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San Francisco Recruits Blacks

Helene and I went to San Francisco?s de Young Museum today for the the King Tut exhibit, and while there we picked up this San Francisco Examiner supplement about the exhibit. Imagine my surprise when, browsing through it, I saw this ad for the San Francisco Housing Development Authority?s effort to recruit blacks for assisted housing. (Click on the link, go the last page, hit ?previous page until you get to p. 22, then click on the page to zoom in to the ad in the upper right corner.)

As you?ll see, the ad states that in 1979 blacks were 12.4% of San Francisco?s population but by 2005 their percentage had dropped to 6.5%. And in 2010: ??? Urging ?RETURN,? the ad invites readers (or at least black readers) to:

Find out how you can reverse the migration of Blacks from San Francisco. Enjoy the city all the time call our Housing Counseling Team 415.822.1022.

A visit to the San Francisco Housing Development Corporation?s web site suggests that this effort had its origins in a belated compensation for residents of heavily minority neighborhoods who had been forced to move because of gentrification in the 1970s,some of whom were given ?Certificates of Preference,? but the effort still seems a bit odd.

SFHDC goal is to target the ?Cert Holders? and educate them about their housing benefits, and help them become mortgage and credit ready so they may take advantage of new affordable housing and rental opportunities currently down the pipeline in Bayview Hunters Point and throughout San Francisco....

Preventing the out-migration of African Americans and other minorities from the city of San Francisco is an important priority for SFHDC. We believe by identifying and counseling Certificate of Preference holders, SFHDC can help hundreds of homebuyers maintain their residency in the city or migrate back to the area. SFHDC views the Certificate of Preference as an invitation for African Americans to move back to the city, and a strategy to slow down the city?s gentrification process.

The City has a growing concern about the out-migration of African Americans from San Francisco. Prior to the Redevelopment of the Fillmore district of the 1960?s, San Francisco once had a population of 100,000 Blacks primarily living in the Fillmore and Bayview Hunters Point. The Fillmore was a thriving Mecca of Black culture and life-style, and minority business-owners, artists, and homeowners. Today, the African American population has been nearly whipped out in San Francisco. Sixty percent of the total Black population has migrated to Oakland, Contra Costa County or out of state, with 40,000 remaining in the city.

I can understand why universities and employers compete to attract talented blacks, but why should a city devote efforts to discourage certain racial or ethnic groups from leaving and encourage them to return, and why should it attempt to recruit more blacks, or any group, to take advantage of its public housing assistance?

Full post as published by Discriminations on September 05, 2009 (boomark / email).