Transcripts For SFGTV BOS Public Safety Committee 32217 20170324

Seeing none. Public comment is now closed. [gavel]. Is it okay if we file . Yes thank you very much. Thank you for making time for this. Thank you so much and without objection this hearing heard and filed. [gavel] thank you madam clerk can you please call item number 6. Yes item 6 is a hrlg on the city and School Districts plans to create Affordable Housing for educators in the city and county of San Francisco. Sorry. Thank you so much and i want to thank supervisor safai for calling this hearing with me and obviously with the number of people in the room and there is an over flow room in room 263. There is incredible interest about teacher housing in San Francisco. Im going to run this hearing in a slightly unusual way so please listen. I am going to start off by allowing the supervisors to give opening comments and then open for Public Comment before the departments give their presentations because i understand theres been a lot of people waiting a long time that need to get home to children. I am too going to have a child care issue so you might see my daughter running around here and then well have the departments presentations and for those that would like to wait to give Public Comment after hearing the departments presentations there will be that opportunity as well but each speaker is only able to speak once so make your choice now paused . As parents received assignment letters yesterday many are wondering if i enroll my child in Public School will she have a permanent teacher . This is scary and unfortunately a realistic question that parents are asking ourselves throughout San Francisco. From 2009 to 2015 sfusd had fewer than six classroom teacher vacancies on the first day of school. However on the first day of this Academic Year that number climbed to nearly 38 vacancies. Heather knight of the San Francisco chronicle reported halfway through the classroom there were 26 class room it is without a permanent teacher. I dont see how students are receiving a quality education without a permanent teacher. For the upcoming year i understand the School District is working hard to fill 650 credential teacher vacancies and normally the number of vacancies at this time of year is closer to 500. To make the under statement of the year this is extremely troubling. What we know is that this is not just a San Francisco problem and i want to make it clear that the role of the hearing today is not blame the San Francisco School District. 75 of School Districts in california are facing teacher shortages. However we know that San Francisco high cost of living and lack of Affordable Housing are exacerbating the crisis in the city. The crisis is extreme were asking the School District to develop housing for the work force. I can appreciate the stress that this places on the School District whose primary is to educate our children and i know how hard this work is because i too have to be a Affordable Housing developer of sorts to make sure that my non ultrawealthy constituents can go about their lives worrying whether they can make rent this month. In San Francisco for many of us to engage in our core work functions and our mission we must actively work to produce more Affordable Housing. Neither the School District or nor the city and county of San Francisco has a choice but to solve this crisis in earnest and my understanding is that conversations and plans around the needs to build teacher housing has been happening for 13 years since 2004 when the district pledged to selected a teacher housing site. The big question for us today is why havent we been able to build housing for teachers and paraprofessionals and what can we do now to urgently build this housing . Theyre the foundation of our educational system. If theyre not stable at home, if they have to leave the city and classrooms for contra costa and beyond then the children in San Francisco simply are not going to thrive. The teacher housing crisis is not just a teacher crisis or a School District crisis. It is a Community Crisis that is affecting all of us. The good news because there is some good news is that all eyes are on this issue and so many people want to step up to help. This hearing is an opportunity to understand the nature of this crisis and take clear future steps to resolve it. This is an opportunity to strengthen our school and city partnerships and address the teacher housing and paraprofessional crisis. We dont have a moment to waste. In preparation for of the hearing i commissioned the budget analyst to look at levels and rates for the hearing and we will hear from them shortly but i wanted to highlight a few statistics in their report that i found absolutely astounding. The average rent for a studio in San Francisco is approximately 2695 a month and about 32,000 a year. Based on their salary the affordability gap for a first year fully credential teacher is about 16,000 a year or 1,363 per month for a studio and over 23,000 a year, close to 2,000 for a one bedroom. Even a senior fully credential teacher with more than 25 years of experience, the highest possible earning step facing an annual 6,000 gap to be able to afford a market rate studio in San Francisco. If that senior teacherred wanted to live in a one bedroom apartment and the gap would be close to 13,000. Other important statistics 58 of sfusd teachers report its difficult or very difficult to pay rent or make mortgage payments each month and 70 of teachers reported that their salaries provide the majority of their household income. Now, we will hear about programs and the down payment assistant loan program and theyre limited in their scale to solve this problem. And this hearing will primarily focus on the strategy that has gained the most traction which is the construction of brick and mortar housing for teachers and School District property. Before i open up to my colleagues for opening comments i want to thank everybody taking the time and waiting so long to come today. The presence of you all here and i know there are teachers and paraprofessionals is really heartening. I know you worked a long hard day and youre here to talk about this means a lot. I also want to thank the budget analyst analyst for their report and the School District. Thank you for being here. I want to thank the Mayors Office of housing and director olson lee and amy chan and also the night united educators united educators of San Francisco and the school board for engaging on this issue and with they upon open it up for additional comments. Supervisor sheehy. Yes. I think the School Assignment letters are out. They were delayed this year and parents were freaking out and i cant blame them and close to decision time for private schools and i hope we didnt lose parents to private schools this year and i certainly have heard from a number of folks. I want to talk about the incredible value of teachers. I have been in San Francisco Public Schools for seven years now and the hard work and dedication of the teachers and the paraprofessionals that we have experienced has nothing short of extraordinary and i hope no parents got discouraged because there is something rare and unique and phenomenal about the work that goes on every day in San Francisco Public Schools and i for one as a parent am incredibly grateful. I also have experienced at the beginning of every school year and this year it was stark the notices that go out through the community. Do you have a spare room . Do you know someone who has an apartment . Do you know someone who needs a roommate . For teachers who had been newly engaged by the schools that we have been at and it is really heart wrench to think about someone who just signed up to work in the district and excited to be in the classroom with your kid and knowing they have no where to live, no where they can afford to live. I dont want to make the remarks too long because i know a lot of people are waiting to speak but i really want to first of all thank supervisor ronen for this report which is great. Its a great data point but also to encourage and support the work of the district and the Mayors Office of housing to find solutions for this problem and to create housing for our teachers because theyre one of the most valuable resources in our community. Thank you. Supervisor safai. Thank you. Its funny when two people have the same idea and so supervisor ronen and i at roll call for introduction a few weeks ago bumped into each other and youre calling for a hearing so we merged them together so i thank you for working together on this. This is an extremely important issue. Myself and supervisor sheehy are both supervisors with children already in Public Schools. Were the only two supervisor. Supervisor ronen will join us in the fall as a tk parent and we will have three and i know supervisor fewer is a parent with older children, and so weve all experienced this system. Did i say that correctly . Your children are grown, correct supervisor . Yeah, theyre way older. Okay. But you have experienced the system so were going through or gone through it so you have the right four supervisors in the room today. The reason i called the reason i wanted to call the hearing because ive had personal experience with the conversation around building educator housing. I see dennis kelly in the audience and we had a Conversation Mission years ago and this conversation has been going on for a long time but were past the point of crisis. We can talk today about salaries of educators and i think were on the board support the idea of an increase in salary for teachers but even an increase is not going to address the issue. The issue in many ways is about the availability of accessible housing so the two things that we know i see a bunch of Nonprofit Developers and we have the house here. One of the most important things with housing is site control. And having control over the site you are going to build on and the district has site control but the impediment is designate and were working through the issues and housing exclusively for teachers and this issue i hope were educated on is what are the strategies that the district with the Mayors Office is going to employ to address the crisis and move in a fast forward manner . And the other one lets have a real honest conversation how we will fund and get that housing built because theres not a lot of funding streams to build housing once you talk about outside of the paraprofessionals. When talking about the actual teachers themselves what are the funding streams . Where are they coming from and how do we build housing for teachers although they dont make a tremendous amount of money they make too much to qualify for the low income Affordable Housing . And what are the strategies and i am hoping to hear that from the Mayors Office of housing. I grew up with my familiful individual with teaching and we have one of the highest concentration of teachers in the city and play a specific role and i know i am preaching to the audience but the importance they play an Important Role in the community and educators in our community so theres a particular value and i think theres a value of having a conversation and creating housing to keep them in San Francisco, not only they can educate our children but part of our fabric and what makes San Francisco great so thank you supervisor. Thank you. Supervisor fewer. Thank you chair. I will be brief. I think most of you know i was on the school board for eight years and i i know first hand about the problems with retention and attracting talent to our School District. I also want to say that i was many, many meetings when teachers came and stormed the Board Meeting saying we cant afford to live here and then i felt like saying go over to city hall and yell at them because theyre not Building Teacher housing for you and after this hearing i might regret saying that but i am glad youre here because frankly i think we have this huge wealth gap in San Francisco. I think we havent been building for teachers or committed to building for teachers. I dont think every supervisor has been committed to finding a site for teacher housing in their neighborhood so today i would like to center our collective thoughts about how we can get this teacher housing done . What are some things the mechanisms we can implement . And i dont think this take the time to talk about other issues within the School District but really about this upon teacher housing issue. paused . So lets not forget them when talking about housing but i am excited to hear what everyone has to say today and also in particular what kind of solutions we can collectively come up with. Thank you very much. Thank you so much and again just to explain im going to run this hearing a little unusual because i know theres a lot of kids and parents that have been patiently waiting that need to get home so usually we would hear the departments presentation first and Public Comment responding to those presentation presentations but i want to give the opportunity to those that need to leave early and speak now and i would ask anybody to wait to wait until after the presentations but those that cannot wait to make a line. No worries about having filled out the speaker cards. I have them here but please if you would like to speak first now is the opportunity but there will be an opportunity for Public Comment for those that havent spoken after the presentations. With that i would like to open Public Comment. [gavel]. Thank you very much supervisor ronen. Its a pleasure to see 2 3 of the odd number district it is represented here. I wonder what is going on in the even districts . Thank you supervisor ronen for pointing out this is a 13 year emergency. The emergency started when healthier and jill put together a resolution that the district was dedicated to housing and we use that with paraprofessionals also. At that time there were eight parcels in the district that were surplus to the district. Since that time one of them has become a charter school. One was given a ten year lease to a private childrens center. The most desirable one, the one that supervisor safai referred to has been traded to the city so the city can build housing which is not teacher housing and in exchange the School District got the right to its own parking lot. There is not exactly been a commitment on the part of the School District to participating in the policy that they established 13 years ago. What can you do about it . Supervisor fewer was clever about making sure that in the parse emtax excuse me, the bond that went forward there is a possibility of using funds to build teacher housing if you also have an educational purpose there. There are a couple of properties that you have. There are plans for 135 van ness to be sota but those plans dont use any of the air space at all. You could use seven, eight stories above that for housing, offices to pay for housing or whatever. You have the land at eighth and lawton. You have the Pumpkin Patch land there. That is School District land in a place where people would love [off mic] actually face down the neighbors there. Thank you. Next speaker. Thank you sprfer supervisors. paused . Our city faces this crisis of affordability and a symptom of the shortage of housing. As long as it persists talented teaches that want move here and teach in San Francisco cant do so. As long as the shortage exists and the displacement that pushes teachers out is unabated. As long as we forget how to streamline houses our costs will remain high. Our city must accelerate housing and market rate housing projects. We must insist on strategies that maximize the below market housing and address the number of units built. The strategies that the city uses to ease the crisis must maximize the numbers units produced. 40 of ten is four but 20 of 100 is five times greater and five times more opportunity for dispeemps firefighters and paraprofessionals to move into the city and critical to address the shortage at the level of production. That includes every kind of housing project. Thank you for your time supervisors. Thank you. Hello supervisors. I am Lara Nicholson and a special education paraprofessional at Galloway High School for nine years. I enjoy working with the kids and i feel like i am getting more skilled every year and of course i feel energized by being around the kids. Its very hard to get and keep special education paras at sfusd. We need people with Longterm Service so their skills increase and abilities increase so they can assist students better. I live in a studio close to the school. Thanks to rent control i pay 50 of my salary so but it gets harder and harder every year so we need rent subsidies. I didnt hear anybody mention that. We need subsidies and Affordable Housing so give me a subsidy and affordable place i will move anywhere. Okay. We want to be able to live work and retire in San Francisco. Thank you. Thank you so much. Next speaker. Good afternoon supervisors. I want to thank all of you for being here. Supervisor ronen, supervisor fewer and supervisor safai. And i want to thank all the members of usf and families that are here. [applause] we would have had five times the number of people if our members were not commuting down the bay or the peninsula because theyre looking for a place to afford to stay. 30 years ago i came to San Francisco after renting a one bedroom apartment for a couple of years and my husband and i bought a modest flat where we raised our two sons. Thats what every teacher and paradeserves and thats what we want for the educators here in the city. We applaud and support the efforts we have made through the task force but theyre not enough. The eviction support work is good want the counseling is good but right now in addition to the brick and mortar project which were talking about today i am putting it out there that the most equitable Housing Support is the significant across the board raise for all our educators. [applause] if you could pause. Im sorry. This my most hated part of the job and there is a board rule not to clap i cant stand the rule but i have to enforce it so if you could use hands that would be great. Thank you. Okay. So that was a challenge to the district leaders to the elected leaders of the city. I challenge you to take action to make San Francisco more affordable for educators. You could offer a tax credit to those that rent to educators and a dedicated revenue stream for housing. Isnt it too late to make Tech Companies to pay the fair share . Lets find a way to do it. Thank you. Thank you. Susan solomon executive Vice President of esf right now. I was a Kindergarten Teacher after being a preteacher for a long time and i feel its great that we have such a large tiewrnout here today. What is terrible is that so many of the people who are here are here to speak because they are in a housing crisis. We shouldnt be able to fill up a chamber full of people who are ensecure in housing. I want to speak in particular about special education. As you heard the paraprofessional Lara Nicholson speak earlier and special education we should be proud that in sfusd we welcome students with special needs into the general education classrooms and into specialized programs. However its a shortage area. Its really hard to get enough special Education Teachers and other educators. There have been 60 vacancies of paraprofessionals special education positions all year so we are talking when talking about paraprofessionals were talking about individuals who earn 27,000 to make 32,000 a year so if you can imagine its hard enough for teachers to afford to live in San Francisco. Its even worse for paraprofessionals and we need paraprofessionals in special education. We cannot have a decent operating special Education Program without having special education paraprofessionals. Later on if theres time you will hear from a parent whose son has an iep and she can feel the housing crisis through her son, so we do hope that everybody can do something will do something about this crisis. Thank you very much. Thank you so much. Next speaker please. Hi. My name is leon sulton and a teacher. I was born and raised in san frap and went to school in San Francisco and im Second Generation and hes third. I served the students for 12 years. My wife is a paraprofessional. Every day i put effort to give the children in the city a world class education and educators such as myself providing students of our city with the best education possible. Many of our students from lincoln go on to four Year University the first of the family to do so. I hut my heart and soul into teaching on a daily basis and providing opportunities for the children of the city. I have my own family now. We work for the district and we live in a one bedroom apartment with our son. Its rent controlled. Our stuart in the city is tenuous. We are able to remain because ree have rent control. If we want another child or a backyard or teddy wants a room we have to leave. I study historical narratives and familiar with San Francisco, a liberal bastion and progressive values [laughter] the birth place and social movements and vanguard of just causes. Thats the San Francisco i grew up in and not today. All that seems to matter now is money. What you contribute to the community of the city is no longer relevant. We give twitter tax breaks and allow others to use corporate shuttles and people that built the city are forced to leave ti know narratives can change. If we care about the city we will take actionable measures to make sure that the people who contribute to our communities and serve our children are able to continue living here. If we dont i am afraid that San Francisco values are going to be lost. Theyre going to be replaced by corporate values, not social justice. The ball is in your court. Thank you so much. Hi. My name is ivany and a teacher in the district for 15 years. I am late for my second job so i will talk facht. I am at hard on staff schools with vulnerable learners and on special assignment. I love my job and passionate about the students in the district but after spending 15 years working for the district i am really concerned that because of my job i couldnt afford to have kids and live in the city. Thank you for your time. Thank you so much. Next speaker please. Good afternoon supervisors and colleagues. I am a literacy coach here in San Francisco unified at john muir and educator for over 20 years in San Francisco unified School District for 13 years. My daughter and i have been evicted and i just want to ensure that we as teachers and students receive the best learning and instruction im going to go by my notes. Sorry. I am usually a really good speaker. Im in the middle of finding another school for my daughter outside the district. I dont think we can afford to stay here. There are no special privileges for us as educators or employees of the district either and thats not what were asking for. We just want Affordable Housing. Thats it. The new teachers they leave after one year. I put my heart and soul into what i do. I have been at hard to staff high need underserved schools. Thats where my passion lies, and thats i am going to continue to do for the rest of my career. For the first time in 20 years i have to question where i am going to do that. The new teachers i coach have to leave after the first year and get the support and its just they cant do it, financially they cant do it. The impact diminishes the quality of learning and teaching at our schools in San Francisco. I picked San Francisco to work in and for my daughter to attend school here because this is where we are from. This is our home and something needs to happen now. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. My name is mary and i was born and raised in this city and i am that statistic that youre talking about. Its not just floating out there in the space,. The struggle is real. I have had to move out of this city twice. Ive gone further and further out, and every time i have moved out a little bit further i have to down size even more and more and more. The children at our school suffer when we live far away. We could spend more time with our kids. The kids that we love in the city that we love if we had Affordable Housing here. My mother was an educator from the south. She came and worked for the School District for over 25 years and she told me if you work as an educator you will have a secure solid job. Well god rest sow. She didnt know. She couldnt see the future. Its time to stop talking. If youre not going to do stop talking. You have to step up. You wouldnt like to see your parents like us. Im a senior now. Seniors cant parents we cant retire because our retirement is awful but for us to be pushed out and worry about transportation, all of that. Its up to you. Youve got to do something. Thank you. Thank you so much. pause. And i was then homeless sleeping on peoples couches and while i have credit and full time job and looking from commissioner matsuda to san rafael and i found a place and every year its will there be another rent increase that is going to kick me out of here . And im sorry i am looking for another job. Half the people that i work with one colleague pays the entire paycheck to her rent. How can you possibly stay here and do anything like that . Down the peninsula they offer 30,000, 40,000 more a year so what we need is a fix for proposition 13 to stop the people from selling the Holding Companies and avoiding tax. In 1970 70 corporations paid 20 of the tax. Today they pay 2 of the tax. Coming up the city needs to do what denmark does, do what the other companies in countries do in scandinavia is buy housing and renting it mortgaging it to their citizens. Those corporations like google that allowed not to pay tax which makes me so angry theyre gog to be putting the estimates that i saw is that 30 of us is going to be unemployed in the future. We have a crisis going on. Two years ago i came for this. Youre different faces and nothing is being done want leave. They dont care. Thank you. Thank you. Hello. My name is dottie and im a special Education Teacher at Lowell High School here in the city. My beautiful daughter goes to sunset Elementary School. We love the city. I have been working in special education. This is my 15th year. I was a paraprofessional for two years before that and were hanging in by a thread. Half of my paycheck as others have said goes to housing and thats being threatened by a predatory landlord trying bullying tactics to push us out. She succeeded with one unit and while some of the tactic it is some are illegal, some are legal, even with tenants rights its extremely stressful day in and day out to live in that environment where youre pushed out. Hey dont want you there. The home is not a sanctuary and protecting with every fiber of our being and on the stressful. We are worried about possibly having to go through substitute teachers at her school. You know i dont want to leave my job and its just extremely stressful. I dont know how much longer we can stay in the city. We love the box and dont want to live. Think outside of the box and not just the brick and mortar and think about subsidies or landlord incentives and think outside of the box and the bmr which we cant afford anyway because of the hoa fees are ridiculous so most of are entirely unaffordable as well but theyre all on certain parts of the city which we live on the southwest side. I would love to see things happening in different parts of the city because you know im a single mother. I dont have help. I have arranged my life on that side of the city and i dont want to commute across town every day as a single parent and special Education Teacher is extremely difficult so please take that into mind. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello. My name is sida and i dont think its fair for any of us that we have that we cant afford housing and that so many teachers cant afford to live here so how it affects kids that their teachers cant afford to live here because they live in apartment and they get kicked out by their landlady and they have to move and they leave all their friends behind and then they miss so many people. Its just not fair for anyone. Thank you so much. Youre such an amazing speaker. Thank you. Hi. My name is jearn robertson and the principal at Glen Park School in the glen park neighborhood. I am also the president of the united administrators of San Francisco and we cover supporting principals and supervisors and program administrators. So i am wearing a couple of hats and im a mom in the schools and a renter for the past 28 years so i am here to give you some insight into the day and life of a typical Public School and the ramifications we experience daily due to the housing crisis lack of Affordable Housing for teachers in the city. We cant hire and maintain teachers to teach the children due to what i mentioned and what were here to discuss today. Because of the crisis we have children showing up every day and often time there is isnt a teacher to teach them. I had a minicrisis at my school this year that you may have read in the newspaper and a teacher went on leave suddenly and no qualified person to be in that position and after subs if they showed up i was able to give intervention for the lower performing students into this and its not an optimal solution. I received support on the issue. My Sister School shared her stories with me and similar. This is not a lung sfusd issue. This is a city issue. I had 28 instances where this thing happened where teachers or substitute teachers were not available. This translates to 28 loss days of education for our young kids. We are in a crisis. Our city educators are beginning to feel more like indentured servants than Public Servants. There a feeling of undervalued and under supported and the kids are losing elements in the necessary foundation. Thank you so much. I am from [inaudible] resources and representing the San Francisco education path Way Coalition and dozzent entities and sfusd and university of San Francisco and multiple organizations and were coordinating a path way for home grown san franciscan educators. Essentially what that means we have martienezs in our schools San Francisco students that want to be teachers and in San Francisco. They need to see its possible to do that. We can provide a lot of supports, education, Work Base Learning experiences, scholarships. We cant provide housing. One of our partners, the university of San Francisco Teacher Preparation Program typically has about seven to seven under graduate students apply to the San Francisco Teacher Residency Program and provides credential and guarantees a job in San Francisco provided you commit to work in San Francisco unified for three years. Typically seven students apply. This year only one student did and when the university surveyed students and said why . Students said they werent prepared to make that commitment to teaching in San Francisco because they couldnt afford living here so this is clearly a huge issue. At the coalition weve heard that the current campus site is a place for a lot of housing so were interested in hearing more. Thanks. Thank you. Good afternoon supervisors. I am the executive director of bright line defense a Public Policy nonprofit. We have been quietly working on this issue since october 2015 where we started conducting Legal Research and analysis about the constitutionality of teacher housing. Since then actually weve had considerable progress through the form of the state legislature. Senator mark leno jumped on top of the legality question and passed a bill. And the document is a support letter signed by close to a dozen organizations in need of teacher housing and then it was signed by the governor as of september 2016. That this issue has been discussed for over a decade and a half without progress is a social injustice to the teachers and to the students because when you look at teacher turnover and how the cost of living has negatively affected the School District and service to the youth it makes this Public Policy more important than any other policy in terms of trying to retain an economically diverse city so thats why bright line continues to retain interest in this. Were interested in commissioner mark sanchez proposal proposed in a school Board Meeting about properties and scale is important and brick and mortar house suggest important so were committed to making sure that scale as large as possible. So thank you for the attention to the issue and supervisor safai thank you as well. Thank you so much. Good evening. My name is loren. I am a native of San Francisco, born and raised. Probably one of a few of the last black men remaining in San Francisco unfortunately. My family is also theyre natives of San Francisco. Im a native of fill more and [inaudible] and i rise in the work i have done at the San Francisco teacher residency and one of the things i tried to employ there we are intentional about making sure that the teacher educators that we cute and teach in San Francisco. Historically in underserved neighborhoods are set up to be successful and thriving and prospererring. Not that when they come to teach theyre struggling to survive but prospering and one of the ways that we do we try to do our best to make sure they have financial incentives to make sure they can live here because at the end of the day them not being able to afford to live in San Francisco really is an equity issue and teacher educators and those working in the historically underserved neighborhoods are going to be there and constant in the neighborhood and invest and intertwine themselves with that community and that neighborhood so i applaud you on starting a discussion tonight on teacher housing and Building Teacher housing for our awesome teachers and i applaud the superintendents as well and the board of education for starting this conversation and i hope after tonight we can sprint to start Building Teacher housing because l. A. Has passed us three times over in conversations ive with them and the work there they surpassed us and i know were the best city in the country and we can do it. Thank you. Thank you. Good afternoon supervisors. My name is Susan Kitchell and a pediatric and adlessent Nurse Practitioner and worked with the families since 1981 and currently the school nurse at galileo and i love my job. Unfortunately im being l listed and evicted effective in august of this year in the apartment i lived in since february 2000. Brought my son home to the apartment and mourned the death of his father there and the success of college there. The apartments holds memories past but no opportunity to create new. I live in district 1. I lived in the space of ten square blocks of district 1 since 1981. Throughout my years in the city i see students in my neighborhood and muni and all around town. I earn my salary in the city and spend the salary in the city and i spend it exclusively in the shops on geary boulevard and clemson street. My neighbors know me. I know my neighbors. Unfortunately its the ground zero for evictions and there are five vacant units and as a result of evictions. So what what happens now . What happens when i am ousted from my apartment . In all likelihood i cant remain in San Francisco. The time and expense of commuting considers me to consider the feasibility of working in the city. San francisco unified is experiencing way too many vacancies in educator categories. How do we provide safe and supported schools to the students and families if we cant afford too live here . The Affordable Housing crisis is real. Its way too real. Too many of educators of forced out of the city. We need Housing Assistance now in order to insure safe and Supportive Schools for our students. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hi. Good evening. I am gill. I have been in the district for 30 years. I have a son and daughter one at lowell and one at james [inaudible] middle schoom. I never witnessed a crisis of this magnitude facing teachers today. My personal circumstances are out of the ordinary but separated from my wife. At one point during the great seresidence she lost her job and were still trying to recuperate. As soon as we didnt made the obligations as homeowners of course chase bank foreclosed on the foam. I was one of the few lucky ones that find a bmr, below market rate unit they can afford. The situation were in now its indefensible and just like everyone working with students. I love my job. I have been doing it for decades. I am proud of the work. Students love me and they want to be in the class and parents tell me their children are happy to go to School Every Day and teachers we are a bed rock of the community and profession and students are demeand and devalued. Arguably we have the most important job there is, certainly more important than shooting a ball through a hoop or running a hundred yards with a pig skin and volunteering 20 hours a week. I dont know if you are but theyre working ten, 20 hours volunteering. When friends come from outside San Francisco or the country they say how progressive San Francisco is. You know what . Its not that progressive. If we want to be a world class city we cant do that if housing is not a basic human right. This situation has to be rectified immediately. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hello. My name is Darren Peters and a teacher in San Francisco unified School District for years. My wife and are teachers and we met and nine years of experience and we basically rent a tiny junior one bedroom so like a gorrified studio really but we recently had a son in january so weve out grown our space. His bedroom is our entry way and got a minicrib and we have been creative and solutions to make small places work but ultimately the guilt of keeping a kid in a entry way is probably going to cause us to look for housing in another School District and probably where we can get paid more so really our only question we have been asking if we will both move to a new district or one will commute into the city. Thinking about commute time and time away from the child and again we love the school sites and our families and students but when looking at raising our son its going to quickly become impossible. Once he can walk its impossible and thats coming up soon so im not sure if you can do anything in the time to save like to get us housing but clearly its a need. San francisco invested like a lot of training in me. San francisco invested training in my wife. Like was talked about were training teachers and theyre leaving so were wasting resources by not trying to keep teachers. I use redwood forest analogy stronger trees grow in a old growth forest and you have trust in the communities and kids looking forward to being in the class. Thats how you have strontd schools and one teacher and train them but not [inaudible] teachers and over and over again. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good afternoon. My name is john and a spanish teacher at Lowell High School where i have been for 25 years and in the district teaching 31 years. However in 2010 i was forced to go to los angeles where i was offered a job as a bilingual spanish teacher because my studio apartment which was 1200 and exempt from rent control apparently in 1979 and in june multiple buildings were exempt and your 1,200 is now 1,500 1,500 more. Please make a check for 2,700. I came across the teacher next door loan and grateful and given a forgivable down payment and 3 and proud owner of the Bay View District which is getting more awesome by the day but now its awesome with Million Dollars homes in the area and were losing tenure teachers because they cant afford to live here and flock toght peninsula and east bay and salaries are higher and cost of living is less and please have the blessing that ive had of offering more of the Affordable Homes possibilities which is the American Dream. My family is from cuba and we came to leave communism and the American Dream and i got and let Everything Else have the same. Thank you very much. Thank you. Hello. My name is sunshine and a High School Teacher at Lincoln High School. Growing up in San Francisco i have seen the city prioritize investment and profit over families and communities. I have seen skyscrapers and outsiders replacing neighbors and friends. Now as a second year teacher i want to serve the district that raised me and work in San Francisco which is my home. But the more they think about this the more i realize this is become being an impossible dream. As educators we understand that we have chosen a profession of timeless hours, of constant arguments. What we dont understand is why our city is not working timeless hours and having constant arguments to defend the warriors that choose on a daily basis to fight for and to serve alongside the communities and children of our city . Thank you. Name brendon and i teach at lynch ion high school and native of San Francisco and live in the Mission District with two daughters. I went to a Retirement Party at Lake Shore Elementary School with supervisor cohen went as well and in my 20s and went to a old school spot and there was alts principal of the school and many teachers and all teachers that supervisor cohen would remember and there after 30 years and i went in there and got life advice. It meant a lot to me and why were they still there . They had secure housing. They made a livable wage in San Francisco. As you know were in a crisis. Two years ago i took a job at Lincoln High School. Why was there an opening . An eviction. Okay. Among the new teachers i hear a new theme. I live with my parents and worked for a little bit in the late 20s and after you have a family that doesnt work. Okay. Worse than this recently i met a teacher who is homeless. Can anyone raise the hand have you taught by a homeless teacher . Anyone in the room . There is a homeless teacher in San Francisco and students taught by the homeless teacher. How are we going to solve this . Im not a policy maker. I teach but i disagree with the supervisor safais comments that is not about teacher pay. This is about teacher pay. After seven years a San Francisco Police Officer makes 115,000. After seven years the teachers are paid 55,000. This is not fair. What does is it tell about our civilization and our city . Okay. So teacher housing is the issue. Thank you. My name is Janet Everhart and a parent in the city for 31 years. Are you tired, run down, sleep deprived, less and less energy . This is not a commercial for geritol. This is about describing the commuter. I have commuted for 31 years and i unfortunately like most of you ive never been able to call this city my home. Im a single parent that raised my child outside of the city because i could never afford housing in the city, but this is not about me. I was asked to tell my story because i commute over two and a half hours every morning and again two and a half hours in the evening. 22. 50 a day to get to work as a paraprofessional but just take me out of the equation and think about the teachers and parents who commute daily to be here for the students of San Francisco. They are committed, dedicated and they love the students of San Francisco. My daughter has asked me repeatedly mom, why do you continue to do that commute . Its because i love the students of San Francisco and so do all the other teachers and paraprofessionals that commute on a daily basis. Please do something about this housing crisis. We want quality teachers who are here and ready to do their best with students, but then they must be at their best, so please do something about those of us who have to commute every day. Five hours of my life thank you. Commuting. Thank you. Before the next speaker i wanted to jump in. I think there is a misunderstanding of the statement i made initially. I am 100 support of increasing teacher salary. What i was saying its not just about that. We can increase the salaries but if we dont have the housing that people can access its also about that as well but thank you for bringing that up. Thank you. Good afternoon supervisor. My name is to bias cane and basically i want to put a face to my pain. I am a native san franciscan. I was born here in San Francisco General Hospital in 1949 so i decided to work with the School District. I have been with the district since 1971. This is 45 years. I just want to say that an injustice to one of us is to all of us and then the face that were forgetting we have a housing problem but were doing an injustice for the kids of San Francisco because we cant come in and work at our best and be at our best when were tired from either having commute or look for housing or whatever the problem is. Myself the house i am in just went to escrow last friday, the 17th, so i am looking at two months before i move and to where . I cant afford anything. Save money in order to move someplace. I dont make enough to save. As soon as i get my check its gone out and i want to say this is really a crisis. Its a disaster and we really need some help and thank you very much. Thank you. Hi. My name is brad and i work in San Francisco. We have conned and advocated for tenants and affordable San Francisco and we proudly stand with every teacher and parent in the room right now and i am honored to fight loon side the individuals being evicted. I would like to talk to but fighting that. As city hall deliberates over deeply Affordable Housing which we support but simultaneously do what we can to protect the affordable units that exist and house the teachers. Last year i met two professionals that i focus on. One dante is here today. He and 50 of his neighbors live in below market rate on post street and protected since 85 and at risk raised to market rate. Today the primary owner of that location and equities and one of the multi. Larger real estate owners on the west coast and agreement to protect the units in the works. For dante and neighbors fighting against rent increases and countless contributions to the vitality of San Francisco including the Public School it is. Were also looking at this building and seeing a preventable situation, one of many, but only if the elected officials stand with us and hold them accountable to the crisis they contributed. paused . Increases between tenants. Thankfully there is a repeal bill in the assembly and under the bill to contact member chiu and coauthor and the committee so its the steep increases that cause displacement. Thank you so much. Thank you. Hello. My name is dante. I im a math teacher and soccer coach at washington high school. I worked in long since 2010 including three and a half years as a paraprofessional. When i choose to become a teacher despite i would be paid less money than my friends in the private sector but i consciously made that decision because i knew i would spend every day helping young mind using problem solving skill it is they would use for the rest of their lives and go on the soccer field and teach athletes about team work and sportsmanship every day and collaborate with educators every day and make the lessons accessible to all students. However, i am currently fighting to keep my below market rate apartment and if i lose that battle i am facing the decision having to move out of the city and either commute which will mean i have to give up coaching and collaboration or leave the city all together and give up relationships that i have spent my entire career building, so i am just hoping that this hearing gives the board of education and the city incentives to solve this affordability crisis that affects so many of us. Whether thats paying educators a San Francisco living wage with the new contract, or whether thats providing teachers or educators specific Housing Solutions that allow us to live and be a part of the communities which we serve on an every day basis. Thank you. Thank you. Hi. My name is victoria and i teach market at the academy of San Francisco at [inaudible]. I came to california a couple of years ago and decided to stay. I startedded process of transferring my credential to live and work in San Francisco. The first attempt at permanent housing a found a room for 1200 not far from the school and gave me the space for the students that i serve and recreation time for art coordinator and coach. On december 1 the room had been foreclosed on the day before and the new owners gave me the paperwork and started hassling me for rent. I just paid rent and asking double rent and all i wanted that day was rest and food because i worked the entire day and missed lunch. I was forced out of the living situation right before the end of a grading period without time to plan where to g my first option was a local hostile and i didnt miss work and arrived on time for planning and preparation. The hostile option worked for a couple of months but it doesnt serve the needs someone that needs housing. I didnt get the 2,400 back from the original landlord or the provisional credit and stop payment for the rent. Out of 3,600 and the option of the hostile because im a local i had no place to go. The housing crisis has impacted my routine and serve the students because i was without a stable place to go before a fellow teacher helped me out to have a proper place to plan lessons and time to look for permanent housing. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hello. My name is anna. I represent uasf and ace so i have been a teacher for 22 years in San Francisco and lived in my apartment the same time. I grew up in San Francisco and educated here as well. So i have been committed to this profession but ive been committed to my community and i live in the Mission District. What i saw clearly most recently is that my situation if i am evicted from my home which is a rent controlled place there is nowhere to go and same for the community because in fact were part of the community and all the things that have been fabricated, this crisis that affects the community and dedestabling the community and us and were inter twined and the solution is the same for the community and charging and you asking your conscience and any of the people on the board in the wholesale of the San Francisco and fast track being luxury building and slow tracking affordable buildings and allowing rent controlled units turned over to airbnb for Luxury Vacations which is shameful. Taking money from hedge funds and Silicon Valley and moguls and destabilized our city and your credibility. Now that we have the chance to do something about it. I hope you take this opportunity and housing is a opportunity but not enough. 70 of the city are renters and 70 of educators are city and if were 6,000 people there are 4,000 units i know youre not building that. Thats not what were talking about today. We need overall policies and tobias and evicted where he lives. He could have bought that home my lesson plans n1 had i couldnt sleep i had to pick up a second job waiting tables i didnt know how much it impacted my work until i saw how many starbucks gift cards i was getting it cant fix my payments. With my class Self Reporting that i care about them, i love them and i expect nothing let than their best they know this so i love my job, im good at my job but i cant afford my job. Good evening my name is roberto a proudal i work with junior high students Jordan School of equity what is equity here i ask. Students have a hard time refocusing them when i get to hear they dont have a home to say theyre being kicked out this is happening at those grounds where the students i serve then i get to hear from my friend who says i need a room i have been evicted here i go opening my house to a friend of mine and i have to keep his name out because he asked me to he doesnt want to be that popular i guess. Any way, he has been going through this for quite a while hnd and he has left my home and come back its recuring you hear the obvious and look at the people still its time we need housing. I wanted to finish with this is that you know we have the sites, the district and you can Work Together i mean, lets Start Building now lets Start Building. Thank you. Hello my name is claudia hello hilary. Hi. I have been teaching in San Francisco for 17 years. Treasure island sanchez red heart Elementary School fair mount and i have run into my students now theyre older and vig tor victor hugo is one of the students in my Elementary School and he was in front of my house he told me he struggled with housing as well and his family was kicked out and living in a single room occupancy i was really touched to see him become an activist in the Community Come to my protest because i came to be an act ti activist. My husband is a taxi driver ii have my son we cant get preschool easily were dont qualify were not poor enough were not rich enough its hard to keep things up then we get eviction notice our building is sold we get eviction notice from somebody that is not a landlord interested in buying a seven unit property for renting he was interested in evicting us and using the ellis act evision so our neighbors came together and fought him in the court of law on the street we won and won and won. And he died and his brother has the rights to the property, and they bought the building for 1. 4 he wants 3. 8 million for the building we were working with the land trust to get it punneded and the land trust cant touch it because its too expensive and none of the teacher programs teachers next door or anything like that there is no funding for us to purchase that working on. Thank you so much. If you can help please do. Thank you claudia. Good evening Board Members im with the Council Community housing organizations. We are Affordable Housing providers and housing activists im a parent i have a daughter at mckinley and my son is at mission high i get it they talk about their teaches and some travel great distances this is home for a lot of us in fact all of you know what its like to be parents as well as policy makers we have a Historic Housing crisis expanded to more and more folks its not just the populations we served in the past its expanding dramatically one of the ironies of the economic boom is the housing crisis has gotten worse not better our organization choo choo has done a lot. In 2014 we have the largest down Payment Assistance Programs in the state prop c inclusionary in 2016 clearly all of these together are not enough we need to do more collectively we are here to stand on solutions stabilization is as important as new supply were not going build our way of out any Affordable Housing needs we got to have a solution that is driven as much by speculation as it is by shortage of supplies we got to have a set of solution that tackles those problems choo choo stands with the educators were here to work with the city and the educators and all in this room to tackle the problem. Thank you. Thank you, peter. Hl low. Good afternoon im from gateway high school. I love my job because i get to work with some of the most Vulnerable Children with learning disability and pursue this idea that all children can learn and succeed as a parent im an integral part of the classroom serving as a back up to help teacher to do more of what they need to do to be more effective to reteaching entire parts of lesson who wasnt there and needs it explained to them parents and teachers we are told our jobs are vital there is no retention like myself and fellow educators here there is no way for us to stay here. I used to live in the city in the former working class of San Francisco i am now in vallejo i spend 20 hours on commute a week on the ferry to get here every day running Robotics Team i started and running several years i cant spend as much time with my students because it eats into my commute time people are tired an poor we will hear it again there is a pattern to what everyone is saying. My fellows out here thank you very much. Have a nice day. Thank you. Hi my name is armando debate coach at high school the reason i can stand here is as a product of education i grew up poor my parents are refugees and grew up in poor schools i had great teacher, administrators but that is not sustainable with a cost of living that is higher we pay less than berkeley, emeryville and peninsula the cost of living is dramatically higher. Of 664 positions need to be filled next year we likely know we will not be able to fill 164 that means needs are not going to be met substitute teachers are going to have to fill in or student landscape not have teachers period that is unacceptable. I understand this is a difficult crisis and complicated situation i urge you so much to be urgent to be fast to move we have been talking about this for too long every single month, week, day we delay and dont something is a teacher and classroom not being helped thank you very much. I hope you do the right thing. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening im a teacher at Public School in San Francisco montessori for children who are mentally ill who cannot come to school on the weekend i work with another program the Parent Teacher program. I teach para professionals studying for credential exams its not enough i barely survive with three jobs im a teacher of color, i im from the south so very traumatic educational experiences and fortunate to work in sf u. S. D i wish i hated working here it would make the decision of leaving next year easy for me but i love it. The pod goingy the support the fund has been extraordinary the three years teaching here compared to the five back home in texas has been empowering to say the least. But i will become another statistic when i cant afford to come back to the school and community that i love so i might be too late for me but help para professionals stay here who are able to provide representation of student of colors that look like them that have shared experiences and relate with them i hope and i pray. Thank you. Thank you so much. My name is morgan wall lis a product of San Francisco Public Schools and i have been teaching for nine years im here because of the teacher next door and down Payment Assistance Program i got in a window where i could qualify and afford to buy a home with my sisser they work thats why im here that program doesnt work any more the housing cost is too much and the pay has not gone up. We have a large group at Lincoln High School new teacher some who speak today who are young teacher of color and proud residents of San Francisco and Ethnic Studies Program who live in their parents home like mr. Fury spoke to earlier they will leave if they dont get their own place it matters to me so much for Lincoln High School to hold onto teachers and transform that school. Another way this effects our youth is that because i live close to many of my students, just in the last week or two, i have been able to stop by ygc to stop for my students on the way home i did not have to commute. I visit my student diagnosed with cancer with her family and support her and bring her food that doesnt happen when a teacher has to commute. Ii have a kid on the way. I want my kid to have teachers that live in my community. I had a student ask me yesterday how do i become a peer resource or ethic studies teacher in San Francisco i was scared for them for them to stay in San Francisco stop speculation support ore youth address this issue now. Thank you. I will make an announcement since the majority of public decided to give Public Comment now i will hear all of Public Comment now and we will close out before we hear the presentations from the departments ignore my earlier announcements those if you would like to give Public Comment now stand in line you are blow us away with this testimony its compel and heart wrenching thank sow much. Good evening my name is colean turner my husband and i hail from six generations of family lease in the bay area i can drive around street and see structures that my father built with his own hands decades ago. We are educators in sf u. S. D. From tenderloin Elementary School and another one at alverado elementary. I work at presidio middle school. Your honor my husband and i have bachelors and master degrees with numerous certificate and credentials we have 40 years working miracles in the field of education, however, because we chose to be educators and live in San Francisco with my husband as ald instructor and me in education were making a difference in the lives of the citys most vulnerable however we are a family of six living in one bedroom apartment if it were not for rent control we would have no home at all we need help so we can daek care of the children as well as we care for the children of this city. Thank you. Good afternoon my name is cynthia mesa im a parent of four children all sfd students at one point i have been a teacher for 14 years at [inaudible] middle school in district nine. And i consider myself one of the lucky ones. We are six living in a two bedroom house we have no options if we were to get evicted there would be nowhere to go with four children. Im a lucky one. Im also a member, people organizing to demand environmental and economic rights and fighting for housing i used to talk about teachers staying later in classrooms and in the districts i cant make that argument any more. It kills me my argument now is can we just keep teachers in the classroom im in the latin American Teachers Association to reflect the students were teaching to reflect the student ins the classroom we cant make that argument any more can we keep teachers in the classroom . Last year we had ten teachers only three of us returning. We had seven new teachers one of our classrooms spent time empty going sub to sub broken apart twep class rooms that were not the right grade. Can we keep teachers in the classroom . How are we going to do it we have to increase the amount of Affordable Housing not at the expense of poor families we cannot decrease how many are housed their poor. There has to be increase we have to have a bigger part of the pie number two yes we need increase pay so help us work with our School District to increase our pay and increase the housing for all of us for our students for family and for teachers. Thank you cynthia. Thank you. Good evening supervisors my name is Gabriel Medina with the Economic Mission agency im amazed by the teachers of San Francisco im k12 and here today. With our Mission Promise Mission Initiative this effects our vulnerable schools more than any. While california has 9 of ratio of teeveners less than three years San Francisco is at 14 our Mission Neighborhood stantd stands at 20 this is a crisis that effects we are losing experienced teachers as of this i support what i have heard today of course with the subsidies that depletes early Affordable Housing not at the expense of lower income families we need a bigger piece of the pie. On school sites and of course raise for salaries of educators even incentive for landlords, to keep teachers in place we would like to work with you and with the city to find solutions for this. The students and educator of San Francisco are where the city will be in the future thank you. Thank you gabriel. Hi my name is megan i have been educator in San Francisco 12 years i started as par professional i got my teacher kreshl while working in the district and special educator for seven years im now working doing behavior supports all over the city. I work with some of the schools that have the highest needs and i work directly with teachers social workers and staff. To provide needed supports to students. And so i really depend on working with staff year after year. I myself have been living in San Francisco 20 years i have a family and i live in an apartment with 0 rooms and i pay 75 of my salary every month to stay there. Because i dont want to commute from outside the city its kind of a ticking time bomb i dont know how much longer i can spend 75 of my salary to live with three people and no bedrooms. So i really want to figure out what i do next not just for me for a lot of the teachers i work with amazing teachers and social worker and nurses and para professionals n the classroom every year this time of year its the time i hear theyre leaving last year an ahaze mazing teacher was commuting from san pablo one i admired i wanted to grow up and be that teacher she left. This year one of the teacher i thought was amazing that got a Christmas Present for students asking for donation because she works n a high needs school is leaving these representatives people i depend on with the students not just for me and my situation but for of the teachers and para nurses and everybody we need to do something soon. Thank you so much. My name is Christine Soto special education 4th year teacher i work at Francis Scott key. Im lucky to call myself a homeowner in richmond california i commute two hours a day about two weeks a year is how much time i spend in my car i have colleagues that live five minutes from work they live in an inlaw partially subsidized by parents and dont have a kitchen i have colleagues that live ten minutes away that work three jobs and have several roommates i know this is a dit session i make to commute every day. But my colleagues are making a hard decision which is whether to stay in the city. For those colleagues that are able to ford to buy a home now unfortunately now its expensive ii have colleagues that are going to buy their first home to sacramento to rent they cant live in the first home theyre buying while others use teacher to buy the home next door they couldnt get a big enough loan biwells fargo in San Francisco. I know you have hard decisions to make in favor of the students and educators that compromising schools come together and create a solution. Thank you. Thank you. Hi my name is con knee muenda im the teacher kids fear i dont put up with it these representatives ones they send the kids to. Put them aside and get down to the business of learning im saying that to you all these nice people are asking you. Im warning you, either you are going to give us housing or you are going to have a mess its that simple now what you really want is to make sure all of these nice people in nice homes teaching these kids otherwise, you are going to be stuck with those kids out on those streets messing with you. Okay . Thats what i do. I make sure those kids are getting the education they need so theyre out on those streets dont make the mistake of keeping the teachers out. It wont be pretty. Thank you. Thank you. My name is lisa guzman. Of dsf and the organizer of San Francisco international where two teachers sent me statements to be read i know were running out of time i will read one of them [reading] with a persistent mold and mildew in ground apartment and generally with the San Francisco market from confirmation from the landlord he wasnt able to do anything. My mold allergy made it difficult to live in the same place we decided to look in different apartments even with my descent salary there is no way we could afford to move most places we could afford would be a longer commute than coming from some places in oakland and more expensive we found a place in oakland although i live living in oakland my commute is 45 minutes longer i feel less connected to the neighborhood, news, and updates please do the right thing. Thank you. Next speaker please . Im art simon teaching with the San Francisco School District since the 80s i have been at Lowell High School since the 90s teaching Computer Science i enjoy my job but getting to work has been difficult i was evicted from my rent controlled apartment when my son is six months old i looked forward to being not only San Francisco teacher but parent as well. I was able to find a place to live in the east bay but my commute is significant. I have to measure and coordinate everything i do as a teacher with that commute. I used to sponsor clubs after school and evening and weekend functions at the school site those are things i cant do any more. I do miss it even though im lucky enough to have a place to live now and im almost embarrassed to admit that with the stories i have heard tonight, i just dont understand how people can do it now. Thank you very much. And thank you. Thank you. Good evening my name is chris albert i have been in special education my 12th year in al ba. My two daughters have been raised by San Francisco Public School from presidio Child Development care to now at lowell. I say raised because i know how important teachers are to the place we love. They have been expelled, truant, through foster care and through the juvenile Justice System some are homeless abused and traumatized i cant stress enough that is important to help raise them. We lost our social studies teachers last year due to the housing crisis culturally relevant curriculum with social justice in mind as well. We now offer social studies online were losing special education this year for a staff of nine that impacts students in thatd of trusting and consistent adults often time they feel their first School Success with us my desire is to keep my family in San Francisco and help raise our citys youth i received a call from my landlord that said i want to sell the home. As the appraiser came mru the apartment my daughter said dont make me leave lowell day help our dedicated teachers stay in the city we love with the students we love. Thank you. [inaudible] im a teacher at betsy car michael almostry school i am lucky as well i have a 200 square foot apartment in an inlaw with no kitchen but my College Professor landladies charge me only 45 of the take home pay for that space i wanted to speak on behalf of teacher in that school we are hard to staff school and serve underserved children one of the teacher felt nervous about exposing her landlord she also had to work so im going to speak for her this is my 14th. Year in education ii have three clear kreshls a masters doctoral degree working full time for sfsd as an adjacent at local university combine jobs apartment at all is because i have rent control and landlord has increased my rent one time in the last decade i love my work and spend working poor families im falling deeper into debt. Nothing to send my daughter to college and precious time to spend on anything other than work i may need to leave education to survive its crazy to me to leave my job as a Public Servant simply to avoid becoming homeless. Thank you so much. I just want to say, my name is maria [inaudible] i have been a teacher more than ten years at sheridan now at betsy car michael. We have one of the highest homeless transitional families in our school i want you to dig deep i know its bigger than you too bad district 11 where i live for ten years now is gone. Because i really want you to understand the criticalness of it. I was a classroom teacher now instructional reform facilitator i coach new teachers every day social Emotional Trauma physical, menial, spiritual that they go al, spiritual that they go tal, spiritual that they go through. You want to help them but you cant right . They come to work they have this passion to serve their kids they cant because theyre sleepy they travel two hours or live in a condition that isnt best for them. Now, i know my minute is up i want to tell you this story my landlord im very in a unique place right now my landlord is waiting two years to buy his parents house he inherited for 50 years they lived there he waiting two years for me to buy it. The dell program is not helping even with that we have to pay a mortgage of 4,000. The teachers next door it is helping for a bit you need qualification for that and it runs out because so many people are applying as you can tell there are a lot of teachers that need housing im lucky to be able to afford a low rent but if i cant, my partner who is also a teacher and myself has commute. Thank you. Hes considering going to another district in san mateo getting paid 65,000. In a master program. Thank you for your time. I want you to understand that housing is a basic right. Thank you so much. Hello my name is cassandra i teach in middle school 6th grade Language Arts and been there seven years i dont know if you know, but the middle. School s a title school we serve San Franciscos most vulnerable families and one of the populous areas in the city. At seven years in a title one school, im in my prime. Im confidentable with what im teaching im dedicated im constantly searching for new ways to improve. Im experienced im motivated and it kills me to say no to my students when they ask me to stay after school. They know that i live in oakland they know i commute 23 hours a day. And that knowledge goes right out of the window they forget all of it when they need me. They ask me to stay after school and its a toss up ii have to decide in that moment do i say no to you you have asked me, you need me i have said yes in the past or do you say, sorry ii have to go sit in traffic on the bridge for two hours. My value in that traffic is 0. My value in that classroom for 2 or 3 extra hours i dont even get paid for that. Its incredibleably difficult. Im still doing debate coaching i do the coaching in the morning a couple days a week when i dont have a which is rare. Theyre texting me 8 or 9 oclock at night for a debate on sally im explaining israeli palestine conflict in a text message its incredible difficult i wont be doing it for long. Thank you. I see empty seats here this is a citywide crisis they should be here too my name is lizzy i started teaching in 1984 i retired 7 years ago and substitute i havent heard many stours of the 4,000 Child Development Department Part of our School District professionals and teacher in our department make less money than Classroom Teachers do and are equally as dedicated. I want to say that last july i attended a workshop i believe the union organized it for people to come to hear a representatives from the Mayors Office on housing and a woman got up there and said she is animated how many of you are here to learn about buying a house . 150 people sitting there wait to learn no one raised their hands in other words all renters and in the process of being ellis acted out too. This is a renters city. Yes there is rent control but there is ellis act, there is two other state laws that are gripping at us the ellis act is killing us my situation i will finish up quickly i have rent control. I pay a wonderful rent but the owner is old he will not be around too much longer and i will be in the mix with everybody else im still a great teacher without subs this School District does not function. Thank you. Thank you. Good evening supervisors my name is monica levit ii have been a substitute teacher primarily since 2001. I had a pretty good apartment situation but the manager was harassing a lot of us to force us out so they could get the googlers in they did a pretty good job. In the meantime, i got my special ed credential work out of the way by 2010 thats when everything started to spike so its getting really difficult. Hi to go back and forth while my mother was de divorcing in Southern California i was able to buy a home for them in vallejo for her and my brother who is severely disabled so i could be closer to them now i continue to be a substitute teacher which works okay but i prefer to be full time special ed teacher. If there were a situation i could live here, then oh, ii have never done this before so yeah its getting difficult for my mother 85 to take care of my brother in vallejo there is nothing for anyone. A commute couple times a week i have apartment here i share with friends but its difficult. So i spend a lot of time commuting too. I wouldnt mind living here so i could not have to well, i prefer to have them with me so they could be taken care of. Thank you so much. Thank you. And be able to work in the district. Thank you so much. Thank you for your testimony. Good evening my name is morgan mc donalds a Third Generation San Franciscoian. Im a special Education Teacher at Roosevelt Middle School the same one my mother attended. Currently my landlord is in the process of raising my rent to double my monthly salary i live with another special Education Teacher she is currently not here because it is iep season she has a lot of work to do. I would like you to keep in mind for every teacher you see here there are 30 or 40 who cannot be here because of their obligations. It pains me to say come may depending on what else at 25 vaness i might be not be able teach the same kids im a product of the special Education System my lifes work has been to give back to this community and i cannot imagine its acceptable. We can kick teachers out of their homes and forgive me, this is the first time i have cried in many years. But we cannot talk about this crisis in terms of building new homes we have to talk about this crisis in terms of incensives google incentivize to come in and ship from here to campuses down there. Not just google all of these Tech Companies are incentivized to do this we incentivize every aspect of our economy in San Francisco except the people that are teaching our kids. And it is absolute wrong. It is morally ethically wrong it is basic human rights wrong. I can not stand here and say facing a crisis but all were talking five years down the line. We have amputated leg were putting a band aid on were going to die. These people cannot live here i know im above and beyond my time. Again for every teacher here there are 30 or 40 who cant. That need to have their voices heard. Thank you so so much. Thank you. Hello. My name is Rebecca Bradley im a spanish teacher Cleveland Library where march sanchez was a former principal until recently i love my community i walk down Mission Street and chat with parents and students i go to baptism, bit day parties and cleveland student and former cleveland students right now i finished the workshop to purchase bmr condo this is the person going through the workshops got my certificate of completion at the same time im paying for classes at San Jose State University to get my credential and im saving for down payment im a frugal person i believe the teacher next door will be a help but i look at the mayors housing listing and i get discouraged because the prices are out of my reach theyre 450,000, hoa s crazy i know you are trying to do something for us i appreciate the effort there has been talk over the years hasnt resulted in much i hoping mark sanchez and the board of education can work with you to make things happen for us i want to stay at cleveland i love my school i want to stay there. Thank you. Thank you so much. Hello. Im theodore. Back in college i used to tutor after school to kids mostly in math and science. I really liked doing that. I considered whether to get teacher certificate then looked at the market and said no, i decided to get career with a company that actually has money. So i like my job, i miss my kids i still tutor them sometimes if they ask for help. My concern is the system we have here to produce housing, it just doesnt work. Its way too slow. The resulting housing is too expensive. The public land for Housing Program that looks like it will make housing ten years from now or something, this is way too late. Why not tonight . Why not buy a trailer that you can put some where so beginning teachers might have somewhere to go. Why not actually do something . So the system we have here i dont blame you for it we inherited an awfully broken system. And its been broken for longer than both of you have been alive most of us have been alive. But that means we have to defect from the system we have to change it. We have to move faster and actually provide for the needses of the community. Thank you. Thank you. Next speaker. Hello. My name is mita flores a preschoolteacher i wanted to make a statement that Early Childhood educators are just as important as k12 teacher we dedicate our time to children learning social skills to have the ability to self regulate to be prepared to focus and have the body coordination to sit in a classroom for 12 or 13 years of their life without counting college its a long time the first five years is important is start of Lifelong Learning and we are mainly women of color and struggling to find Affordable Housing in San Francisco. I have worked in the field for six years ii have applied for the bmr and unfortunately, i was very sad and disappointed to see my application, raffle number was way down on 4,000 something on the waitlist. So obviously , im not close to getting housing with bmr apparently. So in order for me to be live independently in a place i can call my own, i will be needing to leave San Francisco. Thank you. Supervisors cony ford for the San Francisco Labor Council we represent as you know 100,000 worker in the city half of them dont live here any more but we still represent them im here on their behalf to urge you to act decisively and quickly i dont have to tell you anything you dont know that these good people havent told you in this economy in San Francisco where we have the greatest economic disparity in the world, practically they remind us were like ruwanda we have money here 9 million budget here we need to think out of the box, think big we dont need to tinker here and there we need this think out of the box and big. The School System owns 8th street and laton. That is huge why arent we