Then the long moment of what are we going to do, what are we going to do . Heres what were going to do, were going to develop 108 units of Affordable Housing in this wonderful neighborhood. There are a lot of people to thank. Im not going to thank them all today. Im sure youre happy to hear that. Theres a long list. Just know you are all thanked and some of the speakers will acknowledge all of you, no one is to think theyre being left out on purpose. When we step into the completed property in 18 months or however long it is, well do the official and proper thank yous. This is a village obviously and we acknowledge that. This is a great legacy of our former mayor, ed lee. And we all have been shocked by his passing and you cant start an event like this, which really does, you know, its a statement of his legacy without starting by acknowledging him and i wants to start with just a few moments of silence before acting mayor breed steps in and speaks for the city. Lets have a moment of silence. Thank you. There couldnt be a better person to be talking today than acting mayor london breed who is a champion for Affordable Housing throughout the city, for those most in need and those just in need. I want to thank london for being here today in her busy schedule. Please welcome acting mayor london breed. applause thank you all so much for being here today. Today was on the schedule for some time and i was supposed to be here with our mayor, mayor ed lee to really just welcome in what we know is going to be an amazing project. He and i worked really closely together on Affordable Housing. We know this was near and dear to his heart. What is so amazing about the project, 108 units of family housing. For not only low income residents but extremely low income residents. A lot of our homeless families that the mayor and i worked so hard to get off the streets into permanent housing, they will live here. They will live here when we get the project done. And im so excited about that because its moving forward as you can see behind us, all of the amazing people are already on the ground working to get this done. And so many people have played a role and i just want to thank mercy housing for working on this project for the services that will be here, the childcare, the residential support, all of the Different Things that are going to help to make this not just a home for families but a community. And we couldnt have done this project without the help and support of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and you will be hearing from its president in a little bit. But the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association, the group working on developing this area after tearing down the freeway. I grew up not far from here and i remember entering right here on to the freeway and i was here when the 89 earthquake happened and this freeway closed down and look how long its taken, 1989 and its 2017 and were finally, finally just doing so many Amazing Things in this community where the boulevard is now this beautiful place for people to enjoy. This is one of the final pieces thats going to complete this area. Thats going to continue to allow it to continue to be a thriving and amazing community. And i could not be more proud to represent you as supervisor and as acting mayor in mayor lees honor and get this project going so the families can move in. This is so amazing, this is what we do best as a city. And i will definitely be here, supervisor, mayor, whatever the heck im going to be at the time, cutting that ribbon and helping those first families move into that place. Everyone here, the financing we received from the state, bank of america, Mayors Office of housing, there are so many things that go into making this a reality. Thank you for your work. This is so amazing. Im so proud and happy today. This is what we do best. These are the kinds of things we have to shine light on to make sure people know all the amazing work our mayor helped us to do in our community and all over the city. Thank you for being here today. applause were going to move through the speakers relatively quickly because afterwards we want to toss the dirt, which is an important picture for all of us. laughter obviously. I want to welcome the ceo, president and ceo david sobal, thank you for being here. Thank you so much mayor breed and whatever title you have going forward, were so thankful to have you. Im going to be brief but i want to hit a few key points. Founded in 1988 by a group of Community Leaders focused on ensuring that African Americans and other people of color have a chance to stay in San Francisco. Unfortunately that mission is still very much an issue in San Francisco and not to bring us down today, but it is unacceptable to us as im sure it is to all of you that we have a city with fewer than 50,000 African Americans as we stand here today. Its unacceptable to us as im sure it is to you that we have lost half of our artists in the past 20 years in San Francisco. Im sure its unacceptable as it is to us, that we have thousands of Homeless People still on the streets and im sure its unacceptable to you as it is to us that we have thousands of working families that cant afford the median rent of a two bedroom apartment in San Francisco, which requires an income of 120,000 a year to be affordable. And with things going on nationally out of washington d. C. Present additional challenges obviously. That said, we are extremely fortunate to live in a city that is so supportive of Affordable Housing, that love to see new projects built that serve formally homeless as this project will. That we have a Mayors Office of housing and board of Supervisor Team and Mayors Office that supports all the work we do and mercy housing does. We are truly fortunate to have the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association that came out in full support of this project immediately. And so we have a lot of positive things behind us. We have a Wonderful Team of architects thats going to make this project absolutely gorgeous. And as mayor breed said, 108 families will be housed here permanently in Affordable Housing that is beautiful, fits in with the neighborhood and will be a joy and source of pride for all of us, including ground floor retail space and community garden. For that said, our lenders are going to speak in a moment, we want to thank bank of america and state housing of development as well. And i cant wait for 18 months from now, we want to do it faster and better, well see what we can do on that. Thank you for being here, we cant wait to celebrate and keep the legacy of mayor lee going. Thank you. applause thank you david. We all know that the city is an important partner financially and in every way possible but there are also other financial partners, the state of california through housing and Community Development is one of those partners. Craig shields is here to represent the state. Good morning. Last summer i had the great honor of breaking ground at an Affordable Housing development in the tenderloin with mayor lee and i think he would be very pleased to see whats happening here today. We know it takes a lot of devotion and determination to get the fancy shovels in the ground on a day like today. The California Department of housing and Community Development are so pleased to see this project moving forward. Together we implement Affordable Housing and sustainable communitys program. Thats a big name for a focused goal, to reduce Greenhouse Gas emissions in the state of california. We encourage people to get out of their cars and walk, bike or take transit. And by placing Affordable Housing near key destinations like grocery stores, childcare and job centers. This combines all the great features in one awesome location. This mercy Housing Project was the recipient of one of the largest awards in the second round of funding, over 16 million. For many years this site was devoted to moving people past the neighborhood. Now its being reimaged to house over 100 housing units. The residents will have great access to several new sidewalks that will be improved as part of the program. We are so thankful to be here today and we are really excited to see this moving forward. Thank you. applause thanks craig. You always have to have a banker. They always come to these events. And today is no different. But were really pleased, we have a great Banking Partner in bank of america. Our guy, he takes care of us in many, many ways and if you im not going to tell you the numbers but theyre staggering, a lot of bank of america money is going into this transaction. Were pleased for arie to be with us today. Thank you. Welcome. Thank you jane. So its a pleasure to be here today. And first i would like to thank all the other great partners who are part of this great project, mercy housing, San Francisco housing association, california housi housing Growth Council and the Mayors Department of housing and acting mayor breed and late mayor lee. Obviously there was a huge loss when we lost our partner in crime mayor lee who has been the Affordable Housing mayor. Its hard to go to these events and not see him here with us. And not know that he is just he is missing the event hanging out with michelle obama, which i think happened a couple weeks ago. We invest over 4 billion last year in Affordable Housing. When we make decisions on where the money is going to go, the numbers are important. We are a bank. Whats more important than that are the people we do business with. Organizations like mercy housing and cities like this, like the city of San Francisco and mayor lee. A couple years ago, there was this crazy plan to rebuild all of Public Housing in San Francisco. And i took it back to the leadership at bank of america and washington d. C. And i said i want to talk with you about this plan, ignore the fact that this housing has been neglected for the past 40 years, that its very difficult housing that theres going to its going to be very complex. We need to do the right thing. We talked about it and every time something got difficult and we were trying to decide is this something we really wanted to do, we went back to who was behind the project, mayor lee and the fact that he grew up in Public Housing, the fact that he worked as a civil rights attorney protecting Public Housing tenants, because we knew he was going to stand behind the project thick and thin made the difference. Its the reason why bank of america was able to invest over 2. 2 billion in this city and it shouldnt be overlooked. People really do matter and having a mayor like mayor lee really mattered when it came to institutions like bank of america investing and putting our money in this city, something as crucial as Affordable Housing. I think its its fitting were here today to build more units. We look forward to building many, many more units. Mayor lee and i joked wed have 26 more parties, hes not going to be there but i think well all enjoy being there and every time someone walks into a unit, every time someone can live in the city, its a tribute to our great mayor, mayor lee. Thank you. applause thank you arie. Today we have Randall Winston with the california strategic Growth Council. I had to ask what their role was, they said capandtrade. I get it. Were really pleased to have randall with us today. Randall. Thank you. Thank you again. It really is an honor to be here mayor breed and other partners and ill be brief. Craig my partner here touched upon most of it but as a mobile agency body we bring together all the state agencies led by the Governors Office and invest 20 over a billion dollar capandtrade fund into Affordable Housing in sustainable communities. This project shows the types of investments we need to make to continue to link housing with transportation and achieving a host of our Community Benefits to achieve our states climate goals. Lets not forget we have the most Ambitious Goals not just in the nation but in the world. And so while were continuing to build projects like this, that advance sustainable communities, were thinking about our Larger National and Global Impact to lead the way. It really is an honor to be able to contribute to this project and we look forward to continuing to do so. So thank you. applause thanks randall. And finally, our last speaker today is probably one of the most important in many ways. This is hayes valley neighborhood and we all know what has been going on in the neighborhood for the past 30 years since we started dealing with this freeway, the central freeway. And were just so delighted to have a Neighborhood Group led by gale, led, am i correct . Youre the lead present lead that really is involved in this development and has welcomed it and is part of making it happen. With that, i would like gale to speak on behalf of the neighborhood association. Thank you. Hi, im president of the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association and im going to end on a positive note, bear with me, the mission of the Hayes Valley Association is to present Friendly Association and Community Involvement throughout hayes valley. Preserve and reinforce cultural and economic diversity. Restore character, and architecture and make sure our communitys participation in the governmental process. Hayes Valley Neighborhood Association has learned when attempting great change, no is just another way to say yes. Yes to creating community that was lost. Yes to taking out a freeway that slashed community apart. Yes to finding safety for our family and children and especially our young black men. Yes to parks and green spaces and living alleys. Yes to morel meantry and middle schools. Yes to building more Affordable Housing, over half the freeway parcels are devoted to Affordable Housing and marginalized groups, such as mentally disabled and formerly homeless and lgbtq elders. A big yet to be amended yes to current legislation to allow subsidized hoa, yes to local artists installed in temporary settings for all to enjoy. Yes to maintaining and expanding our infrastructure that reflects 21st century ways of living in a dense urban environment. I stand on the shoulders who came before me. Over 50 of our freeway parcels like this one are dedicated to Affordable Housing. I can shout over that one. Bmr should be located on site to ensure economic diversity. Local businesses and artists ink baited to grow. Embracing all for the benefit of the community is our goal. We hope to see these new residents engaged in their community. To repeat what was said to me, welcome to hayes valley. applause nice gale. Thank you. We feel welcomed. Very well comed. Delightful. Okay. Im going to say one more thing about all the other theres a lot of people involved in a lot of financing of this development which is very expensive as we know. But then someone has to figure out how to build it, what it ought to look like, they have to do it, thank you to all the doers out there, some of you are obvious because you have the orange hats on and the little outfit. Some of you are not. Just so you all know, we recognize, we started, you finish it and make it happen. Thank you. You are acknowledged and adored actually for all your hard work and now im going to end this ceremony and were going to have those of us who have spoken put on hard hats and grab the shovel and take the important picture. Theres coffee, please drink the coffee and eat whatever they have over there to eat and thank you for being here. Ready . You have to throw it up. No way. Everyone look at me, please. Good morning everyone. Thank you for being here today. I just want to thank all of you for coming and give a special thanks to the va who is here joining us, theyre important partners in this project. The owners of the site, there they are. Thank you for making this site available and for being partners with the city on this and other sites to help address homelessness. We want to thank the nonprofit providers running the site, everybody from dish, if you can raise your hand. Many dish staff are here and providing services on site. Everybody from the Mayors Office and thei