At the San Francisco Community Land Trust (SFCLT), we often find ourselves asking what it takes to help someone stay in the place they call home.
In Spring 2017, SFCLT acquired 4042–4048 Fulton Street with support from the Housing Rights Committee, Supervisor Sandra
Lee Fewer’s office, and the City’s Small Sites Program. It was our first building on the west side of San Francisco, in the Richmond District, where displacement pressures have been steadily rising. The building was already a community. Our role was to help protect it.
Residents there have lived side by side for decades. They raised their families together. Neighbors still look out for one another.
One resident has been there for more than 35 years. He arrived as an immigrant from Eastern Europe with a young family and built his life in this building. Today, in his 80s and living on a fixed income, he began to struggle to keep up with rent as costs increased.
Moments like this force hard choices. Costs are rising everywhere—insurance, maintenance, construction—and we have a duty to our residents to keep our buildings financially stable. At the same time, we are mission-bound to prevent displacement, and we know what’s at stake if someone is forced to leave.
At Fulton Street, we found another path.
There was a basement storage space that we realized could be turned into housing. It wasn’t simple, and it didn’t happen overnight. San Francisco’s famously sandy west side soil meant digging out several feet of sand and reinforcing the structure to keep everything secure. More than just logistic challenges, there were
sentimental considerations as well. Along the way, the team worked carefully to preserve a longtime fixture on the property—a well-loved apple tree.
Construction began in September 2023. It took persistence (and permits!) to see it through. But by December 2025, the unit was complete. Earlier this year, we welcomed a new resident.
That one new home changes the math for the entire building. It brings in income that helps cover rising costs and gives us more room to keep rents stable for the people who have been there the longest.
For our longtime resident, it means something simple and profound: he can stay.
This is the kind of work that doesn’t always make headlines. It happens building by building, decision by decision. It requires patience, creativity, and a willingness to keep looking for solutions when the easy ones aren’t there.
At SFCLT, this is how we hold onto what matters—by making sure that the people who built these communities can continue to be part of them.