or remain homeless. there is increased use of fire, police, medical emergency room visits, that kind of thing, so keeping services like the stone wall project are ways to reduce the money spent in the city and county on things like that. our services actually are a small amount of money to actually give the city a lot more. our folks are resilient. they have the power themselves to make changes in their lives. they need a hand at this point. cutting the services effectively means cutting off what we feel are really important safety net services. just want to ask you to please not cut the [bell rings] supervisor chu: thank you. next speaker. >> good morning, supervisors. i am here to talk about the stonewall project. i want to thank all of you for finding some of the funds necessary for a long stone wall to continue to run these outpatient programs. the program has been effective and should not go down, especially given the high rates of methamphetamine use in san francisco. has been an important part of

also, homeless employment services. i want to echo the comments already made about the distinct services that are essential to our community and the safety net of safety net services provided by programs like this. this is my 10th budgie year before you. every year, we come back and fight for the same services. we have seen a lot of those services whittled away over time, and i am here to tell you that we are at the absolute breaking point in terms of homeless safety net services. as you know, i have participated in the cbo stakeholder meetings that were convened by you and the mayor. in those meetings, we came up with budget priorities. i wanted to pass to you today a chart of those priorities versus hospitality house's programs, and you will see that we need seven of the eight priorities. the tenderloin self-help center is 26 years old. we were the first drop in center in the city for homeless folks to get behavioral health services. we were the model for other centers that have come and some that have gone over the y

i am homeless. any cuts in programs dealing with mental health or homelessness -- you just can't do it. if you want to save money, all of you work for free. that is what i really have to say. >> alan kingston, with power outage, with the department of public health. i am living proof that these to work. these services are helpful. to get rid of them is absurd. as far as going down to the tenderloin and south of market, i have used almost every one of these resources. they work. from being homeless on the street to having my driver's license, if it were not for these programs and other outreach, and the catholic charities that helped to get us into an sro, we would probably still be on the street out there. this gives us hope. there is a little hope on the streets because of these programs. if you take these away, you are blowing it. you have finally found something that works. i am one of the people who has used these resources, and they do work. thank you. >> thanks for the opportunity to speak. my

i've seen you at the homeless connect events where you invite the homeless and, lack of a better term, spoil them for a day. tell us about the interpersonal contact with them and how they're normal people like you and me, someone who just happens to be -- >> they are normal people and every single person has a story and a lot of times we forget they are senior scitizens, a lo of them are veterans. the great thing about doing the registry week in june we will have for the very first name a by name photo registry of the homeless in santa clara county. we have this many homeless veterans this many senior citizen veterans and they really are people who most want housing. i think there's a misconception that they don't want housing or don't deserve it because of poor life choices, and we disagree. a lot of them are really sick. >> and this effort, that's why you need the 500 volunteers. >> we do. >> in how many days are they supposed to canvas the streets? >> it's a three-day event but they don't have to do it every single day. it's really early in the morning so we catch the homeless folk

homelessness. she has led the successful litigation to secure the legal rights of homelessness and his nsa known expert and we think and each our panelists for being here today. wide-awake ahead and begin your testimonies. we will ask that you try to limit your testament to five minutes or so. if you go way over that we will rain again. if you don't we be in good shape. senator brown, you may want to slip out and go vote. is the vote going to start at 2:15? if it is, you may want to do that and then you can come back and then i will run over and vote. thank you. senator, pleased to see. your entire statement will be made part of the record and feel free to summarize as you wish. >> thank you, mr. chairman and senator brown. it's delightful to be with you today. my full statement is in the record. i think you'll find it useful in view of my experience as chairman of the 1995 brac. you know, in that year, my good friend senator sam nunn, the chairman of the armed services committee recommended me to

i've seen you at the homeless connect events, where you invite the homeless and you, for lack of a better you spoil them for a day. tell us about the interpersonal contact you have about them? and tell us about their inner beings and normal people like and you me. someone who just happens to be out on their luck. >> a lot of these folks are senior citizens, veterans. the great thing about doing the registry week in june, we'll for the first time have a by name photo registry of the homeless in santa clara county, to say we have this many homeless veterans, this many senior citizen veterans. most of them do want housing. there is a misconception that they don't want housing or deserve it because of poor life choices. we disagree. a lot of them are really sick. >> and this effort that you are -- that's why you need 500 volunteers. >> we do. >> how many days are they supposed to canvass the streets? >> a three-day event. they don't have to do it every single day. really early in the morning. we want to catch them exactly where they are sleeping before they get up and move and we can't find t

homeless people. and it was discussed by columnist barbara ehrenreich author of the book "nickeled and dimed." this is 40 minutes. >> so thank you, everybody, for making day 1 of the forum a huge success. i've been at the law center now -- this week is actually my five-year anniversary at the law center. [applause] >> and to see the growth since the time that i started to where we are now is really incredible. and i'm excited to have been able to share it with you. this is only day 1 of the forum. day 2 is taking place on capitol hill tomorrow. so don't come back here in the morning. we have directions at the registration desk for those of you who need them. we're going to start the day at jones day law firm right off of capitol hill and then move up to the hill for a congressional briefing and congressional visits thereafter and so we're looking forward to that. again, directions are at the registration desk if you need them. also, for those who may not be joining us have the evaluation sheets on the

it is never just homelessness. folks that we serve, it is homeless and mental illness, homelessness and being seen and not having family. homelessness and unemployment in an economy that is really difficult for the best of us to compete in. homelessness in so many other issues, and what we are asking with these budget cuts is 334 people to now -- do not now have a resource center to go to, to not be able to use restrooms at the shelter to be able to rest. if you are in a wheelchair. this is what the budget cut will do. again, it is resident impact. also, staffing impact. you see us at the shelters. we employ 25% of our staff are formerly homeless. we are employing formerly homeless at $12.13 an hour. we will lay off -- we will have to lay off some of our staff. again, these are the working poor, and we ask that they not be penalized by these cuts. finally, the neighborhood impact. again, i say that having the shelter opened, having a place for them to watch tv, to rest, to be with each other instead of being on the

we cannot cut any homeless products. you just read our report of the homeless count. people on the streets are growing. it's your number one voter issue. the costs will continue to tripoli indicate and cutting hospital -- continue to trip licate and cutting the hospital funds will hurt. we do an intervention in a community setting. the hospitality stations are for people who are homeless infections would increase because they can't have access. we can't do that. we'll have a larger deficit for d.p.h. i urge you to keep the priorities in line with the mayor who was one of the most amazing advocates to protect the most vulnerable, and we count on you because you've done it every year. protect the house, the homeless outreach team and the only room we have to put homeless people. thank you very much. we need to be whole. thank you. >> good afternoon, my name is rosanna salazar and work at the sixth street self help center, hospitality house. a few years ago i was having trouble finding work and went to the hospitality program and helped me find work as a bike messenger a

at any given point in time, at least one of our staff is homeless. you are supporting a whole community. you start volunteering and then get hired in the agencies. by supporting the agency, you are supporting that factor. i wanted to reflect back on the journeys that brought you to this chair today and ask that you keep in mind services for people facing challenges in san francisco. we all have a vision of in san francisco. i hope that we can all lookout for those who are less fortunate. >> thank you. >> good evening. i am a guest of the providence baptist church in hunters point. i am a guest of the hospitality house for the last five years. i have done 17 art shows all over the city. i am a former drug addict. somebody told me when i got to the city that there is a free place you can go do artwork when you are recovering from drugs and alcohol and all sorts of things. i am partially deaf. i could not talk right until i was about 12. i had a lot of handicaps. my mother was a nurse at kaiser hospital and my father did advertising for best western hot

affordable and supportive housing programs verse is homelessness spearheaded -- homelessness. it stands for a single room occupancy hotels. most of these were constructed after the 1906 earthquake. they were built to house the workers after the quake. they are home to over 500 families and 1000 children. just in the area alone. to some of the city's most vulnerable residents. after many, these are a safeguard to homelessness, and they are also a step up and they step out to people that have been homeless. please remember that the true cost of homelessness is not just found in the service issues, it is in the impact of the quality of life. helping to move people out and stay out involves a series steppingstone programs. the begin with shelters, case management, they include advocacy programs coupled with a function of behavioral health systems will help get the -- that will help get the seniors into the community where they can help themselves and help the community. thank you for your time. [applause] >> think you so much. -- thank you so much. we want to bring up erica to sha

the homeless outreach team and hospitality team are both equally emergence services. specifically, we work with people on the street who have no other option. typically, we look for people who have no other option, people locked out of the shelter system either because of high level metal health, substance abuse, or physical injury, or people who for whatever reason cannot it anywhere else. both of these agencies do the work of rescue, and if you cut the funds, no one will be able to pick up the slack. we do not have other support in the system. there is no other group during direct general street outreach in the community to help people get into shelter, and to care, into housing, and into case management beside the home -- homeless outreach team. same for hospitality house. it is the wide end of the bottle to get people into care. if we sustain the kind of cut that is contemplated, it means a reduction in force, and we will not be able to provide the services to the homeless folks who need them, and it will not be able to get that level of care anywhere else. thank

that have been homeless. please remember that the true cost of homelessness is not just found in the service issues, it is in the impact of the quality of life. helping to move people out and stay out involves a series steppingstone programs. the begin with shelters, case management, they include advocacy programs coupled with a function of behavioral health systems will help get the -- that will help get the seniors into the community where they can help themselves and help the community. thank you for your time. [applause] >> think you so much. -- thank you so much. we want to bring up erica to share with us about homelessness. >> district 6 has the largest population of homeless people in the city. it resides in the south of market area. it is the largest proportion of other social conditions often linked to poverty, overcrowding, disability, mental illness, addictive disorders, and more. 9000 different people, into small shelters. three of the shelters were located in district 6. after the recession hit,

people. >> i was creating we're viz to believe empower homeless people. >> mark had once been homelessimself and was making a career videotaping and posting the stories of homeless people. he created we are visible.com after realizing the social network enable them to tell their own story. the site is offering basic tutorials on social networking. he has a bigger goal. create support. >> homeless person in phoenix would say i'm hungry. a homeless service organization would say okay, here we are. let's help you. >> how do those on the street afford to go online? many tell us they had phones before becoming homeless and keeping them had been a priority. they are turning to libraries and shelters, laptop and free wi-fi have become lifelines. this homeless new yorker reunited with his long lost daughter with twitter. and this man raised money for barbecue at the veterans in a homeless shelter. and this year, got them in permanent housing and both credit twitter. there is no accurate couped of the growing number of homeless people online, but since the site launched a year ago, it's attract

people. >> i was creating we're viz to believe empower homeless people. >> mark had once been homeless himself and was making a career videotaping and posting the stories of homeless people. he created we are visible.com after realizing the social network enable them to tell their own story. the site is offering basic tutorials on social networking. he has a bigger goal. create support. >> homeless person in phoenix would say i'm hungry. a homeless service organization would say okay, here we are. let's help you. >> how do those on the street afford to go online? many tell us they had phones before becoming homeless and keeping them had been a priority. they are turning to libraries and shelters, laptop and free wi-fi have become lifelines. this homeless new yorker reunited with his long lost daughter with twitter. and this man raised money for barbecue at the veterans in a homeless shelter. and this year, got them in permanent housing and both credit twitter. there is no accurate couped of the growing number of homeless people online, but since the site launched a year ago, it's attra

we had a number of residents in our centers and homeless shelters this let -- a number people slept on the streets last night and needed to sleep today instead of being here to testify and tell their story. so thank you for your gesture of giving up your lunch. i would like to ask the room for another gesture, for 30 seconds of silence while we think about all the folks who were too vulnerable to be here today and speak on their behalf. [bell rings] thank you for your time. supervisor chu: thank you up for your time. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am the executive director of family services. thank you for your time today. i am here to ask you to reconsider the proposed cuts to the traditional housing program. that are -- there are three programs up for a cut. these programs serve populations that benefit from transitional housing to make it in the long run. homeless families recovering from drug addiction, domestic violence, and mental illness and transitional-age youth. while the total cuts and not only to $393,000, the programs have been cut over the years. that is why there are

about the country as you know the number of homeless students in america is on the rise we're going to speak to just one of them and that. our team is the state run english speaking russian channel it's kind of like algis e.u. . russia today has an extremely confrontational stance when it comes to us. you know sometimes you see a story and it seems so. you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else here so you saw the part of it and realized everything you saw you don't. charge the big picture of. what drives the world the fear mongering used by politicians who makes decisions to break through get through to convey who can you trust no one. is you know what you do with the global machinery city where we had a state controlled capitalism in school that when nobody dares to ask we do our t. question more. well from warfarin economic woes to the battle in education it is often said that knowledge is power and even president obama himself says that education is the key to keeping america competitive but at a time when so many american families are struggling just to mak

homelessness." the central belief is that no one should experience homelessness, no one should be without a safe, stable place to call all bahome. recently, our government stated that homelessness implicates our human rights commitment and renewed a pledge to end homelessness. congress has made similar commitments, most recently in act of 2009 that established a federal goal of an ensuring that families that become homeless return dousing within 30 days. -- return to housing within 30 days. you might wonder what this has to do with federal surplus property. in 1987, title 5 of an act but in place a set of important protections for homeless people. under the law, homeless service providers have the right of first refusal to require federal property no longer needed by the government to use it for rigidly -- urgent needs, such as housing and services for people who are homeless. more than 2.4 million americans benefit each year as a result of this provision in the law. formally vacant federal properti

about 7,000 people are homeless in santa clara county. of those, 2,000 of chronically homeless.s morning hundreds of volunteers hope to change that. bob redell is live at west gate church in san jose where hundreds of people joined you earlier. good morning. >> good morning to you, marla. they have since gone out on the streets to look for these homeless people. what they are trying to do is map out different areas where homeless people are known to live and they are divided into teams. they are trying to approach these people to introduce themselves and to conduct a survey and interview to see how serious their situation is. then the idea is what the people with housing 1000, the organization running this, what they want to do is prioritize these women with the main goal that by 2013 getting people off the street into permanent homes. >> i'm out here because it's the right thing to do. and i would encourage any one that is interested in helping out with the homeless, what i found, i've been volunteering for the past few months and what i found is there's a lot of resources just

the proposed cuts to substance abuse treatment, employment services for homeless and formerly homeless senior services, mental health support services in support of housing and drop in services for homeless people that remained in the budget will harm balder will members of our community. should the cuts go through, we expect to see more and treated for mental health issues amongst our guests, lack of access to bathrooms, case management, and basic support services for homeless people in the tenderloin, and an increase in active drug use. harvey, homelessness, and health disparities are experienced by communities, not just isolated individuals. unfortunately, tough economic times often lead to budget battles were one type of community service can be pitted against others. we are here today not as an organization who stands to lose a city contract but as a community member who will suffer if the basic safety net that supports our infrastructure is degraded. we are united today with our community partners who receive city funding, with our clients and guess who also receive services fund

. >>> hipster or homeless? is it clever or tacky?as a new san francisco website gone too far with its hoo you more? >>> there's one thing you can't plan for on your summer getaway, bad weather. next, how to get rebooked faster, what to say, the sites to use and something you can do while in line that will get you ahead of the game over everyone else waiting. >> and secrets from the grave lennon didn't want anyone to n know. >> the rain has finally moved on. we're seeing clearing skies and a warming trend, getting started y eraturhe sorines tto hehointo daweliekend. a look at the forecast coming up. . [ coach ] in albuquerque, citi pre-approved my mortgage. [ whistle blows ] all right, layups, guys. let's go. in sioux falls, i locked in a rate. coach, you get that house yet? working on it. [ coach ] the appraisal? ...springfield. wherever i was, my citi mortgage consultant had me covered. [ crowd cheering ] and 500 miles from home... [ cheering, cellphone beeps ] ...we finally had a new home. [ male announcer ] from pre-approval to cl

but i hope that as we look at homeless policy, we take a man approached that does not blame homeless people for their own predicament but looks at how we can improve the economy, jobs, and educational opportunities for many people who are currently homeless. >> you started to touch on this a little bit as the city's housing needs. what do you think the board of supervisors should be doing to address some of those needs? supervisor mar: even as we will be holding a hearing on senior housing needs in a few weeks, we did a study with the budget analyst office that shows that there is a huge need for housing, especially for affordable housing for the lowest income population, but even for our middle-income, aging population, there is nowhere near enough housing that is affordable for people, so it may mean an exodus of more working families, or seniors that are middle or lower income from the city, we must build more housing that is affordable. there is also the danger that san francisco becomes a city that loses families because it may be cheaper or more affordable to live in daly city

we're all getting older and we're at a point where we could be homeless. and so three years ago, i was in the same situation, how i'm servicing people, i was in the same situation where i was homeless with a child. i'm pleading to please restore our funds back because we need our funds. we need our program and sixth street, in order for it to be a viable community like people are planning for it to be, we need to be there. we need this. we're the only place people can actually use the bathroom. if you walk down the streets in the tenderloin and on sixth street, how many times have you had to walk over stuff? and that's just something we are asking are bathroom services, people to come in. thank you. >> that's a hard act to follow. president chu, members of the board, i'm bob bennett from the services committee. i want to thank you for this year's budget process, you and the mayor, supervisor chiu and robert and greg. i think it's been a different day. we were always on the same team before but during the budget times it felt like we were all pitted against

formerly homeless families and individuals. there is also an enormous amount of opportunity for homeless people to gain jobs and job training opportunities. we wanted to acknowledge the work of supervisor kim. her and her staff worked hard over the past few months to make sure all of the goals and the plan that we have worked hard to achieve are going to be real and meaningful. thank you for the work that you did. [applause] and over the years, we have had a really great community partnership with the treasure island development authority. the board has been amazing. they have had the vision of including low income and formerly homeless people from the ground up, from the start, so i want to thank the treasure island development authority for all of their leadership over the years. i also want to thank the director of operations. [applause] really, i know supervisor chu said that it takes a village to build a village, but it has really been that kind of story. that is why you had the 11-0 vote. it is not just city government do

you've heard the statistics of young people who are homeless. housing is the number one concern that our youth for things we're going to have to give up like sunshine, space, noise. those things are not more important than the opportunities that the ewing people have if they are given housing. 50 units is small in comparison to the numbers of homeless people. we have here on this street.

where i recruit homeless and formerly homeless people to tell the story is to create and let people know that we are the same as anybody else. but as the minister don't get me wrong i have 1 foot in a hotel and 1 foot on a banana peel so it could go tumbling down to the sidewalk anytime i tell people let's go from here. that's what i'm famous for. i really want to hear the story because i know their story and i have pretty generic story of homelessness. my house burned down, i was a sailor. i saved nothing. i lived for today paycheck to paycheck. my house burned down which wasn't my house. on recross suffered me for three days and let me go out on the streets. and it took me that much time in florida. i'm from if the coming york but there is no home to go to. i was maybe 40 at that time and there was no home to go to to see what i could do about raising myself with my own hand and there is various adventures in that as i say. let's go from here. and so, if you see the index at me, accept me from here, and i was homeless for about seven years. so let's go from here. but i want to tel

so we talk about homelessness the wars the economy real issues affecting the world and this country so because look at the mainstream networks why the hell are these channels obsessed with frankly where things to be out of fluff and the casey anthony trial that they can't seem to get enough of to we negate all those all the news these days real news these days seems to be hard to find so why well joining me now to decode this mainstream media mystery is question journalism professor at georgetown university hi chris you know i was so excited yesterday because this whole wiener gate thing blew over for i was looking forward to these puns going away. yesterday and. it seems to me that it's really not going away anywhere i mean our networks are covering this wall to wall as if it's some presidential resignation why well i mean. casey anthony there are part of that carnival paradigm i mean that's the one thing they have in common but the one thing they don't have in common is wiener gate is something that appears across all kinds of media media all kinds of platforms and casey anthony thin

then you have another category of homelessness, which is chronic homelessness. it is not just living paycheck to paycheck, but other issues like mental health or drug addiction. that is a much harder population to address. i think -- the district that i represent as many of the community organizations. it continues to be a pressing problem. >> where do you think the attics and mentally ill will go? supervisor kim: first of all, a ton of families live in the tenderloin. people do not realize this, but the tenderloin is a family neighborhood. it in not a proponent for cleaning up the tenderloin. i love the tenderloin. i love what it is right now. you know, i recognize that we have a diversity of folks who want to live there. i do not have a problem with people being out on the streets and socializing. it is part of the character of the neighborhood. i do not think the party is something we should criminalize. that being said, we cannot have open drug dealing. i do support a foot patrol. we are currently working with several organizations or have safe passages wher

for homeless sentences in. tie dyeing is in full support of the project as it is providing real opportunity from the ground up for a new life for current and future residents. we urge your support. thank you for this opportunity. >> [unintelligible] serving low-income people throughout the city. while disappointed, we do support the project and the proposal to pursue inflation. having been on the island since 1997, we have faced multiple barriers to employment. individuals in this program typically include the training and placing with permanent jobs resulting in job brokerage programs and contracting opportunities. community-based organizations and the u.s. coast guard, making sure that future opportunities will be there on the island preventing local barriers to employment. thank you. >> i just want to reiterate what was just said. we are in strong support of the treasure island project because of a comprehensive housing job opportunities san franciscans. as well as contract and opportunities that steve just

i used to be homeless. i used to be a drug addict. i needed help. i had a friend and i said, i need a home. we really needed. we need the help. please do not closes down. -- close this down. >> i was kidnapped somewhere. the closet door went straight out. anyway, this is the right touch. i don't understand the budget cuts at all of that but i know that we can ask for help to bring in more generation. we reach out to the people instead of trying to dig into the funds that we need. i'm trying to do this right. i am trying to find out about my business and everything else. i am also a singer and so on. this is a whole different story. all i'm asking you is for people to reach out. i have been trying for years and i am trying to reach out. the tax machines and -- the facts machines and everything else, making cutback. >> bank you so much for listening to it. we work at central city hospitality house. i'd come today to share with you what i know to be true. the proposed cuts are unacceptable and dangerous. if they go through, tens of thousands of san fra