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Community members and organizations have raised over $100,000 for the tenants displaced by the latest blaze in the Mission. The June 18 five-alarm fire at 29th and Mission streets displaced 58 people from their residential units, leaving most of them without a home to return to.<\/p>\n
A portion of those proceeds were generated during a fundraiser on June 30 at Mission District\u2019s El Rio bar, which hosted a charity concert featuring various Bay Area bands and artists in hopes of raising much needed funds to help the victims get back on their feet.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a great honor to be asked [to perform],\u201d said activist musician Francisco Herrera, who will be running for District 11 Supervisor in November. \u201cIt really does give me a sense of rage and discouragement that we\u2019ve allowed the government of our city to play such an inept role in permitting these [fires in the Mission District] to happen.\u201d<\/p>\n
Last month\u2019s fire is only the latest blaze in the Mission District\u2014a neighborhood that has already seen more than a hundred residents displaced by numerous fires in recent years. Many locals from the neighborhood suspect that arson may be the reasons for the blaze.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very frustrating to see, after all of the fires that have happened here,\u201d said Herrera. \u201cThat there\u2019s such little recourse for the families, to be able to respond and have shelter and support for the kids of the families. Now I feel a deep commitment that we are going to create a system that supports families and that cuts the ability for investors to gouge people and to take advantage of these kinds of situations. So we will find a way to stop the profiteering off of other people\u2019s tragedies.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sana Saleem, reporter with 48 Hills, organized the fundraiser and began reporting on the fire immediately. Living just two streets over from where the fire took place, Saleem began interviewing the victims and made a spreadsheet with her husband\u2014who works in tech\u2014of all of the essential necessities that the individual families needed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m from the community and this could\u2019ve happened to me,\u201d said Saleem, who moved into the neighborhood 19-months ago. \u201cI just feel like I need to give back to the community and especially because my husband is from tech. We are the \u2018supposed gentrifiers,\u2019 so we have more responsibility on us to do more and to contribute more to the community.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Saleem, if tech workers decide to arrange a charity event, their company will match the proceeds the event generates.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe decided we were going to host it,\u201d Saleem said. \u201cAnd the reason that we decided to host it was because they would match the funding and would double it up.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the matching of the corporate sponsor, more than $20,000 in total was raised at El Rio, according to Saleem.<\/p>\n
But another reason for the event was to bring the entire community together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to get the tech and progressives, everyone in one room and say, \u2018This is not about you and your politics, this is about the families who lost their homes.\u2019 And that\u2019s the whole idea behind the fundraiser,\u201d Saleem said.<\/p>\n
As the crowd enjoyed their cocktail drinks and beers at El Rio, the musicians waited for their turns to rock the stage.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s what music\u2019s all about, using your music to help others and have fun doing it,\u201d said lead singer Adam Spry of The Old Folks, who opened the fundraiser. \u201cI don\u2019t know if it gets better than that. We\u2019re totally thrilled. Yeah, it feels great.\u201d<\/p>\n
Saleem in a July 2 facebook post listed the other contributions: Edwin Lindo\u2019s Gofundme page raised $49,027; an Internal Google Fundraiser (235 employee donations that were matched by Google) raised $40,528; and Mission Economic Development Fund (MEDA) raised over $12,000.<\/p>\n
\u201cFunds raised on the night and beforehand will all be added up to form one final number,\u201d wrote Saleem in a facebook post. \u201cThis final number will be divided and cheques will be given to the families who lost homes (we’re trying to do this as quickly as possible). Neither MEDA or anyone who helped raise funds for these families are taking a dime for their efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
[su_slider source=”media: 30863,30864,30865,30866,30867,30874,30869,30872,30875″ limit=”40″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_slider source=”media: 29856,29857″ limit=”30″ link=”image” target=”blank” width=”700″ height=”460″ autoplay=”0″ speed=”500″][su_menu][\/su_slider] Community members and organizations have raised over $100,000 for the tenants displaced by the latest blaze in the Mission. The June 18 five-alarm fire at 29th and Mission streets displaced 58 people from their residential units, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":30874,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"newspack_popups_has_disabled_popups":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","newspack_article_summary_title":"Overview:","newspack_article_summary":"","newspack_hide_updated_date":false,"newspack_show_updated_date":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3573,7],"tags":[],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-30862","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-housing-news","category-news","entry"],"yoast_head":"\n