>> good morning and welcome to lacasa. we are so honored to have so many community members here today. i am the deputy director here. this has been a very long journey to this moment today. i thank you all. we would not be here with each and every one of you. i have a lot of wonderful people speaking today and the amazing work that the organization does in the community. i would like to start by introducing our board president. michelle is the board president of casa d casa de las madres.

as a member of the board for over 10 years she has helped guide us through the unprecedented growth. as chair of finance committee she helped strengthen the position to creativity and passion for ending domestic violence in san francisco. i will hand it over to michelle. [applause] >> thank you for that lovely introduction. we are just thrilled today. this is such an exciting and special moment. i started volunteering about 15 years ago and joined the board 10 years ago. in year i was honored to be made the board president when our previous president retired. during my time with lacasa i have seen the organization grow

and some impressive milestones. one thing that made me proud is the unparalleled ability for our organization to partner with service providers in san francisco. today we stand together it is important to remember the work to end domestic violence is not done yet and not done alone. la casa spent many years to build relationships to ensure no survivor feels like that is nowhere to turn. many community partners are here today. we are proud to stand next to other amazing community service providers like the san francisco general hospital and u.c.s.f., the san francisco police department special victims unit, housing authority, human services authority, hamilton families th the count less other

programs. your work is live saving. looking to the future on behalf of the board, we look forward to continuing to innovate and evolve the expert network of systems to ensure no woman or child is forced to choose between safety and their health or home. now for the moment you are waiting for. i am introducing our mayor, mayor london breed. she is the first african-american woman mayor in the city's history. her priorities include the homelessness crisis, new shelter beds, expanding mental health, more housing and keeping the city streets clean and safe. please join me in welcoming the 45th mayor of the city and county of san francisco, mayor london breed. [applause]

>> mayor breed: thank you. thank you for your work and all members of the board and the staff and the people dedicated to this work. we appreciate everything that you do every day to provide a safety net for those who often times feeling hopeless in the midst of the trauma and everything that they are dealing with. we know that this organization supports and welcomes people with open arms. we are so grateful for the work that you do every single day. what an incredible day it is today. i want to take this opportunity to recognize our interim attorney who has been at the forefront of supporting women and children for decades, dealing with challenges around domestic violence. we know the city handles over 3,000 cases every single year. 3,000 families or people that

are impacted by domestic violence. we know that we want to make sure that not only are people held accountable who are victimizing people but the survivors get support and resources they need. it is not just one department versus another. it is a partnership. working with the victims unit and the san francisco police department, the district attorney's office and so many amazing nonprofit organizations, including la casa is important. the work they do to help raise the money to support the organizations. i am proud of the work they have done to work with san francisco to allocate more resources because we know that this is hard work. we also know that often times many of the survivors end up working in this arena themselves

from their experiences. we know that it can be so helpful to helping to change people's lives. you know, it is just -- i am looking at this building and just this is your permanents home, cathy. i know this organization has moved around quite a bit, but has never lost the essence of who they are, a hot line to provide support to people, a drop in center, place of comfort and care for so many years, and now a permanent home. it means so much because when people are dealing with a situation and in the middle of the night or any other case, working with san francisco general and others, they will have this organization to depend on for years to come. we have this incredible program

in san francisco. some of you know that i used to be the executive director of a nonprofit organization african-american art and culture complex, for someone who has run a non-profit, they know how difficult it is to raise money and to make sure that you have a permanent home, to care of the home to buy the toilet paper and keep the lights on. there is a lot of work and resources that go to places like this, and the nonprofit sustainabilitynishsive is a resource that the city now provides to nonprofit organizations to help with support to purchase buildings like this so that some of our important nonprofits have a permanent home. they don't necessarily have to worry about the space that they are in and whether or not the lease is going to expire or the

costs are going up for the space because there are so many other things that they are going to continue to need to raise money for. this nonprofit sustainabilities fund provided $1 million towards the purchase of the building. i couldn't think of a better way to use this kind of fund than to support lacasa. i am grateful to be here today. i know so many of you here are people who have been working in this arena for so long, and this although it is challenging and it can be sad and emotional to see what we have done here today and to see how this is going to help turn lives around and to change lives for the better, it is absolutely amazing. you should feel good about the work you do and the role you played to making this possible. i am here to just see the place,

of course, and to thank all of you for the work you continue to do and to especially commend cathy black and your team for just -- cathy is standing over here to the side. come up here. today i want to do something special because of the work that you all do and you do it, you know, in such an amazing way every day without a desire to be recognized but you want the results, and i want the results. it makes for a better city for each and every one of us. it is casa d cass de la madres n san francisco. >> i want to thank the folks at

the office of economic and work force development. thank you so much for your work in organizing and helping with the loan documents. we know how challenging it is to get the city to move quickly and the people that we have in this offers really care about this work and they worked hand and hand to make this happen as quickly as we could. i am grateful to be here. ladies and gentlemen, the executive director of la casa, cathy black. >> next up we have our district attorney here to speak with us. she is a leading authority on crime prevention, experienced executive and led the police

commission and served add general counsel of the california department of justice, also served as prosecutor and advocate for survivors of domestic violence. we are honored to have her here today. she is a community advocate coo of center of youth wellness and in 2014 honored for her work to found and center, the nonprofit to heal children suffering from impact of violence. she served as president of police department from 2012 to 2017. the police commission provides the use of force policy and instituted body cameras to increase transparent and incommunity relations.

she has improved police response to violence against women and children to make the streets safe. our work isn't possible without the work of people like susie loftus. >> thank you. that was very kind. thank you, mayor breed for being here. what i want to offer to you is a story from my time as a courtroom prosecutor when i was prosecuting domestic violence because i think when we talk about what la casa means. i want to ground it in what this looks like. to law enforcement i can speak to today, it occurred to me when i got my first domestic violence cases they were not like other crimes i had prosecuted. what i was asking someone to do was picking up the phone and i

was asking them to come in and testify against someone who they either loved at that moment or at one point loved or thought they loved, and my job was to encourage them to come and testify against that person, to encourage them to come in and be cross-examined. we know what that looks like, right? what i needed most was to have someone who could addvo indicate for that survivor through -- advocate for the survivor. that is cathy black. that is all of you. it is not always the answer to domestic violence there is a prosecution. sometimes it is the answer. sometimes it leads to the stay away order to save a life, sometimes it leads to a program that an offender does that can change his life or future, let

him reclaim his life and future. the partnership law enforcement has with lacasa is i often say safety is a team sport. we have learned lessons in san francisco about how we actually build safety. it is in partnership and in service of shush fivesors and their strengths and resilience and we serve them. everything i know about domestic violence i learned from someone probably in this rumor cathy black. let us continue to learn from each other in service of this idea. there is an irish proverb that says it is in the shelter of each other that the people live. this is a shelter, this building, it is also a reminder that we are the shelter for survivors and people escaping violence and that when we lean

into each other and solve problems in the way lacasa has modeled we build safety for the people that need it the most. i couldn't be more delighted to be here today and to congratulate the city and city partners for coming together. this is a reminder of the best of who we are and the work that we have to do. congratulations to lacasa. [applause] >> we often say that we are only as strong as the community that supports us. we talk about bringing community into our work. often times our work is in confidential spaces. comemestic violence is challenge -- domestic challenge is scary and bat. we only solve this when we bring it out to the light. the next speaker is cassandra

pogie. show brings this to the light every day. she is an employee at black rock and one of the strongest allies in the community. she addvo indicates for survivors -- advocates for survivors. we are lucky to have her with us today. [applause] >> thank you. i am cassandra pogie. i am a survivor of domestic violence. i was in a relationship for two years. she was charming and created the illusion and he was good to me and i started to fall for him. as things became more serious he was jealous. he introduced intimidation and

isolation. i was trapped with someone who used manipulation and violence to control my life every day. i became a shell of myself. i was his captive. the abuse was constant happening all hours. i lost count of the slaps and the punches. there are nights that he would abuse me sexually. those were the darkest and loneliest days of my life. i was able to leave after one extremely bad beating. i don't remember how many times he punched me because i started to blackout. when he finally stopped, i was able to stagger to my bathroom and looked at myself in the mirror and i knew if i did not leave he would kill me. so i ran out the door.

as i was running down the street i didn't be know where i could be safe, but the la casa image popped in my head. a few weeks earlier a colleague was doing a presentation. i looked for a second. i was running down the street. i stopped and hid in a dark corner of a garage and googled them. i found the emergency hot line number and gave them a call. not knowing what to say, all i was able to tell the woman on the other line was that i was just beat up, feared for my life and i needed somewhere safe to stay. she gave me instructions to an indisclosed shel shelter where e would not be able to find me for the night. the comfort and security that

night is invaluable i will nerve be able to put it in word. i will never forget the feeling i had laying in a bed that night. a feeling that i haven't had in over the past year. the feeling of safety. but what they did for me did not end that night. they provided legal council to file for a civil restraining order, made sure to keep in contact with me as i got on my feet. one of the advo cats attended every court date to make sure i was not alone. i faced my abusers. in each trial the following year. i cannot change my past. i can only learn and share my experiences and hope to just save one other person from a similar story. abuse thrives in silence. i could not be more proud that

we are here today to bring a voice to the social injustice that holds so many in darkness. fortunately for us in san francisco bay area, lacasa is a bright light in the darkness. this beautiful new home is a bright light. thank you la casa for saving lives and thank you for saving my life. [applause] >> next up we have a woman who needs no introduction. here we go. cathy is the executive director and she joined la casa in i is . she has met the needs as they have evolved and globe.

grown. three increased number of services by 300%. she is on oversight panels and worked to bring the gaps and service and champion domestic violence with policymaking bodies throughout the city. she brings a wealth of program and strategic experience to la casa. each day hundreds are made safer because of her leadership. as someone who has been here through the process of the moving into this building, we really cathy did it almost entirely herself. it was amazing to watch and wish i could be more helpful. we are lucky to have your leadership at this organization. i think you touched the lives not only the survivors in the city but the people in the room individually. without further ado, kathy

black. [applause] >> thanthank you, mayor breed, d welcome everybody here with us today. i was telling somebody earlier that i was nervous and fearful. then i listened to cas cassandrd realized the real fear. it puts it in perspective. it is easy to stand in front of you now. i get the best part of this event today. everybody said such wonderful things about la casa and how it has touched so many people. i get to say thank you. almost without -- well maybe not media but some of the media

people have played a role in bringing la casa to where we are today. when i joined la casa in i in 1e are omission street. on the mission street. we weren't offered the opportunity to stay. we moved to a loading dock that was in the back of the old electrical workers apprenticeship building. we were hidden in the back on the loading dock. we fixed it up and were there for a period of time until they moved in next door. they weren't the ideal neighbor. they thought they were. we definitely sudden lie a light was shown in a way that made it scary for the employees and the victims and survivors to get help. we moved to the old ben davis

factory at 1663 mission street. our lease was coming up and they didn't want to renew the lease. we knew we needed more space because we were providing more and more services, and there seemed to be an unending demand for what we had to offer. you know, there was a crazy journey to end up with this building. we ended up getting the second time i applied to the nonprofit sustainability fund. first time i couldn't get the owner to sign the purchase agreement, but i submitted the application in hopes i could convince him before the decision was made. luckily, after a little bit of time he came around and he was

offering it for lease. a payment we would not be able to afford. $14,000 more than our mortgage loan for this. keeping good financial, being frugal, i said, no, buys is better. we were able to convince the owner to sell it to us, and we applied to the non-profit sustainability fund. it is an awesome opportunity, and i tell other non-profits when they say we don't have any office space, i tell them, you have to check out this program because it is a great deal. you know, it keeps nonprofits like la casa from moving further out of the hub of where we are needed most, right? we are in a neighborhood where we are accessible, people can

come here, get services in a safe way, and we are able to -- we call it hub and spoke model in the center of the partnership with the police department, with the general hospital and the rise program, rally family visitation program, one of our founders, we are close to hsa for the program, the mary elizabeth inn which provides 157 housing units. we do case management there. it is unending amount of work that we are able to provide. this is the most amazing spot to do it. i didn't write any of these words down. this is me talking. there are some, you know, one of the things that happen is we

rallied a community of al lies, and a lot of them are here today, including the mayor's office, oewd. and every time i see them at something it makes me smile. i feel good about it. they were supportive of me. i sent many times weeping thinking this would not happen and the lease was coming up. the department on status of women, emily and carol and staff members are here. without support we wouldn't be doing what we are doing. the giants' community fund, 49ers foundation, georgia sandy and cameron foundations,

businesses like back rock are just awesome. cb os, prc across the street is collaborating and helping us move in and get situated. then the individuals that have shown up and supported our work is amazing. it is because you are with us on the mission. receiving this $1 million grant gave us a boost that we needed and inspired other people in a way that has just been such a surprise. i mean people just call up and say can i come over? we want to make a donation. not that we -- i mean it is hard to raise money for programs like this. this year has been a change. i think people see us as a force to be reckoned with.

i am not going to read this gigantic printed words but i feel my message today is that we are here and we are available and if you know anybody who needs our help, please send them to us or collaborate with us. we want to be good partners. i owe everyone here a debt of gratitude, board members, employees, volunteers, and it all comes together to make this happen. with that we are looking forward to 2020 and thank you all very much. (applause). >> i am going to invite everybody up for the

ribbon-cutting. this is most excite being. they have these awesome scisso scissors. (laughter). >> five, four, three, two, one. there we go. [applause]

>> working with kids, they keep you young. they keep you on your tones -- on your toes. >> teaching them, at the same time, us learning from them, everything is fulfilling. >> ready? go. [♪] >> we really wanted to find a way to support women entrepreneurs in particular in san francisco. it was very important for the mayor, as well as the safety support the dreams that people want to realize, and provide them with an opportunity to receive funding to support improvements for their business so they could grow and thrive in

their neighborhoods and in their industry. >> three, two, one! >> because i am one of the consultants for two nonprofits here for entrepreneurship, i knew about the grand through the renaissance entrepreneur center, and through the small business development center. i thought they were going to be perfect candidate because of their strong values in the community. they really give back to the neighborhood. they are from this neighborhood, and they care about the kids in the community here. >> when molly -- molly first told us about the grant because she works with small businesses. she has been a tremendous help for us here. she brought us to the attention of the grand just because a lot of things here were outdated, and need to be up-to-date and redone totally. >> hands in front. recite the creed. >> my oldest is jt, he is seven, and my youngest is ryan, he is almost six.

it instills discipline and the boys, but they show a lot of care. we think it is great. the moves are fantastic. the women both are great teachers. >> what is the next one? >> my son goes to fd k. he has been attending for about two years now. they also have a summer program, and last summer was our first year participating in it. they took the kids everywhere around san francisco. this year, owner talking about placing them in summer camps, all he wanted to do was spend the entire summer with them. >> he has strong women in his life, so he really appreciates it. i think that carries through and i appreciate the fact that there are more strong women in the world like that. >> i met d'andrea 25 years ago,

and we met through our interest in karate. our professor started on cortland years ago, so we grew up here at this location, we out -- he outgrew the space and he moved ten years later. he decided to reopen this location after he moved. initially, i came back to say, hey, because it might have been 15 years since i even put on a uniform. my business partner was here basically by herself, and the person she was supposed to run the studio with said great, you are here, i started new -- nursing school so you can take over. and she said wait, that is not what i am here for i was by myself before -- for a month before she came through. she was technically here as a secretary, but we insisted, just put on the uniform, and help her teach. i was struggling a little bit. and she has been here. one thing led to another and now we are co-owners. you think a lot more about

safety after having children and i wanted to not live in fear so much, and so i just took advantage of the opportunity, and i found it very powerful to hit something, to get some relief, but also having the knowledge one you might be in a situation of how to take care of yourself. >> the self-defence class is a new thing that we are doing. we started with a group of women last year as a trial run to see how it felt. there's a difference between self-defence and doing a karate class. we didn't want them to do an actual karate class. we wanted to learn the fundamentals of how to defend yourself versus, you know, going through all the forms and techniques that we teaching a karate class and how to break that down. then i was approached by my old high school. one -- once a semester, the kids get to pick an extra curricular

activity to take outside of the school walls. my old biology teacher is now the principle. she approached us into doing a self-defence class. the girls have been really proactive and really sweet. they step out of of the comfort zone, but they have been willing to step out and that hasn't been any pushback. it is really great. >> it is respect. you have to learn it. when we first came in, they knew us as those girls. they didn't know who we were. finally, we came enough for them to realize, okay, they are in the business now. it took a while for us to gain that respect from our peers, our male peers. >> since receiving the grant, it has ignited us even more, and put a fire underneath our butts even more. >> we were doing our summer camp and we are in a movie theatre, and we just finished watching a film and she stepped out to receive a phone call. she came in and she screamed, hey, we got the grant. and i said what?

>> martial arts is a passion for us. it is passion driven. there are days where we are dead tired and the kids come and they have the biggest smiles on their faces and it is contagious. >> we have been operating this program for a little over a year all women entrepreneurs. it is an extraordinary benefit for us. we have had the mayor's office investing in our program so we can continue doing this work. it has been so impactful across a diversity of communities throughout the city. >> we hope that we are making some type of impact in these kids' lives outside of just learning karate. having self-confidence, having discipline, learning to know when it's okay to stand up for yourself versus you just being a bully in school. these are the values we want the kids to take away from this. not just, i learned how to kick and i learned how to punch. we want the kids to have more values when they walk outside of these doors.

>> mayor breed: thank you for being here. i am london breed, mayor of san francisco. i am excited about this incredible opportunity to open up a 200 bed navigation center in san francisco. we all know what the statistics say. we have a real problem around homelessness, and the fact is last year we helped 2146 people exit homelessness. since we have opened navigation centers in san francisco, they have helped over 5,000 people. despite what we know the challenges are, the fact is i am grateful and proud of so many of the incredible people behind me today. the people who workday in and

day out to help make these navigation centers a reality, but more importantly to help the people that we know are struggling on the streets exit homelessness. we have seven navigation centers in san francisco with a few more on the way. i am really excited what we are going to be doing. at the end of the day, let's be chair clear. it -- clear. it is that we need permanent housing for people who are exiting homelessness. today we are well on our way to meeting the goal that i set of 1,000 shelter beds by 2020. this brings us to 566, and we have an additional 224 beds in the pipeline and the bayview hunter's point community with

ththe safe center. i want to take this opportunity because, you know, it is easy to say we want to do something, but sometimes it is harder to do it. in this case it was challenges, but it did take a village. that consists of partner the state to the local to the community levels. i want to start with senator scott weiner for passing the legislation to streamline the construction of navigation centers across the state so people experiencing homelessness throughout california have reasonable access to shelter. people ask how did you get this built so fast despite a number of obstacles? it had everything to do with the legislation scott weiner helped to pass in sacramento. thank you to assembly man phil king because time and time again as someone who has been the

chair of the budget committee in sacramento he prioritized not only san francisco for a lot of resources but especially focusing on homelessness and navigation center. because of his work, san francisco has seen additional revenue to help support and move these projects forward faster. in fact, with his leadership, the state has invested $500 million to address homelessness in 2018 and $650 million in 2019. to be clear that is said wide. san francisco got a decent chung of that support. thank you to supervisor haney for helping engage the community. i especially want to thank the neighbors of south beach. i know thi this this hasn' hasn. we are committed to making sure

that we fulfill the promises around safety and other challenges that people were so concerned about. we appreciate the work of the advisory group and the folks who have dedicated a lot of personal time to seeing this place succeed. thank you to the port of san francisco and the commissioners, president brandon is joining us today. thank you for your work in allowing the opportunity for the navigation center to be from this location. we are grateful, we are excited. we know that this won't solve all of the challenges we have with homelessness in san francisco, but it will help a significant number of people who we know need support and services. i also want to thank five keys. they will manage the navigation center. they have a lot of great

experiences with helping people who are involved with the criminal justice system reenter society and be successful, and we are grateful for their leadership, work in the programs and opportunities that they will provide to the people that we want to serve. ultimately this is about helping people not only off the streets but helping them into housing, helping them with opportunities to succeed in life. so we are grateful for their work. now, i want to take this opportunity to introduce our state senator scott weiner. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. i want to thank and commend mayor breed and supervisor haney for standing their ground to make sure that this navigation

center could open. as a former local elected official in san francisco, i understand first hand what it is like when you have neighbors who have significant concern and fear about changes that are happening in their neighborhood. that is very intense, her hard. -- it is very hard. i want to thank them for looking at the big picture and the reality this will make the neighborhood safer and more livable in addition to helping many homeless in san francisco transition to a better and healthier future. thank you. when you look at the situation at homelessness in california, it is pretty stark. we have well over 100,000 homeless people in the state. i think it is 130,000.

a large majority of homeless residents in the bay area and los angeles are not sheltered, and this is not normal. what is happening in california and in san francisco and the bay area around homelessness is not normal. this is not how it plays out in the rest of the country where far, far fewer people are homeless to begin with because they have enough housing for people, unlike in california where we have systematically made it impossible through re-zoning and other means made it impossible to build enough housing for the people that need it. our housing has collapsed by 75% as the population has tripled. we made a decision as a state that housing was not important, and what has that led to? many problems with people pushed out of the state and evictions

happening. it has pushed over 100,000 people to homelessness in the state of california. that is because of choices that we made here in california. it is not normal for it to be so difficult to build a navigation center. it should not take years to provide shelter and housing and services for people in dire straits living on the streets. that should be something we can do immediately because we are in a crisis. we have been working at the state level to support san francisco and other local communities to make it faster and more streamlined, to create navigation centers in support of housing. i know we have all been working on that to pass legislation to streamline the process. wwe are working to reform the california approach to housing because navigation centers are

an incredible way to help people transition off the streets. if you don't have housing for people to end up in, they will cycle back to the streets. we are working at the state level to solve these problems, and it is hard and controversial. it violates how we are supposed to do things in california. that way hasn't worked and driven the car into the ditch. we have to fix things. thank you, mayor, and everyone e else who made this happen today. [applause] >> mayor breed: thank you senator wiener. now we have remarks from senator phil clean wh king who helped gs navigation center built. >> thank you, madam mayor.

as the mayor and senator weiner have said. we know the solution to homelessness. we need more affordable housing, more supportive services, but, ultimately, it takes courage at all levels of government to make it happen. we are trying to do our part at the state level. we have colleagues that don't feel completely on the same page with myself and senator wiener with making sure we are building more housing. we have challenges at the state level. mayor breed and supervisor haney have challenges. iit is not easy to stand in frot of 300 people and talk about homelessness and bringing navigation centers to a neighborhood that has not had them. it takes courage and guts and the city has to support them.

if we don't get these centers built, there is no on ramp to housing. this is the third navigation center i have had the honor of standing with mayor breed as we opened them. they are the first step. the next step has to be, as she said, permanent supportive housing. everybody is for housing, but in someone else's neighborhood, in someone else's city. i can't tell you how often i hear let's build a homeless center in stockton. let's make it someone else's problem. let's not solve the san francisco problem here. ship them somewhere else. that is not what the city and state is about, and that is not what leadership is about. leadership is about taking a problem on and solving it here.

we are the fifth richest economy in the world, california is. you wouldn't know it by many of the issues we have. this is not a financial issue. this is not an issue of money or resources. the state is doing their part to help cities and counties. this is about our residents saying we are each going to sacrifice. we are each going to take a piece of this problem and solve it here. we are not going to wait for someone to save us or hope that someone else will take this burden. this is about having the courage to say this is a san francisco problem and san francisco needs to solve it. i am so proud to be here with all of the other city officials who had the guts to get this built, to work with the community and to say this community is safer, not by having people on the streets sleeping, not by having people

in tents sleeping here, wandering around here. this community is safer when they have services, when we can get them the resources they need to go improve their life. as the mayor said we are proud at the state level $4 million from the state helped this get built. $70 million from the state to san francisco's general fund to help with homelessness over the last two years, and this is something we can only dubai workin--only do while we work t. i applaud you for having the guts to get this done. thank you. >> thank you, phil king. now, ladies and gentlemen, the supervisor matt haney for district 6. >> thank you, mayor breed. congratulations for your leadership, for your staff who we got to work with so closely

in making this happen. i especially want be to recognize jeff and emily from the department of homelessness. you all did such a wonderful job listening to the community, working with us. we went to dozens of meetings together. i am looking at emily and hearing the feedback and using that to adapt the proposal and make commitments to the neighborhood. thank you all for that and for listening. i want to thank our elected officials in sacramento, senator wiener and assembly member king. we are lucky to have advocating for us, bringing home resource goes to help us address what is definitely the biggest crisis not just in san francisco but facing our state. one of the things that i think that we can agree on is that it is a really cold day right now. being out here on a cold day, i

think, it is a reminder, a sharp reminder of the fact there are thousands of people on the streets who don't have a home to go to, don't have a warm bed or a place when it is pouring rain or below 40° that they can go inside to be warm and safe. one of the things you will notice when you go inside here is the difference between how it feels out here and how it feels in there. even just having a place where you can be warm, where you can be safe, where you can be away from the madness and the dangers that people face who live on our streets is such a huge and critical and essential thing. when people get to be inside and not have to worry where they are going to sleep tonight or tomorrow night and be able to access services and have case management and have one work with them to figure out how to get off the street permanently is a huge and wonderful thing

for us to celebrate today. one of th the things about navigation centers. they make a commitment to the neighborhood. navigation centers make the neighborhood safer, they improve conditions on the streets here. as we make this commitment to people to live inside this navigation center we make a commitment to the people living in the surrounding community on the water front and south beach this will reduce the number of people living on the streets. we have a lot of work to do for the people who come in here, the people in the neighborhood and more work to solve homelessness in the city. housing is the answer. we know we need a lot more navigation center and shelter beds in the city. this is the third navigation center in district six. we are excited and happy to do our part. as a city we need every

neighborhood to take responsibility for addressing and solving homelessness. i thank five keys, the port and everyone who is a part of getting us this far. we have a long way to go in the city. i am committed to working with you, mayor breed, to make that happen and to everyone in the neighborhood to make sure this navigation center is a success. thank you. [applause] >> mayor breed: i appreciate your remarks. i would like to make it clear that as mayor i am responsible for the entire city. the fact is getting opportunities like this, finding land in san francisco to do say navigation center, to do housing is a huge challenge. wherever we have an opportunity to get a property like this whether it is here or anyplace else in san francisco, we will

take full advantage of -- excuse me. we will take advantage of the opportunity to do so. with that, i would like to ask for community member matt -- amy. excuse me. we will listen to you when we are finished with the press conference, if you don't mind. thank you. matt carson, who is a member of this community will provide a few remarks. thank you. >> thank you for giving me this opportunity to speak. i don't think i have done anything special to deserve to be here. i just own my home a couple blocks away and work in the neighborhood as well. i walk by this spot with my 2 year-old every day. i am incredibly fortunate to have those things.

when i walk unand down the embarcadero i see those less fortunate. it is appalling in the city, region and country with so much that we refuse to guarantee the most basic standard of living. those sleeping here are living here and they are our neighbors. when the mayor proposed the navigation center to help them, i raised my hand to says i support her. i want to raise my kid in a city that helps its people. my neighbors have legitimate concerns. i have seen shattered glass and half stolen bikes. i don't want it to get worse. the mayor and the supervisor and the city promised they will make it better in the neighborhood, not worse. i trust them. if crime does go up they won't

build any more navigation centers. she does need to build more. this is what a housing crisis looks like. this is 200 beds, but there are thousands of people on the streets in san francisco. we need more shelters and related services. we need more protection for renters. we need a million homes throughout the region. our region also needs a single seamless competitive transit system to have a chance of addressing the housing crisis and climate change. i thank the mayor and everyone involved forgetting this navigation center built so quickly. i want to say to all representatives it is time to be way more ambitious. thank you. [applause]

>> mayor breed: i want to take this opportunity to thank muhammad for his leadership in getting this built so quickly. thank you to deputy chief from the san francisco police department. we know public safety is important to the community. we know that the department has added additional resources to help ensure safety in this particular neighborhood. you know, it really did take a village to get this done. so many folks standing behind me and folks from the community. i want to express my sincere appreciation to everyone that has had a hand in helping to get this done. the love and care that you put into even as i just saw the landscaping and the flowers and just making it look like a home and welcoming people in with dignity. that is what our goal is, and to get clearly people to help in

the support that they need. this along with other navigation centers in the future and eventually more housing faster is going to get us to a better place not just in san francisco but in this entire state. thank you all for being here. now jeff and steve will lead a tour of the navigation center for those interested. thank you. [applause] >> planning commission regular hearing for thursday, december 19, 2019. i will remind members of the public that the commission does not tolerate disruptions of any kind. please silence cell phones.