Mission Economic Development Agency – Small Sites Acquisition Program

My name is Karoleen Feng and I’m a Mission resident. I am helping Mission families who are facing eviction by speculators to stay in their longtime homes. Your loan will help me to purchase such homes as part of my nonprofit, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA).

One of the families that I am helping is San Franciscans Aracely Guevara and her husband. They have lived in their Mission District apartment on Guerrero Street, in one of these buildings, for 22 years. They now have two children, who grew up as part of the community they love. Now facing eviction, the family is seeking solutions so that they can stay in their neighborhood of choice. A neighborhood of which they have been part for over two decades. A neighborhood they helped create. They are being evicted by the #11 serial evictor in San Francisco.

MEDA is a community economic development corporation located in San Francisco’s Mission District. We have proudly served the Mission District for 42 years and this is a crucial moment in our trajectory to provide the leadership, vision, innovation and commitment necessary to ensure that San Francisco – and the Mission – remains a community that low- and moderate-income families can call their permanent home.

My program within MEDA, the Community Real Estate Program will preserve and produce 1,070 units of affordable housing in the next five years. In the next year, we hope to buy fifty apartment units across eight buildings, significantly reducing the number of families uprooted from the Mission. Your loan will help us get there.

The loan will help us make a good faith deposit of $14,500 to purchase the Aracely’s building from the #11 serial evictor in San Francisco.

The rest of the acquisition costs will be financed via private commercial debt and permanent subsidies available from a fund newly established for this purpose from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.

This first round of acquisitions will be vital in establishing a track record for MEDA’s Community Real Estate team which will facilitate future purchases, ensuring the preservation of critically important affordable housing in San Francisco.