BIPOC Homeownership

The purchase of 285 Turk Street by San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT or Company), located in the heart of the bustling Tenderloin neighborhood at the intersection of Turk and Leavenworth, is expected to stabilize 40 units of housing and keep them affordable in perpetuity.

The building is a 7-story, 28,000 + s.f. mixed use building, with 40 residential units and 2 commercial units on the ground floor.  With a total acquisition cost of $9,486,722 and some planned renovations, the total project cost is expected to be around $10,374,432.

Over the period of five years, SFCLT will work with residents to form a Limited Equity Housing Cooperative (LEHC) at 285 Turk Street. An LEHC is a member-managed non-profit corporation that will own 285 Turk Street. Members of the co-op will own shares in the building which will entitle them to live in the unit, transfer it with a modest appreciation (capped to 3-4% max per annum), and to pass these entitlements on as an inheritable right to their partner, children, or other descendents. In sum, LEHCs offer a form of homeownership which is tied to a reasonable rate of return for its owner without allowing the unit to float on the speculative market, allowing SFCLT to keep it permanently affordable for the next generation of homeowners.

SFCLT will also provide financial tools and education to the residents and members of the co-op to help them save the equity required to own shares in the co-op.

SFCLT will also look for an owner to contribute equity for the commercial space on the ground floor.  SFCLT is considering becoming that owner themselves.

The building is currently home to 30 households, predominantly Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) – 95% of residents.  Because the building is not under rent control tenants are vulnerable to exploitation and displacement if the building were to be purchased by a speculator. Creating a LEHC will enable the residents to self-manage the building, own shares in the unit (which provides the residents entitlements mentioned above),  and maintain control of rents.

The building contains 11 one-bedroom and 29 studio units. 17 of the units have been renovated in the last 5 years. Two commercial units are used by a local non-profit service provider and a neighborhood serving hardware store, serving residents and community members.

A Community Land Trust is a membership-based, nonprofit organization whose mission is to create permanently affordable, resident-owned housing for low- and moderate-income people. Resident ownership of multi-family properties through the Community Land Trust model is one means of stabilizing affordable housing, in perpetuity, for low-income and working class residents.

This is an opportunity to bring a large building off the speculative market and into community ownership through the San Francisco Community Land Trust.
 

There are 40 residential apartments in the building, with 11 one-bedroom and 29 studio units. 17 of the units have been renovated in the last 5 years. Vacant units not renovated are in reasonable condition.

As of March 2021, 12 units were vacant  - a 30% vacancy rate. A survey of  31 listings of similar size units in April 2021 found that the average asking price for studios is $1,662, and the average asking price for one-bedrooms is $1,942. Seven units are in serious arrears, with $10,000 or more owed, but for all of these seven units, the actual rent is higher than the average market rent. There are a further five units where the actual rent is also higher than average.

Your can download a detailed rent modelling and lease up plan here.

SFCLT has a team ready to support the acquisition, rehabilitation, asset management, and resident coordination which includes employees of SFCLT, accounting, construction management and property management support. This team will work to rehabilitate and financially stabilize the building. Each member plays an integral role in the process which is described below.

Most critical to this effort will be the contributions of the anticipated Resident Coordinator, (100% Spanish bilingual) to be hired through the project budget of 285 Turk Street. Our experience with another project, Columbus United Cooperative at 55 Columbus Avenue, taught us that the resident coordinator was central to the success of the building’s financial stability. We hope to replicate this experience in 285 Turk. The Resident Coordinator will be responsible for organizing the tenants; providing tenant education on the CLT & Coop model; connecting tenants to social services, financial empowerment tools, and other resources for generating wealth/savings; providing workshops on financial management; managing the building budget; performing capital reserve studies; conflict resolution; and maintenance and property management.

The planned timeline for conversion to a coop is as follows:

The San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) is a membership-based organization whose mission is to create permanently affordable, resident-controlled housing for low- to moderate-income people in San Francisco through the community ownership of the land.

SFCLT is governed by a board of 12 directors who represent the membership (4 seats), the community at large (4 seats) and residents of SFCLT buildings (4 seats). As of July 2021, all 12 seats are occupied. The Executive Management Committee of SFCLT is as follows:

Board President - Keith Hennessy, MFA, PhD
Vice President - Francesca Cummings
Treasurer - Beth Hoddess
Secretary -  Vivian Schwab

San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT) was established in 2004. It now owns and operates 12 residential buildings, a total of 101 units with a resident population of more than 200, 71% are BIPOC, 22% are seniors and 16% are children, 16 years or younger.

Saki Bailey, the Executive Director of San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT), has a decade of experience in nonprofit management and program development roles; a decade of experience in facilitation, teaching and training roles both in the academic and non-profit sectors with a focus on the legal regulation around Community Land Trusts, Co-op formation, and incorporation. Saki is a published author on property law, community land trusts, and the commons with three books and multiple articles published by both academic and non-academics publishers and journals translated into multiple languages. Saki is an educator and trainer on community land trusts, coops, and other shared equity ownership models based on her six plus years of research on the topic and serves currently on the board of the California Community Land Trust Network and its policy committee in advancing legislation for Community Land Trusts and Limited Equity Housing Cooperatives.

Keith Cooley is the Director of Asset Management of SFCLT and has lived in the Richmond District of San Francisco for the last 12 years. Keith has experience in managing property, as well as being involved in the fight for affordable housing, particularly for Seniors and Artists. In another lifetime he attained a postgraduate degree in Urban Planning at the North London Polytechnic and worked at the London Borough of Haringey with Jeremy Corbyn, who until recently was the Leader of the British Labor Party.

Christina Castillo is the Project Manager of SFLCT and has a decade of experience in non-profits and specifically in providing clients with social services support. Since joining SFCLT she splits her time between connecting residents with services, filling vacancies/lease up, project management for rehab projects, and assisting with acquisitions. Christina has experience with HUD-guidelines; below market rate units; interfacing with both landlords and tenants; providing resident conflict resolution; and providing project management focused on resident participation.

Junli Dai is the Operations Manager and contributes to three areas of work: providing coop education to residents, transitioning to LEHC, filling vacancies/lease-up, and office management. In 2001, Junli graduated with a bachelor's degree in China, majoring in Economic and International Trade. She is bilingual in Mandarin and English. Junli as a first generation immigrant is passionate about assisting low-income people of color to gain access to homeownership opportunities.

Leiasa Beckham brings over 15 years of real estate experience to Common Ground Urban Development.  She specializes in grassroots development projects that serve the affordable housing, social enterprise, and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining Common Ground Development as Principal, she worked as Senior Real Estate Consultant at NCCLF. 

Richard Hurlburt has been a broker since 2005, Richard has handled dozens of real estate transactions in San Francisco and the Bay Area, both commercial and residential. He represents non-profit housing providers, converting existing apartment buildings to affordable housing or acquiring new sites for development. He is thoroughly versed in San Francisco's Community Opportunity to Purchase Act ("COPA").

Steve Suzuki has been with AND since 1982 beginning as a project manager, then Project Architect and eventually the Principal Architect. Between the years of 2008-2013 he served as the Executive Director of AND. A graduate of U.C. Berkeley’s Department of Architecture, he has over 30 years of professional experience on a variety of projects including low-income housing renovation, new construction, community facilities design, and supportive housing projects. 

In 2016, San Francisco Community Land Trust was contacted by a tenant organizer who was working with tenants at 285 Turk Street.

The building owner had imposed rent increases on tenants of between 10%  to 70%. The tenants expressed a desire to form a housing co-operative similar to the SFCLT’s building at 53 Columbus. In the years between 2016 to 2020, SFCLT kept in touch with the tenants through their struggles with excessive rent increases, and occasionally met with them. In June 2020 volunteers from the Filipino Community Development Corporation started working with the tenants and contacted SFCLT about forming a housing co-operative and purchasing the building. Since that time the Filipino Community Development Corporation and SFCLT have been meeting with tenants on a regular basis to understand the issues and help them form a committee to organize the tenants to purchase the building.

In 1985 the City allowed 285 Turk Street to be taken out of the Rent Stabilization Ordinance because the owner at the time invested in rehabilitation of the building. This loophole in the Rent Stabilization Ordinance was subsequently closed, however the building remains out of rent control. Tenants in the building are doubly vulnerable to displacement through high rent increases and because they lack the security of rent control. In the last three years tenants have been subject to 10% annual rent increases and many long-term tenants have become rent burdened. 

The Company is engaged in a Regulation Crowdfunding (Reg CF) offering (the “Offering”) to raise money to purchase, renovate and stabilize a mixed-use building at 285 Turk Street, San Francisco, with the intention of converting it to cooperative ownership.

We are trying to raise a maximum of $600,000, but we will move forward with the Project and use investor funds if we are able to raise at least $100,000 (the “Target Amount”). If we have not raised at least the Target Amount by March 31, 2022, EST (the “Target Date”), we will terminate the Offering and return 100% of their money to anyone who has subscribed.

The minimum you can invest in the Offering is $1,000. Investments above $1,000 may be made in $100 increments (e.g., $1,100 or $1,200, but not $1,136). An investor may cancel his or her commitment up until 11:59 pm on March 29, 2022 (i.e., two days before the Target Date). If we have raised at least the Target Amount we might decide to accept the funds and admit investors to the Company before the Target Date; in that case we will notify you and give you the right to cancel.

After we accept the funds and admit investors to the Company, whether on the Target Date or before, we will continue the Offering until we have raised the maximum amount.

You can download Form C/A and all disclsoure documente here, or on the SEC website here.

Investments under Reg CF are offered by NSSC Funding Portal, LLC, a licensed funding portal.

San Francisco has one of the hottest, if not the hottest, real estate markets in the United States with the average price of a home going for $1.5 million. As a result, homeownership in the City is completely out of reach for the majority of its inhabitants, and especially for communities of color who have been historically denied access to wealth and wealth creation due to discriminatory lending practices, redlining, and structural racism.

The Tenderloin district holds a lot of opportunity for communities of color because it is one of the few neighborhoods in San Francisco where units are less expensive than in the rest of the city. This is in part due to the Tenderloin’s “colorful” characteristics, which include: high rates of homelessness, illicit drugs, crime, and prostitution. Simultaneously, however, the Tenderloin has many positive cultural and educational features: it is home to the theater district; to the Civic Center and many government buildings; houses UC Hastings College of the Law; and is part of the Vietnamese cultural district. It is also one of the most diverse parts of the city with its residents being primarily of Vietnamese, Filipino, African American, and Hispanic descent. It is also home to several very important San Francisco non-profits which provide critical services to many of the Tenderloin’s residents including the Tenderloin Housing Clinic (on the ground floor of SFCLT’s 308 Turk Property); the famous Glide Memorial Church; Larkin Street Services; the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center; and the Tenderloin Community Benefit District.    

• Limited equity homeownership. For BIPOC communitiies.
• Preventing displacement. Of BIPOC residents in San Francisco.
• Permanently affordable. 40 units made permanently affordable through the Community Land Trust Model.
• Advancing BIPOC cooperatives. In San Francisco.
• Central location. In the Tenderloin district.
• Experienced developer. 12 projects in their portolfio.

Currently we expect total acquisition and development costs of approximately $10,374,432 to be financed through several loans and equity sources.

We are assuming a first position permanent loan of $5.4m at 4.16% interest amortized over 30 years, at a loan to value of 75% of the project cost. Self Help Credit Union has provided a letter of commitment for this financing. A letter of commitment for a second position loan of $3.0m has also been provided by LISC with similar terms. The first 12 months of each loan will be interest-only payments to allow the building to be fully leased and rent stabilized before principal payments begin. In addition, SFCLT will make an equity contribution of $1,374,432. 

Key financing assumptions include:

• Interest only period of 12 months to stabilize the building finances.
• A vacancy rate of 15% in the calculation of the effective gross income. However, based on the lease up plan the goal is to achieve 5% vacancy rate by year 3.
• A rent roll modeled conservatively assuming market rents have stabilized as of April 2021 and vacant units will be offered at 80% AMI.
• Price at offer acceptance of $9.475 million.
• Total equity contribution raised to date of $650,000
• Hard cost construction funding, soft costs contingency, resident support and developer fee deferred to post-acquisition.

Download our expectations for the first year of operations along with a detailed 10-year operating pro-forma for the project.

This is one of the last neighborhoods in San Francisco that has resisted gentrification and thus a place that BIPOC communities can continue to afford.

SFCLT is an experienced developer in the Tenderloin neighborhood and owns another property just down the block at 308 Turk Street. This 20-unit building was preserved through the struggle of residents and community organizers, and turned into permanently affordable housing after years of the property being mismanaged and residents subject to predatory rent hikes and habitability issues. As a result of this experience, SFCLT understands the opportunities and challenges that the Tenderloin district presents, as well as the likely cash flow and long term financial projections for this property.

Investment in 285 Turk Street therefore is an impact investment in all sense of the concept, and thus why we have also set the rate of return for this property at 2% for a 9 year term. While, typically for an investment, it would be appropriate to focus on the upside potential of the neighborhood, instead, here we will focus on the impact our project intends to create which includes

• saving and improving an multi-unit affordable housing building;
• providing an ownership stake for residents; 
• removing the imminent threat of displacement, or predatory practices by landlords:
• providing cooperative education and property management model

Each investor will be issued a promissory note by the SFCLT, promising to pay to the Investors the original investment made, plus interest of 2% annually, over the 9-year term. Interest payments are expected to begin 12 months after funds are invested, at the close of this offering, with disbursement being made quarterly. SFCLT plans to return the original investment to Small Change investors when the project is expected to be refinanced.

A crowdfunding investment involves risk. You should not invest any funds in this offering unless you can afford to lose your entire investment. 

In making an investment decision, Investors must rely on their own examination of the issuer and the terms of the offering, including the merits and risks involved. These securities have not been recommended or approved by any federal or state securities commission or regulatory authority. Furthermore, these authorities have not passed upon the accuracy or adequacy of this document.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission does not pass upon the merits of any securities offered or the terms of the offering, nor does it pass upon the accuracy or completeness of any offering document or literature.

These securities are offered under an exemption from registration; however, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has not made an independent determination that these securities are exempt from registration.

Additional statement:

There are numerous risks to consider when making an investment such as this one and financial projections are just that - projections. Returns are not guaranteed. Conditions that may affect your investment include unforeseen construction costs, changes in market conditions, and potential disasters that are not covered by insurance. Pleae review this Risks of Investing document for a more expansive list of potential risks associated with an investment in this Company.

Unless otherwise noted, the images on the offering page are used to convey the personality of the neighborhood in which the project is planned. Properties shown in these images are not included in the offering and Investors will not receive an interest in any of them.

Covid 19 Disclosure

COVID-19 has presented hardships for our organization specific to: (1) Our residents and their social, economic and psychological well-being, particularly for those facing pre-existing  economic, language, and racial inequities (addressed by MOHCD’s disparity indicators), and;  2) Our organization and loss of rent revenue due to the economic impact on our residents.

Our Residents. SFCLT has over 200 residents in its 107 units and 11 properties. Before the pandemic, more than half of our residents were primarily employed in the service and hospitality sectors, especially the restaurant industry. As has been widely acknowledged, these sectors have been hardest hit by the pandemic, leaving few employment options particularly for immigrants of monolingual or limited English speaking communities.

With an average household income of 53% of Area Median Income, 21% of SFCLT residents are in arrears on rent payments, and more than half of residents in five of the thirteen SFCLT buildings have been unable to pay rent at some point due to the COVID pandemic. In addition, 21% of our resident population are seniors. Ongoing isolation for this group in particular has made it difficult to engage residents and conduct the necessary business of property management, including doing repairs in apartments.

This is further compounded by the fact that SFCLT also has several group houses that experience unique challenges. With group houses having shared kitchens and bathrooms, residents living in these houses have reported experiencing increased anxiety as a result of COVID-19 and the fear of contracting the illness, which has had the unfortunate effect of spurring suspicion and tensions between housemates increasing the need for staff to intervene in conflict resolution.

Our Organization. As of the end of February 2021, SFCLT was carrying a loss in rental revenue of more than $150,000.  As a result, we shifted our priorities over the last few months in order to provide a robust resident support program to connect residents with the state and local rental assistance program, which covers 100% of rent in arrears. We expect about 80% of the total amount in arrears will be covered through these programs.