San Francisco Community Land Trust
Unfinished History
by James Tracy
Photo: Chris Carlsson
In 2001 a number of people who had been involved in tenant, anti-displacement and affordable housing activism came together to form the San Francisco Community Land Trust Collaborative. The Collaborative was an organizing committee that initially developed a vision of a network of neighborhood-based community land trusts emerging in San Francisco to create affordable, resident-controlled housing. The Collaborative did outreach to community groups and did many presentations, to popularize the community land trust idea.
Eventually the Collaborative decided to initiate a single community land trust, and the S.F. Community Land trust was incorporated in 2003. Initially SFCLT focused on a proposed piece of legislation that would allow tenants in buildings to buy their apartments as limited equity condominiums with permanent resale restrictions on the prices. Only community land trusts could do these conversions and the apartments would be offered to tenants at a price determined by their ability to pay. This was presented as a progressive alternative to landlord-initiated market condo conversions like the HOPE plan.
Opening ceremony celebrating the first building acquired by the San Francisco Community Land Trust at 53 Columbus Avenue, October 16, 2007.
Photo: Chris Carlsson
After a series of discussions with tenant organizations in 2005, SFCLT modified its program, to advocate conversions of rental buildings to limited equity cooperatives rather than condos. Shortly after this change in orientation, SFCLT began working with the Asian Law Caucus and the tenants at 53 Columbus Avenue, to do a coop conversion of their building. The tenants had been engaged in a seven-year fight against the demolition of their homes. In December, 2005, an agreement was reached with the Community College District to sell the building so as to enable SFCLT to convert it into a limited equity housing cooperative for the existing tenants.
Since this was written almost 15 years ago, the SF Community Land Trust has expanded its portfolio to 16 buildings (as of 2024). One of the earlier acquisitions, the Pigeon Palace on Folsom Street, is profiled in an account I wrote here, where I analyze in detail the flaws of a system focused on the vague idea of "affordability." The Land Trust has stabilized the tenancy of over 200 people thanks to buying the buildings it has, but its dependence on the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development has led to onerous requirements that largely contradict its own bylaws and purpose. A year ago the organization received a $20 million unrestricted grant from McKenzie Scott (formerly married to Amazon's Jeff Bezos) and that has galvanized a growth spurt in the organization, and allowed it to begin planning how to operate more independently. It has also given it the opportunity to anchor a network of Land Trusts with short-term loans and expert advice. The story is far from finished at this writing. —Chris Carlsson