As Community Development Program Fellow, I am part of a dedicated team that seeks out and funds organizations working to increase the economic security and resiliency of Bay Area families. We believe quality affordable housing is a critical foundation to create opportunity for Bay Area residents, and as such, we make grants to organizations working to increase the supply of affordable housing through new construction and acquisition; preservation and rehabilitation of existing affordable housing; and advocacy to expand the availability and financing mechanisms for affordable housing at the local, regional, state and national levels. In doing so, we seek to bridge the gap between supply and demand for affordable housing in order to help low-income Bay Area families access decent, safe housing in inclusive, mixed-income communities, thereby reducing stress and allowing families to improve their educational performance, health and employment outcomes, and overall civic participation.
Last week, I joined Vanitha Venugopal, Program Director for Community Development and Investment, in Sacramento as she accepted an award for this longstanding work of the Foundation. At that event, the California Housing Consortium inducted The San Francisco Foundation into the California Housing Hall of Fame for our longtime philanthropic support of affordable housing. The event was a virtual “who’s who” in affordable housing, with more than 100 representatives from nonprofit housing developers, affordable housing advocates, researchers, legislators and financial institutions from across California.
In addition to accepting the award on behalf of the Foundation, Vanitha was part of a panel discussing the critical role affordable housing plays in improving quality of life for all Californians. Along with Matt Schwartz of California Housing Partnership Corporation, Doug Shoemaker from Mercy Housing California, and Stuart Cohen of TransForm, the panel highlighted the vital connection of housing to transportation, sustainable energy, education, and health of Californians.
We also heard from University of California Berkeley Professor Carolina Reid, whose research confirmed the severe mismatch between the supply and demand for affordable housing in California, with just 20 units of affordable housing available for every 100 households earning 85% of area median income.
Reid also noted that housing instability is among the key factors driving the majority of negative outcomes for children, with low-income families outside of affordable housing moving on average between four and six times each year. Facing such high instances of family dislocation, it’s not difficult to understand the relationship between housing instability and the academic and health challenges of many low-income youth.
With average incomes dropping across most demographics and skyrocketing rents throughout much of the Bay Area, it’s clear that the need for high-quality affordable housing is greater than ever and will be an ongoing need for decades to come.
This is why The San Francisco Foundation has invested tens of millions of dollars to support this work, and why together with our grantees we will continue our struggle to ensure every Bay Area resident is able to live in the community of their choice.
To read more about this year’s California Housing Hall of Fame awardees, visit the California Housing Consortium website.