ever had before. [ applause ] fp >> and we are sending a strong message that san francisco families are welcome and we want you to stay. >> this park is open. ♪ (clapping). >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon.

>> that's not a good afternoon. >> come on. >> good afternoon. >> good afternoon. >> now that's better this is a really a momentous coalition we've worked so hard on the things we do in our day jobs and commissioners this is an opportunity we should celebrate good afternoon. my name is is online the director of the mayor's office of housing and we're here to celebrate a historic agreement between the housing authority the housing and urban development and the city that permits the housing u housing authority to utilities the program a relatively new program in combination with other hud programs to rehab over

35 hundred units of public utilities in san francisco and sustain another thousand more unit (clapping) yes, it pretty much covers all of the public utilities showcase stock in san francisco this is why this work has taken a while the demonstration program was to provide a way for housing authority across the industry country to fund the repairs that in fact, the federal government couldn't afford to fund or was not able to fund we are at the starting line of something special in san francisco as well as for the nation we'll further demonstrate for congress and for the rest of the nation how the rental system demonstration

program can benefit public utilities residents we know that hud got the caps lifted in terms of rad but the goal to prove the program and make sure increase not a scape again so the resources as they become available we'll help 9 residents throughout the country without regards to that capital this agreement facilities over $500 million in erect in the next few years hud is not giving us a check for $500 million we wish by their giving us us resources to voucher assistance to track that $500 million to make the needed repairs in the hud fund there is much, much work that needs to be done this agreement shapes the way that

the housing authority the federal government and the city will work together to make this all possible. >> at this time it is my pleasure to introduce a very special man yes he's my boss he's very special (laughter). >> as part of his 2013 state of public safety address speak the mayor said we must do something to help our public libraries residents and called for the revitalization of the housing authority which were struggling loan to try to serve san francisco neediest residents as the mayor likes he like the big issue led by the naomi kelly of the city metrics

administrator's office and that work group helped to identify the challenges that were faced by the housing authority and it also identified some of the opportunities that we in san francisco, california pull together to assist the housing authority and it's residents to have a safe descent sanitary housing to implement this work the mayor district automobile cities departments not only the housing and urban development to work with the housing authority to towards the goals of the revision he has committed city resources in excess of $50 million for just the rental system rehabilitation alone and committed the resources of the city to serve the needs of the residents on an ongoing basis

and funded hope sf which has revitalized alice griffith and developed the financing plan to revitalize potrero and sunnyvale also (clapping) he is very committed to serving the housing needs of all san franciscans especially those lowest income residents in the city that needs the housing let me introduce to you a very special mayor mayor edwin lee (clapping.) thank you olsen for the introduction a hearty chinese new year the first day of chinese new year we have a lot to celebrate we have malia cohen

in the crowd thank you four district 10 and london breed who's story continues to be so inspiring everyday she's not in my area but in my ear and reremind each other of the sprernz to making promises to helping others get out of poverty not just in public utilities but housing i know the secretary is going to say some things i'll truly inspired by the support as determined as o citizen says i'm about this topic i'm lucky to have people surrounding me with the same interests and passion to help people get out the poverty part of that it is to have an answer is people call the deplanning

housing someone's fault i told you we've isolated the residents not to be the residents but never again that reference is going to happy that we are providing proud to see the residents of our public utilities are resident of san francisco what do you mean that means (clapping.) a heck of a lot and those conversations have now proud action that produce a lot of people that stepped up you can our regional office levied by ophelia she's a supporter of our vision for this to happy our housing authority staff out of the role of isolations into conversations with our city administrator and olsen lisa

office i'll lead the housing development for low income seniors bringing their expertise in and as olsen mind earlier rad the rental assistance demonstration really is a tool a tool of different government programs brothel together but what we had to do was put that tool in a revilg process that was challenging and piece together a plan that involved the residents because most importantly the residents don't believe what you're doing you can say they don't believe it you a can not improve their lives it had to be a partnership utilizing those

tools other part of this getting here was to have a housing authority commission made up of people that also shared that with the staff and with the conversation with the residents we had to have a strong, strong relationship and continue to do with ore labor representatives that are dramatically important to this effort we need everybody to be at the table that's not just the implicit the to the resident we had to overcome our own bureaucracies we have thick walls in our bureaucracies part of my job was to breakdown that to allow for a significant level of flexibility flexibility that i talked to john donovan was secretary and the deputy concert was over phone call after phone call and phone call and pleading with hud they were pleading with

us you've got to demonstrate there will be outcomes to snare share we can't just share you've got to that will lead to something by the way guess what the federal government can't tolerant failure we have to take a lot of risks i know the pressures on secretary castro he knows the pressures as well to turn 411 hundred units for 54 hundred families people are disabilities and seniors into a collaboration with labor and nonprofits city administrators and housing authority staff you all had to be demonstrates time and time again demonstrated we began with the hunters view and

you see brick by brick family by family moving into those unite with a level of support of services they trust to help them get more successful you'll see that demonstrate in alice griffith we had an infusion of dollars mother person i want to thank over and over again our fellow certainty nancy pelosi she's allowed us to demonstrate what we're felt is behind the entire vision authenticity not so much investment in barker but we began with investing in people first and letting the residents we care about they're to be treated as full fledged residents of san francisco this is the conversation that leandro and i have time and time again she's led the effort to make sure that our budget is appropriately supported of our

public housing residents not just so we can survive or die on our own is where he to lend that because guess what the people that will there are san franciscans ease kept we fail they fail we needed everything we needed tenant applicant and people that believe in us and demonstrate that quickly and have all the agencies including our police officers our firefighters and bishgz building inspectors our expertise that has been involved tremors in the way we staff up and everybody to believe this is the right direction that's the inner ingredients of success i'm so happy to announce rad is a just a tool and if you don't use it with live human beings that believe what you're using it for

you'll not get the goal of this tool housing and the human people behind hud are to be congratulated because we do work in thick bureaucracies and it was and had to be a big selling point to convince hud we're willing in san francisco to thank ta take the risk ourselves if they don't see the city mayor wanting to take the risk why would they join in it's about transforming the bureaucracies to a collaborative and strong spirit i've named those people i want to give them total credit for the collaborative strong effort we're dooements today, we so the opportunity now to use this rad program with all the neglects that we've asked for

that also were taking on more risk as a city because it's worth it to invest in our members you know some of them all they seven hundred was better elevators and now they're getting that and all they wanted was heat and hot running water in the winter and no cook roaches and fire alarms that work in fires those are simple things how come we're not doing that many residents ask and i ask there will be reason after reason after reason that transformation will be sustained by a very knowledgeable resident basis and inspired staff and our pocket sectors as tremors commentator they're no my office saying hey, it's not about the brick and mortar we have to have

services that the city has never done before because if we're going to ask people to challenge themselves out the poverty we've done that time and gnp time again in non-residents we've been successful so this re-visioning is going to happen i'm so happy it's happening in our watch and glad it's happening under the leadership the supervisor london breed and supervisor cowen two strong women that will not leave me alone and constituents that won't let them all and all to say that my envisioning for the entire housing challenge housing crisis in the is city is one i'm up to the challenging challenge we're up to the challenge and the housing authority is just beginning i've got thirty mouse

u thousand housing to build we're going to get to that with the housing bond this november with a complimentary you infusion of dollars we've seen time and time again help us with the city challenges but ultimately all of us who work in government can say that you work with hud and the housing authority and the in housing office and with nonprofit and proud to be san franciscans we're demonstrating how to help each other be successful i met secretary castro along agree as mayors and i'll tells you this i'm thankful to president obama who picks mayors to be cabinet secretaries wherever you met a former mayor in a position you only have to

talk half as much they get it (laughter) i know that secretary castro was picked by president obama not only do we get things duplicate when he saw the challenges we were all under months and months of discussions with the staff at hud he went to work like mia any mayor and god bless him the experience from san this or that that was a smooth going forward he had to champ his staff because everyone works in bureaucracies if you have the leaders that have is has the kind of experience running hud for the entire country the government has to have answers because that's my way of introducing someone who's been

existing to me a national leaders someone that will take what we do in san francisco and brag about it to the rest of the country but to say we have to do it as a partnership he had to challenge emphasis own staff to be flexibility in the way they do vouchers and onsite stuff but you have to deal with our local labor leaders and get them to be flexible again, i want to thank the labor leaders we have to have that flexibility to get things done right the rad program i want to repeat this only in tool you've got to have all the people involved in strong conversations to have this happen so brad it here our projects are on the cusp and 12

months from now brand new operating elevators that has that's right units done in a way that people with disabilities can get in and out of shoulders quickly and have safety bars and have a management they can speak to that's robust and fouls on challenges in their life not only what's happening around here in the community we're proposing this from a community pro apprehension as hud wants us to do they're about setting examples like san francisco how are we developing community so for our residents not only buildings so i want to say that with all enthusiasm to welcome and thank skeet castro former mayor of san antonio texas but now a very good secretary for

hud thank you very much. >> (clapping). >> thank you very much mayor ed lee i think the mayor said it all (laughter). >> and well too let me begin may i mayor by thanking you for your convalescent leadership i think that in the six months i've been on the job spoken to you and mayor b.a. abhors the most san francisco has quite a champion in the mayor's office with mayor ed lee and thank you to you ma'am supervisor and our tenant advocates and big thanks to our regional coordinator (clapping) >> and all our hud staff and want to recognize jimmy bryan our acting secretary and jennifer jones from the ti h

thank you for your great work that led this this moment? an important moment in the about two things first of all, it is about getting things done as the mayor said we recognize that getting things done in the context of public housing has been harder and heard over the years we've developed about a 26 employed backlog in terms of capital repairs for public housing stock we need to get more and more resource full to stretch our dollars weeping we've down done there this rad since 2012 invests there rad that allows the communities to leverage long term section 8 financing have acted for $5 million in investment the second part of why we're here goes to the impact that is macon people's lives we're here to

enhance the quality of life to public housing residents in san francisco and to rad to cross the united states this is going to mean that families p the seniors and folks are disabled have the better places to live in the city they have a more enjoyable inheritance experience and live out their lives what we want fundamentally is for it to be a positive experience that focuses live in public housing and for young people so that they can have they're big dreams be able to reach their goals their ass prirsz for our seniors the golden o golden years will be golden in a comfortable place and folks that are disabled to be accommodateed and that's something that didn't happen

that by accident but because of the hard work like mayor ed lee and our supervisors and folks on the job everyday and investments here and of itself is $11 million as you said over the course of the she didn't recognize next couple of years 45 units will be improved because of that san francisco is leading the way when it comes to making important investments in the people that live in public housing to say that everyone counts ♪ city it beautiful city (clapping) so we're excited about this investment we're inciteful the impact on people's lives and excited about the rental rad project in fact, n.y. 2015 we got the cap lifted from 60 to one hundred and 85 and 2016 the president is asking we lift the

cap entirely so that city by city and community by community we can transform this and make a great quality of life for people across the nation we're going to do it thank you (clapping.) and at the january board of supervisors meeting president breed was elected president of the board of supervisors by here colleagues president breed is a san francisco pa native and grew up in the western edition she's been a strong advocate for affordable housing i've first met the supervisor which there is e she was a commissioner at the redevelopment agency as he advocated for the redevelopment plans at the redevelopment agency in her current position she's committed to affordable housing especially to improving

the continues for the residents throughout the city i'd like to introduce president london breed (clapping.) (clapping.) >> good afternoon, everyone i'm actually emotional especially because i grew up in public housing and lived there for over 20 years this is pretty amazing this is going to change everything for the residents that live in this development i want to thank the secretary castro for coming here and making this a priority it means so much not only to the mayor and might have but many of the residents and folks across san francisco that forfeited about this program and what we're going to do and the investment the city is going to make what the plan is and see the results it is going to tormentor so some

lives in san francisco and supervisor cowen and i represents the district with large population of public housing we are going looking forward to the day when the complaints go down call roll (laughter) but on the serious note growing up in public housing i felt isolated the folks i grew up that with the challenges we faced the crime and violence and the homelessness and the despair using when our bathrooms and toiltsz didn't work we were fortunate to have good neighbors salesladies that of systems we'd need to use their bathrooms for week at a time the reproaches and the elevators that never worked and the challenges of carrying groceries up 10 flight of stairs and the conditions that existed then sadly exist

now, when i first became supervisor i said to the mayor well, he asked me what are high 3 priorities i said public housing he said okay. what's the second public housing what's our third priority public housing i couldn't be on this san francisco board of supervisors in such an incredible position remembering where i came green from but people suffer suffer in public housing today not only in care of their unit but the neglect of providing the services that exist all over this city over $8 billion into the city how are we taking care of those residents how are they getting the services they need in order for them to prosper in their neighborhood we have to do

better today with a lot of hope in my heart saying we're doing better that is over $50 million of city funding this is unprecedented never before has the city made a significant attraction because public housing has always been treated as if it's public housing and the housing authority we're past those days and bringing up the families back together again with the public housing families we're residents we're part of this city and all residents will benefit in this city through the wealth and the things that exist because we're a city that cares taking care of of our residents we care about taking care of of each other i want to thank the mayor he's kept wording and worked tireless to keep public housing starting with the 4.

$7 million to help to formerly homeless families they're in those units and the elevator money that fixes the elevators in public housing (clapping.) so this mayor is not just talking the talk but walking the walk that means so much because the way we get it done is work together and make sure that we continue to keep it at the forefront of everything we do in this city no more neglect wire finally doing what we need do to take care of the residents in the public housing development i'm as i said i'll emotional as someone that remembers what it feels like i'm enjoying even though moment and can't wait for the day this place in particular