>> my name is marcia conraers and i'm with mission housing development. one of the co-developers for the balboa upper yard, alongside related companies. i would like to welcome everyone to the groundbreaking ceremony for the balboa park upper yard. we are excited that you have set time aside to join us and to alongside related companies. i would like to welcome everyone to the groundbreaking ceremony for the balboa park upper yard. we are excited that you have set time aside to join us and to celebrate along with us. we're standing on the ground where in about approximately two years from now, about 130 units

of affordable housing will rise -- yes, thank you. thank you for the signal. are we excited about that? 130 units are coming to this wonderful space. the balboa upper yard has truly been a community effort. for well over a decade, members of the san francisco diverse district 11, my personal district that i'm so proud of, have come together and organized to ensure this plot of land here would one day become affordable housing. and today we celebrate together the efforts of numerous advocates, leaders, financial partners, countless people who have touched this project and shown what happens when we -- and i'm going to repeat -- when we, all of us, come together and put the land in the community's hands. isn't that true? yes, where is our community? [applause] we have a lot to celebrate today

so let's get started. one of our first speakers is one that i know very well. and i have the opportunity to work very closely these past 10 years. we have worked tirelessly, along with our team, to see that this dream became a reality. which is basically to build affordable housing in my district, district 11. can you please help me to welcome our executive director sam moss to the podium. [applause] >> thanks, everybody, i'll keep it short. we are standing on a parking lot right now that will be 130 units of affordable housing in under 10 years and i want everyone to take a moment to think about that. we have space in san francisco to build affordable housing for our low-income communities. we have lots of space. there are a lot of parking lots just like this all over the city. and there's undeveloped land all over the city. so whenever someone tells you that people just need to move away, that there isn't enough room, just point them to this

place, because we are proving that the highest and best use for land in the city is probably housing our most needing citizens. i want to thank related california, bill witty and sylvia. without you, mission housing would never have been able to take a lead like we have in this project. we have rebuilt ourselves over the last 10 years and it is exciting to take the next step. i'd like to thank senator scott wiener and sb-35, with which we would not be where we are in the time that we are. but more important i would like to thank the district 11 community, cusj, and omi, everyone. without you, we wouldn't be here today. since 2008 you have been pushing for affordable housing at this spot and i'm just really excited for everyone to get a chance to celebrate. because affordable housing is the best. so thank you very much. and with that i'd like to introduce jamie from the ymca.

>> hello, everybody. what a great day. i want to center my comments on a powerful word that you're going to hear hopefully over and over again today. and that word is "yes." so many times we hear in this city about, no, no we can't do it, no, we can't dream big enough. but today is about a yes. and imagine the hope and optimism of that day. think in your head of the many times that you said yes to something and you opened yourself up to, yes, we can have community input, yes, we can do this. we can take a land that needs to be brought back to affordable housing, and really make it powerful. thank you for making that happen. and so let's center on one word and that is "yes." and thank you for that. and it matters. why does yes ma effort? the soul of the city depends how we treat our most vulnerable and this is a site that's going to be a treasure for the most vulnerable in our community. 100% affordable housing. can we say that -- 100%

affordable housing on this site access to transit. and the balboa mission terrace neighborhood, incredible work to the power of yes. and also youth development. we'll have over 6,000-square-foot youth development center in this site so that every child that walks through the threshold of those doors understands the power of yes and how we came together and how the community came together, elected officials came together, partners, our faith-based ministry, and pastor ralph. we came together to say yes, yes, yes, over and over again and we have more yes to go. and i am proud of the partnership and the community input to make it happen. the future is bright here today i want to thank mayor breed for her vision. senator as well for his vision to allow us to come together on behalf of the ymca, and thank you for your work and your support. and, sam moss, thank you for your words earlier today. so today is all about yes. thank you all.

[applause] >> thank you, jamie. and that is a yes for me. the community partners like the ymca are going to be able to provide strong programming here for our residents at the balboa park upper yard and we're excited about that. but now i want you to bring to the front an amazing group of folks. and i am going to make sure that i pronounce this correctly because i was trained earlier today. this district is very diverse and we have a lot of different cultures in district 11. and today we're going to be welcoming a dialect to the front. and it places indigenous music from the southern philippines as well as their own compositions. they are a homegrown group here in district 11, and they are going to be providing some entertainment so that we can learn more about their culture. so welcome.

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[applause] >> a pattern of leading, with what we are wearing today. we're going to play one more song. this song is a composition right here in san francisco. let's do it.

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[applause] >> [indiscernible] thank you. [applause] >> wasn't that wonderful?

can we give them another round of applause? [applause] thank you, thank you for joining us today and allowing us to enjoy this wonderful music. so now to lead us in a prayer and a blessing, i would like to welcome pastor ralph howard of the baptist church. pastor howard and his family have been a religious pillar in this community for the past 50 years. helping us to lead with gratitude, pastor howard will lead us with a few words and a blessing for us today.

>> surely, it is an honor for us to be able to join in this occasion, for the work that has been done and what we are all about to witness and take part in will be a legacy that will stand for the generations. as pastor of paradise baptist missionary church our congregation has been privileged to serve this community for now over 70 years. we've been located right here on san jose avenue for 55 years. and the changes that have occurred over that period of time have helped to strengthen our community and to bring us together, recognizing that god has created us, not only to be equal, but also to grow, prosper, and to care for one another. one of the great commandments

which was asked of the lord by a person who wanted to know how can you please god -- the lord responded, there is a great commandment, thou shall love thy lord thy god with all of thy soul and all thy might. and thou shall love thy neighbor like thyself. he said on these two hinge all of the laws and the prophets. truly the things that we are able to do to help to provide for housing meets that challenge. i have been asked to share a prayer, a prayer of blessing, for not only those who are soon to reside here, but a blessing on our community for what is taking place here is truly a reminder that we all have common needs. a need for food, a need for

shelter and a need for love. in the book of hebrews in the 3rd chapter the words of the bible declare, "for every house is built by someone, but god is the builder of every thing." with that let us pray. lord god, as we come to this appointed time, we are eternally grateful that you have provided for us the resources, the wisdom, the means, by which to care for our fellow man. lord, you have provided every one of us, dear god, with resources and to please you, you have required that we share with those who have need. so, dear god, we pray that this

building, this house, which will house many families, will be a refuge of safety. we pray, dear god that, in this place those who reside here and those who pass through here and those who come to be served by the various activities here will grow into the persons that they are meant to be. persons of dignity. persons of integrity. persons who have your favor. so we thank you today for this the result of a job well done. god we thank you and give you honor. bless this land and this place. amen. [applause]

>> amen. thank you, pastor howard, for your wonderful words and also for your blessing and prayer today. we would like to welcome melissa reyes, with a coalition that arose here and came together to lead the community advocacy effort to make sure that the balboa upper yard was secured and that affordable housing could be developed here. so please help me to welcome melissa reyes. [applause] >> good morning. hi, everyone. i'm so happy to be here. this is truly a victory for our community. again, my name is melissa reyes and i live and work in the 11. i live on mission street. so, again, it is very exciting to be here and to see everyone out here today. i was actually active in communities united for health and justice, which is, you know,

the community organization and alliance that really helped to make this possible. i was actually active in the alliance after, you know, securing this land and this project, but in the work that i have done, i really want to highlight and lift up the role that our communities have played. and the community movement that really ensured this victory and i want to continue to highlight that this wouldn't be possible without our community members who were active every step of the way to come together and to have alternatives to harmful development in our neighborhood. and continue to highlight the actual hard work that went into, you know, making this possible. and so when i was active in cuhj, we we collaborated with

many stakeholders in our community. so i was able to see the development of the housing action team that met monthly and we were able to bring together our multilingual and multi-generational community every month to talk about what was happening in the community. and really to think about how we could make sure that we were engaging folks in the neighborhood and in our communities who don't typically -- are engaged -- or aren't typically -- you know, they don't typically have a seat at the table. so some of those examples of the work that we did at cuhj is that we collaborated with school. so balboa high school, and we were able to engage staff, the administration, teachers, students. we were able to bring really -- to allow the youth to have a walking tour with planning commissioners to talk about the importance of our neighborhood and the importance of ensuring

that the youth who were born in this neighborhood were able to continue to live here, 10, 20 years down the line. we were able to -- again, to also meet monthly with, you know, our community members to ensure that their voices were heard. we engaged in different meetings with developers and we were at the table when we were choosing a developer for this site which is very unique, you know, that the community really demanded to be a part of that process. and i think that i just wanted to continue to highlight that the work that cuhj has done and the work that our community has done as part of this victory, is that we didn't accept top-down decisions. we didn't accept whatever coming from city hall, but we actually -- we were proactive in cultivating and shaping what we wanted to see in this community, what we wanted to see in this project. and ensure that the needs of our community was reflected in that and i also wanted to -- yeah, to

just say that this victory is, again, a testament to what happens when a community is empowered, when a community unites around a community. and demands a seat at the decision-making table. it is really an example of how we should continue to move forward in projects like this in the city. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, melissa, for your words and thank you cuhj, for all of the work that did you in this neighborhood, but also the work that you did to make this project happen. well, another important part of this development is not only its proximity to one of the busiest mass transit hubs in the bay area, but it is also going to display a new plaza that we're very excited. so we're excited to welcome two

members of the bart board of directors, bev and dusty and janice lee. >> good morning. as i start i just want to acknowledge that we have a local official who actually lives in this neighborhood that i wanted to introduce. a member of the board of education here in san francisco, the first samoan-pacific islander to serve on the school board and doing a lot of important work. i'm bevin duffy and i'm so honored to be here with my colleague janice lee. i want to reflect on what marcia said. i loved district 11. i had a 25-year career in the city, government, and five years at bart. and i can tell you that district 11 is unlike many other parts of this city. d11 has come together time and time again to say, you know what, we deserve more attention from the city and county of san francisco. we deserve the opportunity to do things like build affordable

housing. and so while many of us who are elected are getting the opportunity to stand here, i just want to say clearly that i went to so many events that the community was part of. and there was a vision in this community that we could do this, that we could take this barren parking lot and make something that has real meaning and to knit together a community that does have a lot of traffic. no way to deny it, right. but it is also one of the busiest bart stations. so transit-oriented development is what bart is focused on and it means to bring together opportunities for individuals and families to go places and to go to school and to go to museums because of having a rich bart system here and also the muni system as well. i want to say that this groundbreaking -- first of all, sometimes you go to groundbreaking and there's like a couple of bushels of sand over there and that's all that is

happening. like, this is for real. and i am watching marcia and i see the stuff going back and forth and the horns blowing, so this is also a testament to d11 about getting it done and not standing on ceremony. so i would like to acknowledge senator wiener because sb25 is the real deal. it says if you build enough affordable housing as part of your project, we won't let your project be tied down, we won't let it to be delayed for years and years as we have seen. so i think that is something that is very significant and it is something they really appreciate about what scott has done in sacramento. and then i just have to give sam a shout out. he very politely said that the past 10 years have been good years for the mission house and development corporation. they have been fantastic years. and they followed years that were foul and not a hell of a lot was happening around here and i said to mission housing and sam, could we give them a round of applause and say that they have really stepped up and

they have so many things to be proud of. so now i'd like to introduce my colleague, and i want to say that one of the great things about balboa park station is that you campaign there. and janice and i stood there, day after day, morning after morning, and to see people flying through that station and trying to get to work or school on time was absolutely inspiring. but i want to thank d11 that we both share for electing a wonderful, fierce, smart, queer, young asian american woman to be on the bart board of directors and to change the direction of the future. janice lee. >> good morning, everyone. so i do pay director duffy here to be my man at every event, so if you need to hire him. but, hi, everyone, i am janice lee and i'm proud to be elected to be the representative of district 8 on the bart board of directors, to share this space with director bevin duffy.

so we get to celebrate this as elected officials, you know, the fancy posts and carry the golden shovel. this is an easy job. but the hard work is cuhj and this community turning out and saying that we deserve more. and what we are getting is more and it is 131 units of affordable housing. and for me affordable housing is a really personal issue. i am a renter and i have absolutely no pathway to owning a home in this city. it is out of -- it is out of my price range and it's never going to be possible and i think that is true for a lot of people, especially young people here. i have often said that i'll get priced out before i get voted out of my district. that's how darned expensive it is in this city. and these 131 units will give wealth for people to keep them in the community. on top of that, folks living here in this community, and all of the housing that is in this

community, they deserve high quality transwit a great plaza as an entrance to our balboa park station and not this concrete block. we deserve something that looks great, you feel great as you enter. so we are really, really proud of bart to have partnered with the mayor's office, mayor london breed's office, and with s.f. county transportation authority, to really bring the dollars in and to make this into a beautiful high-quality transit system that we can all be proud of. so thank you, everyone, for being here today. >> thank you, director duffy and lee. and thank you for investing in district 11. i was one of those individuals that probably ran into that bart station many, many times with my kids, running to go to work. and i am very appreciative of the fact that there is going to be a new bart plaza for our fellow workers that are going to be able to enjoy. and also our kids. believe it or not, a lot of

young adults are taking bart these days and it's not just the working class. so thank you for that investment. i'm personally very appreciative of that. and we would not be here without the financial support of various institutions. so continuing to invest in affordable housing. our gratitude goes out to san francisco mayor office of housing and community development, wells fargo, the california community reinvestment corporation and the debt limit allocation committee, and the california tax credit allocation committee and the california department of housing and community development. let me take a moment to rest. that was a lot. but this is what it takes to build affordable housing. we have to all come together in order for it to happen. so i'm glad to be able to present today pedro galval, with the housing and community development department, and he has a few words to say today.

so please come over and help me to welcome him today. [applause] >> good morning, everybody, and thank you so much for that kind introduction and thank you for having me. i want to also thank senator wiener for being a tireless housing advocate and making this project a reality. on behalf of the department, i'm here to congratulate you for this community's tremendous achievement. it really is the community's victory today. balboa park upper yard represents the kind of development that you have fought hard to make a reality, but that california desperately needs more of -- affordable, transient-oriented development that is here, that the community advocated for, that serves the community, and that will enable hundreds of san francisco families who are currently wondering how they'll put an

affordable roof over their head and an affordable place to call home. this is what happens when a community demands more affordable housing for their neighborhood. so that the neighbors can stay in the area and prosper. this is what happens when you have a city like san francisco that said yes to more affordable housing. and dedicated land, public land, for the public good. as well as millions of dollars and thousands of staff hours to make this a reality. this is what happens when you have bart directors who care about affordable housing and want more of it. you know, their station area that i have been to director meetings and i know how hard you have to fight. this is what happens when you have talented, affordable housing developers who are willing to put in the hundreds of hours to put together tons of applications, tens of thousands of hours of meetings to get this project off the ground. we're here today because none of you gave up -- none of you gave up the vision that san francisco

needs to be a place where everyone has an affordable and a stable place to call home. and that public land should be used for the public good. and it shouldn't be this hard, but you did it. so the state is really proud to be here and have invested $15 million in this project through the affordable housing and sustainable communities program because not only do we want -- but we desperately need more of this kind of affordable housing that can get more residents affordably housed while combating climate change and helping to build a strong prosperous community for generations to come. and for all of these accomplishments, i'm proud to stand alongside you today and to thank you for not giving up, for continuing to support your beloved community. because this is an amazing accomplishment and there's so much to celebrate. thank you so much. >> thank you, deputy director,

for your kind words and the continuing support for affordable housing that we still need in san tran. we would like to honor the original owners of this land, the chicago institute [speaking spanish] for a ceremonial blessing. >> it is an honor to be here to do the blessing. and we will thank our ancestors for this day. and the original people of this land for allowing us to do this ceremony. we will do our traditional dance from mexico city. so i hope that you enjoy this blessing that we are doing for all of you. thank you so much for inviting us.

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>> thank you so much again. and now we'll finish the way that we began. we'll face four directions, the east where the sun rises and the west where the sun goes down. and then the north and then the south and back to the center, to our creator and mother earth. thank you to all of you. thank you so much.

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thank you for joining us today and receiving the blessing for this site. once again on behalf of mission housing and related california, i would like to welcome everyone to land and community hands. the groundbreaking ceremony for the balboa park upper yard development. ever since 2016, when we were awarded the rights to build affordable housing here on the corner of geneva and san jose avenues, we committed to a community-based process. this process involved countless hours of community-based organizations, but also a strong, unwavering support of elected officials. and today i would like to welcome someone that is an advocate as well as a supporter of affordable house, our own may mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed. >> good morning, everyone, and thank you so much for being here for this groundbreaking of 131

new affordable units, right here at balboa park upper yard, but also in the heart somewhat of lakeview. i want to say i send a shout out to the lake view community that is here, al and mary harris, i see you in the back. maurice. and i don't see gwen here today but i know that there's a whole host of people from this community that have been here for generations and when we build affordable housing in san francisco, well, when we did it back then when i was growing up, the people in these communities did not always have access to the units that were built in their communities. and this is why even before i was mayor i fought so hard for neighborhood preference, because i do believe that people who are a part of these communities deserve to continue to be a part of these communities. when i talk about housing and

affordability and the need to build more, people talk about coming to san francisco for better opportunities and being able to find a place to stay. and then making a better life for themselves and raising their children in san francisco. but once their children are adults, they no longer can afford to live here. and that is why this is so important. pedro, i want to have you send a message that, yes, we appreciate the 25% neighborhood preference, but he knows that i want 40%. at least. [applause] so next time -- next project -- fingers crossed. but i want to thank the state for the $30 million investment in this project because it does take a village. and working with bill witty at related and sam moss at mission housing and partnering and working with various community-based organizations to reach out and to make sure that they are a part of the fabric of what makes this affordable

housing so special has been instrumental in the success of not just the groundbreaking here today that will develop the units but before we were even ready for construction, your superior safai led the effort to make this a triage location for people who were homeless living in their cars. they were here and getting the services and resources they need. and i pray commissioner howard that there is a direct connection between those people who were living on this site and were homeless and access to the housing that we're going to build on this site. we have to do better. we have to make sure that people who are unhoused have a direct connection. the application process is something, sam that, you know that we have to change. because not everyone has access to a computer to fill out an application and apply for every single thing they may qualify for. we have to make it easier.

we have to make sure that we make those connections. and i'm going to continue to push eric shaw, the mayor's office of housing, who is in the back there to make sure that when we talk about access to affordable housing, we're talking about equity, we're talking about direct connections between community, between homeless and all of the people that we know that deserve an affordable safe place to call home. that's what this project represents. and so we are glad to be here today to break ground. i want to really thank senator scott wiener for his advocacy on pushing to build and to have more density in places like where we are next to a bart station. in places where it is transit rich, that save not only commute time but it also helps the environment. this project is going to do so much with the childcare center, a bicycle shop, so many great things for the community. health and wellness. because we know that this pandemic has been very challenging on our mental

health, especially our children who have not been in school. we got work to do in san francisco. having safe, affordable places with resources and services in community together is going to be instrumental and moving this city forward and making sure that we are successful in our housing goals, so that we can continue to address the challenges that exist with affordability and homelessness. so i'm so grateful that you're all joining us here today. i want to break this ground like right now, almost, but i know that we have other speakers because i want to come back right away, bill, for this ribbon cutting because we want it nice, we want it great, and we want the community to continue to live and to thrive here. so thank you all so much for being here today. [applause] [horn blowing] >> thank you, mayor london

breed, for your words and thank you for supporting us today and being here. i would like to introduce senator scott wiener to the podium. i would like him to add a few words, you know, for support in regards to this project. thank you. >> thank you, marcia. first of all, i want to thank and congratulate the entire district 11 community for this amazing addition. we know that when it comes to building affordable housing in san francisco we haven't always built it in every part of this city and it's been concentrated in certain areas which is a good thing for those communities, but we need to spread it out more and we need to make sure that we're building housing, including a lot of affordable housing in every single neighborhood in san francisco. we need to move away from the stratification where we only built it in certain places.

and district 11 definitely needs this housing and a lot more. so thank you to everyone who made this a reality. as you have heard earlier we have done a lot of work at the state level to grapple with our multimillion home shortage in california. we are short housing in every income level, particularly at our low-income level and we have been passing laws to make sure that all communities are contributing to our housing needs and that we're speeding up the permitting of housing, that we're zoning for more housing, so we can actually meet our needs, just making all of these important changes. and it is very, very gratifying when you see those laws that we have passed in sacramento translate. and as you heard this project was streamlined and expedited under a law that i passed, senate bill 35, that is -- [applause] thank you. that has streamlined over 2,000

units of affordable housing in san francisco alone, and many thousands of affordable housing all across the state. but it is always important to keep in mind, you know, we have all of these fights about housing and is ceqa and zoning districts and terms that we fight about a lot. but we have to always remember that behind these very technical terms, behind all of these laws, it is about real live people. it is about human beings in our communities who are struggling. we know people who are not homeless and became homeless and lost their homes and have nowhere to go. people pushed into poverty because of the crushing cost of housing. people who have to leave their communities and move hours away or out of the state entirely. kids who can't afford to live in

the community where they grew up. and a huge number of low-income workers in the san francisco and the whole bay area who are at risk of being the next wave of homeless. so we need to always remember as we have these fight it's at neighborhood meetings, and planning meetings and at the state legislature and at the board of supervisors, these fights and discussions that we have about housing, it is always about people and making sure that people can live with dignity in our community. so congratulations, everyone. [applause] >> thank you, senator wiener, for being here today with us to celebrate this achievement and thank you for all of your support. our next speaker is our supervisor for district 11, supervisor asha safai, we would like to welcome her to the

podium to say a few words. >> supervisor safai: well, i don't know left there is to say, but i just want to point at something. look at that crane. you drive around san francisco right now and you count how many cranes are in the sky. the majority of those cranes are in district 11. go down the street to 4840 mission and there's a crane in the sky. go down to the corner and home s.f. project, crane in the sky. right here at the upper yard, crane in the sky. we need to build housing. this city is facing a housing crisis. and because of the great work of so many people that are here today that you have heard from, thank you to bart for being a partner and working on the plaza. and thank you for mission housing. sam and i -- when i first got elected to office we had one of our very first meetings together

with mayor lee. and i said is there childcare on-site? and sam looked the other way and mayor lee said make sure that there's childcare on site. but they didn't even have to hesitate, they made it happen the next day. thank you to bill witty and related for taking my calls and working us through this process, bringing everyone back together and keeping us focused. and let's give it up one more time for sb35, and senator wiener, for the great work that he did. thank you. because, guess what, there were a lot of people that were not supportive of that in the beginning. they did not believe that it was necessary. they said that affordable housing will be okay, but, guess what, it speeds up the process. the quicker that we can get people housed, the quicker that we can get them on the right path to a better life. thank you, senator wiener. and thank you to cuhj and the

community folks for advocating for this site since the beginning and all of my neighbors in action for advocating for this site in the beginning. this is lakeview. thank you, mayor breed, for recognizing this. this is a gateway to a community that is a forgotten, forgotten part and had been for a very long time. so thank you for the tremendous work and for all of the community leaders. thank you to former supervisor availos to working with the community to get site control on this site and making sure that this would actually be able to be affordable housing. i want to give a special thanks to my friend and our mayor london breed, because when this project was stalling, when this project was facing a funding gap -- and i'm not talking about $100,000, i'm talking about over $20 million. mayor breed did not even hesitate and said we're going to

put housing in a part of san francisco that has not had affordable housing in decades. this will be the first 100% family affordable housing ever in this district. ever funded by tax credits and working with our non-profits. mayor breed, you referenced our safe parking site. that's another thing that we did that was a first for this part of town. we've -- not even for this part of town but our city -- we have never done safe parking, but she didn't hesitate. i went into her office and i used to say i marched, but she didn't like that. i walked into her office respectfully -- [laughter] -- and i asked her for money to do something special with those living in vehicles. and then here we are again about a month ago working with her office and we bought the mission hotel and we'll have a pathway

for those living in vehicles to be able to be housed. so the 4840 site and the upper yard site and the mission housing innings mission inn -- not mission housing -- the mission inn site will be affordable housing in this part of town that has not seen any supportive housing ever. so mayor breed has been a champion for affordable housing and she's been a champion for this part of town. thank you. one last person they want to recognize is treasurer fiona mau. when we were in a bind, when it looked like we might not get the tax credit allocation because that now has become a competitive process, we were able to work with and to advocate for with bill witty, with the mayor's office and with mission housing and to get that allocation which was the last piece on making sure that the funding would line up for this site. so i am so thrilled to be here today. and i'm thrilled to be your supervisor. and i'm so happy to know that residents from sunnydale will be

living here. 40% plus neighborhood preference will be living here. and we will be working diligently, mayor breed, with mission housing and the community, to ensure that we do the outreach, to ensure that residents of this district -- all of my lakeview excelsior will be housed in this part of town and in this district and remain a vital part of this community. one last thing that i want to underscore and i think that it is an important part to underscore and it is something that the mayor and i see eye-to-eye on and i know that it is something that senator wiener has been fighting for for years this will be a very diverse site. it will have incomes that are 35% a.m.i. up to 109% a.m.i. and that means teachers, nurses, laborerrers, janitors, working people that in the past have

been forgotten as part of our affordable housing conversation they will be able to live here. along with those struggling to make ends meet at the minimum wage level. all families can access this and it's something that i'm proud to have championed. so thank you, everyone, for being here today and thank you, marcia and thank you sam moss, , and thank you mission housing, for all of your tremendous work and we'll be breaking the ground soon. and the folks will be moving in thank you, everyone. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor safai, for your kind words. and for remembering district 11, that we are still here on the map. and that we are part of san francisco. so thank you so much. i would like to introduce our next presenters, bill witty is the chairman and the c.e.o. of related california, one of the

state's largest developers of affordable housing and it's based here in san francisco. since he founded related california more than 30 years ago, bill was overseeing the development of 16,000 residences, completed over 12,000 affordable units. his counterpart anne silverberg is the chief executive officer for related california, and northern california affordable and northwest division. she's responsible for the strategic direction, overall management, and daily operations of the company's $2 billion affordable portfolio. in just over three years, anne has grown the northern california and oregon affordable pipelines to approximately 4,000 units under construction and in pre-development. that's a lot of work. that's a lot of work that our partners related california is doing. so please help me to welcome bill witty and later on anne as well.

>> thank you. first, i want to thank sam for inviting us in to partner with them. it's been a great partnership. we are long-term partners with them. we look forward to being stakeholders in this community, so you haven't heard the last of us. but i have to tell you that we developed affordable housing all over california. i have never seen or had the support from the elected officials here that we have here and that you have heard today. i mean, i know that sounds sort of generic, but i'm telling you, you heard mayor breed, supervisor safai, scott -- this is the sixth sb35 deal that we have done for affordable housing. that is just in a few years. it is pretty amazing with this team of elected officials, what they have been able to accomplish because it is not easy. you hear about transit oriented development, how about transit

in the development? i mean, this is really unique. so i'm very pleased to be here. and i want to turn it over to anne who she and her team and my partner who did all of the heavy lifting to get this project to where we are today. >> thank you, bill, and thank you, everyone. i know that i'm standing in between the shovels here so i'll try to make that quick, but i have been given a long list to thanks, and i want to thank you all individually but i won't be able to do that today. i want to say one thing -- this project is near and dear to my heart for a couple of reasons. one, an amazing team that you will hear about in a second. two, it is housing in the community where people live, where people work and it's next to transit. not just transit but high quality transit that is so important in what we need to be doing more of to solve our housing crisis. i want to say thank you, just echo bill's comments and to say thank you to the supervisor and to the mayor.

you have been true champions of this project. and like everyone here, i want to say thank you to the senator, thank you very much for sb35. this was approved in months, rather than years, and it is really significant and what we need to do. i want to also say thank you to sam and the entire mission housing team. you are amazing partners and we couldn't have asked for anyone better to work with. pedro had mentioned millions of dollars and thousands of hours and i think that it might be millions of hours on everyone's part, really, really making this happen, so thank you. and i want to also say thank you to the staff who worked tirelessly on this project and moving it forward. and then as has already been mentioned, bart. there are a lot of details that go into the plaza improvements and coordinating with bart. and, again, millions and millions of hours it feels like in just making sure that every detail is right. a lot of funding comes into a project like this. we have already talked about ecb and you'll hear from the

treasurer's office in a second, sue lac, and also wells fargo who is not here, invested just a mere $57 million in an $80 million construction loan, so they're a very important part of this development as well. and with that i wanted to just say one quick thing to the related team -- i couldn't be more proud to be with you all through this process. you have done an amazing job and i am really, really pleased that we are all here. kay hill, thank you -- they have taken to heart the on-time, on-budget, they did not even stop for this event and making this beautiful project come to life, designed by them. thank you all very much. >> i'm sorry, not to direct things but two quick points. i talked about the support of the elected officials and it sounds general but i'll give you two examples. we had a lot of issues in getting funding from the state,

new regs, etc. i called the mayor's office to see if mayor breed could talk to the treasurer and they said oh, she's already done that. that never happened. and, asha -- usually we're calling the elected official, and would you do this -- he would call me every week -- every month, is this done yet, what can i do? is that enough units? i have never had that experience before. so just thank you to everybody, to mission, and this is a project that as you have heard of, by, and for the community. thank you. [applause] >> okay, we have one additional speaker that represents the uhj, maria medino. can you please join us to the front. [applause]

>> [speaking spanish] [speaking spanish]

>> my name is maria dell ruby and i'm a member of the housing justice team with communities united for health and justice. when i was going through difficult situations in my eviction case, i got involved with the action team and joined the fight. in san francisco, we have a lottery for affordable housing. i participated in the lottery and i was selected. i was asked for a lot of documentation. according to them i did not qualify because the income was too high. but we did not earn even $50,000 a year for my entire family of five. sometimes the programs made to help us put many obstacles in our way. >> [speaking spanish]

>> to face these challenges, we've had to struggle and organize. the action team includes grandmothers, dads, moms, and our neighbors. many years ago we started organizing to create more healthy development in our neighborhood. the community has taken a lot of the leadership in securing this piece of land here at the balboa upper yard. youth and june jordan high school collaborated with the department of health to protect the community's health and projects located along a heavily polluted highway. we became scientists. we took to the streets to survey our neighbors in english, spanish, filipino and chinese, and organized several summits to bring the community together.

we became the planners. >> [speaking spanish] >> our youth demanded that the city release this land where we are and dedicate it to affordable housing. as you can see we've won.

[applause] we became organizers. and i can say that it is a community that hired the developer, mission housing. to realize our vision, not the other way around. so mission housing, you can't forget. >> [speaking spanish]

spanish] speakingspanish] gracias. >> our community -- our community -- we are the experts in conditions that impact us. i was one of the participants who attended the series of public meetings with mission housing. the solutions we need to build are affordable housing has to be truly accessible. without too many barriers to best serve the people who need it. we should also include the community in planning and developing solutions.

we do not accept top-down solutions. above all, we should come together as a community and continue to advocate for the change that serves and improves our community, working together and fighting. thank you. >> thank you. [applause] >> gracias, maria. to end the remarks for today please help me to welcome another vital financial partner of ours, our executive director nancy roles of california tax credit allocation and the california tax debt limit allocation to the front. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i am nancy roles, the executive director of the tax credit allocation committee and the

debt limit allocation committee as i was sitting out in the audience watching these amazing dancers and the musicians, let's give them another hand -- they were fantastic -- i thought, oh, gosh, i sure hope they don't have to speak after them because i'm sure not going to dance for you guys. so i'm just so very proud of this community and i am here representing treasurer mau who couldn't be here today and i know that she'd be extremely proud to listen to all of these speakers today. everyone was amazing. and it is just so heartwarming. and i also want to say that we said yes to this project in an extremely competitive situation that we're in right now with our scarce resources. i am just so happy that we could say yes to this project and i want to thank all of my partners and everyone who made this possible. and like the mayor said, she's

ready to get her hands on these shovels. so let's get to it. thank you. [applause] >> okay, well, thank you, nancy, for your words. and at this time i'd like to thank a few additional partners of ours, methune architects, and k. hill contractors to put this event together while they are moving around behind us. and to thank a few other folks, mission housing would like to thank our board of directors which is provided support and trust in our team to keep this project moving along. and last but not least, we'd like to thank all of our mission housing team that worked on the project and all of our staff here today that were able to make this celebration happen, even after a couple of days of rain. so can we please give them a round of applause.

[applause] i also want to thank related companies and their team for their collaboration and support i would like to invite everyone to the front to get our picture taken and to start breaking the ground. (♪♪) (♪♪) >> one, two, three... (♪♪)