Preserving San Francisco’s Public Housing: An Evaluation of Quality of Life Improvements under Rental Assistance Demonstration
This is a planning report presented to the faculty of the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at San José State University, in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Master of Urban Planning.
Public housing stock nationwide has been in decline due to a backlog of deferred maintenance. Many of them were built before the 1970s, putting their age at about forty years, but the funding for maintenance and repairs have continued to go down. San Francisco, a wealthy city within close proximity to Silicon Valley, is not immune to this trend. By the end of 2012, San Francisco Housing Authority’s (SFHA) public housing stock was suffering from serious flaws in its finances and management. Housing and Urban Development (HUD) gave SFHA a low score of 54 out of 100 in their Real Estate Assessment. This means that SFHA had not been managing their budget well. At the same time, they also had not been addressing the needs of the residents. To turn things around, the city converted their entire public housing portfolio into private ownership under a new program introduced by Congress called Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD).
This study aims to answer the following research questions: Do stakeholders involved in San Francisco’s Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) sites perceive that rehabbed buildings and better-maintained properties have improved the residents’ quality of life? In what ways does RAD help improve the residents’ quality of life? One of the benefits of RAD that HUD has been advertising is residents’ quality of life improvements through building rehabilitations, safer properties and neighborhoods, as well as better amenities. However, there is no study that examines this benefit. This study is meant to fill that gap. In addition, a study like this can help other cities with troubled public housing portfolio. For these cities, RAD may be one of the tools to maintain affordable housing for their residents.
To read the full report, click on this link.
I served as San Jose State University’s Urban Planning Coalition Speaker Series Co-Coordinator from Fall 2017 until Spring 2019. In my capacity as a Speaker Series Co-Coordinator, I helped organized, co-sponsored, and hosted several educational events throughout the year to enrich the students’ educational experience. The events range from resume workshop, book discussion, to our annual symposium, a whole-day event featuring educators, researchers, and professionals in the planning field. In the past, the UPC won Collaboration of the Year Award from the Associated Students at SJSU for its educational programming that featured multiple organizations.
“Innovative Technologies in Urban Planning” was a collaboration effort with Associated Students, SPUR, Urban Land Institute, and Mineta Transportation Institute as our sponsors. Our moderators and speakers were invited from various organizations in both public and private sectors, such as San José State University Computer Engineering and Urban and Regional Planning Departments, Cal Poly Civil Engineering and Transportation Department, City of Alameda, Greenbelt Alliance, Civic Studio, UrbanSim, Gensler, Arup, and LimeBike. The esteemed panelists presented their thoughts, ideas, and case studies related to technology innovations in the urban planning industry. The three panels of the day include: Using Urban Simulation and Data Science to Evaluate Land Uses, Providing Services Using Emerging Technologies, and Transportation and Technology in the Urban Environment. For this symposium, we had a total of 82 attendants.
Flyer designed by Kristin Moen.
We invited three alumni who excel in their field to share their experience in hiring employees. The panelists shared what they expect to see in a resume and portfolio, and also what their hiring practices are. At the end of the session, the panelists reviewed students’ resume and provided meaningful feedback.
Flyer designed by Alverina Eka Weinardy.
We co-sponsored a book presentation and discussion with the Institute of Metropolitan Studies, Department of Anthropology, Department of Economics, and Transition. Richard Ocejo shared the main points in his book on how the rise of craft economy affects the complex redevelopment and gentrification of smaller cities.
Flyer designed by Alverina Eka Weinardy.
We co-hosted Alex Schafran discussion with Institute of Metropolitan Studies and Transition. In this event, Alex Schafran presented on how political fragmentation has resulted in newly segregated geography of NIMBYism, sprawl, and the suburbanization of poverty.
Flyer designed by Alverina Eka Weinardy.
We hosted “Personal Transportation Devices: Present & Future” in the Spring of 2019 with sponsorships from the Mineta Transportation Institute, Associated Students, and NorCal APA. Throughout the day, panelists and attendees, with the help of the moderators, shared meaningful ideas and discussions related to escooter-share taking over cities in the Bay Area. We invited panelists from both public and private sectors, including, but not limited to, SJSU administration, San Jose Department of Transportation, Oakland Department of Transportation, SFMTA, SPUR, LimeBike, Mineta Transportation Institute, and Sonoma State University. The event was attended by 83 audience.
Flyer designed by Bonnie Cheung.
Neighborhood assessment of a corridor in transition in San Jose, California.
Project was done in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a capstone class at San José State University.
San Jose State University’s Urban Planning Capstone Fall 2018 class hosted a community event to help kick-off the city’s effort in informing and educating the public about the Diridon Integrated Station Concept. Instead of following the traditional format of public meetings, our team planned a casual event that those who are not usually active the the communities would find appealing. In addition to providing basic information about the Diridon Station, we were also trying to get a sense of the community members’ priorities. To achieve such goals, we invited Rod Diridon to talk about the station, while attendees were free to walk around the event space to provide their feedbacks on a giant overlay map and interactive feedback boards on the wall. There was also a kid’s activity table that allowed younger attendees to channel their creativity, while also providing the team with meaningful feedback. For the entertainment values, we hired SJSU’s jazz band to perform and created a fun photobooth corner.
Click here to watch the event highlights.
Our graphic design team created an image specifically to promote the event across various mediums, such as Eventbrite, Facebook, San Jose State University’s Urban Planning Coalition website, and SJSU’s Student Union screens.
To engage the diverse communities living in San Jose, our graphic design team was tasked to create bilingual flyers, posters, and handouts. The texts were available in English and Spanish. This allowed our team to communicate with neighborhood and business associations, local newsletters and blogs, as well as Spanish-speaking mothers group.
Other than attending neighborhood association meetings and directly connecting with the residents, we also focused our marketing effort through social media platforms. We partnered with organizations that are active in San Jose to spread the word about the event. Here are some of the announcements that garnered attendees to the event.
We aimed to seek feedback from respondents of all ages. Other than an overlay map and feedback boards for the adults to provide their thoughts, we also created an activity worksheet for kids, which we called “Build Your Own City!”
