Democratic Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee were among several officials on hand in the city’s Hayes Valley neighborhood today to celebrate a nearly $5 million federal grant that helped to fund a low-income housing complex.
Pelosi and Lee were among the dignitaries at the Richardson Apartments, a 120-unit complex at 365 Fulton St. that houses extremely low-income and chronically homeless people.
The apartments, which opened in September, were one of the recipients of a $4.9 million regional grant from the U.S. Housing and Urban Development as part of the agency’s Sustainable Communities Grants, which total about $97 million in more than two dozen areas around the country.
Along with providing housing, the complex run by Community Housing Partnership and Mercy Housing California also provides behavioral health services to residents as well as preventive medical and psychiatric care.
Pelosi said the apartments were an example of a program that “puts people first” by helping less fortunate members of the community and being located in a transit-friendly area near the city’s Civic Center.
She also noted the history of the name of the building, which was named after Julian and Raye Richardson, who founded Marcus Books in San Francisco in 1960, which is believed to be the oldest black bookstore in the country.
Lee, who joined Pelosi on a tour of community gardens and solar panels on the roof of the building as well as one of the single-occupancy units, said the apartments are an example of “what makes San Francisco so special, when people come together for a good cause.”
Environmental Protection Agency Regional Administrator Jared Blumenfeld, Association of Bay Area Governments President Mark Green and San Francisco supervisors David Campos and Scott Wiener were among the other dignitaries at today’s event.
Dan McMenamin, Bay City News
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