With 20 years of experience in the Bay Area, PolicyLink brings a wealth of knowledge and experience to program to enact housing protection and preservation policies by placing fellows in local governments
SAN FRANCISCO – Today, the San Francisco Foundation announced the selection of PolicyLink to manage the fellowship program for the Partnership for the Bay’s Future. This groundbreaking grant program will support transformational policy solutions to the Bay Area’s housing crisis.
Through its Policy Fund, the Partnership for the Bay’s Future supports initiatives to preserve and expand housing, with a strong focus on strengthening protections for low-income tenants. The Policy Fund, led by the San Francisco Foundation, will feature two grant programs: Challenge Grants, awards to local governments to pursue ambitious protection and preservation policy solutions; and Breakthrough Grants, to support jurisdictions with a desire to develop affordable housing at scale.
A key feature of the Challenge Grants is the placement of an early- to mid-career fellow in each winning jurisdiction. Fellows will increase the jurisdiction’s capacity to accelerate solutions. Fellows and their jurisdictions will receive peer cohort and technical support to help them implement policy change.
“We are pleased to be working with PolicyLink on the fellowship program for the Partnership for the Bay’s Future Challenge Grants,”
“We are pleased to be working with PolicyLink on the fellowship program for the Partnership for the Bay’s Future Challenge Grants,” said Dee Dee Brantley, COO of the San Francisco Foundation. “PolicyLink brings a wealth of knowledge to this program and a strong history of working to advance racial equity and in the field of affordable housing.”
A $500,000 grant will support PolicyLink in managing the two-year Challenge Grant fellowship program. PolicyLink will recruit, hire, train, and support the cohort of fellows for the first round of Challenge Grants, which will be awarded in January 2020. PolicyLink will receive pass-through funds from the Partnership to cover the fellows’ salaries.
PolicyLink has trained and placed equity-focused fellows in local and federal government agencies to address disaster recovery, sustainable development, housing solutions, and economic development; developed cross-city and interregional cohorts of elected and appointed officials to address equitable development; and provided hundreds of consultations and partnerships with city leaders in the evolution of equity profiles, policy roadmaps, anti-displacement and housing policy agendas.
PolicyLink also brings extensive expertise in advancing housing solutions within a racial equity framework, including the federal Sustainable Communities Initiative and the advancement of new federal and local HUD frameworks to assess and address fair housing and anti-displacement outcomes.
“We see these fellows as transformative change agents who will support local leaders in moving bold solutions that create more affordable housing, reduce the displacement of lower-and middle-income households, and address homelessness by ensuring access to supportive housing,” said Michael McAfee, President and CEO of PolicyLink. “Together, Polic
“We see these fellows as transformative change agents who will support local leaders in moving bold solutions that create more affordable housing, reduce the displacement of lower-and middle-income households, and address homelessness by ensuring access to supportive housing,” said Michael McAfee, President and CEO of PolicyLink. “Together, PolicyLink and the Partnership for the Bay’s Future will reach our housing goals and transform the lives of the region’s people for generations to come.”
Applications for the fellowship program are now open. View fellow position description.
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About the Partnership for the Bay’s Future
The Partnership for the Bay’s Future is a collaborative effort, developed through years of conversations with community and faith leaders, housing experts, elected officials, nonprofit and for-profit developers, and residents. The Partnership focuses on advancing a more inclusive and equitable future for our region by solving its interconnected challenges: housing, transportation, and economic opportunity. Partners include the San Francisco Foundation, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the Ford Foundation, Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC), Facebook, Genentech, Kaiser Permanente, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Stupski Foundation, and Silicon Valley Community Foundation.
