Rhea Serna's blog

Nancy Kaufman is a bi-lingual Latina that operates an event planning business called Balloon Art Productions and Rental. Nancy was operating her business out of her home and decided that she needed to expand her operations. She received small business technical assistance from the Mission Economic Development Agency and attended small business classes at ALAS (Alternativas Para Latinas En Autosuficiencia). It was at ALAS that she met other women interested in starting their own micro-enterprises. Nancy and her new colleagues attended MAF's Orientación Sobre Como Formar Cooperativas. Nancy quickly decided that she was ready to convert her sole proprietor business into a worker owner cooperative and invited her new friends to join her. I assisted the women in creating the organizational and legal structure for for their cooperative. Gabrielle Lessard from the Insight Center for Community Economic Development provided the legal oversight for the development of the operating agreement.

Part of my work at MAF focuses on the promotion of limited equity cooperative housing in the Mission. I am working in coordination with the San Francisco Community Land Trust to promote cooperatives to low-income tenants in the Mission. The SFCLT is currently forming a limited equity cooperative at 53 Columbus in Chinatown. The project is the only one in the country where the community land trust (CLT) model is being used to prevent the displacement of low-income working class people. In addition, the ground floor of the building will become the new home of the Asian Law Caucus.

On July 14, 2008 I testified at a public hearing in front of the City of San Francisco Land Use and Economic Development Committee. The proposed legislation will update the City’s Condo Conversion Below Market Rate (BMR) program and bring it in line with the existing BMR program. Over 40 BMR owners and activists testified both in support and against the proposed legislation. After much impassioned discussion the Committee decided to put the legislation to a continuance so that the Mayor’s Office of Housing (MOH) can do more research. If the Committee approves the legislation the full Board of Supervisors will then decide whether 550 BMR condo conversion units will be permanently preserved as affordable housing units in San Francisco. These units are scattered throughout the city including the Mission district.

I attended the 2008 Democracy at Work Conference organized by the United States Federation of Worker Cooperatives. This was the Federation’s third national conference. The conference was held in New Orleans as a result of the Federation’s commitment to support cooperative rebuilding efforts as a result of Hurricane Katrina.

The conference brought together cooperative worker owners as well as organizations that are committed to supporting and assisting the development of more cooperatives throughout the United States. The Mission Asset Fund (MAF) provides technical assistance, education and support to worker-owned business and housing cooperatives in the Mission. At the conference I attended workshops in which worker owners presented their challenges and successes, as well as shared and learned from other cooperative development specialists assisting immigrants to form cooperatives. In Concord, California Christina Hernandez with Monument Futures has just started a technical assistance cooperative development program for Latina/o immigrants in her community. In Brooklyn, New York Vanessa Bransburg is working with the We Can Do It! Women’s Cooperative and the emerging We Can Fix It! Cooperative. WAGES, an organization dedicated to developing and supporting eco-cleaning cooperatives in the Bay Area, had both trainers and worker owners attending the conference and presenting a workshop on their on-going efforts to create sustainable employment.

Conference keynote speaker Omar Freilla with Green Worker Cooperatives, an organization dedicated to incubating green and worker-owned businesses in the South Bronx spoke about his experiences in developing the successful worker-owner cooperative ReBuilders Source. ReBuilders Source is a retail warehouse for salvaged and surplus building materials. Omar and his fellow worker owners labored for four years to raise funds ($900,000) and develop their cooperative. ReBuilders Source has not just created jobs, but has provided the workers with a sense of control over the direction of their own lives and of their community. I am hopeful that the worker-owned cooperatives can flourish in the Mission. To learned more about worker-owned cooperatives please attend MAF’s popular education workshop in Spanish on August 6, 2006 from 6:00 to 7:00 at MAF’s offices on 1500 South Van Ness and 26th. For more information please contact me at 415-839-6637.

I am working with the Mission Anti-displacement Coalition (MAC) to ensure that the Mission District Community Planning Process will include more affordable housing for low and very low-income residents, as well as economic development policies which will make the Mission a livable and sustainable neighborhood for immigrants and working families. This is important because the last time the Commission rezoned the Mission was 50 years ago.

On Thursday, June 12, 2008 the City of San Francisco Planning Commission was scheduled to hold a hearing on what is known as the Eastern Neighborhoods Program. The neighborhoods included in this rezoning effort are: the Mission, Showplace Square/Potrero Hill, the Central Waterfront, and East South of Market (SOMA). The hearing was scheduled to start promptly at 3:30. Over 30 residents and activists were gathered outside of City Hall strategizing on how to approach the Planning Commissioners with our proposed amendments to the City’s Area Plans and to present the “People’s Plan for Housing, Jobs, and Community.”

Working class Mission residents created the People’s Plan which is a set of zoning policies and maps. These policies are designed to meet the housing, economic development, open space, and transportation needs of the people most vulnerable to displacement in the Mission. MAC has continually conducted focus groups, surveys, workshops, and small and large-scale community meetings since 1999.

The hearings that were supposed to start at 3:30 did not start till 9:00 that evening. Testimony from the community did not start until 9:30. Lupe Arreola from St. Peter’s Housing/Comite de Vivienda reported that at 10:00 p.m. residents and supporters were still testifying. Eric Quezada, Executive Director of Dolores Street Community Services presented a letter to the Planning Commission outlining MAC’s concerns with regards to the Department’s continual delays and lack of process. The hearing did not end till after midnight. The Planning Commission has also scheduled for follow up hearings on June 19, 2008.

MAF supports The People’s Plan, especially its vision for a healthy, sustainable, and equitable community in the Mission District.