"devastated." it would be devastating to people with hiv who rely on the legal services. they are already stressed out to the limit. having one attorney gone, and it would be devastating. the legal services help people with hiv stake in their homes, keep their jobs, help them with insurance problems. we really need -- thank you. >> i am here as the president of the harvey milk and democratic club. hiv has been deeply affected the lgbt community in san francisco. the club has long advocated for hiv funding and services to meet the needs of these people living with hiv and those at risk. san francisco has had a proud tradition of taking care of your residence and communities when the federal government would not. in light of these federal funding shortfalls, the club called on the mayor and the board of supervisors to work together to come up with general funds to replace the loss of federal dollars to ensure the people living with hiv do not lose access to these life-saving services. on a personal note, 16 years ago, i family was called in to watch me pass away as i had 11 t cells. the services have allowed me to come a bit of a success story. please restore this funding and help the community. thank you very much. >> hello, supervisors. i am the executive director of the housing alliance. it stand in solidarity with all communities opposing cuts across the board. we need to be framed this as not just cuts, cuts, cuts. i encourage all of you to tap into your god-given creativity to ensure that the city is getting its fair share of opportunities for increased revenues. the housing alliance does not receive any ryan white funding. we are lucky in this situation. what is critical about that is the housing alliance, because of our funding source, we are able to serve people who are not eligible for services under the ryan white care act. we're able to serve a broader spectrum of people. while we oppose all the cuts, i want to challenge some of the framing around the calls for the $300,000 in taking away from the pockets of people with hiv by increasing their contributions. the plan is not affordable. i was toreframe the statement that they are spreading hiv subsidies and alignment with other subsidies -- in bringing hiv subsidies and alignment with other subsidies. i find it annoying when people are living on $279. lastly, i would bag each of you -- beg each of you, use this opportunity to find ways of incentivizing jobs for disabled people with aids. the most important service i ever received was getting a job. supervisor chu: thank you. >> i am a patient at the hiv clinic. the clinic helps me. case managers, social workers. without them, the clinic is open for a check -- the clinic is open on wednesday mornings for hiv women. if you cut it, where would we be? we need the funds to keep going. i depend on it. other women depend on it. it helps me get through rough times when i did not have anywhere else to go. you cut it, we do not have nothing. in order to keep the service, it is really needed. please do not cut the funds. we really do need it. thank you. supervisor chu: thank you. i will call a few more names. we have opened up public comment for both items. >> good afternoon. i am a case manager for catholic charities. i am a case manager, i also worked at the 360 clinic. during clinic days, when access mental health, social and case management services. they see their primary care provider. it provides people with stability, care, and emotional support. the 20% cut to the ryan white program would devastate these much needed services. these services serve the poor and disenfranchised. >> thank you for this opportunity to speak. my name is allison smith. we provide behavioral health services for the largest adult homeless shelters in this city. we provide individual and group mental health services that assist individuals to raise their level of functioning linked to primary care services, and avoid a higher level of emergency services. three years ago, mental health and substance abuse specialist or pulled out of individual cell sites -- individual shelter sites. at that time, we have funding for 10 case managers to serve the most acute clients. this current fiscal year is due to put the budgetary constraints, we were forced to slim down our team even further it is not ideal and more case managers are needed, but we're still able to provide a safety net. the message i would like to convey to date is that if these cuts go through and we lose almost 25% of our budget, the safety nets in the shelters will be drastically compromise. there is no fallback provider. thank you for the opportunity to speak today. >> thank you, supervisors. i know you have heard from a lot of us today. i work with allison. as alice in mentioned, we are extremely affected by the reduction to the general funds in these contracts. some small programs are exempted, those with $600,000 or less we are just slightly over. we are facing a cut of 25%. i want to underscore -- this is really affecting folks that are falling for the cracks. these are not the folks already accessing primary-care clinics. the nature of their disabilities prevents them from knowing they even have a disability. they are not willing or able to apply for sources of funding that would help us to meet their needs. case management services and community services save the city money. we are helping people avoid unnecessary hospitalization and remain stable in the community. an investment in our program will save the city money. you have to look at a slightly longer term view. i believe we have a great deal of value. thank you very much. >> i am the executive director. i am here to oppose the 25% cuts. these cuts severely impact service is too vulnerable homeless people and severely cripple safety net services. we assume responsibility for the drop in center on the later part of november. it is the starting point for homeless women and their families. they cannot navigate shelter and other services. they need the drop-in center as the starting point. we brought considerable expertise from other programs. transforming it into a resource center where women are actively engaged in services that move them out of homelessness. if the cuts go through, it will literally gut these services. it will eliminate the case management. stopple be cut in half. the hours will be reduced -- staff will be cut in half. hours will be reduced. this is the city's most successful outreach and housing effort to date. it is a partnership between -- partnership. they serve people that cannot access services otherwise. there will be no outreach presence on the street. it is ironic that they are actively pursuing certification and yet we are proposed for cuts. supervisor chu: thank you. >> id san francisco, us outreach team. -- i am with the san francisco homeless outreach team. special projects, golden gate park, stuff like that would be completely gone. the rest of it is $144,000. it is about 2.5 case managers. that is about 141 people that will be out on the street without that case management. we carry about 15 clients per case manager. we are cost-effective, we are integrated. we house 200 individuals last year from the case management team. we did just about everything on the outreach side. and i think we do it very well. this is the second year in a row, i am here to support not cutting a woman's place drop-in center, not cutting the start program. these are the programs that help the most vulnerable. and we are. i will be in training tomorrow about billing. we are already on back track. i have a timeline that i could send you. do not decimate the services that target the most vulnerable in san francisco. please. thank you. >> my name is nicole johnson. i am speaking on behalf of the 24-hour drop in services. a lot of what i have to say it has been said before and it will be said again. the most severely mentally ill homeless women in san francisco are our clients. they are often so debilitated by psychosis, paranoia, that they are not able to access dph services. the services are not useful for them. they are not useful if they cannot be accessed. that access is what we provide. the women are currently living in places and not fit for habitation. the center -- we lure those women in. they come in to watch a movie or to experience an environment in which they are not protected. our case managers have an opportunity -- in which they are not rejected. our case managers choose moments for intervention were these women are likely to be receptive to services. this is a very cost-effective program. we are also among the programs that have been invited to pursue matching funds. it is generally accepted that every dollar spent in substance abuse services prevents $7 in future spending. these programs to get women off the streets and prevent the kind of harmful environments that will impact their health and make them a greater expense to the city. thank you. >> i am the executive director of the community mental health services. it provides services in the tenderloin. i been doing this very thing for year after year after year. our budget keeps getting decimated. even when a flat budget here comes along, i get to eliminate 1.2 positions because the mandated health care coverage goes up 20%. they sure, we are facing another $100,000 cut -- this year, we are facing another $100,000 caught. the safety net is being shredded. i thought years ago to establish a single standard of care. i get to suffer because of that. 34% of all of our clients are in healthy san francisco. i get to be targeted for cuts. the most vulnerable population down in the tender line -- tenderloin it's the biggest cuts for services. 34% of our clients are homeless. most of them have legal encumbrances. they are in poverty and trauma. a pill won't fix it. it is not a very good idea. thank you. [applause] >> good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to speak today. we provide the property management services for 450 supporting housing units. i am here to ask for your support and opposing the submitted the proposed budget cuts. -- i am here to ask for your support in opposing the proposed budget cuts. they have served the highest -- supportive housing has proven to be cost-effective for addressing homelessness. the climate for development is uncertain, at best. we're likely to face a significant decrease in the pipeline of affordable housing units. there are 800 people on the waiting list for the program. this is up from 500 people last year. this is a very narrow target of our overall homeless population. you may be moving existing tenants, as you are cutting an opportunity for 109 more people to come off of the streets. if you look at some of the cost data, folks were moving in the first year, they're seeing a decrease in cost. thank you for your time. i just wanted to urge you to take a closer look at that cut. thank you. >> good afternoon. i and the co-director -- i want to highlight a few concerns. dph has made large investments in camelot. they are thriving communities and they are safe, clean buildings. divesting now seems on unwise. all the tenants are formerly homeless adults with mental health and physical health issues. relocation to another property would be disruptive to dispel it -- to the stability of the tenant population. almost everyone in the building receives health services in the surrounding mission neighborhoods. moving them to another neighborhood would be disruptive. the camelot is a thriving property. the to exciting new projects are crafted to help the part of the city's plan to end homelessness. they will serve a very specific populations. diverting of those targeted new units seems in direct contrast to the city's goals and fiscal prudence. the proposal to -- camelot is fully accessible and we have not had a problem finding people were willing and able and excited. bill leases are up for renewal soon. -- the leases are up for renewal soon. it seems like a difficult time to make the cuts. i hope you will not support the cuts. thank you. >> i am the executive director of hospitality house. usually, we would have 20 or 30 of our participants to speak about the cuts. we decided this year, it is becoming unethical for us to involve our participants. it really destabilizes our community. we have not pushed out the call to folks. we hope we do not have to. we're hoping this can get turned around. hospitality house is an example of one of those unmatched general fund cuts that will have a drastic impact on our most vulnerable citizens. we are facing a $295,000 cut in the two-year budget to our self- help centers. 45% of our folks are african- american. this represents a cut of seven positions come up 14 positions. this is half of our peer advocacy program. we're seeing an increase in the need and a decrease in the services in the community. we are below is a threshold services that are available to people -- we are the lowest threshold services that are available to people in the tenderloin. they are dealing with hiv and aids. we need to keep providing these services. i am not quite sure where people will go if we are not able to continue. i want to support the other programs here. unmatched general fund pay for a lot of low threshold services. thank you for your attention. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am a program manager with hospitality house. we provide substance abuse services at the basic level. we work with our participants who have trouble fighting in some of the higher functioning programs. the therapy, peer counseling. our participants come in with different types of crises. they're always immediately connected with staff or therapists. we are the safety net of safety nets. i have been here before. our program, we have helped save and improve the lives of the members of our community. we're able to -- we engaged with a woman who was having a mental health. down right in the middle of the street. helping our participants become employed after not having worked for so many years. sometimes to connect people to primary care. some of our people have not seen a doctor in over 10 years. i am here to emphasize the importance of what we do. we are a safety net to the rest of the safety nets in the community. we helped save and improve the lives of people in our community. thank you. >> i am an advocate for hospitality house. i started there 10 years ago. i used to live in the shelter, i was homeless, and i had a drug addiction problem. if it was not for the individuals working at hospitality house back then, showing me the tools to use to get my life back together, i would probably be still on the streets. today, i have been with hospitality house for 10 years. i have been with the tenderloin clinic for eight years. this saturday, i will have 10 years clean and sober. [applause] i want to ask you guys to restore our funding. what i would like to see from each one of you is to think outside the box. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors. i am one of the program managers and hospitality house. i run the community arts program. every year, we endorse cuts and we have been operating at just the basics. a loss of $295,000 would be devastating. we would be closing a few of the programs. you might think that art is something that is esoteric. it is not. we provide resources to people that do not have the means. last year alone, we had over 1800 individual artists that came to the art program. these are people we get off the streets that provide -- and provide them the opportunity to be creative and express themselves. please keep us in mind. it is something that is really basic and we have been around for quite awhile. we would like to continue. thank you. >> good afternoon. i am with the coalition on homelessness. i want to take things back and look at the health department and what they have been facing. over the last five years, over $60 million in cuts in services. we of that situation in the city