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]

>> my name is andrea, i work as a coordinator for the city attorney's office in san francisco. a lot of it is working with the public and trying to address their public records request and trying to get the information for their office. i double majored in political science and always tried to combine both of those majors. i ended up doing a combination of doing a lot of communication for government. i thought it would connect both of my studies and what was i was interested in and show case some of the work that government is doing. >> i work for the

transportation agency known as muni and i'm a senior work supervisor. >> i first started as a non-profit and came to san francisco and started to work and i realized i needed to work with people. this opportunity came up by way of an executive fellowship. they had a program at mta to work in workforce development type project and i definitely jumped on that. i didn't know this was something that i wanted to do. all i knew is that i wanted to help people and i wanted to empower others. >> the environment that i grew up that a lot of women were just stay-at-home moms. it wasn't that they didn't have work, but it was cheaper to stay home and watch the kids instead of paying

pricey day care centers. >> my mom came from el salvador during the civil war. she worked very hard. when she came here and limited in english, she had to do a service job. when i was born and she had other kids, it was difficult for her to work because it was more expensive for her to be able to continue to work in a job that didn't pay well instead of staying at home and being able to take care of us. >> there isn't much support or advocacy for black women to come in and help them do their jobs. there also aren't very many role models and it can be very intimidating and sometimes you feel uncomfortable and unsure of yourself and those are the reasons exactly why you need to do it. when i first had the opportunity, i

thought that's not for me. my previous role was a project manager for a biotech start up. i thought how do i go from technology to working in government. thinking i didn't know about my skills, how am i going to fit in and doing that kind of work. thinking you have to know everything is not what people expect have you, but they expect you to ask questions when you don't know and that's important. >> my mom was diagnosed with cancer. that was really difficult. she encouraged me to go to school because in case anything happened i would be able to protect myself. i wanted to be in oncology. i thought going to school it would set me for the trajectory and prepare me for my life. >> we need the hardships to some of the things that are going to

ultimately be your strength in the future. there is no way to map that out and no way to tell those things. you have to do things on your own and you have to experience and figure out life. >> you don't have to know what you are going to do for the rest of your life when you are in college or high school because there are so many things to do. i would encourage you to try to do everything that you are remotely interested. it's the best time to do it. being a young woman with so many opportunities, just go for it and try >> good morning. thank you so much. i am mayor london breed.

i am excited to be here today joined by supervisors safai and vallie brown. this, as you all know, is a representation of a lot of the work that we have been doing in san francisco t to come up with creative solutions to address homelessness. we have to understand sometimes it is not one size fits all, and trying to understand exactly the challenges that people who are homeless are dealing with and meeting them where they are and getting them the help and support they need to transition into a more permanent stable housing situation is something that we care about. this is why we have been fighting so hard to build more shelter beds, to look at places that are under utilized space to identify weighs in which we can

have temporary or permanent space for shelter to allow for a situation like this where we are taking a parking lot slated for 100% affordable house anything the near future and using it when it is not being used for a place for people to safely park, get supported services and resources and make sure that we are able to help people transition into a permanent situation. i will say that i am really proud to work with two individuals who have been the leaders in this effort. starting with the board of supervisors and understanding there are so many people before the homeless count was released that showed we had an increase in the number of people living in vehicles. these two supervisors led the efforts around solutions around safe parking for those who unfortunately are sleeping in their vehicles.

as a way to provide a safe place like where we are standing here today. in october of 2019, the city counted over 700 occupied vehicles in san francisco, both passenger cars and rvs so we know that this is something that we need to provide a solution for. i want to be clear because the first thing you hear from folks it is not enough. it is better than what it was. there was nothing in the past. now this is an example. this is not from my understanding what we are trying to propose here today is not something that we are familiar with anyplace in the united states where this is happening and actually has a track record of proving successful. we are stepping out to be the first to try something different, that we are hoping

could work to support people that we know need support. i want to thank not just the supervisors but i really want to thank urban because they are the ones that you will hear from them in a minute. this program is absolutely incredible in the civic center area and other places throughout san francisco working with so many vulnerable population of san francisco, helping to keep the neighborhoods and civic center and downtown area safe and clean and accessible and treating people with respect and dignity. i appreciate the work they are doing. i also want to appreciate the lake view omi community. mr. and mrs. harris are here and steve and others. this is not something always popular to do. not only did supervisor safai

lead in this effort to have community meetings to talk about this location used for this purpose, he really took a lot of hits from the community and, fortunately, so many community members were open and willing to allow this use to take place, and we truly appreciate the neighborhood for allowing us to do this on a temporary basis. this vehicle triage center is something, i think, that can be potentially duplicated throughout san francisco. ultimately, the goal is to get people into safe affordable housing that is really the goal of this. this is a way to bring people inside, to provide showers, to provide restroom facilities, to make sure that we are doing it in a way that meets people where they are and treatings them with respect and dignity. i am grateful to be here today to kick this off. i do want to say that a lot of

work through the mayor's office on homelessness has gone into identifying all over san francisco people who are living in their vehicles and trying to create, you know, a way to know what already exists. i want to make it clear that this is not an open invitation to people in other counties to come to san francisco because the fact is we have a long waiting list of people who we have identified and they will be our priority along with other unhoused individuals who sadly are sleeping on the streets. we, of course, invite other counties to look at this as an example and to do their part in addressing this issue. this is not just an issue unique to san francisco. this is an issue that impacts the entire state of california. we are hopeful we will partner in the near future to talk about ways to move forward with

solutions like this and others to make sure that san francisco is not the only city and county bearing the burden of the expense of doing unique things like we are doing today. with that since the rain is coming down and you guys know i don't like to get my hair wet. we are on dangerous territory here. i would like to introduce the supervisor safai. [applause] >> we will pause for mayor breed to have an umbrella. (laughter) >> you know, i want to say i think this is historic day in san francisco. i know that people have been talking about doing safe parking in one form or another for over a decade, but truly we are

standing here today because of the individuals that stand behind me. we had a situation where i went out and told the story a few time also. i went out on christmas day with my daughter. santa had gotten her a bike and we went to the playground and the street was lined with people living in rvs. i thought what is happening? so i called s.f.m.t.a., got started getting calls from neighbors. they were saying they wanted these cars removed. i think that the knee jerk reaction in these situations is to just think about the vehicles but not think about the individuals that are occupying these vehicles. these are folks that are human being just like you and me. they are working, often times students, often times they are veterans, they are people who are productive members of

society and want to be respected like you and me. i will tell you, my knee jerk reaction was to call and say where are the signs, we need no overnight parking signs up. s.f.m.t.a. said we are going to pause, we are not going to keep doing this. it just pushes people from one block to another. then i got back to my office and there was a photograph of a young woman living in an rv, and it was a handwritten note from supervisor brown that said let's work on this together in a humane way. that really caused me to pause, and i walked into her office and i said don't blind side me like that again. we kind of had a laugh, but the truth was i said you are right. we have to do this the right way. we buckled down, the staff buckled down and wrote a piece of legislation.

we went around the bay area and looked at best practices. we crafted a piece of legislation. the reason that this is able to happen is because of that piece of legislation. we also march would into -- marched into may or breed's office. >> mayor breed: you walked. >> there were two of us. we marched. we had an uncomfortable conversation. by the end, the mayor committed money, and she challenged me. are you going to put one of these in your district? i said i absolutely am. i know where we can go. i called mission housing development. they had gotten control of this site. i called jeff and we had a conversation to say can this be the first place where we do safe

parking? fast forward. it looked like once the census came in that there really was a justification for doing this. out of the increase in homelessness, 70% of the increase and i think it was 13% increase in homelessness, 70% are living in vehicles. if now, was not the time then it would never be the time. we did that. the mayor allocated over $1 million for this effort. we engaged the community. as the mayor mentioned, steve and the reverend. the improvement association, 45 individuals in the room and we took a vote. after that vote it was a unanimous vote to proceed with this. we had a community meeting and

600 people showed up. by the end an and mary and i wil tell you we never have 600 people show up for a meeting. it leaned towards support. we wanted to be the first and share in the responsibility of dealing with the homeless crisis. i want to thank the mayor and i want to give a special thanks to the department of public works. we would not have been able to move as fast as we would if they hadn't been able to get this ready you see the solar panels, security cameras, lighting, privacy fencing, restriping, bathrooms, office space and urban will be here on site 24 hours per day, at least two individuals. we have the captain, liaison

with the bart police. wwe are working with s.f.m.t.a. yes there will be tough loved involved. when we go out to proactively move people out of the streets where they are living in vehicles, we are not going to invite more individuals to occupy those spaces. s.f.m.t.a. will put up the signs to encourage people to omentalis these spaces. myself and soon pe supervisor bn called for a meeting. president yee is looking for a location. supervisor walton is looking for space in his district. it will be a humane way. i want to thank everyone today. i want to thank the individuals that made this possible, and we are going to continue to look to expand and make this model a

successful model. as the mayor said, in one year we will break ground on 100% affordable housing on the site. we will see what works, what i am provements can be made and how to do it better and how san francisco can lead throughout the bay area. i will introduce supervisor vallie brown my co-sponsor in this effort. >> thank you, super-vior and mayor breed. it was over a year ago that i did send a photo to his office of me living in a van when i was 13. as some of you know, my mom had odd jobs. she was always struggling to make ends meet. there were times she didn't have enough money for the next aren't.

she would borrow a van from a friend and we would live in the van until she was able to get money for the next apartment. as a child of 13 living in a van, there is a lot of struggles. there are things you have to wear a bathing suit all of the time. why do you wear a bathing suit? because you went to the gas station to rest up. you couldn't be naked. you had to have a bathing suit. you had to do homework before sundown because there was no light only a flashlight. you had nowhere to cook meals. these things that we don't think about are things that you think about when you live in a vehicle. you have to plan your life so carefully when you live in a vehicle. and i have to say the things sometimes are meant to be. as a child i don't have many photographs of myself. we move so much and you lose

things. i found this photo of me living in the van at 13. i felt like it was meant to be of me moving forward to say why aren't we thinking differently about housing people? helping people that are struggling? iit is a thin veil from from being homeless on the street. i never tried t to do a this wih you. you never know who lives in these vehicles. thank you may or breed for putting the money forward because it was $1 million to say let's try this out. thank you to this community for stepping up to say let us be the first. i absolutely feel we are going to need more through the city like we need navigation centers, homeless centers, we need more. this is the beginning. thank you everyone for coming

and for sharing and supporting. let's move forward. thank you. [applause] >> the folks that will manage this is urban. they are the wantings who have been doing an incredible job with the civic center, ambassadors of the community. managing the public toilets or overseeing public spaces in other areas and trying to get people help and support, and in some cases connectedded to the homeless outreach team. this are an invaluable resource in san francisco. the person in charge is lana miller. [applause] >> thank you, mayor breed. thank you. i want to thank everybody who

allowed us to be part of this effort. it is very, very important. as we see homelessness is continuing to increase all of the time. we are tasked with continuing to find ways to deal with it. a lot of people, sometimes people get frustrated in the city and there is a lot of that. what i see from my perspective because as mayor breed said we are all around the city in every intersection where you see a mix of homelessness and mental illness and addiction, there we are. from what i have seen from that perspective and talking with people from all over the country is this situation is only getting worse. we are not in a position to say we don't want to deal with it. we can't deal with it, we must deal with it and we must find creative ways to address people with love, with respect, with

dignity. as supervisor brown said, that used to be her. it used to be and is a lot of our family members. it is not going anywhere. it is up to us as human beings to find ways to scale up. what we saw with the fires recently is that a lot of people are now living in their vehicles. i think when we see more and more people displaced through climate change we are going to see more and more people who are living in the streets. now we have to get in front of this. i am really, really honored to be part of the thought partners who aren't saying it is somebody else's problem. we need to find a way to get people out of here so people feel comfortable, but people putting their headins together o find creative ways to address

this with love and dignity. eventually we all have to scale. thank you very much. we are really great full for the opportunity to be part of this. [applause] >> thank you. our last speaker today is a person who grew up in san francisco in the bayview-hunters point community and one of the first clients that we will work with here, sandra youth. (applause) >> hello, i am sandra hughes. i was born and raised in san francisco. as a child i experienced a lot of trauma. as a result i have struggled most of my life with trusting anyone. even those who want to help me. i am currently home less and i live in my rv. the neighborhood around me has changed. where i used to ride my bike as a child, there are businesses. the community members yell at me

not to park there, to move away. they treat me as if i am less than human. i wish they could understand i don't want to live in the rv or have to park there either. i want what everyone else wants, safety, dignity and a community. i don't feel safe living in my rv. it has been broken into five time also. i am scared every night when i try to sleep. i don't feel safe around people. shelters are not an option for me. when the team told me about the vtc opening up and gave me information, i thought the opportunity to move into the vehicle triage center with my rv would offer me safety and security. maybe i could learn to build trust with people until i can find stable housing. i want to have a key for my

apartment, i want to connect with my family. i want safety. this would be a first step in the feeling of safety my allow me to heal and rebuild my life. thank you. (applause) >> thank you again for sharing your story. as you can see we have a lot of work to do in the city. part of it is the opening of this parking lot as a safe place for people to park, but ultimately it all goes back to housing. you feel like i repeat this over and over again. it is not just the money necessary to build housing. we know san francisco is one of the most expensive places to build housing in the first place.

it is also about having the courage to cut back on the bureaucratic red tape so we don't have to wait years to build housing so that people like sandra and so many others sleeping on the streets have a place to call home. this is what we will continue to work on. yes, we celebrate a milestone that we have this parking lot for people to park safely, but, ultimately, they nehousing. we have to do a better job as a city to build it. thank you to the department of public works, the hot team and be the work you do on the streets, thank you to the san francisco police department and the folks who work with us. wrap it up. it is time to go. thank you. [applause]

>> in 201,755.7 million passengers traveled through san francisco international airport. we have on average 150,000 people traveling through the airport every day. flying can be stressful so we have introduced therapy dogs to make flying more enjoyable. the wag brigade is a partnership between the airport and the san francisco therapy animal assistant program to bring therapy animals into the airport, into the terminals to make passenger travel more enjoyable. i amgen fer casarian and i work here at san francisco

international airport. the idea for therapy dogs got started the day after 9/11. an employee brought his therapy dog to work after 9/11 and he was able to see how his dog was able to relieve passenger's jitter. when we first launched the program back in 2013, our main goal was to destress our passengers however what we quickly found is that our animals were helping us find a way to connect with our pang. passengers. we find there are a lot of people traveling through the airport who are missing their pets and who are on their road a lot and can't have pets and we have come in contact with a lot of people recently who have lost pet. >> i love the wag brigade. >> one of my favorite parts is

walking into the terminals and seeing everybody look up from their device, today everybody is interacting on their cell phone or laptop and we can walk into the terminal with a dog or a pig and people start to interact with each other again and it's on a different level. more of an emotional level. >> i just got off an 11.5 hour flight and nice to have this distraction in the middle of it. >> we look for wag brigade handlers who are comfortable in stressful situations. >> i like coming to airport it's a lot of fun and the people you talk to are generally people who are missing their dogs. >> they are required to compete a certification process. and they are also required to

complete a k9 good citizen test and we look for animals who have experienced working with other orgorganizations such as hospits and pediatric units and we want to be sure that the animals we are bringing into the airport are good with children and also good with some of our senior travelers. i think toby really likes meeting kids. that is his favorite thing. he likes to have them pet him and come up to him and he really loves the kids. >> our wag brigade animals can be spotted wearing custom vets and they have custom patches. >> there is never a day that repeats itself and there is never and encounter that repeats itself. we get to do maximum good in a

small stretch of time and i have met amazing people who have been thrilled to have the interaction. >> the dogs are here seven days a week, we have 20 dogs and they each come for a two hour shift. >> there is a lot of stress when people have traveling so to from these animals around to ease the stress and help people relax a little bit. i think it's great. >> one of our dogs has special need and that is tristine. he wears a wheel around. >> he has special shoes and a harness and we get it together in the parking lot and then we get on the air train. he loves it. little kids love him because he is a little lower to the ground so easy to reach and he has this

big furry head they get to pet and he loves that. >> he doesn't seem to mind at all. probably one of the happiest dogs in the world. >> many people are nervous when they travel but seeing the dogs is just a wonderful relief. >> what i absolutely love most about it is the look on people's faces, so whenever they are stressed and flying is stressful these days you get these wonderful smile. >> i am the mom of lilo the pig and she is san francisco's first therapy pig. >> lilo joined the wag brigade as our firs first pig. >> wag brigade invited us to

join the program here and we have done it about a year-and-a-half ago. our visits last 1.5 to 2 hours and it does take a little bit longer to get out of the terminal because we still get a lot of attention and a lot of people that want to interact with lilo. >> i feel honored to be part of the wag brigade. it's very special to meet so many people and make so many feel happy and people that work here. it's been a great experience for me and a great experience for to totoby. >> it's been an extremely successful program, so the next time you are here, stop by and say hi.

sustainability mission, even though the bikes are very minimal energy use. it still matters where the energy comes from and also part of the mission in sustainability is how we run everything, run our business. so having the lights come on with clean energy is important to us as well. we heard about cleanpowersf and learned they had commercial rates and signed up for that. it was super easy to sign up. our bookkeeper signed up online, it was like 15 minutes. nothing has changed, except now we have cleaner energy. it's an easy way to align your environmental proclivities and goals around climate change and it's so easy that it's hard to not want to do it, and it doesn't really add anything to

the bill. >> this is the regular meeting of the commission on community investment and infrastructure act successor agency for the san francisco redevelopment agency for tuesday, december 17th, 2019. welcome to members of the public please call the first item. >> the first order of business is item one, roll call. please respond when i call your name. [roll call] the next order of business