it's been separated that we have work that's done related to trying to comply with someone's interpretation as well as trying to make this a better project and you should keep that in mind. you have the ability to at least try to find some physical solutions here and take this permit and be able to do that. maybe a way to do this is to continue this, allow them to go back and re-evaluate and try to redo this deal in some way or another. and then come back and try to find a better physical solution. i don't think requiring them to go back to the 2004 condition will result in a successful project. nor will it result in occupancy. thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. i just noticed this one calender, my mom fell about 12 years ago and broke her hip. she was 88 or 89. she was in a hospital for a week

and screamed and yelled and said get me out of here, i want to go home. she went into assisted living for a couple weeks. we found mel's place. i took care of my mom. the place wasn't fully occupied then, 12 years ago. she stayed there for a year-and-a-half. they took care of her. when she left it wasn't occupied fully. they did take care of my mom. she left because she wanted to go home and watch fox news and she commented she was the oldest person there. most of the people were in their 60s and 70s and she was in her 90s. they've never been fully occupied. i don't understand it because it's a wonderful facility. thank you. >> thank you. >> good evening, commissioners. my name is bruce beauman, i'm here not to speak from a code

standpoint but to speak from my heart. my parents were both residents of the avenue. my father was there for four years in the dementia ward where he required 24 hour care. my mother was there and in hospice when she passed away there. i truly believe the avenue extended my father's life. they gave my parents the dignity and the honor to move onto the next stage until life. i'm here to ask you to look at this facility and understand that it is a special facility that provides the kind of care that you cannot find in a large corporate institutional chain facility. it's a small -- we can almost call it mom and pop type of operation, where you walk in the front door and mel greets you.

i recall fondly ever time theresa would walk up to my father, his face would light up and he would feel happy to see her. so please, do what you can to try to work with the avenue. do what you can to resolve these issues. this is not a hotel. this is a place where people get care that they deserve. thank you. >> any other public comment? seeing none. we'll move on to rebuttle. from the appellant. you have three minutes. >> i want to clarify a couple of things about the hotel. our business, assisted living, is not just a regular apartment, it's for people who come if they have a need to be cared for like medication and dementia care. those are very limited clientele.

it's not just you come in a room and board. to answer the question of commissioner swig about why does this not fill up for the entire last 14 years and we are stuck. the below market we have problems of the market rate, you know. but for below market, even that wait was set up by d.d.a. and it's still an forward abl not ar people that qualify because they have a limit of how much income to qualify for level care. it's a very complicated calculation and during a couple meetings with city attorney and also the mayor's office and office solution how to resolve it. they don't listen. my goal is, i think also the goal for the public is how to fill up and help seniors who need help. not only we, avenue, are private. we have to pay taxes. we have to pay everything. benefits and everything. even the city-owned facility is

100% non-profit and they buy the land for $1. they're not sold out. they're not sold out. they have a problem to fill up. for the those living on site they are non-profit. the add minutes straigh adminise the the entire staff live on site. it's required. so other thing i want to clarify about 20 beds or 20 rooms. the 20 beds of care please give me the definition of convalescent care. if that is for convalescent care is i really have no clue because we are non medical building. we are not supposed to save the life that you can make people who require convalescent/skilled

nursing/rehab. those people have to go to those really medical building. we are residential. so we provide 20 beds on the second floor. we can be dementia care. so we do have 124 units. we provide 20 people beds. we are licensed for 145 beds actually. we can put them anywhere in the building. as long as that is compatible and then we can manage the care. >> any questions? >> i have a question. why wasn't this attempted to be negotiated out with the city attorney's office or other

interested agencies before it came here. you are asking for authorization of permit, which doesn't match the d.d.a. >> the answer is this is currently in litigation. i hope they can work something out. the permit is separate from litigation. i don't think it's the case. even if the permit did conflict with the development agreement, that would be something that they would come back after the permit and ask for an amendment of the development agreement. it's also entirely possible to the extent there is conflict to amend this permit to remove that conflict. if they're shy by a unit, a unit can be removed from the

administrator unit. >> what you really want is for us to continue this case. then the fines will continue to be deferred. >> in all cander, i think we would like to have finality. but we would like to have this permit. >> ok. >> thank you. >> i'm sorry, mr. patterson. could you, since i was on the site visit, can you give me the square footage of the two on-site resident manager's units. >> all our units start from 180 square foot to 250. >> for the two administration units. what size are they now? >> the one with four units combined around 800. the one proposing for the five units about 1,000.

>> thank you. >> thank you, mr. sanchez. >> i think the commission is going in the appropriate direction questioning in hasn't the d.d.a. been amended. this is a contract that the appellant signed with the city. it has already been amended numerous times by the appellant as they've made changes throughout the project. why did they stop doing that and then start doing work without benefit of permit? i appreciate the comments about the success of the unit and ensuring success and whether the improvements could increase the live ability of it and improve the occupancy rates of it. but to keep in mind, the illegal work has been done for about a decade and that has not had any notable improvement in terms of the occupancy. when we viewed the site yesterday we saw the four double rooms that were meant to be for couples.

they were all vacant. i appreciate that there are success stories with the clients who have used the facility and that it's been a meaningful place, but i do have concerns that we have a project sponsor that has shown a disregard for the residents that are under its care by performing illegal work. not only, you know, at the penthouse level, where we have one set of five rooms that's gutted to could be merged together with exposed wires and plumbing. no permits for that. but even on the rooms, i noticed when we did the site visit where they merged the two rooms together on the inside, they sheet rocked it where the door was. on the outside, the door was still there. so i'm wondering, what if you are a fire fighter and you are coming through and you need to check that room and how does the door work when there's sheet rock behind it. it's questionable some of the action that's have been taken here. aside from the failure to provide 25 affordable units as they said they would, almost 20

years ago. for those reasons, i would respectfully request the board up hold the planning commission's denial of this and i do agree that if they want to work this out with the proper agencies they can go back and seek to have an amendment of the d.d.a. that's a more comprehensive and appropriate and direct approach. i think what we've had for more than a decade is a lack of direct approach on the part of the appellant and tackling the issues head on. getting the permits and if they need to revisit this now, they can do it with the appropriate agencies, revice the d.d.a. and come to terms with the affordable housing they signed on to. there are detailed directions about what is expected when you need to provide affordable housing obligations and that was outlined in the d.d.a. i understand it can still be complicated but they signed it. i request you up hold the denial

and bring finality to this and the city can move forward properly and get it resolved. thank you. >> thank you. anything to add? >> mr. duffy, i am assuming i should ask this question to you, given that it's the building and not planning. so, mr. sanchez just pointed out that there was exposed elements that are not only unpermitted but probably illegal. that there are -- that you walk down a hall and i'm sorry you did not go on the site visit but i will trust the eyes of the zoning administrator. there is a door that shows from the hallway and if you were trying to get through that door in an emergency to save someone, you would find that you could

not because it was sheet rocked over. these are illegal conditions. where does your department come in with something that would yellow tag, red tag or stop the occupancy of a building like this in this condition, especially with dementia patients. especially with seniors who probably lack the physical agility to move quickly during an emergency? >> we do have a notice of violation documents all those conditions. it's pretty well written notice of violation and it's in the -- i was going to read it out. i was on the site visit as well. i did see the door with the sheet rock behind it. i brought it to scott's attention. it is an issue. i mean, there's no number on the door but yeah, there's just definitely an issue. we have a notice of violation.

it's going through our code enforcement process. they need to take care of it. the earlier the building that is under remodel on the top floor it's away from the residents of the building. i don't think it inte interfereh the life safety in the building. the work has stopped. they started the work without a permit. it's in demo stage. you have the unit and you see metal studs exposed. that area would not be an area that the residents could get to. i'm not that worried about that. the door probably something on that door would be helpful to them. i did give it some thought. they may want to pull a notice on that door that there's no access to unit from this door or something like that. i can speak to them off line and get that on there. on any doors there's sheet rock over. >> where is the tipping point

where the building owner, also in this case the operator of the business, where the license gets pulled and they have to close this building for operation because there are dangerous conditions, especially in consider of doing all this work without a permit. and god knows what is behind those walls. >> we leave that to the attorney office. i believe the case is with the city attorney office. it was through one of their task forces that we were in the building in the first place. i'm not sure what happens to licenses and stuff like that.

we document the violations on the code. >> i don't know if this is your question or mr. sanchez's question. in the process of up holding the denial of this permit, where is the part where we require ha humpty dumpty gets put back together all over again in the fashion according to the d.d.a.? how does that happen? >> well, that would be a new building permit, in my opinion. it would have to be. the opening is on the notice of violation from d.d.a. to revert to legal condition which was on the c.f.c. when the building got built. or apply for a permit to legalize the way you have it and they did chose that path and that permit has been denied. that where they are in that case. mr. sanchez is happy to comment on that as well? but that's where i stand.

>> they chose that path. it's just been denied by planning, that's all. >> correct. what's going to happen with -- >> the permit would have legalized all of things that they did. >> i understand that. how do we -- in denying if they were to deny the permit or deny the appeal, where is the point -- what's the next step to get this put back together in the way that it should be according to the agreement that the developer and owner -- >> i don't think this is the question for mr. duffy. >> well, all i can tell from is we will keep our enforcement going on the notice of violation. that will lead to further code enforcement processes. planning may have an enforcement case. the city attorney may have an enforcement case so there will be pressure coming from after agencies are dealing with this. >> if we don't believe that this permit is appropriate and to deny the appeal, tha then we dot

have to worry because other forces will be at work to try to put the building back in order in the way it should have been in order in the first place. >> i give you an example of that. when the permit was filed, we held a notice of violation. when it was denied, we kept going with the enforcement. so the enforcement will go on anyway. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> you know my thinking was along the same line. for a different reason and probably a different end point. this permit and the actions that we're going to take today, really are not the consequencal ones with respect to any type of a resolution of the issue. no matter how it goes against the property owners. there is no way for myself to be

able to grant a permit that then changes the conditions of a d.d.a. i'm not prepared to do that. on the other hand, i'm not prepared to do something that doesn't help to try to find a resolution. where the institution then goes down. i'm not saying that it would. i'm just saying that you know, if there is no resolution, then we lose the community assets in some sense. what i would propose is that we continue this case. our actions really are not very significant and they should follow what the larger decisions and either settlements that may

occur and then we'll act upon it at that point in time. >> are we in the discussion point yet? >> yes. >> ok. >> i didn't get a chance to say it. >> i just started first. >> compared to everybody else. >> the matter is submitted. >> you asked -- you mentioned i wasn't on the redevelopment agency commission, which i was. and i quickly said the most of our focus was on bay view hunters point and that area, probably those were the ones that are most memorable in my mind and were the greatest scars are still present. there was some wonderful, wonderful work done by the redevelopment agency with regard to specialty housing. that was senior housing,

affordable housing, housing that provided special services to special needs individuals, special needs doesn't mean that they were ill or anything, they just had special needs and required special services. there was a developer of those projects that we owe the citizens of san francisco should be very proud of. the developers and the operators which were selected by fulfill their notes and to my knowledge we're always found more demand than there was inventory for those projects. and so where i'm having a hard time having any sort of

compassion for this developer or operator is with reference to those very, very successful projects which are in equal locations, which have the same size modules, et cetera, et cetera. that is where my energy is coming from at the moment. i would -- i guess i would agree with you, president fung, that a continuance to find a better way might be the best way to go. but there's no way that i would support the appeal. >> i would expect something to come back that's different. >> yeah. >> i'm having a hard time with the entirety of what has gone on here. there wasn't any discussion and

all about the effort to convert it to student housing just a couple of years, which speaks to me of a lack of commitment to this as well. i understand your sort of trying to sequence things but i don't know that denying this appeal is going to make a difference in the long run. i'm not prepared to continue it. >> i can go either way. i did do this site visit yesterday. i'm extremely concerned with the business plan and motto of this particular facility. the fact that the zoning administrator or one of the department either joe or scott noticed that even that the facility care licenses had been expired. i can go either way.

i think that more importantly, the district attorney has other plans for this particular facility itself. but i do have a concern on how it is run. before me is the permit of the illegality of the work that was performed, which we know at this point was not performed with permits. >> planning department. if the board does vote to continue, i would like to know if the board has an expectations from the city agency what should happen in this time? should they take steps to abate the violations out there now? if the board does deny the appeal, that doesn't prevent the applicant from moving forward to still working with the city.

if anything, in my opinion, it will crump it. >> it doesn't but also it doesn't affect the long-term resolution at all. whatever our action is. i wouldn't have an expectation. this board and it's power as stated by the councilor on the previous case, was really true at one time. it's less true these days. you know, when we had the ability to review and either change conditional use which is not far off of what a d.d.a. is, there it was entirely different. i'm just saying that the actions of this board, whether you want to take the high road or not,

really has very little impact because the actions of the city attorney and their lawsuit and perhaps sediment at some point in time is really what is going to bring it. and then we'll pick up the very minor pieces. this board could assist in that, you know, whether it's the processes of certain types of permits or things that occur. >> there's a sediment it would never come back. >> they might require some further actions. >> it would be a building permit application that they could file and the departments would take the appropriate action on -- i'm just concerned there's -- >> if it came here it probably would be issued much faster than if it started out as a new permit. >> let me ask you a question -- because you've been down these roads before and you are going to have to handle it one way or the other. if we deny the appeal, then what

happens in your mind or in reality, what is the next step? what is tomorrow going to look like on this item? if we continue this, what will tomorrow look like? >> it leaves the violation unabated. taking action tonight will give a very clear direction to the appellant about how to proceed and that is to abate the violation. the violation will never be abated adds long as this permit is continued. that's one of the concerns if the decision is a upheld. the n.o.v. gave two paths. revert back to what was there before, that addresses the violation or legalize it. they sought to legalize it. they will continue and have that illegal condition until the board continues this to the call of the chair. i would prefer to have the

matter resolved and then if there could be discussions between the appellant and the city about how to resolve it. it doesn't for close if the board up holds the denial. it doesn't -- >> so your view would be denial of the appeal would give yourself, mr. duffy and other departments the teeth to get this project back in order more immediately than kicking the can further down the road. >> it gives certainty to all parties. >> ok. >> was that your point of view too. why we should just take action? >> yeah. >> i think i would lean towards commissioner lazarus point of view. >> would you like to make a motion. >> i move to deny the a we'll ap

and hold the decision of the planning department on the basis that it was the appropriate decision. >> we have a motion from commissioner lazarus to denial the appeal up and hold the denial of the permit on the basis it was appropriately denied. president fung. >> no. >> commissioner honda. >> aye. >> vice president swig. >> aye. >> with three votes that motion passes. the appeal is denied. that concludes the hearing. >> the meeting is over.

>> families and students from this school, from cesar chavez, from john o'conel, and other schools around the district that we're so lucky to be a part of. i want you to come to this area so that you can actually see the lineup of amazing speakers and hear what they have to say. [speaking native language] >> without further adieu, i'd like to introduce richard aya on behalf of mission promise neighborhood. thank you. [applause] >> gracias. thank you, principal de la rios

moran. bienvenidos. i'm the director of mission promise neighborhood. we all know that we are in the midst of a housing crisis. according to the school district, more than 2,000 -- there are more than 2,000 homeless students in san francisco unified, and the majority of them are latino, in the face of this crisis, this school right here, buena vista horseman opened its gym nasium to homeless families to spend the night. i'm proud to say that mission promise neighborhood will now be expanding to support this brave school and four other schools, bringing our total to nine schools in the mission altogether. our family success coaches will work closely with on-site providers jamestown, mission graduates, seven teepee, and institutefamily de la raza to

connect hamlies with jobs, legal services, health and more. we know that public schools are where we come together to care for each other's children. we are increasing our investment in children aged zero to five by expanding our programs at mission neighborhood centers, support for families, and for the first time ever, family child care providers. we're partnering with meta real estate to keep our families in place. for example through the city's small sites program, meta recently purchased a six unit building and provided affordable housing for four of our families. meta's higher density projects will not only house thousands

more of our low-income families. there are more partners working with mission promise neighborhood, and you can learn more about them to the resource tables to my left. over the past five years, the graduation rates for latinos at our high school went from 62% to 88%. [applause] >> the graduation rate for african american students went from 46% -- i said 46% to 93%. and there are now more neighborhood children in preschool, more parents reading to their children, and tremendous gains in developmental assessment scores for these kids. these dramatic results can only come from a community working together. this was never a certainty. our funding recently sunseted. we were at risk of losing this community infrastructure. during a moment in time when we

needed it most. we submitted a proposal to the department of education for an extension grant, but there were only three available grants for 12 promised neighborhoods across the country. we reached out to our congress woman, nancy pelosi, and she supported our proposal. [applause] >> and against steep odds, during a challenging national political climate, we received a call from leader pelosi's office, saying we won the $6,000,002-year extension grant for the mission district. [applause] >> congress woman, thank you for your leadership and for working so hard for our community. every please join me in welcoming our congress woman and house democratic leader nancy pelosi.

>> thank you, very much, richard. richard is the director of the mission promise neighborhood. let us thank him for his tremendous leadership. it's an honor to be with you and with supervisor hillary ronen, and school board member mark sanchez, our very special guest today, yimi marino, and john nelson, a student who used the m.n.t. to get into college. later, we'll be joined by mayor london breed. isn't that an honor for all of us. we thank you principal claudia de la rios moran. again, it's a privilege to be here with each and every one of you, and i congratulate you because the example that you all had set here is why we're

able to get additional funding, and you are also a model of national significance to the nation because it makes our argument easier for us to do the same thing in other neighborhoods across the country. but let me tell you just a little bit about this. the story of mission promise is one of local transformation and national impact. it was the vision and courage and leadership of president barack obama that we are proud of what we have accomplished so far. [applause] >> i'll put it on the internet. i won't repeat everything i said. i promise to put it on the internet if you promise maybe to read it. any way, we have so much more work to do because 30% of mission families do not have bank accounts.

two thirds do not have bank accounts. unemployment, financial security, two in five families go without basic needs, health care, food, etc. how could this be in the greatest country that ever existed in the history of the world? well, we have made a promise that we intend to keep, intend to keep in a culturally appropriate way. we have some challenges in washington now with some of the policies that are coming forth that are not helpful, but you know what we say? we don't agonize, we organize. so again whether it's in the budget or the farm bill, our promise is for the people, lowering your health care costs, increasing your paycheck, and cleaning up government so that it works in the people's interest, not in the special interest. so with that -- so we've shared some thoughts here. some you've heard, some you didn't, all about thanking you,

congratulating you for making this mission promise work so that it could be continued here and that it could be replicated so people all over the country are in your debt because your success equals there are -- their success, and i thank you all for the opportunity to say hello today. [applause] >> are you ready to organize, not agonize? i thought so. now, it is my privilege to yield the floor to the very distinguished supervisor from this area, a woman who has a child in public school, as well. her daughter and my granddaughter are friends. that means a lot to me, but she means a lot to our community. supervisor hillary ronen. [applause] >> supervisor ronen: thank you so much. another big hand for leader pelosi who's going to save our

federal government from going in the wrong direction. we are so lucky so interest -- have you as our representative. you bring us so much pride and joy every single day so thank you for your tremendous work. i have the extreme honor of representing the mission district on the san francisco board of supervisors, and i happen to be biased, but i think it is probably the most special neighborhood in the city. [applause] >> supervisor ronen: i'm glad there's lots of people who agree with me. and it is so special it is unique. i mean, we have more beautiful political and artistic murals than -- in a small area than anywhere in the entire world right here in our neighborhood. we have a concentration of the best community-based organizations celebrating the

culture and the vibrancy of the incredible community and especially the strength historic latino community who have so much presence in this neighborhood and has for so long. and at the same time, we have incredible challenges in that neighborhood. we know that over the last decade, 1,000 latinos, individuals and families, have displaced from this community, and we have a homeless crisis that has taken shape in tent encampments all over. and prior to mission promise neighborhoods, we had seven of the ten lowest performing schools in the entire city. in comes mission promise neighborhoods, and what this incredible project and strategy does is it takes the heart and soul of our communities, starting with four schools, now

going to nine, and says we're not only going to wraparound the incredible kids that we have in these schools to make a difference and reverse these trends, we're going to wraparound the entire family because we know that students are successful when parents are successful. we know that students succeed when parents are able to come home and spend the night with them instead of working their second or third job just to be able to pay the rent, the incredible expense of rent. so i just want to express my extreme gratitude to mission promise neighborhoods, a very, very special thanks to luis granados, the executive director of meta. please give him a round of applause. [applause] >> supervisor ronen: and someone who doesn't get nearly enough public appreciation and attention, jillian spindle who

is one of the most talented and amazing director of fundraisers that i've ever met. thank you, jillian, thank you for so much you've done for our community. you are an unsung hero that i appreciate so much. i wanted to say a couple of extra thank yous to ahsha safai, my district 11 supervisor who i saw in the crud. ahsha? thank you so much for being here. i wanted to thank the esteemed principal of this school, claudia morales moran, and i wanted to let you know in celebration of latinx month, we are going to be honoring her. and then, finally, we are going to give a special thanks to

sheela nicolopoulos and to urban soccer for this beautiful soccer field that's also brand-new and something to celebrate at this school. and finally, if i could ask richard to come up, i have a special proclamation that you can all look at later that is recognizing mission promise neighborhoods and itscrine he hadible accomplishments. i'll just read the further resolve clause that says the board of supervisors praise mission promise neighborhood on the notable success that have achieved thus far and further congratulate miss promise neighborhood on being -- mission promise neighborhood on being awarded a grant to continue their significant efforts towards establishing he convalescent for the latino community. si se puede. >> thank you, supervisor. thank you for this wonderful proclamation, and i just want to hand this over to the team because they're doing all the

work, so thank you for all the work you've been doing, mission promise neighborhood team. [applause] >> thank you, thank you, supervisor. yes. thank you for your support, as well, on our -- on our application to the department of education and next up, i would like to invite commissioner mark sanchez who has a little bit of history at this school, and i'll let him share that with you. >> technical difficulties. hello, everybody. on behalf of the superintendent of san francisco schools and the san francisco board of education, i'd like to thank

mission promise neighborhood and meta for all the work that they've been doing. let's give it up for them again. wonderful work, partnering with organizations in the neighborhood and making sure our families get what they need. the numbers speak for themselves and the data collecting that you're doing is amazing to show that this type of work does work. i'm here to also say that i used to be the principal of this school when it was horace mann. i've seen it grow into this community with this amazing courtyard garden as well as this amazing soccer field. it is one of my missions on the board to make sure that every school gets a soccer field. frankly, the first soccer field to get put into a school in san francisco was at cleveland elementary, where i was principal, and now, they're

being rolled out all over the city. i really want to thank urban soccer park -- john where jen is, but i want to thank them. let's give it up for urban soccer park for putting this field in. they donated the field. sheela was instrumental to getting the field in. partly, it's been mentioned a couple times, because this community, this special, this amazing community is welcoming, wanting, endorsing to have essentially a shelter placed here at this site, i think in november . frankly, what they've been going through is having families being pushed out of the city and their community being torn up because of that and they want to make sure that

families aren't pushed out, and the families that need this support, up to 20 families that need this support get this support at this school. it'll be the first project of its kind in the nation. it's never happened before. in a way, it's amazing, but in a way, it's just sad, right, where we're having to use schools to shelter our families, but we have to do it and we will do it. lastly, i want to thank -- we do have some folks here from our district, kevin truitt and armand traut, and we wanted to make sure we had representation from the district, and again, thank you everyone for being here today. do you want to do the honors? >> thank you, commissioner. i'd also like to acknowledge that we have the director of the department of children, youth and families, maria sue. thank you for coming. and next up, i would like to

welcome jessica linares. she is the director of the beacon community centered schools program. welcome. welcome. [applause] >> on before or after of the jamestown community center, i want to welcome you all to the bbhm beacon site, which is also going to be hosting this amazing soccer field and housing -- a shelter for families, up to 20 families at one time, which is an amazing feat. also want to say -- give a special thank you to leader nancy pelosi, mayor london breed, and our supervisor hillary ronen for their time and participation at our event. [applause] >> so just to share a little bit about myself. my name is jessica linares and i'm currently the director of schools for jamestown community center. i am the first generation of

migrant guatemalan family that arrived here in san francisco. i'm born and raised in the mission district. i had the privilege to attend horace mace ma-- horace mann school. back then, i did not understand what jamestown was about. i learned quickly it was a latino led and community led organization that focused on asset building. and i share this term because it's really impactful what that means. it means that within our community, we can build ourselves up. we do not need the support from others need to build what we already have, and i think that with m.p.n., we are able to do this and clarify that because with m.p.n., we're able to support things like our beacon strategy. for those that don't know,

beacon community schools are ways of wrapping around all of our youth, providing from housing to additional housing as well as being able to provide medical care to our families so that we can provide equity and success for all of our students, not just for some. [applause] >> as we're able to relaunch the promise of m.p.n. and focus our beacon community schools, we are thankful and we invite all of you to continue providing support to all of our families in all of our public schools, but being able to see the student outside the academic lens and approaching them as a whole child because every child has assets, and what we need to do is build upon those. [applause] >> that way, when we're building our youth, we're also building our families and we're building the san francisco that we want to see, the san

francisco that's actually youth led, community led and making it livable for all of us. thank you. [applause] >> thank you, jessica. next up, we are going to hear from one of our parents who's actually used mission promise neighborhood. i'd like to welcome jamie moreno. [speaking spanish] [through the interpreter] good afternoon. thank you for coming to the event. my name is jamie moreno, and

thank you for coming to the event because this is how we find out what's going on in our communities, and it's good to spend time children.

so yadira has worked with me, and we have had many conversations. we have built trust, and she has guide me to meet my goals.

so one of the things i was able to accomplish was to file taxes for the first time, and also to open my own bank account. so another accomplishment while i was undergoing eviction, yadira was crucial to connecting me to resources where i was connected to

homeless prenatal and get a housing subsidy through hamilton, and now i live in oakland. so some of my future goals are to learn english, enroll in english classes at good samaritan, and i also continue to apply for the b.m.r. applications in the city.

and what i'd like to say to families is you need to follow your dreams, follow your goals, and as cesar chavez said, si se puede, yes, we can. >> thank you, jamie, and thank you, efrain, for interpreting. i want to acknowledge the director for education is here in the audience. thank you for coming. [applause] >> next up, i'd like to welcome julia nelson. you heard about our incredible graduation rates at our school. now you get to hear from one of our students and what he's doing through our partner, mission graduate. >> hello, everyone. my name is julian nelson. i graduated from john o'connell

after three years and i'm now attending sf state on a full ride scholarship. [applause] >> with that scholarship, i was able to buy myself a new laptop, buy supplies for school, pay my whole tuition, eat, sleep, enjoy life, and even go on vacation to new york. [applause] >> i was able to get these scholarships and attend sf state because of mission graduates, a program that was connected with me school and helped me out one-on-one in order to succeed. with -- with the help of mission graduates, i was able to do all my a.c.t. scores thanks to tutoring, help out with english courses, college applications, scholarship applications, they were always there for me to give me information on new scholarships

that were up coming, give me information on new programs that i could get involved in, internships, and help me out with something, whether it was an interview or anything else that would help me further my career. currently, i'm majoring in computer science, and my goals for the future is to influence others, influence the youth in the future so that they can succeed and so they can do what they want in their future and not worry about money or racism or any other issues that involve our communities. and thanks to mission communities and the mission promise neighborhood i was able -- or i'm able -- able to reach those goals or able to pursue those goals that i have in the future. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you, julian. next, i would like to welcome our mayor, london breed. [applause] >> the hon. london breed: hello, everybody. i am so excited to be here. now, believe it or not, when i was in middle school, i was a handful. so it's always great to come back and say thank you to all the incredible teachers and counselors who made amazing program support to make sure that the next generation of young people who attend public school in san francisco have a real opportunity for success. i remember those times where when i first was in band class, jack martin's ben franklin middle school band, and the first day, because i talked