DiGiPHOTO

Winter 2010-2011

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Shop Coop and Save!

Check out this exciting promotion from our fellow NOBAWC member Rainbow Grocery and use your SFCLT membership receipt for a 15% discount in February.

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Save the Date: SFCLT Annual Member Meeting 3/26/11

Our 2011 Annual Meeting will take place on Saturday March 26th, 2011 from 2-5pm at the Historic I Hotel at 848 Kearny St. (right behind Columbus United Cooperative).  Stay tuned for meeting details, but mark this date in your calendar and plan on attending.  Our meeting will be a time to get to know other SFCLT members, share good food and plan for our organization's future.  As a grassroots organization, your participation is crucial in determining the direction and governance of the San Francisco Community Land Trust.

For only $24.00 you can become part of the movement to create permanently affordable housing in San Francisco through community ownership of the land.  As housing costs continue to rise and home ownership becomes more out of reach for low and moderate income people in San Francisco, SFCLT is working to build permanently affordable housing cooperatives, where residents will jointly own their building.

Come build with us as we fight displacement, and help to preserve San Francisco's rich economic, racial and cultural diversity.

Join now!

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SFCLT in SoMa

As we embark on our feasibility analysis and outreach activities in the South of Market neighborhood it is exciting to note how our work there is deeply connected with other groundbreaking community development work happening in the neighborhood.   SoMa is home to some amazing community organizations and we are very lucky to be working with several of them to explore the creation of one to two new CLT/Coop projects in the SoMa area.

The Filipino-American Development Foundation has been a leader in the process to establish the country’s first “social heritage special use district”, also known as “Soma Pilipinas”.  Legislation will be drafted in 2011 to add the Filipino Social Heritage Special Use District in the SF Planning Code to preserve and protect identified Filipino cultural assets in San Francisco’s SoMa neighborhood.  Many of these cultural assets still provide a space for cultural activities that build and preserve the existing Filipino community in SoMa, including the seniors, youth, and their families.

The Bay Area is home to the largest Filipino community outside of the Philippines, with 40,072 Filipinos in San Francisco alone and another 276,937 in the surrounding Bay Area counties (2000 US Census).  With the creation of the SoMa Pilipinas Social Heritage District there will be official recognition of the cultural importance of the SoMa neighborhood for our Filipino residents in the Bay Area.

Another groundbreaking campaign in SoMa is the creation of a SoMa Youth and Family Special Use District (SUD) in the South of Market neighborhood.  Led by the amazing organizing work of SOMCAN (South of Market Community Action Network), the SoMa Youth and Family SUD goals are 1) to protect and enhance the health and environment of youth and families from small business/jobs, open space, community based organizations, school, pedestrian safety to traffic congestion; 2) provision of affordable housing in the area defined; 3) extra protections to the neighborhood around certain types of developments and limit permits on businesses deemed to not be youth and family friendly.  Currently, SOMCAN is working with residents and new District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim to create an amending ordinance that will further define the type of affordable housing in the SUD that will benefit residents that can only afford to pay rent below 50% of their income.

We are so proud to be working with such amazing organizations in an attempt to create several permanently affordable housing cooperatives with the SFCLT in SoMa.  This would deeply support both the Social Heritage District and the Youth and Family Special Use District as a concrete means to support individuals and families to remain living in SoMa.  We will keep you posted as all of these projects develop.  Stay tuned!

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Solar Energy Rebates for SFCLT Members

Energy Independence, Let Luminalt Guide You…

At this time there are some incredible rebates for multi-family building owners and residents who are interested in going solar. Rebates include a Solar Thermal Rebate through the state and a decent incentive for solar electric through the city. There are Boiler Replacement Incentives as well that nearly cover the cost of a new boiler (minus the labor).

As an employer of co-op members and supporter of cooperative living, Luminalt would like to offer itself as a resource for any SFCLT members interested in sustainable energy for their homes. Luminalt is a San Francisco based, family owned business rooted firmly in the community.  We are known for our high quality of work and dedication to our clients. We understand sustainability goes beyond being green, that’s why we hire from within the community and support cooperative living. We would love to find a way to assist the SFCLT members and supporting community to improve their properties while keeping down utility costs for generations to come!

Luminalt

415-641-4000

1320 Potrero Ave.

San Francisco, CA 94110

This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

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San Francisco: Hotel City

The history of affordable housing in San Francisco is closely linked with the history of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) Hotels in San Francisco. As a city with a history of being a stomping ground for sailors and travelers looking for work, these hotels became an important part of the City's affordable housing stock. As we begin working with the South of Market community, one of the neighborhoods with the most SRO Hotels, it is important to understand this history. Check out this amazing page about the city's SRO history and struggles.

http://www.ccsro.org/pages/history.htm

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New Study by Urban Institute on Shared Equity and Asset Building

The Urban Institute recently released a study on how different affordable homeownership models balance "affordability" with "asset-building" as compared with traditional homeownership, which despite the recent housing crisis is still considered as the primary strategy for building family assets, especially for low-income and minority households. The study compares several limited-equity and shared-equity models, including Community Land Trusts (single-family homes), Deed Restricted Below Market Rate units, and Limited-Equity Housing Cooperatives (LEHCs). Although LEHCs ranked lowest on their "return on investment", they ranked highest on affordability for lower-income households, upon original sale and future re-sale. All models were found to not only increase household assets over time, but also to protect the homeowner's original investment equity, unlike traditional homeownership. The study was presented through a webinar hosted by the Center for Housing Policy, which is now available on the their website (see below). Presenters emphasized the importance of building awareness of these models not as a replacement for traditional homeownership, but as an intermediary model, and the importance of bringing rental advocates on board.

For more detail, listen to the webinar at:

http://forum.housingpolicy.org/group/sharedequityhomeownership/forum/topics/live-at-the-forum-webinar-on-3

Here's a direct link to the Urban Institute's Study:

http://urban.org/sharedequity/

 

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