they would like, i thought i would pose a couple of high level questions that might help guide our thinking and deliberations and first is whether or not the applicant has been to a meeting of the veteran affairs commission and, if so, how many

times and maybe what that experience was like and i do note that there is a box on the application to check as to whether an applicant has been to a veterans affairs commission meeting or not. some have indicated yes. some have indicated no and some have not filled that box out at all. that's also a good reason to ask a question. and, second, it would be good to hear what the applicants think are the top two or three issues facing veterans today and what the role of the commission is in elevating those commissions and obviously, the applicants don't have to address either of those two things, but i thought that might be helpful in our deliberations. with that, are there any comments from committee members? seeing none. why don't we go to the applicants in order of their applications.

why don't we start with daniel shaffer. i do know all of these seats are at large seats. so, mr. shaffer. >> clerk: mr. chair, would you like to set any kind of time limit today? >> chairman: it would be great if we could do this in 3 minutes, but committee members might have questions. so how about we try three minutes an applicant. is daniel shaffer available? if not -- >> clerk: we do not see mr. shaffer logged in at this time. >> chairman: okay. why don't we go on to david

corpman who is here. >> hello, can everyone hear me? >> chairman: we can. >> thank you for having me here. i'm an anesthesia resident at ucsf right now. a little bit about me. i entered the military through the air force academy and graduated 2010. my first military assignment was as a full bright scholar in the state of china and i occupied leadership positions in the military intelligence and the research and development community. after i completed my service, i moved to san francisco to do my development training here. it's a great clinical environment, but also a city that prizes diversity and is a beacon of inclusivity.

so one story from my time, there was a time i was on the inpatient services there was a veteran, he had complex medical needs and when it came time for him to be discharged, he didn't have a good plan for where he was going to go. and, unfortunate reality of a lot of medicine is that patients are discharged inappropriately. in this case, this veteran was given a taxi voucher to msc south and hope for the best. i don't know if that veteran had a shelter that night or if he was again on the street. and so, there are many things that the veterans affairs commission has done working on

housing, education, other access to veterans benefits and those are some of the main issues that i see the committee embarking on and also working towards in the future working with other veteran sources as well. >> chairman: and i note that you are a mandarin speaker as well. >> i am. certified mandarin speaker by ucsf as well. >> chairman: and volunteered for senator harris relative to interviewing folks for military service academy nominations. >> that is correct. >> chairman: are there questions for this applicant? do you want to address the fact that you have not attended any of the meetings yet? >> thank you for bringing that up. i faxed in the application in late 2020 i participated with

the commission virtually via the microsoft teams platform and i've also communicated with members of the commission as well about ways to help the health care community be more involved with the commission and i'm aware there are no physicians on the board. many professional colleagues in the hospitals i've had conversations with them about what are the more pressing issues with them as it related to veterans setting them up for success and then communicating with the president of the commission about how to bring these professionals from san francisco through the commission and help better inform the commission about how to be engaged with people taking care of veterans in our hospitals, including myself as

a clinician treating veterans. i've worked at the san francisco va for the last month and i also have a lot of professional colleagues who have been doing this for decades who feel the commission would benefit from. although the commission became known to me late 2020, it's been exciting to see it in action participating in a meeting and then also working with my colleagues and trying to come up with ideas about how to further invigorate the work of the commission. >> chairman: thank you, sir. any questions from members for mr. corpman? if not, why don't we move on to elliott johnson. mr. young, sounds like elliott johnson is not there unless he's one of the phone numbers that doesn't have a name

attached to it. >> clerk: yes. i do not see mr. johnson on the log-in sheet. if you have called in via telephone, you can hit star 6 to unmute your line. if you're calling in as an applicant. >> okay. can you guys hear me? >> clerk: yes, we can. >> hey. how are you guys doing today? >> great. >> i'm elliott johnson. i'm the navy vet. as well as when i got out i reenlisted and was a cb construction electrician. currently, i'm an sfmta employee over here at the traffic signal shop for 17 years. i do live in daily city outside of san francisco. you know, i, you know i'm not as qualified as probably a lot of guys are, but i'm around the

veteran community a lot. i bar tend at the american legion for five years. worked at the va before i came to the city. i'm around a lot of guys. i'm just a regular veteran like they are and i just want to help and support guys any way i can. so as far as any visions or any forsight as far as looking out for a veteran, i would take those as they came and work through them as best i can. and, you know, that's my background. >> chairman: mr. johnson, same question i asked mr. corpman relative too attending commission meetings, you checked no box, but we let mr. corpman know

[inaudible] >> yeah. i will start attending more regardless either if i get appointed or not. i haven't before. it was just, you know, too busy, kept putting it off and i never got a chance to get over there about the last year before covid that i knew about it. so i've operated in other capacities on boards with american hegion, with my kids soccer club, but i never did go to any of those meetings. >> chairman: no worries. your honesty and any questions, committee members for mr. johnson? all right. why don't we move on to eric dang. >> thank you guys. bye bye. >> clerk: mr. chair, i believe

mr. dang withdrew his application. >> chairman: okay. i did not see that, but thank you for letting us know. then, we will go to the encumbent for seat number 2, george ishikata. >> good morning, chair peskin, supervisors chan and mandelman. i wanted to get the opportunity to speak with you briefly. as the chairman mentioned, i'm the encumbent. i have attended nearly all the meetings of the veterans affairs commission. i think i missed one because i was working for the commission on a project and one i was on a work trip. but i've been able to observe the goings on of the commission. in relation to the other questions that supervisor peskin posed, one of the issues that impacts the veterans

affairs commission is that people mistakenly believe it's an outreach entity. of course, outreach is tasked to the veterans service officer for the county and the veterans affairs commission is supposed to be a policy oriented body that associates the board as well as the mayor on policy issues related to veterans. so i think there's frequently a misunderstanding of what a role is. the hope is to try to influence policy and assist in ways that will have a greater impact on the veteran community. the second important point is i think our veteran community in san francisco is considerable. it frequently is seen among those with problems frankly. the homeless population for instance has a larger percentage of veterans in other groupings. however, we do have a large number of veterans who are very

stable and very integrated into the very fabric of work and living in san francisco. so i don't want to forget that we have a large group of individuals. we don't want to focus all our we need to look at the larger picture. i think one of the biggest challenges facing the veterans affairs commission is we are sort of a forgotten commission. the fact is very few people know about us and through some administrative oversights, although we were created by administrative code, we do not fall under any city agency and, as a result, we have no funding, no funding line to be be able to bring money into the organization. we have no full-time staff and, as a result, this is really an

effort by 17 volunteers to try to keep things running. so i think that will give us some formal acknowledgement and designation under a city agency whether that's the we have sfgov.org accounts. but no one manages that accounts for that. it has changed over the past

three years as i've been a member and it has oriented on trying to accomplish more to help more veterans in the city. i think one of our speakers already mentioned some of the housing issues that we've under taken. we have the vso report to us regularly now so we have an understanding of how the outreach works. for me personally, i've had the opportunity to serve for three years in various. i'm currently the chairman of the rules committee for the veterans affairs committee. and i'd certainly like to continue that. >> chairman: thank you for that very thorough presentation, mr. ishikata. are there any questions from members? i see nobody on the roster. so why don't we move on to jason chittavong.

i saw he was logged in i thought. >> hello. i'm here. >> chairman: you are. >> i would say chairman and members of the rules committee. i'm a bay area native and a san francisco resident for the past seven years. during my military service. i served in the marine corps in 2004. during operation iraq freedom and during freedom [inaudible] . i'm applying to my current work right now where i help veterans in the community, being out there trying to be a voice and advocate. one of the biggest challenges of overturning home been dealing with difficulties of

transitioning and i got involved with multiple veteran organizations it in order to provide public assistance and social service and, of course, being here in san francisco, it's a major challenge for housing and a project that i got really interested with and got involved with the commission board to help with the veteran preference below market rate home program and continue working further in that. i worked with student veterans, elders, family members, homeless veterans which very few have ever heard where we assist veterans who are coming out of custody and go through a treatment program whether they have mental illness or substance abuse.

with them being challenged to make a voice, i'm trying to be their advocators. and, for the past year, 2020 and right now 2021 i attended to all the commission meetings just reporting any updates from the veteran corps justice program. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, mr. chittavong. the next applicant who i saw in the participant list is one that i believe and i mentioned earlier was appointed by the mayor to one of her seats, but i see that joseph baba is there. do i have that correct the,

mr. baba? so we will move on to matthew bell. is matthew bell available? i don't see him either unless he's one of the members that we don't see. how about nicholas rusanoff. >> i'll have a prepared speech and i'll be able to answer questions afterward. my name is nicholas rusanoff and i joined the army immediately after 9/11. i served in iraq in 2004. after the war, i lost everything. i met my wife in san francisco

as a -- she was a san francisco native. she opened my eyes to see this city as our home. we married at city hall. i obtained an accounting degree at sfsu. the best school in our city. i received the best care from the san francisco v a.m.. i was helped by source to cloud shares to connect with services and housing. i connected with the community and i am a very grateful veteran. currently, i give back by volunteering with a team of veterans suffered by our veterans and rethese are our forgotten comrades and we have a duty of care for them and to

show them the opportunity to thrive within san francisco. through the housing lottery. i have stable housing and i will work to secure the stable housing for this and future generations of veterans. i don't want to have my veterans to struggle through shelters i had. my war is the war on poverty and it starts by getting our veterans in shelter. currently, moacd has programs for different professional status like those needed in the city. and the teachers next door program said nothing for our veterans. they have a program based on people for a medical position.

further z this department operates and the u.s. department and housing of urban development. currently, veterans are precluded from accessing va home loans. commissioner and our committee is working to include our veterans within the mayor's office housing. but i need your appointment. i'm a private citizen and i'm only able to push this plan so far. the veterans commission is my plan to work within the system to improve the mayor's office. generations ago, our bonus veterans took to washington to fight for promise for them. >> chairman: mr. rusanoff, go ahead and wrap up.

it's good to see you by the way. >> to fight for the benefits promise to them. the economic opportunity to thrive in this country. we will create a gi housing road map for san francisco. our job is to bring our warriors home and to care. san francisco is the new battlefield. duel diagnosis. housing, education, health care are our weapons. save those who fought for you. their children and their children's children will make a fortress of hope. with the city and county of san francisco. i have attended several meetings with the mayor's office of housing. when i was struggling for housing. the veterans commission came to my aid and, together, i just couldn't stay in a home and not make sure that our fellow veterans have one as well. so we are attending their

meetings on a regular basis for the past year. right now, i agree with commissioner ishikata and i really find that this is a committee that is going to do well for our veterans and they're going to need our support. and thank you for everyone who's willing to serve our city and nation. >> chairman: thank you, mr. rusanoff. give your wife my regards. next up is and i'm going to check the chat box assuming my chat box is still working.

next up is nick bolen. >> thank you, sir. good morning board members, commissions, and veterans. eye a retired united states marine corps master sergeant and full-time realtor. i'm seeking a position on this board today because of the intrinsic values i developed serving our country. my intent is to lead by example. disability claims. health care, education, and housing for veterans. i believe that it is up to us to shine a light on that pathway. we do believe that most of the local transitioning that this city and county offered. as a member of this commission, transitioning back to the civilian sector does not equate to homelessness in our city.

as we know, many of our local businesses employ veterans and have been convinced if they didn't qualify for veteran services. let's change that. together, we can pro mote to continue education for veterans health care, veteran families and more. i will use my position on this board as a resource for our veterans. i'm sure most of us are volunteering in our local neighborhoods and communities already. this commission is a perfect place for that servant leadership philosophy to multiply. i promise to double down on my own efforts of volunteering. my conviction is to give back to a city that's continued to help me over the years. so what makes me a good choice to continue the work of this commission? i was part of the homeless veteran population in san francisco from 2017 to 2019. i lived in my tent and car, showered at the gym on ocean

avenue, ate from the dollar menu at mcdonalds. i was able to navigate the programs and services available in our city. now, i'm a business owner, no longer homeless and on the cusp of graduating college. i put my knowledge to work for veterans by appointing me as our nest commissioner. i fully understand we effect policy, however, i believe it's imperative that we're in the weeds with our veterans to know what their current needs are. so, with that, thank you, and simpe fidelis. >> chairman: thank you. i have your application. let me just ask the question i asked before which is your attendance at meetings of the current veteran affairs commission. >> yes, sir. at the time that i thought my

application, i didn't understand i was meeting both spirit and letter and once i was notified of that i just continued my attendance. >> chairman: got it. seeing no questions from my colleagues. why don't we move on to randall knight. and if randall knight is not here, why don't we move on to shelia bolar. and if neither one of those folks are here. i just want to circle back around to see if daniel shaffer or matthew bell are around and i do note that joseph baba who again, i was informed was appointed to one of the mayor's

seats. so, mr. baba, even as an applicant, you have public comment as to the commission commission we can come back to you for general public comment. mr. baba, i see you're trying to say something. >> hi, yes, good morning everybody. good morning rules committee. last thursday, so oddly enough, i found out in the mayoral appointment. just the breakneck speed of government sometimes. >> chairman: sometimes it goes really slow and sometimes it goes fast. >> i'm in the navy. so anybody navy situation it's

high schoolya situation. hurry up and wait. active duty time. based out of dublin, california, but i live in very foggy district 1. i look forward to serving and leveraging my experience and background as well to the veteran of the community. >> chairman: thank you, mr. baba. so, mr. young, it sounds like the other applicants are not -- that would be shaffer, bell, knight, and bolar are not here with us this morning. is that correct. >> clerk: it appears they're not present at this time according to the log-in list. if one of those parties has called in, you can press star 6 to speak at this time. and, as of last week, they may have called in on the public comment line. >> chairman: okay. why don't we go to public

comment on this item number 2. >> clerk: yes. members of the public who wish to provide public comment should call (415) 655-0001. the meeting id is 187 540 8115 then press pound and pound again. if you haven't done so, please press star 3 to line up to speak. a system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. you may begin your comments. at this time, we have 25 listeners and 16 people in line to speak. >> chairman: all right. first speaker, please. >> good morning committee members. i'm kevin keen. i'm calling on behalf of mr. nicholas rusanoff. i've known nick since the mid 2000s and in all that time i've

found nick to a strong willed and passionate person. aside from his family, i see nick's biggest passion is veterans and their concerns. nick advocates and demonstrates his care and concern for veterans doing what is needed to help better the lives of men and women who have bettered our nation. you ought to consider someone who generally cares and respects veterans not only as a whole, but as individuals. you ought to consider someone who's willing to cut through the red tape and clearly guide this commission forward. nick has been phone to postpone his own plans to take a veteran to a medical appointment. he's brought food and drink to those homeless and hungry. he's advocated for veterans to receive their much needed benefits and he's listened to those and assisted veterans who

were contemplating suicide. he genuinely cares about his fellow veterans. he's been treating each of them as heros and will further this cause as a member of the veterans affairs commission. thank you for the opportunity to speak here this morning. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning. my name is brandon dowed. i'm also calling on behalf of nicholas rusanoff. i've known nick for almost 30 years now. it's impossible to outwork nick. it's been true since high school when he was a lot better at football than me. and that's gone throughout his life from being in the military and he talked about himself being a veteran afterward. you can't really be more passionate about veterans than nick is.

i'm a west point graduate myself. i was in operation iraqi freedom and have struggled with ptsd. and nick was someone who has helped me through rough times. things like commissions have been seen as steppingstones to bigger things. being an advocate for veterans is nick's end game. and i think any organization is stronger with nick in it, but especially anything to do with the veterans. so thank you very much for your time. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning, chair peskin, fellow supervisors. my name is victor oliveri. i'm here to bring you today the official recommendation of the veterans and i'm glad commissioner ishikata mentioned homelessness. we are all all volunteer

commission. everyone has to do the lifting and we're so proud to have received so many applicants, but unfortunately, we only have three seats available. with that in mind, i just wanted to note we do have a rules committee with experience and we vote to make this official recommendation that i'm bringing here to you just like you do for the board supervisors. essentially, we sought to translate the military experience. we discussed the pros and cons of each applicant and then instilled the needs of the commission. and to be quite honest with you, in the past, we've received less inadequate appointments, left the commission, or left because they didn't contribute to the work of the commission. and that is precisely began to

start recommending these. that all these applicants will have. as well as the representative aspects of each of the applicants in light of what the commission currently is seating. the public comments we're going to hear today are going to be important. but getting people to turn out to public comment is not indicative of the work a commissioner will do. i truly believe no one knows the needs of the commission better than the commission and with that in mind. the best and most complementary applicants in terms of professional experience in needs of the commission and neither one needs a waiver residency are dr. david corpman and mr. jason chittavong for seat 4. >> chairman: and the speaker got his recommendations out just before his time elapsed. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is benjamin

cahi. i'm an army veteran and i'm speaking on behalf of nicholas rusanoff. i first met nick in 2018 through a veteran surf crew. i struggled through a lot of our integrating into society after getting out and also struggled with looking for work as well. i talked with nick and nick was very connected with the programs that are available to veterans. and, through this, he connected me with a c.p. and then actually ended up getting me a job. i would love to see him be part of something bigger because he already does what he can for the veteran community with the

things he's got at his hands right now. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. i've worked with the va the past 30 years. i've had a chance like ben to serve with nicholas rusanoff as part of a veterans surf group. i have to tell you what you've been hearing that he is the passionate advocate for veterans issues both legal housing, medical, psychiatric, and you really, i know that, you know, you're hearing it from the amount of people calling for his support that

he's just bringing a lot of energy to this. so i really recommend you consider that as you pick your next member of the veteran affairs commission. so thanks. >> chairman: thank you, doctor. next speaker, please. next speaker. >> hello, my name is benjamin floyd. i'm calling on behalf of nicholas rusanoff. i've known nick for a year now. i'm also an air force veteran. and the time period that i met nick about a year ago, i was homeless at the time and i was dealing with a lot of kind of mental health stuff. and kind of i met him in the

surf group actually along with the doc and he kind of helped me get back on my feet mentally. i just wanted to talk on his behalf and say and probably how do you say. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> yes. hello. i've known nick for over a year now. i guess i'm another member of the fan club, it sounds like. and i just wanted to recommend him for the position. he's one of the most solid people i've ever come across. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker.

>> hi, my name is christina and i'm also calling on behalf of nick rusanoff for the application for the veterans affairs commission. i'd like to say he embodies the truest spirit of advocacy. on a professional level, i know nick would excel in this role. on a personal level, it's his nature to look out for others. for years, he as relentlessly worked to speak out for veterans' interests and addresses the problems and needs of the veterans community. being an advocate for veterans as he encourages veterans a path of self-betterment and if somebody in the community that can count on for a helping hand or an ear. you couldn't find a better person to show you what true

brotherhood and sister hood is like in the veterans community. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name's pearl. i'm with the sacramento's veterans walk and talk. i'm also here for nicholas rusanoff. i'd like to echo on what everybody has said, but i'd also like to say when this guy can do with the resources available. he's not going to tire out. he has the energy to do this. he's going to shake things and move things. you need to have him where policies are made. he's right for the job. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, good afternoon. good morning. thank you for the opportunity to speak this morning. i'm actually calling as well to

voice my strong support for nicholas rusanoff. taking time out of my day. i've had the distinct pleasure of knowing nick for almost a decade. i'm an iraq war veteran suffering a gunshot wound and we're taught in the army that the person in the fox hole next to us or down the line has our six. they keep us alive in combat. but it's not easy. i struggled when i came back like so many people and then i found nick. and what started through buddy text and text turned into resources and so much more. he knows the systems because he has been inside the systems. he's a veteran. he's helped so many of us navigate our lives and with a mutual understanding. and the person you left the day you left the military is still inside of you. but with all airs of service. his attentiveness, knowledge and compassion are only

surpassed by some of the great stories of his own service. understanding the needs of veterans. the true veterans like myself where technology has made nick not only someone i look up to but someone who continues to serve the community as a role model and can speak on today's growing veteran population. in conclusion, nick is a purple heart veteran who works daily to ensure he knows that we know he has our six. i'm honored to call in and endorse and strongly ask the board and all of you to allow nick to serve on the veterans affairs commission in the city and county he loves so much. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi. can you hear me? >> chairman: yes. we can. >> my name is jeff carr i'm an

attorney in redwood city. i recommended nick when he got out of iraq in 2005 and 2006. i'm active in veteran court in san mateo county. this is my way of a testimonial. you've heard a lot of positive things, so i'll make it real simple. if you need someone who's tenacious and not walk away from a position from what i understand, nick is your guy. i'm disabled also. i was a door gunner in vietnam and got shot a couple times and in the 15 years since i represented nick, he's worked every year to make me go back and get my disability upgraded. it was a long project. i didn't want to do it. he finally got me to do it and i can happily say my disability went from 10% to 90% just this year because nick stayed on the project and made me look out for my own rights. so that's my recommendation for nick. >> chairman: thank you,

counselor. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is bill clift and i met nick about three years ago. i worked for the san francisco va medical center and i'm also a vet. and mostly i met nick through some recreation activities like the pga hope program and the veterans service alliance. he's always doing outreach on his own. he's working with vets to get the right people housing. he helps with financial planning. he provides transportation to medical appointments, to the va. he also gives rides to different recreational events like golfing and surfing. he also teaches vets how to surf and he's very good at creating community and comradery and i think he would be a great addition to the commission. thank you. >> chairman: thank you.

next speaker. >> hello. my name is jonathan belli. i'm a veteran with two purple hearts. i'm endorsing nick rusanoff right now. and i first met nick two years ago when i came back from afghanistan and i met him in a nonprofit organization that gets them back outside. at the time, i told him, no, leave me alone. i gave my number to him and you know what, he kept calling me, telling me get signed up for school benefits. get signed up for va health care. i ended up calling nick at 1:00 a.m. and he talked to me that whole night until 3:00 a.m. that next morning, he was at my door and he took me to the san francisco va and i spoke to dr. strasnika and

dr. burgerman. he got me signed up for school benefits as well. currently, i'm working on my benefits, my education program to become a vet tech. i endorse nick rusanoff and if you can't find anyone, he is the best guy you can have for this committee. thank you, have a best day. >> chairman: thank you for your moving testimony. next speaker, please. >> good morning, committee members. i'm a county representative service for the county of san mateo and i'm calling on behalf of nicholas rusanoff and i want to echo a lot of the things that have been said about him so i'll be brief. he and i worked frequently how to face challenges and any discussions, you can see how passionate nick is about veterans issues and how personally he takes on the roles of advocacy.

nick will refer veterans to me from more counties. they always tell me nick trusts you and i trust him. working with veterans and building that strong bond is not the easiest thing in the world, but it can make a world of difference when it comes to outam comes. i think the time that nick has spent working with veterans, his personal experience and work he's done have made him acutely aware of the needs of the veterans on an administrative and individual level. i understand the passion alone is fantastic, but probably not everything needs to be successful as commissioner. i do think it's that insight that can make a difference not just to help folks in need of help. learn from the people that have gone before you, learn from their mistakes and i think nick

would be fantastic as a commissioner. thank you for your time. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, good morning, supervisors. this is hanley chan. i serve in the veterans commission before i start talking, i support george ishikata and jason chittavong. if veterans walk and talk supports nick, i support nick and i really want to meet nick now. 22 veterans diaper day. last month, we packed the house in a veterans commission hearing with all these veteran groups proathletes supporting

our senator decriminalizing psychedelics. psychedelics has been good for our ptsd for our veterans community and mental health. all the supporters that spoke in our commission hearing urges us to do something about it because 22 veterans dying per day is a tragedy and we're supposed to have zero veterans day a day. and this is hanley and i'm done speaking. >> chairman: good to hear your voice, hanley. long time no see but it's been a long year. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is sam lou ie. i'm here to speak on behalf of nicholas rusanoff. i've known him for over a

decade and i have seen him first-hand help many veterans. this commission would provide him the opportunity and the resources to reach many others, but most importantly, he has the consistency and the education to follow through with that. and i can't say more about mr. nick rusanoff. >> chairman: thank you, sir. next speaker. >> hi, yes. my name is bob betett and i'm also speaking on behalf of nick rusanoff. i've got another speaker on the line, we're sharing a line here today. let me say i wholeheartedly support nick. i think he's an ideal choice for the post. i am a trial attorney here in the san francisco bay area. i've been an attorney for over

30 years. i'm also a military veteran and a member of the west point class of 1983. i met nick about 15 years ago while he was at san francisco state, he worked for my law firm as a bookkeeper. and nick immediately decided to enlist my help in legal issues for veterans. he was quite a pest about it, but i was pleased to be able to help. he was constantly asking about advice and things that he could do. over the years, we became personal friends and i can't tell you how many times that he would call me for a ride if he didn't have a ride available to go assist a veteran in crisis. he would do whatever it would take to help his brothers. i think he's an ideal choice for the post.

i think he brings a passion to it and a perspective that many others do not have. i wholeheartedly endorse him. >> i'd also like to make an endorsement on behalf of nicholas. i met him about 15 years ago and i've watched him develop into an empathetic and self-less man who has my trust. i am not a veteran, but i was a navy brat. that's why i never served. i didn't want to stand watch or brag about standing watch so i chose not to serve. nicholas was the first person to show me what a mistake that was. it wasn't about his army history, but rather his ongoing effort he felt compelled to take on behalf of veterans from the war he served in. young men he had encountered

struggling with homelessness, substance abuse, and abandonment. although frequently involved the va. he did this acting alone. he genuinely cared for the benefit of his brothers and solely because they were his brothers. i've never known a committed advocate and i spent the year working for lawyers. the commission may already have a full bank of people just like nick and his service there might be redundn't. the quality of brotherhood in the commission which he has already demonstrated. he wants and needs to be part of this process. from my perspective, the commission needs nicholas rusanoff as much as he needs them. thank you for your time. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors.

the commission didn't have a third recommendation because the chair of the rules committee was george ishikata. it would have been a grand slam because his work has been absolutely fantastic. he has served as secretary which is the most time consuming and everyone in the commission wants him back for another four years. beyond that, we desperately need someone with clinical experience in the medicine field to navigate the gaps. that is exactly what we need dr. david corpman on the commission. he has been very active since 2021 and is actively working with us to bring in subject matter experts. beyond that, we also desperately need someone to work in the restorative justice system and a great bunch of folks to join our committee and that is why mr. jason

chittavong should be on the commission. all the public comments about nick was fantastic. we do not do outreach and the city does not report to us and, on top of that, we also have a lot of folks on the commission who have had this experience. but what we desperately need is george ishikata, jason chittavong and. >> clerk: we currently have five speakers in line to speak. if you have not done so, please press star 3 to be added to the queue. thank you very much. >> chairman: thank you, mr. young, go ahead. >> hi, i'm calling to support nicholas rusanoff for the commission of the va

commissioner. i believe he has all the appropriate qualities, experience, and personality for the position. he possesses strong communication, organizational skills. he follows through with his commitments. he brings with him a unique charisma that allows him to connect with veterans and their families. and, most importantly, nick is incredibly kind. he goes above and beyond for those he tries to help. and he has made our lives better. i have never seen my husband as happy and as hopeful since he was medically discharged. thank you. >> clerk: thank you. can we have the next speaker, please. >> hello, my name is amarita king and i am a deputy probation officer with the san

francisco probation adult department and i am working with the veterans corps and i am endorsing jason chittavong and nicholas rusanoff for this position because i have worked in the san francisco criminal justice system for 22 years and i've also served as a chair for the re-entry counsel sub committee and personally, i received services as an at-risk youth with san francisco huckleberry youth programs and i've been dedicated to serving the underprivileged, the marginalized people of san francisco and both nicholas and jason exemplifies helpless services to me and they're there to be a service to veterans in need and not looking for accolades and

they've both personally touched me with their dedication. thank you. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hi, i hope i'm being heard right now. >> chairman: we can hear you. >> great. thanks. >> i'm an attorney here in san francisco and i handle cases in a veterans justice court. i'm calling to recommend jason chittavong and nicholas rusanoff. i work in two other collaborative courts as well and i can say that what sets veterans justice court apart are the peer mentors both mr. rusanoff and jason chittavong. they have a unique understanding of our veterans and they have a way of reaching

out and impacting the veteran participants in a way that's completely different and unique than any of the other key partners, meaning different than what the judge can do, what the lawyers can do, probation case managers. mr. rusanoff and jason chittavong go above and beyond and they have a way of leading to the success and the successful graduation of our veterans and i think a lot of it is because they do not see the participants as defendants in the criminal justice system, they see them as human beings who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. and i heard mr. chittavong earlier say he works to restore the honor of our veterans and i can say that's exactly what both mr. chittavong and mr. rusanoff do. i'm grateful for their participate in court. they truly have changed the

lives of countless participants in our courts. thank you for this opportunity to speak on their behalf. >> chairman: thank you for your testimony. next speaker, please. >> good morning honorable members of the rules committee. my name is miles tucker, i'm a sitting veterans affairs commissioner for the last two years and i serve as the head of our legislative committee and i wanted to speak today to recommend george ishishgz ooshgzkata jason chittavong and and david corpman. i've had the pleasure of working hand in hand with jason chittavong who shows up all the time to our committee meetings. he has a deep understanding of the policies and understands the items that go behind the

veterans policies. i know first-hand jason can do that. and to speak to dr. corpman, he is a recent veteran that this commission desperately needs to make those effective and policy recommendations to the policy and the mayor as we are charged to do. between george, jason, and david, our commission would be grately improved to do -- to continue the work of improving the economic housing and workforce and development and health compare charges that we are hoping to improve our veterans committee here through policy recommendations. thank you for your time and i highly consider george, jason, and david. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> hello? >> chairman: go ahead. >> hello, good morning.

good morning supervisor peskin. bill barn cal. i'm the senior commissioner for the veteran affairs city and county of san francisco. number one, i recommend the reappointment of george ishikata. he's done a stand up job and we all look up to him. i highly recommend jason chittavong and jason to pass legislation to get the bmr program changed for our if i don't get these two individuals on my commission, they're strong advocates. they're very knowledgeable about the bmr program and we're going forward and it's fantastic for our veterans if we get this bmr program. with them, it's imperative we get these two individuals on the board and it would be an injustice if we don't get them. so thank you so much and

looking forward to seeing jason and nicholas on the board and the commission with me. thank you. >> chairman: thank you, commissioner. next speaker, please. >> hi, my name is justin. and i want to endorse nick bolen. at the time when he was getting out, there wasn't a transition period to help vets that were going back into the civilian world to give them the education that they needed to survive out there in civilian world and because of that, he lived homeless for two years in various homeless camps and there were times when he almost died because there were homeless rangers who would go to different homeless camps and burglarize people. but during this time, his homelessness, he would take a

shower at the gym so that he could go to school to get an education and he -- when i met him, he had helped me get a house here in the bay area. when i first started my process, it was early 2019 and when i got out in october of 2019, he actually -- he didn't give up on me and he made sure that i got a home and he actually helped me out with getting or with recommending me to someone for my veterans benefits and he's helped me, you know, not only with my house, but with getting veterans benefits and education benefits. so, you know, nick was always there for me, you know, whenever i need them to call or just to hang out or just to

talk shot just like marines do. so i appreciate you, nick, and i highly endorse this guy. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> hello, my name is retired staff sergeant james mcchowski and i'm speaking on behalf of nicholas rusanoff. nicholas has been a friend of mine for the last two years and i feel like this man embodies the spirit of never leave a fallen comrade and never quit. this man is a wonderful individual who cares immensely about helping every single veteran he runs in to. and it doesn't matter where we go with this guy, if we run into a veteran that's not advocating for themselves and getting everything possible thing for themselves, this man takes his time to make sure that they know what they need, what they can do, and what

avenues they can take. he cares immensely about everyone that he runs into especially veterans. i can't think of a better person to be advocating or working with veterans in any capacity and i think he would make you a fine veterans affairs commissioner. that's all i have to say. thank you for letting me speak. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker, please. >> good morning. my name is patricia chavez, and i would like to enwhere's nick bolen. i'm a mortgage broker in the bay area and i've been working with nick bolen for several years now and i can vouch for him and say that i have never seen somebody acting as a realtor assist veterans the way he does. he definitely goes the extra

mile and i have seen him do miracles when it comes to change status for veterans when it comes to them getting their disability and increasing their benefits. he definitely goes the extra mile and i'm very impressed with what he has accomplished in the last couple of years and i can only foresee that he will do great things in the future for veterans. >> chairman: thank you. next speaker. >> clerk: chair peskin, i believe that was the last caller in line for public comment. >> chairman: okay. public comment on item number two is now closed. and, let me just start by thanking all of the members of the public for your testimony. a lot of it quite moving as well as all of the applicants, those that we heard from, as well as those we didn't hear from. this is not an easy decision.

and i want to thank everybody as i said in the beginning for your service in numerous branches of the military as well as your willingness to serve or continue to serve on the veteran affairs commission. i wanted to start before we discuss this amongst the members of the committee to actually welcome the conversation not only the conversation that i had with mr. rusanoff many months ago during covid over the internet about below market rate units for veterans, but the conversation about how the commission itself could be better resourced. it has a little bit of an orphan commission. it is not associated with the department. i would be very interested in working with the commission, whoever we put on it to see whether that could befectuated

with changes to the commission code. that's administration i welcome and encourage. i also want to know that i know and while i have not appeared there, i haven't appeared anywhere in recent time that this is a commission that while certainly, there are 17 actual members of the commission itself that welcomes the active participation and inclusion of veterans who aren't officially or formally a member of the commission per se which is by way of saying that if you don't get selected today, we very much encourage you to stay active with the commission and be apart of that policy making. there are only 11 members of the board of supervisors, but there are many people who are intimately involved with the legislative process who weren't elected to their positions. with that, colleagues, i would offer some high level thoughts.

i offered a couple of them at the beginning of the meeting. and, with no disrespect, actually, with respect to the two individuals one of whom appeared and one of whom did not that are not residents of the city of san francisco. it is pretty much without precedent that a special ordinance would be passed to allow your inclusion on this body. it would require an ordinance to be drafted, introduced, sent to committee, heard twice at the board of supervisors and signed by the mayor. so, colleagues, i would offer and i say this with respect to the applicants that the residency ordinance required makes that tough. i also think that showing up is 9/10 of everything and that would take us down to four

individuals existing encumbent commissioner ishikata whom we've heard from and has served as secretary and his testimony and application and testimony on his behalf was extraordinary, so i would respectfully suggest to vice chair mandelman and supervisor chan that he be serious consideration for reenlistment as it were. and, i would say the same as to mr. chittavong and then -- i mean, look, any which way, this is a tough deal, but i want to say that mr. rusanoff, and, yes, of course, we got a lot of impressive testimony on his

behalf but i have come to known him personally and i could offer similar testimony and dr. corpman also remarkably impressive. impressive relative to influency in mandarin, in relative to his medical expertise and, of course, his history as a veteran in his own right. but i actually think dr. corpman with sincere respect that you may be able to offer some of your services, this is true really of any of these individuals, but as an active respected participant and soon enough we will have another vacant seat and i say that to the commission who has while it has officially recommended two of the three individuals that i'm leaning towards many of the individual

commissioners themselves actually testified on behalf of mr. rusanoff. that includes commissioner hanley chan and commissioner bill barnacal. so, colleagues, why don't i turn it over to you supervisor mandelman and supervisor chan. i would kind of throw out their ishikata, chittavong and rusanoff. colleagues, have i done something to offend you. neither one of you have said a word. >> supervisor mandelman: we are in your chat, mr. chair. >> chairman: you know what, my chat is broken again because it's not working. i started to think that somehow

i offended both of you over the weekend which is always possible. >> supervisor mandelman: indeed. i think i'm in there before supervisor chan. >> chairman: please. >> supervisor mandelman: all right. thank you, mr. chair. i agree with pretty much everything you said. i think it does -- i think the strongest candidates are those four. and it does seem like ishikata should be returned. and, i'm fine with the three of four you were suggesting. i do think david corpman does -- i think brings this sort of medical perspective and given that so many of the veterans issues that are most pressing have to do with health care and

then with sort of the connection between health care and homelessness that he was talking about. i do think he's a very strong candidate and if we don't put him on now, i think we should try to put him on soon. as we have more appointments. >> chairman: yeah. and the great thing about this commission is that all the terms are staggered. so if you actually look at our cheat sheet, you can see who's expiring in 2022 and who's expiring in 2023. and who's expiring in 2024. so it really is rolling expiration. so i hear you loud and clear, mr. vice-chairman. supervisor chan, i'm sorry my chat box is broken. but the floor is yours. >> supervisor chan: thank you, chair peskin. i concur with vice chair

mandelman. i do want to say i was most definitely just really impressed by both dr. corpman and his really his qualifications, but i am definitely very moved by the commitment, but mr. chittavong, just, you know, how he has done all these services leading up to this and really being committed to the work and that's really what i look to when and attending all the commission meetings and that's, you know, speaks volumes to the qualifications as well. i do see that, you know, during throughout the public comment, i think that's part of why we have public comment is that we learn about what is, you know,

from the perspective of the community things that we haven't learned about and not be able to learn just from peoples' résumés and their own testimony about why they're interested in the position and, with that, is the reason why i will be supporting that decision today reappointing, you know, mr. ishikata because mr. ishikata has thoroughly talked about the challenges that face the commission and i think it's critical for someone that can continue to work on that. i do support mr. nick rusanoff because of the public comment and support that flooded in and for mr. chittavong because of

the commitment he has already made and i really look forward to seeing dr. corpman for his role in the commission and bringing his expertise to the table. and i look forward to seeing him appointed to the commission. thank you. >> chairman: is that a motion, supervisor chan? someone yes, indeed. >> chairman: okay. so that would be for seat two, george ishikata succeeding himself for seat 4. jason chittavong and seat 12 nicholas rusanoff. motion made by supervisor chan. on that motion, mr. clerk, a roll call to send this to the full board with recommendation, roll call please. >> clerk: yes. on that motion.

[roll call] the motion passes without objection. >> chairman: thank you, colleagues. thank you to all of the applicants and members of the public and this committee is adjourned.

>> the city of san jose and i'm honored to be joined by friends and colleagues as part of the california big city mayor's coalition united for a common and urgent cause that is well after this pandemic has passed and an even pandemic will persist and that is homelessness. our city mayors no far too well

that affects 161,000 of our fellow californians we have convened today. this year's budget presents california with a once in a generation opportunity to dramatically reduce homelessness. if we can muster the collective courage and will to stand up for our most vulnerable neighbors. today, we stand together to issue a clearing call for historic investment against california's shameful scourge against homelessness. we sent a letter to our governor and legislative leadership encouraging that they commit a substantial share of this year's more than $40 billion budgetary surplus toward a multi-year funding strategy towards this crisis. a commitment of $4 billion per year. we call for flexibility of dollars to prevent homelessness

to triple down on successful initiative such as governor newsol's project home to get more of our neighbors off the streets. sustained successful models of emergency transitional permanent housing, tiny homes and many other initiatives that have emerged in our city. $4 billion per year over the next half decade. this commitment would be bold, part of this pandemic, the state of california had never spent more than a billion dollars to address homelessness, but we stand together to say we need to treat homelessness like the crisis that it is. we have met with the governor and legislative leadership to discuss our options and opportunities, we've pressed our case and they have

responded. in mid april, our senate leader rose and the california senate issued its budget plan called "build it back boldly." they called for precisely $4 billion in investment and homelessness solutions in each of the next five years for a total of $20 billion and just yesterday, the assembly released its budget and their colleagues similarly called for a $20 billion investment spread over the next half decade. we express our immense gratitude to our leadership and staff for recognizing this unique moment and for their continued partnership in this fight. and fortunately, we have a governor who gets it and who has already made historic commitments towards housing solutions and many others have

forged a set of initiatives. project "room key" serving more than 35,000 homeless residents. and certainly this is greater progress than we've ever seen, but we have much more work to do. i want to thank the amazing leaders who are about to speak after me and who i'm honored to call my colleagues and friends and enable timely flexible dollars they use to address the unique needs of their cities and to do so quickly. we'll be displaying this in the backgrounds behind us. behind me, next to this freeway, that is the 101, the emergency housing community we built here and just opened in recent weeks. although, building apartments in the bay area typically cost about $700,000 per apartment

building, we've shown how we can utilize and neglect publicland and innovative like this one in less than six months. we've built three of these already in the last year and a fourth one will be under way shortly. it's my great honor to introduce my friend and colleague he's just announced an epic commitment to address homelessness. welcome eric garcetti. >> thank you so much. and to this incredible group of brother and sister mayors across the state. to come across partisan,

bipartisan gentlemen graphy and it was in 2017, maybe 2016 when i was chairing this group and we were the big 11 before we became the big 13 and so glad to have both stockton and riverside as part of this organization now where we were with the last governor saying this homelessness thing is pretty big, we'd love to see the state get involved and we all love jerry brown. but we wouldn't quit. and we convinced him grudgingly because he only spent money grudgingly, but happily in the end knowing cities can turn around solutions to homelessness immediately. we had a governor who had as a mayor tackled homelessness, governor newsome saw that and tackled it and then doing cutting edge work which is now making a national splash with programs like "operation home

key" and los angeles resulted with the state buying 15 buildings and on our own another five that inspired us to get the twenty buildings we purchased in just three months. this is the biggest crisis in california. we see them under our bridges and, unfortunately, it's not just there anymore in the shadows. it's in front of businesses and homes. it is everywhere. it's the first thing people talk about and the second thing they talk about. and long after this pandemic is done, the pandemic of homelessness let's be clear what the consequences are and the worst cases, people die from homelessness. it's time for california at a moment of a historic surplus to speak to our values and to step up and i know we have the dream team with this governor and two legislative leaders and their fellow colleagues. this is why we were overjoyed to see both president and the speaker put together the support of $4 billion a year to

have a 5-year commitment, $20 billion to go straight into california's communities and in those concentrated areas of california's biggest cities to make sure we continue that momentum. behind each one of us, you see how we spend it. it's for shelter, permanent housing, it's for everything we need to address the complexity of homelessness. and, typically, those who are listening from the media are used to folks from cities or folks from an issue area coming to sacramento and saying "solve this problem for us. here's our empty hat and hand." we're not coming with empty hats in hand. and pockets full of investments. in los angeles, what that meant and when i became manager of the state, we're not lucky like london to have a county and city together was just $10 million. in the budget i released last

week, it's $955 million. part of that is state money. part of that is local measure that we passed and part of that is every extra ounce that we can find in this budget because this is our top priority. add that up between 13 cities. we are putting billions of dollars of money on the line and saying match us. meet this. get it right. it's not an either or. it is housing. it is shelter. yes, it is services. it is also trusting that cutting through red tape works when you empower local communities to make the decisions and spend quickly the money and we have a record and the data to show of the dollars effectively quickly, and happily being spent in our communities. i want to hand it over to my brother mayor in san diego who is one of our newest mayors, but also one of our boldest leaders. you know him from his state legislative work. by ty gloria, the floor is

yours. let's get this done. >> thank you, mayor garcetti. thank you my fellow mayor who is are here today. to help this issue in housing and homelessness. you were saying a moment ago, it resinated for me. we were leading during the pandemic and economic slowdown. it is striking to me the thing i'm asked about the most is what are you doing about homelessness. a moment where their health and health of their loved ones. fearful about their finances and the finances of loved ones that this is the issue they talked the most about and that's precisely why this group of leaders in cities across the state. bipartisan leaders say we need to continue state assistance in order to be able to respond to that about what we're doing about homelessness. i want to acknowledge the

leadership of our governor and my former colleagues and my former speaker or the current speaker, my former legislative leader anthony rendon and $20 billion over multiple years understanding that we can't solve this problem in one fiscal year. it then takes the repeated commitment of state, federal, and local leadership to get the job done. now, eric was talking about bringing some hard hats to the table, i'm bringing some [inaudible] to the table. my former colleagues in the legislature. we really want to see how we're bringing these dollars to work. to make sure that the dollars that californians entrust their state government with that those dollars are actually getting the job done. and, i'll tell you down here in san diego, we've been working extremely hard to change the status quo on homelessness. to move away from shiny objects, instead, invest in proven strategies that are

housing first spoken, human centered and compassionate in their approach. i want to tell you about a couple key stories. number one, we converted our city convention center into a temporary homeless shelter during the pandemic. collaborations between the city, the county, and nonprofit partners, we were able toll house over 4,000 san diegans. 43 families housed through that process. it really shows what happens when we choose to make this a priority and tapped with the urgency that californians are asking. through that process, we were able to vaccinate many of our homeless in our san diego community making sure our worst fears of outbreak and our population did not come. more importantly for our friends, we used a significant amount of home key dollars to purchase two extended stay

hotels and convert them into new, permanent supportive homes for four hundred high need clients. you can see one of those hotels behind me. the 332 homes we were able to build of acquired $2.3 million of annual funds to keep people housed. the housing unit is helpful, but as my fellow mayors know, it's the services that keep people housed for the long term. the city of san diego is prepared, ready, anxious to be able to acquire more of these hotels to convert them to supportive housing to get people off the streets for good. we need flexible funding as well to provide those services to say with a straight face to our residents and to our bosses that we will keep people housed and keep them off the street permanently. i will just tell you when we follow the housing first strategies, when we invest in more housing, permanent housing, we know that we can get people off the streets and

we can use innovative concepts that are seen behind so many of my colleagues here to see even more. emergency beds, safe parking program. dollars entrusted to us by the state that are getting results. and so it's my colleagues in sacramento who are diffeying up the budget as we speak and doing the difficult things like siting those housing projects, by executing the contracts to get the housing done. in my proposed budget, we are making an unprecedented commitment to this particular problem. we can do even more. so we are calling upon our state leaders for their continued partnership to take advantage of this once in a generation opportunity to fund the housing and the services that we know work for people

experiencing homelessness and to make a lasting impact on this crisis that i believe all of us were elected to solve. so, with those comments, it gives me great pleasure to turn the mic over to my friend up in san francisco. some people that's the second largest city in the state. i'll remind them it is san diego. my friend, mayor london breed. >> thank you, mayor gloria. and, thank you so much everyone for joining us here today and for coming together on these very important issues that impact our cities. here in san francisco, we've been working really hard to build housing, more shelters, and to connect people with the services they need. we've developed over 9,000 permanent housing placements and we created thousands more, but in our last point in time count, we still have over 5,000 people who are facing unsheltered homelessness. the reality is not one city can do this alone. not one city can fully address

this problem because it's clearly a statewide crisis. we all need more resources to truly face this challenge of the scale that's needed to make a real difference. and, we need to acknowledge that this problem won't be fixed overnight. it will require a sustained commitment over multiple years. this is a challenge that's developed over decades and our response will take multiple years to really solve what is truly an embedded problem. we need to build more housing, of course, provide rental assistance for people in need and create connections to employment, education, health care and behavioral resources. there's no one solution to homelessness. it requires a number of different approaches and many of them take time. that's why we're all here today. we're calling for a commitment from the state to provide the resources we need to make a difference over multiple years. there's so much to do. we have to reactivate our shelter systems after covid.

to house people from shelter-in-place hotels and continue to move people off the streets. some of us have been able to purchase hotels and make them permanent housing options for formally homeless people. that has been incredible. has a lot to do with project room key. in our reaction with this pandemic if we were provided the resources, it can be done. i look forward to making sure we have partners and resources and support in the state. and, with that, i'd like to introduce mayor jerry drier from fresno. thank you. >> thank you, mayor breed. i appreciate it. again, jerry dyer mayor of the city of fresno. i can't say enough about the unprecedented partnership that

exists between california's largest cities, governor newsome and our state legislaturers and it is a crisis. this partnership is allowing us to rescue our most vulnerable population providing them with a safe environment to live. much needed services and ultimately hope for a future, a better future. and, in fresno, we've used "project home key" dollars to purchase and operate five motels to house and provide services to our homeless population here. these motels have allowed us to initiate what we refer to as "project offramp" in our city. it is an offramp from our freeways and life of homelessness and an onramp to

services. our freeways which quite frankly once reasonable urban campgrounds are very close to becoming homeless-free in fresno thanks to "project home key" and our state legislative leaders and governor newsome. however, this success story is only the beginning. it is our plan to take project offramp and replicate it city wide and neighborhood by neighborhood. in order to do so, we need long-term flexible funding and to provide services and alternative housing models for our homeless population. absent that, we ultimately displacing homelessness from one neighborhood to the next neighborhood without real solutions. with the state's budget surplus and one time federal stimulus dollars, i believe we have a

unique opportunity to make transformative investments putting an end to homelessness once and for all. i urge our state legislative leaders and governor newsome to continue with what i believe the most meaningful partnership in our state's history and to be able to allocate the $20 billion in order for us to address homelessness over the next five years. and so it's my honor at this time to be able to introduce a long-time state leader, a senator pro temp for seven years and that is mayor darrell steinberg from the city of sacramento. darrell. >> have to unmute. thank you very much, mayor dyer. i really appreciate that. i am sitting virtually as it is

virtual in one of sacramento's sprung shelters. a quality facility where we have the capacity to house up to 100 women suffering from homelessness and as my colleagues have said, it's one of the many strategies that we as big city mayors are employing to combat this seemingly intractable issue of homelessness. it's not intractable. it just requires will and resources. i'm worried about the big city mayors because i want to make sure those listening understand how impactful this group of mayors has been and continues to be. and mayor garcetti to continue that history it was this organization that for the first time convinced excessive governors and the legislature

to direct resources directly to cities to combat homelessness. because we're not health and human services agencies and yet homelessness as is evident is our most significant urban problem. i was thinking about last night and pride and how he talked about seizing the moment and how he talked about a rare opportunity. to make a fundamental change that changes the course of history. to make a change that affects in a positive way. the lives of tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands of people. an opportunity to prove the impossible is possible. this is the moment in california to take that and make homelessness dramatically

different in all of our cities. it need not be hopelessness for we know what works. we are doing it. we are getting thousands of people off the street and now with the additional resources to be able to help those dealing with rent struggles and to be able to prevent evictions and to be able to prevent people from losing their homes. with $20 billion of state resources which is about ten times more than we have ever gotten even with heap and hap and "project room key" and "home key" what we are demonstrating in realtime works and imagine a californian with these kind of investments, people breathing a sigh of relief because we've done the

humane thing. we've done the right thing on behalf of suffering people and our business communities in our neighborhoods. not that we cure it, but that we make it dramatically and visibly better. that's the moon shot we have here in california over these next couple of weeks. i agree with mayor ricardo and the other mayors. so grateful for the legislative leadership for putting forth that $20 billion proposal and we know the governor, whatever the number is is also going to go big as he has in the past. let's get this done and let's start getting more people indoors. thank you. it's my honor now to turn it over to my friend, our mayor, demonstrating that homelessness knows no partisan boundaries and that's the mayor of bakersfield, karen dough. >> thank you, mayor steinberg. my fellow mayors and i want to

take the backgrounds that are behind them right now and have our homeless brothers and sisters have a background in their own home in their own office like the one behind me. combatting homelessness in our state continues to be a paramount issue. requires a broad range of resources for persons who find themselves in the most vulnerable situation of their lives. our california cities are on the front line of addressing the homeless crisis. we've demonstrated success in adding emergency bed space creating permanent housing solutions and now we must address and sustain the next phase of the challenge including providing housing, supporting services for severely mentally ill and drug

addicted persons. we are so grateful for the state's funding that's enabled bakersfield to double our emergency shelter bed space. yet, we find many of our homeless brothers and sisters on the street. we need ongoing resources to change the plight of jonathan, sharika, and karen who i met on the street yesterday and this morning. today, we're calling on state leaders to prioritize the much needed, ongoing flexible investments that will empower and address the youth challenges before us and sustain our progress. a $20, $20 billion funding investment will change the futures of the many jonathans,

the many sharikas and the many karen-anns in our great state. we are our brother's keeper. let us build back boldly to improve the lives of all californians. and now it's my pleasure to introduce anaheim mayor harry sadue from the happiest city in california. mayor sadue. >> thank you, mayor. good morning everyone. i'm anaheim mayor harry sadu. anaheim has been a leader in addressing homelessness for more than six years. since two thousand seventeen, we have opened four homeless shelters, including two temporary facilities that continue today. these efforts were assisted by

homeless emergency aid program funding. working with u.s. district judge david coder, we have cleared inhumane homeless encampments from the parks, and freeway underpasses. by maximizing city, state, and federal resources. but we are far from finished. we are working with the salvation army under long-term facility call center of hope as you see behind me. it will include shelter beds, supportive housing, health care and drug treatment. this public private partnership will be a game-changer for anaheim and orange county. you can see that these efforts in anaheim have proven to be a stronger turn on investment for california and we have made a great gain.

but these are, there are still too many homeless and the need for affordable housing is great. and this crisis is bigger than anaheim. with ongoing flexible support with state partners to meet this challenge and change lives. now, it's my pleasure to introduce riverside mayor patricia lock douzen. >> thank you, mayor sadu. one of the newest mayors in the big city mayor coalition, i appreciate the power that we have in our collective voice. so i have really appreciated being able to be part of this group and i want to echo the sentiment of my fellow mayors. i know we all want to thank our state legislatures and governors for being proactive.

we don't often have to seek them out, they come to us and they listen which i appreciate so much and like mayor gloria said i think it's true with most of us that they've made it clear homelessness is one of the greatest challenges of our time and leaders must rise to this occasion. we must rise to meet this challenge. and, you heard from every mayor here. each city faces its own unique but as you've also heard much more work remains to be done. we all know uniquely that the crisis of homelessness transcends our individual cities. the funding that we're asking

for for the legislature and that they have now budgeted gives us a unified front from the state things that we all need not just the beds, but mental health services. without ongoing funding, our efforts, our momentum will be solved and we won't be able to move forward. now the city of riverside has a proven track record of using direct funding from the state in an innovative and prudent manner. we are often the ones who roll up our sleeves and get to work because we've not always been included in things. we've worked very hard to spend our money frugally and with great impact. this million dollars proposal

will allow riverside to support long-term solutions. such as "project home key" or nontraditional models. this is the first of its kind in southern california and has provided a model that other cities have emulated and it's also where i met powerful paul this past week. he is is a pro boxer who is now getting into permanent supportive housing and he's very grateful for the work we have done here. so while we remain certain from recovering from this pandemic, we must also be equally certain and optimistic in our ability to meet the crisis of homelessness in our city. and, with this funding, i'm hopeful. we just have a sense of optimism here and we can begin

to move the needle and make a change and i'm pleased to be part of this historic day today. with that, i want to turn it over to the mayor of santa ana. >> thank you, mayor. i'm proud to stand with well virtually stand with all the mayors here on this call. so i'm not going to repeat what was said because i think a lot of the theme has already been articulately made. i just want to say that one thing we all can agree on as mayors and staff is that the buck stops with us and we get those tough questions and demands and we know that here, for us, what we've found most interesting was that when we were talking about different issues like public safety and now public health, homelessness is still holding higher than either of those two critical issues that we deal with, so we

know it's on the minds and hearts of many of our fellow residents. and so, for us, i know what we've tried to do is make sure we invest intelligently and we're looking at the background in the front of which is a permanent supportive housing project and we do a lot of service providing there, not only spaces and placements, but also wrap around services and, you know, one of the things i wanted to talk to you about is that santa ana's in orange county where 80% latino. many of our residents live below the poverty line. this is also an equity issue when we talk about homelessness. we want to deliver those services to unsheltered residents and population. but, at the same time, we want to create a quality of life that's going to be proud for our low income communities of color to be able to thrive in and that's the fairness that they deserve and that's something that we have to deliver and be conscious of.

so i know that when we talk about, you know, $20 billion's a big number. we have to have a proportional response to that issue. it's something that we know as mayors, it's not going to be a long-time lump sol approach. it's a multi-year effort that we have to all work together on and i'm proud of all the efforts we're doing collectively, but we all have unique communities and orange county and the minds of others may seem like -- and harry can speak to this, it's depicted as an affluent county. you see some real despair and that's where we have to use this money intelligently to address those things and so i'm really proud to say and we're blessed to be living in a state that i think there's an understanding and there's humanity that we all want to deliver these services in. but, i think the moment is now and i think that we all have to, you know, ban together and

use this opportunity and use it wisely because, look, if it goes away, it can be spent or miss spent other places and i think all of us are saying we can do things intelligently together and cohesively and make the state, again, one of the best places to live in and a place that i've grown up in myself. to the extent i'm completely supportive of what was said out of the effort that's going to be requested, we're grateful to the governor and his staff for being able to work with us. so let me go ahead and just because i know we're short on time. i want to turn it over to my friend and other newly elected mayor from the great city of stockton, mayor kevin lincoln. kevin, the floor is yours. >> thank you, mayor. and, again, just thank you to my fellow mayors here for your leadership. the image that you see behind me is the image of count center studios here in stockton,

california. this location was formerly a hotel that was converted. as a result of "project home key" and units that were provided to our shelter. over 80% of stockton residents view homelessness affecting the quality of life for all stocktonians. and over 50% are experiencing behavioral health challenges in the areas of mental health and substance abuse disorder. the need to expand wrap around services, emergency shelter capacity, transitional and permanent housing opportunities has never been greater. the fundamental allocate -- the $20 billion funding allocations to our cities would help us take bold actionable steps to mitigate homelessness by addressing the root cause of homelessness in our communities and bring healing to

unsheltered residents. it is imperative that our cities have access to increased levels of flexible funding from the state to adequately address the crisis through more positive initiatives like "project home key," community outreach efforts and ultimately homeless prevention. once again, this flexible funding allocation for homelessness would provide us with the opportunity to meet the immediate needs in our city. at this time, i'd like to turn it over to mayor shaft of oakland, california. >> thank you, mayor lincoln. i believe mayor shaft will be joining us momentarily. we can proceed with questions and perhaps come back if mayor shaft is able to jump on. so we welcome questions from anyone in the media to any of the members. >> mayor shaft is here now. >> great. welcome. >> hi, i apologize. >> from the great city of oakland, i want to welcome my

colleague and friend from across the bay mayor libby shaft. >> thank you so much, i know my job is to wrap us up and send us home. the state of california has made an amazing impact in our city in bending the curve to start to address this moral outrage that is homelessness. i'm sure you heard from all my colleagues there is nothing that our residents care more about than this. in oakland, the state's assistance has helped us double our shelter capacity. that means double the number of people that we have been able to get off of the streets and allow them to sleep with a roof over their heads. it's allowed us to advance innovations in shelters like our cabin communities, our safe rv parks. we also have used the "home key

program" to do miracles. i don't think anybody imagines that we could create permanent affordable housing for our homeless so rapidly using existing buildings and not just hotels and motels. in oakland, we converted a former college dormitory into housing and bought single-family homes to advance a very innovative model of shared housing for our formally homeless seniors. it's truly beautiful. we know that this problem -- we know how to fix this problem. each of our jurisdictions have done detailed analysis, have regional plans in the bay area, all homes just unveiled their regional action plan. and in alameda county, the second largest county in the bay area, we also just released this week a detailed systems

analysis that shows exactly how we can end homelessness. we know how to do it, we just need the resources. $20 billion is an appropriate, large investment in california's largest problem. it is something as mayors are

this request. >> thank you, mayor libby shaft. as members of the media can see, we have a great lineup but it's wonderful having a great clean-up hitter like mayor libby shaft to really drive us home. so the message is very clear. we're happy to take questions from members of the media to any of the big city mayors here today. >> absolutely. thank you, mayor. we're going to start with chris win from abc 7. chris, you should be able to speak now. >> great. thank you so much, rachel.

chris win from san francisco. this question is for san jose mayor licardo. this would be a big investment. what do you say to people who are on the fence that it will be money well spent. and, secondly, for mayor breed, some have the notion if you build it they will come. for those who might come here in search of housing and services. first, let's start with mayor licardo? >> that's, chris. it's no question it's a big investment. when we emerge from this pandemic, this will remain our biggest problem and the evidence is clear that we haven't spent nearly enough addressing this crisis. we believe this budget surplus will be something on the order of $40 billion, perhaps more.

obviously, the numbers change as we get closer to the final decision, but spending half of a surplus on the biggest problem we face in california and making that commitment last for a half decade, that's money well spent. mayor breed. i think -- >> mayor breed had to jump off for a scheduling conflict. chris, we'll connect you with her office after this. my apologies. >> great. thank you, chris. >> next question comes from telemundo sacramento. her question is the money will be used to continue the existing programs or to create a state program that will be implemented in every city and only the cities in this petition will have access to the money or will be distributed to every city.

>> i'm sorry, the question was how will the money be distributed? >> correct. >> yeah. again, i welcome any of my colleagues to jump in. we know that the funding formulas from the state have typically allocated dollars to counties and because of the leadership of predecessors like mayor darrell steinberg and eric garcetti we now have direct allocation to the cities. obviously, we'd love to have even larger allocations to the cities. we know this is going to be a partnership. cities and counties working together because we each have critical roles to play. homelessness is worse and that is in our big cities. mayor steinberg. >> i'll just try just on the question of how the money will be allocated. what we seek is maximum flexibility, to be able to balance both the capital that's necessary to build whatever kind of structures we need to

bring people under a roof, but then secondly and mayor shaft is absolutely correct, the five-year piece of this is important. it enables us to use flexible money for operations and to be able to spread that money out over five years. it's a combination of the capital and the operation that creates the magic that allows people to regain their lives off the streets. >> thank you, mayor steinberg. anyone else like to respond? okay. >> i'd just add that this is -- we're not asking for a new program. we all know what the proven strategies are. our issue is scaling them and so this is not a new state program. it is investing in evidence-based strategies to prevent and end homelessness

and the flexibility allows californians to get more bang for their buck. each one of us knows the investments we have made locally and where that added state dollar is going to have the biggest impact. that's what's so important about this request. >> thanks. i have a question from christina kim from ks. how many funds would san diego county expect to get and what programs or projects would you want to prioritize? >> appreciate the question. like our chair licardo mentioned, last year, home key dollars, we were able to receive over $30 million having housing for over 400 san diegans. that's a budget decision that will be made by others. where i would like to see

dollars, i would like to see the number of growing supportive housing units in our city. that's how you solve homelessness. that's what we did with the hotels. we are prepared to acquire hotels. we can also help provide gap funding. things that city council has already authorized. get more deeply affordable units, work with our county. i had a long meeting very early this morning with the county of san diego trying to coordinate our federal relief dollars. that probably looks like more detox beds, more recoup and care beds. the kind of niche spaces that we're looking with super sick people on the streets. it's the permanent housing that addresses the issues in the long run. some of these intermediate beds in between. everything's on the table and what i would refer to is look at our city's homelessness

plan. the full implementation of that plan will require $1.9 billion. you understand very clearly why i'm here today and so strongly in support of this proposal. it will help us get much closer to the interventions in that plan. it will reduce homelessness by half in the next couple of years in san diego. >> thanks. eric, you should be able to speak now. >> hello, my name is eric galicia. i'm the editor of the local college over here. my question is for mayor lock-dawson. in terms of the spending that riverside implements, how would you go about that when it comes to the fires that we've been seeing in the river bottom and other parts of the city? and, also, you campaigned on tackling homelessness through a

regional approach, so if, you know, do you plan to use some of the funds at river side we get to help out our neighboring cities with homelessness? >> well, thanks for the question, eric. i appreciate that. both of those questions are related to each other, but i will tell you fires aren't necessarily a homeless related problem. i mean, some of it can be, but this money, we will use for most likely not just housing, but services. we're going to bring services to this region. and, also, we're already working with a regional coalition right now and we've made a plan to tackle these kinds of things where we are working with our surrounding cities, we're working with the county. we're working with the state and we have a plan to address

not only the fires in the river bottom but also just the folks that are down there and getting them into housing and getting the services that they need. so the money will be used wisely as it has in the past. as you know, we have in riverside here, the office of homeless solutions. on there, you can see our dash board and we've planned to use that money to just build on the programs as mayor shaft said. build on the programs that are successful. we know what works, so we just need to make sure we have the funding to continue that work. >> thank you, mayor. >> thank you. we have megan. megan, you should be allowed to speak now. please tell us your outlet as well. >> thank you, this is megan with los angeles magazine. my question is for mayor garcetti. this request comes as you know at this time in the federal lawsuit, mayor, you had said after he issued this injunction

that you would still hope to sit down and work something out with him. his order on the stay request sunday night opens the door for that. have you or anyone else at city hall talked with the judge this week, and, if so, how did those discussions go? >> i can't speak for everybody, but i was pleased to see him back off of the order and to sit down with us which we've never not wanted to do and engaging and making promises and meeting those promises. i just said stay out of the way of progress. i'm happy. i think the council president spoke to him briefly and we agreed to sit down on the 27th of may. i know he has a big case he's doing but in the meantime, we're not waiting one minute. but i certainly don't want to see anything of what we're

advocating here. we're acting too quickly to be able to stand up. >> so it doesn't sound like there's any discussion then before the stay request. that's still pending and it doesn't sound like there's any kind of settlement or negotiation. >> i would hope so. that's what we were aiming for. we already made one huge settlement jump. as you saw in my budget historic funding to get there we hope the county matches as well. but, no, we're ready. if we wants to talk to me tomorrow. >> may 27th is a long ways off. >> that's what he asked for. in the meantime we're satisfied with what he's withdrawn. >> okay. i did have another question regarding the pallet shelters that are going up everywhere

especially in north hollywood. these same shelters had a pretty bad fire last december and the mayor of redlands is citing that fire as a reason to go with another type of tiny home that he says isn't as flammable. i understand that i think the city bought these pallet shelters before the incident and banning, but i'm just wondering if there's been any review of the shelters? >> yeah. very expensively and folks wanted to build them much more densely, but our fire inspectors insisted on the space between them. because you can have them with or without those hvac extinguishers so we've done a lot of extensive work to make sure they're going to be safe and spaced out from each other. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you, both. we've got about three more questions here. gina from bay city news. gina, go ahead. >> hi, can you hear me? >> we can.

>> great. so i have two questions. the first one is more general, but how exactly will the $20 billion proposal be split among cities? i mean, is it just the major cities here on this call or in this coalition and will it be based off maybe population? how do you anticipate that will be split. ? and the other one is specifically for mayor licardo, what issues would you prioritize in san jose and how much do you anticipate san jose would get if this was passed? >> thank you. the allocation will be determined by the legislature and the governor, but what we've seen in the past is essentially allocation that goes both to counties and to large cities. counties obviously have smaller cities within them and the allocation will be based on a formula that combines both point in time homeless count and population and so we'd

expect those kinds of formulas to continue and we'll be certainly advocating to ensure that the hardest hit cities after all it's large cities that suffered most from homelessness are in fact front and center in focus. in terms of san jose, i think what you've heard from my colleagues is very true in san jose as well. we need many different solutions because homelessness is a complex problem or diversity in which ways come into homelessness. we'll be spending dollars to prevent homelessness. very effective strategies using relatively small amounts of money that keeps families housed. that's a much more proactive way of addressing this problem. obviously. we'll be building more of these permanent supportive housing in shelters as well. we need all the above strategy because we know we can't wait

for one solution while others are still on the street. we're going to need multiple solutions. >> thank you. and just sorry. we know we've heard a lot this is a multi-pronged solution that the mayors already know. i mean, what are the main solutions to, you know end homelessness or at least curb it? >> i'll kick it off and ask my colleagues to jump in. the one solution is housing. we need to build a lot of housing than in the past and we need to be able to do it quickly and that requires some innovation and what you're seeing throughout these 13 cities are innovative approaches everything from tiny homes to various approaches and

density enabling more people to get off the street. we're able to get a lot of red tape out of the way the governor's been forthright. so we need flexibility and the ability to move quickly. i've also learned, preventing people from getting into homelessness is a much more cost effective approach. so we need housing and homelessness preevengs. >> tim, did you want to go ahead. go ahead, mayor shaft. >> i just wanted to lift up a reasonable action plan. and what it puts forth is really how we can maximize the flow to our system and make the investments that are going to be the fastest and most efficient at bending the curve and that's the 1:2:4 ratio.

every interim bed that we have, we need to create two permanent affordable houses for people to live in forever in security and we need to fund four prevention interventions. what we're seeing is we're getting people out of homelessness, but new people are getting homeless at a faster rate. in two years it's prevented 5,000 house holds from falling in to homelessness or rapidly resolving their homelessness and the average cost has been about $4,000 for average housing and allows us to maximize our speed at which we

completely end homelessness. 1:2:4. thank you. >> yeah. i wanted to address it from our perspective. the question is often answered, what is the process? and i think it's unique for every city. i can tell you in fresno, what has been working, you need to be able to fund outreach workers. there has to be that repore established and it takes a lot of work, a lot of energy, a lot of effort. the second thing is to be able to take those individuals and place them into transitional housing and that transitional housing must have security, it needs services for mental health, for alcohol substance abuse, addiction to address the growing population domestic violence. victims and their families out there on our streets. our veterans who are often times abandoned. all of those services need to be provided and not on the

short term, long-term and there has to be an exit strategy from that transitional housing and that's permanent supportive housing, rapid rehousing, alternative housing models like tiny homes, accessory dwelling units, as well as apartment complexes. all of those things have to happen. if not, we run into stagnation. and the fact that we ultimately end up with people remaining in transitional housing or emergency shelter for longer periods of time ultimately transitioning back out onto the streets in continuing with that life and lastly making sure that these folks have skills that will allow them to be gainfully employed. and so we need all of those services over a multiple period of time which is why we're asking for four to five years of funding and sustained

funding. so. >> would you like to jump in. >> one of the reasons why people are homeless is for different reasons and there's a different set of solutions for people for example who have become homeless for a short period of time because of an economic circumstance. contrast that with people who are living with severe mental illness or drug addiction we know what to do. the interventions are different. it's immediate housing to make sure that homelessness doesn't last long. for those who are chronically homeless, we call it a continuum of care. and what this funding would allow us to do would be able to fund the assertive outreach,

the case management, the wrap around services, the temporary housing that's needed and then the transition to longer term or permanent housing. it's all about getting to scale on all of the interventions and strategies that we know work because we're doing them, we just can't do it for enough. >> we'll take these two last questions and then we'll wrap up. >> this is christy growth with kthl. this question is for mayor steinberg and for mayor lincoln. if you guys are able to get this commitment, what programs and specific projects do you guys have ready to go. to hit the ground running and

going with that, how do you convent. ( who don't want those shelters and centers and affordable housing near them. >> i'll go ahead and start it off. thank you, christy for that question. when it comes to the matter, you know, it's very important to understand and have community buy-in and work alongside and through our current community based organizations that are currently partnering in the space to help the needs of the most vulnerable in our community. in order to get public buy-in. we have to make sure we're enhancing the services that are in place to meet the specific needs. what was the other question, i'm sorry. >> what specific projects do you have ready to go if you were to get this allocation of

money? >> yeah. so they're currently projects in place right now. one of the things we have to do is we have to expand that emergency so the capacity and enhance our transitional housing, but also work very hard towards that permanent affordable housing, you know, for our unsheltered population like many of our colleagues had said over the past hour that this is very multi-facetted. this is a very complex issue when it comes to homelessness and every community is impacted differently, but we can't forget the hard work that our community stakeholders are doing right now. and the people in our community that have been, have developed that repore to mayor dyer's point with the community, we have to work with and we have to double down on those resources so that they can be

as affected as they possibly can with reaching this most vulnerable population. >> darrell, did you want to respond? >> how will having more state money help solving this problem? >> i think it's been alluded to in a couple of the other questions and answers. it's not just getting people into beds. we have prevention strategies.

>> but also, we need better exit strategies. as mayor steinberg alluded to, we know what our population is. it's not just one monotypical population. we know we have people suffering from mental illness. we know we have people suffering from drug addiction. we know people have physical disabilities. people who are just down on their luck. need a leg up and help. so the money that we will be getting will be going towards each one of those programs. mostly what i would like to see though is focus on services. we have very -- the strategies that we've put in place now.

>> thank you. with that, i think that's a good note on which we should wrap this up. i want to thank all the members of the media for being with us and thank all of my colleagues for their forceful advocacy. we'll continue to push forth in the weeks ahead, we look forward to celebrating by getting more housing built in our communities and helping our homeless neighbors get off the streets. thank you all. >> candlestick park known also as the stick was an outdoor stadium for sports and entertainment. built between 1958 to 1960, it was located in the bayview hunters point where it was home to the san francisco giants and

49ers. the last event held was a concert in late 2014. it was demolished in 2015. mlb team the san francisco giants played at candlestick from 1960-1999. fans came to see players such a willie mays and barry bonds, over 38 seasons in the open ballpark. an upper deck expansion was added in the 1970s. there are two world series played at the stick in 1962 and in 198 9. during the 1989 world series against the oakland as they were shook by an earthquake. candlestick's enclosure had minor damages from the quake but its design saved thousands of lives. nfl team the san francisco 49ers played at candlestick from feign 71-2013. it was home to five-time super

bowl champion teams and hall of fame players by joe montana, jerry rice and steve jones. in 1982, the game-winning touchdown pass from joe montana to dwight clark was known as "the catch." leading the niners to their first super bowl. the 49ers hosted eight n.f.c. championship games including the 2001 season that ended with a loss to the new york giants. in 201, the last event held at candlestick park was a concert by paul mccartney who played with the beatles in 1966, the stadium's first concert. demolition of the stick began in late 2014 and it was completed in september 2015. the giants had moved to pacific rail park in 2000 while the 49ers moved to santa clara in 2014. with structural claims and numerous name changes, many have passed through and will remember

candlestick park as home to the legendary athletes and entertainment. these memorable moments will live on in a place called the stick. >> shop and dine in the 49 promotes local businesses and challenges residents to do their business in the 49 square files of san francisco. we help san francisco remain unique, successful and right vi. so where will you shop and dine in the 49? >> i'm one of three owners here in san francisco and we provide mostly live music entertainment and we have food, the type of food that we have a mexican food and it's not a big menu, but we did it with love. like ribeye tacos and

quesadillas and fries. for latinos, it brings families together and if we can bring that family to your business, you're gold. tonight we have russelling for e community. >> we have a ten-person limb elimination match. we have a full-size ring with barside food and drink. we ended up getting wrestling here with puoillo del mar. we're hope og get families to join us. we've done a drag queen bingo and we're trying to be a diverse kind of club, trying different things. this is a great part of town and

there's a bunch of shops, a variety of stores and ethnic restaurants. there's a popular little shop that all of the kids like to hang out at. we have a great breakfast spot call brick fast at tiffanies. some of the older businesses are refurbished and newer businesses are coming in and it's exciting. >> we even have our own brewery for fdr, ferment, drink repeat. it's in the san francisco garden district and four beautiful murals. >> it's important to shop local because it's kind of like a circle of life, if you will. we hire local people. local people spend their money at our businesses and those local people will spend their money as well. i hope people shop locally.

[ ♪♪♪ ] >> when i look at an old neon sign that's working or not working, i feel the family business that was in there. >> since 2009, citywide, sf shines, has supported businesses and sites like the ones that receive new neon signs. >> you know, sf shines is doing an amazing job to bring back the lighting and the neon glow of san francisco. >> sf shines is such an amazing program, and i can't think of another program in another city that gives matching gunned

funds to store owners, mom and pop owners, and if they've got a neon sign, they've really got a great way to advertise their business. >> this is a continuation of the sf shines program. >> focusing other neon signs is relatively new to us. of the seven neon signs, we've invested about $145,000. >> a good quality sign costs more, but it lasts infinitily longer. as opposed to lasting five years, a good neon sign will last 15 to 20 years. >> in san francisco, the majority of neon signs are for mom-and-pop businesses. in order to be able to restore these signs, i think it gives back to your community. >> part of the project has to

do with prioritizing certain signs in the neighborhood based on their aesthetics, based on their current signs, and base on the history. in the time that we've been here, we've seen a number of signs restored just on eddy street. >> there are a number of signs in the tenderloin and many more that are waiting or wanting to be restored. i have worked with randall and al, and we've mapped out every single one of them and rated them as to how much work they would need to get restored. that information is passed onto sf shines, and they are going to rank it. so if they have x budget for a year, they can say all right, we're going to pick these five, and they're putting together clusters, so they build on top of what's already there. >> a cluster of neon signs is sort of, i guess, like a cluster of grapes.

when you see them on a corner or on a block, it lights up the neighborhood and creates an ambient glow. if you havy got two of three of them, you've created an atmosphere that's almost like a movie set. >> some of the hotel, we've already invested in to get those neon signs for people to enjoy at night include the elk hotel, jefferson hotel, the verona, not to mention some we've done in chinatown, as well as the city's portal neighborhood. >> we got the fund to restore it. it took five months, and the biggest challenge was it was completely infested with pigeons. once we got it clean, it came out beautiful. >> neon signs are often equated with film noir, and the noir genre as seen through the

hollywood lens basically depicted despair and concentration. >> you would go downtown and see the most recent humphrey bogart film filled with neon in the background. and you'd see that on market street, and as market street got seedier and seedier and fewer people continued to go down, that was what happened to all the neon strips of light. >> the film nori might start with the light filled with neon signs, and end with a scene with a single neon sign blinking and missing a few letters. >> one of my favorite scenes,

orson welles is chasing rita hayworth with neon signs in the background. >> i think what the office of economic and workforce development is very excited with is that we'll be able to see more neon signs in a concentrated way lit up at night for visitors and most especially residents. the first coin laundry, the elm hotel, the western hotel are ones that we want to focus on in the year ahead. >> neon signs are so iconic to certain neighborhoods like the hara, like the nightcap. we want to save as many historic and legacy neon signs in san francisco, and so do they. we bring the expertise, and they bring the means to

actually get the job done. >> people in tenderloin get really excited as they see the signs relit. as you're driving through the tenderloin or the city, it pretty much tells you something exciting is happening here. >> knee an was created to make the night more friendly and advertise businesses. it's a great way of supporting and helping local businesses. >> there's so many ways to improve public safety. the standard way is having more eyes on the street, but there's other culturally significant ways to do that, and one those ways is lighting up the streets. but what better way and special way to do that is by having old, historic neon signs lighting up our streets at night and casting away our shadows. >> when i see things coming back to life, it's like remembering how things were. it's remembering the hotel or the market that went to work seven days a week to raise

their money or to provide a service, and it just -- it just -- it just >> 7 and a half million renovation is part of the clean

and safe neighbor's park fund which was on the ballot four years ago and look at how that public investment has transformed our neighborhood. >> the playground is unique in that it serves a number of age groups, unlike many of the other properties, it serves small children with the children's play grounds and clubhouses that has basketball courts, it has an outdoor soccer field and so there were a lot of people that came to the table that had their wish list and we did our best to make sure that we kind of divided up spaces and made sure that we kept the old features of the playground but we were able to enhance all of those features.

>> the playground and the soccer field and the tennis fields and it is such a key part of this neighborhood. >> we want kids to be here. we want families to be here and we want people to have athletic opportunities. >> we are given a real responsibility to insure that the public's money is used appropriately and that something really special comes of these projects. we generally have about an opportunity every 50 years to redo these spaces. and it is really, really rewarding to see children and families benefit, you know, from the change of culture, at each one of these properties >> and as a result of, what you see behind us, more kids are playing on our soccer fields than ever before. we have more girls playing sports than we have ever had before. [ applause ] fp >> and we are sending a strong message that san francisco

families are welcome and we want you to stay. >> this park is open. >> it was an outdoor stadium for track and field, motorcycle and auto and rugby and cricket located in golden gate park, home to professional football,

lacross and soccer. adjacent to the indoor arena. built in the 1920s. the san francisco park commission accepted a $100,000 gift from the estate to build a memorial in honor of pioneers in the area. the city and county of san francisco contributed an additional $200,000 and the stadium was built in a year. in the 1930s it was home to several colleges such as usf, santa clara and st. mary's for competition and sporting. in 1946 it became home to the san francisco 49ers where they played nearly 25 years. the stayed de yam sat 60,000 fans. many caught game the rooftops and houses. the niners played the last game against the dallas cowboys january 3, 1971 before moving to candlestick park. the stadium hosted other events

before demolition in 1989. it suffered damages from the earthquake. it was reconstructed to seat 10,000 fans with an all weather track, soccer field and scoreboards. it hosts many northern california football championship games. local high schools sacred heart and mission high school used the field for home games. the rivalry football games are sometimes played here. today it is a huge free standing element, similar to the original featuring tall pink columns at the entrance. the field is surrounded by the track and used by high school and college football and soccer. it is open for public use as well.

the celebration of our a.p.i. community goes on every day. but i'll say that a.p.i. heritage has become a bigger and better event effort each year. more partners, more appreciation and attention locally and nationally. and more recognition for the role asian americans and pacific islanders play in the life of this country in this very city. we're proud to welcome you to the museum to start the celebration. the asian art museum celebrates asian american culture, a place to explore, to discover and to be inspired by the power and the meaning of art and inspiration is the key to connection and connection is what this celebration is all

about. so i'm thrilled to introduce claud chen to tell you more about what's in store. claudian is a supporter of asian art culture and she has been the organizing force behind this celebration for 17 years. and she also serves on the board of the asian arts museum foundation. i'm so grateful and delighted to welcome to say a few words, introduce today's program to all of us. claudine. >> thank you. is it almost afternoon yet. thank you everyone for coming. every year, we would like to make sure the public learns about what we have planned for asian heritage month. this year, our theme is celebration theme is celebrate resilience, uplift voices. we all know the tremendous

challenges that the a.p.i. community has been facing this past year whether it's with covid-19 or with the anti-asian hate. however, it is the consensus of the community that we want the celebration of this month to be positive. we want to show the world that we are proud asian pacific americans and we are proud being americans. so, as you will see, throughout the month, we have many programs over 50 programs that show case the art and culture of asian pacific america. later on this morning, you will hear from the best museum of the world of asian art museum, the best public library in the country, the san francisco public library as well as the largest asian american film festival in the country. i was told also in the world. so what's different about this

year? we want to be relevant. we are very concerned about social justice issues that asian communities are facing with. so this year in addition to arts and culture so this year's program to talk about what it means, what racism means. how do we achieve equity. what does solidarity mean. so we and public safety, very important on everybody's mind. public safety. and, in addition to that, what's new this year. we are going to for the first time have a multi-cultural program. we live in a diverse society and a very multi-cultural society. so taking advantage of asian heritage month, we are putting

together the first anti-asian program that will be featuring artists from diverse programs to talk about cultural identities to talk about how they achieve social justice through art. there's some activities and programs for everyone to enjoy. we encourage everyone to find out what they can do in the month of may in san francisco. at this time, i would like to warmly welcome our mayor, mayor london breed. there's no other better champion that the a.p.i. community has found in this past year through the challenges that we have. we note that's one person we can count on who cares about us, making sure san francisco is the most multi-diverse city

in the country. so here's mayor breed. >> thank you so much claudine. it's a little windy out here today. i can't wait until we can get back indoors for these press conferences. i don't know about you. but it's now overdue with over 70% of san franciscans receiving their first dose of the vaccine so far. so san francisco is doing an incredible job with the vaccination process and, today, as we kick off asian pacific american heritage month in san francisco during the month of may, it just reminds us as to how far we've come as a city. last year, this celebration was held virtually. we didn't let this pandemic stop us from celebrating and uplift our asian pacific islander community in san francisco and i really want to take this opportunity to not only thank claudine chang for

founding the committee that founded a.p.i. heritage month in san francisco, but continuing to elevate the conversations that are so important to build the bridges between the a.p.i. community and others in our city. we know that this community has had a really challenging time over the past few months. with the xenophobia and discrimination ever since this pandemic began perpetrated by even leaders of this country that i am now happy are gone. it is up to us to make sure that we don't allow that to infect san francisco in a negative way. and so the work that claudine is doing to bridge that gap with communities not just in this moment, in this festival, but what she does year around is very much appreciated and very necessary in order to make

sure that we drive out the hatred that divides us and we bring forth our history and culture and all the things that unite us. just think about it. all of us want a safe place to raise your families and take care of our parents and live a good life and how do we talk about our differences and how do we talk about our similarities in a way that supports and uplifts one another. api heritage month is a time where we pause and we recognize the contributions of our asian pacific islander community here in san francisco. when we recognize how significant they are to building this city, to building this country. here in san francisco, we make it very clear that we will not tolerate the hate and division. we will do everything we can to

make not just the right policy changes and investments, but the right program attic things that are needed in order to bridge those gaps and so we all stand united putting forth a program that in some cases will be in person, but we will do so safely. but as we prepare for next year where we're really going to show case the performance or the events because yes, i don't mind the zoom and video stuff that you watch online. we adjusted to that, but now it's time to start opening the doors and come back together again and i can't be more excited to do that by kicking off api heritage month here in san francisco right across from city hall at this incredible asian art museum right next to the library. we have our city librarian michael lambert with us with

some amazing programatic plans for this month. if you haven't been to cam fest, you are missing out big time. make sure you take advantage of the programs and the events. so many great act its, so many ways in which we can celebrate and uplift our a.p.a. community here in san francisco and with that, i'd like to introduce our city administrator car men chiu. >> thank you very much, mayor, for the warm welcome to everybody who is here today and of course to claudine and jay for hosting this event today. my name is carmen chiu. we've all had a difficult year dealing with not only the pandemic on our hands, but some of the racial violence and challenges we've seen not on here locally, in the bay area and in san francisco, but s