No Place Like Home: Housing Inequity in San Francisco
Led by Emily Crofoot & J’Hrenara Rios
Trip Bio
Anyone who has gone apartment hunting in Berkeley knows how dire affordable living is. It’s a crisis across the Bay Area, and San Francisco stands at no exception. This is far from a recent phenomenon, one that isn’t improving quickly enough. Why does the Bay Area feel perpetually unaffordable? In preparation for this trip, we’ll explore the specific factors that cause and exacerbate the Bay Area’s housing crisis–including policy decisions, corporate impact, white flight and gentrification, COVID-19, and housing development. Particularly, we’ll focus on their impact on San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood, its resilient unhoused community, and vibrant queer history. As a group, we’ll travel to the Tenderloin to experience life and community in the neighborhood. Working with our community partners–the passionate advocates at Faithful Fools who have been living and working in the Tenderloin for decades–we will learn to support unhoused communities through a series of neighborhood immersions, issue workshops, and community building activities. At the conclusion of our week and in those following, we’ll reflect on our experiences and determine how best to continue supporting unhoused communities both in San Francisco and at home here in Berkeley, as well as how we can apply those lessons elsewhere. Ultimately, we’ll develop a deeper, more intimate understanding of the housing crisis and those most affected and how to use that knowledge to progress towards erasing socioeconomic inequity.