October 2024
A Model for Equitable Housing Solutions and Innovation
The Partnership for the Bay’s Future (PBF) was launched in response to the Bay Area’s deepening affordable housing crisis, where rapidly rising housing costs and inequitable wage growth have put stable housing out of reach for too many, jeopardizing the region’s diversity and prosperity. In 2019, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and the San Francisco Foundation convened a coalition of housing leaders from the philanthropic, private, nonprofit, and public sectors to create PBF. This bold initiative was designed to drive equitable housing solutions through a comprehensive approach, focusing on protecting tenants, and producing and preserving affordable housing.
Built on the principles of racial and economic equity, PBF has leveraged community voices, groundbreaking financial tools, policy innovation, and cross-sector collaboration to address housing disparities across the Bay Area. Now, after five years, thousands of affordable homes produced and preserved, and numerous policies passed, PBF has developed a Playbook to share its lessons learned and guide other communities aiming to replicate this success. The Playbook offers a detailed, adaptable framework for regions seeking to address housing challenges through the lens of equity. It’s a guide to creating impactful, community-centered housing strategies, helping other regions craft solutions that fit their own unique economic, political, and social contexts.
What’s Inside the Playbook
The PBF Playbook provides a comprehensive guide for transforming housing policy and investments, offering practical insights and strategies that can be adapted to different regions.
Kicking Off PBF: Building the Foundation for Success
The Playbook outlines a roadmap for establishing an initiative like PBF and the the necessary steps for building strong partnerships, with an emphasis on:
- Bringing together key stakeholders from private and public sectors, community-based organizations (CBOs), and funders around shared goals.
- Establishing core values and ensuring that racial and economic equity are foundational to the initiative’s mission and strategy.
- Creating a clear vision and shared goals for a partnership, aligned with community needs and long-term housing equity goals.
The Policy Fund: Forging Trust and Collaboration for Community-Centered Policies
One of PBF’s core innovations, the Policy Fund, establishes partnerships between local governments and CBOs to co-create equitable housing policies. The Playbook details how the Policy Fund:
- Fosters collaboration and trust between governments and communities to elevate community voices in policymaking.
- Places skilled policy fellows within local governments to build capacity and work alongside CBOs, ensuring that community expertise drives policy development.
- Provides technical assistance, funding, and support to ensure local governments and CBOs have the resources to develop and implement innovative policies.
Family of Loan Funds: Investing in the Community
PBF’s Family of Loan Funds demonstrates the powerful role investment can play in stabilizing communities and preventing displacement by filling a crucial financing gap in affordable housing development and preservation. This section covers:
- How PBF raised and deployed over $500 million to support the production and preservation of affordable housing.
- Details on innovative financial tools and how they provide flexible loans to developers, including a focus on projects led by BIPOC developers.
- Real-world examples of how the funds have thus far preserved and produced over 4,700 housing units across the Bay Area.
PBF Ecosystem: Connecting the Field for Broader Impact
The Playbook concludes with a focus on the broader PBF ecosystem, which unites a diverse network of stakeholders to create systemic change. It outlines:
- How PBF increases capacity by providing support and resources to local governments, CBOs, and housing developers to strengthen their ability to tackle housing challenges.
- Fostering cross-sector collaboration by bringing together local governments, funders, developers, and community advocates to share knowledge and align efforts.
- Facilitating knowledge-sharing of successful strategies and lessons learned, ensuring sustainability of the initiative and that the tools developed can be applied in diverse contexts.
The PBF Playbook is more than a guide—it’s a call to action for communities ready to take bold steps toward equitable housing solutions. Start your journey toward creating a just and affordable future for all.
