>> interpret: i am a counselor and i live here in san francisco for 30 years now. through my work. i don't doubt that the services that the tenants receive to sros are essential to guarantee that the conditions that they livened are dignified, equitable and especially for those that don't speak english

and that do not know how to communicate the problems that they experience and the repairs that they need that can cut risk to their lives if they are not solved in an adequate way. i want to headache make sure that thema cuts to services for tenants is a direct threat to the rights of habitability and is a direct threat to the working class and the resources that we can provide for the working class community in san francisco. >> thank you very much for your comments. next. speaker, please. >> good afternoon council and members. i'm juan martinez and i'm a councilor at costa hu costa hus.

i help them to fight the abuse from landlords. this is usually the same situation over and over again. i am here today standing before you representing on behalf of the black and brown community hard working people. to let you know that if there are no organizations like costa and other organizations to provide the resources, tenants needs, then we'll have a massive number of homeless families on the streets with children and elderly. the city can afford to have or let that happen, especially with the many potential voters thrown out t on the street.

>> thank you very much. next speaker. >> hi, everyone. my nameon is anna and i come to you as a member of costo husta and someone proudly born and raised in the bay area. budget cuts that are proposed are impacting those most marginalized, working class people, black and brown people, people with disabilities. elders, the queer and trans communities. itie is those communities that make san francisco the special, special place that this it is. every one of those people has a right to be here just as much as the wealthy elite as the companies that changed our downtown and they are what makes this place special. if the city of san francisco claims to care about these communities, so much as they're willing to say in front of the

breast or on social media, they'll address is it with their dollars. thank you. >> thank you very much anna. next speaker. >> good afternoon supervisor. i have been a beneficiary of the support. after going through this, i came here -- the urban decay and we need to do something. people could be on the street. this is an international city. we'd like to welcome the visitors here. we need support from all of you and remember, housing is a human right. housing is a human right housing is a human right.

>> next speaker, please. >> goodle afternoon, i'm kile he as a lead organizer for corporate landlord campaigns for san francisco and i'm a tenant in district 4. as an organizer i see firsthand the impact that these budget cuts would have.ge .

supervisors. my name is brad. i'm from housing rights committee of san francisco. over the last couple of hours, i have been imagining what the ceos of the most pernicious and predatory real estate investment firms are thinking when they watch these proceedings. and i know they are, i have imagined what the ceo of veritas is imagining who has tried already to jeopardize hrc's funding in the past, unsuccessfully. and i imagine that they that they think, look, city hall will do it for us. they will prevent us. the city hall will prevent us from visiting buildings, going door to door, every single door

taking photos, ripping at rent, board hearings, filing dbi complaints, filing complaints, going to arbitrations and doing everything that holds them accountable. and if these cuts go through, they will thank you. thank you. brad. next speaker, please. good afternoon. my name is caitlin cao, and i'm also with the housing rights committee of san francisco. every day of my work, i hear tenants tell us the unbearable condition they live in. i also been into those units and seen it with my own eyes. homes infested with pests and black molds. units with no heat or no hot water, basements so neglected that trash overflow and rats running around. these aren't just few cases. these are so common in units and buildings that landlords neglect their responsibilities. that put tenants at risk. the tenant outreach and education work that we do directly support these tenants and to hold their landlords accountable to ensure that necessary repairs are made so that they don't feel forced

to leave their home out of fear for their safety. our work is not optional. it's essential and cutting funding to these programs means the city is putting people in a position where they have to choose living in danger or leaving their home. this is a choice that no one should ever face. so i urge you to not let this happen. thank you. thank you much, caitlin cao. next speaker, please. hi. good afternoon. my name is lena maibaum, and i am also an organizer for housing rights committee of san francisco. and i also live in a veritas building in district three. i have been with hrc for almost eight years prior to being hired in staff. i volunteered myself for two and a half years, also having three other jobs just to stay afloat with my rent, i was honored to accept the position of being an organizer, and one

of the things i love doing with hrc is doing outreach door knocking. as you know, veritas owns more than 250 buildings alone and trying to reach out to all those tenants, empowering them and having them to fight back against veritas and even other corporate landlords like monster, brick and timber. so please, we need to preserve budget, not cut it. thank you. thank you much. linda. mambo next speaker, please. hello. thank you. my name is debbie nunez. i am a volunteer with the housing rights committee and a member, proud member of the veritas tenants association. i've been here before. we've had your support and i just want to speak briefly, just to everything that i've heard today in another aspect of what all of these organizations offer, and that is tenant counseling and helping us as a tenant have a voice, understanding it, i always felt capable that i could help my take care of my own

problems issues. but yet with our corporate landlord, it became an issue, i'm just here to tell you firsthand that everybody here who is speaking has been the recipient of services of resources and that has allowed us to stand tall, to not feel alone and to support one another, whether it's our neighbors, ourselves, our unhoused neighbors. and please, please, if you can address the issues with the budget san francisco needs it, at my age, i don't put my energies into everything. i select a few things and this is something i feel truly. thank you. thank you. next speaker, please. hello, magandang hapon, mr. clark and supervisors. my name is teresa imperial of. i'm the director of build housing program. i just want to say that when we're thinking about housing, it needs to be in a very holistic way. and i would advise the board of supervisors

to deeply scrutinize the department of building inspection. as you can see, the community is doing a far better outreach and education than the inspectors itself. so, when you have a chance to scrutinize the dbi, please do that. what i can say is the current process of accessing affordable housing in san francisco is daunting and unfair. barriers exists at various levels. cuts to services like rental relief, subsidies, education or case management can impede individuals ability to maintain stable housing. since there is no senior housing, housing for people with disabilities and or section eight housing never opens. rental assistance specialist subsidy is the only alternative you have right now already. investment in tenants assistance services programs are already low, which actually should be more expanded, especially in this current years. thank you. thank you very much. next speaker, please. marhaban is

miss madeira can. okay as you know. so no one who can speak arabic here. so i'm going to help myself. so i'm here to present the most underserved and unrepresented community which the arabic speaking community. my name is tommy alotaibi. i'm a senior housing case manager with build social housing program and we are one of few organizations that have large language capacity. french spanish, english, tagalog, arabic with more than ten dialects. so so i feel like the most like people who's going to be affected by the. the cat is the arabic speaking community because they don't have like, a lot of, like access to arabic, speaking like a case managers or counselors,

especially for housing. so i think i, i urge, urge you to like, not support this cat. and also because we are serving a lot of like arabic speaking community especially. so much for your comments. next speaker, please. next speaker. good afternoon, supervisors. my name is chris durazzo. i'm a proud worker over at housing rights committee of san francisco. i'm also this is my community right here. so, i just want to say, i remember when each of you ran started running for this office right here, and how you made a promise to see the people that you that are here in this room, that you're there to represent us, that you're able to kind of, lift up our voices that people didn't see. and i want to thank you for doing that today, for holding this hearing, which would normally be the week before your final vote. i want to thank you so much. all of all

all three of you and your whole team, your whole all five of you have the capacity to turn this information into a strategic plan that needs to happen. you were so lucky during covid. i was in oakland. i can tell you right now, san francisco is so blessed compared to the rest of the state. for what you have the networks, the connections, the way that you have a social, net that holds people up and together that's not replicable in like one year. so please continue to thank you. see us. thank you. next speaker please. thank you. supervisors, i'm deepa verma. i know all of you. this is my community too, and i'm proud to have worked alongside these incredibly hard, working incredibly passionate and dedicated folks, some of whom came to this work because of their own life experiences with housing instability themselves, i'm a tenant myself, and i couldn't be here without

the work of folks like them, i've spent 16 years doing direct tenant work in some capacity or another, and i still see people on the street in this city who i represented, who are still here, because i was able to represent them. and i still remember the faces of all those people. i wasn't able to represent, because it was the bad old days, and we didn't have right to counsel. and i still remember some of them being homeless on the street after i was not able to represent them. and we can't go back to those days. we're in a moment where people are in much worse shape in this city. working class people are still recovering, are still struggling to get back on their feet. after all, they're all that lost income, from covid. i'm still getting phone calls from people who remember me from my time at the tenants union and my time at edc, asking for help, and i try to get them help. and i hear from edc, it depends on whether we get funded this year. it's going to be up to you all. time has elapsed. thank you so much. next speaker, please. hi. good afternoon. my name is taylor.

i'm with housing rights committee of san francisco, these budget cuts will have ripple effects that last for many years. lives will be altered. people will be displaced. the budget cuts will only make things more expensive down the line because when we lose preventative services, it has a compounding effect that will be extremely difficult to recover from. the city will save money by keeping people in their homes, keeping the homes habitable, and continuing to provide essential, dignified services to those without homes. the crisis of housing and displacement is bad enough. we cannot afford to go backwards. a city without a working class cannot function. thank you for fighting for us and maintaining our funding. thank you, miss taylor. next speaker, please. hello, my name is jackie. i am with the housing rights committee of san francisco, and i. i am here because we primarily support residents in the fillmore and the bayview neighborhoods, representing d5 and d10 and that's where

predominantly the black, brown immigrant families have been. kinda. they live there, and they've already had to pay enough, to this society, on the backs of, of their communities and their and their, and their on their communities. so we, but i'm not here to talk about that. i'm here to talk about this year budget. and what we're urging you is to not cut the budget, but increase the budget, we deeply believe that housing is not merely an option, but it's a fundamental human right. and unfortunately, the residents we work with, particularly those under hard, building, consistently face deplorable conditions with the state of their homes being their number one complaint. so what we're urging you to do today is to consider the sro and the sea of counselors that actually work with these housing, these housing communities, so that to make sure that they get housed and they stay housed. thank you. thank you, miss jackie. next speaker, please. hi. good

afternoon. my name is maria, and i live in the mission district. and i also represent jobs for justice san francisco, i just wanted to, you know, support all the organizations today and all the people today are and say that our most vulnerable communities and our teachers, health care workers, home care workers, childcare providers, and so many other people that our city wouldn't run without, they serve having access to essential housing services to not only protect their housing, but the conditions that they live in. i urge the budget committee to stop the proposed budget and ensure that our sf budget aligns with the city's values of equity, compassion and social justice for all of us, especially our most essential and vulnerable. we need a budget that works for all of us. we need our people, house and resource. thank you. thank you maria. next speaker, please. hello, members of the committee, i'm selena, i'm with the coalition on homelessness. i stand here today in support of unhoused families and youth. we must not cut homeless supportive programs. if you truly want to solve homelessness, you must oppose all of the cuts. families and youth rely on these

supportive services. and if we don't continue to fund these programs that are working, then we are turning a blind eye to the problem. please, please oppose all cuts. thank you. thank you, miss selena. next speaker. hello, everyone. my name is andrea moreno. i'm a community organizer with. but i am also a poet, so i will be sharing a poem with you, hopefully this effects won't sway you. maybe strong words will. i have memorized where the wrinkles on my tenants face lay. how they explain away the hellish squalor. and march with the hunch of oppression. with paper cuts from opening eviction letters and permanent creased rage folded as neat envelope trauma. if facts will not sway a privileged collective, then death to hundreds might. thank you. thank you much for addressing this committee. if we

have any other members of the public who wish to address this committee regarding this hearing, now's your opportunity, madam chair. that completes our queue. thank you. seeing no more public comments. public comment is now closed, colleagues, i appreciate you, going through this hearing today, typically we would have always have this taking place in june with the public comment, but given the fact that the mayor has, made a mid-year budget cut since our last budget process, that it is only right that we actually continue this process, about both public comments, but about the services that are facing cuts and reduction. and so today, i think that with some of these public comments before us, and i really appreciate the city departments that stay, to answer some of these questions. i just really want to make sure that we understand, these conversations and matching to the dollars, that currently exist, but also potentially facing cuts. i want

to bring up, if the department of building inspection is here, i just wanted to understand that specific there's a mention about from our community coalition presentation mentioning the emergency rental assistance that was actually cut by 450. is that is that accurate? the emergency rental? no, that's actually the mayor's office. that's not so for sorry. so for the department of building inspection, the sro collaborative. so right now you have a fee studies that you indicated in your presentation that you're going to increase your fees by 40. of course, you're going to do it incrementally. and you're facing in that increase in the next three fiscal years. i think that's what you said. so with that increase of fee, are you cutting anything within your, within dbi? and with that, sro collaborative will be on the chopping block, because it was last year, it was 5 million. and i think that based on the,

community coalition now, it's saying that. so from 5 million last year, we cut it to 4.8. and it sounds like there's a further reduction proposed this year, thanks for the question, chair chan, so i think the first question was about the fee study and the fee increases. so i said it was an average of 40, but some fees are going up by more, some by less, it's, not just across the board going up by 40. it's that's just an average of the increases, that's the first question for the second question about the cap programs and the sro collaboratives, the cut is the 10% mandatory cut because it's general fund supported, that's roughly $500,000, which, as i said in my presentation for the past two years, that those grants have been underspent by between 5 and $600,000. so you know, that amount of money has been left on the table, but for

both of the past two years. yeah. and then so that's why i think you cut from 5 million to 4.8. so you're going to do a further reduction this year as well. i believe that was the budget instructions. it wasn't you know, dbi saying we're going to cut this budget. it was based on the budget instructions and understood. so it will be reduced in this upcoming proposed budget, correct? yeah thank you, and i think that, the next question is for mlcd. we appreciate it. thank you. and i think that the question is the emergency rental assistance, that was we were told that it's going to be reduced by 50% from $46.5 million. sure i'm brian chu, director of community development for mayor's office of housing and community development. so, we have three sources for our current erap program, one source was a one time, $10.5 million from what we call prop i. another source was a $32 million, one time mayoral

enhancement, and then the third source is an ongoing work order from, h'sh, which is about a little over $12 million, so we are coming to the final spend down of the 32 million and the 10.5 million, we probably won't be spending all of that out at the end of this year. so we plan to roll that over into next year, and we also will have some unspent money from this year's work order because we're spending out the general fund first, so last year we probably spent about, let's say like 22, 23 million. this year we're probably on that same track. so for 24, 25, really what we have budgeted is really just, let's say a 12.5 million from oco, which is far below, let's say, the 20 million or so that we've been actually spending, and then we will have some leftover funds

, but those leftover funds will most not will most likely not equal the actual amount that we've been able to give out each year. so it's not a budgeting cut, but it's really it's an expiration of those one year of those one time, enhancements. and that's what we're looking for. that's what we're looking at for next year. and that's roughly how much. well, we don't really know how much is going to be unspent at the end of this year. so i think the agencies are trying to spend out as much, but let's say we had let's say like 4 million rolled over. so with that 12 million, so that's 16 million for next year. but we've been spending far above 20 million, and the capacity is probably more like 25 or 26 million. so it just means that the actual amount of dollars that we'll have on hand will be less than what the providers are able to put out in any one given

year. yeah. so it's like roughly , say $10 million short by the year of fiscal year. 2425. yeah, arguably, yes. i mean, we will have, you know, we'll probably be returning this year, probably about $8 million in terms of the oco funds, because we're spending out the other funds first, so that money may come back to us this, next year. but as you know, the budget is also hard pressed. right? and they're remaining on their own fund balance. so we're not sure whether we can count on those dollars because oco itself is having some funding challenges in the eviction prevention, pot. and why would you identify prop i as a one time fund, my understanding is that, when the proposition was passed, it allocated the total amount allocated towards this kind of, eviction defense was a maximum of 10.5. and i think that's all that's been available. that's what i was informed by our fiscal team. 10.5 million. yes.

that's correct. of the total of the entire pot. yes, yes. thank you, and i think that i my last question is probably and i, i see that supervisor walton has questions. thank you. chair chan, just a quick question. i believe it's slide nine where it says you provided the mayor's budget office with a variety of options and scenarios with the goal of eliminating or minimizing impacts on all cbo grants for 24, 25. can you get more specific what were those options and scenarios that were provided to the mayor's office, i don't know if i can get more specific rather than other than saying that we, attempted to sort of minimize the impact on all of our existing service providers and some of them i think what i can say is that some of the options, involved, for example, proposing that if we had a one time unexpended

general fund dollars that could be rolled over into subsequent years, that instead we propose returning that to the general fund, which would then eliminate the need to decrease existing grant awards, in effect, what that does is defer for the impact of these cuts into a subsequent year. right? so if we have funding available this year that could cover next year's. so let's say we have a delay in funding. i encumber funds at the end of this year. that would hold over into next year. and then, you know, the impact would most truly be felt in the next request for proposals, because at that time, then we're going to be having to reallocate all of our dollars, and that's the time when we would probably be feeling more of those cuts. that's fy 26, not fy 25, so

that's what we were proposing to do. but, you know, i, i don't think i can be more specific on that because i don't know what the mayor's office is looking at , but that was our well, it looks like you submitted the these these options. pardon me. it looks like your office submitted these options to the mayor's budget office. yes yes. so you know what those options were, but i don't know which what they're looking at. so i don't know. i was just trying to get an example of what you submitted to the mayor's budget office. yeah. so as i said, we proposed options that identified some one time savings to see if that would suffice, as opposed to, proposing cuts to specific organizations such as the ones that we're talking about today, and, i checked with the budget office to see what they were looking at, or they're looking at those options, they're looking at different options. and they told me that they were

still reviewing those and said that that's all they could tell me at this time. thank you. yeah. thank you. i mean, if i may, though, i want to add to it. so what it means, though, you were saying, is that the strategy is basically to defer the spending and then and so you can stretch it out to the next fiscal year because you know, that it will likely be a significant reduction. and then we can go out for rfp at a rate that, you know, is the money that actually is available. and that's the essentially instead of reducing right now and fund it fully, you're deferring to fund fully, but spread it out so that when you go out back on rfp again, it will be at a reduction amount, a reduced amount. yes. altogether. that's true. and i can say, for example, for next year, we were able to access,

like a one time grant from hud for some home dollars that can be allocated to things like eviction defense. that would be a one time, $700,000 patch for this, and i can also say that, as we did last year, we proposed, potentially eliminating, the, the capital program for rehab, which traditionally has been funded at $1 million. but because it's not direct services, that's just a trade off that we had to make. thank you, i think i'm going to bring up h'sh and just help us understand your overall strategies, to i think you have advocates here that have your back, and they really want you to continue the programing that and services that you have, because this is the group of people really believe the work that you do as a both department, but also in partnership, i think the

question is with, with, budget deficit, what has been submitted to the mayor and what has the conversation been like? what are your anticipated cuts or reductions that could look like for, for those who spoke today in public comments about how much they value the work that you do. thank you. gigi whitley h'sh, as i presented in our initial comments that, we attempted to preserve current services and there even in some targeted areas, expansion in our budget, we made, we fulfilled the mayor's budget instructions in two ways by capturing some underspending that would not impact programs, as well as leveraging a large portion of state funds. so our two year proposed budget is, balanced. it does not include any of the cuts

. i think that was perhaps preemptive, but it does not include programmatic cuts, i will say for this committee to chew on that, you know, our proposal does really maximize and try to leverage one time state money, but there is a fiscal cliff coming and there will be harder choices to come in the future. so, i want to make sure that's part of the budget conversation with this committee, as you're looking to do beyond what we've proposed. yeah. i mean, i'm trying to understand that here. you says about $13.5 million reduction to the grant grants programing, and i know that you're saying that to be determined. can you give us some ideas that like what you're looking at when it comes to the grant programing that you're looking to reduce? so the way the mayor's budget instruction does work is that is considered a contingency

proposal. so what that means is if the mayor's budget office needs to come back for additional cuts, we've identified where we would start and we would start with our largest budget item, which is our our grants budget. we're mostly a funder of grants, so we have not taken that additional step to identify individual programs or contracts. what we've articulated is that anything beyond what we've proposed and, unless we can find additional savings in our budget, would begin to impact programs. and we've done that in close collaboration with the mayor's budget office and conversation about retaining, new programs, continuing to expand towards our strategic goals as well as, continuing to fund programs that would otherwise be cut. so at this stage for h'sh, it's a delicately balanced proposal. and we have not yet identified

further programmatic cuts. if the mayor were to ask, we would have to go through that process. and then, so with that, i totally understand. you know, it's difficult to say, this is what this is what it is, but what would be your guiding principles, so to speak, when you start to identify like what would be sort of the criteria you say we're going to start looking at these types of program to, to for reduction. sure. so we talked about this a little when we were in front of our commission in february, talking about what our, our, our guidance and, you know, criteria is and our first criteria is to, to, look within our budget for any efficiencies. so can we do the same thing that we're doing more efficiently by renegotiating, you know, contracts by capturing underspending. so that has really been our approach to date. and what we've said is to go beyond that, to make, you

know, ongoing cuts on the magnitude of 27 million in general fund, plus, balancing this revenue would require some really, difficult decisions for, you know, the mayor and, and the board to make in terms of policy priorities. so right now we haven't gone beyond that. stated criteria is what we can what can we do? what can we better leverage with the funds we have, and how more aggressive can we be in seeking state funds in this department has been extremely aggressive in going after millions and millions of dollars in competitive grants at the state level for a variety of services, including, shelter, encampment response and affordable and permanent housing . here you already propose a general fund budget, savings from 4 million to 6 million. can you tell me what they are specifically? sure. like. like i said, we've identified, efficiencies and contracts and

elsewhere in our budget. so two quick examples, we have a security contract to provide security at h'sh facilities. and in, in addition to some other facilities, we fund. over the years, we've been working with the providers on different strategies and putting the money in their budget in case they want to fund private security, but perhaps they also want to find, de-escalation services. so that's elicited some contract savings in that shelter, excuse me, in that security contract. that's one of the items. another item is that we, we have stopped funding stabilization rooms, we sort of moved away from funding stabilization rooms during covid as we've been opening up additional shelter beds for that response. these were beds where sf hot case management could place people in and do case

management services. we've sort of transitioned that work over to some of our shelters, and so we're able to recapture that savings. those are two quick top of mind examples. but you know, many examples like that got us to the general fund reductions. thank you, i don't have any more questions for today. i think, colleagues, i hope that today this hearings, to also not just for us but really provide everybody in a context and sort of just the thinking that we oftentimes that we kind of wait till until june to discuss what is being reduced and what it's being cut, and i think we're, we're, we're trying to continue what it's been going on as a conversation since, i would say, last summer and then continuing to december. we understand that we're facing a difficult budget, conversation. we're facing it. and it's a lot of deficits. i think it's rather to just have the upfront to understand the thinking from the city

departments. but meanwhile, to really allow the opportunity for the community to express their needs and their concerns and also what they understand as to be what is on the chopping block so that we can be transparent about the budget choices that we must make. i would say in about a month or so, you know, and it's just oftentimes i find that by the time we come to june and start making those decisions, it seems like we could be emotional about it. and instead of being able to be data driven and, and now we have we're able to be transparent and start having a conversation that sort of allowing our community partners to come to you, city departments, to be able to say, here's our thinking. and hopefully in both the partner, being partners in cost savings, if any, and also help you understand and help all of us understand the importance of investing in certain aspects of the programing and what is really essential and critical, i think this is a moment that i

have to be honest, that for both city departments and our community partners and ourselves, that it's a moment to really say what is the most critical and what is the most essential and we need to start from there. and as a core, value that we're going to you know, as a, as a core value for the for the rest of the budget conversation, that i agree that it's going to be very difficult, in the coming months. so thank you. and i don't see any name on the roster here, and we already close the public comment, colleagues, thank you again for your patience on this. i would like to, make the motion to file this hearing, and with that, a roll call, please. second. oh, yes. second by supervisor walton. and, roll call, please. and on that motion by chair chan, seconded by member walton, that this hearing be heard and filed, vice chair mandelman mandelman i member melgar. member. melgar. absent member. walton a walton i member.

peskin, member. peskin. absent chair. chan i chan i we have three eyes with members melgar and peskin. absent the motion passes. and, mr. clerk, do we have any other items before us today, madam chair, that concludes our business. thank you. colleagues the meeting is adjourned

>> good morning everyone. welcome. i'm katie lamont and with me isroxany huey and together we are leading tndc as interim co ceo. so pleased to have you with us this beautiful day to celebrate the reopening of ambassador and ritz hotel. exactly! this day has been a long time coming, and it is so wonderful to share with all you who help make it happen. as many know, tndc experienced a tragic loss with the sudden passing of our ceo. it is meaningful our first ribbon cutting without him is on the pavilion of this historic building.

the bricks of the ambassador have witnessed pain, suffering and loss and they have also seen care, compassion, restoration and joy. we hold an amazing tenant talent show every summer where you all are standing and it is one of my favorite things about tndc. to preserve the life of the ambassador and ritz as supportive and mindful homes where people live and develop community with their neighbors and with the people that work here, this is part of mor ilo vision endureing vision providing stable homes for all members of our community. i like to read a few words spoken by morilo about the ambassador and follow with a moment of silence in his remembrance. he said, the ambassador holds a rich and cherished history in the heart of san francisco. during the 1980 and 90 served

as a sanctuary for newerous aids patients extending compassion and support to those without means to care for themselves or connect with support networks. we take great pride in continuing endureing legacy by preserving as affordable housing for our commune ity. let's take a moment. [moment of silence] thank you. it is now my pleasure to get this ribbon cutting started by inviting district 5 supervisor dean preston to say a few words. [applause] >> thank you katie and roxanne and thank you all for being here

and i want to first just start by acknowledging what a difficult time this is for the tndc team with the passing of morilo and thank you all for pushing forward and honoring his legacy of which this reopening of the ambassador and the ritz is a part. i also want to say, i am really thrilled that katie and roxanne are at the helm, two incredible leaders and we are looking forward to continuing to partner with them and tndc. this is very exciting. to be here at this opening, i have the honor and privilege of representing the tenderloin in city hall. i wish i could take credit for all this, but there was this thing called redistricting in 2022, so the plans here were actually underway

before i was even representing the district, so i feel i'm cheating coming in at the ribbon cutting and celebrating work that definitely pre-dated me here in the district, but i got my start as a housing lawyer in the tenderloin. have been in and out of pretty much every sro and as someone who represented tenants in sro's, mostly in the privately owned ones when they were not up to code and tenants needed repairs, i can tell you the huge difference between some of the poorly maintained dilapidated old sro's here in the tenderloin and buildings like this, that actually get the care, the renovation and the supportive services to make these units real homes, safe, decent habitable and supportive homes in the tenderloin.

our sro's here in the tenderloin are a huge part of why this community in the tenderloin continues to be a place and one of the few places in san francisco where low income people can afford to live, and it is really exciting to see this kind of attention and love and funding poured into making sure these homes will remain low income housing for years to come thanks to the hard work of tndc with support from the city and i want to thank and acknowledge dan adams and mayor office of housing who are here and also other partners, including u.s. a bank and others who you will hear from, but looking behind me at the ambassador, i think one thing i'm struck by is i have never seen this kind of rehab. the combination of old and new here, i think it is fantastic.

and looking at the exposed brick and the historic building maintained in this way, but updated so that folks who need affordable housing have top notch affordable housing in our district. we are proud to be a part that and looking forward to supporting not just the reopening here at the ambarder and the ritz but expanding even in touch budget times to make sure we support the renovation and expansion of our sro housing stock here in the tenderloin so thank you for being here today. thank you again katie and roxanne and i don't know if i'm turning the mic back to you or whether turning it over to our next speaker. am i turning it over to the next speaker. alright. i'm pleased to welcome lisa gutierrez from u.s. bank. thank you so much. please give her a warm welcome. [applause]

>> thank you. i want to start by sending deepest condolences to tndc on the loss of your fearless leader morilo but can't think a better way to celebrate his honor with affordable housing with the beautiful day and beautiful grand open. i'm lisa gutierrez with u.s. bank and thrilled to be part of today's event for the ambassador hotel project we provided nearly $70 million in construction lending and nearly $67 million in tax credit equity. at a time when other financial partners hesitateed to move forward with the investment due to the complexities, u.s. bank leaned in and that seems to be part of our natural course and i'm proud of our team. some who could not be here today, so not nearly going to take all the credit it took to close this transaction. it was a real labor of love between the tndc, mayor office of housing and u.s.

bank. we specialines complex development like this other 30 years. understanding the relocation plan of the vulnerable resident population to align with many public funding sources and rental subsidies all while managing the building rehab needs of this beautiful historic building. tndc and impact finance worked together nearly providing $120 million in finance and $67 million in equity and regionally in san francisco metropolitan area impact finance provided $1.36 billion in construction lending and $1.40 billion in equity. since 2005, the u.s. bank foundation donated approximately $265 thousand to tndc. in fact, we look forward to support the 43 anniversary this may and we

hope we see all you there. we believe everyone deserves a place to call home and in collaboration with many of you, we are truly making a difference in this community and across the state. our efforts care and creativity going forward will be critical as we continue to make affordable housing in our communities a prioorty. congratulations to all involved in bringing this transformational development and get the well deserved refresh for the residents who call the ambassador hotel home. thank you so much. [applause] >> good morning everyone. thank you for coming out today

to celebrate the regrant opening of the historic ambassador and ritz hotel. project manager with housing development team. i had the privilege to work on both projects during my tenure at tndc working on these complicated hybrid and scattered site projects really helped me understand and appreciate the hard work that goes into providing affordable housing. i still remember the first time i attended a walk at the ritz. mind you, i never worked in construction before. the team handed me a roll of blue tape and said put a piece of tape where you see imperfections. i was so excited because i might not know construction very well, but very good spotting mistakes. in that moment, i knew being a project manager was for me. there were many people i want to give thanks to. the design team, the partners architects, construction

managers, joe blanco and chris rivera, historic architect, tndc property management and countless consultants on the project. it took so many smart creative people to bring these rehabs to fruition. i like to thank the construction team who from day one were ready to help problem solve the uniquely difficult financing and construction issues at these buildings. fantastic partners on a extremely difficult rehab. and now that i have been at tndc a few years i recognize how special it was to have a all woman project management and construction team on the ritz. thanks to their hard work, the ritz hotel has expanded community room, totally rehab common spaces and new windows. the team on the ambassador was especially patient with us as

we work through so many potential ways to seismically strengthen the building. i like to thank jonathan, scott and the team for the incredible team work. you have a creative solution for every construction challenge we had. the enormous structure is part of the seismic upgrade work and don't know how they fit all the steel in the building. finally, i like to thank chris comings, emily and alberta for housing development for leadership on the project and for being amazing mentors. thank you spending hours to explain the intricacy of the financing structure of the ambassadors and the ritz to me and others. i can tell you that there is nothing more fulfilling having tenant move back in and seeing how much they appreciate the new spaces. and that's it. next we have kevin, tndc overdose prevention outreach coordinator. thank you.

[applause] >> thank you hang. good morning everyone. my name is kevin lu, a member of community organizing team as our overdose prevention outreach coordinator. you may wonder what that means. a important aspect of my work is meeting with residents in the sro's to inform on the challenges associated with preventing overdose in san francisco as well as facilitate discussion around folks experiences and their overall sort of understanding of drug overdoses and what that looks like as far as solutions that they can come up with to this problem. that includes meeting with residents in this very building and we also outreach to folks in the surrounding community as well as the residents in the buildings. we partnered with department of public health to kick-start a project to install boxes that hold narcan on each floor of our three sro

buildings including here at the ambassador hotel. with the help of the residents i meet with, i hope to collect survey and interview responses to understand how to better support and resource residents to reverse and prevent overdoses. what inspires me to do this work is sth legacy of hank wilson who operating the ambassador as de facto hospice at the height of the aids epidemic. the sick were welcomed here. extraordinary care givers doctors nurses family members and volunteers and these providers learned the culture of the folks that stayed here and spoke to them as partners in care. full of compassion. the hotel was about caregivers finding way to reduce suffering and health risk

due to drug use and hiv. community base harm reduction was the cornerstone. the efforts helped establish vaeft for residents and move the city of san francisco to establish needle exchange programs. as the overdose prevention coordinator, building community is key if we solve the substance use challenges in the tenderloin and owe a lot to healthcare and public heth cares in the city. tndc is committed to bolstering the efforts. building community we can empower and educate folks to cocreate solutions that are grounded in the lived experiences and collective wisdom. i truly believe that when we amplify community voices, we can build the long-term systems we need to support those and address addiction in the city, so thank you very much and next up we have bob ostertech.

[applause] >> thank you. i'm going to talk a little bit about the history here. i made a documentary movie about the early years of the ambassador in the 1970's and hank wilson, the force of nature behind it all. the story actually begins before aids in 1970's when san francisco was just becoming the gay mecca and dozens of people were arriving at the grayhound station every day. many of them very young, teenagers, gay boys, transjnder people arriving by the dozens every day with no money and no where to go. a former kindergarten teacher named hank wilson decided he would make a place for them to go and answered a

classified ad in the newspaper that says the ambassador was looking for a manager. he became the manager at that point. the building did not look like this when hank took it over most of the rooms didn't have doors, everything was completely trashed. hank furnished the building with donated furniture he found here and there and created a space very very different then what we have now. there were no banks supporting the ambassador at this time. in fact, there were no non profits supporting the ambassador at this time. this was all done out of pocket and trying to make it work. check day was quite the thing at the ambassador. hank would go to the bank empty the bank account and cash into his

socks and then walk back to the ambassador and cash everyone's checks. somehow made the thing work financially without any support from anyone. it was very important to hank that he didn't-he wasn't constrained by any organization, because he wanted to make things work. he wanted-if something didn't work, he wanted to try a new thing and new thing and didn't want to ask for permission from anybody, and that's how he made it work and then aids arrived and the early days of aids are hard to explain to people who didn't live through it. there was a level of stigmatization that is hard to imagine, but all the other hotels in the tenderloin would not allow a person known to

have hiv to enter the hotel, and so hank opened the doors and this became an unfunded, seat of the pants, diy hospice for indugent people dying of aids. many hundreds of people died of aids in this building. one day five people in one day died in this building. they had memorials for them in the lobby. this was the time when it was difficult to even get a ambulance to come to the hotel. just making it work, hank was basically inventing harm reduction before we even had the term, harm reduction.

he did it all out of the seat of his pants. he lived in a one room roach infested apartment. he didn't own a bed. he was very curious person, hank wilson. slept on the floor, lived on nothing and for 20 years he did this. so, i'm very glad to be able to share that story. it is story that san francisco can be proud of. very unique story that i think shows the heart of this city. if there was anybody i have ever known who did not want to be recognized for anything it was hank wilson.

very very big guy with a very very small ego. the running joke about my movie is he wouldn't have wanted the movie to be made about him. i walked in the lub lobby and shaw a beautiful mural painted by this wonderful artists and i think maybe hank would have been okay with people coming into the hotel and seeing his smiling face welcoming them into the hotel. thank you. [applause] >> i'm now pleased to introduce our mayor, london breed. [applause] >> first of all, let's give brandon another round of applause! [applause] many have tried and have failed

to do whitney houston justice and he definitely is one who has succeeded. it is so great to be here with each and every one of you and i just want to start by expressing my condolences to the tndc staff, morilo was such an amazing person and full of life and excitement for housing justice and i know it's a big loss to the tndc community and we appreciate the fact that so many of you are still rolling up your sleeves and continuing the important work that he cared so deeply about. today is a perfect example that. both the ambassador and the ritz, not the ritz carlton, i know somebody probably used that joke. the fact is, we have a important responsibility here in san francisco to not just build new housing and be as aggressive as we can to remove

the barriers on new housing construction, but we also have a responsibility for preservation, because we want to insure that no matter what happens, whether there is a earthquake or anything else, we are able to protect our existing housing stock, and by making the kinds of investments we are making today that provided an opportunity to do significant rehabilitation on over 200 units, which includes as you know, the ambassador as well as the ritz, as a way to protect and support our most vulnerable residents, those with challenging disabilities and making units accessible. it was so critical that we did this work for preservation purposes, so we are grateful to be here to celebrate the milestone as a huge improvement not just for what we did and what we made happen, but for the lives of

the people that this will impact. the people who will live here and will be able to enjoy this beautiful courtyard and enjoy their units and the people that they live with. it is truly wonderful to be here. it is such an incredible blessing that these individuals will have a chance at a new start at life, but also for those who were moved temporarily and moved back, a new beginning with a new place with new opportunity and hope for a better day. so, ypt to thank you for the work they do for affordable housing for so many in our various communities. many people want us to do the job of helping people transition into housing and permanently supportive housing, but organizations like tndc do the work and in fact, since 2018 when i

first became mayor, we increased our permanent supportive housing stock where we provided additional support for those who need additional help, we increased that by over 50 percent and that takes partners, that takes resources, that takes investment and that takes the opportunity for us to work and support the incredible things we know we need to do to get the job done, so it is really great to be here to celebrate such a milestone, so thank you all so much for your work, your advocacy, and making it possible for people to have a safe affordable place to call home. thank you. [applause] >> do a quick photo op and then a closing.

>> thank you mayor. appreciate your comments today. this past sunday was international transgender day of visibility, which is a good reason to remind us that where we stand right now is only steps away from the riot at compton's cafeteria, which was a turning point for lgbtq plus activism. this building and this district have always been welcoming for the most marginalized people of the city and tndc is a part that.

as a transwoman, i'm proud to be here now with katie and all the other tndc staff that are with us today who have the great responsibility to take care of this building and to take care of the residents of the ambassador hotel. i like to thank today's guest speakers, the residents of the ambassador hotel and all community leaders who made this day possible and celebrated with us. i invite you to make the way to the pavilion. in the pavilion you will see a mini-art gallery features images of residents of the ambassador hotel provide pd by documentary photography darcie padilla who spent time in this building between 1992 and 1996. finally, if you wish to take a tour of one of the units, go talk to

one of our staff at the tndc table and they can help you with that. thank you again for your support of tndc.