News about SFCLT

News & Info

SF Chronicle June 2009

Chinatown land trust helps low-income housing

Cory Paul, Chronicle Staff Writer

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Just a few years ago, floor boards popped up as Ji Jian-guang walked across his cramped Chinatown apartment.

His wife, Ru Mei Peng, washed vegetables in a sink the size of a shoe box. Their two adult sons - along with a daughter-in-law and grandbaby - shared a bedroom split by a bookcase.

Though cramped, 53 Columbus, Room 108, was home. For nearly a decade, the Jis feared they would lose it to encroaching developers.

But in 2006, the San Francisco Community Land Trust bought 53 Columbus. After a $6.1 million seismic upgrade and renovation, the Jis and other tenants moved back into remodeled units in January. The fully remodeled apartments were dedicated earlier this month. The apartments, called the Columbus United Cooperative, is the first project of the San Francisco Community Land Trust and marks a new housing strategy for San Francisco. Structured like a nonprofit corporation, the land trust helps keep ownership affordable by retaining ownership of land beneath the building while tenants pay $10,000 to own a unit.

Ming Pao March 2008

"Tenants of an affordable housing complex will become home owners - rehab construction to begin in Chinatown"
Chuck Ng, Ming Pao Reporter
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Ming Pao San Francisco

Asian Law Caucus, Mayor's Office, San Francisco Land Trust, Chinatown Resource Center and tenant representatives held a press conference at 53 to 55 Columbus, San Francisco, to celebrate their building becoming the first tenants owned affordable housing development. The interior rehab construction for the 21 units is estimated to complete in 6 months. Asian Law Caucus' headquarter will move into the site, helping the agency in providing better service to the Chinatown residents.

SF Examiner Feb 2006

"Chinatown building may be bought by tenants"
Emily Francher, SF Examiner
February 6, 2006

Chungyau Poon, 77, has lived in the Fong Building on Columbus Avenue since he arrived in the United States from Hong Kong in 1972.

Despite the cracked walls and bare light bulbs, he can't beat the $360-a-month rent for a two-bedroom he shares with his family.

Poon feared eviction when City College of San Francisco bought the building in 1998 with the intention of demolishing it to build a new campus on the site.

But he's resting easier these days.

San Francisco Community Land Trust, a nonprofit, is on the verge of purchasing the building on behalf of Poon and other tenants through an innovative approach to create permanently affordable homeownership.

SF Chronicle July 2006

"Reaching for the American Dream Chinatown renters unite to own homes"
Vanessa Hua, Chronicle Staff Writer
San Francisco Chronicle
Tuesday, July 25, 2006

For a decade, Ji Jian-guang and his wife feared losing their cramped, two-bedroom Chinatown apartment.

Their home, where their adult sons share a bunk bed and thick tape holds a bathroom window inside its rotting wood frame, is typical of other apartments in the neighborhood, but families like the Jis have few housing options. Ji says he couldn't live outside this neighborhood where community groups and businesses cater to more than 18,000 residents -- many monolingual immigrants like him.

So this spring, Ji, his wife, Ru Mei Peng, and a dozen other families joined a land trust designed to improve living conditions for the poor and make home ownership a financial possibility.

SF Bay Guardian May 2006

"21 units, affordable forever"
Sarah Phelan
SF Bay Guardian
May 23, 2006

After eight years of stressing about being evicted from the rent-controlled Fong Building on Columbus Street, Chungyau Poon, 77, can finally relax.

On May 16, in its first deal since incorporating three years ago, the San Francisco Community Land Trust purchased the historic 21-unit building, where Poon has lived for three and a half decades in the shadow of the Transamerica Pyramid. About 50 Cantonese people, including seniors and their families, reside in the building.

DiGiPHOTO

SF Chronicle June 2009

Ming Pao March 2008

SF Examiner Feb 2006

SF Chronicle July 2006

SF Bay Guardian May 2006