Spotlight on REP-SF Citywide People’s Plan for Affordable Housing & Equity in Land Use: Voices of the Community Radio Show & Podcast

PRESS RELEASE for Tuesday, March 5, 2024

San Francisco – We're thrilled to share that the Race & Equity in all Planning coalition (REP-SF) was recently featured on the Voices of the Community (VOC) Radio Show and Podcast, in a thought-provoking conversation about the intersection of culture and housing justice with host George Koster. The episode is the eighth in VOC’s ongoing special series about how the arts and culture sector is recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Episode 8 of VOC’s Arts & Culture series shines a spotlight on REP-SF’s Citywide People’s Plan for affordable housing and equity in land use, a crucial initiative tackling the housing affordability crisis and holistic community planning.

The episode features insightful discussions with REP-SF members Dyan Ruiz from People Power Media and Erick Arguello from Calle 24 Latino Cultural District. Together, they offer grassroots perspectives and innovative solutions aimed at advancing equity in land use and empowering communities to join the housing justice movement to confront the affordability crisis head-on.

Dyan Ruiz, Co-Founder & Reporter, People Power Media & REP-SF coalition: Dyan Ruiz discusses how the REP-SF coalition is continuing to fight to make sure that all of the equity provisions that REP-SF was able to get into the City of San Francisco's Housing Element, the City’s plan for housing over the next 8 years, are actually executed.

“It's about forcing the City to make sure that they build affordable housing. And there are lots of programs that we have in the Citywide People's Plan that can make huge steps towards building affordable housing,” says Dyan Ruiz of People Power Media and the REP-SF coalition.

Erick Arguello, President & Resident Chair, Calle 24 Latino Cultural District & REP member: Arguello shares that Calle 24 formed in 2014 in response to the gentrification and displacement of over 10,000 Latinx residents from the Mission District, from 2000 to 2020. Arguello shares that artists are part of our community's cultural assets. He discusses their work to integrate the artists’ population into the advocacy to create more affordable housing because our community can't be sustainable without our artists.

Arguello discusses how REP-SF’s Citywide People’s Plan aligns with Calle 24’s priorities to help provide more affordable housing in the Mission District: “The People's Plan focuses on prioritizing the low-to-moderate income, particularly the low-income housing, which we also prioritize for the cultural districts through a Cultural, History, Housing, and Economic Sustainability Strategy (CHHESS) Report…It's a plan that comes from the community and up, instead of top-down that we see a lot of the time.” says Erick Arguello of Calle 24 and member of the REP-SF coalition.

In the Citywide People’s Plan, REP-SF combines, for the first time, decades of community development plans with the expertise of grassroots leaders from nearly 40 San Francisco-based nonprofits, cultural districts, and neighborhood groups and coalitions. It includes innovative, fresh solutions for affordable housing funding, land acquisition, and community-led planning. Read REP-SF’s Citywide People’s Plan to learn more.

“We need to affirmatively further fair housing. It’s a civil rights requirement that the City and the State are not doing; they're ignoring it in favor of developer giveaways. And we need to keep fighting to make sure that all of the things we were able to get into the Housing Element actually create affordable housing in the city. These are all of the things that the REP-SF coalition is fighting for,” says Dyan Ruiz of People Power Media and the REP-SF coalition.

“Artists in our community are part of our cultural assets...They need housing. They're the ones who create our murals, they create our events, and there are performers, musicians, and dancers...Recent legislation [AB 812] that came up was to build housing for artists: 10% inclusionary for market-rate housing in the neighborhood…We as a community, especially in the Mission, cannot be sustainable without our artists. There's a cultural economy that we have, that we build on and they are part of that – they're essential to that. So making sure that they have housing so they can stay in the neighborhood where they are being creative,” says Erick Arguello of Calle 24 and member of the REP-SF coalition.

Tune in to one of VOC’s broadcast partners to listen to or watch the episode, and learn more about how REP-SF is dedicated to working tirelessly to make a difference for historically marginalized communities to thrive in San Francisco.

Where to Listen: Tune in to the thirty-minute radio show on KSFP 102.5FM (San Francisco Public Press) each Wednesday through mid-March at 8:30 am and 6:30 pm. You can also stream the interview simultaneously at those times. The radio show will also be broadcast on KPCA 103.3FM (Petaluma Community Access) each Thursday at 9:00 am through mid-March, with simultaneous streaming.

Where to Watch: Tune in to the thirty-minute television show on BAVC Media's SF Commons, available on cable channels 29 and 76, and Petaluma Community Access through Comcast on Petaluma's local channels 26, 27, and 28, as well as AT&T U-Verse channel 099. You can also stream the show on Voices of the Community’s YouTube channel.

Stream the Long-Form Audio & Video Podcasts: Stream the long-form audio and video podcast on the Voices of the Community website via the Episode 8 landing page. Listen to the podcast wherever you get your podcasts: It is published via the global podcast distribution network: Available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, YouTube, Stitcher/Pandora, as well as 20 plus other podcast distribution platforms around the world.