Keep Black Families in San Francisco

In 1969, my mom moved to San Francisco in search of opportunity, employment, a new life. She escaped the explosive Newark (NJ) riots to arrive to a Bay Area plagued with it’s own controversies. She sought to purchase a home of her own but was denied for not having a credit card. The year was 1971. She was a first Black employee at a Peninsula branch of Bank of California. That wouldn’t allow her to overcome the racist practices of the banking industry that prevented her from applying for home loans or even seeing apartments. She’s been a renter in Diamond Heights for over 40 years. I, too, would like the same solace.

For the past 10 years I have been a proud renter in San Francisco’s historic Lakeview, just three blocks from my grandaunt’s first home in OMI on Margaret Avenue, and another four blocks from her last on Holloway. No longer is this a place for Black Americans to easily enter the housing market. I’ve lived under two absent landlords, the second of which has been posting illegal eviction notices, requiring unnecessary inspections, and making it a nuisance for me to live there.

Because of the Dreamkeeper Initiative, I now have the opportunity to purchase the home I live in with a down payment assistance loan from Mayor London Breed’s Office of Housing and Community Development. Since 2001, I have lived in 23 places. That’s on average 1 place every 11 months. Considering I’ve been at the same address for ten years, that average drops to about one apartment every six months. Many of my stays were for less than a month, which has been very destabilizing.

Over that two decades, I dropped out of countless colleges and universities, often lost jobs, and found it very challenging to maintain relationships. Housing insecurity is very disruptive. I still managed to run three campaigns for office, complete my associate degree and my Bachelor’s in Urban Studies. I hope the next chapter of my life can be spent working to solve housing insecurity and transportation injustices for folks like you and me to make California and the world a better, more sustainable place for all of us to live.

My ask of you that have read this far, is to consider donating to my fundraiser. All proceeds will go toward the closing costs of the purchase of my home. Those costs, on a $1.3 million in San Francisco will be nearly $100,000. I also hope to build a website to discuss some of the inequities caused by public policy and discuss some solutions as well. All donors will be invited to my website on these matters.

Thank you for your consideration.