Congressmember Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) headlined a ribbon-cutting ceremony for LYRIC's Purple House for LGBTQ youth in the Castro neighborhood September 6.
The ceremony comes as the nonprofit, which serves LGBTQ youth, reopens the ground floor of the house, while the other floors are still being worked on.
The Purple House at 127 Collingwood Street has been a sanctuary for LGBTQ youth — both from San Francisco and those who came here from far-flung and less accepting parts of the country and the world — for decades. Four-in-10 youth served by LYRIC's housing program are from outside the Bay Area, according to the nonprofit.
"As a mother of five, I can't even imagine people abandoning their children," Pelosi, the former House speaker, told the Bay Area Reporter. "So to see a place so welcoming to everyone is really inspiring."
Pelosi chided more conservative voices who attack so-called San Francisco values.
"Our San Francisco values are to be praised," she said. When the 84-year-old lawmaker was still the Democratic leader in the House in 2022, she had secured $2 million for the LYRIC renovation project.
"I was so proud to get this passed through the House even with the negative attitudes that they [homophobic and transphobic legislators] have," she said. "There is something so wrong with them. ... But let's not talk about them, let's talk about these young people."
One of those young people, 23-year-old Oliver Elias Tinoco, a queer and nonbinary person, gave the keynote address at the event. Elias Tinoco, who uses he/him pronouns, said that as an undocumented person, he never thought he'd be gainfully employed, and felt his Latine identity was marginalized in LGBTQ spaces while his LGBTQ identity was marginalized in Latine spaces.
That all changed when he saw an ad on social media from LYRIC seeking to give work opportunities to undocumented youth.
"I didn't even think it was possible," he said. "It was that small moment I decided something that changed my life."
LYRIC taught Elias Tinoco that he and his fellow LGBTQ youth had "a chance to become leaders."
"It is our LGBTQ youth who are redefining what it means to be a San Franciscan," he said. "It was LYRIC that taught us our identities weren't obstacles but they're our biggest strength."
Ron S. McCan, programs operations manager for LYRIC, explained to the B.A.R. what had changed on the Purple House's now 2,645 square foot ground floor from before the renovations. A driveway from Collingwood Street to a garage was removed and the house expanded to make way for an additional conference room.
Part of what was once the driveway is now an ADA-accessible ramp, which leads to where the garage once was and is now another large conference-room-style space in addition to offices.
The ground floor renovations have cost $6.5 million (due to unforeseen costs), and the upper floors are still being worked on, LYRIC Executive Director Gael Lala-Chávez, who is nonbinary, told the B.A.R.
"We still have to fundraise $1.7 million for it," they said. "It is a big renovation but not as much as the ground floor, so our goal is to fundraise $1.7 [million] in order to do those changes to the second and third floors."
Therefore, Lala-Chávez couldn't give a date when the second and third floors would be ready. As the renovations continue, LYRIC plans to maintain its satellite offices in the Castro — the old Daddy's Barbershop at 4012 19th Street and the space at 566 Castro Street next to Fable — as well as use the ground floor of the Collingwood Street property.
"Our programming will be able to function," Lala-Chávez added.
Lala-Chávez stressed that the renovations are necessary to increase the nonprofit's ability to serve youth.
"This was not a beautification project," Lala-Chávez said. "The purpose of this renovation was to get more young people in this space."
In that, it's been successful, as the footprint of space where programming can take place will have increased 50% by the time renovations end.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin, a straight ally, presented a certificate of honor to the nonprofit. He was joined by gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí. (Peskin and Safaí are running for mayor in November's election.) In this year's city budget, LYRIC did see some cuts in the amount of money it received from the city, but not as much as initially proposed by the Department of Children, Youth, and Their Families, as the B.A.R. previously reported.
"We did not receive our entire gap back," Lala-Chávez stated to the B.A.R. in July. "We lost a total of $1,013,110 of funding via DCYF and we only received $330,000 back from the mayor's augmentation. Nothing else from DCYF, unfortunately. Additionally, LYRIC lost additional $380,000 in funding in other city departments totaling $1.3 [million], which forced us to lay off some of our amazing staff and scale back programs."
Peskin called working to get funding for LYRIC "a labor of love."
"I'm delighted for the restoration of this space and the role the City and County of San Francisco played," he added.
Lala-Chávez described Roma Guy, a longtime lesbian activist and former San Francisco health commissioner who attended, as a mentor. Guy gave a tribute to Pelosi.
"Today is just a 'hallelujah' day," Guy said. "The leadership of Madam Pelosi really is not to be — there's no way we can say thank you. Respect and clapping isn't good enough."
Gay state Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) said he lived on the same street as LYRIC his first seven years in San Francisco, which made defending the nonprofit personal for him.
"It's important, especially right now with what's happening in this country where our LGBTQ youth are political footballs," Wiener stated. "It's really scary but what's so reassuring for me is that in San Francisco, in California, we support these young people."
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