>> help the homeless. >> speak.ell 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 w

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

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

homeless constituents.visor chu: thank you very much. you have a sense of what the value of the sale would be? >> from what we have gathered, it is in the $400,000 range. supervisor chu: ok, thank you. supervisor avalos. supervisor avalos: thank you for your presentation. it is great to have funds like this to support homeless services, and i want to thank the family of leila boroughs in that. to follow our financial policies though, this is one-time monies. so are we waiving our financial policies if we are going to be paying for ongoing -- we have to pay for capital and not for ongoing shelter services? >> no, this is not for shelter services. this is for homeless prevention services, which could be paying back-rent, late on electric bills, telephone bills. it could be moved-in grants. it is one-time, but if we use it for rental subsidy, it does have an end date for the subsidy. supervisor avalos: our subsidies are generally approved in the budget on an annual basis. >> that is correct. supervisor avalos:

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

san franciscans understand a lot about homelessness. my child talks to me a lot about homelessness. i see the art project. they talk about why people cannot have homes and jobs. they talk about the sorts of large you want people to live. the mayor started his administration with the expectation that we can. i have hope in this job. i did not want to come to a job that i saw as maintaining the status quo. incredible things are going on. we have the ability in the 21st century to look at the outcomes for people, not just within homeless services, but for individuals in public housing, families at risk for homelessness, and special populations. transgendered individuals, veterans, and families. we have the ability to look at outcomes and make a difference, to engage our stakeholders such as foundations and other partners such as the san francisco foundation. i was so grateful that dr. hernandez called to welcome into the job and the important work that the san francisco foundation is doing. our city has the value to continue to replace and rebuild public housing and make them communiti

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

according to the national center on family homelessness, the number of homeless children in america increased by more than 448,000 from 2007 to 2010 due to the financial crisis. approximately 1.6 million children, one in 45 children, were homeless in 2010, a 38% increase over the level of childhood homeless innocence 2007. with access to surplus federal property, homeless assistance for our providers can provide housing, support services and employment assistance to help the homeless get back on their feet. we should not make killer altogether rations to the program. i understand the gentlelady from the district of columbia plans to offer an amendment that would require the appliance of section 501 to the extent practicable. if she does i would support that. this is a step in the right direction and i commend her efforts but there should be no limitations on the size and value of the properties that should be subject to review for potential use by homeless assistance groups. for that reason i cannot support this legislation so long as it contains provisions that would be harmful to the homele

people have complained about large homeless populations and they are crossing busy freeways which clearly poses dangers for drivers and people crossing into traffic. resident have seen plenty of homeless people in the area. >> i saw people coming that way and going under the bridge. >> the big thing is people cross the freeway and the road, have you seen them out on the road too? >> i never see them on the freeway but i see them on the road and by the creek. >> and this is the creek. >> reporter: we are hearing reports homeless people in the area have even dammed up part of the creek and used it as a bathing area and clearly there is a lot of concern, again they were out yesterday this process dan and they give theme people 72 who is to vacate and we are hearing that chp usually does along to act as a protection agency. so we will contact both of them to find out what time they will begin proceeding to remove homeless people from the area. for now live in san jose christian captain ktvu channel 2 morning news. >>> a second student has now died after the shooting at an ohio high school, do

homelessness is down as well.oane tells us how one doctor is helping to wipe it out. >> chicken? >> reporter: 51-year-old gordon costa once stood on the other side of this food line for the homeless. >> i come here to sleep better at night. >> reporter: what do you mean by that? >> well, like, i try to give back what was given to me coming in with a hot plate. >> reporter: alcoholism cost him his marriage, job, and kids. he ended up at farther bill's shelter in quincy, massachusetts. >> i took for granted having a wife. i took for granted having two beautiful kids and a nice house. to have it all pulled away was a little tough. how am i going to survive? where am i going to get food from? where-- i'm, unfortunately, a diabetic. where am i going to get my health insurance from? >> reporter: when he was homeless, his diabetes just got worse. no surprise to dr. jesse gaeta. you started working as a doctor with homeless populations. what challenges were you seeing for your patients at the time? >> i think people have

homeless, the only place they know of to keep their possessions are shopping carts. certainly, i have had no issues sitting in a public plaza with someone who has a shopping cart. although i understand where the supervisor is coming from on this, for me at this time the question that i have, i suppose, has to do more with the plight of homeless clear youth -- queer youth. i know that this does not specifically target those individuals, but at some point i would like to look at the realities of setting up a drop in space, of where people can gather, because currently there is no such space for folks in that district. i know that at one time there was an old church on market that people had envisioned as being used as a report -- resource, being part of that conversation. at this time again, there might be other ways of mitigating these issues. some laws of our -- are already in place. as we start to move towards these types of regulations, in areas like parklets and plazas, it needs to be a broader conversation where we might be able to put cyanate and other things th

for a second day, cal-trans crews are targeting homeless encampments like this one, saying the homeless are crossing the freeways, and they present a safety hazard. >> homeless people have to approach it by crossing the ramp, and that poses a danger not just to themselves but to the public traffic also. >> reporter: we spoke to a man this morning who runs a homeless ministry and he says, as long as the homeless aren't hurting anyone, they should be allowed to stay under the underpasses, especially on cold winter nights. >> there's a reason they stay under the bridge. concrete retains heat. when you get up underneath the bridge and it's 50 degrees out, 40 degrees out, that concrete stays 60 degrees. >> reporter: and you can see live one of the tents here that's tucked up under the free way. cal-trans says they will give a 72 hour notice to homeless in the area if they're going to be kicking them out. they told me this morning that they are on standby in case the cal-trans crews need any assistance. live in san jose, ktvu 2 news. >> thank you, christian. >>> the san francisco sheriff ross

then you have another category of homelessness, which is chronic homelessness.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 where we

tell me about an asian person you helped. >> and it wasn't a homeless guy because there are no homeless asians. >> here is the thing about the jeremy lin thing. nothing says the economy is doing so badly than this kid. an asian kid, harvard graduate and an econ major who has to play basketball to pay his rent. >> can i just say, i thought he only got 140 characters on twitter. how many tweets is that? >> that might have been on facebook. >> was it twitter? >> is this some big lie or something? >> i don't know if he is lying. >> are you saying that thing he wrote? >> he really wrote that. >> are you sure? >> yes. >> it is on his i am awesome .org blog. >> how does a homeless guy call him? >> you are supposed to be looking for a job homeless guy, not calling your stupid racist friend. >> that's actually a good point. how did the homeless guy have a cell phone? i don't think homeless people get cell pones. >> how about lifeline? >> was that a lie? >> did we make that up? >> we made that up. >> i can't remember if i dreamt it or i read it. it is weird if it is true. i think you are right, b

the 10-year plan takes care of the chronically homeless, a subsection of the general thomas -- homeless. i want you to know, bevan, you are probably going to be sorry that you ever met me. i will call you to come pick up a person on the corner. it is so great to see the inter- faith council here. [applause] they are the group we go to when we need immediate housing and people. please make sure you remember that inter-faith council is the one to call. we're the best. we're going to stay the best. we have a new director. it is going to be so exciting. we have the general plan and the homeless population plan. it is one we need to continue. we need to see

hospitals are informed not to discharge the homeless even after streament treatment is finished. this unemployed villager tries to keep his home warm with his wood stove. >> it was zero degrees celsius in here and minus 35 outside. >> in this remote area another strategy for surviving the severe cold. he is breaking through the frozen earth to search for spoil from an old coal mine nearby from 20 years ago. >> we get by pretty miserably. a bucket of coal isn't long without this we would either freeze in the house or not eat at all. >> tough winters are tougher than usual here. >> sy bierria keeps getting the blame for all this. i will be joined on set by our weather person. stay with us for that. worldwide malaria deaths may be much higher than priestley estimated crorning to a report published. scientists are saying 1.2 million people died from malaria in 2010. that sfig doubled from the previous figure from the world health organization and 42% are in children over 5 and adults. that's much higher than previously thought. sorry. lost the graphic there for a moment. but clear an

services wasserman says cost the county $60,000 per homeless person every year. the local taxpayer's association has expressed concern about the risk. >> some people say why are you spending taxpayer money giving homeless people shelter? hello, we are spending taxpayer money now providing services to the chronically homeless. >> reporter: if the estimates are on the money, wasserman expects the county will save $3 million in the first year alone. >> expecting me not to spend, to cut, do da da da, i'm fine with spending a dollar to save two. >> reporter: it is a gamble walker who spent years out on the streets is hoping the county will take. >> i do want to get this house, that way i can get re-established. i can get my life back. >> reporter: and supervisors approve the program tomorrow, it could begin as early as april and then supervise letters again review it in a year. live in san jose, i'm stephanie strong, nbc bay area news. >>> still ahead at 6:00, she was unknown to many but a bay area woman who recently passed away left a huge gift to those in need. how

changing the system of care with homelessness. admire and respect and are so excited to have them here. it makes our day when we start the day with them. thank you, mayor lee. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. she wanted to introduce people who are above her. we are never above her, we are with her. [applause] anytime we can have a thousand volunteers and over 300 providers to help us withç helping others who need our help, that is what san francisco is about. yesterday, were you there at city hall? how many people were there at city hall to celebrate 50 years of tony bennett? you saw it on the news. you've heard about him being there. we gave them the proclamation, the key to the city. what i was thinking about all day long was how wonderful our city is. the fact that tony bennett has sung about our city, and i just kept thinking, why do we do this? why did you come out so much? you'll love this city as much as i do. çpeople of all levels, whether you are working for a great institution or you are working with a different c

the program helped reduce homelessness by 63% in quincy and cut medical costs for formerly homeless peoplemore than two-thirds. >> it was astonishing that a year into this project, we saw such a decrease in the medical costs that we could basically afford to pay for the housing. >> how important was this home in pulling yourself away from that place? >> it was important because i felt like life can get better. >> today, costa pays 30% toward the rent. 200 square feet never felt so good. >> got my own keys to my apartment. it's all good. >> seth jones, cbs news, quincy, massachusetts. >>> coming up after your local news on "cbs this morning," a live report from chicago on the winter storm hitting the area. plus, details on a major outbreak of the norovirus hitting schools and cruise ships. and we'll hear from the makers of the new movie, act of valor. >>> that's the "cbs morning news" for this friday. thanks for watching everyone. i'm betty nguyen. thanks for watching everyone. i'm betty nguyen. have a great weekend. -- captions by vitac -- www.vitac.com >>> your realtime captioner is linda

for the purpose of assisting san francisco's homeless and extending appreciation to ms. burros for her gift. supervisor chu: thank you very much. >> good afternoon peter i am the director of the housing and homeless division for the san francisco human services agency, and i am before you today to ask your approval to accept and expend the resolution from the estate of the late leila boroughs. this comes at a wonderful time for the homeless programs in san francisco, and how we plan to utilize the funds if the property is sold in a timely manner is to add on to our current homeless family initiative, which was started back in november of 2011 with the infusion of funds from salesforce.com to help our homeless families. currently, some of the funds that are being used, along with the salesforce funding is what is known as hprp, federal stimulus money. it stands for homeless prevention and rapid rehousing program, which has an ending date of june 30 of this year, 2012. so it will allow us to continue so it will allow us to continue on with providing rental subsidy

that is one cause -- one part of the homeless population, but also, being homeless makes you more susceptible to contract in hiv. so we need to look at the public health system to make sure we can do our work around finding resources to get people to understand how they need to live more healthy. housing is an issue. i like the idea of building more supportive housing that can help people have a room but also these other services i have mentioned, so that they can be stable in their housing. it is probably -- i would like to think that we can get over it, but building the housing stock, having an economy with enough jobs for people where it can be stable, services on the health side is what it will take. homelessness has been an issue that is always a perennial issue that people are using in campaigns, what they are going to do to resolve the homeless issue. sometimes, i see them being scapegoat as the cause of a problem, but we need to think of it in a compassionate way, how we can provide real care that will help people turn their lives around. the success is how we are able to help people

you can see there is a hole and that's one of the complaints, homeless people living in the area have actually dammed up part of the river and are using it is a bathing area. now we are hearing cal trans started telling people living under the freeway passes and interchange that they had to vacate the area giving them 72 hours to leave the area. we are trying to give calls to determine what time they will be out. we are giving out calls to california highway patrol, typically i spoke with a dispatcher telling them when they go to clear out, highway patrol officers a company safety and that's one of the issues we will find out about clearing out homeless camps in the area. we will bring you latest details and christian captain ktvu channel 2 morning news. >>> christian, time now 402, investigation continues into a devastating fire that has left 25 people homeless. paul chambers live outside the dana gardens apartment complex, we will find out why this could have been a lot worse. >> they were dealing with high winds which could have spread the fire throughout. right here is building c

they provide the necessary resources to help homeless people get back on their feet.oday at this shelter in alexandria, major improvements have been made to the facility. >> we've added a lot of storage so we can take in donations in our pantries, store the mats where we do our win at the shelter and have space for office supplies. it's made a huge difference in all the services as well as the environment for our clients. this space was not available. it was not here before the renovation. >> reporter: when homemade northern virginia steps in, some renovations are small. summer major. but they all impact people's lives and aid them in rebuilding their future. >> people say i'm going to a homeless shelter. you already have one idea in your mind but coming in they were very helpful and friendly. the place is clean. surprisingly, you know, they made us feel very comfortable. even though we're in a horrible situation, they don't make us feel like we're in that situation. >> reporter: home aid is a beacon of light for organizations that need help. homeless shelters, transi

homeless that needs the shelter. the person that's been there the longest, maybe 30 days, 60 days or longer, they go to the hotel. on an average nice in massachusetts we were paying for 599 rooms a night. after the policy was put in place, we had no hotel bills, none. and the savings in the tens of millions of dollars, we were able to use to help people get permanent housing, to get housing vouchers to get out of homelessness. business approaches that understand the power of incentives are something that doesn't often exist in government and something you recognize with your marketing programs, everything you do is based on incentives, getting customers to do things that are in your best interest and theirs as well. there are other differences. i was amazed in government at how little understanding there is of business. it shocked me to see how many people in government had never spent any time in business. at the economy business is what drooifgs the revenues of government and the well-being of our citizens and yet

who live here, move out the homeless who live here under i-280 and highway 87. barricade and commuters have complained that homeless people are crossing the freeway which clearly presents a danger to them and other commuters socal transstarted posting orders last week advising homeless in the area to move out. caltrans crews will be here to clean these areas out and the highway patrol told us this morning they will be on standby to acts as security if need be. chp say so far there haven't been any province. one of the problems we have heard about is garbage and debris in the river. there are reports that some of the homeless have damned up parts of the river to make use of a bathing area. coming back to our live shot, just to give you a look at how extensive this problem is, we're at one location there a moment ago. if you look out over here across the road you can see that there that there is another camp over there. people now just waking up. these homeless people just target to go wake up and a very good indication they may very well be leaving in the next 15

many became homeless. the homeless population has grown. ellis act convictions became buyouts. they were displaced. neighborhoods were gentrified. the castro, places for immigrants and queers became unaffordable for the same folks. the city has not met the need for affordable housing for any of these folks. i have to wonder, how are we going to take on a whole new category of people? middle-income folks, when we have yet to meet the needs of the neediest in a san francisco. it strikes me that it is like a swimming pool. we have a swimming pool and we have two people screaming for help. one person is drowning and cannot swim. the other person is sitting in a life raft and is not in danger of drowning but feels like he has been sitting there too long. who are going to rescue? that is the most crucial question facing our city today. thank you. >> next speaker. >> good evening. thank you for this. i am from vernal heights. i have been sitting here grasping everything. why start something new when you have something else that is happening greater and grander? you talk about foreclos

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

do not see these are the voices in here all you got to do is look on many people will be in the homeless all you do is many people being laid out grown the way down and maybe down the drain for good gary bull right lives in los angeles is skid row rather on the streets of skid row he is one of the city's fifty thousand homeless i don't think much of them coming to l.a. or any place else is what they do not what they say. he along with community activists argue the white house hasn't done enough to address our nation's increasing wealth gap main issue of homelessness and poverty in america is obviously not a priority with the obama administration. basically poor people are being kept invisible poverty has risen in california every year since president obama came into office today six million live below the poverty line and one in five californians lack health coverage unfortunately president obama has been a huge disappointment to a lot of as well but right in his neighbor's struggle the obama's have repeatedly tapped their state for donations a glitzy obama fundraiser here in beverly hil

it has been for almost 13 years as a case manager for homeless and seniors and young adults. located in the south of market and that serves a large population of african-american clients. he also court makes the senior area services every year for the past five years and cut- facilitates the group for the homeless. all of their negotiations, that as a lot of work. i also think of what has come most from the community regarding the particular advocacy of the seniors and young adults with disabilities. we also hear about the passion and dedication to educating our most vulnerable rights. they will share stories with anyone that will listen, says that around for that later. he is a strong believer in social justice. i am so honored to recognize james and sandy today. i want to recognize how much our cities and communities depend on individuals like these to make our neighborhoods wonderful places to live. i know how tough and challenging this work is. [applause] >> i would like to thank supervisor kim for that wonderful introduction and also to the board of supervisors for havin

we have a number of wonderful plans in place on how to address the homeless issue. cannot afford to. we continue to cut funding to shelters, public health programs that help our homeless population. if we were able to do what we have in place and fund that, we would be a better position on that issue. >> are there any specific programs with respect to homelessness that you feel are moving us in the right direction? >> the watershed moment was 2002 when gavin newsom passed care not cash. it turned things around and forced the city to think more about housing. that was a key movement in the right direction. >> let's talk about housing needs and what you think the board of supervisors should do. >> i was asked about this but a friend i grew up with who now lives in the peninsula. i was fortunate enough that i grew up in the district was able to afford in the district. the vast majority of the friends i grew up with in the neighborhood cannot stay in san francisco. we are really becoming a city that is either for the very rich or very poor. the middle class is losing ou

all you got to do a little damage people will be a homeless people believe it all but president obama and his republican rivals are looking at the signs of an economy in decline they were interested in dollar signs are specifically the ones dealing with their campaign i will show you the other side of the coin. most us citizens are unaware of the fact that that's how their money's being spent to meddle and influence and interfere in other nations affairs the u.s. is stirring the pot again and cooking up trouble in foreign countries all under the guise of democracy promotion but what they're actually promoting is their own interests abroad. or since i've been traveling the world and teaching people how to get rid of their best cubic feet so you come up with these three easy steps and speaking of too many cooks in the kitchen we've got the recipe to revolution in three simple steps and if you can't take the heat well you know how the saying goes . good evening it's wednesday february first seven pm in washington d.c. i'm christine and you're watching our t.v. . well over the next couple