Raising a family on the job: Stories From The TODCO Family
Raising a family on the job: Stories From The TODCO Family
July 17, 2023
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
San Francisco, CA
Contact: TODCO Group, todcoplanning@todco.org, 415-896-1880
Raising a family on the job: Stories From The TODCO Family
As a boy of twelve children growing up in the Philippines, Willie Abasta, the South of Market TODCO Group’s Senior Property Manager, overheard many stories about the United States from friends and family. They described a life that seemed idyllic compared to his own. And he determined that he too would one day live in America.
So in 1978 Willie and his young wife Maria moved to Chicago. Although the novelty of the cold weather delighted them at first, after the “great blizzard” of 1979 Willie decided he was much more comfortable with the moderate climates of California. Then that summer he came to the Bay Area by bus to visit relatives. Traveling across the open landscapes of Wyoming, Idaho, Nebraska, Utah and Nevada he became enraptured by the beauty of America, hoping that he had chosen the best possible home for himself and his future family.
Then the day after his arrival Willie saw an ad for an apartment maintenance job at TODCO’s new Woolf House affordable senior housing that was just opening in the Yerba Buena redevelopment area. With some experience in construction work he decided to apply. And though he was frightened by the appearance of the neighborhood, its abandoned hotels and demolished lots, he was offered the job and accepted. It required that he and Maria live on site in a one-bedroom apartment, to be on-call 24 hours a day to respond to any emergencies in the 182-unit building. Medical calls, especially, are frequent in senior housing at all hours of the day and the middle of the night. Two years later their first son Louie was born, followed soon by the second, Billy, with the boys sleeping in bunk beds. In just six years Willie earned a promotion to the Building Manager, and then in 1989 he became the Manager of TODCO’s third senior residence when it opened, the 189 apartment Mendelsohn House. That included a two-bedroom apartment for his family at last!
Willie has been the Mendelsohn House Property Manager ever since, overseeing maintenance and contracting work at all 8 TODCO residences in SOMA with 950 living units. Willie has two grandchildren now, but no intention of retiring. “What else would I do,” he says. But hundreds of TODCO tenants will never forget the care and responsibility Willie Abasta has brought to their homes every day for 43 years.
Ping Yee, the Assistant Manager at TODCO’s Mendelsohn House senior residence, lived in Guangdong province of China until 1980. She excelled in science and mathematics as a child and then immigrated with her family to Portland Oregon to escape the chaos of the Cultural Revolution. Although excited by the prospect of beginning her life in a new country, Ping understood that to obtain an education, learn a new language and pursue her dream, she needed to focus on her goals diligently. So Ping’s family urged her to attend college, fearful that without an academic foundation her employment opportunities in America would be extremely limited. Ping enrolled in a local community college, attended classes in English as a Second Language and eventually obtained an Associate of Art degree in Computer Science while she worked long hours in a Chinese restaurant to support herself. After college Ping decided to move from Portland to San Francisco with her parents and grandmother, renting a 14-foot U-Haul truck to begin the long journey south, her family and her possessions in tow. She arrived in the Bay Area just one day later. Then in 1990 she saw an ad for an on-site bookeeper’s job at TODCO’s Woolf House apartments that also required living there for 24 hour on-call for emergency response. So she and her new husband, Feng Tong, moved in to the same one-bedroom apartment where Willie Abasta and his family had lived just the year before. Their first daughter, Gloria, was born in 1989 and her second, Ada, in 1991. Just like Willie’s boys, in following years they grew up in that small unit too until going to college. For the last 33 years Ping has been the always smiling front office worker greeting residents every morning, helping them with their tenant paperwork, and making sure every bill is paid!
Anna Yee, TODCO’s Chief Executive Officer, calls out how much Ping, Willie, and the dozen other on-site live-in staff of TODCO housing mean to the lives of the 1400 senior and SRO tenants: “Community is about relationships, relationships like those created by Willie Abasta and Ping Yee and their co-workers. They are known for responding to calls at all hours of the day and night year after year. Their dedication is untiring and genuine, and the residents know it and feel it. That is our TODCO community. It’s more than just an address.”