he said jobsnow came along and he doubled his staff. he took that risk because he was not going to invest anything. he doubled his revenue. and when the program expired, he kept those people. they are still working. his business is thriving. there are dozens of examples like that there really -- at least in our world where we are so excited about getting 4100 people placed in jobs, we certainly need small businesses to stay in business, and also to grow and flourish. we have an example here. a company called book bog. -- book big. charlotte is here to talk about her experience with jobsnow 1 and 2. i think she brought a couple of folks she hired through the program. >> hello. i am one of the four founders of book big. we are a book rental service. we encourage children to develop a lifelong love of reading. using our company, they can take out books and give them as long as they like and return them when they are done. the truth is that reading is key. the truth is that finding the right books is key to finding a successful reading expe

as the mayor said, we've had tremendous success with jobsnow. we employed over 4100 low- income, unemployed job seekers, as well as folks who were receiving unemployment. this was underwritten by more than $60 million in federal funds. unfortunately, expired september of last year. we revive the program using more than $9 million of state, local, and federal funds to help the same pool of unemployed job seekers. two-thirds of the program has been successful. we've been able to place over 460 people in public sector, subsidized positions, as well as with our nonprofit partners in the city. i think the shortcoming of jobsnow2 was on the private sector side. we initially designed the program to offer private sector, principally small businesses, $2,500 to hire an individual. we had about 70 placements, and with the help of my colleague who is standing behind me and my staff, we doubled the subsidy amount. that is what we are announcing today, that small businesses -- or any business in the private sector in san francisco -- can avail themselves of

contracts and job work and move it more towards what we have found it to be a very successful model, the jobsnow model. the other $1.2 million are nhs funds in the budget. it was something of a priority because it was effective. we were able to move money around to more successful programs. so, we did not seek additional funding for this program. we did in our current budget. >> [unintelligible] there is a group of homes that were picked today, taken over, because there is not enough housing for the homeless. is this an open ended response to that? >> you've been covering the homeless issue, caroline. -- carolyn. would i like their to be housing for everyone in san francisco? of course. we place about 35 homeless people into permanent supportive housing every month. our existing portfolio, we have turnover. the answer to that problem is not taking over someone's house and swapping. the answer is to engage in our programs and get in queue to get a home that will eventually become available. >> thank you. [unintelligible] >> thanks for all of you being here. in january when i was sworn in, there w