Chan Zuckerberg Initiative donates $3.6M to fight SF Bay housing crisis

The rise of tech startups around San Francisco has contributed to a rise in rents that’s pushing families out of the Bay Area.

Crooked landlords use legal loopholes to evict families so they can jack up prices and move in richer tenants. But now one of the Bay’s wealthiest families is putting a little of its fortune toward fighting back on behalf of longtime residents who can’t pay today’s rates.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, the $45 billion philanthropic vehicle established by Facebook’s CEO and his wife, are donating $3.6 million toward housing crisis relief.

The majority of funding, $3.1 million, will go to Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto to address the current hardships caused by the housing shortage in the San Francisco suburbs near Facebook’s headquarters. The organization provides legal assistance to individuals and families, such as legal defense in court during disputes with landlords. The money will allow the CLSEPA to hire several additional lawyers, and is expected to help 2,500 residents over the course of three years.

A $500,000 grant also goes to the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley to help generate long-range solutions to the region’s housing predicament. These include different business models and methods that could help the real estate and construction industries reduce the costs of creating additional housing.

The CZI’s president of policy and advocacy David Plouffe wrote, “Ensuring that people of all income levels can live and work in our communities is important to advancing human potential and promoting equal opportunity, the mission that guides our work.” He went on to note that half of long-term residents in East Palo Alto and Belle Haven had left in the last five years.