To safe, Affordable Housing in San Francisco. It is our number one priority. When we look at the challenges that we face with homelessness and we are wondering why arent we able to do more, it is because we need to make sure that we have housing, we have opportunities to do more. It is why im committed to opening up 1,000 new shelter beds to get people off the streets. It is why im committed to master leasing so many buildings that might be available like the Abigail Hotel where we are standing in, where we have access to 62 new units that will help people who are formerly homeless get a great and safe and affordable place to call home without the social services , so its not as expensive as someone who might need a lot more support and wraparound services. This is what some of us call in this world step up housing because sadly we know there are people who will the goal is to understand what the challenges are. Do they need assistance with Mental Health . Do they need assistance with their addiction . Do they need assistance just to get a job and get back on their feet . Often times, if we are able to transition them out of the shelter, its usually into Supportive Housing where there is a network of people who are there to provide wraparound Supportive Services to get them back on their feet. And the great thing about the bristol in places like the abigail which we are here in today, is those people have benefited from incredible programs and are ready to move on with their lives and are not in need of the social services that they want or are in need of that is great. We have to make sure they have opportunities to move to the next level. That is what today is all about. And really focusing on providing opportunities for people to step up and be in attendance and to be able to take care of themselves is important. We know affordability is challenging. It takes a village to make opportunities like this possible thankfully here in San Francisco we are making investments in acquiring as many units as we possibly can to provide these opportunities. It does take partners like Tipping Point and daniel is here today who has been an incredible partner in raising the money and investing it and providing opportunities for people to get help. Today is an opportunity to do just that. Let me just say that its not just about the abigail where we have 62 units. We are going to be opening another place of 89 units at coast street which will be managed by the Episcopal Community services. One of our leading housing providers. And there are people there who are sadly in our shelters and will be able to transition to those units. That will make room for more people. I think that is what is great about the system that we are setting up and all the amazing partners that continue to work with us to provide these incredible opportunities, and importantly, the building owners deepak patel and sam patel, thank you so much for supporting and working with us here in the city to allow us to work with you to get access to these buildings and thank you to all the Service Providers and the tenderloin housing clinic. I know randy shaw couldnt make it here today, but he is a Firm Believer in step up housing and he has been fighting hard for a long time to make this a reality for people. So when people talk about San Francisco and the fact that, you know, theres homelessness, theres challenges of homelessness, we know that. It is not unique to San Francisco. It is happening all over the state of california. The fact is, we had not done enough to build housing so that we have what we need to get people housed. We just havent. So here in the city we are lucky because people care about making sure people are housed. The 600 milliondollar Affordable Housing bond passed by voters will be a great opportunity to invest in building more Affordable Housing , but we cant build it fast enough. So having access to the abigail, having access to the post street post street site and the bristol where there is another step up housing, those are so important to getting people housed now. So i just want to thank everyone who is here today and all of your work that sometimes escapes under the radar and people are not completely familiar with everything that goes into making an opportunity like this possible. It is appreciated, its going to make a difference for 89 people at post street and 62 people right here at the abigail. Its going to make a difference for so many people and im so grateful we have this opportunity to do just that today. How the person who has helped in our efforts to move the needle on homelessness, who probably every time i call him, and i tell him about somebody, he not only knows the name of that person, with the whole story about their medical history and family, and when they came here and everything else, believe it or not, its a tough job to manage our Homeless Department in San Francisco, but Jeff Kaczynski does it because he cares and because he knows that last year when we helped 2,000 people exit homelessness, thats 2,146 people that are not sleeping on our streets tonight and that matters. Ladies and gentlemen, the director of the office of homelessness here in San Francisco, Jeff Kaczynski. [applause] thank you, mare breed, for those kind words and thank you for your leadership to expand Critical Resources that we desperately need to help People Living in crisis on our streets. She understands that shelters are only part of the solution. We have to create housing opportunities are all types of low income households, especially for people who are experiencing homelessness. Every single night, the city houses nearly 10,000 formerly Homeless People and every week we help 50 people of permanently exit homelessness. However, for every person we help exit homelessness, theres three newly Homeless People coming behind them. Obviously we have a lot more work to do. Housing is a big part of the solution to homelessness. And thank you to mayor breeds focus on leadership on this issue, we have 1700 units of housing and housing subsidies in the pipeline in addition to those that we are celebrating here today. Theres a lot more of these openings to come. Its also really important to remember that behind all of these numbers are people. Each person with lived experience, each person who has struggled with homelessness has a unique story. However, the one thing they all have in common is resilience and courage and taking the steps to move beyond homelessness. Its hard work and its a challenge and it is a great honor for myself and for my colleagues to play a part, a small part really, in helping people overcome homelessness by bringing buildings like the abigail and the post online. Doing this work, i dont want to diminish how hard it is, because it is tremendously difficult, it takes a lot of people, a lot of leadership, a lot of hard work, a lot of funding, so in addition to the mayor, i want to thank other people that she already mentioned, but i want to thank them as well. Of course, i want to thank daniel from Tipping Point. Tipping Point Community is contributing 3 million towards opening the next 300 units of housing including these two sights. Were very grateful for the support that they have given, and also want to thank not only deepak and sam patel, the owners of the post on the abigail. There is more than 3,000 privately owned units that were masterly we are master leasing throughout the city. Theyre responsible for nearly half of the permanent Supportive Housing in the city and they are Unsung Heroes and very important partners. I want to thank them and their colleagues and all of the owners of the board for the 3,000 units that the city is master leasing. And i want to acknowledge all the amazing staff who have worked on this issue, all of my colleagues at the department of homelessness and Supportive Housing, my colleagues at the Mayors Office, the city attorneys office, the Mayors Office of community development, the real estate department, all of these staff work tiredly tirelessly on these projects. Before i took this job, i spent most of my career running affordable and Supportive Housing in texas and in california and i know how hard it is to operate buildings like this and to do the work and turn housing unit into a home for somebody who was experiencing homelessness. These sites operate 24 7 and the nonprofit organizations that run them do an amazing job of helping the people who are struggling to exit homelessness or to move on from permanent Supportive Housing to be successful and to become their best selves. I especially want to acknowledge and thank beth stokes from the Episcopal Community services and everybody who is here. Tabitha and randy who couldnt be here from tenderloin housing clinic. They do an incredible amount of work making these projects happen and we are grateful to them and to everybody else who is part of this. Thank you for being here today. Thank you, jeff. Again, as i said, we cant do it alone. We are fortunate to have an incredible partner in Tipping Point, and Tipping Point provided 3 million to help make this possible, which moves this project along sooner rather than later and to speak on behalf of to think Tipping Point is daniel. Thank you. Thank you to everyone who is making this work possible. We started tipping. 15 years ago with a promise to invest in the best solutions that prevent poverty, including housing, Early Childhood education, and employment. The Silver Lining to the homelessness crisis that we outlined is we know that what it takes to get people housed. That is permanent, Supportive Housing and it works. Over 85 of people who enter permanent Supportive Housing never experience homelessness again. The opening of the post and the abigail exemplifies the role that philanthropy can play in supporting Effective Solutions in partnership with the mayor and the city department. Tipping point is providing 3 million in flexible dollars for a wide range of needs from apartment repairs to new furniture. These are funds that Service Providers can use to do whatever it takes to get units online fast. Mayor breed, thank you for your leadership and your commitment to this issue. I want also think the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development association for your tireless work on behalf of our most vulnerable neighbors. I want to thank everyone who is saying yes to solutions. We can do this, but it will take all of. Thank you very much. Thank you, daniel. Randy shaw has been a serious advocate for step up housing and im really excited that we are partnering on the abigail to make this possible. We also partnered on the bristol , and so these are two incredible properties for step up housing. Here to represent tenderloin housing clinic, since randy couldnt be here is tabitha. Randy sends his regrets. He really wanted to be here today. This is a really special project to him, a special building to him. He counts stories of the history of this building and him as an organizer in 1980 when he organized residents in this building to prevent the then owners from starting a bedandbreakfast in this building and they were successful in doing that. He has very fond memories of that project and his work with this building. We are really excited to partner with h. S. H. And the city to open some additional step up housing. This is a really beautiful building. Sixtytwo units, all bathrooms. We will have a Nice Community kitchen and laundry room and Community Room for the residents here. I also want to thank deepak, the owner, for this partnership and h. S. H. And the mayor for providing this opportunity for the residents that will get to move into this building. And then i also internally really want to thank our director of facilities who has spent countless hours on lots of time already on her work making sure that this building is a success in making sure that this building is going to be a wonderful building for the residents that move in. Thank you. It is also really great to open up places like this because they provide opportunities, and almost every time we do it, Episcopal Community services, they are always at the forefront of not only helping with Properties Like this, but some of our shelters and navigation centers, and so we are grateful for their partnership and their work. Here to represent the organization is beth. Thank you, mayor breed. I got an email last week during the holiday week to see if i was available to participate in an announcement of 150 new homes. I was delighted. I was super excited to start the year off in 2020 with the announcement of new homes for our unhoused Community Members in San Francisco. It is a great way to start the year. Im so happy to be here for this announcement. I want to thank everybody who invited us to be part of the celebration and for the opening of the abigail and the post. Its truly a celebration of homes. I want to stress that. I want to thank the mayor for her continued leadership and unwavering commitment toward Proven Solutions towards ending homelessness in San Francisco. It really takes vision and it takes a community. Thank you. Housing ends homelessness, right we know this. Yet Supportive Housing is a proven intervention for the most vulnerable, chronically unhoused in our community. Providing needed housing and stability for folks to address theyre Overall Health and wellness. Quite simply, Supportive Housing is healthcare. I say that all the time. It effectively reduces emergency room visits, we know this, inpatient hospitalizations for our highest need neighbors who are living in homelessness today Supportive Housing works, as daniel said. Again, we really believe this and we know its proven. Power board and our staff that are here thank you for being here and we are are super excited to partner with mayor breed and h. S. H. And sam patel. Thank you. Eightynine solutions to ending chronic homelessness in San Francisco. Thank you so very much. Thank you. Today we have a resident of the bristol, mitch, who wants to talk about his experience and why this is so important. Good afternoon. Im a tenant at the Bristol Hotel and i would like to emphasize that Supportive Housing does work. I was in Supportive Housing for seven years and i got the opportunity to move to a newly remodelled Bristol Hotel. I love it. Its a home for me. I dont expect to leave anytime soon. Im very happy with the whole process. And anybody who gets step up housing like the abigail is very lucky. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, everyone else for being here today and all the folks who helped to make this possible. Again, the solution, as beth said to ending homelessness, is housing. It takes opportunities like this , it takes building faster, and thinking about ways that we can get more creative to get more access to opportunities so we can get people off the streets and we can keep people who are vulnerable housed in the first place. That is our goal. That is the opportunity we are providing today, and i want to thank each and every one of you for being here. Thank you so much. [applause] [indiscernible]