Press Release
Freedom West Homes Surpasses $30 Million Funding Milestone
December 03, 2024
Freedom West Homes Corporation (“Freedom West”), a nonprofit limited-equity housing co-operative in the Fillmore District of San Francisco, announced the closing of predevelopment funding commitments from the San Francisco Foundation (SFF), the Low Income Investment Fund (LIIF), and Menorah Park which has helped the organization surpass $30M in funding to-date raised to achieve operational stabilization and to prepare for it’s $2.3B revitalization plan known as Freedom West 2.0.
“LIIF supports this historic investment to drive economic parity in San Francisco’s once predominantly African American and Asian neighborhood,” said Daniel A. Nissenbaum, Chief Executive Officer at LIIF. “We applaud the impact of the resident-led Freedom West 2.0 revitalization plan, a mixed-income, mixed-use masterplan development countering the dire effects of displacement that started in the mid-1950s.
“LIIF provided the first $250,000 grant in support of the resident leaders and to catalyze other funders to participate. We are now providing a $1.25M predevelopment loan under favorable terms to support this unique joint venture among the resident owners and Black-led private development team. This project will both increase the supply of affordable housing units and preserve multi-generational affordable housing stability for the long-term residents who could otherwise be displaced by gentrification and San Francisco’s strong housing market.”
The Freedom West 2.0 place-based development was featured at the November 20th Parity Zone Symposium 2024 as a model for potential replication and scale by others as a sample Parity Zone case study. A Parity Zone is a geographically defined area where a concentrated effort is made to bridge the economic divide and create equitable opportunities for all residents: a place where access to high-paying jobs, access to capital, quality education, and affordable housing in mixed-income communities converge to catalyze economic mobility.
The Symposium included discussions across four panels, initiated by McKinsey & Company’s Global CMO, Shelley Stewart III, highlighting research findings and amplifying the call to action in their 2024 The State of Black Residents report. Symposium co-hosts included SFF, LIIF, Institute for the Future (IFTF), Freedom West Homes, MacFarlane Partners, Avanath Capital Management, JP Morgan Chase, Bethel AME Church of SF, Common Spirit, Terner Labs, and Legacy First Partners.
The San Francisco Foundation was also recognized at the symposium for their $2.5M impact investment in Freedom West 2.0.
“We don’t usually fund individual projects, but this felt like an exception,” said Fred Blackwell, San Francisco Foundation CEO. “We invested more than we usually do because we saw the transformative potential of Freedom West 2.0 — a vision that goes well beyond the bricks and mortar. Doing this the right way has the potential to impact systems change in San Fransisco, across the Bay Area, and beyond.”
The Parity Zone Symposium concluded with an announcement by the Institute for the Future, the world’s leading futures organization whose stated mission is to prepare the world to create better, more equitable futures by disrupting short-term thinking with visions of transformative possibilities. IFTF will take lead on the creation and management of the post-symposium working group task force, which will convene to document the findings from the Symposium, then refine and build out the Parity Zone framework to be published for the benefit of stakeholders across the country.
“We are excited and honored to support the work of Freedom West. Housing inequality is one of the key drivers of wealth inequality in the US, and Freedom West 2.0 offers an innovative model for achieving not only housing parity but also economic parity for low-income populations in a high-cost urban setting,” said IFTF Executive Director Marina Gorbis. “My hope is that this project will spur larger systemic changes in place-based economic development throughout the country.”
About Freedom West Homes
Freedom West Homes Corporation is a nonprofit housing cooperative comprised of 382 housing units located in the Fillmore District of San Francisco. In the late 1960s, in a period of civil turmoil, Rev. J. Austell Hall had a vision to preserve a portion of this neighborhood that was being threatened by the City’s urban renewal. From this vision, he established Freedom West with the objective of creating a safe, affordable community, protecting cultural diversity, and providing a source of social and economic empowerment through co-operative ownership. For additional information, visit www.freedomwest.com.
About MacFarlane Partners
MacFarlane Partners is a real estate investment management and development firm that acquires, develops and manages properties on behalf of some of the world’s largest pension plans and institutions. Founded in 1987, the firm pioneered the urban investment concept among institutional real estate investment managers in the 1990s and today is a leading investor and developer of properties that promote smart growth, urban revitalization and sustainability in urban and high-density suburban areas nationwide. It is headquartered in San Francisco and operates regional offices in Los Angeles and Seattle. For additional information, visit www.macfarlanepartners.com.
All News ›
