Blogs

This past week, we participated in a taping of Encuentro en la Bahia, a community show that airs Saturday mornings on Univision. We were delighted to participate in this show because it presented us a great opportunity to deliver our message that we're now "open for business."

Make sure to tune in on Saturday, June 14 to see Anamaria Loya, Daniela Salas, Rhea Serna and myself talking about how MAF was created and why we are doing the work of helping low-income immigrant families build their financial security.

I am currently working with the San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) to create affordable housing that combines limited equity cooperative housing (LECH) with a community land trust (CLT). Residents in a LECH are known as members. MAF and the SFCLT will work together to train residents to become cooperative housing members. Through participation in a LECH/CLT resident members are given the opportunity to collectively own their building. The CLT, as the non-profit organization, purchases the property which will then be developed into a LECH. The CLT retains ownership of the property and develops long-term lease agreements on the property with the resident members. The long term lease agreements usually last for 99 years and can subsequently be renewed. Through the lease agreement, member residents can deed their interest to their heirs. Having the CLT retain ownership of the land is one component of creating perpetual affordable housing for residents making substantially less than the area median income (AMI). With the CLT retaining ownership of the land, the cost of the land over the long term is removed from the building. Resident members understand and agree that the principal benefit of belonging to a LECH/CLT is a stable place to live. This stability is measured by security of tenure, privacy, and the right to remodel or redecorate.

Earlier this year, a study by Social Compact, a research organization based in Washington DC, revealed some very startling facts about the market realities of twelve San Francisco neighborhoods, which included the Mission District. The report is a must read in its entirely.

For this blog post, I want to highlight a couple of findings that clearly explain the enormous challenges we face as we work to help low-income families build their assets and capacity to invest in their own community.

The number of pawnshops, check-cashers and payday lenders (22) are almost twice the number of banks (12) in the neighborhood - a fact that is ever apparent with a short stroll down Mission Street. These high-cost fringe establishments serve only to strip low-income families from their hard-earned gains.