SFHDC News
For Immediate Release
April 14 2008 | RSS
SFRA’s Certificate of Preference Program - An Invitation to African Americans to Return to San Francisco
The San Francisco Housing Development Corporation will offer free housing and financial counseling services to families and individuals who were displaced from the Fillmore and Bayview Hunters Point area during the 1970’s due to San Francisco Redevelopment Agency activities. Recently, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency made public the names of 600 of the 4719 families that were issued a certificate of preference document by the Agency nearly 30 years ago. This Certificate gives such households preferential consideration for Agency-sponsored affordable housing and business opportunities in these two Project Development Areas.
SFHDC goal is to target the “Cert Holders” and educate them about their housing benefits, and help them become mortgage and credit ready so they may take advantage of new affordable housing and rental opportunities currently down the pipeline in Bayview Hunters Point and throughout San Francisco. SFHDC’s Homeownership Center, located in 3rd Street in the Bayview, is staffed with qualified housing and financial counseling professionals trained in finance and real estate. The center has strong partnerships with banks and the city government, which are leveraged to help clients achieve financial stability in San Francisco through affordable homeownership.
SFHDC housing counselors share information and develop customized, financial strategies with each client to make homeownership an affordable and realistic option for low and moderate income residents of San Francisco. Our free services include: In-depth pre-purchasing homebuyer’s education, 1-on-1 financial counseling, referrals to government down-payment assistance and access to other housing subsidies, refinancing advise, foreclosure and loan default prevention services ; and Financial Fitness Counseling to change the client’s view of money thereby allowing him/her to bring more wealth and financial security into their lives.
Preventing the out-migration of African Americans and other minorities from the city of San Francisco is an important priority for SFHDC. We believe by identifying and counseling Certificate of Preference holders, SFHDC can help hundreds of homebuyers maintain their residency in the city or migrate back to the area. SFHDC views the Certificate of Preference as an invitation for African Americans to move back to the city, and a strategy to slow down the city’s gentrification process.
The City has a growing concern about the out-migration of African Americans from San Francisco. Prior to the Redevelopment of the Fillmore district of the 1960’s, San Francisco once had a population of 100,000 Blacks primarily living in the Fillmore and Bayview Hunters Point. The Fillmore was a thriving Mecca of Black culture and life-style, and minority business-owners, artists, and homeowners. Today, the African American population has been nearly whipped out in San Francisco. Sixty percent of the total Black population has migrated to Oakland, Contra Costa County or out of state, with 40,000 remaining in the city.
SFHDC President and CEO, Regina Davis salutes the efforts of the Supervisor Ross Mirkarimi and Supervisor Sophie Maxwell to expand the Agency’s Certificate of Preference Program. She states, “Almost every excuse regarding homeownership and affordability is gone, and the culture and diversity which makes San Francisco a great city will be maintained.”
San Francisco Housing Development Corporation (SFHDC) is a community-based, non-profit corporation founded in 1988 by civic and community leaders in both the Western Addition and the Bayview Hunters Point neighborhoods. SFHDC founders established the organization in response to the steady displacement of African-Americans from these areas during the 1980s, due largely to gentrification and escalating housing costs. Since its inception, SFHDC’s mission has been to foster stability in the city’s African American community through the development of affordable housing and the facilitation of home ownership. More recently, SFHDC has expanded its scope to include the economic revitalization of the Third Street corridor, with the goal of creating quality neighborhood-serving retail.
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