Of, By and For The Tenderloin

Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) develops community and provides affordable housing and services for people with low incomes in the Tenderloin and throughout San Francisco, to promote equitable access to opportunity and resources. Within the organization, TNDC’s Community Organizing (CO) Department plays a vital role in improving neighborhood livability by engaging with those most directly impacted—Tenderloin residents—empowering them to be confident advocates, decision-makers and strategic collaborators, and ensuring that the needs of marginalized groups are represented and addressed.

The Community Organizing team supports the grassroots leadership of local residents by providing them a space for personal development, and tools for political analysis and critical thinking. Their education and grassroots leadership training programs teach people to become effective leaders in their neighborhoods through a popular education curriculum covering personal narratives, campaign development, and policy areas directly impacting residents’ lives. Then, the CO team helps them apply the skills they’ve learned to actual campaigns and issue-based efforts in the realms of community planning, public safety, open space, retail, public health, racial justice, and other topics. Among the CO Department’s major initiatives are:

Tenderloin’s People Congress (TPC). An alliance of 14 resident-based organizations and many individuals dedicated to developing and sustaining the leadership of Tenderloin residents. CO provides TPC with staff, financial and administrative support, develops and mentors resident leaders, and provides leadership and capacity-building opportunities and assistance. The TPC and CO have embarked on a neighborhood plan called “Vision 2030” — confirming or revising platform priorities established in the existing Vision 2020 plan. The CO will work with the Tenderloin community, the TPC, and its allies to support and implement the revised plan.
Food Justice. In partnership with the resident-led Tenderloin Food Policy Council (TFPC), the CO builds leadership skills and capacity to address food security issues by changing community systems and structures that present barriers to low-income Tenderloin residents' access to healthy food.
Transit Justice. CO leads a broad grassroots coalition around transit justice, shapeing, advancing, and advocates for funds for an equitable and growing transportation system in the Tenderloin and throughout San Francisco.

The CO Department convenes neighborhood residents, business and political leaders, and other nonprofits to identify strategic partnership opportunities for advancing equitable policies and ensuring that the Tenderloin has the amenities of a thriving neighborhood. This convening work ensures that residents have a consequential voice in the community issues affecting them and that TNDC and other stakeholders have an improved knowledge of resident and community needs informed by people with lived experience. The CO team also advocates for local, state, and federal policies to secure the resources necessary to improve community conditions.

“We believe that being heard is essential to feeling valued and welcome in your home, neighborhood, and city. Right now, the systems we all rely on are designed to create enormous barriers for people based on their income, race, spoken language, gender identity, and more, from being heard. Our Community Organizing work aims to change that. By rooting our organizing and policy work in the wants of the Tenderloin community, investing in local leadership, and providing resources for community groups, we're championing the voice of the Tenderloin community and beyond.” — Colleen Rivecca, Director of Community Organizing, Policy and Planning

Since 1981, TNDC has supported residents and community members in building transformative communities by providing affordable homes with supportive services, wellness opportunities, and community advocacy. Over the course of 41 years, the organization has innovated supportive housing practices with onsite social workers and wellness programming that meet unique community needs and foster cultural inclusion and belonging. Today, over 6,300 people are housed across TNDC’s 45 buildings and in a few years they will reach over 10,000 people.

A small but might department within TNDC, the Community Organizing Department has been a force for positive change and a voice for marginalized residents through its commuyity organizng, activation, and advocacy. Among CO’s proudest achievements:

Vision 2020 Plan. In 2017, Tenderloin People’s Congress (TPC) and CO launched an effort to engage the entire Tenderloin community to envision what kind of neighborhood residents wanted for their future. They visited dozens of residential buildings in the Tenderloin; held community meetings to hear directly from over 1,200 residents; engaged community stakeholders, including property owners, businesses, service providers, and nonprofits; and held a Tenderloin People’s Summit, attended by 170 community members. With this information, the TPC and CO created the Vision 2020 Plan. This Plan sparked advocacy for San Francisco Planning to embark on a 2021 Tenderloin Community Action Planning Process, and in 2022 brought $4.5 million in city funds to the neighborhood for Community Action Projects.Together, TPC and the CO have preserved single-room occupant (SRO) hotels for people with low incomes and gained 24- hour pit stops - ensuring Tenderloin unhoused residents 24-hour access to bathroom facilities, equitable bus lines, and parks.

Tenderloin Food Policy Council (TFPC). In 2023, the Tenderloin Food Policy Council (TFPC) was formed after TNDC’s Healthy Retail program completed a series of focus groups with a diverse cross-section of Tenderloin residents to understand their perspectives about their ability to access and afford healthy food and drinking water and how cultural differences impacted residents’ perspectives. Within these focus groups, community members analyzed the policies, procedures, and systems currently helping them access and afford healthy food and water. They discussed what they thought needed to be improved. As a result, the CO and the TFPC are currently working to address policy, systems, and environmental change approaches to improve healthy food access in the Tenderloin.

Transit Justice. During the pandemic shutdown, the majority of public transit services were suspended, including two critical routes for Tenderloin residents who are among the most transit-dependent San Franciscans. The routes were crucial for riders as they both passed through the heart of the neighborhood and provided a direct route to other areas of the city without forcing people to walk multiple blocks to take other parallel transit lines. Through the advocacy and activism of residents, in partnership with the CO, the lines were restored.

Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation

Of, By and For The Tenderloin

Model and Strategy

Impact

Leadership

Katie Lamont

Roxanne Huey

Colleen Rivecca

Curtis Bradford