By Bruce Wolfe and David Woo, HANC Board

The Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council has joined the Race and Equity in all Planning (REP) Coalition, a citywide coalition of neighborhood and community-based organizations that are working to ensure that land-use and city planning is directed by racial and social equity as defined by the working class, people of color, and marginalized and impacted communities. Made up of over 30 organizations spanning the city, including the South of Market, Chinatown, Bayview, Mission, and Richmond, among others, REP is challenging the top-down market-driven focus of land use and planning that has guided and ushered in successive waves of gentrification and displacement in San Francisco.

REP’s vision statement reads “The Race and Equity in all Planning (REP) Coalition's purpose is to create an entirely new race and equity framework for self-determination of marginalized communities. We are working together collectively and with the City to dismantle the prevailing racist and oppressive systems of planning, land use, cultural and economic development that have resulted in redlining, gentrification, displacement, and extreme inequality, and replace them with new systems that support, nurture, and prioritize the dignity, health, stability, and aspirations of American Indian people, people of color, people with low incomes and immigrants.”

Formed in 2020, one of the first issues REP has taken on has been the city’s update to the Housing Element. Engaging with the Planning Department, Planning Commission, and members of the Board of Supervisors, REP has outlined the current issues with the draft update to the Housing Element, namely its focus on building market rate housing as a so called “solution” to housing issues. As described by REP, the Housing Element should focus on policies and strategies that actually work to meet the needs of vulnerable communities, focus on permanent affordable housing and housing stabilization that keeps people in their homes, and have a Housing Element process that is guided by the on-the-ground experience of low-income communities and communities of color. The Housing Element should not continue to promote market-driven policies that create gentrification and displacement that only work to benefit market rate developers.