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The San Francisco Community Land Trust works to preserve San Francisco's diminishing affordable housing stock by acquiring and converting rental buildings into permanently affordable, shared-equity housing cooperatives (under California law, limited-equity housing cooperatives) through which the current residents share ownership of the residential coop and the SFCLT maintains ownership of the land. By separating the building from the land, the units become affordable while the SFCLT maintains the affordability requirements in perpetuity. We secure financing for acquisition and conversion, provide extensive and intensive education and technical assistance to residents throughout the process to ensure long-term sustainability of the resident coop – including individual and group financial counseling and linking residents with EARN to save towards their share purchase goal and to qualify for matching IDA funds, and serve as the long-term steward to ensure permanent affordability and stability of these community assets. Coop members are members of the SFCLT and are able to participate in membership decisions and elect or serve on the Board of Directors or Board committees.

In June 2009, the Land Trust celebrated the Grand Opening of our first project -- Columbus United Cooperative --a 21-apartment, mixed-use building at the edge of San Francisco's Chinatown. This limited-equity housing coop is an important success story in a neighborhood where few residents are able to own a home. In 2005, the San Francisco Community Land Trust was approached about working with the tenants of the building, mostly low- and very low-income Chinese-American families who were fighting to save their homes from demolition. With the help of Asian Law Caucus and Chinatown Community Development Center, the tenants organized to fight the eviction. Through an extensive process of community collaboration, we secured public and private financing to purchase the building and worked with the residents and community partners to rehabilitate the building and complete the coop conversion. With support and direction from the SFCLT, the tenants formed a housing cooperative, elected a Board of Directors, and will soon be purchasing shares as coop member-owners. Former tenants are now back in the building, and the SFCLT and Coop worked together to select new, qualified Coop members for several vacant units. Critical to this process has been our program over the past year and continuing onward to educate and empower these low-income tenants on how to be successful cooperative owners and managers and to further their household's financial assets.

The residents of the Columbus United Cooperative acknowledge the role of Mr. Pius Lee, President of California Realty and Land, Inc., in forwarding the Columbus United Cooperative, Chinatown's first affordable housing cooperative. Mr. Lee relinquished a development right at 53 Columbus Avenue so the owner could sell the building to San Francisco Community Land Trust for the purpose of converting it into the cooperative. But for Mr. Lee's consideration, the cooperative would not have gone forward without his assistance, for which the residents of Columbus United Cooperative appreciate Mr. Lee's effort.

Columbus United Cooperative is now occupied and operating. Later this year, we will be taking transfer of an existing land trust coop, Bakers Dozen Cooperative, 13 units for very low-income individuals in the Western Addition. Additionally, we will be embarking on a new project for potential conversion of a 140-apartment rental property in the Western Addition. Initially built in the 1960’s, the for-profit developer defaulted on the project and the City became the landlord. The City is now taking steps to support the current tenants' desire to see their homes owned cooperatively, and we will enter into contract with the City in September to work with the tenants. Additionally, we intend to work with community-based organizations and low-income tenants in the South of Market neighborhood to explore the potential for CLT/LEHC permanently affordable coop housing as a protection against gentrification and displacement.