able to age with dignity and their communities, and many of the clients in my center serves are on s.s.i., living on $1,000 a month. the market will not provide housing for them. fifty% of a.m.i. or up is not going to meet them where they are at. just last week we had a client come in to is a 77-year-old individual who has been living out of his car for years and been trying to get senior affordable housing, but with no luck. a personal story, i live in the richmond district, and a few years ago, if i could have the viewer, please. a few years ago, i met this woman in the modal on the streets. she was living out of two suitcases, often living on should -- in shelters. she is 80 years old, well educated, lived in pac heights and the richmond district, and luster housing about five years ago and has been chronically homeless since then. it took the efforts of myself and staff at the independent living resource center and a dedicated social worker to help find her housing. she is lucky, so to speak. she was constantly in and out of the hospital, which decreased after she got housing. slippi

that means is today is the first day that people can sign up for cal fresh benefits if they are on s.s.i. the benefits will start june 1 st, but people can start signing up today. this is really, really great because it has been a lot of advocacy over many, many years, and for many of you who have worked in the field of aging or disability services for a long time, this has been a fight that you have been involved in and it is just a great day to see that this will happen. essentially what that means is as most people know, s.s.i. recipients have been precluded from accessing cal fresh benefits because initially it was assumed that the s.s.i. benefits covered groceries, and i think the amount of the time was $10 or something, and the amount never changed, nobody said wait, we need to add anymore because groceries are now costing a lot more, a bag of graft groceries is a lot more. it is a great and exciting thing that california is doing. in san francisco specifically means that we could up to double the 40,000 people currently on the cal fresh role. that is super exciting, and we don't g

or more per year, and while their income is often half of that, if they are only living on social security, s.s.i., or a small pension. and also the stated waitlist can be as much as three to have to five years, and we actually have seniors who come to our office, and they have been on a waitlist for up to ten years. our city's housing programs are turning their backs on people who served and built our safety, and this is unacceptable. this is why we strongly support the senior housing bond working groups three recommendations that you heard previously. this would be to increase the number of senior housing units throughout the city in locations where they are needed for our seniors, and to build more deeply affordable housing for seniors with less than 30% of the a.m.i. we do not need any more homeless seniors are seniors who are forced to leave our city. thank you. >> thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i'm so glad that this hearing is happening. you know, if we build it, they will come, they are waiting and waiting and waiting. one example i have a is of my upstairs neighbor, elaine, u.

things , so there's often challenges of maintaining housing stability you are on a fixed income, when you have social security or s.s.i., the consideration of issues related to accessibility and the need for home modifications, as, you know, a lot of older adults are living with disability, so sometimes they need their houses to be outfitted to really make sure that they can get in and out, have accessibility that they need to, and that they are safe. there's also functional impairment and personal care needs, as you probably know, in-home supportive services is by far the largest program that we run at the department of aging and adult services. we serve about 25,000 people in that program annually, it is just a critical program to help keep people in their homes. people are also at risk of social isolation, and at a higher risk of abuse with self neglect which leads to destabilization of housing. the median income for seniors taste waste on census data, the median income for a single senior household is $21,900, this includes both homeowners and renters. approximately half of senior households in san francisco are r

s.s.i., and low income housing, disregards it as income. some of the examples of current placements in our senior program, community centres, housing sites. we have two at adh c.c, and we have one at a case management program. i think one of the great things about this program is it is really recruiting older adults, and giving them an opportunity to contribute back to the community, and as a result, it is one of these everyone wins, as senior companions really find value and some modest financial compensation in participating, and it expands the capacity of our providers for limited or no cost. that being said, i'm happy to answer any questions the commission might have about this program. >> just a quick question: do you have many people who volunteer for this? do you -- do you need more people? >> we're contracted for 16 people, and we historically have kind of been around that number. there is a little bit of an ebb and flow. i think they're always looking for new recruits, so we can certainly pass along information to the commission, if you would like to share it further out -- >> just in general, that would be helpful to do -- it never hurts to do that for us. but how do

grabbing cigarette butts on the street, he was only in his mid-twenties and he was in his late forties. he had housing. he lived in an s.r.o. he also had money because he, s.s.i. at the time. he had family who loved him, and we had no way to help him. i thought the last time i saw him in that condition was the last time i was going to see him ever because he was quite agitated and a bit violent. was shortly after our last visit , he ended up in the criminal justice system. today, because of that intervention, he was compelled to accept treatment for his substance abuse, but he was also -- he also had access to treatment for his schizophrenia, and it turned out that the treatment was actually up in the vallejo area. i don't know if he was arrested here in san francisco, or he if he was arrested up there, but it was because of that confinement that his life turned completely around. today my brother leads a full, active, and healthy life. he has a stable, long-term relationship, he has a stable job, and has been able to support himself ever since. my brother's recovery was not a miracle, it was accomplished by hard work, his hard work, and hard work of dedicate