REP-SF Planning to the People Newsletter: Aug. 2024
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We're happy to share our REP-SF Planning to the People newsletter for August! Our monthly newsletter provides the latest news and ways to take action on behalf of grassroots communities for housing justice and equitable city planning – all in one place!
This month, we're excited to share the launch of our REP-SF Blog! We will be breaking down the most critical issues facing the city when it comes to planning and affordable housing. In our first blog post, we focus on the threats of displacement from SF Planning's proposed rezonings.
In solidarity,
The REP-SF Team
Race & Equity in all Planning Coalition
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San Francisco's Rezoning Will Displace Tenants & Small Businesses – Aug. 2024
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Instead of moving SF to a future of vibrant, diverse and affordable neighborhoods, the City is proposing policies that threaten what many of us cherish about living here. And worse than that, they threaten whether we'll be able to be here at all.
Many San Francisco residents and small business owners are not even aware that their home or business, and those surrounding them throughout their neighborhood, are being targeted for Redevelopment by the San Francisco Planning Dept. These rezonings will cause displacement of both tenants and small businesses, and encourage developers to tear down our neighborhoods for expensive condos.
Learn more about SF Planning's upzoning proposal, community impacts, and REP-SF's community demands.
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Tell SF & CA to End the Sweeps & Arrests of Our Unhoused Neighbors NOW!
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Join us and our allies at the Coalition on Homelessness in demanding the City and State immediately end the heightened dangerous, cruel and ineffective street sweeps and arrests of our unhoused neighbors, and instead invest in true solutions.The REP-SF coalition and many of our member organizations have signed onto a letter demanding an end to the sweeps.
Street sweeps are bad for public health, perpetuate the issue of homelessness itself, and violate basic human rights. San Francisco needs community and evidence-based solutions – not sweeps. Only affordable housing prevents and solves homelessness.
Please use and share COH's social media toolkit to take action!
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Act Now! Demand SF Put Affordability & Equity First!
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Thank you so much to everyone who has signed and shared REP-SF's petition calling on San Francisco to put equity and affordability FIRST! Let's keep up the pressure to move forward real solutions for housing affordability, tenant protections, and community planning. Help us spread the word to keep up the momentum!
Sign Petition: bit.ly/REPSF-Equity-Petition; Share Petition: bit.ly/REPpetitionToolkit
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In S.F.’s Central SoMa, A Beloved Vehicle Is Driving the Neighborhood’s Filipino Revival – San Francisco Chronicle, July 26, 2024
REP-SF member featured! Iconic Jeepney now cruising through SOMA Pilipinas Filipino Cultural District! While murals and public art can help anchor a cultural district, Raquel Redondiez, director of SOMA Pilipinas, came to the conclusion that a Jeepney would not only be a way to give groups tours, but also would resonate with the immigrant community. “It’s a different model, a different kind of economic recovery based on supporting the little guys rather than big industry or corporations or who can we help become billionaires,” said Redondiez.
SOMA Pilipinas has always anchored the neighborhood, before, during and now after the pandemic, when the City is looking to get the Financial District & SOMA out of the doom loop.
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SF Tenant Advocates See Win in Biden Push for Cap on Rent Increases – San Francisco Examiner, July 17, 2024
Our allies at Tenants Together, a statewide coalition of tenant organizations that is headquartered in San Francisco, were quoted in response to President Biden's proposed 5% nationwide cap on rent increases each year. Shanti Singh of Tenants Together says: "We’ve never seen that kind of signaling from the federal government before. To actually have a sitting president acknowledge that some form of rent control can be part of the solution, that’s a huge move in and of itself, I think."
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PolicyLink Responds to President Biden’s Plan to Lower Housing Costs – PolicyLink, July 16, 2024
Our partners at PolicyLink published a statement about the same President Biden proposal for a nationwide rent cap. As PolicyLink notes, "this historic proposal is a result of years of tenant organizing and, most recently, calls from thousands of renters and advocates for the White House to enact national rent control through the Federal Housing Finance Agency." PolicyLink argues that it's crucial that Biden's proposal moves from concept to reality swiftly to benefit households nationwide.
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Remaking the Economy: How Policy Can Help Tenants Purchase Their Homes – Nonprofit Quarterly, June 24, 2024
REP-SF member featured! In a recent webinar, José García, associate director of preservation at the Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA), spoke about San Francisco's Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) and how tenants and the community can use trailblazing laws like this to stabilize at-risk renters. The panel also featured our partner Tram Hoang, senior associate at PolicyLink, who focuses on housing policy work. The webinar explored policies like this as a tool to build tenant power and transform our housing economy towards collective and community ownership.
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Where Is the Housing Shortage? – Housing Policy Debate, April 18, 2024
In case you needed proof that the housing crisis is a matter of affordability and not a lack of housing! In a landmark academic study, researchers concluded there is no shortage of housing in the U.S. Looking at census data from 2000 to 2020, researchers concluded that there are over 3 million housing units more than there are households in the U.S. Only 4 cities, out of 381, had a housing shortage, and San Francisco isn't one of them. "Too few units exist that are affordable to ELI [extremely low income] households, especially ELI renter households...Federal policy should focus on helping households consume the housing that already exists, rather than adding to the already ample stock of housing."
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REP-SF Members: Heroes for Housing Justice
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SF Board of Supervisors Rules Committee Hearing: July 8
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Our REP-SF members and allied coalitions SFADC & CCHO recently turned out to City Hall to speak at the Rules Committee Hearing on two important measures we are supporting:
1) The Justice for Renters Act, which passed! Reaffirming SF’s support for repealing the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act! The California State ballot measure proposed for the November 2024 election would make it possible to expand rent control in cities throughout the state.
2) The Affordable Housing Opportunity Fund for Seniors & Families, which also passed and officially made it onto the November ballot! This proposed ballot measure will create housing subsidies for people with disabilities, seniors, and families who are extremely low-income. Without the creation of subsidy programs like this fund, extremely low-income households are unable to find housing that they can afford.
Thank you to all of the community members and advocates who made their voices heard on these critical measures to support rent stabilization and ensure everyone in our city has access to a safe and affordable home!
Special thanks to REP-SF members: South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN), Senior & Disability Action, Asian Law Caucus, Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC), Young Community Developers, Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco (HRCSF), and Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC).
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Watch: "Otro Mundo Es Posible | Another World is Possible"
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31st Annual Pistahan Parade & Festival: Aug. 10–11, 2024
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"Sa Amin | Our Place" Film Screenings: California Tour
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Throughout July, REP-SF members People Power Media and SOMA Pilipinas held screenings of their documentary, "Sa Amin | Our Place," the untold story of Filipinos in San Francisco’s South of Market neighborhood, at UC Berkeley and in four Filipino diaspora communities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, San Diego, and San Jose.
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The film screening in Los Angeles was hosted by Search to Involve Pilipino Americans (SIPA). It was amazing to be part of the first joint event between San Francisco's Filipino Cultural Heritage District (SOMA Pilipinas) and Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown!
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The San Diego/Chula Vista film screening helped build new relationships between San Francisco and San Diego's Filipino communities. The film sparked an inspiring conversation focused on creating stronger support networks for the lesser-known issues within the Filipino American community in San Diego.
Follow @saaminfilm on Instagram for updates on upcoming screenings in San Francisco and San Jose in September!
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