| Website | http://www.sfbarf.org |
| Organizational Structure | Do-ocracy; unincorporated club |
| Mailing lists & reach | Googlegroup: 475 members; Facebook: 1,029; Meetup: 70; Twitter: 2,309; Reddit: 162 |
| Total spent since January 2015 | $18,600 |
| Major costs | labor; printing |
| Funders |
From Jan 1 to June 18, 2015:
SF Moderates: $5,000
From June 19, 2015 to June 30, 2015: $20,000 |
Mission
Reduce displacement in the Bay Area by increasing the stock of available housing.
Here is a good statement of purpose from member Thomas Rogers:
"More than anything, that whole proposal is embedded with LESS/SLOWER/WHAT DO WE EXISTING RESIDENTS GET OUT OF THIS. With the housing crisis (+ what we know about climate change and infill development's lower per-capita GHG), we really have to flip that to MORE/FASTER/WHAT CAN WE EXISTING RESIDENTS DO TO HELP. The reflexive "smallerizing" has to stop."
Primary Modes of Political Engagement
Identifying Bay Area residents who are interested in seeing more housing built, connecting them to each other, sharing information about public hearings and neighborhood meetings where decisions about building projects will be made, writing letters and testifying at public hearings and neighborhood meetings.
History
SF Bay Area Renters' Federation started in December 2013 (first website). Frustrated by neighborhood obstructionism with respect to new housing during a displacement crisis, Sonja Trauss started writing letters in support of every project before planning. May 1st, 2014 three people went to the planning commission for the first time, to testify willy nilly in favor of anything being proposed. Videos of a fraction of the testimony given by Bay Area residents in favor of specific projects. The SFBARF mailing list grew from 5 people in April 2014 to about 40 in October 2014. October 2014 the Examiner ran an article about the group. The size of the mailing list doubled to 80 after the article. Encouraged by the positive feedback, Sonja Trauss decided if she could raise $10,000, she would quit her job and work on sfbarf full time. Here is the 1st fund raising deck. She got pledges for the full $10,000 and quit her job. In March she raised another $10,000.
The PAC
Sonja Trauss filed a 410 in June 2015, ID# 1377999, but never fulfilled the state or federal requirements to be a PAC. Annulment of the designation is pending.
