because we have a great waste water system here in san francisco, we do about 80 million gallons of waste water here in san francisco, which means we basically fill up 120 olympic sized swimming pools each and every day here in the city. we protect public health and safety and environment because we are discharging into the bay and into the ocean. this is essentially the first treatment here at our waste water treatment facility. what we do is slow down the water so that things either

settle to the bottom or float to the top. you see we have a nice selection of things floating around there, things from bubble gum wrappers, toilet paper, whatever you dump down the toilet, whatever gets into our storm drains, that's what gets into our waste water treatment and we have to clean. >> see these chains here, this keeps scum from building up. >> on this end in the liquid end basically we're just trying to produce a good water product that doesn't negatively impact the receiving water so that we have recreation and no bad impact on fish and aquatic life. solids is what's happening. . >> by sludge, what exactly do you mean? is that the actual technical term? . >> it's a technical term and

it's used in a lot of different ways, but this is organic sewage sludge. basically what it is is, oh, maybe things that come out of your garbage disposal, things that are fecal in nature. it's sludge left in the water after the primary treatment, then we blend those two over and send them over to digestion. this building is built to replace tanks here that were so odoriferous they would curl your hair. we built this as an interim process. >> is there a coagulant introduced somewhere in the middle of this? . >> this coagulant brings solids together and lets the water run through. that gives us more time in the

digestion process, more time to reduce the amount of solids. these are the biggest ones in the world, like we always like to do in san francisco. they are 4 meter, there's none like it in the world. >> really? wow. >> three meters, usually. we got the biggest, if not the best. so here we are. look at that baby hum. river of sludge. >> one of the things is we use bacteria that's common in our own guts to create this reduction. it's like an extra digestion. one of the things we have to do to facilitate that is heat that sludge up and keep it at the temperature our body likes, 98.6 degrees. >> so what we have here is the heat exchanger for digester no. 6. these clog up with debris and we're coming in to -- next wet weather season so we always come through here, clean them

out, make sure that we get maximum heat exchange during the colder wet weather. sludge season. >> rubber glove. >> right here. >> rubber glove, excellent. all right, guys. >> thank you. >> good luck. >> this is the full on hazmat. . >> residual liquid. we're taking it time to let it drain. we don't want to get sludge on it necessarily. take your time. stand on the side of it. . >> should we let it release for a while? . >> let it release. >> is that the technical term? . >> this is the most important bolt on the whole thing. this is the locking bolt.

it locks this thing right in place. so now. >> take your hammer and what we want to do, we get rag build up right in here. the hot water recirculates right in here, the sludge recirculates in here. the sludge sometimes has rags in it. all we want to do is go around the clean the rags. let me show you how. take the slide hammer, go all the way through the back, go around. >> got you. >> during the real rainy season, how does that change the way dealing with this job? is it a lot more stuff in there? . >> what we do, charles, we do this quarterly. every four months we go around and clean all the heat exchangers so we don't have a

large build up. . >> go around? . >> yeah. (sound of hammering). >> what i'm trying to do, charles, is always pull it out on the low stroke. >> right. so you are not, like, flying out. now talk about clean up. . >> then where does this stuff get deposited? . >> we're going to dump it in a debris box and it will go back to the plant. >> if you think back, the romans came up with a system of

plumbing that allowed us it use water to transport waste away from the hub of civilization, which enabled cities to grow. . >> you have a large bowl, a drive motor and another motor with a planetary gearbox with differential pressure inside there. the large mass up there spinning separating the solids from the liquid. we have to prevent about once a month, we go in there grease those, change the oil, check the vibration levels. the operators can tell just by the hum of that machine that it's a harmonic noise emitted that it's out of balance and the machine needs to be cleaned. it will start vibrating and we

have vibration analysis machines that will come over here and check the levels. so it's kind of an on-going thing that you have to stay on top of on a daily basis. >> handled properly, you take organic residuals, as we call them, that are leftovers of our society and turn them back into some energy. and we have another ability to take that sludge and get a nutrient value for crops there. we actually are running a kind of composting energy recovery system. >> well, this is a dirty job. we try to do it safely and we try to do it without imposing too much on the public. people want to flush their toilets and have things go away and not be bothersome again. we do a lot to try to accomplish that. i'd like to invite you to come back any time you want. once you got this in your blood, you are not going to be

able to stay away. the raging waters are fun and when we do digester cleaning i really hope you can come back. that's quite a sight. >> yeah, that sounds interesting. >> i really appreciate you coming by and it was a aye been in san francisco 20 years. i'm homeless. i got a good cup of coffee. i got a number. today i'm 359. >> you try to do the right thing and make a point to do what you have to to be at one place. they have all the services at one building.

i can spend 4 hours touching each table ask and getting the information i need to get back on my feet. they are providing the services under one roof. you don't have to go here or there or wait until next week. >> at the time we opened we have folks waiting outside to come in. >> good morning. >> what we are doing is trying to find out what they want and need and getting them to their services as fast as possible. >> i came to the eye glasses program. making a couple of phone calls to my family at home. >> some housing, i'm here for employment. may be see about -- i've never been to one of these. i have not been homeless before. >> the scareiest are the people who are recently homeless who look like me.

look like they could be my friend or family member. a few wrong choices and bad luck got them here. >> i was laid off 2-1/2 weeks ago and came to the project to -- >> i've been married to the same man, my childhood sweetheart he started doing drugs. we went from a nice out in texas to nothing. the next step in the process is they get linked up with a volunteer. this is the heart and soul of the public connect. we greet clients. shake their hands. ask them to follow us and talk to them as we bring them to the hall and lead them to the first station. you find they are humbling on both sides. humbling for me. it's a great opportunity to give

the folks the respect they deserve and don't get enough of. >> these are the people we step over on the way to our jobs. i was thankful to the mayor. our jobs are about helping people. this is another way for us to give back to our community that treats us very well. i like the way they take you around to get you started. that's nice. they let you go and thoser the different things you need. >> are you with a program, now? >> i was a long time -- >> you want a job search? >> career planning [inaudible]. you are interested in getting into the trades? and that is where they will double check your trading skills

you got and put you on a crew and you can do construction work or any kind of construction. >> okay. >> good. are you receiving food stamps? >> no. >> not medical or nothing. >> no. >> we got to get you hooked up. >> this the department of human searchss this is the benefit's section much the beauty on coming here today is that we brought all of our requirements to this place, this station. the assessment. the orientation, we have the screening propose, the finger imaging this helps people who are unable to tolerate going to different appointments on several days. >> i want to talk to people from housing and shelter. there are several jobs i have been given it's a matter of following up.

>> i'm going to get my eye glasses, try to. when i got here they said 60 people. not everybody will get a pair. 8 million people in san francisco who are homeless. >> i volunteered for the eye screening. they are appreciative, they tell us that. and they have come back to say, thank you very much. we appreciate this. it's made a difference in my life. there was a guy today that couldn't see so near sighted he couldn't seebeyond 2 or 3 inches. everything is a blur. it's a miracle for him. >> they are not doing anymore screening for the day. i will go to health care, next. >> this is the medical section where they come and give us their names and we ask them to

have a seat with the rn. there are 6 rn's that will find out what they need. it could be just to see a doctor. they will sit here, write an assessment and someone will escourt them to where the doctors are. we have 2 if not more licensed dentests that look at people's mouth. they get a card to a drop-in clinic. the only thing that holds us back is we don't have enough dentists to treat the number of people. we would treat more people. >> this is not an area that people deal with. it can be a significant barrier. we see 185 to 200 clients. in the dmv area we see 300 to 350.

>> it's overwhelming but helpful. there are a lot of people willing to help. >> at cafe connect we have volunteers that work as waiters. everyone who come here experiences a surprise that it's such an easy thing to relate to this group of people. when you are out of the street you ignore them. when you are here you treat them like human beings. people are gratified. >> you give back to people. you give back to our community and it makes the world a little less cruel. >> i heard people in line talking about the donation when they walked out. it was nice to see people come and get the things they want and leave. it's rewarding for our employees to help out. >> the feedback i have gotten from the employees today has

been positive. they are encouraged that the fact the city is doing something like this for the homeless. >> i got involved, my son adam who's a teacher in san francisco participated and invited me. >> i got involved with a friend. i came a couple months ago and wanted to make it a priority to come again and invite my family and more friends. >> it's well organized. i'm impressed how organized it is. it feels wonderful to be a part of it. >> affords dignity to the people who affords the services. >> every service you can need or get you started is here under one roof. if you leave here you should have [inaudible]. the bottom line is you make

>> i need your executive director of cnbc. -- i am the executive director of cnbc. i want to welcome you to this truly joyous occasion, commemorating the completion of the rehab of civic center residents. we bought this building 38 years ago, and it has been through a couple of partial rehabs before now, but before now, this had leaky plumbing, inadequate electrical. it was just one, slow elevator, and a dingy community kitchen. you can see what a beautiful space it is now. we raised $30,000,000.20% of

that came from the mayor's office of housing. -- $30 million and 20% of that came from the mayor's office of housing. the department of public health is providing subsidies for the 100-plus homeless households' living here. housing and community development, enterprise. hundreds of staff people coming together to bring this beautiful project to fruition. in that sense, this is our model for preserving affordable housing in san francisco and throughout the country. for another 30 years, this will provide an affordable home for generations of low income people. with that, i would like to

introduce our mayor, ed lee. [applause] >> thank you. don, it is my personal pleasure to be here, in a community that i care very much about, and that we know has a history of struggling to exist. now we see something that reflects a lot of my values, the history that i have had with this city, having been an attorney who represented tenants who live in a lot of run-down places, to now be able to walk into these well-managed places, sro's, half of which are focused on our homeless or formally- homeless persons. i also want to recognize the incredible efforts by some in the different people who have come together to make this happen. i know a lot of these people

personally. so many of the entities in between. when deraa was describing the entities they came together to forge a $31 million it took, he named seven different agencies that had to combine themselves in different ways, including redevelopment, housing, state, and all of these entities have to work together. i am so glad that we have a mayor's office of housing that can help with a reputable community-based agency to forge this kind of relationship. because, when you are working in

a building where you also promiseall of the construction g on, and when our goal is to make this building seismically safe, and when every unit gets a working bathroom, accessible showers on every floor come and that people can live here while that is happening, that is an incredible, complex thing to do in the heart of our city in the tenderloin. tried to do that in another community, -- try to do that in another community. it is hard. you need a tight-knit community. i was walking around here this morning. it is all smiles. though they know that they have got a great place to be, for a long time.

the significance of this rehabilitation has other aspects of our wealth and human for the city. its seismic upgrades. extremelif you know me, one of my passions is to be sure we are ready for the next earthquake. for folks who could not move elsewhere, to feel safe in the building they were a part of, helped to contribute to making seismically safe, and our earnings and ability to have earthquake insurance cover them, we have a fantastic story to tell here. in addition, it has added 105 units to the whole 10-year end homeless program that we committed to. this helps to achieve 1800 units of those 3000 that we

committed to building. i am sure the people that helped us write the program would be proud. these units are not just high places for people. it is also a service. services from our department of public health and from the human services agency. a collaboration that this building represents. we have a lot to celebrate because not only is it a complex thing to do, in a needy community, but it accomplishes so many other goals that the city has articulated that are really important. i look forward to many more with the tndc. there is a lot more to do.

i walk in and marvel all of the amenities that we have, and units are so precious in this community. i can only thing, how many hundreds of others wanted to be in this situation? and they would want to have a mayor, board of supervisors, city and state agencies all working together in a less political setting, more in a community, social goals setting, where we can collaborate and put our money together and work with wonderful banks, like wells fargo, and others who are contributing to the financing of this building. it is not politics that rules the day. it is people that have great objectives that put down the barriers they can. the biggest barrier is the barrier of poverty. to put that away and to just people can live in decent housing all their lives, and the city can benefit to that goal.

i want to thank everyone here who worked together on this. those that had to move tenants around in the building, keeping everyone safe. and while the construction was going on, there was a fire in the tenderloin a few months ago, and the president needed to have an emergency place. you are standing in the very place that tndc opened up for those victims for a couple of weeks. that shows the tremendous heart and bellevuevalue that tndc hasr this city. i am so fortunate that i can be here to share this with you, and to make sure that i acknowledge all the people that put this together, all the people that will run this place. we need more of these examples

in the city. so with that, congratulations. congratulations to everyone here for putting together a fantastic project. [applause] >> thank you, mayor lee. please welcome to the podium, richard gross from enterprise community partners. >> thank you. i was told by three different people leading up to this that i should speak for two minutes, and two minutes only. but as you can see from the program, i have a couple of people down because some other people are not here, so now i can speak for 45 minutes. i was trying to figure out what to say yesterday. i have been doing a number of these and i do not want to repeat myself at these things.

there are some standards things i could say. we have over $100 million invested in the tndc projects, over 200 million in the tenderloin, south of market. we are proud to be invested early on and these projects, committing to the work that tndc and other nonprofits are doing. i always say that these groups are the real heroes. they are the ones that sweat blood. they are the ones that deserve the real credit. more than any of us standing up here today. i was reading the newspaper this morning, and there was an article in the paper. i said, that is my chance for a soapbox. so i will speak for two minutes, starting now. it was an article about church street -