The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency (SFRA) was an urban renewal agency active from 1948 until 2012, with purpose to improve the urban landscape through "redesign, redevelopment, and rehabilitation" of specific areas of the city.
SFRA demolished over 14,000 housing units in San Francisco between 1948 and 1976, claiming the agency was working on slum clearance and addressing urban "blight".[1][2] They replaced the demolished units with newly built affordable housing, but was only able to replace a portion. It was succeeded by the San Francisco Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII).
History
On August 10, 1948, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency was formed under the California Community Redevelopment Law of 1945, and in response to the Housing Act of 1937. Initially the agency was not a separate department, but rather the functions were carried out by various city departments; however by 1950, the organization formed its own city department. The first agency chairman in 1948 was Morgan Arthur Gunst; who had previously worked for the San Francisco Planning Commission.[3]
From 1989 until 2011, the agency used tax increment financing as a major source of their funding (through a TIF law);[4] which prompted the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors initiated a policy requiring that half of the agency's tax increment financing be used towards affordable housing in San Francisco.
The agency had removed 14,207 housing units between 1948 and 1978.[1] They started a process of replacing the units with affordable housing; and by 2012, the agency had created 7,498 affordable units (a net loss of 6,709).[1][2]
The agency was dissolved on February 1, 2012; in response to the Supreme Court of California decision issued on December 29, 2011, in the case, California Redevelopment Association et al. v. Ana Matosantos.[4][5][6] The City and County of San Francisco created the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII) as the successor agency.[1]
Agency leadership
Morgan Arthur Gunst, the first Chairman, from 1948 to 1953[3][7][8]
Geary Street underpass in Western AdditionPortsmouth Square pedestrian bridge in Chinatown
Western Addition
Due to the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, the city had a surplus of buildings in Japantown.[19] The SFRA took this as an opportunity for urban renewal to create the new Western Addition neighborhood — particularly the formation of the Fillmore District into an African American area.[20][21] The creation of the Geary Street underpass was part of the project.[22]
By the 1970s, the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency had forced out 50,000 African Americans from the Fillmore District in order to build new housing and new commercial buildings.[21][23][19] They had bulldozed the neighborhood but then left empty lots for some 30 years, destroying the once vibrant black community.[21][24][25][26]
In 2007, the SFRA built the "Fillmore Heritage Center" which included commercial spaces, black-owned apartments, a jazz club, and a theater space; but 10 years later most of the black community was forced out again because of the cost of living and gentrification.[21]
Golden Gateway, also known as Embarcadero-Lower Market, a former produce terminal area turned into a 17-block area of downtown, started in the 1950s.[31]
The agency was supported by elite of the city and by banks, businesses and the city government.[39] The intent was to encourage the development in the city to include partnership with private investors.[18]
However, from the moment the agency was formed, there was vocal criticism and opposition from the African American community.[40] The agency's policies caused thousands of residents, many of them poor and non-white, were forced to leave their homes and businesses.[41][42]
^"Morgan A. Gunst, Financier, Succumbs". California Digital Newspaper Collection. J. The Jewish News of Northern California. August 8, 1958. Retrieved 2022-11-16.
