and a street in the middle of financial district. that alone is powerful. [music] >> good morning, every one. and we're so happy to see all of you. so alan and i will be coemcees today, come over here, alan. alan has been providing self-help all of our pro-bono attorney services for all of our rear.

--real estate. sometimes we have more difficult document that's we need a lawyer to look over. of course our co-chair is also an attorney but alan is wonderful. he was our honoree and recipient for the elderly award as well as assemblyman, so we're honored to have, both of them, mayor and supervisor chan. so i want to start by saying hello, we're so happy to see all of you here. and all of you really are, part of the self-help family. you've been supporting us just like alan for a long long time. so later we'll go through the program, but today we're here because we're standing in front of the our home our suit residential care facility for the frail elderly so. it's a dream come true. and mayor, wise person long ago told me, if you have a dream,

share it with others. and really, that dream will come true. i said that many times. so when we open our first rcfe when you were director of the african-american culture, in the western addition, you helped me get the permit to build our first 15-bed for alzheimer seniors. at dress is 655 grove street. if you have not gone by, we welcome you to come. so for the past 20 plus years, we open in year 2000. i think we have served so many low income and moderate income families with loved ones who they want to keep in san francisco. we call them assisted living, they are fast diminishing in san francisco. when we first started, mayor, you might remember, we have probably over 1,000 maybe such small size rcfe homes, but now

i just went to the licensing and look a look, we only have 15 facilities and only 37 are six-bed to 15-bed, the rest are all over 100 bed and charge between $8,000 and $12,000 a month. at self-help, we charge $4,000, maybe $5,000 and some seniors who have been living with us over ten years, are paying a little bit over $2500. so it's through your help, through your funding to funny and through the advocacy of fast, and department of health and mayor office of housing and community development. nonprofit can do this by providing affordable rcfe for our community and for our frail elderly. but we need the city and state and probably even federal money. so we're here spending, to

realize our dream, this is phase one, the first step but very soon, we'll invite all of you back when our elderly start to move in to live here. so we're very very happy, it was kind of windy, a little bit cold but really thank you. [applause] so i know that, mayor will speak, assemblyman phil will speak and councilmember chan will speak. i know carmen has to be on the grand jury so she just came to say hello, oh right there, sorry. i ask her to join us up here but she didn't want to but carmen, she has to go to grand jury. but carmen, i want to tell you that when we feel that the process was a little bit stuck. i remember i came to you and i asked you for help to kind of teach us how to move this

process along. so you were there, you're always behind the scene and we thank you. i know it's a very very complicated funding process. the beyond is a little bit different from the usual beyond and they are just a lot of pieces involved. so along the same time, brian, i want to thank you and your team. you're doing the last, during the last last two months after we were selected there was a lot of paperwork to be done. and we could not have done it without your staff to complete the close of escrow. please thank, eric and thank you very much, brian. so now is turnover to alan to introduce our next speaker. >> thank you, annie. you know, hate is easy, and we've been hearing a lot about hate. change takes courage and change takes leadership.

to reenvision this abandoned restaurant space took change and it took leadership. and i'm very grateful that mayor london breed had the courage to stand up and make this investment and say let's make it happen so. let this be to all the haters, this is what change looks like and this is what we can do. it's my privilege to introduce the mayor of san francisco, mayor london breed. [applause] >> mayor london breed: well you are right that change is hard, but when you have the state, the local government and the community working together, there isn't anything that we can't do. this project is a real example of that. not only did the city step up working with the api council, i see kelly wong here today and others who helped, with the advocacy to ensure that resource right side provided to

our api community for facilities like this. but we also had so many of our city workforce and i know carmen chu lead this process to ensure that we were able to get it done, doing business in the city is hard. and to make sure that we're able to get all of different layers of paperwork done is so important. so i want to appreciate brian and carmen and others that worked on the technical support to get us on the point. i want to thank bill for providing additional much needed state resources over 2 million to help with this project as well. and thank you for alan lowe for not only emcee but providing pro-bono legal services which is also very expensive these days. so it took this whole village of local and community and

supervisor chan, we know on the board of supervisors allocating through the budget resources, every one had a role to play despite our differences, despite the challenges of the city, we came together for a bigger purpose and that is to support our community, to support our seniors and the people that we know who need these assistant live-in facilities the most so. annie mentioned how we worked together many many years ago, and annie, it's funny, i forgot about that. it was when they were they want today have this facility not only did we go through a community process, we worked to make that happen. annie didn't know then what they knows now how sensitive i am about my grandmother and taking care of seniors in san francisco. and making sure that we protect and support places like laguna honda and other assisted living facilities.

but what happens when we don't have enough beds? what happens when our most vulnerable communities need a place to be not only supported but cared for? and that's why this project is so important. this is about the future and providing the level of care and assisted live in necessary to take care of our seniors in this community. i also want to express my appreciation for self-help for the elderly for the senior escort program that they started during a global pandemic to ensure that our seniors can get to their location safely. and another facility, phil chang and others provide the resources and make sure that our offices worked closely. our kids are over there and our seniors are over here, we have this great community that in

the middle of everything, and the purchase of this restaurant to care for our seniors but how we provide different layers of services for the community as a whole. so thank you all for being here here. this is exciting times, it's a great project and i for one am looking forward to the first day when the first resident moves in and cared for in this facility because of annie's vision and all of us here today, playing a small part in make iting happen. thank you all so much. [applause] >> thank you, mayor. let's give one more hand to the mayor. [applause] next up, i would like to first announce because it's almost big game season, go gears assembly member phil. there is no one more person that has done for the asian

community than assembly member. no words can express how grateful we are for what you've done to china town and. thank you. it's my pleasure to bring up to the stage assembly member, phil, alumni of the goenld bears. [applause] >> yes, and big game week, go bears. i'm looking at briansinger i think he'll be there probably with his family on the other side. but, i think our mayor said it really best, in that this project standing behind us does not happen if not for annie's leadership, the self-help board, alan your help. it does not happen without the mayor's leadership, the supervisors leadership, making sure that working together as a city that we can do this together. it does not happen without the

state, and it demonstrates, annie, your extraordinary ability to make something out of nothing. this has been an empty restaurant for quite a while. i walk up and down this street quite a bit and i'm sure for a long time you've been waiting to figure out how to make this project an amazing project for our community. and why this is so important. and annie, so incredibly modest all the work that she puts to each and every single one of our care facilities. all the work that her organization does to make seniors independent to make sure that they have an incredible life and this is on the health of my mind, my mother is aging and i spend a lot of time talk to go my son how we're going to support my mom making sure that we have enough family structure and assistance. and for those families that

don't have children or families that don't to help the seniors, we're grateful for annie. and to underscore what the stakes r the fastest growing population of people who are becoming homeless are seniors over 50. it's not who we think they are. it's not the people bho have mental health issues, the people who have sub anza beauce problems. they get depressed they're the one that perhaps when we walk and see them, they may be top of mind. but in terms of numbers, it's seniors and it's got to be the scariest thing that as you age, that you're not allowed the ability to age gracefully and you cannot age in your own home. you are one financial incident, whether it's your car, whether it's going in for basic healthcare procedure from being on the street and that's why this facility is so critical, because it's right at the heart

of that need. it's for seniors and it's for low income seniors and that's why we're all here. we know how important this is. this is exactly the kind of housing that has to be built if we're going to make any dent in our homeless situation. that's why we're all here, we know we have to do something together. sxl annie, your incredible leadership, your guidance has really allowed, frankly, mia loud myself, the mayor, supervisor, the entire city department to be here to support all of your efforts. and i know when you have the next brilliant idea, we're going to be there as well. thank you so much, it's an honor to be here today and congratulations. >> thank you, phil. the supervisor has a special place in my heart from the recreation and park department. but i want to recall a conversation i had with

supervisor chan may of last year. she said, i have this idea, i'm going to recreate a fund for nonprofit to see buy real estate. there is not much money in it so you're going to do it for free. i said what. she said it's going to be great, you're going to enjoy it, and i said okay. so i convinced my partners and look what happened. she had the advocacy and leadership. i'm glad that we have a advocate for the asian community, supervisor connie chan. >> thank you, well for some of you who may not know, but last week, just last week, time out magazine announced that

richmond is one of the coolest neighborhoods in the world! [applause] and i was interviewed by reporters and asking me like why do i think? why is it that richmond became the best neighborhood? and i joke, because it's bonkchoi, and goenld gate park but at the end of the day is the people. the people that make richmond the coolest neighborhood in the world, it's you! [applause] and with that, it's really--i just want to thank annie and her leadership and all the help from the other board directors and staff. can we give them an applause. [applause] we're here for because of their good work and we get credit for their good work. but of course, i just want to say, when i say the people, is because leadership like assemblyman phil, and mayor

breed that they put together and make sure that they recognize the investment in our community, block by community, starting from community youth center and now self-help for the elderly. assembly member, phil, saw it and taught me. and also thanks to mayor breed, and the commitment seen that even when there is a deficit, we prioritize our community. we say that we will invest in our community. thanks to their leadership, to you every one in the community that we can celebrate this mild stone together. so i thank you all of you and you should be very proud for all the things that we have accomplished together and so i'm grateful to be a representative of you and so proud of the richmond. and i think for all of these investments and most importantly love and care, we will see block by block, this

block and the many blocks, that direction and that direction in the richmond, we'll see that we will thrive and so thank you so much. [applause] >> thank you, supervisor chan. you know, another story about this deal is when carlos serrano kwan who is here from sequoia commercial, came up to me and said that 933 clemence street should be for self-help for the elderly. and i said who wants to buy that piece of property? but it took the entire self-help team to envision. and i guarantee, we're coming back for a ribbon cut anding we're going to see a new senior center for our most vulnerable san franciscans and we're going to see the employees, the

senior citizens, make deposits at cafe chang. we're going to be buying coffee and old fashion donuts and going to ymy to buy number 45 spice chicken. it's going to have that affect. supervisor chan, bringing cool to clement street beyond 10th avenue and you're right we're going to do it building by building, block by block. this is how we build community, this is how we build back our one city. and here to talk about the vision for this facility is the board chair, nick jay who accidentally called me uncle. so maybe it's time for me to en roll in self-help. [laughter] all right, nick jay, every one. >> thank you all for coming and thank you mayor breed and

councilman and supervisor chan. this is new assisted living for the frail, and frankly our most vulnerable seniors. this is self-help second care facility after 22 years, we open autumn glow as annie mentioned. this is for the community and the families of the seniors. one of the way that's i got involved for self-help, my family was looking for a place to bring my grandmother who was suffering from alzheimer and needed care. i know the stress that it put not only the senior but the family. and the fact that we're going to open this now is incredible and it should help every one. our board is keenly aware that it's difficult to have somebody live in a place like this,

where it's usually between $8 to $12,000 a month to live. but thanks to the self-help and mayor's office and supervisors and dos and all the other organizations that are part of this as well as the donors and supporters. we're able to keep the rates at 40 or 50% of what would otherwise be on the open market. again, i would also like to commend the self-help staff and also our board as well. maggie is here as well. another one of our board members and pat mar, long time board member as well. so again, this is a great day and i want to say, annie just like every one else is, you're amazing, and the ways you're able to get this done is just incredible. so thank you all very much.

>> thank you very much, nicholas, alan, mayor, phil, connie. so we have a very exciting ribbon cutting part. but before we do that, i would like to really thank a list of people that have helped with this project. first i want to introduce our sellers, we have sellers mr. willie tau and denny are both here. and they are so good. they are very easy to work with. i want to thank you both denny and whenever we meet, we brought lots and lots of sea food because denny runs a sea food business. when brian said that annie,

every project need to have 15% incline and monetary incline contribution to match the city funds. so i went straight to the source and asked our two sellers, may i have 550,000 donation from you. that's right, mayor, you taught us to ask and ask bravely. without the blink of an eye, the two gentleman said yes, we will do it. [applause] i remember willie and denny, willie said annie you can count on me for the future donations. so please help me thank our sellers. willie and denny. also our architect that did the rendering for brian's rfp is here with us and steve zenseki.

you should run the and, we love the asian neighborhood design which is a community architecture firm that helped us design a lot of sros, he's architect for expansion project and because of steven, we managed to almost close the project construction and planning for opening in january or february of next year. so thank you, steven. [applause]. so mayor is right, it took a whole village to put this project together. not only do we construction money but renovation. but mayor, in order for us to charge $4,000 versus $10,000 we need the city to step in for operating subsidy while we're applying for the license, which might take. so last comes n please help me

thank kelly, our executive director of the department of disabilities and aging along cindy. our go-to person, tiffany and paulo, we run two sites. actually two blocks from here, at the venus restaurant is a innovative program run by dos, every senior love there. and if you have time and over 60, you can stop by and enjoy a meal over there at a few dollars instead of the restaurant prize. so we run that and then we go to dos for staff, along with joe mellacre who is a expert in communications. joe is over there besinger every time we need joe for the elder abuse awareness day and whatever we do, joe is supportive and caring and cindy, we cannot find a funder

who is as good and as supportive as you. thank you. and then we want to thank carlos our broker. and you know, we're nonprofit, we don't have boundaries for time. not to copy or week nights, we just call them whenever we need them. carlos, you have to open the door because we're doing the phase 1, report. right. wayne, you've got to come right now, because we need somebody to go in to inspect the property in order for us to submit the application and they really are good brokers. whatever we need, carlos is there and carlos also serve on the city planning commission. so we have a lot of expertise between the two of them. so thank you, carlos.

and alan talked about the background through api council, our executive director quell' wong and david ho, so thank you so much for doing this. and beyond the three projects that were picked for round one, mayor and eric and brian, will fund another group of cbos so they get the headquarters and program space as well. [applause] connie mentioned our work with supervisor chan and angelina and robin are here. so we jenny our senior is helping us represent. come over jenny, almost every month robin and angelina, angelina is somewhere. i'm sorry, robin is over there. anne, is over there. keep that, i don't know if we

can give one to our bodyguard, get one too. you protected our mayor which is very very important. now our seniors make these leis so they are very special. so jenny, come over and robin has one and angelina. sol we doing a safety workshop with connie and jackie chan site and almost here, every month, connie will bring a special speaker like fire prevention. so thank you, connie. also, connie introduced us to captain, captain, caning. mayor, captain was to special. i need thised space and manson called captain and he said done, i'll personally go out to make sure you have the space. thank you captain.

and also our seniors feel much more comfortable coming to you to your offices to report the crimes because now they treat you as a friend. thank you, yeah. so we mentioned that eric supported this project and also all the affordable housing. and i have to mention, a few past former supervisor, under the president norman ye, he started the investigation work on the lack of affordable rcf for san francisco. and thanks to kelly and other city department, they did a really comprehensive report, stating that the city and the state and the government really have to step in to protect the diminishing of these homes. so thank you for doing that, norman ye. i invited him, i invited cindy and gordon mark, gordon, i forgot to mention besides the

acquisition and the renovation, the third part is the subsidy. so gordon work with us to provide us a hefty subsidy for the two years while we're applying so. it takes a lot of these pieces. so again, i want to thank our officials for caring about our seniors and keeping them right here in the city. so i know that, i could thank all of you, you know, thank every one our seniors here. we ask lens to bring seniors who are more english speaking so we don't need to do the translation and lens is really good and these are the group of seniors who always attend phil's meeting, connie's town hall meetings and mayor's budget meetings and. so we've gotten ivy and a lot of our seniors pretty well trained to express their