Racial Equity Beyond Your Walls: Calling in Tech to Understand Homelessness and Displacement

Dear Code2040 Community,

Homelessness and rising housing costs are among the largest issues San Francisco residents are facing today and it disproportionately affects the quickly disappearing Black and Latinx communities of San Francisco. In recent weeks we have watched tech leadership take opposing stances on support for Prop C — a proposition aimed at directly addressing these issues. As a community of Black and Latinx people and our allies, we’re laying out why we believe standing strong in providing solutions for homelessness and displacement is not separate from the fight for racial equity and inclusion in tech.

34% of the homeless population in San Francisco is Black, 22% is Latinx. Far too many members of our community don’t have safe, stable shelters to live in, are in desperate need of permanent homes, and lack access to health care. Displacement of our communities has rapidly increased over the last 15 years. This displacement is a direct result of rising housing costs caused by a rapidly growing tech industry, which demands a large influx of people for high paying tech jobs with not nearly enough housing to support it. Today the city’s infrastructure is crumbling beneath it. The folks on the streets today are our San Francisco neighbors, they’re our community members, and they deserve to be supported.

For the larger tech community, it is our responsibility to address the issues we’ve accelerated in small and big ways. When we amass a large amount of individual, institutional, and financial power on the backs of a community or a city’s residents, we must distribute that power in a way that builds support and accountability for their wellness. Although these are unintended consequences of San Francisco’s tech boom, it is time to look at these consequences and support solutions being proposed. It is tempting as a tech community to prioritize our voices, strategies, and approaches. This is a time where we must listen. We need to trust that the community organizations and organizers who are have been active in San Francisco for decades — shout out to the Coalition on Homelessness, Causa Justa Just Cause, and Anti-Eviction Mapping Project to name a few — know the best way to support the communities that they serve.

For transplants to the Bay Area, if you moved to San Francisco (and really all of the Bay Area) in the last 15 years with a high-paying tech job, you have in some way contributed to the displacement of longtime San Francisco and Bay Area residents, especially those who are Black and Latinx. How can we say we are part of this community without contributing our money, time, and energy to it? Living and working in San Francisco is not a neutral act. Part of living in a healthy, sustainable ecosystem means that we must be giving back to the community that we live and work in.

For companies who want a comprehensive racial equity and inclusion strategy, we need to think about how our decisions and the way we use our social and financial capital affects not only our employees but also the communities they come from. When we leverage tech’s social and economic capital to fight against community-identified solutions, at a level greater than the investments we make in equity and inclusion, we send a dangerous, loud and clear message about who matters. It is simply not enough to bring Black and Latinx people into our companies. We need to also support the overall wellness of Black and Latinx communities everywhere.We have a social responsibility to work for and invest in the communities of the cities we live in and the communities who use our products.

When we, as Black and Latinx people, walk into our jobs, we bring our communities, families, and ancestors with us. We know that true racial equity and inclusion initiatives are not only about hiring practices but how we are treated once we have arrived at a company. True racial equity in a company is a belief system and a way of being that requires authentic action toward centering the lives and narratives of Black and Latinx people. Taxing tech companies’ revenue, at such a small percentage, in order to fund homelessness services and resources, makes room for the possibility of more stable housing for Black and Latinx San Francisco communities, an improved position to invest in education, and finally the possibility of employment at our companies operating in our city.

We believe that it is our responsibility as a Code2040 community to stand with the Yes on C community. If you are a registered San Francisco voter, make sure you vote in this upcoming election. If you want to learn more about homelessness and the housing crisis facing our neighbors, we’ve included some resources and information below. The raising of our consciousness and our collective power as a racial equity community is an unstoppable force in bringing forward a socially responsible tech industry. With this in mind, we are determined in this industry, in our workplaces, and in our communities, to support our Black and Latinx family everywhere.

In Community,

Code2040

For more information on how homelessness and displacement affect the Black and Latinx communities of San Francisco, dive deeper here:

Data and Resources on Homelessness and Displacement in San Francisco and the Bay Area

Photo by Peter DaSilva, The New York Times

On Homelessness:

• In 2017 the city of San Francisco found that although Black residents make less than 6% of San Francisco’s total population, they account for 34% of the city’s homeless. For Latinx communities those numbers are also dismal, making up 15% of the city and 22% of the homelessness population. Compare this to the White communities of San Francisco, who make up 49% of residents yet account for 35% of the homelessness population, or Asian communities who make up 34% of the city population and only 4% of the homeless. Source.
• 69% of homeless people in San Francisco lived in San Francisco County before becoming homeless. Source
• 12% of the San Francisco homelessness population sites eviction as the number one cause for their homelessness. Source.

On Wealth Disparity and Rising Housing Costs:

• People who who moved to San Francisco between 2010 and 2016 made almost $19,000 more than former residents. With a predominately White and Asian workforce in the tech industry, this type of wealth disparity between former and new residents further perpetuates the rates of displacement for the longtime Black and Latinx residents. Source.
• “Between 2010 and 2018, for every eight jobs we created, we created one unit of housing” said Mayor London Breed in an interview with CBS News.
• A study by the UC Berkeley’s Urban Displacement Project found that evictions and rent increases often follow the locations of the tech shuttle pick-up and drop off locations in San Francisco. Source.

On Displacement:

• That same study by UC Berkeley found that “a 30% increase in median rent corresponded with a more than 20% decrease in the number of low-income African-American families, Latinx families, and Asian families across the Bay Area. The researchers found no significant relationship between rent increases and losses of low-income white households.”
• Over the last 20 years, there have been 16,000 no-fault evictions in San Francisco. No-fault evictions are the result of the Ellis Act, Owner Move-Ins, and Demolitions. Source.
• 69% of No-Fault evictions each year occurred within four blocks of known shuttle stops. Source.

We recognize that one proposition cannot eradicate homelessness and displacement of San Francisco’s Black and Latinx communities. We as individuals have the power to make impact with our day-to-day actions. Here’s a couple ways that we can show up as individuals in this action:

• Be aware of the history of the neighborhood you’re moving into. If you’re moving into a neighborhood that historically is of a community that is not your own, ask yourself how you will be an outstanding neighbor to those who were there before you? How will you be positively contribute to the community and neighborhood you are moving into? If you don’t have concrete answers to those questions, ask yourself if there is not another neighborhood that you could live in.
• Check the address of the building you’re moving into for no-fault evictions and don’t support landlords who use no-fault evictions to displace their tenants. No-fault evictions in San Francisco, are usually the result of a landlord using the Ellis Act, Owner Move-in, or demolition to evict tenants that is not related to their status as a tenant.
• Support you city’s local Black and Latinx businesses, vendors, and products. Your dollars as a consumer are so valuable for small and large business owners.
• Donate your money, time, and expertise to local organizations that are doing the work to support our homeless community including the Coalition on Homelessness and the United Council of Human Services
• Donate your money, time, and expertise to local organizations that are doing the work of defending families against evictions including the Anti-Eviction Mapping Project and Causa Justa Just Cause.