bayview has as many homeless -- they're real homeless, homeless in the bayview. they sleep in tents, they sleep in campers. of course there is a need for that in bayview. again, like everyone else, whether it's in and out, [speaker not understood] not in my backyard. people in bayview have had the attitude not in my backyard. but mother bound needs help because she's full every night. provident is full, i slept there every night in the cafeteria. most certainly. >> thank you. >> thank you very much. gary lewis, are you here? >>> good afternoon, supervisors. my name is gary lewis and i'm here applying for the vacancy on the homeless planning board. i have been working in and around the tenderloin with low-income individuals and those at risk with homelessness five years now, plus two years a the executive director of the general a assistance [speaker not understood] a daily drop-in service in the tenderloin. we offer a wide range of services, significant focus is on helping people with income issues, particularly around benefits, although we take a very holistic a

we've had a thirty percent reduction in homeless veterans from 17 percent of our veteran homeless population down to 11 percent. the community has embraced this project and we've had a lot of fundraisers they all got together. and in order to be successful we need to engage everyone in our community. we can't lock people up we've pushed people around for two along. a there's definitely some different things and this is number one on my list. we're excited to move forward once we get our approval. thank you >> thank you. >> good afternoon president fong and commissioners and staff. ilene. i can't tell you how honored we are to be involved. this is 24 beds for lgbt homeless difficulties targeted for those who have been under targeted. i want to make sure i recognize mr. sanchez who did a aspire job. mr. sanchez was able to move this to your calendar in 3 months. i want to give a brief overview of the project. we've got 57 business of male adult shelter. we're adding within the same building 24 beds targeted for lgbt folks. the hours are from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. and dole's of the street arth

its back on the homeless. feel their primary goal at this point is more to just get funding for the shelters and whatever programs. with that said, on top of it, they just lost two sunshine ordinance hearings regarding -- really basically regarding treating homeless activists with dignity and respect. so, i mean, the local homeless coordinating board has some major problems. so, part of my thing is i'm looking for someone with enough dream and vision besides getting funding for these programs, you know, something to help homeless spiritually and intellectly and then like the housing. and we have a problem where if you take -- if you look at a person that's in the city for 10 years, they keep siege ~ cycling in and out. that's a problem. we need someone who understands policy and procedure of these bodies. then we have a problem with attendance of the local homeless coordinating board because the attendance of the local homeless coordinating board has been very shaky. i fear some of them are really on the edge

but when i spinster a night in one of the homeless shelters homelessness is not just an economic issue we treat homelessness as a economic issue we talk about job creation and housing and food. what became clear is homeless is a public health issue. that people have homeless not only because of the economic stylists but because of mental health issues and other issues. tom has for decades i want to thank the men and women that work here they are defenders and nurses their dedicated and committed to this population and to our neighborhood this is where they choose to stay you can see the longevity of the service and i know that ms. garcia is the director of our public health she gets the audio issues. so i have the honor and the same folks came in contact my office and to make sure we got the language right so we would appropriately commend and honor the men and women of the staff that we were told but he members here to honor the medical director of the tom o'dell health clinic. i want to bring up greendrosis joseph and recognize him. this come more than from the board of supervisors i

i hope people have willing to try it we will excel as a clinic that provides care for the homeless. that going forward it will give the community a chance to make the clinic the best in the system. and again welcome and thank you for your support (clapping) >> thank you very much marcelina. great and i want to acknowledge supervisor campos who just walked in. there you are thanks for coming. next up is the chief operating office for the tenderloin who is who's wonderful building we're in and we were here for that opposite o opposite and love to have her join us to make some comments liz >> thanks joseph. can people hear me. i'll try to talk loud and into the mike thank you, mayor and supervisor kim and everyone. and thank you for giving me the opportunity to represent t n b c and our director is out of town. we know he would have loved to be here. the clinic is part of a much larger project. who's auditorium we're sitting in the t nc is the owner and operator and in addition to the clinic the residential portion of the building houses 1 hundred and 72 formerly homeless tenants all r

homeless people hang out. the question is when someone makes it, you know, more than just hanging out and it messes it up for everyone else. so, we have to make sure as a city that we deal with those things appropriately, but we also offer alternatives so that we're not just pushing the homeless issue from one place to the next. but we're actually making sure we're taking care of people and offering them alternatives. so, it's going to be a challenging issue and an ongoing issue and one that i'm committed to working with the mayor's office to help address and manage. >> what are your thoughts on the city's economic development? do you think we're on the right track? >> i think we're on the right track, but i think that unfortunately it allows the rich to get richer and it doesn't have a place for the middle class and the poor in our city. and i think that part of what we have to do as a city when people are interested in economic development opportunities in our city, they need to be a part of our city. and it

even though 600,000 americans are homeless, including thousands of veterans.are the cities doing about it? that's the subject of our regular feature, the connection. we came across a story from bogota columbia about that city's ambitious new plan -- not only to feed the homeless -- but to offer them a shower, shave and vaccinations too. >> we do this with the goal of restoring their dignity. >> that same day, we read another story about the homeless in columbia, columbia, south carolina. that city is now offering its homeless a choice -- voluntarily go to a shelter. not downtown or face arrest. local merchants had complained that homeless people near their shops were hurting business. >> we pay taxes, property taxes, business taxes, business license fees and we deserve protection of our city. that city is not alone. a new york community group has sued the bloomberg administration for housing the homeless in their neighborhood. and in indianapolis, police arrested four homeless who refused to leave the camp they had set up under a bridge. you have to wonder if

i would like to get your thoughts on homelessness and what the city is doing about homelessness, what direction you think we should be headed in, a big issue in san francisco. >> homelessness is interesting. when you look at it as a sociological perspective, we have some of the people in the homeless community enjoying being on the street. others want help. i think when we also -- we need to do a better job of taking care of those mentally ill. when you are on the street and you listen to the homeless folks or you watch them interacting, you see they are a little disturbed. i think the city overall has done a good job in terms of housing and taking them off the street, providing services. mayor newsom started a private -- program connecting members of the homeless community to services, dental, vision, therapy, housing, mental health. these are things that you and i probably take for granted. we have access and resources we can leverage. this community doesn't. in the southeast part of the city, we don't have many homeless facilities. there is one that i know of, providence baptist ch

over 1,000 homeless families to move into permanent housing. i dedicated my career to doing everything i can to eradicate san francisco's homeless problem and all of the human suffering it entails. right now it's a crucial time at the homeless coordinating board. the federal funding that comes to san francisco's homeless programs, via that board and [speaker not understood] by the sequester. we recently found out in fact there will not be enough money for all of the renewals next year. so, there will be some type of [speaker not understood] to the made. that's starting this fall for the process for next year. now, i've volunteered on the [speaker not understood] committee last year that reviews applications for federal funding. i've been faithfully attending the homeless board meetings as well as funding meetings where i've been an active participant in determining the rules and procedures for allocating that funding. so, i'm ready to step in and make a contribution, help the board to make some difficult decisions. and then going longer term, i

when i was in the homeless shelter it was difficult i faced many prejudices. even when shelter say they address accident queer or the transgenders i know they don't. i notice a lot of any sisters from the age of 16 to 24 their subject to a lot of abuse and be it physical or verbal they suffer abuse in general. it's hard to exist in a closed-minded society. you're not seen as the person you are but whatever someone else knows you represent. so many of my sisters are forced out into the street to do prostitution or anyway to make a living. i feel as though we're losing some of the brightest minds to the struggles of everyday life. i'm not sure if you've been homeless but sometimes, i have to make the hardest decisions you have nothing to turn to and when you go into a homeless shelter you're at your lowest point you basically fall between the cracks if they can help you. and the only homeless she felt that really is for queer or gender variant people is the larkin and it's full and it can be closed for a year or months. and in those months we're losing people li

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

this is what project homeless is all about and hopefully with that opportunity something might occur where someone says i want to do something for myself and get out of danger and maybe a daily existence of survival and maybe a hopefully life. something i constantly say we have to create hope in this city for those who have a lot to be hopeless about. this is why the services we provided today and the food and everything from dental to open california support associate services and mental consulting and maybe a little bit of mass age can actually open up somebody's heart and mind and want to take care of themselves. this is what happens in our city when you combine the technology companies and you combine them with the hearts that have been there with the associate programs and departments and, yes i'm going to continue to expand those programs. i understand that as we create for shelter it has to have ongoing services and we're concentrating on those services. people have to be able to change their minds about things and they can't do that with too much challenge. and this level of

there have been 23 though volunteers that help the needs of the homeless in this city. 3 thousand. if you do the math that's 1 out of every san franciscan has been involved and have been involved with the homeless in our community. that is something that no other city can boost and that comes from the top down. when we think about what our city has to over one of the you biggest things we have is people who are ill maybe they're on the street from diabetes. last week, i saw a man who said i've worked for 20 years he hurt his back and now he's addicted to his painkillers and living on the street. i said let's work together by we've he got to get you healthy first. and the way we can do that is by using the health department services. what can we do for the most vulnerable person. it's not just the medical it's creating a relationship with the client and with the patient so they know they can trust their doctor and come in and he not be judged and comfortable with their medical director and that's because of the director ms. garcia. and that's the spirit we embody so today thank you

. >> i wanted to know if there is anyone from the local homeless coordinating board here. hi. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i want to be clear i'm not an appointed member of the board, i'm a staff to the board. my name is megan -- >> perfect, megan, you're the person i'm looking for. can you tell me how many people serve on this body? >> nine. >> nine people total. today we have an opportunity to appoint one person to three vacancies? >> there is one currently. >> correct. can you describe to me the current composition of this nine-member body. >> members are appointed three ways. members appointed by the board of supervisors, one vacancy in that group. so, three persona pointed by the board of supervisors. one persona pointed by the mayor and one persona pointed by the city controller. of the three named by the board of supervisors he is kim arm buster. he has a drop-in center at glide foundation. the other persona pointed by the boer -- i'll run through all of their names because i don't know where all folks are appointed. board of supervisors laura guzman. wendy phill

tom railway dell we have 12 clinics throughout though city and this helps homeless but just to have the sensibility and vision and commitment on how to help clients and we need health care reform and this will help house to manager the care of people who have complicated health issues so today is a really, really great day. i thank you for coming here to share with us this great occasion. we look at tom o'dell public health as the great neck best way of providing health care but it will inform us on how to operate on health care reform. okay. again, i really want to welcome you and for those who haven't seen the clinic it's going to be a great clinic. i want to end during the color i actually took mooney was going to walk and someone sitting behind me was actually talking about the clinic and they said they were afraid of going to this nice clinic it's for homeless people so i couldn't help myself and i have to say we think homeless people need good things, too, and you need to be in a place that's not up to insufficient we want to treat you like everyone and it's a clinic that looks go

so good morning and to all of you i'm joseph i'm the director of prime care for homeless services andrban higher or speaks louder you still can't hear me. okay. i've joseph with urban house thank you for coming distinguished gifts and staff and community partners and many, many other wlor here today. i can't believe we're here and it's so great to share this exist day with you and this exciting new chapter in homeless services and a principle care for our most vulnerable co- citizens of san francisco. i'm very happy to have you all here. i'll make a quick program note there is a little reversible in the order just bear with us if it looks like the order is out of order. i wanted to - color to the mike - okay. i want to acknowledge what a shift this is what this day represents for us as a city as a health department and a clinic especially a clinic two clinics that came together to become one. two clinics that were flagship clinics to provide high quality care and advocacy for our vulnerable residents. we've been innovator long before some of you saw early today in pushing the boundari

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

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