the mckinty-vin toe definition of homeless person so that homeless children and youth verified as homeless by other federal programs can access hud's housing and services. we have a unique opportunity to hear from witnesses about the bureaucratic barriers that are preventing homeless children and youth from securing hud homeless assistance. our ultimate goal is to insure that homeless children and youth are eligible for hud homeless house zing and supportive services, secure and more stable housing as well as supportive services will help kids stay in school and avoid becoming tomorrow's homeless adults. these goals must be a top priority for federal agencies that have homeless programs. if federal programs are not working for the people they are intended to serve, it's our job to find the flaws and reform those programs. and during the past decade two significant reforms to the mckinney-vinto act have been intended to help children and youth to more easily secure homeless assistance. but our work is not complete. this week the national center on family homelessness released a report revea

to help the homeless. my second suggestion is to turn treasure island into another area where the homeless can benefit from the open space. you can put portable classrooms there. you could put in recreational -- recreational facilities. we could use e buildings to educate the homeless. i think that those two can help. the third suggestion is that would like to see city leaders publicly donating money, so we know who really supports the homeless. thank you. [applause] >> good morning, city operations. walter paulson. ♪ if you are going to san francisco be sure to have some budget -- some budget homeless money there if you are going to san francisco, you are going to find some homeless help theire all across the nation they got money before they went on vacation on this motion, bring it on like a money ocean so those that come to san francisco, they are going to find some homeless help there, they will find some hope, help on, hold on here, they will find some help here they will find some help on here today

i am homeless. i became homeless because my domestic partner worked in the same company as i did, but he was violent. i was forced to leave my home to escape his violent behavior in get a better environment for my children and the transition has been difficult. i am going to school let this time. i lost my job because of a domestic issue. i have three daughters, however two are currently not staying with me because of the domestic violence situation. i am currently separated from my two daughters. i am currently staying at the shelter, doing my best to finish my program, battering myself and this -- battering myself." that is one example. one thing, even the founder of capitalism -- adam smith -- touted -- [tone] as the free enterprise man, said "no civilization should allow the poor is to go without the basics of food, -- poorest to go without the basics of food, clothing, and shelter." i am here to do whatever i can to help, along with these people, right now. [applause] >> [speaking foreign langu

or at risk of homelessness. i think those types of support that come from time to time are essential for us to be able to support struggling families and to show the kind of city that we truly are. so we owe a great thanks to the efficacy effort for bringing this july, to the attention of city officials, and also to this family as well for their commitment to the families. i believe we have much more to do. as a city, not looking at -- and no, fixes in the last 18 months, we're looking at long-term, how we can put our services in place and how we can support struggling families. i know we are greatly challenged in doing that with our recession and the number of jobs out there for people, as well as our city revenues and programming, but i think that is the work we can do, working together, community, city, and private foundation folks to be able to come up with solutions that can really work. i am pleased to see the story that came out today. i know we have folks from the mayor's office, as well as hsa and the h

for homeless families, it is exponential. the demographics between -- i have children, so i am used to it -- so, the demographics between homeless adults and families is very different. unfortunately, we are doing is building more work for the future. -- unfortunately, what we are doing is building more work for the future. sorry, i am nervous right now, my brain is not functioning as well as it could. if you were getting hit by a bus coming toward you, your brain would shut off. you would not be able to memorize the gettysburg address or remember what you had for breakfast. the 2000 children facing homelessness, and countless more out there unable to function in schools because of the level of stress for families -- i want to just say that a long-term effects, there are studies about increased chances for heart disease and substance abuse. if you would like that data, i can provide it to you. the other issue is that in san francisco, chronic homeless adults, we have great programming and we are ahead of the nation. we do not

>> help the homeless. >> speak. tell them how you feel. >> sad and homeless. >> what do you want to say to them, in your own words? >> help the homeless. >> how old are you? >> attend. >> thank you. supervisor avalos: thank you very much. [applause] next speaker, please. >> hello, good morning. or good afternoon. i am working for the coalition on homelessness. for many years, it seems i work with the commission and i seen so many mayors talking about the crisis of homelessness in san francisco. it is going up. what is the mayor doing to end homelessness in san francisco? not enough. not enough. of course, there are 2200 homeless shelters in san francisco. when one of the officials last week on the 30th of november, saying that there is not a crisis -- it is a crisis when there are 2000 homeless and other ones that have been homeless for years. we can see that it is more like 4000 in 5000 homeless children in san francisco. -- 4000, 5000 homeless children in san francisco. why we do not resolve to fix this problem? i

homeless.n this i hope we all agree, and today's hearing will examine h.r. 42, the homeless children and youth act of 2011, which will expand the mackenzie definition of homeless persons. so that homeless children and youth and verified as homeless by other federal programs can access hud housing services. we have a unique opportunity to hear from witnesses about the bureaucratic barriers that are preventing homeless children and youth from securing hud homeless assistance. our ultimate goal is to ensure that homeless children and youth are eligible for hud unless housing and support services. secure and more stable housing as well as supportive services will help kids stay in school and avoid becoming tomorrow's homeless adults. these must be a top priority for the federal agencies that have homeless programs. federal programs are not working for the people they are intended to serve, is our job to find the flaws and reform those programs. and during the past decade, to significant reforms to

whether they live there or they are homeless. i really feel like the feces and urine problem could be taken care of with an accessible bathroom which could be accessible to all people 24 hours a day. legislation like this take away the historical sanctuary city that san francisco is known for and the reason why people like me want to live here and be part of this committee. i strongly feel and this is not only insulting to people who live there but to anyone who lives in san francisco. i really wanted to ensure that you know this is not like to be something that helps our community or anyone who is homeless. this is right to further criminalize being poor and also in the end will cost taxpayers more money and not make any proposed solutions to people who are homeless. thank you. >> i work with central city hospitality house and i am against this legislation. i'm here to speak and echo what you have heard from a number of people here already. i and ester of trinity club ration, our urbanization is not in the caster. i do not resid

people are especially common among homeless youth. queerer use makeup among the 40% of the homeless population and many are runaways who are fleeing abusive situations. some are throwaways to have been told because of their sexuality or religious beliefs they are no longer welcome at home. some have age out of the foster care system. when we create legislation that attacks the symptoms of homelessness, we needlessly make criminals out of people on the streets because they are experiencing trauma. we drive them out of sight and further from social services needed to address the problem of homelessness. when we entertain legislation that criticizes the behavior of homeless people, we turn away from real solutions. we'd more affordable housing, we need more safe places for homeless people to rest and connect with services. [tone] supervisor wiener: thank you. mr. wilson. >> thank you. i have sat in the back row for over two hours now, trying to justify not coming up and speaking to you. but scott, i apologize for being personal, but you

not all are homeless. we want to make sure that they are all aware of the homeless system of care. this is absolutely a big problem in the city, the increase in family homelessness. it is ending we have seen nationwide that is happening, largely a result of this economy and of course the affordable housing problem in san francisco. we will have representatives speaking today. carlos garcia is here, superintendent. henry alvarez from the housing authority will be speaking. trent from the human services agency. you talk about foreclosures and other things. teresa and brian are here from the mayor's office of housing and community development. i want to pause there and answer any questions you may have an end to presentations about our response to this problem about supervisor avalos: -- about this problem. supervisor avalos: let's just go right into the response and get this underway. thank you. this hearing was called pretty quickly, mostly because we are going to be in the hour sessions tomorrow -- ending our sessions tomorrow, and want to make sure we have a response and can have

i feel this city needs to step up their efforts in helping the homeless. it is a crisis, and we need to be addressing it in that way. i believe this is so serious and we can do things in a much better way if we just make the effort that needs to be made. i know the work they do, and i know the truth is here -- the true sincerity they have. if it was not for the people of this city, there would not be no city. let's take care of the people. [applause] >> any other members of the public that would like to comment? anyone else who would like to comment, please come forward. >> hi. well, let me start here, i definitely believe that let me give you some of the things i recommend your do. first of all, -- >> could you please identify yourself? >> i am charles. i would recommend you have the team masterly several apartment buildings. the mou process is not currently working. some of the housing have ability programs. the other thing is we need to definitely think about how the stability of these housings. hopefully that is a piece of legislation you will create t

as a result, we typically house a number of homeless families. what we're doing specifically different in this particular case is we are matching the intersection family-for-family between the shelter process that the city is operating in the waiting list that the housing authority operates. what we're discovering is that many of those families, there is an intersection. they're not always number one. they could be 200, 300. our goal is to try to process families in an expeditious way to get to all of those families. with that, i think there will sit and try to get to the question and answers. supervisor avalos: ok. you know, this past year, i have heard that there has been a lot of families with in the housing authority that actually have been evicted, and i am wondering if we're seeing now some of those families that have lost their housing in the house about 40 are now in our shelter system and coming back into the housing authority buildings. what has happened over the past year in terms of families being marginally house, being released from

it increases homelessness and the amount of time a homeless person spends our streets. i am sure nobody here wants that. please, reject this legislation. it will only cause more problems for people that are homeless in san francisco. [applause] supervisor mar: please, we're going to be here all night if people cheer after speakers. restrain yourselves if you can. >> i'm here today to urge you to oppose this legislation. i agree with you the public space should be accessible to everyone. i think the legislation specifically targeted group of people, homeless people, that are already marginalized by sit- lie. they face significant barriers to being able to participate in society. harvey milk fought for a city where we could gather, protest, said together, saying without fear of police harassment. i think if he was here today, he would absolutely oppose any attempts to regulate people using the plaza. i urge you to oppose this legislation, thank you. >> i have been a resident and i alone the castro walking tours. many of us agree that we would like a safe environment, and

we have to remember, who is homeless? disproportionately people of color, people that are disabled , people that are members of the queer community and people subject to all kinds of repression. we can say this is anything but anti-thomas. -- anti-homeless. who else is sleeping in public places? everything is covered by state law, so why have this legislation? if for no other reason than political gang. thank you. -- gain. thank you. [applause] supervisor wiener: let me call additional names. [reading names] next speaker. >> my name is bruce allison, i'm opposed to this measure. i agree with what jenny said. this would -- and $1,000 tax burden would be applied to 100 abandoned the and that's a better $1,000 a month tax for each abandoned units. and the money be put into a housing fund. >> ♪ won't you regulate it right at jane and harvey plaza as this item goes you know it has it won't you give up item fight and say goodnight ♪ ♪ when the item comes to this town it's bye-bye-baby ♪ > supervisor wiener:supervisor , mr. paul

currently homelessness is the number one preference on our waitlist. on the public housing side we have 25,000 families waiting, of which approximately 2500 of them have self-declared their homeless, and that list is ordered in time and date. whoever has been there the longest typically rises to the top of the list, and homeless families rise to the top of that. and on about your side of aisle, we have a bust -- 11,000 families on that list. the housing authorities programs are regulated by the federal government, by the department of urban housing and development. the criteria by which we housed families, they all must come from about waitlist. if they are not on the wait list, we typically cannot house them. the wait list is currently closed. we anticipate opening it by the second quarter of the coming year, and including a discussion about preferences. we're hearing about this more and more every day that we may need to adjust our preference schemes, that families that are homeless with school-aged children may come first. there are other groups tha

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

or homeless prevention rapid that's inside of that and especially for homeless veterans because of the vashti program which is a supportive housing voucher through the v.a. and through s.s. vs grant which is almost prevention raftery housing money we're seeing big cuts in the number of veterans who are homeless so when i hear politicians like ron paul and other libertarians who want to go out there and say that well we can just cut and get rid of hud if you get rid of hud guess how many thousands of veterans are going to end up homeless again because they're really being helped a lot by these programs and while i disagree with the president on some things the fact is is that when it comes to veterans he has been by far better than any administration we've seen in modern history but the thing is so these cuts that are going to be taking place the four hundred fifty billion dollars in cuts that very public can if they're talking about there are going to be cuts to veterans' benefits there is going to be some change to the system there but would you say that that is necessarily the presid