San Francisco, CA — The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) is proud to be featured in the Small Business Anti-Displacement Network’s (SBAN) Community Ownership Case Studies, a national series highlighting organizations that are advancing innovative approaches to stabilize neighborhoods and prevent the displacement of small businesses.
Community ownership is an increasingly essential strategy for preserving commercial corridors, supporting longtime entrepreneurs, and ensuring that community assets remain in community hands. While traditionally associated with affordable housing, community ownership is now being applied to commercial spaces—protecting storefronts, cultural institutions, and the small businesses that anchor local economies.
Between 2000 and 2010, more than 12,000 residents were displaced from San Francisco’s Mission District, threatening the stability of the predominantly Latino, working-class community. The growth of the tech sector, influx of venture capital, and speculative real estate activity intensified competition for land and commercial properties. Rising rents and shrinking affordable spaces put pressure not only on families but also on the small businesses, nonprofits, and cultural hubs that defined the Mission’s identity.
In response, MEDA partnered with community organizations and public agencies to launch Mission Action Plan 2020 (MAP2020) in 2015. This initiative took a community-driven, place-based approach to addressing the root causes of displacement—prioritizing community ownership, shared decision-making, and long-term stewardship of neighborhood assets. MAP2020 emphasized cultural placekeeping, recognizing that preserving community identity requires ensuring that residents and small business owners remain connected to the cultural, economic, and physical landscape of their neighborhood.
This commitment to community ownership continues through MEDA’s work today. Over the past decade, MEDA has acquired and preserved commercial spaces for small businesses, created pathways for entrepreneurs to remain in place, and protected culturally significant corridors from market pressures. These strategies—commercial property acquisition, affordable leases, small business stabilization, and community-centered real estate development—form the foundation of MEDA’s contribution to SBAN’s case study series.
SBAN is a network of more than 175 organizations working nationally and internationally to prevent small business displacement in gentrifying areas. Housed at the University of Maryland’s National Center for Smart Growth, SBAN brings together policymakers, nonprofit leaders, advocates, researchers, and business owners committed to strengthening local economies.
This project is made possible with the generous support of JPMorgan Chase and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Leave a reply