>> i am rich with enterprise community partners. it is a little disconcerting to be surrounded by barbed wire. [laughter] i was going to start by flipping

a coin, but i figured only a portion of the audience would get the joke so i will not. i love the events like this. it is kind of a moment where there are no cost overruns, no change orders. there are no issues of tenants and property management. it is all wonderful. it is all a great project. i think we all need to -- it is a good idea to celebrate those moments as long as you possibly can. let me do my quick ad for enterprise. what are the largest investor in affordable housing in san francisco, the bay area, and california. we have $250 million invested within half a mile of this site. to invest particularly in the nonprofit developers and special needs of housing. it is a very much to what we feel we want to do and to our

mission. that is very important to us. we have worked with chp and bridge many times. we're very proud to be part of it. i tried to think of what i was going to say on my way over here. in my cultural and religious tradition, passover is coming up this week. there is a traditional story of elijah. many of you know the story, and no a different version of it. you can come up to maine later and say that is not the story. the story is that he lied to the profit will come back once every generation -- that elijah will come back once every generation as a poor man and see how he is treated. if he is treated well and society has reached that point, we all get redemption. it is a wonderful story to think

that everyone you meet could be elijah and you need to treat them with respect. my thought was that if the elijah were here today, he would be very happy. maybe we would all get redemption. who knows? affordable housing is very difficult to do in california and getting more difficult. any group that is able to do housing like we will have here is my hero. we put in millions of dollars into projects, but the true heroes of the projects are the developers, project managers, directors, property managers. there are tax issues, property management issues. investors and lenders, we all have 18-page checklist to close the deal. subsidies are very difficult real-estate deals. they take the sophistication beyond most real-estate developers. on top of that, they come to the

board with passion and commitment, patience and courage that is unheard of. we are proud to be a small part of this. we congratulate you for a fantastic project. thank you. [applause] >> i am representing wells fargo bank. wells fargo believes in affordable housing and making sure they invest in the communities in which they have a presence. they have both here in san francisco. that is part of the reason we are participating in this project. more importantly, the city, the redevelopment agency, and chp allow us to participate in the project. this project would never happen without incredible leadership that occurs at the city level. the mayor's office of housing and redevelopment agency have the foresight to say supported

housing for people who might not otherwise be able to live in this wonderfully developing neighborhood -- it is because of their support that this is occurring. that is sort of an only in san francisco. i congratulate the city government for doing that. for a bank, is tough to find borrowers you feel, but it will take something to a conclusion. bridge is a wonderful non-profit developer. we have done many projects with them. they have great expertise in construction. chp is a wonderful organization. they serve a population that is particularly challenging. they do a great job of it. we are very pleased to participate with them. i do need to mention our partner in providing the construction financing is silicon valley bank. donna kelley is here. they worked with the federal home loan bank to make one of the many pieces of the puzzle

for financing available for the project. they are participating with us. it is important to mention matt with cal fha and msha. without these sources of funding, projects like this cannot happen. it is all the various sources including the redevelopment agency that allowed a project like this to function without permanent debt. people who really need support to housing do not have the kinds of income that are going to be able to support debt. it is due to rda funding, proposition funding. i encourage us all to keep working to make sure these sources of financing or substitute sources become available so we can keep doing these projects. thank you very much. [applause]

>> my name is calvin welch. unaccustomed as i am to speaking with brevity in public, i have taken the opportunity to beat the bet that i cannot do this in two minutes. i have written my remarks. rene was part of a movement of community-based people committed to providing housing opportunities in san francisco. through his and others' efforts, 25,000 units a permanently affordable housing have been produced, a record unequaled in the united states. in the most expensive housing market in the country, providing such an opportunity is extremely difficult. it takes patience, determination, and wit -- two

qualities he had. he was not too good on the patience side. confronted by the philosophy that says we cannot afford health care, public education, and affordable housing for the broad majority of our fellows, both national and state governments have withdrawn their support for affordable housing. currently mayor lee has undertaken a process involving private and public sectors because it will take both to seek to provide the minimum of $50 million a year for that purpose in the city of st. francis. that effort will require a ballot measure or two, patience, determination, and wit. if this opening is merely an homage to his past, my old

friend would simply remind us that he never came to these kind of events anyway. but if this ceremony is a demonstration of a commitment to the future of providing many more thousands of units permanently affordable to san francisco's poor and working people, we can all rest assured that rene would be pleased. it all depends on us now. [applause] >> the first thing i want to say is the key to everyone who worked so hard to make -- is to say thank you to everyone who worked so hard to make this possible. my mom was not sure she could make it today. she had something she wanted me to read.

we would like to thank everyone who has made this event possible, including those who chose to dedicate the building to rene. for 40 years, he advocated, raised funds, and by organizations in providing affordable housing throughout the city. a native of san francisco, he wanted to help families stay in san francisco. he worked tirelessly toward that goal. this building is a testament to his dedication of achievement, and love for san francisco and its people. it is a way to remember him for years to come. he would never have admitted it, but i think secretly he would have been very proud of the honor, and so are we. thank you all very much. [applause]

>> good morning. i am one of the project managers from the community housing project. someone will ask me what we as project managers do. this is what i explained. we do a lot. what we do is very complex. in terms of our day-to-day responsibilities, most of it involves taking credit for the hard work and successes of other people. i would like to take this opportunity to publicly acknowledge the many people who have contributed to this project happening. the list of people we owe our thanks to are many. if we have forgotten anybody, except our sincere apologies. we would also appreciate it if you hold applause in the interest of time.

i would like to thank our developer-partner. it is through their expertise and hard work that this grand opening is possible. i would like to thank olson lee and tiffany from the agencies. true leadership requires a clear vision and a commitment to making that vision a reality. this project and the funding it received is owed to you guys. i would like to thank the staff , elizabeth, sally, heidi, migke, joyce. you are the ones that worked side-by-side to sweat the

details and worked as long and hard as we did. if there is any recognition we receive as project managers, you receive that equally. i like to thank the department of public health and city-wide and the funding people. you were a big part of the success and will continue to be so for many years to come. finally, i would like to thank the members of the many community and neighborhood residents that have supported the project. i would like to thank cac members and neighbors and residents. chris jackson is on the selection committee that chose our team. thank you. john owns a condo right next to the site. thanks to you as well.

on behalf of committee housing partnership and our future residents, they give to the immediate neighbors for their support and continued -- thank you to the immediate neighbors for their support as we complete construction. [applause] >> thank you. we are waiting for the mayor to arrive. he will be here any moment. i will make this quick. i am robert stephenson, the project manager with bridge housing. i had the great fortune of getting to work on the apartments with michael, chp, and other bridge staff. i have gotten to see the project into construction. on behalf of bridge housing and chp, i also want to thank a

number of people who have made this day possible and worked extremely hard to get us to this milestone. i began working on the project barely six months ago. i inherited a team that has been truly a pleasure to work with. i cannot see you out there. you are somewhere out there. i appreciate you guys. this has been an amazing team to work with. i want to start by thanking michael, who cannot hear me because it is very loud. he has worked on the project for over three years. this has been going on since 2008. he has been instrumental in its success. many others have been working on this for a long time. i want to thank our core team members. richard and vana have been working on this since day one. they have been fantastic to work with.

mimi sullivan is here from sullivan design partners, our other designer on the project we have the highly capable team from cahill contractors and our construction manager. thank you all for your hard work over a number of years now. we just have a couple of years to go. no congratulations yet. a special note of thanks to bill moffitt provides invaluable guidance to our design and construction team. i want to thank a few specific consultants. they make the numbers work. our attorneys. heather gould, who made

extraordinary efforts to make sure we got to the ground breaking on time. there is a long list of consultants who worked on the project. i am not able to go through all of those. if the mayor does not arrive, we will go through a longer list. i want to thank the city of san francisco for the local funding support. i want to call on elizabeth to went above and beyond on the project. thank you. do not hold your applause. [applause] i want to thank margaret and the rest of the team at wells fargo. rich and his team, which is many enterprise, that helped us get to this day. donna kelley and her team at silicon valley bank, and many

other important financing partners such as the california allocation committee, the department of housing and community development, the federal home loan bank, california housing finance agency. thank you for the support from the trans a joint -- transbay joint powers authority. one more page. i want to acknowledge several other people at chp. david is out here. gabriel haywood, gail, and the rest of the staff at chp. i will draw this part out. i want to thank several people with bridge continue to play a crucial role in the project. bank you to kill me