>> good morning, everyone. we are here today to celebrate re-opening of the san francisco first responder museum. formerly known as fire department pioneer memorial museum. thank you for being here. long-standing board member of the guardians of the city. i have the honor of being the emcee today through this program. thank you all for being here. [applause]. is it really great to be back in person standing here like this in front of the museum where we get to go and experience firsthand live and in person the artifacts, apparatus, part of the rich history of first

responders and public safety in san francisco. you are in for a real treat. board members and the guardians of the city have put time, energy and commitment into preserving the pieces and getting all set up for display. after we go through the plan with speakers speaking i would invite everyone to come in and experience it. it is a little small. now that we have covid restrictions lifted, we have the opportunity to share the experience together. as you know, this museum is around 54 years now. i live down the street. what i was growing up we would walk to share in the experience. i wasn't hired as firefighter. i moved to other things. it is an honor and privilege to be part of public safety. this first responder museum highlights the fact that all of us involved in public safety

work collectively together to keep community safe. it speaks to the fact we have grown from in a fire station with a museum dedicated to not just fire but to all of us involved in public safety. please enjoy the experience when you have the chance. as i say, public safety, i recognize that many members of public safety in san francisco, all of us from the sheriff's office to police department, fire department, department of emergency management, we are all here from may or down with commitment to public safety. i thank everyone from being here. the museum would fought be here without hard work of the guard yarns of the city. we have the chairperson retired fire department captain jim lee. it takes passion and commitment. [applause]. it takes passion and commitment to pull something like this off.

especially because all of this is done without public funds. it is done on the beneficiaries and donations and support from the community for the group. she has worked for many years to preserve the public safety history. also helped to produce the 1906 earthquake centennial in 2006 and 150th anniversary in 2016. i would like to welcome to the diee. [applause] >> thank you, sheriff. mayor london breed, supervisor stefani, sheriff and bill scott and chief nicholson and director carroll and command staff from emergency response agencies.

distinguished guests and friends, welcome. i am james lee, retired fire department captain. it is my pleasure to welcome you to the grand re-opening of the san francisco first responder museum. [applause]. 58 years ago chief william murray stood at this very spot and dedicated this museum to preserve the rich history of the san francisco fire department. he knew to move forward with new ideas and innovation you must preserve and respect the past. guardians exist to preserve the heritage age history of the fridays first responders over 170 years when you include the san francisco police and sheriff's office. we gather today, may 11, by no

accident. the guardians of the city staff have been working tirelessly to introduce the exists and days displays of the police department and sheriff's office to coincide with law enforcement appreciation week. i will let them comment on that later. for those that have not seen the little museum. it is, in fact, tiny. we are bursting at the seams with artifacts, photos, antique fire apparatus too numerous to display. there are some other fire engines that cannot be enjoyed due to the space limitations. we have a goal of opening a larger museum and event center. not only can we properly share the rich history of public service, but we could train

youth in disaster preparedness, expose to public safety career opportunities, first responder promotional ceremonies and graduations and self-sustaining and income generating event center. i invite you to meet the board members today. for now we celebrate the end of two years of being closed. we want to welcome you to the new displace and artifacts from the police department and sheriff's office and for the first time ems in san francisco. while there are many to thank today to get this grand re-opening, i would like special attention and thanks to the board members mike, jackie martin and jamie o'keefe. i would be remiss if i didn't be

give a special thank you to those who always responded to the aid for help. back to the sheriff. i would like to thank you all for coming and enjoying the day. thank you. [applause]. >> as you knowledge the members of the guardians of the city. i want to point out to my left these aren't firefighters that haven't spent money from the uniform allowance. they are wearing vintage union forms and members of the board for the guardians. i want to acknowledge they are here living the history. the next speaker we know very well. born and raised in san francisco with a very interesting history herself. forty-fifth mayor who lives our history by dazzling us every

april 18th with a costume that out does the previous year every year. please welcome may orthop mayorn breed. (applause). >> mayor breed: i would have dressed appropriately today. women weren't necessarily mayors at the time. there is a new day and trend to set. when i think about the fact that over 170 years ago when some of the first volunteers started the various police and fire departments because of a need in san francisco to protect the public and a number of aspects, they did so because they had a desire to serve. they had a desire to help. in fact, that has not changed much in terms of men and women of our various public safety departments. many of you here today, i know,

were in the various agencies. it is because you wanted to serve the public in this capacity. what i want to express today is, of course, appreciation for the preservation of history of what these various departments represent. more importantly, i want to appreciate and thank you for your service and carrying on the legacy what now exists for san francisco especially as we come out of the global pandemic. we appreciate that first responders regardless of pandemic you had to show up to work. regardless of the challenges in exist no matter what they are, the people who respond to emergencies in the city have to be on the job. they have to show up. there is no other option. we appreciate your service. thank you so much for everything you do to support the city. we also want to really thank guardians of the city because in

reprieving the history they realize the importance of giving back and working with kids, working to do collaborations. one i can think of off the top of my head. i don't know your title with the sheriff's department you were werecaptain of the police statin bringing christmas trees out to the various locations in the community and making sure that it is not just about doing the job or showing up and challenging times it is about connecting with the community and building bridges that is what guardians of the city represent a preservation of the history and desire to build those bridges. when we think about san francisco and its very challenging past what happened back then, i can't help but be proud that when you look at the

leaders of these various departments you have a woman who is leading the fire department. you have an african-american man who is leading the police department. you have an asian-american man leading sheriff's department. how far we have come diversifying departments and becoming part of the fabric what makes san francisco so special. as we celebrate history of first responders, let us remember how far we come. the challenges of the past but resilient of what san francisco is. despite those challenges, how we continue like the phoenix to rise to become a better more inclusive, vibrant san francisco. the way we are able to do that has everything to do with the people who serve and protect the city and put their lives on the line every single day. i want to thank you all so much for being here. thank you all so much for the work that you are doing.

know that especially in this upcoming budget my priorities will reflect the need to support and uplift public safety departments in san francisco. the other thing i want to do is really acknowledge again all of the volunteers and the people who are part of guardians of the city. i also want to acknowledge we just had our new member of the san francisco board of supervisors matt dorsey join us today. he is definitely familiar to the men and women of the police department. we are so grateful for his service. i also want to acknowledge the fact that a lot of this happens because of philanthropic support and the san francisco police department has the support of chris larson joining us today, a native from san francisco who supports the department and

wants to improve moral and support which is a challenging time for the department. so many care about our public safety officials. do not get discouraged what is on social media and other alcohol ings. the an attend of the day the people of the city support you and appreciate you and you are showing up at the most difficult times in their lives. that means something when you have someone that no matter what is going to show up, make sure that people are okay, they are safe, served, protected. that is what public safety and what you all represent for san francisco. we appreciate you. we need you. we will continue to uplift and support you. we thank you so much for being here to celebrate that history and what that means to san francisco. thank you so much. [applause]. >> thank you, mayor breed.

come back up here. we have something to present, i believe. on behalf of the guardians we have this jacket for you. guardian logo and your name. in case you forget. that is your name. it will be on your jacket. it might be warm. >> mayor breed: it might be a little tight here. >> thank you. [applause]. >> thank you again. i do want to mention i am going to talk about the sheriff's office now. i will switch hats for a second. i have the honor of leading a very large work force of deputies and professional staff who contribute to the safety and well-being of our residents.

i don't want to forget past. this is commitment to remembering what we have done, where we are and where we will go as part of the public safety community. i want to recognize that we have had support from former sheriffs as well. some are here and some couldn't be here. vicky and mike hen see helped us move forward as we collected many pieces. former sheriff here for a long standing period of time because he was part of the history for the long time is now one of the people who manage the history website and who has contributed a lot of information, history and materials to that website to preserve the history that we share here with our public safety partners. i want to shout out karl, one of our former board members. they were a significant part of

what you will see inside today for the sheriff's office. thank you for that. [applause]. our next speaker has a special connection to our event. as ad catherine stefani was in the behind the scene works that formed the legislation working for supervisor mark farrell. she helped codify the role as protectors of public safety history. she helped pass a resolution to outline the great mission today. a very much supporter of public safety. we are lucky to have her speak here today. supervisor stefani. >> supervisor stefani: i was just thinks. one of the great things about being involved in public service you see great things like this come to fruition.

in 2012 working with jim lee and going to different locations around the city like fort mason and oak street to figure out where to house these incredible artifacts to honor the first responders. this is a culmination of the success and perseverance of everyone involved. it is nice to see so many men and women in uniform. i feel protected. thank you. i am the district two supervisor. i am hull belled to stand alongside so many first responders. this is one of our district two fire stations. thank you, chief nicholson. i want to acknowledge what the first responders do starting with the dispatchers who field 24 hours each day 3800 calls. 1.4 million calls per year. first responders, the san

francisco fire and police and sheriff's office and emergency medical services kept the city and residents safe through earthquakes, fires and emergencies our communities face every single day. these departments hold irreplaceable artifacts that reflect our history as well as their history. the conservation of the artifacts is not just an important part of maintaining the history of the city but honoring the heritage. we recognize the contributions and sacrifices made by those individuals who dedicated careers and lives to ensuring public safety of residents. as the sheriff mentioned, i have been a supporter of men and women in uniform. you are running towards dangers. others run away. some of the moral issues are

addressed and spoken about in the paper. i know chris larson is here talking about today in terms of dedicating support to maintaining moral and uplifting the police department. i want to thank those who say thank you to our police officers and thank you to the firefighters and thank you to the sheriffs. many times they deserve your gratitude and to show it is one thing you can do every day to really help boost moral. the guardians of the city museum, memorial and learning center is a treasure for san francisco. this plays an important role to visitors in honoring the lives of first responders is worthy and important goal. thank you all for being here and supporting the museum. i look forward to celebrating with you and looking at new artifacts stored in this wonderful location. thank you so much. [applause].

>> thank you, supervisor. i do want to point be out i am growing -- fond of this hat. it is very functional. there is one other individual wearing this. park ranger chief murphy with a black hat. we have to coordinate better next time. you may have flowed the fire engines around the museum. it was chief william murray who photo house the history 58 years ago. until today this building served as the san francisco fire department museum. it remains that. we have added exhibits and displays thatten comes all public safety departments in san francisco. we have a shared appreciation for recognizing us as partners

in the fire station. to give thoughts on the 54 years since that came to pass your fire chief, jeanine nicholson. >> thank you. you look cool in the hat. i would like to change our uniforms. greetings. welcome to station 10 and to the museum. i thank the gott for everything that they have done in terms of preserving our history. i want to thank mayor breed for creating new history with the people you have appointed including myself. thank you so much for creating new history. we in public safety, as you know, whether it is our call takers at the department of emergency management, my sister marielle lencarroll to all of

you thank you. station 10. thank you for being here today. i want to acknowledge a couple fire commissioners in the house. thank you for being here and for your support. former fire commissioner cleaveland, always supports us. nice to see you as well. we have a proven history of taking on disasters and of growing resiliency. this first responder museum can help to preserve that history and carry those lessons forward for touch public servants and residents. i want to note next week is ems versus week. i am grateful we have ems here as well. it is such a huge part of the public safety family in the fire department and city. thank you to gotc and all

volunteers who work here and on this. i am going to get out of the sun shortly now. thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, chief. back to the gold rush days now. while we are talking about that. i saw the mounds here. watch where you step. around the same time as the sheriff's office was founded another organization was formed in 1849. the san francisco police department has been our partner in public safety providing law enforcement services from san francisco to share everything that happened since 1849. my partner and friend from the san francisco police department, chief bill scott. [applause] >> thank you, sheriff. good morning everybody.

it helps when you go at the end when following the mayor and others. i will say something a little bit different. as i look at the artifacts and the nice exhibit in the museum, it goes back to reminding us what public safety and public service is about. when i look at this fire wagon and look at that one. night and day in terms of what the members of the fire department had to do to protect the city during that time. it might have been the best equipment forna era. think how difficult this job must have been when we didn't have the equipment we have today. the reason i bring that up is that this museum as great as it is with as many artifacts we get to enjoy and reminisce of our history, this job and public safety and service is about people. it is people that has kept the

city great. since 1849. people place those wagons and use the pieces of equipment that i would not know how to begin doing the work. when i look at the vintage ford from the police department and guardians of the city thank you for restoring that car. it is a beautiful car. riding around is good and all of that. there is no air-conditioner. it is what we have become used to, but the job hasn't always been that way. we haven't always had modern technology and equipment. when you go through this museum or any museum that is dedicated to commemorate public service, keep in mind be the people are what makes this happen. i want to thank the guardians of the city and the board of directors and mayor for her

support. mr. larson for your support of this police department. our community members. people are watching in the windows. thank you for your support. last thing. with our partners, public safety partners and fire chief and the sheriff and chief murphy. these are good times, great times, fun events. watching this team of people in times of crisis is something special. i have been blessed to be part of this great city at our worst times in times of crisis like the pandemic and the events we had to respond to. i got to tell you i couldn't be happier and prouder to be part of this team. it is the people that are great in the city.

thank you very much. [applause]. >> thank you, chief. >> last speaker from a past that took her through the controller's office, public utilities and department of emergency management. she will oversee the staff rubbing the nine one -- running the 911 and incredible work during the pandemic to keep us safe. i don't have to introduce her. everybody knows her. please welcome executive director maryelllen carroll. >> imagine having to go last with no fancy uniform to wear. i freelanced. i am the director of department

of emergency management. we house 911 center and ems agency. i want to say our dispatchers are first responders. they don't have fancy uniforms. you don't see them out in the street. i really appreciate the call out. they are the first voice that a person hears on the last day. they are also in many ways the eyes and ears for first responders. i want to say to all of my public safety partners that every dispatcher that works for me. everyone that supports them and myself it is our privilege to work next to you and to serve, really serve all of you. i also want to say to the ems agency, they were absolutely heroes during the pandemic. working so closely with fire department and ems partners and

it is a privilege to lead them. i want to shout out to the guardians of the city. the role that you play in keeping the memory of our history alive is so important, especially from a preparedness perspective. we live in earthquake country and we have natural disasters based on climate change we have to pays. every year the events are so important. also, thank you, mayor, for supporting us and showing up to these events. it is important. our police chief, we have been very involved through the pandemic and through the last year in really very difficult problems coordinating efforts around the society problems we have, public health problems. i need to say this publicly that

every day i see first responders helping those who are the most helpless in our city who are in the most need and the sickest. that is certainly paramedics and firefighters, police officers, sheriff's deputies. our park rangers. what you do is humanitarian work. you need to be really acknowledged for that. it is really my privilege to be your partner. thank you. (applause). >> thank you. we are almost there. at this time we want to open up the opportunity for anyone with questions from the media on the first responder museum and everything we have here today.

if there aren't any we will go into heading to the museum. any questions at this time for the other individuals? just as we have done with many of the resources for the city and county in golden gate park, this is free. nobody has to dig into their pockets today. they can make a donation absolutely. that is how all of us here keep going with what we have. that is donations and support from the committee members and from other people throughout the community. from first responders who donate not just time and energy but donate to this. on behalf of all of the speakers and all members of public safety community and part of the growth of this organization, i want to thank you all for being here and invite you to all come and enjoy

the museum at this time. thank you. one more thing. one group photo for all of the people here today that have spoken and all members here. there's so much involved with becoming a firefighter. and as a component of being a woman in the field, it takes a

lot of perception. it takes belief in yourself. it takes asking the right questions of people who already have the job so that you have the confidence to build it and it takes someone telling you that this job is a possibility for you. my job has given me 25 years of satisfaction. the primary thing is that i grew up here in san francisco and i'm serving in the city where i grew up. i transitioned to community training and i was able to build disaster resilient padre of volunteers and bringing us all the latest information so that we can be ready for a disaster. pride and loyalty are the heart of a firefighter. it's in the way we do our job from the very smallest thing from our everyday checks we do of our equipment. from the way that we treat each other and the community we come in contact with every day. and loyalty is to our own families is to the pride we have in this department. it's to the other members when we're out in a dangerous situation keeping each other

safe. it goes throughout every aspect of being a firefighter. i'm really proud of the way our department approaches diversity, equity, and inclusion. i was hired in a class that had 45 people and 17 women. it was an accomplishment at the time, but there were many women that came before me that laid the ground work and i had to see it to be it. someone had to recruit me into this job. i didn't know it was a possibility for myself. and so the importance of young women seeing what it takes to be a firefighter, seeing themselves when they look at me. it really brings myself a lot of pride and joy in this work. >> okay, all right, well, this is a very exciting day, everyone. and i want to welcome you all to the opening celebration of our

newest permanent supportive housing building. i want to begin by thanking you, mayor breed, for your ongoing leadership and commitment to really acquiring these new buildings and building up our permanent supportive housing stock. thank you so much for your leadership on that. your plan is exceeding its goal and expanding housing options and providing hope for people experiencing homelessness. i also want to thank the partners who are making this program possible. supervisor haney was a big champion of this and now supervisor dorsey, we're very excited to have you onboard and supporting this as well. and a special appreciation to the provider partners who are partners who are bringing this to life. and we have compass family services, it's a beautiful partnership between three great organizations and super happy to be here celebrating with all of you and we know that this will be a really strong program because you're all here working together. we're honored to be a part of

this partnership in affordable housing deliver that provides a pathway out of home littl homeld into hope for families. and today is a very exciting day for us as well, because mayor breed just announced this morning the preliminary 2022 point in time count results. it's great news. i will let the mayor share details but we're excited that the numbers reflect progress that we are making locally to reduce homeless, unsheltered homelessness in our community. our investments in sheltering and housing is showing wonderful results and improvements in the lives of people who have experienced homelessness in those conditions on our streets so, mayor, thank you for your leadership and we're looking forward to your words. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone. first of all, it smells like a new building when you walk through the door, like that new car smell that we all love so

much. and i haven't had that new car smell in a long time so this is going to have to do. but i will say that today is a very exciting day. you know, what's interesting is that, you know, oftentimes some of the negative messages that you hear about the challenges that exist on our streets in san francisco are highlighted in a way that doesn't tell a real story about the work that we actually do in san francisco. and this is just another example of working together with federal, state, and local resources and our non-profit partners, how we can make something great happen for people. and this is important work as we all know because the last thing that any of us wants to see is someone sleeping outdoors when we have places like this available for them to be. and this is the thing that i love about being a mayor. people say, do you love the job and i say well, well, on most

days, and today is one of those days. today is one of those days because it's not just about a building. it's about the people who will have a safe, affordable place to call home. so when i think about the challenges that sadly continue to persist in our city, i know that as much as we want to of course, you know, to celebrate this incredible milestone, there's always work to be done. but i just want to say that getting access to this brand-new building of over 160 units, means over 160 people that were formally homeless will have a safe, affordable place to call home. but more importantly, they'll have supportive services because of dish and because of compass, because we want to make sure that they don't end up back on streets if it were that easy to just house someone and to move on to the next person, we probably would have solved the problem already. but we know that it's so much

more complicated and it's not a one-size-fits-all. and it requires making investments and providing the wraparound supportive services that are necessary. what i'm so happy about is that sadly during the pandemic it was challenging but it give us an opportunity to not only cut a lot of bureaucratic red tape to get people into over 25 locations, 2,600 hotel rooms and a number of buildings purchased with project home key and to do all of this extraordinary work -- it meant that we were able to as the numbers reflect to see a decline in the number of unsheltered homeless people out on streets during the last point in time count. what does that mean? every other county saw an increase and san francisco saw a decrease of about 15% of people who were unsheltered who are homeless on the streets and we saw that number go down. and since i've been in office, we have been able to help not

only house 6,500 people who were formally homeless on our streets, but 1,800 people who would have otherwise have been evicted on the streets. we've been able to keep them housed. this is the work that we're doing in san francisco that needs to be elevated. this is the work that we need to talk about. we're doing this work because we know how important it is. it is not just about what people visually see and don't like to see on our streets, it's about individual human lives that we want to support in this capacity. so this project is so much more than as i said a building. it's about the people that we are here to serve. so i'm really grateful, really excited, because we have other projects like this that we have purchased before, others that are coming online, and my hope is that we are able to continue to move forward as aggressively

as possible with getting more of these projects. we're getting more of these projects online. you know how -- not only important it is to get places like this built, but it's also important when we have underutilized properties to take advantage of the opportunity to lease or to purchase for the purposes of being able to house people who are unhoused. i am looking forward to a lot of the work that i know that we have to continue to do. yes, we have made progress. yes, we see the numbers reflect a lot of the work that we're doing, and, yes, today is a good day for all of that extraordinary work. so i really do want to thank so many of the people that have been actively engaged in making sure that despite, again -- i know a lot of challenges and criticism, the office of housing and homeless services, they have been doing extraordinary work to get these properties online, to make sure that we're providing the resources, to repair

properties, and we're providing the wraparound supportive services with the various agencies that we work with. so thank you, charine, for your work and we appreciate it very much. and i want to thank our other partners and i think that someone here is from dish who is going to be helping us as well as compass. our non-profit partners who we rely on heavily to provide those wraparound services. i see that you have a new property manager here. thank you, denise, so much for being here and working with us. it does take a village. and this village has wrapped its arms around making sure that we continue to support those who need support the most in san francisco. this is a great day for us and i am truly excited that i have been able to work with the previous supervisor of this district, but also i am so looking forward to the work that i know that supervisor matt dorsey and i will be doing to put more projects like this

online. so this is just the beginning for him and the best is yet to come and, ladies and gentlemen, with that i want to introduce supervisor matt dorsey. [applause] >> thanks, everybody. so i want to welcome everybody to my neighborhood. i live just like a block and a half away. and one thing that i love mid-market and south of market, this area, is just how inclusive a community that it is, and there's density and market-rate housing and b.m.r. and supportive services. this is really the promise of the city of st. francis, and i'm just so grateful to mayor breed for her leadership, charine, and compass family services and ucsf, and dish and for fulfilling the promise of what we can do as a city. i think this is officially just the one week mark as we stand here. i've talked about my own personal journey in recovery and a lot of that i think that i emphasized some of the problems that i see.

i think that probably i didn't talk enough about the things that really inspired me to want to work with mayor breed. how inspired i was by the leadership that she showed around the tenderloin initiative and the leadership that she's showing on programs like this. so it's not all bad news and it's a lot of the good news and the optimism that i see and i want to be a part of and i'm so excited to be a partner on this on the board of supervisors. to the extent that this is something that you want to rave about or complain about, my door is open and i look forward to working with all of you. and thank you so much. thanks. [applause] >> thank you so much, mayor breed, and thank you supervisor really looking forward to working with you. so, as i mentioned earlier this is a really phenomenal partnership and we're going to get to hear from some of the partners. we're going to start with allison murphy, who is with city wide, who is that housing program director at city wide.

[applause] >> hi, everybody. my name is allison murphy. and i work for ucsf. [applause] i'm a social worker and a program director for city wide supportive housing programs. thank you so much for being here. it's great to see so many supporters of this project. thank you, madam mayor and supervisor dorsey. and ucsf is thrilled to continue our work here at 1321 mission and we're excited to be part of this innovative collaboration with our new partners at dish and compass, family services. just like with all of our other supportive housing programs, our clinical services are going to be here on-site to work alongside our partners at dish and compass to support the residents of 1321 mission in

stabilizing their housing and achieving whatever goals they have. we're really excited to get to work and to provide a stable and supportive community for the folks that are living here at 1321 mission. and we're thrilled to be continuing our work as a part of the terment in solutions of homelessness here in -- permanent work here in solutions in homelessness here in ucsf. and thank you for having us as a key partner in this program. and to everybody who is supporting this project. thank you so much. get to work. >> thank you, allison. and next we'll hear from denise riggins, the property manager from dish. [applause] >> good afternoon, everyone.

welcome to this beautiful celebration of supportive housing done right. everyone experiencing homelessness in san francisco deserves the dignity and a home as beautiful as this one. at dish, we are thrilled to have been selected to operate this site, and look forward to working with hsh, our resident community, ucsf city wide case management and compass family services to provide a safe and joyful and inclusive community. while dish was contracted to provide the property management services, our focus is on fostering community where residents feel safe, feel valued, and feel empowered to achieve their goals and to put homelessness behind them for good. i have also experienced homelessness myself and had faced structural racism facing this crisis. i'm deeply proud to be here today with my dish family and all of you. the site staff are part of the backbone of the homelessness response system and our

continued success is dependent upon investment, in not only beautiful new sites like this one, but also in supporting the workforce, many with lived experiences, not unlike the residents that we serve. join me in taking a moment to appreciate those who show up every day to ensure that our residents get the service and care that they need. thank you for sharing this moment with all of us. we look forward to continuing our work with the mayor and our team at hsh to ensure that all supportive housing communities can provide a solid foundation of recovery from trauma of homelessness. thank you. [applause] >> thanks, denise, and thank you for sharing your personal story with us. that means a lot, and it really helps to bring home how important this is. so next we have mary kate bacalau from compass family

services. [applause] >> thank you so much, director mcfadden for the introduction. i am the policy director at compass family services. and i feel so lucky to be standing here. our executive director erica kisch wanted so badly to be here today and she just celebrated her 20th anniversary leading the agency and she's been waiting for an opportunity like this for the 28 years that she's been serving compass family services for more than a hundred years, compass family services has been helping and supporting the most vulnerable san franciscans, whatever it takes. and today we have a continuum of care supporting at-risk and home little families, and we -- homeless families and we are so thrilled because this is our first foray into supportive permanent family housing. [applause] 1321 mission is a beautiful modern building in the heart of

san francisco with something truly special. 160 units with enough bedroom capacity and community space for 40 unhoused families. that is a lot of families, that's more than a hundred people, most of them children, and we will be able to permanently break the cycle of poverty for those kids and their parents. and i cannot say enough how much that means to compass, and our partners at the city, and in our non-profit partners. when i first toured the building and actually every time that i walk into this building i'm struck with a sense of beauty and spaciousness and light. and the sense that anyone would love to live here. and everyone who walks through that door with a key in their hand is going to know that they matter to their city. they're going to know they belong to this neighborhood and to this community, and every parent most importantly is going to lay their head down at night knowing they can give their kids

the stable, happy childhood which they deserve, which is really the foundation for stable, happy lives. so i am so grateful. compass is so grateful to our partners at the city, and to all of the extremely hard work that hsh has done in partnership with the city to acquire buildings like this and to bring projects like this online and to get families inside -- people and families. so, mayor breed, thank you so much for your remarks. and supervisor dorsey, it's wonderful to have everyone here and to lift up the potential and the hopefulness in this project thank you. [applause] >> thanks, mary kate. and next we're going to hear from linda lockhart who is a current tenant at the building. linda. [applause] >> hello, everyone. welcome. mayor, thank you so much for everything that you do. you stole my line though because

i was going to say it takes a village. it really, really does. it starts with you and then goes down to people like me and when all of your hard work -- everybody's -- city wide never left my side from the day they came to my door and i was over at work -- i am sorry, i get very emotional and i'm very passionate -- your passion -- it just trickles down to someone like me who is just an emotional wreck, but in a good way. it's all positive. and it was funny, when we had a meeting and met the new management, i started crying and they were all staring at me and i said it's positive, all good. because i'm just so grateful. and it breaks my heart that someone like me have suffered chronic homelessness because back in the 1980s, i owned my own home in sacramento, and look where i am today. but look what i am today. i went to my first giants

ballgame and fell in love with san francisco when i was 9 years old and now i get to be a resident here. i'm proud to be here. soma -- i have lived here since 2012, i'll be honest, i spent most of that time at harbor light, which i love, and a lot of it absorbed into me and i will never forget those tools they learned. i have been sober two and a half years and it's funny -- [applause] a little asterisk. i'm sober but i'm not clean but i'm working on it, and i'm sure and i'm hopeful that you will have programs here that will help people like me, because when you have it right in your building you have to go. i mean, come on, you have to go [applause] i mean, and i -- there's one thing and i will say it and i know that my sister will say this, but i didn't. i didn't go to one meeting and

shame on me because when i managed to not pick up a drink that is a god thing -- just a god thing. and i worked with jason, and he's a wonderful man, and we just had such a great rapport and i'm so glad to see you here supporting me and the whole project. i want you to know that you have a lot of projects and a lot on your plate every day, but this one is successful. and i am so appreciative. and it's funny, but the camera does put on 10 pounds because you look fantastic. you do. you do, you look wonderful. and so with that, i will say thank you for everything. i love my apartment. it looks so cute. [applause] can i go now? >> thanks, linda. that's why we left you for last, to get us all going.

so -- so we're going to have -- we're going to have q&a now, so that's good timing. so we have a few minutes for questions and answers and there are a number of people in this room who can answer the questions. so hopefully you're all ready to do that. but let's open it up then. open it up to the floor. you have a question? it can wait, okay, okay. >> [indiscernible] [question off microphone is indiscernible]

>> goodness. i don't know. i'll just be honest. you know, as i said, we were able to quickly move and acquire 25 hotels that we entered into agreements with that helped to house 2,600 people. and we did that in lightning speed through project home key and our relationships with some of the hotel owners and we were able to move quickly to purchase some of those buildings without them going onto the market. and we have been working with a number of people who developed properties like this and we have 100% family housing building that we're purchasing and a number of other properties that i'm really excited about and that we have been able to move faster than i think that had we not been under an emergency declaration and as you know, we have continued that to a certain extent but there's been some orders that we've had to lift, so as we move forward we're just going to try to do everything that we can to move full speed ahead. but, definitely, the bureaucracy

does have an impact on our ability to deliver these projects faster. they also make building these projects more expensive as well so it's really tough. we in the city have acquired a number of actual properties where we know that we can build, but, unfortunately, the challenges, you know, of dealing with building housing in san francisco persists. we have over 70,000 units that have been entitled and they are not necessarily being built in rapid speed. we're trying to at least commit to 5,000 units a year that are being built here in the city and we have not yet in past couple of years reached that goal. so we're not going to give up, we're going to keep trying, and, you know, my hope is that we are able to deliver faster and avoid the gridlock that makes it difficult to get ahold of buildings like this.

thank you very much. thank you. >> so i just want to thank everyone. we have an opportunity for a tour after this and so if anyone would like to see what a room looks like, please stick around but i also want to just thank you all for coming today. this is a great day. [applause] (♪♪) (♪♪)

upon. thank you very much. good morning i call the san francisco department of disability and aging meeting to order i'm martha knutzen. issued by the governor to facilitate teleconferences to reduce the transition of covid-19. the brown act sets strict rowels for teleconference the governor allow use of teleconference for public meetings during a state of emergency provided commissions make certain upon findings. to comply,