Transcripts For SFGTV Our 20240703

Unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramaytush Ohlone, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco peninsula as indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditional is the Ramaytush Ohlone have never ceded lost nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in the traditional territory. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland, and we wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestor elders and relatives of the ramaytush community and by affirming their sovereign rights as first peoples. Thank you. So now i believe we need to move into the vote to excuse current and future absences. Laura, if you have any guidance around this, are we going to use the current ones . So its just if anyone needs to flag a future one. Okay. Is there any future absences that need to be okay . Thank you so much. Okay. All right. So well move to item number two. Item number two, which is Public Comment on any matters within our jurisdiction that are not on the agenda. So ill turn it over to you. Ive members of the public who wish to provide in person Public Comment on this item. Please line up at the podium now. Each person will have two minutes to speak. For the records. There are no inperson Public Comments. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item over the phone should call. 415655500011. Access code. 26642568461. And then pound if you havent already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmute and you may begin your comments. Please note that you will have two minutes as moderator. Do we have any Public Comments on the phone for the records . There are no phone, Public Comments. All right. Thank you so much. So now well move to item three, which is approval of minutes from august 24th, 2023. Is there a motion motion to approve the minutes . So moved by vice chair dantonio . Is there a second . Second. All right. A second, second by member cunningham denning. All right. So well move. Is there any Public Comment for approval of minutes , members of the Public Comment who would wish to provide inperson Public Comment on this item, please line up at the podium now. Each person will have two minutes to speak. For the record, there are no inperson Public Comments. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment on this item over the phone should call. 415 a6550001 access code. 26642340097. Then pound if you havent already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Please note that youll have two minutes to speak. Moderator do we have any Public Comments on the phone. For the records . There are no phone, Public Comments. Thank you so much. So well now take a roll for a vote. Member cunningham denning yes. Vice chair dantonio yes. Member friedenbach yes. Member. Preston yes. Chair williams yes. So the motion passes, so the minutes are approved. Well now move to item number four. Our presentations from local providers serving subpopulations. Were very excited about this item. And thank you, everyone, for joining. We first have a presentation by george axon from third street youth Clinic Center and clinic. Welcome director jackson thank you. Good morning. Good morning. So joy jackson, morgan, representing third Street Youth Center and clinic. This is a proud moment because i get to pass the mic to our Housing Leadership team. So coming to the podium is berna posadas, our director of housing and Adriana Ambriz from our our Program Director at the Navigation Center. So welcome. How do i put the presentation on . If you can open it and then well, uh. Oh, there it goes. All right. Thank you for allowing us to present today. My name is bernard posadas, director of housing for third Street Youth Center in clinic. My name is Adriana Ambriz and im the resident director for the lower polk Navigation Center. All right, so today we wanted just to go over a couple of our programs, but also provide you just some housing data in general with our housing programs that we have. Our median age is about 22 years old that we serve on a daily basis, 58 of our youth identify as black and african american, 76 of the youths state that they use substances as alcohol or drugs. Seven 37. 5 of the youths state that they have Mental Health. Regarding our assessments, we are a youth access point as well. And so 61 of our assessments identify as female, 73 identify as black and african american. With that, we wanted to give a quick overview of who we are, what we do. So our goal, obviously, is to End Youth Homelessness primarily in the bayview. Hunters point neighborhood and the surrounding areas of San Francisco. Since we have multiple locations across San Francisco, the youth that we do serve are around 18 to 27 years old, primarily everywhere, right . We have the lower pole Navigation Center as well in the middle of the tenderloin, lower polk as well. We focus on serving our black youth and also our bipoc community. We serve about 168 clients on a daily with all of our housing programs collectively, we since january first, 2020 through september 27th, which was yesterday, we had served a total of 1613 youth and completed. 868 assessments. This is also because we were open during the pandemic and gave Still Services to the youth that needed them connected them to Housing Resources as well. Our youth Access Points serve serve primarily 18 to 24 year olds. We provide problem solving, housing navigation, rapid rehousing referrals, permanent Supportive Housing referrals, emergency housing voucher referrals and transitional housing referrals as well. We have about five locations where all of our youth Access Points case managers provide services us. So being our main location, which is in bayview, Hunters Point on third street and is our newly opened cove office, feel free to come down, take a look. Were super excited about it. Its considered kind of like a drop in center where we have washer and dryer services, showers. We provide food if they need it immediately, things like that. And also we partner with the sac office. So we have a location there as well. We have our hyde street 700 street, which is the lower polk Navigation Center. And then we also partner with sf state as well. So we try to provide more accessibility in San Francisco, considering the resources that we do have available to the youth. We want to make sure were outreaching as much as possible. Our youth Access Points, data being that we had served 868 youth, 524 identified as female, 323 identified as male, nine identified as transgender, and eight identified as no single gender. 629 identified as black and africanamerican, 376 stated that they had Mental Health. 233 stated that they had alcohol or drug abuse. 296 stated that they had experienced Domestic Violence. Moving forward. We wanted to kind of talk about the programs that we had in connection with our youth Access Points and whats available to our organization to be able to provide matches to the youth that we serve. One of our programs being home point, as we call it, at third street, is a Rapid Rehousing Program that it has an extended period of time allowing the youth to really work on on sustaining their permanent housing, maintaining permanent housing and being able to not return into the homelessness response system. With this program specifically, it was designed with the help of youth. So we had a Youth Focus Group tell us what they wanted, right . Lets hear from you. What do you need . Whats a good amount of time for a rapid rehousing for you to be successful . In our program, alongside with having intensive Case Management, they also get the full year first year subsidized 100, allowing them to really focus on their employment needs, their education goals, build up a savings, working with their case manager and building up a budget. And so that way they can have a savings after the first year is completed. Its truly a Housing First model, which has been set exceptionally successful with the youth that weve had. Its a smaller program, it has eight slots, so its very minimal. We hope to grow this program. With this. We have served 21 youth, 19 identified as black or african american, seven identified as male, 14 identified as female, three identified as being part of the lgbt community, and 90 have successfully completed the program. Whether thats retaining their housing or moving on to a Different Program that was able to also successfully transition their current housing into the new program, such as like some of them also transitioned into permanent Supportive Housing, noticing that they needed more support with their Mental Health and their capability of securing their housing and not returning back to the homelessness response system. Another program that we have is our rising up Rapid Rehousing Program, a lot more familiar in the community, a lot more partners that we collaborate with, such as brilliant corners, larkin street and so forth. The moving costs are provided as well, but its also a tiered subsidy. The best thing about this program, it allows the clients to also cash out and create a savings if theyre doing what they need to do, such as paying their rent three consecutive months or being employed for four months at a time. And holding consistent employment. So we want to reward those things for them. This also has a Case Management with them. They meet with clients on a weekly basis on support with brilliant corners. We support with the housing, navigation and landlord mitigation and advocating for the clients with any issues that arise with their partners. Our rapid rehousing data has served so far. 93 youth collectively 39 identified as female, 49 identified as male to identified as transgender 70 identified as black or african american. 29 stated that they had Mental Health 18 identified as being part of the lgbtq plus community and 24 of our youth identified as former foster youth. Additionally we also had our emergency housing voucher program. I have one slide with all of the data. We provide Case Management up to two years consistently from being unhoused and housed. We provide housing, navigation and landlord mitigation and advocacy. Were available 24 over seven just in case anything arises where they need help in communicating with their landlords of what their needs are for barrier removal, Financial Assistance, such as moving costs, furniture, childcare, transportation, even anything that might be a barrier to them being successful or retaining their housing. Currently at this time there are no more slots available, but we have served 62 youth and matched as well internally with our coordinated entry and 34 so far have been housed. And as of yesterday, five rtus were submitted to the housing authority. So our numbers will increase. We expect them to continue to be housed. Lastly we have our sfsu rapid rehousing. We partner with lyric and the Chancellors Office to be able to provide Housing Resources to the students at San Francisco state. Also connecting them to coordinating entry. Our program consists of Case Management up to 12 months housing location on landlord incentives, barrier removal, Financial Assistance and we provide about 8000 per youth. We are currently working on our data. We are transferring from paper files to digital files. So hopefully next time that were here presenting to you all will have more clear cut data. I will now pass it on to adriana birx. Thank you, berna. So i get the privilege to introduce to you guys today the laura polk Navigation Center, the laura polk Navigation Center is a safe place to youth who are 18 to 27 years old. We do have 75 code coed beds. It is a congregate living environment. The clients do have to be self selfsufficient in order to be there. What we offer, we offer housing. Our youth have a safe and clean place to be comfortable. If they have secure lockers, they have their own personal space. We do welcome their service animals, their companion animals or personal animals that they are welcome to be there with their pets. But we do offer the youth meals. They are offered three meals a day, but for the most we kind of keep our cafeteria open 24 hours. So the youth are able to get snacks , food, whenever they kind of feel that they would like some. We do provide health and wellness services, so we do actually have a therapist on site at all times who are on call as well. So we are blessed to have that. Its relatively new, so we are, you know, very blessed to have that on site with us. Our education. We support the youth to continue their education, their employment. We definitely encourage the youth with their employment. We have services there like ramps, who is there every tuesdays and thursdays to provide services for their employment and our data. So we have served 631 youth. Our average stay is 73 days. The average age of our youth. There is 22 273 identified as black african american, 188 identified as female, 392 identified as males, 24, two identified as transgender. 196 stated they have Mental Health and 156 stated that they have used alcohol or drugs. Thank you. Im back. And so after discussing the programs that we have available to us internally at third street, we also wanted to be able to discuss what we and our clients need. Its the same need for all of us, right . Because we want to be able to support them with the things that they need and be an advocate for them on their behalf. So first things that come to mind, obviously the list could go on, but we wanted to focus on low barrier and flexible spending contracts, increasing of staffing. You saw the programs that we had and we are operating with eight staff and considering our data, i think were doing pretty well. Increase of staff means more outreach, more connections, more collaboration with external partners as additional Navigation Centers as we operate. One, we see the need. Sometimes were completely full and can no longer accept referrals for weeks on an ongoing basis. And so to turn away referrals from other partners, like where are they going to go, what services are they going to have right . More Housing Options for matching as a youth access point, were limited to referring to slots that are allocated to us and the programs that we have internally. Were a smaller upcoming organization and we see the need for this extremely for our youth that come to us. We dont have enough matches to match the number of assessments that come in on a daily basis. So with that, we have a waiting list for clients to be matched. Excuse me , all low barrier applications and access to treatment and Detox Centers more transitional housing, permanent Supportive Housing, housing units. When i say low barrier applications, have you guys seen the applications for psh . Its 30 pages long. Client has already done a lengthy assessment. It has disclosed things about their lives that are triggering right. In order to be matched to get a higher score and then once theyre able to get into a queue, they have to do everything all over again for these applications. Getting and obtaining disability forms right . Some of our youth get discouraged at how long these applications are. Maybe its the literacy, maybe its just the Financial Literacy of the rent, the moving costs and things like this. Another issue that weve seen with our psa is also being unable to double dip with certain programs that we have been in that clients have to provide their move in deposits solely on their own due to contract limits and contractual guidelines, increasing the length of time and Rapid Rehousing Programs. Majority of rapid rehousing across the state are limited to 12 months plus six months or 12 months extension, depending on the county. The state things like that, and city ordinances. 12 months on a steered subsidy with a youth with extreme Mental Health is harder for them to also sustain employment with a time limited program in the back of their mind knowing that they have to make this work because their subsidy will end shortly. Increased limits on Financial Assistance. As i mentioned, some of our programs are limited to 8000 a month. Problem solving is limited to 8000 a month, including furniture assistance, gift cards for groceries, anything like that, including their moving costs altogether. Were in the bay area. Fair market rate is about 2000, 2200 for our maximum. Its for rising up per youth with double security deposits due to bad credit out. Right. Without that Financial Literacy at an early age, its a disservice to them and limiting the Financial Assistance for them to be able to work on other things and be a Housing First model completely in San Francisco. So were asking that these are looked at and also that theyre able to receive the other assistance that are built into these contracts, making it fair and equitable for everyone. Postexit Case Management and follow up surveys system. I think this is something that as a whole we need to work on and really gather data on how many youth are actually returning into the homelessness response, especially with these short term subsidy programs coming back to Access Points and how many assessments they are completing within a couple of years. Right. That data still is somewhere unobtainable. I have worked with the one system in focus to try to see if thats something that were able to retain. Unfortunately, its not. But if we had a system to follow up with these youth at 12 months, 24 months, 36 months and see what has worked, what programs they were in, and gathering that data would be able to measure how we measure success. Thank you for your time. Thank you. Thank you so much for that presentation. All right. So were now going to i believe were going to open it up for Public Comment or not right now. Im sorry. So well go back to the committee actually for discussion on the other two presentations. Oh, okay. Back to back. All right. So we actually have Beverly Upton from the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium. Welcome, beverly. Hi. Good morning. Chair williams im joined today by orchid pusey , whos the executive director of one of our bay brilliant agencies, asian womens shelter. So im so honored to be here today and honored to stand with orchid as always. Okay trying to find our our powerpoints on your computer here. Oh, thank you. Oh, well, thats you. Somebody else is. Sorry. Were working on it. We. We came in and loaded it this morning. Oh, very good. Thank you. Can we ask a question from the last presentation while were doing this . Of course. Sure. Um i guess you want to go for it. Yeah, i just was curious about you mentioned referrals. Im just wondering if you could tell us where a lot of your referrals come from for the lower counties . For both. For everything . No its right here. We loaded it this morning. Our referrals are. Do you want to come up to the mic . And i dont want to take the next peoples time, but you guys are ready. Okay for you can keep working on your. Okay powerpoint. For our referrals for the lower navigation. Its managed by the guest placement. So it comes from all of our community providers. So anybody who does have access point in San Francisco is able to make a referral to us, including more partners like htc, felton institute, things like that, who are not also Access Points. So they also get a chance to refer to us for our youth Access Points. A lot of them are walking in word of mouth. Sometimes we get referrals from other partners that are not a youth access point and asking us to do their assessments and work with them. So we work in silo with them in collaboration for like, you know, in case a client has already built a rapport with a specific agency. But most of our referrals are Community Based organizations. Thank you. If i may ask one more question, i know that you said in your presentation that one of the organizations that you partner with is lyric street or lyric youth street services. Is that correct . Are there any other organized locations that you work with in the bay area or in San Francisco that are youth serving or like transitional age youth serving . We also know lgbtqia serving as well because i did see in your presentation that there are first off, your efforts are amazing. I love your program and it seems like wonderful, but i do see or i did see that there was like a lower amount of participants that identify with the lgbtq community. Do you like, i guess where my question was because i know lyric youth services, thats one of their programs that they do operate. Do they refer individuals over to your agency or or is there like a barrier for in regards to those that particular demographic receiving . Are coming to your your your agency to receive services so for our lower quote navigation, we have seen an increase lately this year with referrals from the lgbtq center. So we do partner with them. We have also asked for additional trainings to help support our staff and supporting clients as well. It is something that we know is coming and is apparent that the services are needed for these young youth that are being more vocal about the support that they need. And so right now our referrals are primarily through them and dementia. Thank you. We are also partnering with dimensions to have on site therapy at our lower octane Navigation Center, specifically for our lgbtq plus community. If i may also, after this meeting, if i could provide my information for the organization that i work for in my day job, the coalition, because these are the theres very similar programing that we offer for that particular demographic of youth. Definitely would love to get more information and maybe collaborate. Yes of course. I would love that. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you so much. All right, beverly. Well, we made a partnership here. How wonderful. Okay, great. We want to thank everybody who helped us get up and ready this morning. And we want to thank again chair williams and all of our commissioners and friends. Thank you so much. Im Beverly Upton. Ive been the executive director of the San Francisco Domestic Violence consortium for i just started my 23rd year today. Thank you. Oh its an honor. Every day, every day. Every day to stand with people like orchid to help survivors, to work on Public Policy and budget systems, change, change and community building. And that could be the lbgt community. It could be the native american community. It could be that black and africanamerican community. So we are honored. Im only one person. I do the best i can. Im so glad to be here. Thank you so much. Good morning. Good great. We represent 17 members, almost all direct Service Providers here in San Francisco doing the bulk of the Domestic Violence work in San Francisco. We are part of right now the gender based violence portfolio through dsw and other agencies and other departments as well. But thats our has been our home for many years. So so we really i really see our agencies, our members in for four distinct areas. Certainly the jewel in the crown is our shelter based programs. But so many people in San Francisco either theres not room for them or theyre trying to navigate staying in their homes, staying safe and receiving services. So most most san franciscans are in non residential programs. Well talk about homeless survivors of Domestic Violence in just a moment. Our agencies i really see as shelter and non residential. Youll see from orchids work today that our shelters are much more than just Domestic Violence shelters. They offer a wide array of services. So San Francisco has a 24 hour Domestic Violence crisis line funded by the city. All the agencies have their own crisis lines during the day and they forward to one centralized location at the end of the day. So we are pretty efficient. Then i think we can look at legal services. So for the Domestic Violence community thats restraining orders, thats child custody, immigration, eviction prevention and those four are really Asian Pacific islander legal outreach. The bar associations justice and diversity center, the cooperative restraining order clinic, which im sure all of us have worked with at one time or another. And bay area legal aid. Bay area legal aid is wonderful because they have an office in almost every bay area county and so we can help folks that like so many of us, are living in other places or have issues that happen in other places and may indeed be going to court here. So its we have a wide array of services. And then i like to talk about the beloved community and that is the coyotes of the world. The lyrics of the world where you might walk by that office a thousand times and not know that Domestic Violence is one of their key components. But the Community Knows because they speak their language, they understand their cultural issues and theyre trusted. Right . So thats of or thats lyric. Thats Cameron House in chinatown. Its so many programs that belong to the Domestic Violence concern. Liam why . Because the Community Trusts them. They are our beloved community. We have 17 members. I didnt mention them all today, but you can youll be able to see who they all are. So the three shelters in San Francisco, asian womens shelter, la casa de las madres, the first shelter on the west coast, and the riley center. And it is under the Saint Vincent de paul umbrella. We also i see the beauty of some of our faith based organizations glide and Cameron House, shalom bayit working to end Domestic Violence in the Jewish Community and a couple of other ones. Were trying to work with the Interfaith Council to make sure that we are speaking from the pulpit in San Francisco, that we are connecting with congregants, that we are also Offering Services where so many people come for their support. So we have that too. Theres a big potential there. We havent lived up to it yet, but we will. So when we look at selfidentified women and homelessness in San Francisco, and i have to say im going to share that i borrowed this from some of our sisters at the womens housing coalition. Were one of the founding supporters, members, and they just presented last night at the commission on the status of women, 38 of San Franciscos unhoused population are selfidentified women. Are we seeing 38 of them on the street . No, were not. Its a hidden epidemic, just like Domestic Violence. So 38 is approximately 3000. And thats a snapshot of any given day. Its not an annual number. So you have people coming in and out of this data all the time. We have more women coming in to homelessness all the time, right . 80 of those 3000 say that they are escaped violence and abuse. So while weve been saying to the city for my 23 years that that Domestic Violence is a leading cause of homelessness for women and children, now we have more and more data from our sisters that are doing this work with homeless women telling us this is absolute the truth. But if you look at 80 say that theyre escaping Domestic Violence or violence and abuse, 38 of San Franciscos unhoused are selfidentified women, 5 of the resources and beds are earmarked for women. So yes, other women are in other congregant shelters and were glad that those resources are there. But when were talking about this sub population, very, very few resources are allocated to them. I will just as an aside, say that San Francisco has 35 programs, is doing Domestic Violence and gender based violence work for 10 million. Thats 24 hours a day. Its 20,000 survivors a year. It is tremendous focus to be doing this kind of work for as long as weve all been doing it on basically a static budget that is threatened every year with also looking for a new home. So we have our challenges. We appreciate your support as we move forward. So ill just touch the aclu. People are always interested in data from national organizations. This is really more narrative. But again, this is really talking from the aclus point of view about womens right and survivor of Domestic Violence is rights that they are victims of eviction. They are they end up homelessness in homelessness much earlier because of the violence and intimidation thats going on and landlords can intimidate. And even though its against the law in San Francisco, weve worked on legislation for a long time. It still happens. We know predatory landlords that want to get survivors of Domestic Violence and their children out of their units. So they can raise the rents. And so they do. We hear about it all the time. So we appreciated the aclu and their their lens on this. So im going to turn it over to orchid in just a minute. But i will say what can be done . Were kind of representing the community today, but what can be done . I would say train, train, train, train. We are not in general as a city. We screening enough to know peoples experience and they may not tell us. So again, thats where people like our friends that are here today that come from these communities that are young, that know the questions to ask. Thats how you find out about peoples real experience, right . So the more community that can be working in these programs, the better off we all are, the better off survivors are. We want to train the city how to screen for Domestic Violence, Sexual Assault and all gender based violence support. The services and the advocates. I dont know about anybody else, but i feel like ive been hanging by a thread for 23 years, so as this moves forward, maybe we can get some help in not hanging by a thread for the next 23 years. Id really appreciate it. Support survivors that are unhoused or its very difficult for people to make good long term choices when they dont know where theyre going to sleep. Tonight where they dont know where their next meal is coming from, where they dont know if their children are going to be safe. So to create that safety for survivors of Domestic Violence helps them make the kind of long term decisions that theyre going to need to make. And so we need to provide that. All of us work 24 hours a day to do it. The city is very interested. I know its a priority, but lets help us do that. Lets us also screen for more homelessness, right . Because not everybody tells everybody everything. Right . In sure. Sufficient housing for nonviolent parents and their children. When we think about that 80 most not all, but most of those women have children with them. Most people who go into shelter have children with them, too. So lets just, you know, lets make ending Domestic Violence a priority. Thats my piece for today. Im going to stand with my colleague orchid and we are going to see some real people talking about real experiences. So thank you so much. Good morning. My name is orchid. Im the executive director of asian womens shelter. We im in my 22nd year. Were just a year apart. So im in my 22nd year at asian womens shelter here. And we thank you. And i. I havent started the dying yet. Im not sure. But this is because of Domestic Violence. The whites, asian women shelter. Were im here just sort of as a case study as an example of a program of the dvc. And we opened in 1988. Weve never been closed for a single minute since 1988. Theres no closing, theres no holidays close for two weeks in december. Give people this time off. That time off. Sorry, staff. Were just open and when people have a crisis, they call because one of us is holding the emergency phone by our ear at 3 00 in the morning. But what im going to do is im going to share a video. Oops, im already sharing. I know. So im going to share a video that gives you some experience, actually, from the voices of survivors who have been in all of our housing programs. But just so that you have a quick sense of it, weve been doing housing is a top priority of every Single Person, every Single Person that were working with. So just about 100 of our clients are either already unhoused or theyre teetering on the edge between the violence of being unhoused and the violence that they and their kids are living with wherever theyre staying. So we have Rapid Rehousing Programs, and i want to share these stories because because its better for you to hear from them than from from me. And because youre going to hear from an arab an afghan survivor who has a baby. Youre going to hear from a vietnamese survivor who has a kid. Youre going to hear from a black woman survivor who has a teenager. And thats the reality. We also of the scan of who our clients are, its everything from newborns. We started working with that afghan family from when that baby was just born. And its youth that we come in contact and work with when theyre 16. And were still working with them when theyre 18, 19, 20, 21, they get to know each other. They help each other get their first job. Its a whole, whole, whole community thats very hidden and it includes specific programing for our arab and muslim communities, especially in the tenderloin, communities that are San Francisco, 44 of San Francisco speaks a language other than english in their daily life. Nothing. Our Service Networks do not look anything like that yet. And so when they know that they actually can show up and someone can actually talk with them, thats when we have our first prayer of knowing whats actually going on, because that barrier is so opaque, you cannot get through it. So arab program, queer program, queer arab program, queer, other immigrant and refugee program, all of these are doing housing in addition to the Emergency Shelter thats doing housing. So here, ill let you hear from them. Thank you. Change places with you because im holding this down. So im hoping. Thing is, the sound good. Lets see. Lets do a test because. The you going. To wait now . No, no time , no, you can turn the volume up. I might be able to. It might also be just linked to the volume on that computer. But lets see. Okay, here we go. Thats going to be better. Okay. Because no, no, no, no, no, no , no. The you going to go . Okay, now. No. Yum. This. Sound may come mta. My husband became, um, a monster. Uh, we were living in a trailer. He tried to burn the trailer down. I had a restraining order against my husband, and he found out where we were. So we had to just grab whatever we could and leave immediately. I was in a Domestic Violence relationship for a year , and there was a lot of challenges, like verbally, emotionally, physically abuse. And i got to a point that i had to leave. Otherwise something terrible would happen to me and my baby. I actually didnt know that im going to be safe or im going to have a place else. I just had to do it. I didnt know if im going to end up in the streets. The survivor who comes to our shelter, they come almost with nothing. Nothing except themselves with their children. I dont have any money, no job, no car, nothing it to hard for me and my daughter to live at that time because we dont have any money. They could go back to the harm doer, which happens to many who couldnt find support. They find themselves out in the street with their kids. They feel that if i have to be patient and just put up with abuse, even on going back, its not healthy for the kids. Its true. They will have a house to sleep in, but is that house really a safe haven for them. Most of our clients have been with the harm doer. They were not on the lease. They have absolutely no record of renting. Asian woman shelters. Transitional housing is to support survivors of Domestic Violence and or human trafficking. So to be able to secure to a housing plan and after the crisis and its a little bit longer term than the Emergency Shelter stay and we support them to find housing and offer rental assistance for the period of time that they are in our program. The rent rental help that was that was pivotal because i, i this was the first time ive actually been on my own. Well, the way its set up, its i like the areas of it. Its not like closed in. Im fond of coffees, different coffees. But one of my favorites, though, is cafe du monde. Its a mixture of chicory, which is a root. This is how i make my coffee. I dont have a coffee maker and i just go slow because thats me. We are operating by a scatter site. Rental assistance model, meaning that we dont have a separate house to really house the survivors for a longer period, one year or two. But instead we help them to kind of develop looking for the private housing for their choices. With the lease being signed by them and their name being on the lease solely, that gives them at least that history, that solid history of a good renter. Uh, this is my book called koran. This is from mariama from that time. Since now im reading from this. Thats my prayer mats. Maria gave me. We recognize that finding a housing and moving move the client out. It wasnt enough. We notice survivors being controlled by their intimate partners. Financial including not allowing them to go out to work. All the money, all the cars, credit card, debit card, everything is his. I cant have bank account. I cant have cash money with me. Nothing Economic Empowerment includes income, career, knowing how to deal with finance, education in providing me classes to teach me Financial Literacy. I requested that i know more about like budgeting, ing, saving credit cards, how . What is credit score . All this was new for me and my with my workshop, my name. I say all this one is not lipstick. This one is the cooling stick. Fire and ice. Yeah. Its down this yesterday. Every monday i stay, i sit here and then set up when i can live stream to sell my skin care Transitional Housing Program is not just finding a place for a client for a couple of years, for one year or two, we want to have a way with them to build the way to stability. My advocates helped me to enroll in ged classes and i did enroll. And actually im almost done with it. Im going to cal state east bay online. Im studying medical billing and coding. This is what i want to do. And now that im in this position in aws has helped me to get to where i could actually study all this Education School college is going to help me to have a decent job and its going to provide for me and my baby. Were not watching the whole thing. Were going to stop it there. But theres so much sweetness and cuteness in the rest of this video showing after years of work with someone, what is really possible and you know, we broke all the rules like 3 to 5 minute video, peoples extension, peoples Attention Spans only go for three minutes. But their story is you cant you cant cover an ounce of the struggle in in three minutes or even in this ten minute video. But i just want to close with the message that a lot of our for example, we have one federal grant that is for transitional housing almost every client we worked with 151 last year needs housing. We can serve. Similar to whats been said already, like six with this grant. You know, seven with this grant. Its just like piecemeal putting it together. Youre not allowed to buy furniture, youre not allowed to buy a lamp. They have no bedding. You get this apartment. Thats right. By bart. Thats right. By the train stuff is ringing peoples options are limited. And we do everything that we can to try to find something that they can actually stick with so those kids dont have to go back into shelter, back into a new apartment, back into living every day with their parent under an incredible degree of stress and overwhelm them. Were doing that with them. And theyre going into this bear apartment in a neighborhood they dont know with nothing. And were not allowed to spend any of our funds on those things that are purely basic, like a freaking bed. And a bed for a little person, a little kid. Our state money that is for housing is 100 vodka. Domestic violence, Housing First, Domestic Violence transition. Housing 100. Vodka facing like 40 cuts next year. Its literally impossible for us to run the program with the federal vodka cuts coming down and then our local money, thank god were part of the continuum of care, where the first Domestic Violence rapid rehousing project in San Franciscos continuum of care and change in accessibility. Its slow. We work really hard together as a team in the city and two of those three clients came in with almost no english. What theyre able to say here was absolutely not in place when we started working with them. Theyre dealing with the rest of life. So the client, like life doesnt stop for being dv and homeless. Everything else happens. People have medical emergencies. Theyre only eligible for emergency medicare. People have have lost their children to gun violence while theyre leaving Domestic Violence and theyre homeless. And the advocates are supporting that entire experience. And then i have to be there being like, nope, you cant buy that. Nope, you cant. Nope we cant do this. No, we cant. Just this series of nos that really breaks our heart. It breaks the advocates heart. It makes my retention of the advocates hard because their heart is being broken, because they cannot get people what they need. So what we need is support to heal all the hearts so that people can enjoy their coffee and help their kid learn how to write in cursive. As if anybody can write in cursive anymore. But he talks about that later in the video, so i had to bring it up. Thank you. Ill jump in to thank orchid. Thank all of you. October is Domestic Violence awareness month. We have a little a draft calendar. New events are coming in every day. But id like to leave this with laura and ivy and thank them for their help. And thank you so much. Thank for the thank you for the work that youre doing. Youre truly saving lives and helping the next generation. So thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Questions well, well actually go through the next presentation and then well come back to the committee questions. And if possible, if i can ask when everythings done today, can you delete the video off of the computer . Thank you. Thank you so much. Wow, that was really powerful. Thank you, both of you. So now well have our presentation by erika kirsch from compass family services. Welcome, erika. Good morning, everyone. Im erika kish. Im the ceo of compass family services. Ive been doing this work at compass for 29 years. Im very old and a few years more than that addressing this issue in this community we hope is going to run slides for me because i have a hard time chewing gum and walking and doing anything else at the same time. So i just want to acknowledge how heavy that last presentation was. And, you know, just think for a second about how important all the work thats being discussed in this room is this morning. So im here to talk to you about homeless family homelessness, unhoused families and the work that were doing at compass. I appreciate the opportunity to shine the spotlight on family homelessness, which, you know, with all the attention to homelessness in San Francisco, you know, is often the less visible population in and im going to start with some demographic information about the families were seeing at compass and the changing trends were witnessing. And then well move on to a review of Compass Program continuum, which ill try to do quickly and then share some thoughts about program gaps and needed system fixes as so okay. So i dont think it will be a surprise to any of us that that were seeing a clear year over year increases in the number of homeless families turned in to the Emergency Response system for help compass serves 7 more family in fy 23 than we did in fy 22. And our number was already way, way up in fy 2122 because that was covid. And, you know, the growth was extraordinarily in families coming to our doors. Its also striking that. 41 of the families is coming to us for services in fy 23 were new to compass. This next slide, please. So that huge increase is reflected here, over 54 increase in families served over the past two and a half years. 54. Its pretty staggering. And some of the increases in who we served had to do with new programing. That compass brought online thanks to prop c funding finally rolling out. But really the impact of prop c funding can be seen more in kind of later part of 2023, just as those programs came online. So the 54 is more just really about the increased need. And so many more families hit hard by covid and still right now struggling to recover. You know, the world thinks of covid as being over, but, you know, our families are still really struggling to recover. So next slide. Okay, so what has remained more consistent across our programs . And is the number of families and the family coordinated entry system is the disproportionate number of families led by household who identify as women. So 89 of the households identify as women led. Next slide. Okay another distressing consistency. The racial disproportionality of families experiencing homelessness as compared to their peers, as we all know, is super stark. And we all know that homelessness remains a Racial Justice issue. So youll see that the largest Racial Ethnic Group of families served at compass are families that identify as hispanic and or latinx thats 36. 5, followed by 32. 4 of families that are black or africanamerican. Okay a final really striking note on trends. We have seen a full 100 increase in families enrolled in Compass Programs who speak spanish as a primary language. So at present, for the safety of our clients, we dont ask about documentation status, and its not accurate or appropriate to conflate spanish as a primary language metrics with a familys documentation status. With that said, we do internal point of time counts at compass, where case managers reflect the number on their caseloads who are not in the position to pursue new legal income. And the number is huge. Huge. So i really, if anything, want to hammer home today that were seeing a Staggering Number of undocumented families turning to the Emergency Response system in absolutely dire circumstances and with really insurmountable barriers to exiting homelessness , this to Meeting Basic Needs and becoming stable next. Okay. So to quickly review the graphic trends, what the things that are kind of staying constant housing, insecurity and family homelessness disproportionately impact bipoc families. A total of 74. 5 of compass families identify as black, indigenous african american, american, indian, asian or hispanic. Latinx with an additional 15 identifying as multiracial and homeless families are by far most often headed by single women. And what is changing quickly is the market increase in the number of families coming into the system who are undocumented have no immigration status pending immigration status or temporary status. Our last internal pick count in 2021 reflected more than one third of the families we are serving, which is a lot the number of families were seeking who are seeking help is steadily increasing in fy 19, only 902, when i say only in context, were verified homeless and fully assessed at Access Points and in fiscal year 23, that number was 1228. So no huge change. And you know, just want to put a note in there that this is families who are making it to the access point and getting assessed not necessarily all the families that have need in the city that kind of are discouraged by or arent going to show up because theyre not eligible for coordinated Entry Services as so. So just a little bit about compass, our focus is are helping families to secure and maintain safe and stable housing, to achieve economic selfsufficiency. We as well as overall wellbeing for the family unit and for each individual family member, were all about helping every family at compass to get a lease and a key and to make and but we also want to make sure that that housing, which is usually hard fought or hard to secure, is lasting and that stability and wellness are also at play. We dont want the children were serving today to be the homeless adults of tomorrow. So this very busy graphic illustrates our continuum of direct service at compass. Weve grown and grown and grown over the years, kind of trying to adjust to the expand ing need just to summarize really quickly our access point, the central city access point right down the block right here in the civic center, sees by far are the bulk of the families entering the system. I think its maybe 70, 80, a little more than 70 of the families coming for services. So we have a shelter, transitional housing and various various pathways for rapid rehousing. We see rent is our eviction prevention program. We offer after care to make sure once families are housed that they stay housed and they keep moving forward. Were one of two Family Resource centers that targets homeless families, specifically the other being ppe. We offer Workforce Services and Early Childhood education for homeless and at risk families, among some other services. We have a very robust but never large enough or robust enough to meet the growing need Behavioral Health Program Available to any family coming through Compass Program. And we also provide those services to families in a number of the other family shelters, Transitional Housing Programs and permanent Supportive Housing programs in the city. And with prop c dollars, weve added permanent Supportive Housing at the margot for 40 families is a Hotel Voucher program for our families unable to access shelter or where families can stay for 14 on up to 28 days and several permanent rental subsidy streams, one of which is flex pool and the other which is how the housing ladders. So i was asked to speak about gaps in the Family Safety net. So midrange subsidies meaning not permanent, but longer than traditional 18 to 24 month rapid rehousing is needed is crucial. And theres not enough of that. The families weve seen in the last couple of years have competing acute needs that cant be remedied in such a short period and rapid rehousing doesnt work well for single moms. Take caregivers and given the more, more extreme disparities in wealth, the cost of housing, the cost of living in the bay area, more subsidies, longer subsidies are needed. We hate to see families, you know, wind up at the end of their subsidy and then have to come back to the shelter system. Thats absolutely not what any of us want. Behavioral health again, in this is really something thats important to us. Part of our model. We want to make sure that were helping families to address trauma and are our model at compass has always been therapy on demand. So when a family is in crisis, we want to be able to say, yes, we can serve you right now, not, you know, well put you on a waiting list for six months and give us a call and well see if we can help you with something, because theres not all that much else available for families beyond what were providing. And we do really kind of specialize in serving families with these particular issues. But its an ongoing challenge to meet the demand. And even when were leveraging, which we have been over the past bunch of years, millions of private dollars, we would be glad to do more and we could do more with more funding. And weve got right now, you know, close to 20 therapists and clinical interns. So we have a robust program. But the need is greater than that. And we also really hope that dhhs and sfd can come together to offer robust Technical Assistance to family providers so we can maximize the opportunities offered under cal aim. Again, we want to prevent todays Homeless Children from being tomorrows homeless adults. Permanent Supportive Housing. The need is huge, but it seems like the only project in the pipeline is hps project, and thats a number of years down the road. And, you know, city gardens and the margo are great additions to the system, but much more is needed. I think we all know that. And then transitional housing, its been years since i have felt like i could even utter these words without feeling like im going to get like pelted with rotten fruit. But i do believe in transitional housing. You know, when rapid rehousing became the thing, transitional housing became kind of the bad guy. Weve held on to our program. But it really has been diluted in terms of the effectiveness by the tenants of coordinated entry. And thats really been a shame. You know, our experience is that there is a place for coordinated entry in the system. There are sub subpopulations that really benefit from it and coordinated entry is supposed to provide solution ins and exits that meet the needs of families, not just one solution that every family has to fit into. So it would be great to be able to re explore this model without that stigma and rotten fruit prevent ation. So upstream interventions cost pennies to the dollar. As we all know, and we want to disrupt new entries into the homeless family system, keeping a family in their unit is much, much more affordable than families becoming homeless. Its less disruptive for the children. We all know about the effects of homelessness and the trauma on all members of the family, children in particular. Our and now. Now, lets see. So since system fixes just a few things real quick, so transitional age youth. So we all know that headed households have unique needs and challenges and were really excited. Compass just received some funding that we applied for to try to more specifically address these unique needs. Weve always served families that are headed by parents and weve always known and tried to address those particular needs with, you know, just individualized services, but trying to create something a little more systemic, more coordination between the system and the family system so that those families who are incredibly vulnerable, vulnerable and also just at a point where theres Incredible Opportunity to help them, you know, theyre not falling through the cracks. We need support in cross walking. The youth and family coordinated entry system so that these families get the services and the help they need. Ill mention again undocumented families, families that dont have clear pathways to income generation to access to legal support, being a huge barrier. We actually have a funded compass where were able to, thanks to a very generous private donor, to support some of the families we serve with these costs. But the costs are tremendous. Theyre huge and, you know, families cannot support, you know, in the best of cases, you know, afford these services themselves. And these can be just completely life changing. So given the significant size of the sub population, we need family system wide Technical Assistance and coordination to meet legal barriers to economic stability, stronger partnerships and referral pathways between hsa, hsa and the office of Civic Engagement and immigrant affairs. And sort of what orchid was saying earlier. Its also just for the staff that work with these families, you know, where she was talking about being demoralized by kind of feeling powerless. I definitely see that in the staff that at compass where its just what can you do . Families are desperate. You want to help them and your hands are almost tied. And its you know, it doesnt make for great morale. For family coordinated entry. So lots of fixes are needed. I cant say im a huge fan. The system slows down referrals and placements into shelter and housing, defining the size of the population as well. What am i trying to say . I do this and this. So coordinated entry has made it so that what were saying the need is determined by the resource that we have. So if we have this many resources, we have to redefine the population so that theres this much need when theres really this much need. And thats just been, you know, as someone whos worked in the system before coordinated entry, which, you know, we certainly had a lot of issues then, its so frustrating every day to see that like, this is how you know what the driver is. And its just i think i think we probably all think ethically wrong. Um, lets see, finally. Sorry hshs home by the bay Strategic Plan failed to define metrics of success for addressing family homelessness. Our system hasnt historically invested in family Homelessness Services commensurate with the size of the population, and theres always some drive toward mass undercounting, massive undercounting. There arent 209 homeless families in San Francisco. Compass serves 7000 something, you know, parents and children in fy 23. The numbers dont add up. We need to be real with the numbers, and we need clear measures of success so that family programs or resourced at the levels needed to meet the growing need. And thats what i got all right. Thank you so much. Thanks, everyone. Thank you. Wow i just want to thank all of our providers that have presented here today. So were now going to go to our committee, i believe. Vice chair dantonio, you wanted to kick us off. Whats your question . Thank you. Thank you so much for the presentations, everyone. Great job. And yeah, a lot of great data. Just heartbreaking thing. My first questions were for beverly and orchid. I was just wondering if you all know how many people are turned away from shelter out of the system either annually or monthly. So there have been studies in San Francisco going back many years that say sometimes 75 of people that are trying to get into shelter in San Francisco, Domestic Violence, shelter, are are not able to access shelter the day they call. So there is a lot of extenuating circumstances for that. But i also think we should keep in mind that that we have roughly 77 beds. Of course, it can grow a little bit. Somebody can put a cot out, but in general, between those three, be safe Domestic Violence shelters that we have, we have about 77 beds. And so most people go in to shelter with children, not all, but a lot. And so were really only looking at 25 to 35 families at any given time in shelter in San Francisco. So i think youre on point asking this. There are certainly needs that are going unmet. Ill turn this over to orchid as well. Thank you. Yeah, ill just add that our crisis line turn away rate doesnt ever have a day of non activity. We just say that. Thank you. Actually, i do have one more question for you all. Sure what are the most successful, uh, housing exits, types of housing and if theres not. If theres no. I know theres not necessarily one size fits all, but on average, the most like, like an example of a successful like an, like what types of exits like what types of housing. Yeah. Like rapid rehousing ing, permanent Supportive Housing. Like, do people need, like, how Many Services is. Yeah subsidies. So as has been said before, most of our our clients cant get into permanent Supportive Housing. Some of them do need it but cant get into that more. Most of our successful situations are through rapid rehousing that that rapid rehousing though i have to say, is the success that im seeing isnt just that day when they actually sign their own lease for the first time, but its that after a year or we try every possible way to get extensions to get it to be two years, that theyve actually been able to go through an education program, job training, esl, all of the workshops. Like without those things it would be impossible, literally completely impossible. But they go through all of that and theyre actually able to keep that apartment, keep that apartment. For most of our clients that are, you know, no Credit History or its been sabotaged and ruined, no rental history. Um you know, First Bank Account ever just, just really starting as someone whos not going to be rented to if they can, when they can keep that apartment after two years and those kids can stay in that apartment and they have a source of income so that next time they actually could show the stubs. Right. They have no stubs. They have nothing so that they could actually get their next apartment without a full time advocate. Thats the success. Okay thank you. Thank you so much, member cunningham dinning. I have a question for dvc as well as compass and it is in relation to the upswell of individuals coming to california seeking asylum as a as someone who works daily in providing direct services is i can definitely attest to how those particular situations do exhaust out our budget and our at our agency. What is that something that your agency are also seeing in regards to serving that particular population . So sorry. Yeah, we definitely serve people seeking seeking asylum and covid only made it worse in terms of the delays on peoples hearings. It was unspeakable and clearly, as you know, theyre ineligible for everything, for everything. Everything during this time as theyre getting cancer, as theyre going through life, like i was saying before. So we i feel like, you just sort of named an area of people who are unhoused, who theyre not responding to the surveys. They dont show up in the data, but theyre here. They live here. Theyre trying to survive here, but theyre not counted. And theyre terrified because when that hearing anyway, we know so , so thats why one of the things that were looking at is trying to build more support for people to be able to do their own social enterprise, to be able to have income safely. Theyre terrified about that safely part. Yeah and a lot of our other clients, like they just dont get hired. Theyre not going to get hired. We try and try and try and our advocates are just talking to me about this yesterday like orchid. Its hopeless. Nobody will hire her if shes in like shes like, covered head to toe , you know, nobody will hire her. It doesnt. Its like the 70s in central pennsylvania for my mom. Nobody will hire you. So so basically, thats why we need diverse resources, because theyre ineligible for everything. And thats why we need Community Integration so that other community can step in and help because its completely impossible. Well, so im also curious about this because this is something ive been looking into to on behalf of my own agency, like figuring out a way to possibly be one of the reasons why this issue is becoming exacerbated is because people are not receiving their aside alum or its taking years , years, years to get their to have these asylum hearings and during this time, theyre relying on social services that they are, you know, the city of San Francisco is a sanctuary city. So of course, it is going to be a beacon for those particular types of situations. Because of that. It also creates , you know, this situation that were all experiencing currently, especially around our budgets. So is there is there like a plan or maybe a thought process in place in regards to possibly, i dont know, meeting with ins or some someone in immigration that can help with this particular situation, like get this process kind of sped up . I know its probably impossible, but its i know that one of the reasons why the situation is becoming as it is, is because we have a Large Population of people that is only growing, that are in need of these social services that we because were human beings, are going to provide to them. But it were only giving you know, im saying early this much money. They have to do this many things. Yeah. For that amount of money. I just wanted to know what your idea was around that. Honestly, we have a support group for asylees who are getting asylum for their queer identity here in the us and they get resettled here to San Francisco because San Francisco is so many things, to so many people and represents hope in a lot of ways for people seeking asylum, for, you know, so like that doesnt pay rent but theres so little anything for them that honestly, just having a support group and people can talk about the Domestic Violence going on, that affects their asylum application and theyre staying because of the asylum application and la la la from yeah, yeah. No, thank you so much for that response. So no, theres no financial plan. Yeah. Thank you. Thank you. Member cunningham, any other questions from committee before we go to Public Comment . I do have a question for the family providers for erica. Yeah. Or hope either one. No, my question was around transitional housing and coordinated entry. Different. And i guess it kind of has to do with everybody because its not like theres only transitional housing for families. I know for youth as well. But yeah, i guess, i guess kind of what im thinking about and i havent fully thought this through, but you were saying how, you know, coordinate entry before transitional housing, before coordinated entry, the exits out of transitional housing were very different right now than they are with coordinated entry because basically you wouldnt be counted as unsheltered anymore. You wouldnt get a priority to exit out of transitional housing. Is that correct or no . Its more specific to our program, which we opened in 1995, and it was focused on workforce source. So the idea was that families could go to school or do a training program. This clara house or yeah, rent free or, you know, paying 30 of their income. And with on site intensive on site services, including all day childcare care after school and then move into a living wage career or be on the path for that and then coordinated entry has never recognized or maybe understood or isnt interested in the difference between shelter and transitional housing. So basically theyre kind of the same thing, only, you know, sort of longer stays, although the stays are kind of undefined, you know, since covid in shelters. So its were doing the best we can to kind of preserve the positive of things that our model provided. But its really tricky because theres no recognition of a difference between transitional, transitional housing and shelter. But we really found that, you know, for our families that were reunify trying with their children, for families that were recovering from violence, for families that were recovering from addiction, it really was a great way to just kind of decompress, to have intensive support on site for a period of time while working toward a living wage, career. So would you like to see more transitional housing for families like as is the system that exists, or only only if there was to be a sort of a change of really distinguishing transitional housing from shelter within coordinated entry , i think theres a place for more transitional housing. There was more. And then when coordinated entry came along, you know, ours became an endangered species. I know hamilton still has a program, but its different than ours. And so i think there is a place for more. And i just think the system doesnt have enough varied options for different family needs. You know, not everybody should just shoot into rapid rehousing. It doesnt work for every family. Okay. Thank you so much. Thanks, julia. Yes, of course. Yeah please. Yeah. Also, you system. If you guys have any thoughts on transitional housing, feel free to step up just to support that. That even though i talked a lot about rapid rehousing because weve got that set up, i think that we used to use transitional housing a lot. We needed transitional housing. And i think that i think that the more youre around and the more you work with different types of families, the more you realize how many systems you need. There will never be one system. That is for everybody, ever. And there have to be different, different places where people do see that one spark of safety that theyll go to when they would never go to any of the others. And having transitional housing within coordinated entry, having transitional housing outside of coordinated entry, having rapid rehousing within, having rapid rehousing outside, that is more ready for real people and the incredible diversity of the situations that theyre living in every day and where they will go and where they wont go for help. Thank you so much, orchid. Thank you so much. Hi id like to add to that for transitional housing as being a youth access point, coordinated entry for us, as i touched on, were not able to make that many referrals to transitional housing to be honest. We get about 2 to 4 a year out of the number of assessments that we get because because the way that coordinated entry work is that the slots are divvied to larger organizations and the smaller organized ones that have coordinated entry are given two slots here and there, two slots here and there. And so it forces organizations such as mine to start thinking how do we get these transitional Housing Options available . Do we start thinking of having our own inside our organization . Because for us with coordinated entry, youre only really matching to the to the programs that you have available. Right . And so there is a need for transitional housing. There is a need for more increased days of rapid rehousing or permanent Supportive Housing. We get about eight slots every couple of months, like maybe two at a time. And so out of the two of a waitlist that you have of 868 assessments, who do you prioritize . Do you prioritize the one that had the assessment last year and you been waiting for a psa slot or the one that has an immediate need with more episodes now of Mental Health or Substance Abuse . Thats like, where do i put them . Shelters not a good fit. Transitional housing may be a good fit, but we dont have those available. Theyre very minimal and very scarce for our residents and our clients at like the lower Navigation Center, we have clients that should probably not even be there, and it forces us to bring more resources in. Right. And so by having more resources in Navigation Centers end up looking like transitional housing, we dont have a length of time to stay. Theres no expiration. Theres no time where its like, okay, you have to leave, right . And because of that, it starts looking like transitional. But how are we really focusing on their needs knowing that were temporary and not really focusing on those transitional needs to be able to go and transition into permanent Supportive Housing or or rapid rehousing and emergency housing vouchers. So for us, the need for transitional is high. Please do something about it. We appreciate it. Thank you. Thank you so much. This has been an amazing, amazing presentation. Thank you so much to all of our providers for all the work that you do. This is really, really helpful for our work. Were now going to take Public Comment and then we need to move to our next item. So again, thank you for joining. So if you would, members of the public who wish to provide inperson comment on this item, please line up at the podium now. Each person will have two minutes to speak. For the records. There are no inperson Public Comments. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment over the phone on this item should. Call 415 a6550001 access code. 26642340097. And then pound if you havent already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate that you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Please note that you will have two minutes. Moderator do we have any Public Comments on the phone for the record, there are no phone, Public Comments. Thank you so much, evie. All right. So now we have a an overview and discussion of options for unprogramed funds in the youth housing and Family Housing categories. We have director whitley with us and i believe also director nagendra is here as well. So ill turn it over to you. Director whitley. And good morning. Good morning. Gigi whitley, chief of administration and finance for the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing and im joined by our Deputy Director for planning, cynthia nagendra. Im going to make my comments brief, but mostly share an update of where the under 30 housing and Family Housing fund balance is landed so that you can have that as part of your discussion. Next slide, slide. Get the slides going. Work my slide. Okay okay. So the table you see before you provides a summary of the adopted budget and of particular note the adopted budget last year for housing was almost. 31 million at the end of the fiscal year. There was an additional revenue reduction that the Controllers Office reform informed us about in mid to late august and so what weve done in this slide is adjusted for that revenue decline and given you a view of what would happen if those revenue trends were going to continue over this budget cycle in fiscal year 23, 24, as well as next budget cycle. So youre planning with full information . My understanding from the controllers staff is that their office will be back before you sometime in november to present the updated current year numbers. So these are still for planning purposes year, but the fiscal year 2223 numbers are final actuals at the end of the year. Then we ended with a 6. 3 million shortfall that we needed to solve and that really ate into some of the one time fund balance that we had set aside for future allocations of the housing funds. Theres still an 83 million acquisition budget balance, as well as an 8. 1 expense pitcher reserve. And so that ended the year with about 11. 4 million in fund balance, 2 million of that 2. 49 million of that was carried forward to support this years plan. I will say we have a number of we have two homekey applications in for acquisitions of new sites where weve also applied for operating dollars. So were were hopeful those decisions and awards havent been made yet. But we may be able to free up some of that 2. 49 million in operating funds if we were to get a home key award so that you know, taking that deficit forward really has eaten into us some of the unallocated funds you see here. So were projecting acting as of now with these preliminary numbers that we would have at least 8. 9 million in 1 time savings as an another 7. 4 million this year to allocate approximately 16 million. And then you can see theres some money continuing to allocate should these revenue numbers stay constant. Next year. Next slide. And im not going to go over this slide because its on our website and you seen it before. But just a reminder what the adopted expenditure plan was. Next slide and im going to shift briefly to talk about the family fund balance. The same trends we budgeted 38. 8 million last year and ended the year with unexpected bad news of 7. 9 million reduction that has eaten into our one time fund balance. We still have a 7. 9 million expenditure reserve that allowed us to end the year with about 19. 2 million in one time fund balance. And in order to balance this years budget, should these revenue trends continue, its eating into that fund balance. We still have a significant amount of one time money, more than 20 million projected, and then some additional one time savings next year. But you can see the trend in the family fund is actually worse than what we see in the tay fund because were were losing room ongoing. Should these revenue trend continue to trend downward . Next slide. Again, for your information, its just a reminder of the final family adopted expenditure plan. I wont walk you through that. But just as a reminder, there, and then the last two slides, just wanted to talk a little bit about our Acquisition Fund balance because it is significant that at year end we ended with 83 million that grew since, i believe the last time i presented this to you because we did get a significant amount of funding from the state through homekey. So i think our last estimate was around 67 million. We were able to accrue funds back. We have already spent 2. 7 million this year to put a deposit in for one of the new sites. Those purchases are working their way through the board of supervisors process so that will be able to purchase two new sites. We are waiting for those homekey awards that leaves us with 80 million in Acquisition Funds remaining about 72 million of that is allocated to projects. However, again, if we get those homekey awards, that will free up savings in that 72 million. But we have enough set aside so that if we arent able if we arent successful in getting those homekey funds, well still be able to purchase those two buildings as as well as the new bridge site and complete the rehab work at the eula and mission inn, which we acquired previously. That still leaves an unallocated acquisition budget for the committees discussion of almost 8. 5 million. And then final slide, just wanted to show you a little bit of an illustration of what weve been dealing with on the fiscal side and in in fiscal year 21, 22, the revenues came in 57 million lower than what was budgeted last fiscal year. Like i said, at year end, you know, in our march projects, when we were balancing around 310 million revenue came in 65 million lower than budget. And so youll see the breakout at the bottom. But for our department specifically, that means 50 million in balancing really after the budget process. And so, you know, as weve talked with our liaisons, you know, really wanting you to have that context as youre allocating funds to new programs. So were able to continue to support the expenditures already adopted and recommended by the committee. Thank you for your time. Happy to answer any questions. Cynthia is here as well to answer any questions you may have on our Strategic Planning work as it relates to the and family interventions. Thank you so much, director whitley. Im actually going to turn it now to member friedenbach to discuss some of our work on looking at the budget. Um yes, please. Yeah um, thank you so much. So weve been on kind of well, a number of things have happened since the last meeting, and knowing that theres additional funds and so through the homeless emergency Service Providers association and specifically the Youth Committee and the family committee, weve been working around trying to come up with some recommendations around one time funds and then had the housing liaison meeting in addition to that at coalition on homelessness, where i work, weve been we have a housing justice workgroup that has about 120 members, about eight regular attendees, about 40 to 50 parents, mostly africanamerican and latino, with some Service Providers who also attend. Most of them also have lived experience. And so weve been trying to figure out some different proposals us and one of the things that that we presented at the housing liaison meeting or i presented at the housing liaison meeting is recommendations around how to use the funding at the top of this graph. You can you can see the numbers we were given last week. The family numbers are the same, but i believe the youth numbers changed a little. Um 8. 50 no, they havent changed. Okay. Um the one time. 10. 70. Okay. Yeah theyre the same. Never mind. So so we basically had, um, so ill talk a little bit about the so the one time funds just for members of the public, like it has to be something that can only be spent that you know, basically one time like it sounds and so it cant be used for something that is in need of ongoing operating. And so the kind of examples that you use one time funds for are like acquiring a building, although thats kind of hard if you dont have operating costs. But if you find operating costs or another thing you can do with those funds are things like short term rental subsidies. And so theres not like a huge number of options, but it is funding that we can use. So i think folks and a lot of the feedback we got from from homeless families, we also have been doing outreach in shelters as Coalition Staff going out families with lived experience, talking to other families in the shelters and getting input. And one of the input that weve been getting just across the board is that the short term subsidies just are not working for folks and that theyd really like to see a longer subsidy. And this is also reflected in the National Conversations and also reflected in the presentations that weve seen earlier. And i think its really much more, much more of a huge deal here in San Francisco with our high rents, our making up that income and taking over the rent is just so much more of a struggle in a short period of time for a lot of parents who are coming from nothing to trying to build. And again, its a lot of single parents, as was mentioned. And so that also, you know, youre supporting a whole household. You need a larger apartment. You know, all of this basically makes it really tough to be able to increase your income unless you get some kind of educational access, is able to Access College or other some kind of other certification program. Its very, very difficult to be able to take over the rent on just a run of the mill Service Sector job. So that that feedback basically led to and im focusing on the family stuff. We have a family acquisition money in here for 1 million. Weve heard feedback from at least one provider that that would help with the new building. And there may be other stuff and then we came up with this idea of a five year subsidy , and were budgeting at about 40,000 per household per year for five years. And that would include support services and rental assistance. So the operating costs, the real estate, like having the staffing to help locate people with the housing and the housing navigation, the ongoing Case Management, working with families to be able to access those Educational Programs to bring up their income. And so it would be over a five year period with 25 million, wed be able to serve about 125 families. And so thats the proposal that we have on the table for families. And then if we could scroll down a little bit for youth, theres a number of ideas there too. They have a little bit more flexibility, so to speak, because theres some money for ongoing. And so theres an idea that one of the providers has an idea for a meeting, a building that they could acquire to have that for youth. That was 33 units. And then have the operating costs there, which are which are in here. And then if you scroll down a little further and of course they would serve more people if they allowed couples, you know, theres, you know, and then rapid rehousing. For as you heard from the providers is really looking at not not as much of a short term subsidy but a one year subsidy. But really talking about that more of a three year subsidy. One of them is a general subsidy for about 60 youth. And then the other ones specifically for youth who are experiencing interpersonal violence. And were using that term interpersonal violence because of peoples street situations and having a little bit more of a you know, a broader thinking about domestic and how that goes. But its basically the same idea. And so that that is for 15, 15 subsidies there. And then having some ongoing additional flexible subsidies, about 50 subsidies there. So these are all. Mostly priced at what were looking at at the existing kind of models in terms of how were how were funding things currently, we there is kind of a mix between, you know, we sort of landed in the middle on the pricing and of course we could have more. And then more per household and then you serve less people or cheaper and you serve more and we kind of tried to be in the middle ish in the estimation of the pricing. And so those those were the two proposal goals. And i just want to note that at our liaison meeting, um, we had conversation about who is pulling together a , a new leadership for youth group inside. And so there was some thought about bringing the proposal to that group. And then kind of having some additional input to make sure that Due Diligence, Due Diligence is done. I know for at least speaking for myself, i feel like on the family side, we since we got so much input from homeless families, im feeling really, really positive about that. But that was something that director whitley brought to the meeting. And so yeah, i could open up for conversation. I think from my perspective, i would love to be able to make a motion on the family recommendation just to try to get it going. And this is also all in the context i didnt really start off with the context. I mentioned that at the last time. But, you know, we had this whole issue around in the budget process with money being taken away from housing for families and youth to be moving over to single adults and then we did all this work to try to find funding for the single adults. And the families. But we really want to we have we also have, you know, 120 households in rvs right now that are going to get evicted from the spot that theyre at. We have all this overwhelming need, as you could see from the compass data. So theres an urgency to the situation. And so we really want to want to get it moving and not and not have the money sitting there or putting it at some kind of risk. You know, frankly, because of the broader political environment is not as friendly towards families and youth. And so that thats kind of kind of the context there. So ill stop there. Thank you so much, member friedenbach and just thank you so much as our shelter liaison also serving in our housing liaison role and doubling up. I know we have numerous providers here, so i actually want to open it up for Public Comment or if any of our providers want to come up and speak to the proposals that member friedenbach has laid out. And then well come back to Committee Discussion on. Oh, and just one thing is we did not request translation, but we do have some spanish speakers and we do have someone in the audience that can translate. So i just wanted to note that for thank you so much. Thank you. So if theres any Public Comment, well take that at this time. I think we have in person Public Comment. Im seeing a number of folks getting up. So well take the inperson Public Comment first. Members of the public who wish to provide input in Public Comment on this item. Please line up at the podium now. Each person will have two minutes to speak. Hi all. Good morning. Hope kaymer. Im the director of policy at compass family services. I just want to affirm that compass has been in conversation with the co with other leaders and we really do think that this invest ment and sort of protective shell around Family Investments for mid range subsidies would really meet a big unmet need that were facing. We do just want to caveat that without funding from somewhere else for commensurate staffing support, we cant take on 50 more subsidies without money for staffing and physical space. And that is just something that i think were all tracking, but we really appreciate the leadership of you all and endorse this plan. Thanks. Hola, mi mi nombre es ondina hernandez, soy de honduras. Okay. Hello so my name is juana ramos, and i will be translating for her today. And so im dan hernandez. Hi. My name is odena hernandez. Im from honduras. I have two children. I have one of a i have one daughter thats five year old and then a two year old daughter. Our right now i am currently living in a shelter with my two children. We make im sorry, you guys might see me crying with her, but shes a mother in a shelter in. She got she got separated from her kids due to Domestic Violence. Im sorry. Im a very emotional person to hear this. So she due to her situation, she got separated from her kids and now she is currently housed in a shelter and trying to fight back for her kids. But in order to retain that, she does need help with housing. So in her opinion, i feel that area. So she has had help. So Homeless Program prenatal the hpp program has actually helped her get house to be able to be connected again with her kids. So she could reunite back with her kids. So for her, she really appreciates the program and the effort and the work that they have put because no mother would like to be separated from their children. Cuando uno tacho, you know, ten venmo si es dificil in la calle no nadie she sang. Its very difficult to be separate from your kids on top of that, not having a home, having to stay in a shelter, its a very bad feeling inside going through being homelessness, staying in a shelter, plus not having your kids by your side. Thats probably like the worst feeling that you can ever feel or any mother could feel is to be separated from their kids. So. Mucho la violencia yo no tengo a nadie yo estoy sola she saying this is why she appreciates all the help that she is getting because without the help that she is receiving, she is alone. She has nobody besides her. Its her and her kids. She doesnt have anybody else here. I mean, mucho verme cuando yo Violencia Domestica entonces yo quiero drama tuvo toda la con con sus baby cuando so. Nor is it only affecting her. Its also has been affecting her to her two year old and her five year old in a drastic way. And now shes trying to help them overcome all the traumatic events that that they had to go through to see their mother suffer from her being separated from her kids. It has affected both parties. Her children, her. And its just something very traumatizing. No family would want to go through. And she wants to just say that she wants everyone to support struggling mothers, anybody struggling or going through the same situation as her that everybody deserves a right to have housing, to be able to not be separated from their kids, you know, to be all reunited and not suffer. Thank you. A and again, her last thing to say, she just wants to say thank you, everybody. And for all the support that she has gotten from all the programs that have been very helpful. So thank you a lot to Homeless Prenatal Program to shout out to you guys. Thank you. Thank you. Im miss ramel. I just want to pause really quick because were about to lose quorum and i know that this vote is very important for today. So i just want to ask my colleagues if we want to move the family proposal at this time. It seems to me that theres support from the community for this, and i dont want to miss the opportunity to vote to hear Public Comments. Great yeah. So what were about to lose, i think you have well have just one more person and or two and thats it. We have to hear Public Comment before we vote on it. Okay. So i dont know. So but just i want to talk to and maybe you can vote. Yeah. Is that okay for folks . I mean, because this is all the legit. So yeah its but this is important. So. So if folks would agree is there if theres no additional Public Comment just so the committee does not lose quorum, it seems that we have agreement. So were going to move forward. So member friedenbach okay, thanks, everyone. Sorry about that. And we do have one caller. It looks like online oh, we have one caller online. So lets take that. And i know were going to yeah, we have a hard stop for one of our members at 1130. So a little tricky logistics here, yall. Okay, so well take the online caller and move to the motion. Members of the public who wish to provide Public Comment over the phone on this item should. Call 415 a655001 access code. 26642340097. Then pound if you havent already done so, please dial star three to line up to speak. A system prompt will indicate you have raised your hand. Please wait until the system indicates you have been unmuted and you may begin your comments. Please note that you will have two minutes. Moderator do we have any Public Comments on the phone. Theres one caller oh, my name is francisco da costa, and i was watching our program on the tv and then suddenly it got disrupted with something and opening of some housing by the mayor. This is utter nonsense, this utter nonsense. But because im on the land phone, i kind of just stayed and now your your program is coming back on. So i want to say this very clearly to be im sorry. Caller this has to be regarding the public. I mean, the previous agenda item is this regarding the agenda item, im going to speak to the agenda item now. Please i know very much i know im pretty deep in this situation. So we need to form a task force for the children and the women, a task force . No, no. Woman should be sleeping with two children. Three children in Navigation Centers. No no. And if you cant do our job, then. Then step off this. Our city, our home oversight committee. This is ridiculous that our women have to suffer in Navigation Centers and they wake up, wake them up early in the morning and tell them to leave the Navigation Centers. Im getting a lot of reports about this. And i also want you all to follow up that daniel, have your program. There should be no interruption. Ill follow up on it, too. Thank you very much. Thank you. All right. Thank you so much. All of our Public Commenters. So im going to go back to member friedenbach. Yeah so id like to make a motion to recommend that the city urgently use 1 million in unused Family Housing acquisition dollars for Family Housing and 25 million in unused family acquisition. And one time funding to fund 125 five year homeless Family Housing subsidies with support services is sir, is there a second . Thank you. Member friedenbach i would like to second that. All right. So move by member freedombox seconded by member cunningham denning. Is there any further Committee Discussion . All right. So i will take the role. Member cunningham denning. Yes vice chair deantonio yes. Member. Friedenbach yes. Member. Preston yes. Chair williams yes. So the motion passes. Thank you, everyone, for joining. Paypal tearing up over here. So thank you, everyone, for item number six. I believe we can table that for our next meeting. At this time, we just need a motion to adjourn. Motion to adjourn, second. All right. So its been moved by vice chair diane deantonio, seconded by member walton walton. All right. Member preston sorry. And well do a vote on adjournment. Sorry member cunningham denning. Yes. Vice chair deantonio yes. Member friedenbach yes. Member. Preston yes. Chair williams yes. So we are now adjourned. It is 11 35 a. M. Thank you, everyone, for coming out. Thank you. Thank you. indiscernible i just know it. Excuse me boys, but does anybody have sun block to block this skin from the sun . Yes. Thats right, i need to get my indiscernible many of us last summer indiscernible reapplying sun screen is like getting the second dose of mpox vaccine. Wait, two doses indiscernible isnt it too late to get my second dose . Girl, it is like sun screen, never too late to put more sun screen on. Thats right, i need to get my second dose of mpox vaccine before the summer starts. Lets indiscernible 21201 to find the closest location to get the vaccine or go to sf. Gov mpox. Thank you for the information indiscernible excuse me boys, do you mind checking please . Sure. That doesnt look like a sun burn, you might want to getd it checked out. What do you mean clecked out . Checked out. I was told if i got my second m pox vaccine i would have less severe symptoms. indiscernible maybe i schedule the second dose just to be safe from mpox. Most vackeens offer you a level of protections, just like sun block. Sometimes you need to reapply for more protection. The m pox vaccine is based on two shots several weeks apart to provide the strongest level of protection. Visit sf. Gov mpox to get yours. Thank you boys for that reminder make sure your are fully vaccinated for m pox this summer. Text summer vibes to 21201, to get i wont say anything more about it. Good morning. Welcome. The meeting will come to order. Welcome to the september 29th, 2023 homelessness and Behavioral Health select committee. Im hillary ronan, chair of the committee. Im joined by vice chair supervisor mandelman and supervisor walton, our clerk is stephanie cabrera. And id like to thank jason goldhammer at sf govtv for broadcasting this meeting. Madam clerk,