Dear Friends:

Since I last wrote you and other supporters in March, we’ve been busy here at TNDC, and I’d like to update you with what’s been going on.  

We continue making real progress in the complex process of developing affordable housing. Two landmarks approach this summer: in July, we expect to complete over $3 million of improvements at the Klimm Apartments, a long-owned TNDC property at Leavenworth and Ellis Streets. In August we (along with our partner Citizens Housing Corporation) will break ground on a new construction project at Polk and Geary Streets which will house 110 low-income seniors, including 50 who are homeless. In addition, we are initiating two large new family projects on Mission Street, and we continue developing four pipeline projects which combined will create or preserve nearly 400 affordable units.

We paused from all of this on the evening of May 9th to mark a memorable milestone in TNDC’s history, the celebration of our 25th Anniversary. Co-hosted by Nancy Hellman Bechtle and Ellen Magnin Newman, over 600 of our closest friends commemorated a quarter-century of TNDC’s work with music, dance, food and a moving program culminating in honoring Chip Conley for his many years of service to the Tenderloin community.

I’d like to note a few transitions behind the scenes at TNDC. I am proud to announce that we have hired Elizabeth Orlin, the Associate Director of the California Program of the Corporation for Supportive Housing, as Chief Operating Officer. She replaces Cath Merschel, who is stepping down after five memorable years in this challenging position. Well-known and widely-experienced in the world of community development and social services, Liz will join Chief Financial Officer Paul Sussman and me as part of TNDC’s Executive Management Team, overseeing our Property Management, Tenant Services, Human Resources and Administration Departments.  

Even as we say farewell to two Board members who served their 6-year terms with exceptional commitment and distinction, Jodi Schwartz and Lisa Le, we welcome to TNDC’s governing body four new members who bring diverse perspective and expertise: Pat Theophilos, Executive Vice President at California Savings Bank; Charlie Casey, President of Pacific Foundation Services; Dave Kroot, senior partner at the law firm of Goldfarb and Lipman; and Eumi Lee, an attorney and teacher with the Hastings Civil Justice Clinic.

They join us at an exciting moment. One of the key conclusions of TNDC’s 2003-2007 Strategic Plan identified the financial challenge of continuing to focus on San Francisco’s lowest income, most vulnerable people: our costs rise at a faster pace than the incomes of our tenants. In order to minimize rent increases for those who can least afford them, the Plan envisioned an endowment whose earnings would help cover our costs without passing them on to our tenants – most of whose incomes are fixed – or driving us towards unsustainable annual fundraising goals.  A feasibility study for such an endowment is now in full gear and will culminate in a report to the Board in early Autumn. We’ll keep you informed.

Housing affordability is much in our minds these days. TNDC’s Property and Asset Management staff, led by Felicia Wright and Todd LeFurge, completed and presented to the Board in May a fascinating study of TNDC’s tenant demographics, entitled “Whom Do We House.”  Its key conclusions about TNDC’s approximately 2,400 tenants included:

• 80% receive less than $13,000 in income annually;
• 78% rely primarily on fixed benefit checks for income;
• While half pay an affordable rent of no more than 30% of their income, nearly 20% have “critical housing needs,” paying more than half their incomes in rent.

For all of us at TNDC, this sharpened our understanding of the marginal financial resources of our tenants, as well as the importance of meeting the challenge of continuing to provide our residents with decent housing at affordable rents.

Now nine months into my tenure as Executive Director, I have been challenged and stimulated in countless ways; but above all two elements of the job stand out in my mind.  TNDC’s work with people in the Tenderloin impacts lives in real ways. Whether it be social workers engaging with some 1,200 people every year, or property management and support staff undertaking the day-to-day effort that keeps at-risk tenants affordably housed, people’s day-to-day lives are made better as a result of TNDC’s work.

Second, TNDC succeeds largely due to the efforts of a talented and diverse staff. Even as our professional staff work with bankers, investors and public official to undertake sophisticated, multi-million dollar real estate development deals, others relate to TNDC tenants and Tenderloin residents every day in their roles as desk clerks, custodians and maintenance specialists. We are 200+ people who encompass a wide range of races, cultures, and incomes, bonded together by a shared commitment to improving the lives of low income people in the Tenderloin. Representing such talent and commitment is an honor I am continually challenged to merit.

Thank you for your on-going support.

Sincerely,

Donald S. Falk
Executive Director