HOUSING 2 Luz feels blessed to have an affordable apartment she has shared with her family for many years. Part of the reason her Mission District rent is affordable — especially compared to the exorbitant prices in what is now one of the most expensive housing markets in the nation — is because husband Alejandro has an agreement to maintain the building for reduced rent. Additional monies come in from Alejandro’s construction work. Secure housing, with a goal of eventual homeownership, is a key part of the building of Latino wealth in the United States. Luz is well aware that her story could be different: She knows one-too-many Mission District families who have been displaced, with their children uprooted from their school, friends and the only life they have ever known. To tackle this issue head-on, MEDA launched a community outreach strategy to augment the number of Latinos entering the below-market-rate (BMR) lottery. In 2018, 51 MEDA families won the City lottery and got keys to their new home by being “rental ready” due to financial one-on-one coaching. There were 35 MEDA-supported new first-time homebuyers for the year, which is no easy task in the San Francisco Bay Area. Additionally, MEDA has a strategy for the preservation and production of affordable and stable housing. Preservation is a two-pronged strategy: The City’s Small Sites Program, whereby MEDA buys apartment buildings with residents vulnerable to eviction; and HUD Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD), with MEDA refurbishing senior/disabled public housing. This is complemented by MEDA’s production of 100 percent affordable-housing developments so far, with five slated to open in the Mission District by 2021. All told, that’s 1,173 homes so that Mission District families have affordable and stable housing. Her own housing secure, Luz revels in the fact that her children do not carry the stressors caused by housing insecurity — they can just be kids studying, playing and building a positive future. S E C U R E H O U S I N G I S K E Y 10