Building Community Power, Self-Determination & Joy
MESSAGE FROM LEADERSHIP
Dear Friends and Partners,
We are proud of the work we did in 2021 to support the dreams of our region’s communities. Bay Area LISC is dedicated to helping communities of color achieve their visions for healthy and sustainable neighborhoods of choice and opportunity: racial justice and investment in communities of color underscores all of our work. We spent 2021 investing in both housing and economic development, while providing capacity-building resources for community leaders in our region. When we invest in neighborhoods and their building blocks- from affordable housing, small businesses, and truly grassroots leadership - we see how interconnected our region’s future is, and how essential these investments are. Our approach to community development is place based, and supportive of the grassroots organizations and institutions that neighborhoods depend on. Our goal is to support our partners in building and protecting the places they cherish. In this report, we have included some highlights from our year, which are featured and linked below.
- Through the Partnership for the Bay’s Future, we manage a $500 million fund, which spans five counties. In this family of funds, we support true investment in the preservation of tenant occupied housing, and provide creative support to organizations in need of financing to achieve their visions. One quarter of the units preserved or produced are for tenants earning at or below 50% of area median Income (AMI), and 90% of the units meet the needs of tenants earning at or below 80% AMI. We are especially proud of our support of community development corporations (CDCs) through this program and others, whose rootedness is in their communities. To learn more you can read our reports on impact here and lessons learned here.
- We are excited to continue to grow the Bay Area’s regional capacity towards building power and self determination with BIPOC communities. This report also features Carla Dartis, the Executive Director of Movement Strategy Center, a member of our Local Advisory Committee, and a participant in our Alameda County Housing Development Capacity Building Program, which empowers faith-based and community-based organizations with the skills and knowledge to develop affordable housing on their properties that have development potential. In addition, we have continued our support of BIPOC businesses in the Bayview neighborhood along the Third Street Corridor via our facade and tenant improvement program. We fully deployed those grants in 2021.
- We found joy in working together and building our team. In 2021, we hired Jorge Rivas, our Deputy Director, Elizabeth Wampler, our Housing Director, Natasha Stewart our Program Officer in Rental Assistance, and Tia Hicks our Program Officer in Housing. The immense talent of these individuals has already greatly improved our organization’s culture and increased our impact.
- We reflect on where we’ve been and where we’re going: Bay Area LISC is celebrating its 40th year and we have many achievements to celebrate; for example, since 1981, our work has provided housing for 40,000 people, and created 1.4 million square feet of commercial, retail, and community space. As we reflect on our past and plan for the future, we are continually deepening the impact of our partnerships and services. This Annual Report also includes a story from our partners in San Jose, Sacred Heart Community Services.
Looking forward, we see 2022 as a year to deepen our valuable relationships, and to cultivate new connections across our region. We encourage you to reach out to us - we are always seeking new partnerships and opportunities in fulfillment of our mission to help communities achieve their visions for their neighborhoods.
Cindy Wu Executive Director, Bay Area LISC
We are always seeking new partnerships and opportunities in fulfillment of our mission to help communities achieve their visions for their neighborhoods.”
PORTRAITS OF IMPACT
Cultivating Capacity via the Alameda County Housing Development Capacity Building Program: Reflections with Carla Dartis
Carla Dartis has been engaged in community economic development work since she was 19 years old. Now as the Executive Director of the Movement Strategy Center and innovator in philanthropic spaces, she greatly strengthens the capacity of BIPOC- led community institutions throughout the region. Movement Strategy Center serves as a fiscal sponsor and provides other movement-building and administrative support to groups working in various advocacy areas, including climate change, disability rights, housing, and incarcerated populations. She is also a new member of Bay Area LISC’s Local Area Council, and a previous participant in Bay Area LISC’s Alameda County Housing Development Capacity Building Program 2020 cohort.
Dartis came to Bay Area LISC as a member of the United Lutheran Church of Oakland’s congregation. In the Alameda County Housing Development Capacity Building Program, faith leaders like Dartis are given tools, training and resources to take steps towards the development of affordable housing on their own land. Churches and other faith institutions are historically rooted in their communities; they understand the needs of their neighborhoods, and provide essential services when the public sector falls short. The opportunity for faith institutions to develop affordable housing is enormous, however most institutions lack the capacity to navigate the byzantine processes leading up to project implementation without losing their own agency.
Dartis and her peers in the cohort were able to connect to experts in affordable housing development, which she describes as “complex, and not for the faint of heart.” As a participant, the program “galvanized the hope of our congregation” and demonstrated “that we are so much more than a place of worship,” as Dartis further described. Though the project that Dartis and her congregation embarked on is currently on hold, the program provided valuable connections to new friends and allies.
Tia Hicks, Bay Area LISC’s Program Officer who manages the faith-based cohort, has plans to expand the effort. She hopes to bring the expertise and experience of the program to new regions while offering resources for current participants. For example, she hopes to develop a recoverable grant fund, or a forgivable loan fund to continue to bolster the resources that participants receive and fill financing gaps towards implementation.
Dartis, through her work at Movement Strategy Center hopes to partner with Bay Area LISC to provide meaningful, flexible support for community organizations who lack the administrative and financial infrastructure to grow. She is especially interested in liberatory philanthropy: philanthropy that allows organizations to be creative and flexible to achieve success rather than adhering to rigid processes. THis is one way that she hopes to collaborate with Bay Area LISC to develop in the future. Though Dartis is new to the Local Area Council, she sees a bright future of collaboration that is transformative and meaningful, that uplifts grassroots organizations, and provides the infrastructure for them to grow.
To learn more about the Faith + Housing Program and how to get involved, you can contact Tia Hicks, Program Officer at Bay Area LISC at thicks@lisc.org.
Building Economic Power and Agency via Business Support in the Bayview Neighborhood Marcel Banks
Marcel Banks was born and raised in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood. He remembers how when he was growing up, his family would set up at the end of his block, and cook and sell meals to their neighbors. For the past twelve years, Banks has owned and operated Frisco Fried in Bayview’s Third Street Corridor, and has built on this familial legacy. The restaurant, which serves soul food with culinary roots in Louisiana, is a way for Banks to not only connect with his community, but also to provide for his family.
The city’s Investing in Neighborhoods program took interest in the Third Street Corridor in 2014, and funded Bay Area LISC to work with the Bayview community to build leadership amongst business owners, and ensure the sustainability of the businesses. Bay Area LISC has helped with neighborhood and storefront level improvements, allowing businesses to thrive despite pandemic-era challenges, and for communities to retain ownership. This work adds to supportive infrastructure already provided by the Renaissance Center - Bayview, which provides entrepreneurship support to business owners in the neighborhood.
The neighborhood is formerly industrial, and experienced disinvestment following WWII. During the war, Black Americans from the South migrated to the neighborhood for shipyard jobs; the neighborhood retains its Black heritage and culture, even as it’s grown increasingly diverse. Banks has love for the neighborhood and its people, but notes that sustaining a business on 3rd Street has had its challenges. He sees a need for more pedestrian activity and foot traffic, especially with the high losses in sales he experienced during the pandemic.
Bay Area LISC provided a grant to Frisco Fried during this time of crisis, which he utilized to purchase new fryers and refrigeration. This allowed Frisco Fried to remain open. In the future, Banks wants to expand operations to include catering, and to one day, own the building he operates in.
To learn more about the Bay Area LISC’s work within the 3rd Street Corridor and economic development you can contact Sasha Werblin Program Officer at Bay Area LISC at swerblin@lisc.org.
Deepening Our Impact in the South Bay - Sacred Heart Community Services
We have also expanded our work to the South Bay, and worked with our partner, Sacred Heart Community Services to create Financial Opportunity Center services, the need for which has heightened in the pandemic. Sacred Heart Community Services recently celebrated the one year anniversary of its Financial Opportunity Center offerings, where they have trained families and individuals on meeting their financial goals, building credit, accessing employment, and digital literacy. The cornerstone of the Financial Opportunity Center model is providing integrated services —rather than as stand-alone services—and with a long-term commitment to clients and their goals. Sacred Heart’s services have been utilized by hundreds of individuals, where within a year 662 individuals have utilized the program.
Appropriately titled, Logrando Juntos, or Achieving Together, one of Sacred Heart’s sub-programs, has provided key family financial services. Participating members have been coached to lead specific sessions such as “Creating a Budget” and “Earning Income,” giving these members the chance to build leadership skills and educate others. The success of this program is rooted in transforming members into leaders who train other leaders. Another offering, VITA, has assisted families with tax preparation, and secured $816,000 in refunds. Participants in these programs have also gone on to utilize digital literacy services, crucial during the pandemic. The impact story from Sacred Heart Community Services is demonstrative of the transformative nature of these programs, and Bay Area LISC’s support of them.
Carolina came to the US from Colombia about two years ago. Upon visiting a library for assistance with resumes and cover letters, she was directed to Sacred Heart Community Services. Carolina was assisted with all the services that she needed; she completed all Basic and Intermediate computer classes, and volunteered in Sacred Heart’s Economic Empowerment Office, where she learned how to input data in Salesforce. She has become a committed volunteer and has conducted outreach to inform the community about Digital Inclusion, assisting with the enrollment process and computer literacy.
Since the US financial system is new to her, she decided to receive financial coaching to learn and to start building credit. In addition to learning through Sacred Heart’s programming, she has joined the matched-savings program where she has consistently saved every month and participated in the monthly financial sessions. Her goal is to have savings in case she has an emergency or needs extra spending money to meet her family’s needs.
Moreover, because of her growth and dedication to our community, Carolina was hired early in 2021 as a Volunteer Income Tax Assistant. Carolina is a perfect example of the impact of Financial Opportunity Centers, and the support systems required for communities to achieve upward mobility. We are excited to be able to conduct this type of work in the South Bay, where we are actively seeking new partnerships.
Supporting Anchor Institutions via the Partnership for the Bay’s Future: East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation
East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC) is a non-profit community development organization with over 45 years of experience in building healthy, vibrant neighborhoods in Oakland and the East Bay. In fact, EBALDC is the largest landowner in Oakland’s Chinatown, and in addition to leasing out many of its spaces to grassroots, service-providing partners, is a keeper of history. As Ener Chiu, EBALDC’s Executive Vice President of Community Building describes in a blog post, “we are part of the tangle of the place’s imperfections, contradictions, and beauty. And we are a vessel for the community’s optimism that people of all backgrounds and incomes can live, work, and play together in a safe and healthy neighborhood.”
As a place-based community development corporation, EBALDC provides vital services to its community in addition to housing. Some of these services include financial training and assistance for individuals, and small business support. At the outset of the pandemic, EBALDC responded to the emergency, from directly delivering meals to community members to administering and distributing state rental assistance funds. CEO Andy Madeira describes this sensibility, noting that “what impresses me about EBALDC is our emphasis on outcomes – for our individual residents, for the block where they live, for the neighborhood and community.”
Bay Area LISC’s partnership with EBALDC is deep and long, and is demonstrative of the kind of investing that is necessary in order to holistically sustain neighborhoods. Via the Partnership for the Bay’s Future, Bay Area LISC deployed $1.2 million in funds to reduce EBALDC’s cost of capital to preserve 40 affordable homes in East Lake. This partnership allowed EBALDC to cap rents in these homes at 60 percent of Area Median Income. Bay Area LISC also supports EBALDC via a line of credit, providing flexible financing for place-based investment. Instead of simply focusing on the production of units, Bay Area LISC’s support has allowed EBALDC to honor its direct-service, place-based ethos in its programming. EBALDC and Bay Area LISC are also collaborating on convening CDCs who own their own commercial and cultural space, in order to better articulate the needs of these organizations. Finally, Bay Area LISC has provided training and capacity building for EBALDC, and has helped develop a financial coaching program for EBALDC’s service population.
EBALDC’s hope and optimism for the neighborhoods they serve is galvanizing in the midst of the pandemic and housing crisis; Bay Area LISC is proud to continue to play a role in sustaining their work.
OUR IMPACT, BY THE NUMBERS
In 2021
invested
leveraged
affordable homes and apartments
square feet of commercial space
Partnership for the Bay’s Future
$297 million
approved loans
3,310
homes
95%
of households in preserved homes are households of color
Business Development Organizations
$323,750
in grants
2,745
businesses served
71%
minority owned businesses
Small Business Support Across 9 County Bay Area
$580,000
in direct general operating grants
83
POC small businesses
OUR DONORS
2021 Private Sector Support
Chan Zuckerberg Initiative
Destination: Home
Genentech
David and Lucille Packard Foundation
First Republic Bank
Ford Foundation
JPMorgan Chase
Kaiser Permanente
Morgan Stanley
San Francisco Foundation
Silicon Valley Community Foundation
Kathy Avanzino
Bank of America Charitable Foundation
Bank of the West
Boston Private Bank & Trust Company
California Bank & Trust
Capital One
Sarah Clowes
Joseph M. Horiye
MUFG Union Bank Foundation
The San Francisco Foundation
State Farm
Synchrony
JoAnne Tillemans
U.S. Bank Foundation
MUFG Union Bank
Verizon
Wells Fargo
Western Alliance Bank
2021 Public Sector Support
California Department of Housing and Community Development
City and County of San Francisco
County of Alameda
U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development
OUR STAFF
Cindy Wu Executive Director
Jorge Rivas Deputy Director
Rudy Licea Program Assistant and Office Manager
Asha Rao Senior Director of Investments
Sally Smyth Community Development Underwriter
Sasha Werblin Program Officer
Elizabeth Wampler Housing Director
Tia Hicks Program Officer
Max Lelu Assistant Program Officer
Samantha Creath Loan Monitoring Officer
Natasha Stewart Program Officer - California State Rental Assistance
Laurel Engbreston Senior Program Officer
Shannon Sheets Housing Underwriter