thank you. good afternoon. thank you for the opportunity to participate in this great milestone. i am happy to be here. st. anthony's has a special place in my heart, because it represents the vision of my late husband, joseph koret. joe was born in poverty. he -- his wish was for no one to go hungry in his beloved san francisco community. joe would have been so proud to support this wonderful building that will provide so much care for so many people in our city. for me, st. anthony's also

represents the three c's. care, community, and continuity. i bring you many congratulations from all of the members of the board of directors of the koret foundation and our very best wishes for continued sucrose in -- success in the future. thank you. [ applause ] >> i saw merl and larry, if you want to join us. as we said, this building is complex. and it starts with the funding. it will get more complicated with the construction pretty soon, but it has really been an

unbelievable group effort to pull together the different funders of this work. we heard about the koret's foundation amazing con tributionss and i know there have been so many amazing contributions on the st. anthony side. for an affordable housing project for this it takes incredible people and we start with hud, who supplied over $20 million to make this project possible. larry ferguson is here, the director of the hud 202 programs that gets the senior housing funds and an important thing to know about the hud 202 programs not only do they provide capital, but a rental subsidy. so seniors on social security, or even less income don't have to worry about whether they can make a $1,000 rent payment. they pay 30% of whatever they can pay and the federal government helps us make up the difference, so we can keep people housed. there are folks out there who understand why this is not such a great investment. so i want to take one second to

tell you about this. we know there that we can save money to medicare and medicaid by housing seniors in this setting. so it's an unbelievable investment and one that i hope we'll keep on doing. [ applause ] i don't have time to thank you everybody at hud, but without your commitment to make these things real we couldn't get them done. we thanked the mayor, but the mayor's staff at the mayor's office of housing, one of the humblest public servants you will ever meet -- olson has been doing this i think since 1906. [ laughter ] olson has been doing this forever.

and along with a lot of other people in the city, we not have the history of affordable housing in san francisco without olson lee. he has been tireless. he worked harder to make this happen than anyone that i know and committed than any human being i have met. i want to thank olson and the rest of the mayor's office of housing and the staff for their work on this sfwater. [ effort. >> [ applause ] >> again in the obscure world of affordable housing, leadership pelosi has been a huge champion with senator feinstein in preserving the program. we know we have a huge champion in you as we look at tax reform, we're confident that you will be with us on that

issue. we get investors to buy the tax credits and that helps to pay for the building. it's a very complicated transaction and todd is here representing the foundation. they have brought in equity investment of over $1.2 billion. to give you a sense of how important they are and how important the program is. thank you. [ applause ] you know in san francisco, everything is green, but liz helps us go greener. and so they have provided an important pre-development grant to help us understand how to green this project and make them the most environmentally sustainability program. they are a huge partner with us nationally and with all the

communities and the work that they do across the country. so thank you stephanie and liz. [ applause ] we have two different banking partners on this project that have combined to lend over $22 million to the construction loan on this project. citibank and silicon valley bank. merl is around. former mercy employee, also wonderful human being. merl is also hiding in the background because he is also humble. these two banks have been huge up the supporters of affordable housing over the years. [ applause ] silicon valley bank i think we want to mention also the silicon valley bank has been instrumental in helping us secure affordable housing program grant for this project from the federal home loan bank

system and thank the federal home loan bank and anita adams and her staff and still con valley bank for making that possible. it's a huge grant and a huge part of closing the gap. so thank you. [ applause ] i have been given the inevitable task of thanking everyone. the department of health, they understood probably earlier than any other health department in the country that housing is health. and so they have been a huge part of the solution to homelessness in san francisco. here as they do in other buildings around the city, they are providing operating and service grants so that as people come into this building off the streets, we're able to help them stabilize, afford the housing that they are in and move on and reconstruct their live as tyrone mentioned.

again i want to thank the department of public health. [ applause ] i'm almost there. we have lots of neighbors. if you have ever been next to a construction project, you want to make sure you thank your neighbors at the beginning. they may not want to hear your thanks, but the boyd hotel, st. boniface, hibernia bank, the academy, senior action network, san francisco action ministries, cc y, and tenderloin district and father harden. [ applause ] since i'm up here i want to thank the mercy staff. i think there are probably 25 mercy staff distributed throughout the crowd. we do everything together. no one person is responsible

for any one project, but some who have played extraordinary roles in this project. i want to thank the mercy staff who did so much. last, but not least, nothing happens in san francisco without dedicated community advocates. for this building to be here for st. anthonies to be here and for the work that mercy does there are people over the years that make a commitment to making stuff happen. they are the voice in the back of the room and remining you over and over again that we have a commitment to make something better. mercy doesn't often name your buildings. sometimes they have glorious names like 122 golden gate, which was the name of this building up to now. it's very poetic. but we really wanted to do something to commemorate the

incredible contribution the tenderloin community and we want to name this building after vera hale, who is here on stage. this building, once it's opened will be named the vera hale building. for over 20 years vera has been a tireless advocate around senior issues, around economic security issues. she has worked at curry senior center and i have a list of the boards and commissions she has served on. i will read them to you because it's a longer list i heard many in my life. advisory council to aging and adult services, the mayor's long-term care coordinating council, the san francisco interim support task force and coalition of agencies serve the

elders, and i'm sure will there are a hundred other that vera sat on. the list of things that she has worked on goes on and on. to me vera symbolized what san francisco is about. her work and the community she fought so tirelessly for and on top of the dining hall, this corner will forever be st. anthony's dining hall, but the same piece that is mercy housing will be known as vera hale housing. [ applause ] so close. i have a long list. i'm on page 3 there is only seven more. [ laughter ] i'm kidding. i'm kidding. it does seem that way. i know. we want to thank our events

sponsor, our general contractor. [ applause ] the hilton, citibank, banc of america, and barry will say more about them in a second. i'm sure i have forgotten something and i apologize in advance, but in the interest of time i will turn it over to barry. thank you. [ applause ] >> yes, to wrap this up here, two lendors on st. anthony's side, the low-income investment fund, nancy andrews is here and the bank of america elizabeth shooten, i believe is here and we want to thank them both. because st. anthony's helps the low-income housing fund get started back in the '90s, we were going to have nancy say just a word or two. nancy. [ applause ] >> thank you everyone and it's just fantastic to see so many

san franciscans turn out for this groundbreaking. i am nancy andrews. i'm the president and ceo of the low-income investment fund. we are a san francisco-based community capital non-profit organization and our role in this project was to provide a $10 million allocation of new markets tax credits. you heard leader pelosi speak about the importance of this program. every year the new markets program provides billions of dollars to projects similar to this one. and it's a very important part of the fabric of what moves communities toward in today's worldful. we're incredibly proud to have had the chance to support this program, to support st. anthony's in providing meals, services and hope to san franciscans. but it's especially heartwarming to us to be able to collaborate and to bring housing and services together

and the collaboration between mercy housing and st. anthony's. we would like to thank banc of america, who was our capital partner in the new markets program and again, we're simply thrilled to be part of this. it speaks perfectly to the vision that many of us share for how to move families and communities forward. i have to say that i for one, if this is what the groundbreaking is like, i am incredibly excited to go to the grand opening celebration. thank you all. [ applause ] >> thank you, nancy. i would like to make sure that we thank the staff of st. anthony's, who is here in force today. raise your hands and thank them. [ applause ] a couple of other grantors to st. anthony's, thanking jack fitzpatrick, who is here.

stephanie and the koretfolks that have already been mentioned. we're actually going to do a groundbreaking. so i would ask those involved on that, that is everybody on the stage pretty much to start moving into the pit. so if you can stand up and start moving.

>> i love teaching. it is such an exhilarating experience when people began to feel their own creativity. >> this really is a place where all people can come and take a class and fill part of the community. this is very enriching as an artist. a lot of folks take these

classes and take their digital imagery and turn it into negatives. >> there are not many black and white darkrooms available anymore. that is a really big draw. >> this is a signature piece. this is the bill largest darkroom in the u.s.. >> there are a lot of people that want to get into that dark room. >> i think it is the heart of this place. you feel it when you come in. >> the people who just started taking pictures, so this is really an intersection for many generations of photographers and this is a great place to learn because if you need people from different areas and also

everyone who works here is working in photography. >> we get to build the community here. this is different. first of all, this is a great location. it is in a less-populated area. >> of lot of people come here just so that they can participate in this program. it is a great opportunity for people who have a little bit of photographic experience. the people have a lot, they can

really come together and share a love and a passion. >> we offer everything from traditional black and white darkrooms to learning how to process your first roll of film. we offer classes and workshops in digital camera, digital printing. we offer classes basically in the shooting, ton the town at night, treasure island. there is a way for the programs exploring everyone who would like to spend the day on this program. >> hello, my name is jennifer. >> my name is simone. we are going on a field trip to take pictures up the hill.

>> c'mon, c'mon, c'mon. >> actually, i have been here a lot. i have never looked closely enough to see everything. now, i get to take pictures. >> we want to try to get them to be more creative with it. we let them to be free with them but at the same time, we give them a little bit of direction. >> you can focus in here. >> that was cool. >> if you see that? >> behind the city, behind the houses, behind those hills. the see any more hills? >> these kids are wonderful.

they get to explore, they get to see different things. >> we let them explore a little bit. they get their best. if their parents ever ask, we can learn -- they can say that they learned about the depth of field or the rule of thirds or that the shadows can give a good contrast. some of the things they come up with are fantastic. that is what we're trying to encourage. these kids can bring up the creativity and also the love for photography. >> a lot of people come into my classes and they don't feel like they really are creative and through the process of working and showing them and giving them

some tips and ideas. >> this is kind of the best kept secret. you should come on and take a class. we have orientations on most saturdays. this is a really wonderful location and is the real jewel to the community. >> ready to develop your photography skills? the harvey milk photo center focuses on adult classes. and saturday workshops expose youth and adults to photography classes. >> just a little pack of pad located at the bottom of russian hill, the secret garden with