that have been homeless. please remember that the true cost of homelessness is not just found in the service issues, it is in the impact of the quality of life. helping to move people out and stay out involves a series steppingstone programs. the begin with shelters, case management, they include advocacy programs coupled with a function of behavioral health systems will help get the -- that will help get the seniors into the community where they can help themselves and help the community. thank you for your time. [applause] >> think you so much. -- thank you so much. we want to bring up erica to share with us about homelessness. >> district 6 has the largest population of homeless people in the city. it resides in the south of market area. it is the largest proportion of other social conditions often linked to poverty, overcrowding, disability, mental illness, addictive disorders, and more. 9000 different people, into small shelters. three of the shelters were located in district 6. after the recession hit,

it is never just homelessness. folks that we serve, it is homeless and mental illness, homelessness and being seen and not having family. homelessness and unemployment in an economy that is really difficult for the best of us to compete in. homelessness in so many other issues, and what we are asking with these budget cuts is 334 people to now -- do not now have a resource center to go to, to not be able to use restrooms at the shelter to be able to rest. if you are in a wheelchair. this is what the budget cut will do. again, it is resident impact. also, staffing impact. you see us at the shelters. we employ 25% of our staff are formerly homeless. we are employing formerly homeless at $12.13 an hour. we will lay off -- we will have to lay off some of our staff. again, these are the working poor, and we ask that they not be penalized by these cuts. finally, the neighborhood impact. again, i say that having the shelter opened, having a place for them to watch tv, to rest, to be with each other instead of being on the

so this is just a tremendous opportunity for homeless women and children and for all of the homeless population that tie-dye serves, and i encourage you, this is the time. thank you. >> good evening. my name is jeff, the executive director of catholic charities, c.y.o., a member of tie-dye. and since about 20 pioneer families moved out of homelessness and into permanent support of housing in 1989, we have been there with them, supporting them. today we are supporting almost 200 formerly homeless families on the island. in addition, we run the child development center, where we have about 60 children of those families. i would encourage you this evening to certify the e.i.r., as well as approve all the other items that come to you this evening. i would ask you to consider the incredibly positive environmental impact of housing of formerly homeless families and the fact that hundreds of children now are graduating high school. the families are stabley housed. and this incredible community at treasure island has been living there for up to 10 years without basic infrastructure, without

eight or nine homeless people are camped inside. they say they are not leaving until police come in and evict them. the group is called homes not jails. and the activists staged a rally and march last night before taking over the vacant building. homeless advocates tell us this morning that they are demonstrating the need for san francisco to make vacant and abandoned buildings transitional housing for the homeless. >> this building is one of the many buildings in san francisco that are empty. we have about 36,000 empty units of housing in san francisco a lot like this and 6,000 to 15,000 people sleeping on the streets, sometimes in practically usable buildings. >> the building apparently is owned by kaiser permanente. in a statement, kaiser said the building is currently empty and not fit for occupancy. the demonstrators are trespassing and need to be removed for their safety. >> reporter: we have word that police may go ahead and evict the homeless this morning. we didn't have a time on that. meantime, this demonstration has been

but i hope that as we look at homeless policy, we take a man approached that does not blame homeless people for their own predicament but looks at how we can improve the economy, jobs, and educational opportunities for many people who are currently homeless. >> you started to touch on this a little bit as the city's housing needs. what do you think the board of supervisors should be doing to address some of those needs? supervisor mar: even as we will be holding a hearing on senior housing needs in a few weeks, we did a study with the budget analyst office that shows that there is a huge need for housing, especially for affordable housing for the lowest income population, but even for our middle-income, aging population, there is nowhere near enough housing that is affordable for people, so it may mean an exodus of more working families, or seniors that are middle or lower income from the city, we must build more housing that is affordable. there is also the danger that san francisco becomes a city that loses families because it may be cheaper or more affordable to live in daly city

some suggested these individuals wanted to be homeless. ♪ >> when people hear the word homeless, they think drugs . people want to label them and stereotyped and. >> people can put categories like that, it can help people get through their day them on any given that america, more women, and00 men, w children are without homes that we could have a family, a network of friends, a network of maybe a church or a school. we have people who will hold us up if we fall down and the homeless people have lost those contexts. >> the most common stereotypes is folks are homeless because they are not trying hard. , that they are lazy or victims of their own lack of initiative then i should the federal government spend federal tax money to help these people? >> their support role for the government to play in ending poverty and homelessness. people feel like the government should stay out of social service work. and the church is should be juked -- doing it all. i really don't believe that. >> when the shelters are open, food bags -- >> i think tax money should be set aside for the homeless. >> wha

i would like to get your thoughts on homelessness and what the city is doing about homelessness, what direction you think we should be headed in, a big issue in san francisco. >> homelessness is interesting. when you look at it as a sociological perspective, we have some of the people in the homeless community enjoying being on the street. others want help. i think when we also -- we need to do a better job of taking care of those mentally ill. when you are on the street and you listen to the homeless folks or you watch them interacting, you see they are a little disturbed. i think the city overall has done a good job in terms of housing and taking them off the street, providing services. mayor newsom started a private -- program connecting members of the homeless community to services, dental, vision, therapy, housing, mental health. these are things that you and i probably take for granted. we have access and resources we can leverage. this community doesn't. in the southeast part of the city, we don't have many homeless facilities. there is one that i know of, providence baptist ch

half dozen homeless advocates are outside and about 8 to 9 homeless people sleeping inside. the homeless activists staged a rally and march and then took over the abandoned building last night in a peaceful protest. they are from the group "homes not jails" and they say san francisco has twice as many abandoned buildings as homeless buildings and they demand transitional housing for the homeless from those vacant buildings. some members of the group have been arrested dozens of times for squatting in vacant buildings and they say they won't leave until police force them out. >> this building doesn't belong to us. the people of san francisco should be concerned that housing is unaffordable and yet there are 36,000 empty units of housing in the city that are being wasted while people sleep on the streets simply because they can't afford them so we think there needs to be a policy change. >> reporter: police have been waiting to hear from the landlord before taking action. the building's owner kaiser permanente told us that the building is currently empty and is not fit for occ

the homeless is now speaking up. >> homeless people fed up with the way they are being treated are now organizing, even showing up at city meetings. >> sometimes we're not honest about what is going on. sometimes we're not opening the doors that need to be open. >> doug is an advocate for the homeless. >> it's been a vicious cycle. when we evict people from their dwelling and we force them to go from one location to another but we're not providing alternatives. >> he suggests using abandoned buildings at mare island. he agrees it could be a start and they hope it will spark a dialogue that will lead to a long term solution. >> civil rights and human rights respected. homeless camp and they want access to water, food and housing. >>> of the 188 schools across d as failing ten were in san francisco. seven of those are in the mission district. lyanne melendez reports. >> first year math and science teacher and she understands why everett middle school was targeted by the state as one of california's worst performing schools. >> sixth grade math teacher, they are still learning the times t

living on the streets hybrid cars in abandoned buildings so what's it mean drug done to address the homeless. and while so many americans struggle with almost no surprise big words from the leading corporations are raking in millions even billions in profits end up paying a penny to uncle sam. along this continue. and we could take a debt lot of one of us and from our neighbors across the pond i'll tell you how the germans and swedes are dealing with their own budget dilemma how to handle surface so. average tax payers like you and me are getting the shaft from a giant corporate tax cheat. we are going to zation public campaign with the new corporate tax dodgers and released a new report that shows just how much money was spent by a dozen just twelve of america's most profitable corporations to ensure that they don't have to pay their fair share of taxes major corporations like exxon mobil the most profitable corporation in the history of the world going back to the roman empire chevron conoco phillips as well as financial institutions like goldman sachs citigroup and bank of america and def

man to me if you get me if you don't know me i'll shoot you and the homeless man throws friends saw red coals reaching to sway span well that was gone and or whether they were young a homeless man back and later officer macphail came around the corner and he was shot the most logical person to have done a shooting. and yet troy davis is aren't natural for

that is one cause -- one part of the homeless population, but also, being homeless makes you more susceptible to contract in hiv. so we need to look at the public health system to make sure we can do our work around finding resources to get people to understand how they need to live more healthy. housing is an issue. i like the idea of building more supportive housing that can help people have a room but also these other services i have mentioned, so that they can be stable in their housing. it is probably -- i would like to think that we can get over it, but building the housing stock, having an economy with enough jobs for people where it can be stable, services on the health side is what it will take. homelessness has been an issue that is always a perennial issue that people are using in campaigns, what they are going to do to resolve the homeless issue. sometimes, i see them being scapegoat as the cause of a problem, but we need to think of it in a compassionate way, how we can provide real care that will help people turn their lives around. the success is how we are able to help people

we have a number of wonderful plans in place on how to address the homeless issue. we just cannot afford to. we continue to cut funding to shelters, public health programs that help our homeless population. if we were able to do what we have in place and fund that, we would be a better position on that issue. >> are there any specific programs with respect to homelessness that you feel are moving us in the right direction? >> the watershed moment was 2002 when gavin newsom passed care not cash. it turned things around and forced the city to think more about housing. that was a key movement in the right direction. >> let's talk about housing needs and what you think the board of supervisors should do. >> i was asked about this but a friend i grew up with who now lives in the peninsula. i was fortunate enough that i grew up in the district was able to afford in the district. the vast majority of the friends i grew up with in the neighborhood cannot stay in san francisco. we are really becoming a city that is either for the very rich or very poor. the middle class is l

i live downtown and see the homeless population. there's other examples of things and to think you would call 9/11 to -- where is the priority there. that's for emergency and shootings and thefts and robberies, that's for real crimes. if i call 911 every time i do something, i see something i don't like, that would be chaos. >> i think the 911 is specifically for a crime in progress. it would be the nonemergency to report graph fitty that has happened after -- no, he said if you see it in progress and not to approach the individual doing the vandalism, but only if it is in progress. 911 and 311 to report it after the fact, if you don't see it happening at that point in time. so -- ed, did you want to -- >> testing. i would also say you know, tourism is still our number one industry in san francisco. and working with the visitors convention bureau, you'll hear very distinctly that a lot of visitors and convention attendees have commented they're not going to stage the convention if the city is not welcoming. and graph fitty is always

several homeless people refuse to leave. why police are to move in. >>> this morning a standoff at a vacant san francisco building. several homeless people refuse to leave. why police are waiting to move in. >>> plus, how much more can you take? the new signs gas prices are taking a toll on bay area drivers. >>> good morning. it is tuesday, april 12. i'm sydnie kohara. >> hi, everybody. i'm frank mallicoat. time now