HomeRise

Community Housing Partnership was formed in 1989, in the wake of the Loma Prieta earthquake, which damaged many of San Francisco’s SRO hotels that had previously been used by the SF Department of Human Services as emergency housing for the homeless. The widespread destruction triggered the release of federal, state and local emergency housing funds, as well as funding from FEMA and charitable organizations to repair or replace damaged structures. Prior to the earthquake (in 1988), the SF Coalition on Homelessness, an advocacy group, had developed a policy document called "Transitional Housing - the Next Step" which laid out a strategic plan for improved housing and services for homeless individuals, beyond just putting them up in SROs and hoping for the best. In the wake of the earthquake and subsequent reconstruction, this plan was adopted by the Mayor and City of SF. In order to become more effective at implementing its own recommendations, the Coalition on Homelessness advocacy group, merged with the Council of Community Housing Organizations, a local coalition of non-profit housing developers, and became the Community Housing Partnership. Because of this start, Community Housing Partnership takes a holistic approach to reducing homelessness in San Francisco, and our work addresses both the immediate need of providing housing and services for individuals who are recovering from homelessness, as well as advocating for changes to laws and public policies in order to address the larger societal and economic root causes of homelessness.

Three of our main areas of focus are: 1) Providing supportive housing to formerly homeless individuals (housing along with case management and services) that helps them to become self-sufficient and eventually graduate to independent or less service-enriched housing. 2) Providing a job training and job placement program to help formerly homeless individuals become self-supporting. 3) Utilizing our Community Organizing & Resident Engagement (CORE) program to advocate for public and governmental support for policies that address the root causes of homelessness and expand housing opportunities for low-income individuals.
Supportive Housing: Community Housing Partnership currently owns, manages, and/or provides services in 17 buildings in San Francisco which serve over 1,700 individuals and families annually. All of CHP's housing properties are service enriched: they either have programs and services onsite or collocated with another one of or properties nearby. Depending on a client’s needs, these services can include everything from basic case management with regular check-ins, to behavioral health and substance abuse counseling, life skills & coping skills training, programs targeted to parents and seniors, help applying for and navigating the public benefits system, resident engagement activities including opportunities to volunteer in the community, referrals to our in-housing job training program, or referrals to other programs if we can’t serve a particular need in-house.
Employment Opportunities: It is generally acknowledged that the best way to help formerly homeless individuals achieve permanent, economic stability is to help them rejoin the workforce. CHP’s employment services is a workforce development program which provides a way to mitigate some of the barriers which traditionally prevent individuals from obtaining jobs. These can include prior criminal charges, physical and/or mental health issues, a lack of work experience or steady work history –or a combination of any/all of those. Our 15-month program addresses this problem by providing job skills training, paid on-the-job training and work experience with CHP’s social enterprise, help to apply for and secure permanent positions, as well as one year of continued support and mentorship to ensure the program graduate’s continuing success and job retention.
Community Organizing & Resident Engagement (CORE): CHP believes in giving our residents a voice to address social and economic justice issues that directly affect their lives. We offer a “We Are All Organizers” training program and associated field training for residents who are interested in participating in community organizing. Our advocacy efforts use proven, evidence based messaging to show that all SF residents have a connection to, and stake in, the homelessness crisis; how public policies impact homelessness and poverty; and also to explain the collective economic & social benefits of addressing this problem. Staff work

Supportive Housing: CHP was founded in 1990 and in the 30 years since, we have grown to be the largest 100% supportive housing provider in San Francisco. We currently own, manage, and/or provide services in 17 buildings in San Francisco that house over 1,700 formerly homeless individuals and families annually. Although most of CHP’s residents are considered “chronically homeless” (per HUD’s definition) at the time that they arrive at our door –meaning they have been consistently homeless for at least a year, or have been homeless off and on for the majority of the past three years- an amazing 98% of our residents are remaining stably housed, thus permanently breaking the cycle of homelessness.

Employment Opportunities: Since 2012, CHP’s employment program has been training formerly homeless individuals to perform front desk and custodial jobs for multi-family residential properties –many of which serve low-income individuals and families. The in-house social enterprise portion of the program functions as a temporary and short-term staffing service that can quickly deploy skilled labor. This business generates a double bottom line by bringing in more than $3 million in annual revenue from its customers while also providing on-the-job training and work experience to its formerly homeless trainees who earn wages of $16-$18/hr while preparing to re-enter the workforce. Approximately 53% of participants are ex-offenders, 52% have been long-term unemployed, 42% are individuals with mental and/or physical disabilities, 12% are disconnected youth under the age of 24, and 4% are part of the CalWORKS program that provides public assistance to eligible families where the principal earner has been unemployed. Of the 115 individuals who participated in the program in 2018, 88% were still employed 6 months after moving on to permanent employment and we continue to track graduates success and provide mentorship and support up until the 12-month mark.

Advocacy: Community Housing Partnership was founded in 1989 with the dual missions of addressing both the immediate need to provide housing and services for homeless individuals, as well as advocating for changes to laws and public policies in order to address the larger societal and economic root causes of homelessness. Some of our past successful advocacy efforts have been: as a member of the coalition which pushed for the landmark passage of the Fair Chance Ordinance that stopped employers from discriminating against applicants with criminal records; the passage of Proposition W on the November 2016 ballot, which ultimately made City College free for all SF residents; the successful 2018 joint effort with the SF Public Defender's office and other community organizations to abolish county criminal court fees, as well as many other grassroots community organizing efforts that resulted in support by voters and politicians and major changes to public policies and laws.

Supportive Housing: Most of CHP’s residents are considered “chronically homeless” per HUD’s definition and have been consistently homeless for at least a year, or have been homeless off and on for the majority of the past three years before coming to us. Despite this, an amazing 98% of our residents are remaining stably housed, thus permanently breaking the cycle of homelessness. Our 2020 Strategic Plan lists 3 overarching goals which the organization will focus on in order to better serve this mission. The goals are then supported by specific and measurable tasks which will accomplish these goals. The goals are: 1) Deepen Tenant Impact, 2) Lead systems change, and 3) Strengthen Organizational Capacity.

Employment Opportunities: Currently, 88% of our Employment Opportunities program graduates stay at their first, permanent job for at least 6 months – a figure that is actually slightly higher than comparable data for the regular SF workforce. Additionally, our in-house social enterprise business which functions as a temporary staffing service for building & property managers is generating more than $3 million in annual revenue from its customers, while enabling us to pay our trainees starting wages of approximately $18/hour. We also operate a Community Volunteer Team for residents who aren’t prepared to move immediately from long term homelessness and unemployment, to meeting the requirements of job training programs or employment, and need an interim step. Based on a commitment of 40 flexibly scheduled hours for participants, and using a group-based, staff-supervised model, individuals have the opportunity to earn a stipend while volunteering with partner nonprofit organizations. Although we have a great group of partner nonprofits (Oakland A’s, Presidio Gardens, Hunters Point Food Pantry, and others), there is great demand for this type of program and we’d like to increase our capacity to handle additional participants and volunteer opportunities.

Advocacy: For 30 years, CHP has provided a voice to homeless and low-income residents of San Francisco. Although we have both led and participated in many major political wins, our work is not done. Current efforts focus on achieving widely available mental health and substance abuse treatment for homeless & low-income individuals. (“Treatment on Demand”, “Mental Health SF”, etc.) We also continue to work to gain public and political support at state and local levels for a major increase in development of affordable and subsidized housing for low-income Bay Area residents. (Proposition A, Proposition E, etc.)