what a pleasure. what a great thing for us to be together in person to celebrate

the start of construction of affordable housing in san francisco. there is much -- there is much to learn. much to celebrate. much to understand about the meaning behind the housing here and to begin that, please join me in welcoming our reader, our mayor, london breed. thank you. >> i just got comfortable in my seat, don. hi everybody and welcome. first, let me say happy women's equality day today. that's why i'm wearing pink to recognize the contributions of women and the need to make sure that we are at the table. we are apart of this amazing economy and we're seeing more

women and industries and places that we deserve to be. i'm mayor, we see all these women who are actively engaged in the construction industry. it's so great to see lori here and so many wonderful amazing women. happy women's equality day in san francisco. speaking of women, women are usually the head of house holds, the ones taking care of the families, taking care of the husbands, the wives, the children, and everything in between the moms and the dads and it's so fitting we're here today. 203 units that will serve families in san francisco. and, one of the things that was so important to me even before i was mayor is making sure that we are creating communities that are for people who are apart of these amazing communities. it has a lot to do with my

experience of growing up in the western edition where when i lived in public housing, there were 300 units, there were promises made, there was tear down and rebuild and only a replacement of those 300 units. so we knew a lot of people from that community. a lot of the people that i grew up with weren't returning home. that really changed the western edition community and it didn't just happen at plaza east. it happened in other places across the city. when i became a member of the san francisco redevelopment agency commission, one of the things that was most important to me when we were talking about hope sf and we were transitioning from the federal hope program to one of local public and private partnerships, it was important that as we go in and we talk about rebuilding communities that we make sure that we allow

those communities to participate in the process and really help drive the process, but most importantly, when that housing is done, the people from that community deserve right of first refusal and what is most inspirational about these 302 units that will be home to 203 families. 40% neighborhood for this project, for the people in district six. for the people within one square mile of this project and, rudy, i want to get all your employees. all your kids who are now grown. i want all of them to apply for this housing. i want to see more applications for united players than anyone else in the city because i want to make sure that the community you helped to build, repair,

stabilize, that they have a safe, affordable place to call home because that's what they should be about when we talk about equity. when we talk about community. we have to make sure that the reason why we're doing this translates to the people who need it the most because we know that having an affordable place to call home matters. 203 units over a thousand labor jobs of people that are working, that are putting their heart and soul into making this project happen. every nail that's hammered, every pipe that's brought in. how these places are brought together. it comes from a place of love, it comes from a place of knowing there will be families and people here to enjoy it. so i'm always happy to be in not just district six, but anywhere where we are breaking ground on housing, but it's

particular affordable housing because i know what it means and, don, you and the family at t.n.d.c. who do incredible work for our city, you understand the value because you don't just help to build and create the housing. you help to work with the community. you help to serve the community with services that ensure that they are able to stay housed. that they are stable because that's what building and maintaining a community is all about. so i want to thank each and every one of you for being here today to break ground on this incredible project and i am hopeful that it's finished on time and under budget so i can come back and hand over the first key with a gift basket to the first family that's moving in because we're going to see a lot of smiles. yes, we see smiles today, but there's nothing like seeing those kids walk into their own bedrooms and seeing just their bed made up with smurf bedding.

we like the little mermaid and smurfs and that kind of stuff back in the day. i don't know what these kids see today, but it's going to put a smile on their faces and everybody that's here working on this project, you are contributing to those smiles and i want to thank each and every one of you for being here today and i'll turn it back over to don folk. i was thinking about ken folk. maybe we can get here him to come in and design every room. >> thank you mayor breed. especially for reminding us that this is about much more than structures and buildings. it's about people and community and families. please join me in welcoming tbc senior director of housing

development. >> good morning everyone. thank you so much for being here. thank you, don, and thank you mayor breed. thank you also to the san francisco voters who supported the 2019 affordable housing bond which is paying for this project. i want to thank mocd, eric shaw and his whole team is here for their partnership over the years. as they explore options for what we might do here. i want to thank the central soma plan advocates to serve a broad spectrum of income levels here. we look forward to partnering to connect residents with this housing. i also want to thank our acquisition and bridge lenders. from the local industry to support corporation, we have cindy woo.

we also benefited from the state's housing program and finally from our local housing accelerate fund. i also want to thank at some point, this was considered an inclusionary housing development. and, finally, i want to introduce and thank charmine curtis or curtis development. she's our partner who's been with us from the beginning. she pulled out all the stops last year. she and i were working hard, hustling to secure the state funding that brought us to this point in time. thanks to her efforts, we can finally see that this building will be built and in two years, we will welcome residents to their new homes. i'd like to introduce charmine curtis.

>> good morning everybody. it's so great to see everybody here and thank you so much for those kind words. we have worked so long and worked so hard to get to this moment. and i'm here to tell you how sweet it is. it took us a minute but we ade it. and it's important to acknowledge all the love and sweat that brought us to this moment. a testament to perseverance and down right doggedness. largely on the part of kb and myself who would never say die. but, also, we owe a huge debt to the maul army of people who performed above and beyond the call of duty to meet some deadlines over the last year and a half. we closed the financing and got

this project under construction in lightning speed in record time for san francisco and we are so proud of that and the team that. >> affordable housing development will always be a big part of my life's work. for one thing, i believe in the transformative power and affordable roof over your head and without it, you cannot be a stable person living in one of the most expensive cities in the world. we have got to change our housing delivery system to make it so so that no one is left behind and unhoused in a world where there is so much in the city. i had to do my little soap box bit and i'm done with that part.

we are here to celebrate this achievement and i want to extend a heart felt thanks to that small army of people i mentioned who helped to get us here. many of them are here. some are not. there are way too many individual names of folks to go through and i'm afraid i'll leave somebody out. i'm going to keep it high level and thank the organizations. and the one that i was thinking about on the way over here is the san francisco planning department. the women who do all the affordable housing processing are amazing and they worked above and beyond to submit financial applications last year. truly remarkable and without them, we wouldn't have made it. so thank you to those women who helped so much in the beginning. i mean, you all see the site. it's pretty organized and i

really think it's one of the best general contractors in the country and just really know the business. our construction manager is wade point consulting the team from b of a is lending over $100 million and investing over $70 million in tax credit equity in this project and they're a big bank. that's still a huge investment even for them and their team has been really great, super flexible and even fun to work with through a really stressful process. >> the mayor's office has been a great partner in every way. and we miss them.

but we're looking forward to working with the new project manager and construction manager from m.o.c.d.. thank you to california financing agency. they are a permanent lender and they were like the final piece to putting the financing together to make this happen, so we're grateful to them. the attorneys don't ever get enough credit because you would not believe but the city attorney's office is great. representing bank of america. they were great. housing developers, representing the partnership and they are amazing and are the bond council on behalf.

and last but not least, the officers who are unsung. i want to thank over public title for everyone in their living rooms and bedrooms. it's pretty amazing. this work requires so much dedication. there are a lot of people doing this especially in the nonprofit world to go out and get jobs. but people do it because they're down with the cause. they want to get people housed and are just amazing, remarkable partners and i really want to just honor them for the work they do every day for all the work they give. thanks a lot. >> charmine curtis is an amazing developer and an

amazing person. thanks, charmine. please, join me is welcoming lori dungone from swinderton. >> good morning. my name is lori dunngyen i am the vice president manager for swinerton builders here in the bay area. i will tell you that today is a special day because i don't have my steel toe boots on today which is very unusual, but trust me, they are in the trunk of my car because i believe in being ready at all times. on this amazing project, swinerton is grateful and thankful to be partnering with curtis development and t.n.t. architects. we are really excited to bringing these affordable projects to san francisco.

we recognize housing is a significant issue and i'm really proud of the fact that over the past ten years, swinerton has delivered over 5,000 units which is just amazing. we really consider ourselves a community builder. we were founded in 1888 here in the city of san francisco and we truly believe it's part of our core values, that when we go to build in a neighborhood, we want to leave that neighborhood better than we found it. that is super important to us. one other amazing thing about this project is that we're really looking forward to working with our small and local businesses. so i saw earlier jeron. michael spencer. we're going to be working with spencer masonry and then tanna harris. we know this is a significant

contract and we're going to do everything we can to support this process. so thank you to our small and local businesses. in closing, on behalf of swinerton builders, you have our commitment that we're going to be a good community partner on this project and we look forward to delivering this much needed affordable housing project to the city of san francisco. thank you. >> thank you so much, lori. we will conclude now and i just want to offer a few reflections. t.n.d.c. and citizen's housing came together in i think it was 2008 to undertake a joint venture. we outbid two market rate developers to get control of the site, the city, the mayor's office of housing and community development at the time had

virtually no money, but they had the vision and the understanding to realize how important -- i'm so sorry. rudy! thank you for forgiving me. rudy, you're on. >> i'm a forgiving guy. thank you, don folk. first off, i want to say thank you, mayor london breed, for your leadership during these amazing times how you step with a lot of courage and as a san franciscan, the step forward during this pandemic and to make things happen, respect and solute to you. you know, i'm born and raised in san francisco, but i'm not only born and raised in san francisco, i'm born on this block. four blocks up.

my family came from the philippines in the '60s. this neighborhood right here has a 100 year history of filipinos and this is actually famed after the cultural philippine zone. i'm one of them. i run my organization united players and another organization that's been running for over 50 years west bay and it's neighborhood serving our current filipino families and immigrants. project right here is a win-win here in san francisco. but, if you look at now. and it wasn't built overnight. if you look now for our people to be stable, for our people to

not be moved to be placed in a place where not only in san francisco, but where we were born and raised. to me. that's how you stabilize and leave san francisco. we want the phillip piano residents where we live and we die. and so my motto is it takes the hood to save the hood. what does that mean? you ain't got to be from the hood to save the hood. it just meanses, you've got to have love in your heart from the people to take care of the people. so all the building, all the relationship buildings that we did with t.n.d.c., what my man mick who works, all our partners here from curtis development charmine, thank you. the construction workers, the people who built this, don't forget about them, the labor that they put to make this happen.

thank you, guys. it takes a joint effort for all of us to do this together. that's all it means. all it means is us coming together working together. we may not see eye to eye all the time, but what we do is for the betterment of our people of san francisco. so thank you to everybody who made this project happen. over 200 affordable housing. come on, man. you know it's needed here in san francisco. and so thank you. i'm a frisco cat just like you're a frisco cat, mayor london breed. me and you go back like a hot bowl of grits. that's my sister right there. so lastly, i just want to say this, there's a lot of shovels here. there's a shovel at the end that's symbolic. that shovel was made from gun buy backs that we've been doing, mayor. right, mayor london breed, getting thousands of guns off the streets. that was made out of guns.

that planted a tree for martin luther king in atlanta. we built that mohogany tree by city hall. we used that to break ground for that building right here. and the bible says swords will be turned into plow shares. i'm honored that you allow us to use that shovel to help break ground for over 200 affordable 100% housing in our community. thank you once again for having me. thank you for letting me speak. it wouldn't be right if you didn't have nobody from this neighborhood up here on the podium speaking. thank you, mayor london breed for your leadership. continue to do what you do because you know we've got your back like a backpack. thank you. >> thank you, rudy.

you are an inspiration really and truly. and, i just want to make that comment rudy referenced mick. mick, can you raise your hand? there. mick was a t.b.c. resident at the yosemite apartments. we're all proud of that. now, thank you for forgiving me, rudy. i'll conclude by noting that it was in 2008 that citizens got control of the site. the city did not have virtually any money and so they had the foresight to lend us just enough to acquire the property and there was no more money in sight. and so for years and years, we struggled to try to find ways to come up with non-city money to complete the financing. and during that period of time, the site had originally been

zoned for only 80' and because of our work with the city department, we were able to rezone it and sub divide it. so this is now actually two sites. what's behind us will be 18 stories and where you all are sitting now is zoned for 30 stories and another 230 units that some day we hope to be able to finance as affordable housing. and so, if there is something to learn from this, it is the power of a whole community working together and of perseverance. thank you all for being here. we'll see you at the ground breaking. >> five, four, three, two, one! yes! [applause] [♪♪]