SAN FRANCISCO HOUSES NEW COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENTS

The winter of 2008-09 has been marked by exciting changes for affordable co-op housing in San Francisco. In February, San Francisco's most recent Limited Equity Housing Cooperative began taking applications for new members at 53 Columbus Avenue, as a result of the steadfast efforts of tenant leaders, the Asian Law Caucus, and the San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT).

The pending conversion of 53 Columbus Avenue into a tenant-owned affordable housing development will mark the end of a 10 year struggle by tenants looking to stave off displacement and permanently preserve the affordability of their longtime homes. The 21-unit building, now incorporated as Columbus United Cooperative, houses 15 original families, and is filling the remaining 6 units with new co-op members who income-qualify.

The story of Columbus United Cooperative began in 1998 when their building was slated for demolition. San Francisco City College had bought 3 neighboring buildings on Columbus Avenue with intent to demolish the structures in order to build their new Chinatown/North Beach campus. While the City College was working with tenant leaders and the Asian Law Caucus to ensure an equitable relocation of residents, a neighboring structure, the Colombo Building, gained official recognition as a historic structure, making the demolition and new construction project unfeasible.

At that point, negotiations refocused toward options to preserve the affordability of the housing while allowing the community to remain in place. A win-win solution was arrived at with San Francisco City College, who sold the building to the San Francisco Community Land Trust in May 2006. SFCLT rehabbed the units and converted the residences into a Limited Equity Housing Cooperative(LEHC).

Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives are a form of cooperative ownership that ensures permanent affordability for current resident-members as well as for new resident-members who buy into the community in future years. The pending conversion of Columbus United Cooperative will represent a victory—not only for the tenants of 53 Columbus, but for the entire cooperative housing community, as the conversion will pave new ground in city policies.

Before December of 2008, the San Francisco subdivision code prohibited the conversion of apartment buildings of six or more units into cooperatives. But with the passage of the Limited Equity Housing Cooperative Conversions Ordinance in December (championed by the SFCLT), this roadblock to cooperative ownership has been removed. Now, in San Francisco, low-income households have the chance to convert their buildings, with residents given the choice to either buy into cooperatives as part-owners, or to choose a lifetime lease option that maintains their rent at permanently affordable levels.

Advocacy work still remains for housing co-op enthusiasts to streamline the process. Attorney Malcolm Yeung, who worked on the case, commented “As a next step, we need to seek a statewide adjustment to the Subdivision Map Act that would exempt LEHCs from having to go through the conversion process at all.” An adjustment to this law would save future co-op conversions both time and money on legal documents, surveyors, and inspections.

Two SFCLT members, Rick Lewis and Malcolm Yeung, will be speaking about the conversion process at CCCD's upcoming training, “Nuts & Bolts of Cooperative Housing: Ensuring Permanent Affordability and Home Ownership" on February 27th at the Women's Building in San Francisco. Their talk will highlight both the local advocacy work and creative funding that have made the project possible.

The SFCLT's talk will be one piece of a full day of education on implementing the Limited Equity Housing Cooperative model put on by the California Center for Cooperative Development (CCCD). Other speakers will include Allan Heskin, a UCLA Professor Emeritus and writer, researcher, and organizer of LEHCs; Eileen Piekarz, a housing specialist and organizer of Manufactured Home Park Co-ops with the Rural Community Assistance Corporation, and Margaret Lund, a co-op developer and funder with over 16 years experience using cooperatives for grassroots community development.

The Nuts & Bolts training, now in its second year, will accept advance registrations until February 26th. Walk-in registrations will be welcomed on a space-available basis. The event runs from 8:30 am to 5 pm on February 27th and will be held at the Women's Building at 3543 18th Street in San Francisco. Registration is offered online or by mail-in registration through a downloadable form available at the CCCD website at www.cccd.coop/events.

Danielle Fodor & Kristin Koster
CCCD