OCII holds workshop on five-year COP extension; residents urge outreach and expansion to descendants

The Commission on Community Investment and Infrastructure held a workshop Dec. 1 to review a proposed five-year extension of the Certificate of Preference (COP) program, a preference system that gives displaced low- and moderate-income households priority for affordable housing developed with redevelopment agency assistance.

Jeff White, OCII housing program manager, told the Commission the COP program is set to expire Jan. 1, 2016 and that staff will bring a formal extension for consideration at the Commission’s meeting in two weeks. Maria Benjamin of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development presented program data and outreach results: “We currently know of 4,138 individuals who are eligible or who were eligible for a certificate of preference,” she said, adding that roughly 1,600 certificate holders have died since the 1960s–1970s and that an additional 125 holders were identified through outreach over the past 18 months.

Benjamin described outcomes and barriers: nearly 1,700 certificates have been used, about 600 have never been used, and MOHCD’s outreach and partner network (including the San Francisco AIDS Foundation, SFHDC, META, Consumer Credit Counseling Services, Asian Inc., Veterans Equity Center and Homeownership SF) helps holders with rental readiness, credit counseling and limited down-payment assistance. Benjamin recounted an eviction-prevention case in which MOHCD intervened with a nonprofit and Catholic Charities to avert a displacement of a certificate holder.

During public comment, Oscar James, a Bayview Hunters Point native and COP holder, urged the Commission to consider extending certificate rights to grandchildren of displaced households and to improve outreach to former residents who now live outside the city. “What I’m asking the commissioners to please try and extend it to grandkids,” James said, describing families who were relocated in the 1960s and 1970s and who were not contacted about certificates.

Commissioners pressed staff on legal authority and scope. OCII staff and counsel said state redevelopment-dissolution law and the statutory structure of the COP program limit OCII to enforcing existing, area-specific certificates and that expanding eligibility to other project areas or to descendants would raise legal and financing questions under dissolution constraints. As staff explained: the COP program is authorized by state law to provide priority to displaced persons from specific project areas; certificate types and covered project areas are tied to the records and statutory authorization for each program area.

Commissioners and staff discussed outreach and next steps: commissioners suggested community workshops in Bayview and SoMa to inform certificate holders and former residents about eligibility and upcoming lotteries; staff said MOHCD and partner agencies will coordinate outreach and that the Commission will consider the formal extension at its next meeting. The item was a workshop and no formal action on the extension was taken on Dec. 1.