Bay Area Housing: The Path Forward
Preservation
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Overview
We need to preserve the affordable homes we already have. The loss of affordable housing occurs for various reasons, such as the expiration of affordability protections, the redevelopment of existing rental housing, inadequate maintenance, and the loss of rent-controlled units.
For example, from 2013 to 2022, San Francisco added 9,285 new affordable homes but lost 3,879—a net gain of only 5,406 units. Statewide, the California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC) estimates that 30,000 deed-restricted affordable homes[1] and over 300,000 unsubsidized homes[2] are at risk of loss. Because Black and Latino residents are overrepresented among lower-income families, the loss of these homes is felt most strongly by households of color.
The California Department of Housing and Community Development estimates the state has 500,000 subsidized, deed-restricted units. Many of these units were built 30-50 years ago, with regulatory affordability agreements set to expire. As they do, these units are at risk of converting to market-rate housing. Units are sometimes lost as well when project-based rental assistance contracts with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development are not renewed.
Unsubsidized affordable housing is affordable to Californians with lower incomes due to the housing’s age, location, and physical condition. The number of unsubsidized affordable housing units is declining for various reasons, including recent acquisitions of small multi-family developments by large for-profit corporations and redevelopment of old sites to build new higher-density office and housing developments. Families with lower incomes are displaced as demand from higher-income residents increases housing costs.
Bay Area organizations and jurisdictions preserve these affordable homes through several strategies, including creating incentives for developers to keep units affordable when deed restrictions expire by restructuring or selling to a nonprofit sponsor, accessing funding to purchase affordable housing units, adopting first right of refusal policies that allow tenants and community members to buy housing before it is offered for sale, prioritizing funding for developments in need of rehabilitation, and creating alternative ownership models, such as community land trusts or cooperative housing. Additionally, strengthening and protecting rent-controlled units is a vital preservation strategy.
[1] Deed restricted affordable housing is publicly subsidized and typically restricted to residents making less than 60% of Area Median Income adjusted by family size.
[2] “Naturally affordable” housing is housing that is more affordable due to its age, location, and physical condition.
Our Priorities
Asset- and wealth-building
We support nonprofits in acquiring and rehabilitating affordable homes and pioneering new ownership models, such as land trusts, to make asset- and wealth-building possible for communities of color in the Bay Area.
Tenant-centered preservation
We support tenant-centered preservation, which engages with current tenants and the community to meet their needs when preserving already affordable housing.
Capital, loan products, and expertise
We support efforts to bring additional capital, loan products, and expertise into the effort to preserve housing.
Protecting and improving existing affordable housing
We support policies that protect and improve existing affordable housing.
Preservation in Action
Examples of SFF grantees preserving our affordable housing.
The Martinez family was just one of the many families assisted by Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), funded with help from the foundation’s Bay Area Community Impact Fund (BACIF).
Mission Economic Development Agency
Supported by a loan from BACIF, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) acquired 300 Ocean Ave. in Mission Terrace. It will preserve and update the building as affordable housing in partnership with the City of San Francisco’s Small Sites program, which helps longtime residents vulnerable to no-fault Ellis Act evictions stay in their homes. Residents of 300 Ocean Ave. include Black and Latinx households, including families with children and tenants with physical impairments.
HOPE SF
HOPE SF is an integrated and innovative approach to addressing multigenerational poverty in the most distressed public housing in San Francisco. As the nation’s first large-scale, explicitly anti-racist community development initiative, HOPE SF centers resident voices, builds wealth, and supports healthy communities. HOPE SF is about developing vibrant, mixed-income communities at four San Francisco public housing communities without mass displacement of original residents. SFF, Enterprise Community Partners, and the City and County of San Francisco lead this public-private partnership.
Community Ownership for Community Power Fund
SFF initiative Great Communities Collaborative (GCC) supports the Community Ownership for Community Power Fund. This bold $22 million philanthropic initiative brings together community power-building organizations and the expansive funder ecosystem to address the inequitable funding system for California’s community ownership of real estate, land, and housing. Community ownership refers to community-led initiatives such as community land trusts, housing cooperatives, and other shared equity models developed by and for the benefit of residents, not speculative developers or other public and private institutions who often fail to engage community leadership.
Photo of the Imperial Family, Oakland Community Land Trust homeowners.
Oakland Community Land Trust
SFF’s Bay Area Community Impact Fund supported the Oakland Community Land Trust with a $900,000 loan, providing critical early financing to purchase properties with tenants at risk of eviction. These projects make these homes permanently affordable and help Oakland Community Land Trust members transition from being tenants to homeowners. For single-family homes, the Oakland Community Land Trust retains permanent ownership of the land, leases it long-term to the resident, and sells the home to the resident by helping them secure a mortgage.
Bringing more resources to the field
A powerful community of donors is helping provide the deeply needed resources to fuel this work.
Developed by SFF initiative Great Communities Collaborative, Five Ways Philanthropy Can Catalyze Tenant-Centered Housing Preservation helps donors and funders explore housing preservation and community ownership models as strategies to achieve housing equity. It highlights the impact funders can have on the affordable housing preservation ecosystem by funding urgent community needs and providing the patient investment necessary to build long-term systems grounded in racial equity.
Rendering of the 203-unit tower TNDC plans to build at 921 Howard.
The San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund and SFF helped launch and support the Home for Good Fund. This Fund – which has raised $26 million – allows individual donors and philanthropic investors to help San Francisco families find and keep affordable homes by making short-term bridge loans to community developers. Since launching the Home for Good Fund, HAF has financed 26 projects in San Francisco, producing and preserving over 1,600 affordable units.
Community Conversations
Through op-eds and speaking on panels, SFF is an important part of regional conversations around housing.
Read More on Preserving and Rehabilitating Affordable Homes
Data and research around gentrification and displacement
Preserving the existing stock of dedicated affordable rental housing
Information about Tenant Opportunity to Purchase policies
California Housing Partnership Corporation (CHPC) (February 2020)
Enterprise Community Partners (2020)
UC Berkeley Institute of Governmental Studies, Changing Cities Research Lab, and the UC Berkeley Urban Displacement Project (March 2022)
Urban Habitat (February 2022)
Great Communities Collaborative, San Francisco Foundation, and LISC Bay Area (March 2022)