>> good afternoon. my name is (indiscernible) i'm the ce o. of the mission economic development agency. we are the codevelopers and owners of this beautiful beautiful building. [applause] thank you to all of you for gathering for this great occasion to celebrate the grand opening of casa de (indiscernible) 681 florida. [applause] this project is yet

another win for affordable housing in the mission district and the city of san francisco. it is the result of years of work in partnership with tenderloin neighborhood development corporation- [applause] supervisor hillary ronen's office. [applause] mayor london breed and her team. [applause] our friends from wells fargo. [applause] the california department of housing and community development. [applause] and many other amazing organizations. casa d (indiscernible) 631 florida is main stay and permanent fixture for affordable housing in the mission district. this project has 130 family friendly homes, including 39 homes for the formally unhoused.

[applause] in addition to the housing, it will be the permanent home, the permanent home for carn val san francisco,b a true san francisco institution. this will be the 9th community based organization that is housed in one of buildings and continues to strategy of cultural place-keeping to insure that the mission never loses its history of latino culture l and arts. [applause] casa d 631 florida was a community space before becoming housing and community space it will remain permanently. [applause] so, we know that much of what we do is about living

our values. togetherness are two core values. this project will not be here today if collectively we did not have the audacity to dream of what could be and should be. of the audacity to fight for what we think is right and just. also, today is about togetherness. look around. we are here celebrating together how this housing for community-how this housing and this community space will serve families and community members who are often underserved and under-represented. again, the core of our work comes down to the people who now call casa d-631 plor florida their

permanent home. [applause] again, i want to share my gratitude to all of those who contributed to making the building happenp. specifically, i want to thank mayor breed. thank you mayor. [applause] who administration is key insuring affordable housing in the mission remains a priority now and for the future. this includes her leadership in making sure that buildings like this one become a realty each and every day. also, she has been a true champion for the small sites program, which has a-allowed to purchase 38 apartment buildings and saved over 300 families from eviction in this neighborhood. thank you, mayor breed. [applause] i want to thank the board of directors for their

trust, for providing great care, guidance and support as we dare to become an affordable housing developer, taking many many risks along the way. thank you! [applause] finally, i must thank our team. they now provide services to over 17 thousand people per year in this neighborhood. [applause] our staff shows a remarkable ability to beadacious by adapting and pivot to meet the needs of our community at any moment. this includes providing key services before, during and after the pandemic. insuring our businesses have access to technical assistance and capital.

rehabilitating existing apartment buildings and building new buildings like this one. creating spaces for community organizations that are no longer threatened by eviction. you name it, meta staff always steps up to support this community. thank you meta team. [applause] at the end of the day, we will do this work because of the people living here. our residents. our community. and now it is my great pleasure, it is my great great pleasure i have to say to introduce you to dolores a woman who calls this building her permanent home.

[applause] >> [speaking spanish] >> hello everyone. thanks for being here. mayor london breed, welcome. [speaking spanish. waiting for translation] my name is dolores ramero originally from el salvador. i'm 77 years old and i worked and lived in san francisco for many years. [waiting for translation] i

worked really hard to bring my two children to this country, and i worked at a mexican restaurant before and getting there at 6 p.m. and finishing up at 5 a.m. [waiting for translation] i used to live on 20 and valencia for 35 years. i used to go up three flights of stairs every day, and i count the steps 42 steps. [waiting for translation] when i got to 20 and valencia i

was full of energy and that was good, but in 2008 i was diagnosed with cancer. [waiting for translation] it was very hard for me because it was very difficult after a huge operation procedure to go up the three flights of stairs. [waiting for translation] i needed to go up and down sitting down. [waiting for translation] [applause] >> but in 2020, covid came and i was in the hospital for a

total of 6 months. [waiting for translation] after covid, after the 6 months, i didn't recover fully and i couldn't go up the three flights of stairs. i had to move with my daughter for total of 4 months because i couldn't do it and i needed the elevator at her apartment. [waiting for translation] but i continued to go up those three flights of stairs sitting down and i would come down sitting down as well. [waiting for

translation] i fell three times going up and down the stairs, but i thank god, thank meta, tndc and all the other organizations involved in this project. [waiting for translation] but after covid, after applying since 2008 for housing, march 2022 they let me know that i won the lottery. [applause]

[waiting for translation] [laughter] on march 2022, veronica from meta called letting me know i won the lottery. she was confused and shocked because she didn't buy a ticket. [laughter] [waiting for translation] but no, it was the lot tory for my future home.

[waiting for translation] [applause]

[applause] on october 2022 they told me to come pick up my key. she said she didn't feel she was picking up a key, she felt she was picking up a crown because she feels like a gwen queen at home. she wants to thank all the organizations that made this happen and hope everyone continues to support what we are doing to keep people housed and thank you everyone again. >> thank you. [applause]she wants to thank all the organizations that made this happen and hope everyone continues to support what we are doing to keep people housed and thank you everyone again. >> thank you. [applause] >> i like to introduce pedro, deputy director of legislation at california department of housing and community development. [applause] >> [speaking spanish]

good afternoon everybody. i'm pedro, deputy director at department of housing and community development, and it is a great honor to be here today. i want to congratulate the community and our partners today at meta and tndc for this tremendous building and this beautiful community that they have built with 130 new affordable homes. this project includes homes that are affordable for people who experience homelessness, it includes two community spaces and sustainable agricultural on the roof and this is a model for how housing can be built to be affordable, environmentally sustainable and socially responsible. i also want to thank madam mayor on behalf of director vulas quez

and the newsom administration and my self it is honor to celebrate and thank you for your continued support of affordable housing here and throughout your city. it is with partners like you that we make buildings like this happen so thank you. thank you also to supervisor ronen for your leadership and continuing to push for more affordable housing here in the mission, and throughout the city. i also want to acknowledge the work of my partners at the state level with the california tax credit and debt limit allocation committee for providing the invest mentds to make it possible. it is great joy and say it department of housing and community development is proud to have invested $14 million in this project. as i said, this is exactly the type of project we want to fund. to share a little bit about why i feel personally connected here, my own family immigrated to the united states from brazil and when i was young we

struggled to find stable housing. eventually we did. it wasn't affordable but it was stable, and it gave us-it gave me the stability i needed to study and to actually be here speaking to you all today. this is a amazing opportunity that this building is providing to all 130 families that live here, but also the families that are going to be here in the future. places like these are key to maintaining a stable mission. making sure that there continues to be art, neighbors to continue to be in their neighborhood. and i can know that having a place like this would have made a tremendous difference to my family had we had the opportunity and i'm so glad dolores has this opportunity and so many other families will get to enjoy this permanent affordable housing. that is why affordable housing continues to be such a

critical investment for the administration of governor newsom. this administration invested 20billion in affordable housing since it started and we have built every 10 thousand units and there is another 45 thousand affordable housing units on their way. collectively these-thank you. [clapping] collectively these units are going to provide homes for nearly a million people through the useful life, and more then a million people need affordable homes in california, but it is a significant start and we need the help of you all to continue building on that momentum. thank you all for having us. thank you for building this beautiful community and it is great pleasure i introduce nob nub hernandez, community member the executive direct of cana-sf and founder of mission

food health. thank you all so much. [applause] >> those do not know spanish, good afternoon. [speaking spanish] first of all,b i want to acknowledge a whole bunch of people and i want to start with jonathan. where is jonathan at from south space? come here jonathan. this brother-i have to tell you a story, man. he came to our neighborhood and he started cell space. cell space was one of the most beautiful spaces that we had here in our community where carnival, (indiscernible)

here earlier who did the blessing, the theater groups, all kinds of artist, it was a communal space and thriving 7 days a week and sometimes 24 hours a day, and nobody ever shut us down because we were making noise, right? but it was fun noise because it brought young people, brought children, it brought community together, so thank you my brother. i want to honor and tell you i love you. >> i love you. >> thank you. [applause] and then unfortunately the story goes sideways. all a sudden (indiscernible) came to the city. riches and wealthy people come in. for some reason they decided they wanted to live in this little ghetto, this village we have been existing, right. they wanted a urban culture experience, but they gentrifyed us in a violent way

where we had over 10 thousand people who were evicted and a lot were left homeless, so we didn't sit back as a community, we organized and organized i organized. we created save the mission and i want peter to come up here, i want (indiscernible) to come up here. i want kelly to come here. come here, man. [applause] come on! come on. and rodrigo. where is (indiscernible) come on. and this is-where is she at? okay. we created a army. armando come here! anybody else who was part of the mission no eviction. our mission! no eviction! we organized and organized and organized and we created save the mission and we organized

and we demanded then all these developers coming here had a responsibility to give back to our community. in this space here, we fought and fought and fought against the developer and he won the planning commission by one vote but we appealed that to the board of supervisors. we had the power of the people and the votes at the board of supervisors. he had to give us his space and justice was served, so i want to thank all of you. i love you all. thank you. organized and that was over 3,000 that get up and march and do whatever it took. i just really believe that you know, we called this space (indiscernible) and now it is the-what are we calling it? the beauty on

bryant. i wanted to do today to thank the creator, because a lot of times we have fear. we have doubts, and it takes time and some people don't have the patience to continue to fight, but i always said, we got to believe in the creator, got to believe in the universe and come together and are stay together no matter what and stay strong. what was the (indiscernible) strength in numbers. thank you mayor breed. strength in numbers and that is-it has gotten us through and be able to build and celebrate today. i want to honor all the-just take a moment of silence, because i fought with him like you won't believe, but i want to honor and thank and may his soul rest in peace, mayor ed lee. not only did we get the space, but we went

with mayor ed lee and said you have to come up with the money to build the housing. we just don't want a piece of land from this developer. we need the money and he did. he came up with money, he found it within 72 hours. i don't know (indiscernible) people put money under their matresses or closet or backyard and he found the money and that was the beginning of help make this happen. i are want to thank meta and tndc for coming together and it was a marriage. [speaking spanish] and they came together and they made it happen here in our community. most beautiful thing is for community to take responsibility for itself and do things for itself. of course with the help of many. i want to thank all

the artists that you know were displaced, but continued and we were able to work with them and i want to thank the people that entrusted our organization. cana a organization that produces the carnival and entrusted in creating the space next door which is- (indiscernible) because of the lessens we learned in the pandemic, with meta help with a lot of the people who economically were broke and mental health was effected so we decided to take a right turn and not only make it (indiscernible) but also indigenous people's cultural arts healing center. with that, i want to end by having-because i come from an

organizing background, cesar chavez and dolores raised me and when we gather and have a victory we clap together so i'll ask you to put your hands together and we'll slow. those who have not done it and those who know how to do it we'll do it. we'll go real slow and then speed it up. [clapping] we used to say (indiscernible) today we'll see-i will say (indiscernible) [speaking spanish] with that, i want to-it is great honor to introduce an amazing woman who like i grew up in the (indiscernible) grew up in the ghetto and made her way through school

against all odds, put herself through college, became elected to the board of supervisors and now and has and will continue being our mayor of san francisco, please help welcome mayor london breed! i call it lb! [applause] >> thank you roburty roburto and are thank you for joining us today. this is really exciting and i never thought we would get to this place this quickly, even though it has been a really long time, but roberto you remember when we would ride through the mission and i want to say it was before i became mayor, and roberto and i talked about some of the challenges and also some of the properties that we could identify that we

needed to purchase because of the investment that the city needed to make in providing housing to make up for a lot of the evictions and a lot of the issues that were occurring in this community, and it had a lot to do with our bond came because what was happening in the mission actually happened in the community i grew up in in the fillmore western addition and it was important to him and this community that we don't repeat the same mistakes of the past, and so when we were riding through the mission we were talking about various properties and you know all the owners and are developers and what was going on, and i was so grateful to come together and collaborate and strategize and purchase some of the various properties and to work with our state partners to get the resources

necessary to make sure that we were able to get these places built, because you are right, purchasing the land is one thing, but building the house is quite something different. it does take a village. it takes a village to make things like this happen in our city, and one of the things i'm really proud of with this project, it wasn't just about building a building and hitting the lottery, mrs. romero would talk about hitting the lottery. what was really important was the neighborhood preference legislation and making sure that when we build buildings like this, that the people who live here get the right of first refusal for the new buildings built in the community that they have blood sweat and tears in and that is what happened in this particular case. [applause] so, it takes a

village, and meta has been a pillar of this community for decades, and i got to say i'm so proud of the work meta is doing under your leadership. not just with the new development, but also the buildings we were able to acquire through the small sites acquisition program. we have had [applause] had to increase the capacity of meta to make sure that the support was there, and working together and providing the resources to do that has been really transformative in this community, so we are grateful for the protections of the people who are in those existing buildings, but also incredibly proud of the work we are doing for new places like where we are today that serve for the next generation of people and those who need a safe affordable place to call

home without stairs so they can get around. this is so amazing for so many people and families who live here. i also want to give a special shout out to our governor and to the california department of housing and community development. thank you pedro for being here. gustauvo who answers to you is running this department, and he is usually always here at these events. the state with our partnership with the governor invested so much money and to san francisco for project home key to purchase buildings to help people who are struggling with homelessness to help us build new buildings like the one we are in today, and all the various resources we need because we have under invested in housing for so long that the crisis of homelessness in the state of california, which exists here in san francisco as well is something that we have to reckon with with

dollars, so we can get moving and building and acquiring properties as quickly as possible, so we are grateful to the governor for his work, advocacy and department for all the amazing investments that have come to san francisco. [applause] i want to say to tndc, which you'll hear from a minute, thank you for being a great partner in housing too. working with meta on this project, but working on so many other projects that truly serve some of the most vulnerable residents in san francisco. we could not do this work without partners like meta and tndc, because they are the ones on the ground working with the community to provide places like this and i got to say, it is just-builds my heart with joy every time i come to an event like this. people say mayor, the city all

kinds of stuff is going on and ribbon cutting is not doing anything. you know what? this ribbon cutting today is doing something interest the 130 families that moved into this building. [applause] this ribbon cutting is about the blood, sweat and tears that went into providing this as a opportunity for those families in the first place, this community that fought hard to insure that this building was available to low income individuals and families. this means something to the people who are working here every single day to make sure that there are services and support necessary to insure the success of the people living in this building, and this building means everything because carnival is a institution in our city and the tradition of carnival has to continue for generations to come. this building is meaningful. it will be an incredible

beacon of hope for the people who live here who i already met, but also the children who are growing up here and the community and what it all represents. i'm grateful and excited about what this means and i want to thank everyone that had a role, even if it is placing the tiles correctly so the design looks good and that work, or the lighting fixtures and the people at the front desk working, the janitors, the mail clerks, the community as a whole, because it takes a village and casa el how do you say it? (indiscernible) represents our community values in san francisco at their very best, so welcome home to all the families and the people who are here and thank you for this great celebration and louis, the best is yet to

come. [applause] >> good afternoon everyone. my name is anna, a legislative aid to supervisor ronen, and i need to speak louder. i woke up this morning not expecting to do this but unfortunately supervisor ronen couldn't be here today. she is in budget and appropriation committee so apologizes for not able to be here but i'm here on her behalf and just here to really celebrate this amazing accomplishment and milestone in the mishz. there has been a lot of negative and punching down of the community in the news lately and it is important to come together to celebrate the milestone with mayor breed, tndc and meta and all the community partners who made this happen because we know the mission is about arts, community and having actual affordable housing for

someone like those here today and the struggle to make that happen. i know we are hungry so i want to lift that up and thank you all for being here and thank you for everyone who made it happen. [applause] now i would like to introduce greg shirken the wells fargo senior vice president of philanthropy and community impact. >> thank you very much. on behalf of wells fargo, colleagues here today, (indiscernible) and all our employees in san francisco, i want to say what a tremendous honor to be a part of this incredible project. congratulations to everyone involved. wells fargo is so proud to be a lender and community partner and able to help bring much needed housing

to this incredible community. mayor breed i want to extend thank you to her as well as the supervisor as well as pedro to you and as well as louis and (indiscernible) for your tireless efforts not on this project but to do so much for this community and this city, which is honesty where we live and work as well and really what you do is a testament to what makes san francisco such a special place, and able to support incredible people like dolores who spoke so incredibly today. you are such a inspiration dolores. please know we are plepaired to continue to support this project, this community and this city. we realize we are facing a lot of challenges right now and as the mayor said, it really does take a village and we at wells fargo want to be part of this community, part of the

village and committed to do whatever it takes to help the people here reach their potential so thank you all very much for your time. [applause] and now i have the tremendous honor to introduce (indiscernible) from tndc, a incredible partner. we worked with them for years and look forward to continue to do so. i turn it over to you. [applause] >> thank you greg. i am going to give some of my time to someone that has been really passionate about this project. makes us all look dynamic and great and a big part why we are here today. colleen, can you come up? [applause] >> thank you. i will keep this fairly short. i had the privilege of working or getting to be one of the many people who worked on the 681

florida project. we had a strong development partner with shout out to jose garcia my project manager who stepped in on the job and to complete the project ester kim down there. our final project manager (indiscernible) this all just worked. the city of san francisco and our lenders (indiscernible) thank you for getting to the point with 130 units gorging affordable quality housing in the mission. our contractor team somewhere in the crowd k hill contractor and (indiscernible) what a gem of a team. countless union tradesman and trades women. our design team. adapting and problem solving everything step of the way and of course the

incredible property management compliance accounting and social work staff that leased up the building and make it all work every day. if you haven't met (indiscernible) [calling names] the rest of the property management and service staff we owe them infinite coffees for the work they put into serving the tenants. plaef [applause] there are countless people i can't fit in the speech that contributed so much from start to finish and we are not joking when we say the word, it takes a village. as you may have noticed walking around the building art is at the core of what makes it special. (indiscernible) the three artist that spent countless hours with art work from community feedback. high schoolers with youth art exb change worked with

partners to create the custom ornamental gates next door. and cana along with the community fought years ago to insure spaces like this would and could be dedicated affordable and accessible space for housing the community and the arts. it is never lost on me that this is a place of new beginnings for many individuals and families who live here. at a san francisco native, san francisco is what will always represent home for me and the way hugging a warm blairngt on a cold day feels. to all the residents current and future at 681 florida, welcome home. [applause] >> thank you colleen. i promise you are all most home, folks. my name is (indiscernible) a ceo of tndc. the housing community development organization building and serving communities throughout

san francisco. this past weekday, gus newport, the former mayor of berkeley passed. i wanted to take just a few minutes to bring him in spirit here today. because gus was a mentor to many. gus was a inspiration to many more. but gus was my friend. one thing he always taught me and one thing he actually made me realize is the importance of listening. and many times to listen not for what is said, but also for what is not said. 681 is a example of both those things. of what has

been said, and what hasn't been said. in the spirit of community, in the spirit of the mission, i could be no prouder then this moment because this is the manifestation, this is the spirit, this is the [spanish] that we all work so hard to create day in and day out. i like to acknowledge for tndc, all the staff. all our partners. our board of directors. that allow us to do the work that we so passionately do and do well. we built this community, we'll build more. [speaking spanish] let's get to the ribbon

cutting! [applause]

>> first it's always the hardest and when they look back they really won't see you, but it's the path that you're paving forward for the next one behind you that counts. (♪♪♪) hi, my name is jajaida durden and i'm the acting superintendent for the bureau of forestry and i work for public

works operations. and i'm over the landscaping, the shop and also the arborist crew. and some tree inspectors as well. i have been with the city and county of san francisco for 17 years. and i was a cement mason, that was my first job. when i got here i thought that it was too easy. so i said one day i'll be a supervisor. and when i run this place it will be ran different. and i didn't think that it would happen as fast as it did, but it did. and i came in 2002 and became a supervisor in 2006. and six months later i became the permanent supervisor over the shop. >> with all of those responsibilities and the staff you're also dealing with different attitudes and you have to take off one hat and put on another hat and put on another hat. and she's able -- she's displayed that she can carry the weight with all of these different hats and still maintain the respect of the

director, the deputy director and all of the other people that she has to come in contact with. >> she's a natural leader. i mean with her staff, her staff thinks highly of her. and the most important thing is when we have things that happen, a lot of emergencies, she's right by me and helps me out every time that i have asked. >> my inspiration is when i was a young adult was to become a fire woman. well, i made some wrong decisions and i ended up being incarcerated, starting young and all the way up to an adult. when i was in jail they had a little program called suppers program and i -- supers program, and i met strong women in there and they introduced me to construction. i thought that the fire department would turn me down because i had a criminal history. so i looked into options of what kind of construction i could do. while i was in jail. and the program that i was in,

they re-trained us on living and how to make the right decisions and i chose construction. and cement mason didn't require a high school diploma at that time so i figured i could do that. when i got out of jail they had a program in the philmore area and i went there. my first day out i signed up and four days later i started to work and i never looked back. i was an apprentice pouring concrete. and my first job was mount zion emergency hospital which is now ucsf. and every day that i drive by ucsf and i look at the old mount zion emergency, i have a sense of pride knowing that i had a part of building that place. yeah, i did. i graduated as an apprentice and

worked on a retrofit for city hall. i loved looking at that building and i take big pride in knowing that i was a part of that retrofit. my first formen job was a 40 story building from the ground up. and it's a predominantly male industry and most of the times people underestimate women. i'm used to it though, it's a challenge for me. >> as a female you're working with a lot of guys. so when they see a woman, first they don't think that the woman is in charge and to know that she's a person that is in charge with operations, i think that it's great, because it's different. it's not something -- i mean, not only a female but the only female of color. >> i was the first female finisher in the cement shop and i was the first crew supervisor, in the shop as a woman. when i became a two, the supervisors would not help me.

in the middle, they'd call me a rookie, an apprentice and a female trying to get somewhere that she don't belong. oh, it was terrible. it was terrible. i didn't have any support from the shop. the ones who said they supported me, they didn't, they talked about me behind my back. sometimes i had some crying, a lot of crying behind doors, not in public. but i had a lot of mentors. my mentor i will call and would pick up the phone and just talk, talk, talk, please help me. what am i going to do? hang in there. it was frustrating and disheartening, it really was. but what they didn't understand is that because they didn't help me i had to learn it. and then probably about a year later, that's when i started to lay down the rules because i had studied them and i learned them and it made me a good supervisor and i started to run the ship

the way that i wanted to. it was scary. but the more i saw women coming through the shop, i saw change coming. i knew that it was going to come, but i didn't know how long it would take. it was coming. in the beginning when i first came here and i was the first woman here as a finisher, to see the change as it progressed and for me to become a permanent assistant superintendent over the cement shop right now, that's my highlight. i can look down at my staff and see the diversity from the women to the different coaches in here and know that no one has to ever go through what i went through coming up. and i foster and help everyone instead of pushing them away. i'll talk to women and tell them they can make it and if they need any help, come talk to me. and they knock on my door and

ask how i move up and how i get training. i'm always encouraging to go to school and encourage them to take up some of the training with d.p.w. and i would tell them to hold strong and understand that things that we go through today that are tough makes you stronger for tomorrow. although we don't like hearing it at the time that we're going through all of this stuff, it helps you in the long run to become a better woman and a person(music). >> i started the o was with a financing and had a business partner all ended up wanting to start the business and retire and i did was very important to me so i bought them oust and two weeks later the pandemic h-4 one

of the moments i thought to myself we have to have the worse business in a lifetime or the best. >> we created the oasis out of a need basically so other people bars and turning them into a space and when the last place we were performing wasn't used turned those buildings into condos so we decided to have a space. >> what the pandemic did for us is made us on of that we felt we had to do this immediately and created this.

>> (unintelligible). >> where we would offer food delivery services with a curbside professionalism live music to bring spectacular to lives we are going through and as well as employ on the caterers and the performers and drivers very for that i think also for everyone to do something. we had ordinary on the roof and life performances and with a restaurant to support the system where we are and even with that had terribly initiative and hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt had to pay our rent we decided to have an old-fashioned one we created club hours where you can

watch to online and or be on the phone and raised over one quarter of a million dollar that of incredible and something that northbound thought we could do. >> we got ourselves back and made me realize how for that people will show up if i was blown away but also had the courage but the commitment now i can't let anyone down i have to make the space serviceable so while this is a full process business it became much more about a space that was used by the community. and it became less about starting up a business and more about the heart of what we're doing. this

building used to be a- and one of the first one we started working on had we came out what a mural to wrap the building and took a while but able to raise the money and pay 5 artists to make a design around many this to represent what is happening on the side and also important this is who we are this is us putting it out there because satisfies other people we don't realize how much we affect the community around there when he i want to put that out there and show up and show ourselves outside of those walls more fabulous. and inspires other people to be more fabulous and everyone want to be more fabulous and less hatred and hostility and that is how we change the