Media
April 2019

Why housing is now a health issue for Kaiser Permanente

From San Francisco Business Times
Over the eight years that Brian Hopkins has lived in his East Oakland apartment, he’s seen many of his neighbors wind up on the streets. “You know tent city? That was a lot of the people who lived on this block,” said 35-year-old Hopkins, who currently works staffing events at venues like Levi’s Stadium and the Coliseum. “I know them personally, friends’ moms, aunties.” Kaiser Permanente noticed the bulging homeless population in its hometown, too. It also knows the toll it takes on people’s health, with a recent study in a major medical journal finding... View article
Media
March 2019

Bringing education closer to home helps vulnerable kids

From EdSource
Governor Newsom has set a bold vision for California, which includes alleviating child poverty, preventing homelessness and strengthening affordable housing. Taking on these issues may seem overwhelming, but there is good news: an existing model in our backyard can help make progress on all three of these challenges. Jennifer Peck It all started with a simple idea. We know that afterschool programs make a difference: kids have better school attendance, stronger social-emotional skills and graduate at higher rates. At the same time, kids who live in affordable or public housing developments are often the most vulnerable... View article
Media
March 2019

In Oakland and elsewhere, health care is investing in affordable housing

From Marketplace
When an apartment building sells in gentrifying parts of Oakland, California, tenants often brace themselves for the worst. Rent hikes, disruptive renovations and evictions can follow. But when one building recently changed hands, city officials and housing activists celebrated. Kensington Gardens, a 41-unit building in the working-class, immigrant neighborhood of San Antonio, was sold last November. “I was feeling somebody was going to get it and they were going to raise the rent,” said Ameria Lipscomb, who lives in a first-floor studio in Kensington. Tenants there generally pay below-market rents. When the building... View article
Media
February 2019

Advocacy and More: Philanthropy’s Role in Two Big New Initiatives to Tackle the Housing Crisis

From Inside Philanthropy
Housing affordability may be the toughest challenge now facing major metro areas in the U.S., especially in affluent coastal areas. Last month, California’s new governor, Gavin Newsom, made this issue a top priority, committing significant new resources to housing in his proposed state budget. Other public leaders have been stepping up, too, including New York Mayor Bill de Blasio. Pressure is also growing on both business and philanthropy to do more to ensure housing affordability. And in recent weeks, we’ve seen dramatic movement along these lines. One such effort is focused... View article
Commercial Real Estate
January 2019

Oakland tabletop game store Endgame to close its doors

From Oakland North
On the Saturday before its final closing on February 1, Endgame customers picked through the rule books and what little else was left on sale at the 17-year-old tabletop game store on Washington Street. No matter that all of the games had been sold—long-time customers dropped by throughout the day to show support and reminisce about the many years they had played games and found friends at the two-level store. “It was a great place,” said 57-year-old David Greenwood, who discovered Endgame when he was going through a divorce. He said... View article
Media
January 2019

$500 million affordable housing fund launches in the Bay Area

From Housing Wire
Housing affordability has become a tremendous concern for many Americans navigating expensive West Coast housing markets, but a new partnership could provide Californians with significant relief. Various housing advocates, tech and business leaders recently announced the launch of a regional public-private housing partnership that could potentially become the Bay Area’s largest investment toward affordable housing. The partnership intends to provide $500 million in order to solve interconnected challenges of housing, transportation and economic opportunity in the Bay Area. “The scope of the housing crisis requires bold action. And it also requires that all sectors... View article
Media
January 2019

Bay Area consortium pledges $500M for affordable homes

From Mountain View Voice
Several Peninsula-based nonprofit organizations and companies are part of a new public-private partnership that aims to secure $500 million to help build more affordable housing in the Bay Area, the group announced Thursday. Known as Partnership for the Bay’s Future, the collaboration is being funded by 10 organizations in the philanthropic, business and community-advocacy sectors. The initiative is billing itself as “one of the country’s largest investment funds to address the regional affordable housing crisis,” according to a press release. “The housing crisis is the most serious issue facing our region —... View article
Media
January 2019

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative has a $500 million plan to ease the Bay Area housing crisis

The housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area has been growing worse, with no end in sight, for over a decade. This year, though, may be the one in which some of the most powerful players in the region step up to do something about it. On January 15, the Oakland-based healthcare nonprofit Kaiser Permanente committed more than $50 million to preserve affordable housing in the city. And nine days after that, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), the Ford Foundation, the San Francisco Foundation, and the Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC) introduced a large fund... Read more
Media
January 2019

Healthcare giant Kaiser buys Oakland building for affordable housing

From SF Curbed
The Oakland-based healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente announced a surprise entry into the housing sector Wednesday, a gesture that the company frames as a health-related move by way of cutting back on housing insecurity. According to a company announcement, “an approximate $5.2 million has been committed to acquire a 41-unit housing complex in East Oakland, near Kaiser Permanente’s national headquarters” for affordable housing purposes. Kaiser identifies the building as the Kensington Gardens Apartments on 26th Avenue, a circa-1928 building that previously sold in 2015 for $4.15 million.... View article