Keeping HOPE SF’s Promises: Reflections from Fred Blackwell
Since 2005, when I was director of the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, HOPE SF has been near and dear to my heart. It’s been a great pleasure for me to be involved with this transformative initiative.
HOPE SF is much more than bricks and mortar. It’s an investment in families, in longtime residents who have lived through decades of neglect as well as decades of promises made – and broken — by the government. Over the past ten years, HOPE SF has kept its promises. It’s made sure that families are the first to benefit from the re-enfranchisement of their neighborhoods. It’s put residents in the driver’s seat.
Four years ago, Theo Miller, Director of HOPE SF at the Mayor’s office, started talking about “reparations” as a framework to acknowledge, reconcile, and heal systemic harm in our HOPE SF communities. I must admit that I was initially uncomfortable with the idea that the City and County of San Francisco were using this concept to describe and guide its work. That’s because for many Black people in the US, including me, “reparations” represents the government’s biggest unkept promise. It conjures up slavery, Jim Crow, reconstruction, segregation, redlining, and a vast amount of harm.
As Theo and I continued to talk however, I started to understand that he wasn’t talking about “reparations” as a transaction or a payment. He was talking about truth telling—about acknowledging the harm done to families and communities and offering a framework for restitution. He was talking about a way of thinking, a way of working, a way of holding our systems accountable — and a way of keeping our promises.
He was talking about truth telling—about acknowledging the harm done to families and communities and offering a framework for restitution
10 years ago we promised not to displace residents, and we have achieved an average of 70 percent retention, which is far higher than the national average of 25 percent retention. We also promised to replace obsolete public housing, and we’ve built more than 750 new homes, with another 167 on the way. Going forward, we’ll also be working with residents to ensure that they accumulate enough savings to not only weather a crisis, but also build their wealth.
As 2020 comes to a close, we’re proud to share with you the stories below, about how HOPE has not only kept its promises, but stepped up in extraordinary ways to support its residents during a year that brought more challenges than any of us could have imagined.
Written by Fred Blackwell, CEO San Francisco Foundation