The fourth and final part of a series looking at how SVCF, our donors and partners are creating solutions to Silicon Valley’s housing and homelessness crisis. This story originally appeared in the 2019 SVCF Magazine. Read Part I here, Part II here and Part III here.
It's no secret that the housing and homelessness crises will take a village to solve. To that end, SVCF joined the San Francisco Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Kaiser Permanente, the Hewlett foundation and other
local and regional philanthropic organizations to create the Partnership for the Bay's Future. Launched in January, the partnership is an effort to preserve affordable housing, create new housing and keep residents in their homes through improved public policy and legislation.
"The housing crisis is the most serious issue facing our region - one that is making every other challenge harder, particularly for low income families and people of color. This critical effort holds great promise for finding local and regional solutions."
- Larry Kramer. President, Hewlett Foundation
The partnership uses a three-pronged approach to address the region's housing challenges: a regional partnership that fosters collaboration among the private and public sectors and impacted communities; an investment fund for the creation and preservation of affordable housing in the Bay Area; and a policy fund, which strives to protect the housing rights of renters, low-income residents and racial and ethnic minorities by working with governments to prioritize housing solutions.
Through these efforts, the partnership aims to protect 175,000 households over the next five years. I t also plans to preserve and produce more than 8,000 homes over the next five to 10 years in San Francisco, San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
"We're in one of those moments where we can take a leap forward in solving our housing crisis," said Judith Bell, vice president of programs at the San Francisco Foundation. 'The partnership bring together importaJ1t leaders from across sectors, all looking to advance an agenda around protection, preservation and production. Having the leadership and participation of SVCF is a really critical component."
Duckworth concurs, and continues to raise his voice for those in need of housing. "What I bring up is economic parity for the folks that aren't being housed." he says. "What do we do for them? Because I think there's a huge need for all different types of services for the folks that don't get housed. It should be part of any discussion about what we do with funds so that those folks don't get forgotten about."
Learn more about SVCF's affordable housing grantmaking strategy here.