We’re excited to share the news that as of July 1st Todd David will be transitioning into a new role with HAC as senior advisor and special projects director, and Corey Smith will become HAC’s new Executive Director! 

Last month, I wrote about the Affordable Homes Now ballot measure backed by Mayor Breed and led by HAC and a coalition of pro-housing, labor, and environmental organizations that will make it faster and easier to build new homes in San Francisco that are affordable to low and middle-income San Franciscans and teachers.

For a city’s essential workers, housing is essential. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the term “essential worker” became a commonly used phrase. As cities across the world shut down and people began sheltering in place, there was a recognition that despite the health risks, certain professions—teachers, nurses, Muni drivers, and firefighters among them—were too integral to the functioning of a city and an economy to stop working in person. Now in Year 3 of the pandemic, and as more industries have returned to in-person work, the essentialness of these professions hasn’t changed.

The San Francisco Housing Action Coalition and regional arm the Bay Area Housing Advocacy Coalition have a uniquely collaborative relationship with our boards of directors; 2 diverse cohorts of leaders in housing policy, construction and development, law and finance, advocacy and activism, and more. 

While HAC started as a San Francisco based organization focused on supporting homebuilders to get their projects approved, over the past couple of years the breadth and scope of our work have expanded immensely. 

What do the Bay Area and Los Angeles have in common? Temperate weather, coastal views, and a severe housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis. Despite being two distinct regions, the two metropolitan areas are both saddled with record rates of homelessness, widespread rent burden, and rapid rates of displacement. What’s more, many of these issues are driven by NIMBYism and years of bad policy decisions like single-family zoning that have restricted growth and led to exorbitant housing costs.

With so many factors contributing to the Bay Area and California’s housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis, pro-housing advocates need to press for a myriad of solutions to alleviate our housing headaches.

Nearly a year ago, when the San Francisco Board of Education was making national (negative) news, I made the case for why urbanists must engage more actively in public education. Now with the SF Board of Education recall fast approaching on February 15, I’m strongly encouraging urbanists to vote YES on the recall of Commissioner Alison Collins, Vice President Faauuga Moliga, and President Gabriela López.

Even as 2021 was winding down, our team was busy gearing up for an eventful 2022 by announcing the launch of our new political action committee (HAC PAC) and our expansion to Los Angeles County! We also spent December…

While December is typically a slower holiday month, at HAC we’re busy accelerating our efforts. Building on our success in 2021, during which we doubled the number of new homes we endorsed, tripled the number of pro-housing neighbors we activated, and celebrated our South Bay/Peninsula expansion, we’ve just launched two new initiatives to propel our pro-housing advocacy.

Leveraging the collective outrage against the San Francisco Board of Supervisors’ recent votes to block 800+ new homes, HAC waged advocacy campaigns on numerous fronts throughout November. We were proud to…

While 2021 may be winding down, the Housing Action Coalition is gearing up to accelerate our pro-housing advocacy with two new initiatives!

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has long failed to address our city’s ever-worsening housing shortage, displacement, and affordability crisis, but last week marked a new low when eight Supervisors voted to derail a development project that would have added 495 new homes in place of a Nordstrom’s valet parking lot and offered only flimsy excuses and tired NIMBY talking points for their actions. 

Despite the SF Board of Supervisors’ abysmal housing votes, we at HAC had a productive and successful October! A sampling of our accomplishments include…

Everything we do at the Housing Action Coalition is a team effort and we enormously appreciate our longtime friends and partners at Reuben, Junius & Rose, LLP for teaming up with us once again as Presenting Sponsor of our 2021 Housing Heroes awards program. 

On Wednesday, October 13 from 5pm to 6pm, the Housing Action Coalition (HAC) will present four “Housing Heroes” awards to individuals and teams who have made exceptional contributions to creating more housing at all levels of affordability, and fostering more diverse, equitable, and inclusive communities across the Bay Area. 

October has always been an especially festive month as HAC gears up to honor our annual Housing Heroes, and this year we have more than ever to celebrate both as an organization and as pro-housing advocates. 

In addition to celebrating a wide array of housing legislation victories, some of our other September highlights included...

In addition to taking some much-needed vacation time, our team still accomplished a great deal in August, most notably...

With our newly-expanded team (that will soon expand even more) our team’s July accomplishments included…