Model and Strategy
A place to call home has the power to stabilize the life of someone experiencing homelessness -- enabling them to improve their physical and mental health, secure a job, and participate in the community. That's the simple-yet-powerful idea behind supportive housing, proven to help people get off the street and build a better future. The challenge is that residents often block supportive housing developments in their neighborhoods. But in Hayes Valley, NOPA and the Marina, where new supportive housing developments are located, neighbors' concerns never came to pass. Neighbors walk by a well-designed, well-maintained building where residents garden, come and go from work, or walk their dogs.
We seek to create more supportive housing, equally distributed across SF. To change hearts and minds, our project will initiate community dialogue to ease residents' concerns while upholding the rights and dignity of people who are homeless. It will document and publish best practices to communicate with neighbors, facilitate discussions with community leaders from districts with few supportive housing units, and empower people who once were homeless to express the value housing brings to SF.
Impact
Community Housing Partnership will disrupt housing discrimination for people experiencing homelessness in San Francisco. Our project will increase the number of neighborhoods where future supportive housing will be constructed or developed, geographically broadening the distribution of developments citywide.
Although redlining is illegal, public opposition to supportive housing, especially in middle and higher income neighborhoods, leads developments to be concentrated in a handful of lower-income neighborhoods. As a frame of reference, 153 affordable housing projects are currently in San Francisco’s development pipeline. Over 90% — all but 15 of these developments — are concentrated in lower-income neighborhoods like the Tenderloin/Civic Center, Mission, Bernal Heights, Potrero Hill, and SOMA. (Source: Data SF)
Our project will address the disparities that exist from concentrating poverty, advocating for the equitable placement of supportive housing sites across the city and discouraging the warehousing of poor people in a small cluster of neighborhoods. Reducing community opposition and advocating for policy changes will remove roadblocks to new construction and increase redevelopment opportunities, enabling Community Housing Partnership to scale our impact, invest dollars and time effectively, and more quickly create new housing for people who have experienced homelessness. Lastly, expanding the geographic distribution of supportive housing will result in more equitable access to schools, neighborhood amenities, social capital, and economic opportunities, while creating safer neighborhoods for everyone.
Leadership
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Gail Gilman
Chief Executive Offier