Bit more space. And the stairs, you can see here were just at an awkward position, and we configured that to i felt a better condition. And the other comment was it greatly improves an existing conditions. These decks are very unsightly, very bulky, and very large. And the way they were structurally built, they were starting to show some major structural issues, particularly with dry rot. So if a condition is we require the decks to be set back 3 feet, there is no project at that point . Im saying we would have a 5 foot deck. You would still do the project and the reconstruction of the stairs. Thats a question for my client to answer, but i i believe we would accept we would accept that, yeah. Okay. Thank you. Are we still on the historic part . Its a joint hearing, so yeah. Yeah. I mean, im looking at this, and, you know, my understanding would be that the if the existing condition had its required fire wall, it would be in the exact same position, and the new one would actually be smaller. But of course when the deck was built, no one required a fire wall at the property line. If they had to pull it in 3 feet, it would cut through theres a sliding window its an awkward plan. Theres an existing window, but theyre putting a slider in there. Its not a sliding door, so theyre replacing it. They were existing. Theyre two sliding doors theres a door on both levels. Okay. Its there its not a window. Okay. Thank you. Do i have a motion . Yeah. I i would move to approve as designed. Approve with conditions. Second, please. And second. Thank you. Clerk thank you, commissioners. On that motion, then, to approve this matter with conditions [roll call] clerk so moved, commissioners. That motion passes unanimously, 60. Assistant zoning administrator, what say you . Take the matter under advisement based upon the Additional Information provided by the project sponsor to render a decision at a later date. Thank you. Thank you. I think thats a wrap for the year. Great. Were adjourned. [gavel] selfplanning works to preserve and enhance the city what kind hispanic the environment in a variety of ways overhead plans to fwied other departments to open space and land use an urban design and a variety of other matters related to the physical urban Environment Planning projects include implementing code change or designing plaza or parks projects can be broad as proipd on overhead neighborhood planning effort typically include public involvement depending on the subject a new lot or effect or be active in the final process lots of people are troubled by theyre moving loss of theyre of what we preserve to be theyre moving mid block or rear yard open space. One way to be involved attend a meeting to go it gives us and the neighbors to learn and participate dribble in future improvements meetings often take the form of open houses or focus groups or other stinks that allows you or your neighbors to provide feedback and ask questions the best way to insure youll be alerted the Community Meetings sign up for the notification on the website by signing up using youll receive the notifications of existing request the specific neighborhood or project type if youre language is a disability accomodation please call us 72 hours before the event over the events staff will receive the input and publish the results on the website the notifications bans feedback from the public for example, the feedback you provide may change how a street corridors looks at or the web policy the get started in planning for our neighborhood or learner more mr. The upcoming visit the plans and programs package of our we are talking about with our feedback and participation that is important to us not everyone takes this so be proud of taking ann we have private and Public Gardens throughout the garden tour. All of the gardens are volunteers. The only requirement is youre willing to show your garden for a day. So we have gardens that vary from all stages of development and all gardens, family gardens, private gardens, some of them as small as postage stamps and others pretty expansive. Its a variety all of the world is represented in our gardens here in the portola. I have been coming to the portola garden tour for the past seven or eight years ever since i learned about it because it is the most important event of the neighborhood, and the reason it is so important is because it links this neighborhood back to its history. In the early 1800s the portola was farmland. The regions flowers were grown in this neighborhood. If you wanted flowers anywhere future bay area, you would come to this area to get them. In the past decade, the area has tried to reclaim its roots as the garden district. One of the ways it has done that is through the portola garden tour, where neighbors open their gardens open their gardens to people of San Francisco so they can share that history. When i started meeting with the neighbors and seeing their gardens, i came up with this idea that it would be a great idea to fundraise. We started doing this as a fundraiser. Since we established it, we awarded 23 scholarships and six work projects for the students. The Scholarship Programs that we have developed in association with the portola is just a winwinwin situation all around. The Scholarship Program is important because it helps people to be able to tin in their situation and afford to take classes. I was not sure how i would stay in San Francisco. It is so expensive here. I prayed so i would receive enough so i could stay in San Francisco and finish my school, which is fantastic, because i dont know where else i would have gone to finish. The scholarships make the difference between students being able to stay here in the city and take classes and having to go somewhere else. [ ] [ ] you come into someones home and its theyre private and personal space. Its all about them and really their garden and in the city and urban environment, the garden is the extension of their indoor environment, their Outdoor Living room. Why are you here at this garden core . Its amazing and i volunteer here every year. This is fantastic. Its a beautiful day. You walk around and look at gardens. You meet people that love gardens. Its fantastic. The portola garden tour is the last saturday in september every year. Mark your calendars every year. I am moving up the next speaker. He has two minutes. He will give us a word of gratitude. Please welcome David Elliott lewis. [applause] how are you all doing . I just want to share a few thoughts about gratitude. It is the season of gratitude. I hope when i talk about what i am grateful for you will be able to relate to it. First i am grateful for life itself, being able to wake up healthy in a home. I am especially grateful for it. Community housing for giving me a home. I give back by being a board member. I am grateful for the organizations i volunteer with and i found recovery with by helping the organizations central city collaborative who helps people who live in hotels like many of the members like me are formerly homeless. We found homes through giving back to the community. I am great for full for the tender line peoples congress. This wouldnt happen without the tenderloin congress. We are volunteers who come together to Work Together in the neighborhood to produce events for the neighborhood, to produce the plan called the peoples plan vision 2020 that matt haney has been working with us on. I am grateful for it. I am really grateful for mayor london breed and what she has done for our city and helping with Mental Health programs, Mental Health, San Francisco, working with matt haney and Hillary Ronen and 11 out of 11 supervisors passing it. Thank you for coming together. This is my final bit of gratitude. I am so grateful for senator scott weiner who has helped find funding for the organization i work with called Mental Health association of San Francisco. We run the warm line. We were in danger of closing it down and now we can serve the entire state taking people with Mental Health challenges providing text and telephone support for anyone who needs it in the state of california around the clock to talk about any issue they want. If scott didnt help us find finding this wouldnt have happened. Thank you, senator weiner, i am so grateful. With that i will turn the microphone back over to curtis. Thank you, david. I am grateful for you, david. We kept her waiting long enough, right . I am excited she is here. I am going to do a little intro. Mayor breed is a San Francisco native. She was raised right in the western addition. She went to galileo high school. She earned a masters degree at the university of San Francisco. She is a daughter of the city. Prior to historicallylection, which was the moment in 2018 she served on the board of supervisors peboard ofsuperviso. She is committed to creating a more equitable and just San Francisco. As i understand you came from opening up the new Navigation Center on the embarcadero. Thank you. We are congratulations and thank you for doing that. We are so thrilled chirrenned for the Second Annual returned for the second celebration. Give a huge tenderloin welcome to mayor london breed. Mayor breed i am excited to be in the tenderloin. We know that a lot of challenges, not only chest in the tl but all o San Francisco. As someone who grew up here, i was raised by my grandmother in public housing, and i understand what challenge feels like. I live. It 20 years of my life. Nothing is more important to me than making sure the city does a better job of investing in more shelter beds, investing in more housing so people have a safe affordable place to call home. Lets be clear. Yesterday i made it clear to department heads, when it comes to the upcoming budget. If it is not about cleanliness of streets, not about housing, not about shelters, then it will not be priority. Let mere supervisor know the same thing. At the end of the day i want to be clear about where i stand as a daughter of this city, as someone who has seen so many people that i grew up with get booted out of the city because we did not build enough housing fast enough. We got work to do, folks, and i am grateful and honored to be your mayor and celebrate the holidays right here in the th ie tenderloin. When i see the women behind me today, i see my grandmother. When i see so many folks that still live here that grew up in the western edition and live in the tenderloin, i see my community and i understand the importance of the work that we do. We also need to take the time to pause and to celebrate and to feel happiness and joy and this Amazing Community by doing this two years in a row, lighting this beautiful tree, is demonstrating they are not going to let anybody stop their joy. I am happy to be here with senator scott weiner, captain fabbry, Phil Ginsburg to support this community at boeddeker park that is open and available for kids to play and enjoy. I am excited to be your mayor at this time. I know we have work to do. I know together we are going to change the future of this city, and i am committed to doing just that. Thank you all so much. [applause] one more time for our mayor. Come on. We are glad to have you here. She will be here for the count down. Next i would like to introduce another face, senator wiener represents San Francisco in our california state senate. Elected in 2016, he chairs the Senate Housing committee. The california legislative lgbtq caucus which is awesome and amazing. Before that he was on the board of supervisors right here in San Francisco. I found out that you also practiced law for 15 years which i didnt know about. It is interesting you were a deputy City Attorney in San Francisco. He has lived in the Castro District of San Francisco for a long time. In fact, i used to see him riding around the city on muni when he wasnt in sacramento representing us as he is now all of the time. I also know that is why transportation, housing anvil ad civil rights are the focus of his work. Please make our senator feel welcome here. Happy holidays. I am grateful for a few things. I am very, very grateful for the tenderloin community. There are people who dont spend a lot of time in this community that have stereotypes about it. I have spent a lot of time here and i go through this neighborhood a lot. This is a neighborhood full of the most warm and kind and welcoming people. I want to thank you for welcoming me into this Amazing Community. I am grateful for boeddeker park. I remember when we opened this park five years ago, what it was like before and what it is now. This is an amazing resource for the community. I am so grateful for being in the city that prioritizes parks and prioritizes public space for our community. That is what a Healthy Community is about. Finally, i am so deeply grateful for the honor of representing San Francisco in the california state senate. We are working so hard to bring San Francisco values to the state level and nationally. Our values of embracing diversity and immigrants neighbors, values of lifting everyone up and not leaving people behind. We are working hard to expand access to Mental Health service, to legalize Safe Injection Sites in San Francisco, we are working to make it easier to build Navigation Centers and Supportive Housing and to reform our broken criminal justice system. We are doing all of these things because we get it right in San Francisco. We need to make sure our progressive values prevail nationally. We have a lot of work to do next year. Happy holidays everyone, and have a great evening. [applause] thank you, senator. Next we were expecting supervisor matt haney. I know you all love him, but he is still doing his work. He is at work. The board of supervisors is still in session. They are doing their job. He is out there doing what we are paying him to do. I have a very special guest that is going to speak on his behalf. I want to make tons of noise and welcome matt haneys mother. [applause] well, first of all, i want to say how happy i am to be here in matts home. As his mother he lives a couple blocks from here. I got to know many of you over the past year or so, and you lift him up every day. I feel just very blessed and very grateful for this community, for the Community Groups who fight so hard, for the things that i know matt and all of you care deeply about. No matter where matt is and i know he cant stand right here right now, his heart is with you. He would tell me to wish you happy holidays of every kind. I hope we can see the tree soon. Thank you. This big button says matts mom. They just call her matts mom. If we can get senator weiner and mayor breed we will do a count down and light the tree. Are you ready to see the tree . Yes. We are ready to see the tree. Everybody help me. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. [applause] the new friday farmer his market is in the u. N. Plaza. It features the best of San Francisco. Grab fresh foods and veggies from the heart of the farmers market. Shop from marker local vendors. Engage in free diy craft sessions and grab lunch representing cuisine from around the world. [ ] we offer 60 varieties of organic fruit and 30 varieties of conventional. One of our best sellers so sellers is our manager in. It is super sweet. We sell 600 pounds a week. One of the things they like about the market as i get to see my regulars on a weekly basis. I get to meet their families and kids and it is really good to be here. San francisco won my heart. One of our vegetables that is very popular is kale. A lot of people go for dino kale our mission is to make sure we have access for everybody to get organic foods, no matter your financial status. We make greeting cards, invitations, enamel pins, and we do workshops. I am participating in this market because it is a great opportunity for local makers to sell to a really Diverse Community of people in San Francisco. They partnered with the market here and invited us to come out and reach out to the public. We are going to do a full event of workshops where you get to arrange your own bouquet. We will teach you all the tricks and techniques and you will be able to take home a bouquet of your own. You. [ ] we really are wanting to bring opportunities to the community to introduce these local makers to a larger audience. This is my own pakistani recipe. It goes with rice, chicken, lamb we have a very delicious drink. We have a lots of variety of foods. [ ] we do lots of different curries. We do three different types of wontons. Spring rolls, too. Thats right. It is really great they are bringing out local artists from around the city to participate and really help us making our business more successful. Good morning. Thank you so much. I am mayor london breed. I am excited to be here today joined by supervisors safai and vallie brown. This, as you all know, is a representation of a lot of the work that we have been doing in San Francisco t to come up with Creative Solutions to address homelessness. We have to understand sometimes it is not one size fits all, and trying to understand exactly the challenges that people who are homeless are dealing with and meeting them where they are and getting them the help and support they need to transition into a more permanent stable housing situation is something that we care about. This is why we have been fighting so hard to build more shelter beds, to look at places that are under utilized space to identify weighs in which we can have temporary or permanent space for shelter to allow for a situation like this where we are taking a parking lot slated for 100 Affordable House anything the near future and using it when it is not being used for a place for people to safely park, get supported services and resources and make sure that we are able to help people transition into a permanent situation. I will say that i am really proud to work with two individuals who have been the leaders in this effort. Starting with the board of supervisors and understanding there are so many people before the Homeless Count was released that showed we had an increase in the number of People Living in vehicles. These two supervisors led the efforts around solutions around safe parking for those who unfortunately are sleeping in their vehicles. As a way to provide a safe place like where we are standing here today. In october of 2019, the city counted over 700 occupied vehicles in San Francisco, both passenger cars and rvs so we know that this is something that we need to provide a solution for. I want to be clear because the first thing you hear from folks it is not enough. It is better than what it was. There was nothing in the past. Now this is an example. This is not from my understanding what we are trying to propose here today is not something that we are familiar with anyplace in the United States where this is happening and actually has a track record of proving successful. We are stepping out to be the first to try something different, that we are hoping could work to support people that we know need support. I want to thank not just the supervisors but i really want to thank urban because they are the ones that you will hear from them in a minute. This program is absolutely incredible in the Civic Center Area and other places throughout San Francisco working with so many vulnerable population of San Francisco, helping to keep the neighborhoods and civic center and downtown area safe and clean and accessible and treating people with respect and dignity. I appreciate the work they are doing. I also want to appreciate the lake view omi community. Mr. And mrs. Harris are here and steve and others. This is not something always popular to do. Not only did supervisor safai lead in this effort to have Community Meetings to talk about this location used for this purpose, he really took a lot of hits from the community and, fortunately, so Many Community members were open and willing to allow this use to take place, and we truly appreciate the neighborhood for allowing us to do this on a temporary basis. This Vehicle Triage Center is something, i think, that can be potentially duplicated throughout San Francisco. Ultimately, the goal is to get people into safe Affordable Housing that is really the goal of this. This is a way to bring people inside, to provide showers, to provide restroom facilities, to make sure that we are doing it in a way that meets people where they are and treatings them with respect and dignity. I am grateful to be here today to kick this off. I do want to say that a lot of work through the Mayors Office on homelessness has gone into identifying all over San Francisco people who are living in their vehicles and trying to create, you know, a way to know what already exists. I want to make it clear that this is not an open invitation to people in other counties to come to San Francisco because the fact is we have a long waiting list of people who we have identified and they will be our priority along with other unhoused individuals who sadly are sleeping on the streets. We, of course, invite other counties to look at this as an example and to do their part in addressing this issue. This is not just an issue unique to San Francisco. This is an issue that impacts the entire state of california. We are hopeful we will partner in the near future to talk about ways to move forward with Solutions Like this and others to make sure that San Francisco is not the only city and county bearing the burden of the expense of doing unique things like we are doing today. With that since the rain is coming down and you guys know i dont like to get my hair wet. We are on dangerous territory here. I would like to introduce the supervisor safai. [applause] we will pause for mayor breed to have an umbrella. laughter you know, i want to say i think this is historic day in San Francisco. I know that people have been talking about doing safe parking in one form or another for over a decade, but truly we are standing here today because of the individuals that stand behind me. We had a situation where i went out and told the story a few time also. I went out on Christmas Day with my daughter. Santa had gotten her a bike and we went to the playground and the street was lined with People Living in rvs. I thought what is happening . So i called s. F. M. T. A. , got started getting calls from neighbors. They were saying they wanted these cars removed. I think that the knee jerk reaction in these situations is to just think about the vehicles but not think about the individuals that are occupying these vehicles. These are folks that are human being just like you and me. They are working, often times students, often times they are veterans, they are people who are productive members of society and want to be respected like you and me. I will tell you, my knee jerk reaction was to call and say where are the signs, we need no overnight parking signs up. S. F. M. T. A. Said we are going to pause, we are not going to keep doing this. It just pushes people from one block to another. Then i got back to my office and there was a photograph of a young woman living in an rv, and it was a handwritten note from supervisor brown that said lets work on this together in a humane way. That really caused me to pause, and i walked into her office and i said dont blind side me like that again. We kind of had a laugh, but the truth was i said you are right. We have to do this the right way. We buckled down, the staff buckled down and wrote a piece of legislation. We went around the bay area and looked at best practices. We crafted a piece of legislation. The reason that this is able to happen is because of that piece of legislation. We also march would into marched into may or breeds office. Mayor breed you walked. There were two of us. We marched. We had an uncomfortable conversation. By the end, the mayor committed money, and she challenged me. Are you going to put one of these in your district . I said i absolutely am. I know where we can go. I called Mission Housing development. They had gotten control of this site. I called jeff and we had a conversation to say can this be the first place where we do safe parking . Fast forward. It looked like once the census came in that there really was a justification for doing this. Out of the increase in homelessness, 70 of the increase and i think it was 13 increase in homelessness, 70 are living in vehicles. If now, was not the time then it would never be the time. We did that. The mayor allocated over 1 million for this effort. We engaged the community. As the mayor mentioned, steve and the reverend. The improvement association, 45 individuals in the room and we took a vote. After that vote it was a unanimous vote to proceed with this. We had a Community Meeting and 600 people showed up. By the end an and mary and i wil tell you we never have 600 people show up for a meeting. It leaned towards support. We wanted to be the first and share in the responsibility of dealing with the homeless crisis. I want to thank the mayor and i want to give a special thanks to the department of public works. We would not have been able to move as fast as we would if they hadnt been able to get this ready you see the solar panels, security cameras, lighting, privacy fencing, restriping, bathrooms, office space and urban will be here on site 24 hours per day, at least two individuals. We have the captain, liaison with the bart police. Wwe are working with s. F. M. T. A. Yes there will be tough loved involved. When we go out to proactively move people out of the streets where they are living in vehicles, we are not going to invite more individuals to occupy those spaces. S. F. M. T. A. Will put up the signs to encourage people to omentalis these spaces. Myself and soon pe supervisor bn called for a meeting. President yee is looking for a location. Supervisor walton is looking for space in his district. It will be a humane way. I want to thank everyone today. I want to thank the individuals that made this possible, and we are going to continue to look to expand and make this model a successful model. As the mayor said, in one year we will break ground on 100 Affordable Housing on the site. We will see what works, what i am provements can be made and how to do it better and how San Francisco can lead throughout the bay area. I will introduce supervisor vallie brown my cosponsor in this effort. Thank you, supervior and mayor breed. It was over a year ago that i did send a photo to his office of me living in a van when i was 13. As some of you know, my mom had odd jobs. She was always struggling to make ends meet. There were times she didnt have enough money for the next arent. She would borrow a van from a friend and we would live in the van until she was able to get money for the next apartment. As a child of 13 living in a van, there is a lot of struggles. There are things you have to wear a bathing suit all of the time. Why do you wear a bathing suit . Because you went to the gas station to rest up. You couldnt be naked. You had to have a bathing suit. You had to do homework before sundown because there was no light only a flashlight. You had nowhere to cook meals. These things that we dont think about are things that you think about when you live in a vehicle. You have to plan your life so carefully when you live in a vehicle. And i have to say the things sometimes are meant to be. As a child i dont have many photographs of myself. We move so much and you lose things. I found this photo of me living in the van at 13. I felt like it was meant to be of me moving forward to say why arent we thinking differently about housing people . Helping people that are struggling . Iit is a thin veil from from being homeless on the street. I never tried t to do a this wih you. You never know who lives in these vehicles. Thank you may or breed for putting the money forward because it was 1 million to say lets try this out. Thank you to this community for stepping up to say let us be the first. I absolutely feel we are going to need more through the city like we need Navigation Centers, homeless centers, we need more. This is the beginning. Thank you everyone for coming and for sharing and supporting. Lets move forward. Thank you. [applause] the folks that will manage this is urban. They are the wantings who have been doing an incredible job with the civic center, ambassadors of the community. Managing the public toilets or overseeing public spaces in other areas and trying to get people help and support, and in some cases connectedded to the Homeless Outreach team. This are an invaluable resource in San Francisco. The person in charge is lana miller. [applause] thank you, mayor breed. Thank you. I want to thank everybody who allowed us to be part of this effort. It is very, very important. As we see homelessness is continuing to increase all of the time. We are tasked with continuing to find ways to deal with it. A lot of people, sometimes people get frustrated in the city and there is a lot of that. What i see from my perspective because as mayor breed said we are all around the city in every intersection where you see a mix of homelessness and Mental Illness and addiction, there we are. From what i have seen from that perspective and talking with people from all over the country is this situation is only getting worse. We are not in a position to say we dont want to deal with it. We cant deal with it, we must deal with it and we must find creative ways to address people with love, with respect, with dignity. As supervisor brown said, that used to be her. It used to be and is a lot of our family members. It is not going anywhere. It is up to us as human beings to find ways to scale up. What we saw with the fires recently is that a lot of people are now living in their vehicles. I think when we see more and more people displaced through Climate Change we are going to see more and more people who are living in the streets. Now we have to get in front of this. I am really, really honored to be part of the thought partners who arent saying it is somebody elses problem. We need to find a way to get people out of here so people feel comfortable, but people putting their headins together o find creative ways to address this with love and dignity. Eventually we all have to scale. Thank you very much. We are really great full for the opportunity to be part of this. [applause] thank you. Our last speaker today is a person who grew up in San Francisco in the bayviewhunters Point Community and one of the first clients that we will work with here, sandra youth. applause hello, i am sandra hughes. I was born and raised in San Francisco. As a child i experienced a lot of trauma. As a result i have struggled most of my life with trusting anyone. Even those who want to help me. I am currently home less and i live in my rv. The neighborhood around me has changed. Where i used to ride my bike as a child, there are businesses. The Community Members yell at me not to park there, to move away. They treat me as if i am less than human. I wish they could understand i dont want to live in the rv or have to park there either. I want what everyone else wants, safety, dignity and a community. I dont feel safe living in my rv. It has been broken into five time also. I am scared every night when i try to sleep. I dont feel safe around people. Shelters are not an option for me. When the team told me about the vtc opening up and gave me information, i thought the opportunity to move into the Vehicle Triage Center with my rv would offer me safety and security. Maybe i could learn to build trust with people until i can find stable housing. I want to have a key for my apartment, i want to connect with my family. I want safety. This would be a first step in the feeling of safety my allow me to heal and rebuild my life. Thank you. applause thank you again for sharing your story. As you can see we have a lot of work to do in the city. Part of it is the opening of this parking lot as a safe place for people to park, but ultimately it all goes back to housing. You feel like i repeat this over and over again. It is not just the money necessary to build housing. We know San Francisco is one of the most expensive places to build housing in the first place. It is also about having the courage to cut back on the bureaucratic red tape so we dont have to wait years to build housing so that people like sandra and so many others sleeping on the streets have a place to call home. This is what we will continue to work on. Yes, we celebrate a milestone that we have this parking lot for people to park safely, but, ultimately, they nehousing. We have to do a better job as a city to build it. Thank you to the department of public works, the hot team and be the work you do on the streets, thank you to the San FranciscoPolice Department and the folks who work with us. Wrap it up. It is time to go. Thank you. [applause]. My name is dave, and i play defense. My name is mustafa, and i am a midfielder, but right now, i am trying to play as a goalkeeper, because they need a goalkeeper. Soccer u. S. A. Is a nonprofessional organization. We use sports, soccer in particular to engage communities that can benefit from quality programs in order to lift people up, helping to regain a sense of control in ones life. The San Francisco recreation and Park Department and street soccer u. S. A. Have been partners now for nearly a decade. Street soccer shares our mission in using sport as a vehicle for Youth Development and for reaching people of all ages. Rec and park has a team. Im been playing soccer all my life. Soccer is my life. I played in the streets when i was a kid. And i loved soccer back home. I joined street soccer here. It was the best club to join. It helps me out. The tenderloin soccer club started in the summer of 2016. We put one of our mini soccer pitches in one of our facilities there. The kids who kpriez the club team came out to utilize that space, and it was beautiful because they used it as an opportunity to express themselves in a place where they were free to do so, and it was a safe space, in a neighborhood that really isnt the most hospitalable to youth hospitable to youth playing in the streets. One day, i saw the coach and my friends because they went there to join the team before me. So i went up to the coach and asked, and they said oh, ive got a soccer team, and i joined, and they said yeah, it was he for everybody, and i joined, and it was the best experience ever. A lot of our programs, the kids are in the process of achieving citizenship. Its a pretty lengthy process. Here, i am the only one with my dad. We were in the housing program, and we are trying to find housing. My sister, shes in my country, so i realize that i have a lot of opportunities here for getting good education to help her, you know . Yeah. Thats the one of the most important things that challenge me. My dad was over here, making some money because there was not a lot of jobs back home. I came here, finish elementary in San Francisco. After that, i used to go back to my country, go to yemen, my country, and then back here. Last time i went back was a couple years ago. I came here six months, i know nobody. Now i have the team has a family, the coaches. Amazing. Im hoping for lifelong friendships, and im super inspired by what theyve been able to achieve and want to continue to grow alongside them. I love my family, i love my team. Theyre just like a family. Its really nice. Street soccer just received a five year grant from the department of children, youth and family, and this is an important inreflection point for street soccer u. S. A. Because their work in our most important communities is now known beyond just San Francisco recreation and Park Department, and together, were going to continue to work with our citys most vulnerable kids and teach them to love the beautiful game. I want to tell everybody back home, i hope you all make it over here and join teams like this like street soccer u. S. A. , and live your life. Get a better life. Right away, just be patient, and then, everything will be good morning and welcome to lacasa. We are so honored to have so Many Community members here today. I am the Deputy Director here. This has been a very long journey to this moment today. I thank you all. We would not be here with each and every one of you. I have a lot of wonderful people speaking today and the amazing work that the organization does in the community. I would like to start by introducing our board president. Michelle is the board president of casa