SF LGBTrasgender Center Needs Your Financial Help

Let's all hope the LGBT Center in San Francisco makes it financially in these tough times. Please, follow the link to donate. Gay community center day of reckoning nears Rachel Gordon Sunday, March 28, 2010 The Board of Supervisors is scheduled to decide Tuesday whether to take the unusual step of providing a bailout to the nonprofit San Francisco Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Community Center. The proposed arrangement calls for the city to set up a "mortgage payment reserve fund" with an initial payment of $157,500 that could be tapped into if the community center, at Market and Octavia streets, can't pay its mortgage. In all, the city could be on the hook for just over $1 million, if the fund needs to be replenished. If city officials agree to the arrangement, First Republic Bank, which holds the mortgage, agreed to restructure the loan to reduce the community center's monthly payments. The center has promised to repay the city, with 1 percent interest, if the special fund needs to be tapped. The proposal, sponsored by San Francisco's two gay supervisors, David Campos and Bevan Dufty, cleared the board's budget committee on a 2-1 vote Wednesday. Supervisors John Avalos and Ross Mirkarimi voted in favor and Supervisor Sean Elsbernd was opposed. Concerns were raised that other financially struggling nonprofits may ask for similar assistance from the city, which itself is faced with a financial crunch. But supporters said that City Hall already has a long-standing relationship with the 8-year-old LGBT community center, having funded nearly half the $12.3 million cost of construction. ORIGINAL ARTICLE

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