About it and i think as a whole, as a community, as any community, if people just put a little effort, we could really help each other out. Thats how it should be. Thats what food is about basically. An organization that meets is the San Francisco knight ministry we work with tuesday and thursdays. By the power of your name i have faith to move mountains because i believe in jesus. I believe its helpful to offer food to people because as you know, theres so much homelessness in San Francisco and california and the United States. I really believe that food is important as well as our faith. The San Francisco knight ministry has been around for 54 years. The core of the ministry, a group of ordain ministers, we go out in the middle of the night every single night of the year, so for 54 years we have never missed a night. I know its difficult to believe maybe in the United States but a lot of our people will say this is the first meal theyve had in two days. I really believe it is a time between life or death because i mean, we could be here and have church, but, you know, i dont know how much we could feed or how many we could feed and this way over 100 people get fed every single thursday out here. Its not solely the food, i tell you, believe me. Theyre extremely grateful. Its super awesome how welcoming they are. After one or two times theyre like i recognize you. How are you doing, how is school . I have never been in the city, its overwhelming. You get to know people and through the music and the food, you get to know people. We never know what impact were going to have on folks. If you just practice love and kindness, its a labor of love and thats what the Food Recovery Network is and this is a huge i believe they salvage our mission. To me the most important part is its about food waste and feeding people. The Food Recovery NetworkNational Slogan is finding ways to feed people. Its property to bring the scientific and Human Element into the situation. I love that i was in four plus years a a rent control tenant, and it might be normal because the tenant will for the longest, i was applying for b. M. R. Rental, but i would be in the lottery and never be like 307 or 310. I pretty much had kind of given up on that, and had to leave San Francisco. I found out about the San FranciscoMayors Office of housing about two or three years ago, and i originally did Home Counseling with someone, but then, my certificate expired, and one of my friends jamie, she was actually interested in purchasing a unit. I told her about the housing program, the Mayors Office, and i told her hey, youve got to do the six hour counseling and the 12 hour training. She said no, i want you to go with me. And then, the very next day that i went to the session, i notice this unit at 616 harrison became available, b. M. I. I was like wow, this could potentially work. Housing purchases through the b. M. R. Program with the sf Mayors Office of housing, they are all lotteries, and for this one, i did win the lottery. There were three people that applied, and they pulled my number first. I won, despite the luck id had with the program in the last couple years. Things are finally breaking my way. When i first saw the unit, even though i knew it was less than ideal conditions, and it was very junky, i could see what this place could be. Its slowly beginning to feel like home. I can definitely you know, once i got it painted and slowly getting my Custom Furniture to fit this unit because its a specialized unit, and all the units are microinterms of being very small. This unit in terms of adaptive, in terms of having a murphy bed, using the walls and ceiling, getting as much space as i can. Its slowly becoming home for me. It is great that San Francisco has this program to address, lets say, the housing crisis that exists here in the bay area. It will slowly become home, and i am appreciative that it is a bright spot in an otherwise this unique neighborhood, we noemie know miguels over there shaking his head like, yeah. [laughter] we know there is Something Special about the city and Something Special about the neighborhoods and to have everything to do with the people who are part of these amazing neighborhoods. And im just really excited about some of the other things that weve done and more of what we will do to make sure that we are protecting Affordable Housing in the mission for generations to come. [applause] now we all know the sad history of rewoment in our city. The community that i grew up in the Western Addition and what happened to that community. A lot of propsses were made. A lot of housing was built. But when the time came, for example, in the Public Housing that i grew up in, 300 units torn down, 200 units built and the difficulty of so many of us being able to move back to the community. You remember this joyce armstrong, what happened in the Western Addition and how it really sadly destroyed a very vibrant African American community. And we look at this as a Lesson Learned and we have to think of the challenges that existed back then and what we have to do to change that for the future of San Francisco. And we are going to protect our diversity and our communities. We have to start making the right kinds of investments. Its why, when i was on the board of supervisors with this community, Roberto Hernandez was there and we stood proud to fight for and josh arsay, we stood proud to fight for neighborhood preference so that when we actually build the Affordable Housing in these communities, that the people who live in these communities have right of first refusal to access those units. [applause] and also when we have revenue this this city that we make the right kinds of investments that will make a tremendous impact for a community. I got to take a tour. In fact, it was a lowrider tour with roberto. Yes, it was a nice day and the sun was shining and yes, we were bouncing up and down in the mission and people thought i was having a good time and i wasnt there working. I was working. I was working. I was on a Factfinding Mission to really see what opportunities exist in this community so that we can build more Affordable Housing. And so we were standing out here on 26th street talking to a number of folks who grew up here, some who dont live here anymore because they cant afford to. And others who were just trying to hold on and they talked about housing and their children and their future. Im really excited because government sometimes takes a really long time to make things happen. And we were really lucky that we got this windfall money that you heard about. And the first thing i thought about were all these sites in the commission and whether or not we would be able to acquire these sites for 100 Affordable Housing. And today thats what this announcement is about. 1515 south van ness will be acquired to potentially build 150 new family units sglfp [applause] and i have to tell you it wasnt necessarily fast for this community because this community had been working so hard to really identify locations, coordinate and Work Together and really address what we know has been significant dig placement. With the accusation of the site along with the four sites that we broke ground with, for Affordable Housing, with more to come, in the mission neighborhood, we would have preserved and built over 1,000 new units for this community. Now we know this community has a goal of getting to 2500 and i definitely want to make sure that we get there. But i will say that this is a step in the right direction. And i just also would like to put in a plug for the housing bonds. 600 million without raising property taxes for Affordable Housing. Woe have the money to buy the site, but we need the money to build it. So im going to be counting on the voters in San Francisco to support the upcoming housing bond so that we can get this housing built for this community right away. And more Affordable Housing throughout the city of San Francisco. [applause] so i want to thank all of you and so many of the Community Members that have joined us today. It just really is not only a Beautiful Day in San Francisco, but an exciting time for this community. Ive been to four ground breakings in the mission since ive been mayorment we look at other sites and we have been acquiring property. Weve been looking at ways on small sites and making tremendous investments. And this is really just the beginning of what i think is going to be an incredible future for this community. But it wont be that way unless we work hard for it because we have to also make sure that the investments happen, we have to make sure that the resources are there to make this investment happen and well continue to do everything we can to make sure that the community is a part of this process every step of the way. Before i thank all the folks that are responsible for this, besides, i just want to give a special shoutout to kate hartley from the Mayors Department of housing for all the really hard work that she did to make this possible [applause] along with a number of city departments to help and jumpstart s. F. And the m. T. C. Or m. T. A. , which one is it . M. T. C. We have somebody from one of those transportation agencies. So, thank you so much for that and thank you to all the Community Members and everyone whos with us today. And to acknowledge so many incredible people from this community. Including herself who myrna milgaard has been an incredible resource and incredible advocate. [applause] and just working with young people and staying focused. Not only is she the president of the Planning Commission of San Francisco, she runs Jamestown Community center, an incredible space for young people in this community. Myrna melgar. Thank you, mayor. So i was appointed to the Planning Commission by then president of the board of supervisors, london breed. [laughter] and people ask me why why are you doing this . [laughter] so muchwork it is a lot of work. But im doing it because i, in addition to running the Jamestown Community center, im a mother of three girls who were born and raised in San Francisco. And i want them to have a life in San Francisco. I want my family close by and my community all around me. Its what makes my life worth living. Like many of you. And i think there is no more important thing that were doing right now than building Affordable Housing. And when then president of the board of supervisors breed asked me to do this, i was on it because i believed in her vision. So when i saw that she went to h. U. D. To advocate for neighborhood preference despite decades of people saying no, it cant be done, people in Affordable Housing saying it cant be done, she took her advocacy and got it done. And i was so proud of her. You know . Because that was a game changer for us in San Francisco. And, you know, i think that the advocacy, that community and this Mayors Office is doing in terms of building Affordable Housing, of just thinking outside the box with small sites, with different ways of getting to where we need to go is amazing and groundbreaking and im so proud to be part of this. So i think that for the first time im looking around at all of my colleagues in nonprofit and all of the community, instigators and collaborators and this is the moment that i feel like in the whole time ive been in San Francisco where the subMission United. [applause] the first time. Were all on the same page that we are building Affordable Housing. Not only preserving our community, but getting it back. Those 8,000 families that have been displaced from San Francisco that are part of our schools, of our churches, of our community organizations, were getting them back. And were all working really hard for it and this project is going to be a part of that story. We also have a supervisor who is on the same page with us. She has made Affordable Housing her priority. When she ran and also during her office and i am so glad that she is working with us hand in hand. And with that, im going to introduce supervisor hillary ronan. [applause] thank you so much. What an incredible, incredible day. I dont think there is anything that energizes all of us more than breaking ground on an Affordable Housing site or acquiring an Affordable Housing site. There is nothing that manges us feel like the work that we do in the city so important. When i was running for office, i made a goal and a pledge to build 5,000 units of Affordable Housing in district nine in a decade and im counting each and every unit and right now we are at 1182 units [applause] and that is because the mission is united. And not only is the Mission United with itself, the mission is united with city hall, with our mayor whose priority is housing and Affordable Housing for this neighborhood, with the supervisor whose priority is housing and Affordable Housing for this neighborhood, with the director of the Mayors Office of housing and Community Development whose priority is housing and Affordable Housing. Were truly, truly united and we have two extremely strong organizations. Affordable Housing Developers right here in the mission district. Mission housing and Economic Economic development agency. [applause] anja emphasize how important these organizations are. The executive director of one of those organizations because there was a decade, a decade when we didnt build a unit of Affordable Housing in this neighborhood. And part of that reason was because we didnt have Affordable Housing developer organizations who were at a stage that they could build housing. Now we dont even have one. We have two. We have two and we have a community that is not going to stop for a second fighting for more Affordable Housing. And i just before i hand it over to Roberto Hernandez, i wanted tos also thank the former supervisor of district nine, david campos. Because part of the funding to acquire the site, 5 million, was the First Time Ever david campos got that money from the m. T. C. Its a regional transportation body that i now sit on that has never financed Affordable Housing in its entire existence. But david made the point that you cant talk about transportation and jobs without talking about housing. You cant talk about housing without talking about transportation and jobs. He married those two and this is the first Pilot Project for the m. T. O. That they are investing regional dollars in Affordable Housing. So, that is a major milestone as well. So thank you, david campos, for your hard work. And now i wanted to introduce Roberto Hernandez who has been on the frontlines of this fight from day one. Roberto hernandez. [applause] buenos dias [speaking in spanish] come on. Let me hear you say it [speaking in spanish] [crowd repeats] a very wise, elderly man taught me at a young age that we write our own stories. Every day when we get up, it is a page thats written and we have we can decide how that story is written every day. And then we write chapters and, by the end of our lifetime, theres a book written about us. That we write. Were the writers. Because were the creators of our own story. But i take it to another level and say we as a community here in the mission have been writing not one book, but many, many books because this story doesnt end here. Its a story that bega