We recognize the challenges that all San Franciscans are facing during this time, and have worked hard to help our residents since before the shelter in place was implemented. As COVID-19 emerged, we were the first manager to halt evictions, worked closely with the city to provide emergency housing for survivors of domestic violence and have worked hard to care for our residents. We will continue to develop additional programs for our residential and retail tenants, and will unveil more in the weeks to come.

Like many, the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have been significant on our business and forced us to furlough significant portions of our staff. The $3.6 million PPP loan enables us to continue to employ 123 front line workers, many of whom would’ve lost their jobs without the loan, in addition to bringing back 26 furloughed workers. These are the maintenance people, building managers and our resident services team who work hard every day to make sure our residents sheltering in place continue to receive the high quality living experience they deserve.

Many assume we are a $3 billion business based on the value of the buildings we manage, however that is far from the truth. In reality, we have many investors who are the owners of the buildings in the Veritas portfolio. To be clear, we are a management company, committed to maintaining our buildings – many of which are more than 100 years old – and making sure our residents have the best living experience possible, especially during this period of the COVID-19 pandemic. The entire family of Veritas brands – Veritas, GreenTree and RentSFNow – owns zero real estate.

We are committed to repaying the PPP loan back in accordance with the Federal rules. We understand that some recipients of the loan are applying to make it a grant, however that is not our intention. This is merely a bridge to keep people employed and help their families, including making sure they have continued access to healthcare. The PPP loan is currently being used for its intended purpose – to save the jobs of our frontline workers – but we will not keep it.

San Francisco is the city we call home. We were born and bred in San Francisco and remain committed to the city, its community and our employees. But we are also a business that needed the loan for its intended purpose, to meet our payroll and employ the people responsible for maintaining the buildings that house more than 8000 San Franciscans. We continue to deliver on our promise to put residents first, always.

It started with an email after midnight, literally a stab in the dark to colleagues in his department. By 11am that morning, Dan Chung, a Vice President at Veritas Investments, had overrun his goal and it didn’t stop there. People were asking about the campaign so he widened the net to other staff.

“Hi Veritas Family, I started an initiative with the goal to purchase 10,000 surgical masks to be donated to local hospitals to help protect doctors and nurses as they treat patients infected with the coronavirus (COVID-19). …Please don’t feel obligated to make a contribution. For those interested in making a contribution, no matter how small, please email….”

As of April 17, Chung’s solo mission raised enough money to acquire 10,000 surgical masks, as well as 1,100 N95 masks for Bay Area medical staff. In the past week, he dropped off over 5,500 masks at Kaiser Permanente and another 5,500 at the San Francisco emergency medical facility created at Moscone Center. And more are coming, Dan said, because the fundraising kept going.

How did it start? Dan and his wife were at Kaiser Permanente’s Oakland Medical Center for an appointment a couple weeks before, unrelated to coronavirus, but he noticed something out of sync.

“I saw a few people without masks and they told me, they’re being saved for surgery and high-risk needs,” he said. “I decided I had to do something.”

It was just an idea, something that tapped Dan’s deep appreciation for the Kaiser Permanente teams who had been so good to his family now and over the years, and for all the medical workers on the front lines of the pandemic. It struck a chord with his colleagues, too, in seeing an opportunity to recognize the crucial role that our medical system and its dedicated professionals play throughout our lives, sometimes quietly and sometimes with great needs like today.

Another key part of achieving Chung’s goals included the extended Veritas network. Chung has relationships inside and outside the company and one of them, a Veritas investor based in Hong Kong, was moved by his fundraising effort and immediately wanted to help with the cause. This Veritas investor personally helped source and ship the N95 masks and located a supplier for the medical-grade masks, all of which were shipped direct from Hong Kong. He also made a 100% matching contribution to extend the fundraising efforts.

The Bay Area medical personnel were extremely appreciative, and told Dan, “Wow, this is amazing!”, “So many masks!”, “The doctors and nurses really need these.” Dozens and dozens of his colleagues had contributed money as well as their time. Most folks generously gave between $10 to $100, he said, and Chung was thrilled that CEO Yat-Pang Au made a 100% matching gift to further add to the campaign. Chung also gave a shout-out to Bernard Borja for joining him at 6am each day for delivering masks to the hospitals.

CEO Au recognized Dan Chung’s community-minded spirit on a companywide Zoom call, saying, “Thanks Dan, we very much appreciate it, and shows what can be started by just one person. And let me encourage everyone else, when you see people in times of need, lend a helping hand, find out ways to connect and support them. We are all in this together.”