NEWSLETTER | VOL. 2 INSIDE THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW MOVING INTO NEW HOMES RESIDENTS WORKING ON REBUILD FIRST BUILDING Wallace has been a resident of Sunnydale his whole life. In order GOING UP to qualify to work for Cahill on Parcel Q, he recently completed an eight-week training class. Welcome to the second move into the new homes. Our multilingual and issue of The Sunnydale multicultural staff are working in partnership Newsletter. So much is with Bay Area Legal Aid and the YMCA to happening on the ground provide one-on-one counseling to households that we barely have room for eviction prevention, so they can retain their to share all the highlights current apartments and qualify for relocation in this issue. On behalf of and later replacement housing. our staff, residents, and partners, we thank you for We are working tirelessly with residents to A LETTER making the redevelopment prepare them to move into their new homes FROM DOUG of Sunnydale a reality. We and renovated apartments within Sunnydale. SHOEMAKER, appreciate your support and Through a partnership with San Francisco’s PRESIDENT couldn’t do it without you. housing agencies, dozens of residents have already moved into new homes around the city, The most tangible sign of progress is including 23 families that chose to move into construction of the first Sunnydale replacement Mercy Housing’s recently completed Natalie 2 homes, which are halfway finished and Gubb Commons near the Salesforce Transbay scheduled to open in fall of 2019. Development Terminal. of the first new homes at Sunnydale is being led by our partners, Related Companies of Last but not least, with funding from our 2017 California. We will be starting the second phase Gala and the Susan Wang Fund, we are able of construction soon, which will include new to support much-needed youth programs and infrastructure and ultimately concludes with 167 leadership development activities. While this new affordable homes. is some of the most important work we are doing, it is also notoriously difficult for us Construction has also brought new jobs to to fund from operations and public sources. the neighborhood. To take full advantage In addition to summer field trips, this past of this opportunity, residents and staff are summer we greatly expanded the Summer focused on work readiness and job placement Youth Leadership Program to make it a year- in partnership with local organizations, city round opportunity. agencies, and Cahill Construction. Over a dozen residents have worked on this first building, Much remains to be done in Sunnydale. But with and 130 Sunnydale residents are preparing for your support, we are seeing unprecedented additional job training and placement. progress in all areas, from community building and youth empowerment to housing Another key aspect of our work is making construction and job placement. Thank you for sure that long-standing residents are able to helping to make this possible. MERCY HOUSING CALIFORNIA THE LEADERS OF TOMORROW An essential program at the future community center employment opportunities are Sunnydale for the residents is at Sunnydale. They toured a big priority for them as they the Young Leadership Program. Lakeview Park, Glen Park, and look to the future. This program just finished its the Boys & Girls Club in Fillmore. second summer with about 35 Architects and city planners With the support of our students participating — ages 12 met with them to plan the types donors, this youth leadership 3 through 17. of things they would like to see program will now be run year- in the community center. They round. During the school year, These middle school and are especially interested in the the group will meet at least high school students met at teen portion of the community once weekly for workshops least three times a week all center — making sure it includes and outings and will add a summer for activities in the computers, a recording booth, theater component. They will neighborhood and around and a safe place to hang out continue to make plans for town. One of the most exciting and do homework. These young the community center and things that the group worked on people also envisioned a café envisioning a brighter future for last summer was planning out where they could work. Creating themselves and their families. MERCY HOUSING CALIFORNIA BOARD OF DIRECTORS JoAnn Bertges Maryann Leshin Ann Sewill Tangerine Brigham Ezra Mersey Brian Swift Bradley Cox Timothy Murray Steven Wade Ford Fish William Pavão Sister Mary Waskowiak, RSM Christina Garcia Janet Ruggiero Ellen Jamason Mirian Saez Special Thanks to Our Partners: Related California, LLC SUNNYDALE NEWSLETTER FIRST BUILDING GOING UP Construction on the first building of the new Sunnydale 4 neighborhood is underway, and scheduled to be complete in the fall of 2019. As you enter the neighborhood on the north side, you will pass a lively construction site, Parcel Q, the first building in Sunnydale. Many people from Sunnydale residents are designing the the neighborhood walk down each day lobby with an artwork installation by to watch the structure grow. There artists from the neighborhood. is palpable excitement on the site as the workers with orange hard hats are Residents of this new building will be silhouetted against the sky, making new chosen by lottery. All 775 families homes for Sunnydale. who live in Sunnydale were entered into the lottery, and in the spring The first building will have 55 homes of 2019, families will be chosen to that surround a shared community room move into a new home in Parcel Q. and courtyard. The community room will There will be three studios, 19 one- have a teen room, which is a quiet place bedrooms, 19 two-bedrooms, and 14 to do homework or meet with friends. three-bedroom homes. Seventy-five The courtyard will have a barbeque, percent of these newly constructed and play structure for the younger kids. homes will be for existing residents. MERCY HOUSING CALIFORNIA DeAngelo worked for 10 years at Daisha, who has worked on Antoine has been a resident of Cahill before starting this spring Parcel Q since the spring, has Sunnydale for his whole life. He has on the Parcel Q site. He was a lived in Sunnydale for about worked as a construction worker for resident at Sunnydale. a year. eight years, and working for Cahill on Parcel Q for the past five months. RESIDENTS WORKING ON REBUILD 5 Visitacion Valley was once anchored by major these efforts, 130 residents have engaged with employers like Schlage Lock. Job loss in the job training and placement, and 38 residents have 1970s and 1980s left many residents with limited secured full-time employment. Fourteen of these employment options, and these blue-collar hires, including three women, are in construction jobs never returned. Multiple generations of as laborers and carpenters at Parcel Q. Another families have grown up in a community in which 29 people have been able to find employment in unemployment is ten times higher than the other fields like office work and healthcare. national average, particularly for young black men and women. The work at Sunnydale is complex because young people are often working to overcome When work began on the rebuilding of Sunnydale, multiple barriers, such as lack of education or residents and staff knew that construction work a criminal record. One young man had a gang would provide a unique opportunity to bring jobs injunction against him — a restraining order back to the neighborhood. Residents warned staff addressing his activities in the community — that these jobs often went to people outside the when he got connected to the job placement community. They pushed to make sure that this program. After being accepted into the program wouln’t happen again. and going through the training, he now works full-time as a carpenter for $27 per hour, and the Mercy Housing, Related Companies, HOPE SF, and gang injunction has been lifted. The community local nonprofits like the Neighborhood Access benefits from these opportunities are giving Point (NAP) began working to prepare residents residents avenues to success and avoiding for these possible job opportunities. Through “system-involved” lifestyles. SUNNYDALE NEWSLETTER MOVING INTO NEW HOMES Moving residents into their new homes is the most rewarding part of building affordable housing. At Sunnydale, the first set of 6 residents to move are the 109 families whose homes are scheduled for demolition and reconstruction this fall to make room for new affordable apartments. Through a lottery process, 41 households will move into the new apartments on Parcel Q at the corner of Hahn and Visitacion. Hunters View and Alice Griffith, in the Bayview/ In addition, since rebuilding Sunnydale will Hunters Point neighborhood. take many years, the City, along with Mercy Housing and Related Companies have begun In the spring of 2019, demolition will begin on to provide residents with the option to move Block 6. This is the first stage in the master into new mixed-income housing in other parts plan that involves replacing every home in of San Francisco. This spring, 23 households Sunnydale. The new structures in Block 6 will moved from Sunnydale into their new homes at be five stories tall with 167 homes surrounded Natalie Gubb Commons. In addition to frequent by a landscaped pedestrian path and walkway. visits from our Sunnydale team, onsite staff The community room will have a shared kitchen, at the new building provide support to help and face a courtyard with barbeque pit and two families and kids adjust to their new lives in the play areas. There will be 21 one-bedrooms, 95 Transbay Neighborhood.