Thank you doug. clapping. what an amazing and incredible day thank you for being here. Im the beyond honored and humble to represent openhouse what an amazing principle there are not enough things to capture the efforts of making this day happen i can talk about this you wouldnt thank everyone to thank so i will take a minute to see a couple of quick thank yous i want to say to doug and everyone as mercy housing youve been an amazing partner and continue to be an amazing partner when we break ground we like to say youre not just a partner but part of openhouse family thank you for being worked out with us here. clapping. i also want to say thank you to the Mayors Office of housing who are here today not easy to take on one of a kind project and you really helped us to balance Ethics Commission and a dream thinking about what it means to the city in the an easy job we appreciate it and continue to partner and figure it out Going Forward thank you for the openhouse board youre a fierce group of advocates for this agency and mission as we could ever ask for own house members current and past if youll raise your hand if youre with us today. clapping. and, of course, none more compassionate than our founder marcie and janet an amazing yeah. clapping. you had an amazing dream 20 years ago and bold not to give up and make many a reality were all living today so thank you i want to thank myopia house staff youre the backbone of what we do were on a tight schedule but some clapping along the way theyre the backbone of the organization your ideas are what fuel us your ideas fuel my inspiration and you to more than anyone understands that is an absolute honor you take that seriously to serve the lgbt seniors so thank you to my staff and finally and more importantly i want to thank our lgbt seniors this is your day for your bravery your tireless work and your believe in social justice thats why were here. clapping. and please know this building is not the end this is the beginning this is the beginning of work well do together because every lgbt elderly every urban design team o lgbt elderly deserves not only housing but in a lo place in the course call home well not be dysfunction until that happens. clapping. so thank you i now are the honor of introducing Supervisor Scott Wiener ill bring to the stage as for those of you who dont know scott was elected to the state senate in november of 2016 for district 11 prior to the election he served as a board of supervisors where he was an advocate for policies to create the Affordable Housing you see here today and long recognized the protection of the right of lgbt seniors a long time supporter and friend of openhouse and believes to help every lgbt senior to have a place to call home in 2014 he helped pass local ordinances for action for long time care facilities and make sure they have training in taken care of felt be lgbt seniors and fight for the bill to happen across the state. Thank you for your help and making today a reality senator wien wiener. clapping. good afternoon, everyone i think my head is blocking this thing the world was not made for at all people so i am im so happy to be here im so happy that you know given my new life between here and sacramento to be physically here it is a monumental step forward for the Lgbt Community in San Francisco we have our lgbt center a huge step forward weve done so much as a community and hard to overstate how significant today is i know that is the beginning well do so many more to house the lgbt seniors thank you, thank you to everyone who made this happen that was a Massive Group effort particularly openhouse and mercy housing is an honor to work with you on my time on the board of supervisors every few months new obstacle would come up and Work Together to resolve it thank you to mayor ed lee and his team for always cloub with us to find solutions you know were really starting as a community to grapple with the unique needs of lgbt seniors for a long time a lot of people are not making it to senior status. Fortunately more and more people and this is amazing it is enriching for our community lets hear it for that. clapping. but were behind in meeting the needs of of our elders and working hard to play catch up and housing is a key part protecting the seniors and long care and collecting data open our seniors meeting the needs of long term hiv survivors weve got a lot more work to do and well continue to Work Together to do that and housing is such a critical component of that problems for people in San Francisco long term residents leave or just have incredible anxiety but being able to stay we need to make sure were taking care of our own residents in particularly our long term residents you should be able to stay in the town they helped to build i also just wanted to honor on a personal level say thank you to youll be lgbt seniors i came of age as a gay man 17 yearold in 1987 in new jersey and he wouldnt be in the role i am today, if wouldnt have been possible without the for the generations of lgbt people who that fought to save our community to build our community in the 50s and psychos and 70s fighting under the work. clapping. and then in the 80s and 90s saving our community from the libyans from the aids of that epidemic and eternally grateful like me we are able to be who we are because of you so thank you so much for that i also want to acknowledge im so honored to represent San Francisco and northern San Mateo County and sacramento honored to represent represent this Great Community and shout out to my mentor and predecessor senator mark leno who really led the way on so many things. clapping. so in the tradition of senator mark leno i have two civil rights to honor for mercy housing and openhouse well keep that tradition alive and well, thank you everyone and congratulations. Okay with that, we have a distinct hour of bringing up a bigger champion this project and all the things were here we do woult the leadership and i hear hes back from a long trip we appreciate the work youre doing and thank you. All right. clapping. well, im not going to have skooltsz problem laughter but let me echo senator wieners comments and also gto all the team of openhouse and mercy housing for putting this together representative from my office the community, the Hard Rock Foundation and toms leadership all of this putting together i just had the first tour not been on this property since it was still an extension for uc and so when i walk those hallways that have been new i think that honors exactly what scott mens earlier about the history of the Lgbt Community and people with who served the city well in all from all walks of life and the center of what i talk about the strength of our city when is our diversities and i just also had the opportunity with the doctor and the managers here to actually walk into david and lindas living quarters as i walk through there the first emotion i felt was dignity that these units the way theyve been designed and built the connection to space allows people in your 57b8gd years to experience a dignity perhaps another level in years past and yet for our seniors in San Francisco that is what we always wished to do and i think this is the best example right here at 55 laguna and benchly on 75 laguna i plan to be here not in 5 years in much less time for a be stronger even dedication for more units of housing for the seniors and in particular for the lgbt friendly campus that has been created here i just want to note scott was in my office but actually took some walks and talked about what we needed to do by way of strengthening the way we ought reach the Affordable Housing developments throughout the city we can go through all parts of the city and talk about the problems that we have and with the homelessness and the lack of housing but we come here the laguna street 55 laguna and we see what it is like and the examples of how we present deciding if i had living for the seniors in particular for the lgbt friendly campus so i want to say congratulations to everyone who has been a part of this i commit to you that it will not take another 5 years for this site for Smiling Faces and People Living in dignity well hurry up and get more not just here but throughout the city whenever people desire to live dedicated place to so they can be part of communicated for all of their lives congratulations to everyone. clapping. my gosh you walk through those places and say blessed were in San Francisco and work for each other and have values weighing well care and learned a lot of those deciding if i did falls u values from the people that struggled for many, many years to reach the level of dignity those routine u units represent with that, let me introduce doctor the cofounder but marcie thank you, thank you for your vision 20 years ago i understand that two 34g9s experts got together and nobody should get in the way when two Lesbian Health workers goat together. Doctor marcie step forward thank you. clapping. you know i wrote it down i know i was going to completely overwhelm finding i want to say is this the most amazing day of my life to see all of you here celebrating what all of you have done to build this campus of services i just thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart for hanging in those these two years to make that happen thank you very much for being worked out here today. clapping. so allow me to read so i am not nervous you are lose any train of thought the miracle of openhouse to take a dream of thriving into our old age and making that a reality for all of us the openhouse vision wore 0 more brickandmortar but rather to create community that values the elderly and embraces long gift not as a burden but in some cases one hard to achieve on this Miraculous Journey many people have 2rbd to the success i reserve a thank you for the honorable art who certificate of occupancy be with us and nelson, and Bradley Hall Al and robert, and sam david and sandra hernandez. clapping. all those people have nurtured and significantly helped to implement this vision but todays slkts not complete without honoring the honorable senator mark leno it is my privilege to award a marking marching mark with an open house appreciation for his support of openhouse and dancing lgbt issues and in our city and state mark authorized the landmark legislation but mandates the California Department of aging and local aging agencies including the Lgbt Community, planning and assessment of activities to create responsive programming and services to meet the needs of lgbt elders marks landmark legislations guess is a model of lgbt outreach and inclusive deliveries for area agencies nation wide the foundation on which all lgbt elderly serving nonprofits has built and continues to build a safety net of services for the most Vulnerable Community members thank you, mark. clapping. mark leno is turned out out of California Senate oh. Oh. Mark has authorized over one and 50 new bills that includes the lgbt elderly and the civil rights of all californians we hope and expect his electrician to our city and community will continue for many years to come mark leno. clapping. youre good thank you all right. This is for all those plaques and things that mark has giving out over the 20 years i had to get another closet you cant throw them away clapping. too old jews thank you. laughter it is a wonderful day and a real honor to be here with the mayor and our state senator and recognize the supervisors supervisor jeff sheehy and College Board raphael and alex behind you thank you it takes a village and the village is here today, im, occur selfcheck just today,d out this new administration has in the dark of night taken lgbt questions off of the survey a National Survey for the purposes of better understanding the seniors need we need to respond in 90 days we need to let them know what they dont know so im here to recount a brief story i was in contact with marcie and janet 20 years ago to start this conversation about the growing need for the senior population in the community and coincidentally Public Office really fascinated the challenge over the year and resource to bring them together art called me mark you have a great issue as art would say you know the Lgbt Community is going to have needs for senior population in years ahead an idea he was mayor a now we need to do something so im curious ive been talking to marcie and janet we brought everyone together and remember when the end of the year 2009 he was then the director of western even region of hud after the 2000 election we got to his office there were signs saying the republicans are coming the republicans are coming theyre reaching out of their hud office as the mayor said you dont want to get in the way of two lesbian therapists but what do they know about building Affordable Housing art agnos you know that connection was able to allow marcie and janet to make their steps so i know youll hear from tom in a second but do my only personal shout out thought foundation it is such a foundation in the entire development thank you so much tom. clapping. so celebrate this at a a special one thank you, marcy and janet. clapping. thank you, mark as perfect introduction to the tremendous honor i have next which is to introduce you to tom before i do that ill talk about him in case you do know him the publish of bay area and a leading gay rights activist as a businessman political activist and philanthropist he responded to the Community Leadership the bay reporter is the old continuing published newspaper serving the Lgbt Community and in addition with a bar participated in the founding of the gay comix transform the Gay Community into a Regional Power when he was not busy with that he was the president of the director of public works for the Golden Gate Park and the president the guide and the meals on wheels and the aids Emergency Fund in the ballet associations in 1996 established the barb ross in his passing they built his legacy strengthening did organizations to address Urgent Community needs in 2016 the Bob Ross Foundation be pledged money in support of Openhouse Services in recognition of this gift he openhouse headquarters on laguna have the names of bob ross and the lgbt center in recognition of life and work of bob ross. clapping. tom horn served as president evident Bob Ross Foundation a retired attorney were excited hear from you tom was a close friend the bob and a publisher of the bay area reporter it is my honor to now introduce you to tom and to pubically thank him and the Bob Ross Foundation for the transformal justice for all. clapping. i promise my remarks will be shorlter than hers thank you for your organization for the times have made this happen and thank you mercy housing that provided the nonprofit low income focus housing component without which this is not happening and thank you, mayor ed the former supervisors and senator wiener former San Francisco supervisor and senator mark leno and the entire city family having stuck with the project from the beginning and never abandoned hope bob ross used to talk about the dream of having a enhanced and project where for older lgbt people could live in dignity and be who they were reject fully he didnt live to see the accomplishment of what you have done but he would be thrilled to know that through his philanthropist hes helped to form a peace of the pie that made it a happy hed be honored to know youve recognized his philanthropy and relationship in the community by dedicating the Bob Ross LgbtSenior Center thank you so much. clapping. tom and i will now do an untraditional unveiling of plaque a binder clip unveiling a new Ethics Commission and openhouse weve developed everyday new ideas well unveil to see the Bob Ross LgbtSenior Center plaque clapping. boy laughter im here this time to want to bring up a friend of mine who works for wells fargo and Wells Fargo Bank is one of open houses oldest and longest ongoing fiscal sponsors thank you wells fargo over the course of a decade as openhouse has expanded and grown wells fargo has been there supporting our mission and expansion of our program we are grateful to wells fargo for the continued investment in open house and in San Franciscos Lgbt Community another benefit of partnering with wells fargo is getting to know people like Martin Martin is a former board member and Vice President of the openhouse a Senior Executive at well martin is a business and Community Leader that values people and relationships and is passionately committed to improving the lives of lgbt s