MEDIA ADVISORY
Mario de Mira, 415 310-9931 (English & Tagalog)
Charlie Sciammas 415 615-2632 (English & Spanish)
Lily Wong 415 545-8807 (English & Chinese)
November 9th, 2015, 11:00 AM at Balboa Park BART Station Plaza
(San Francisco, CA) In District 11, community organizations and neighborhood residents have flipped the script when it comes to creating new affordable housing in San Francisco. From March through May of this year, the Communities United for Health and Justice Alliance conducted extensive door-to-door interviews with more than 310 residents of the Excelsior, Lakeview, Outer Mission, and Oceanview, around housing affordability, community based development, and neighborhood based decision-making.
The 310 neighborhood planners who participated in the survey are very diverse: 19% are youth under 18; 16% are elders over 60; 28% are Latino; 18% are Filipino; 29% are Chinese; 5% are Black; 4% are White; and 16% declined to state. They are showing how new development can be led by people-powered planning, rather than leaving it up to city officials or developers alone. Said Lily Xu at her doorfront, “I grew up in the neighborhood and want to make sure my family can continue to live here.”
WHAT: Communities United for Health and Justice (CUHJ) will host a community unveiling to present the stories of the over 310 abuelitas, Filipino and Black elders, Chinese moms and dads, high school youth, and Latino families who are planners of their own neighborhoods. Neighborhood leaders, City Agencies, and District 11 Supervisor John Avalos will speak.
WHERE: Balboa BART Station Plaza, south corner of Geneva Avenue near San Jose Ave
WHEN: Monday, November 9th, at 11:00 am
WHY: The survey results provide clear direction for City efforts to develop affordable housing at the Balboa Upper Yard, a publicly owned site adjacent to the Balboa BART Station. The community approach and findings can also serve as a model on a number of other opportunity sites in the area such as the 1.5 acre Valente Marini Perata Mortuary at 4460 Mission Street and the nearby 17 acre Balboa Reservoir. These are sites where City Hall can support the infrastructure necessary to build healthy and equitable communities and provide a fighting chance for working class San Franciscans to stay in the city they love.
WHO: Communities United for Health & Justice is a multiethnic and multigenerational alliance comprised of five organizations in San Francisco’s District 11: Filipino Community Center, PODER, Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth, Chinese for Affirmative Action, and Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center.
~Grace Lee Boggs