Partners of the Countywide Housing Solutions Network

Housing And Regional Trust Act (HEART)

HEART's mission is to raise public and private funds to meet critical housing needs in San Mateo County. HEART was formed in 2003 as a public/private partnership among the cities, the county, and the business, nonprofit, education, and labor communities. To date, HEART has received over $5 million in funding gifts and pledges to meet critical housing needs in the County.

• To view the HEART 2007 Annual Report, click here.
• To view the HEART 2008 Progress Report, click here.

Contact Information
P: (650) 872-4444
E: info@heartofsmc.org
www.heartofsmc.org

Housing Leadership Council (HLC)

HLC's mission is to work with their member organizations and individuals to preserve and expand the range and supply of adequate, accessible, and affordable housing for residents and workforce of San Mateo County. HLC was conceived at a two-day crisis summit of housing advocates in the fall of 1998. By spring of 1999, HLC began operation with seed funding from the Peninsula Community Foundation and Mid-Peninsula Housing Coalition as fiscal agent.

HLC maintains a searchable database of affordable housing in the County. It can be found by visiting the following site: http://www.hlcsmc.org/database.php.

• To view HLC's Policy Platform, click here.

Contact Information
P: (650) 872-4444
E: info@hlcsmc.org
www.hlcsmc.org

Housing Our People Effectively (HOPE) Initiative

In April 2005, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors initiated a planning process to prevent and end homelessness, which produced concrete and realistic strategies to address homelessness in the County, with the ultimate goal of ending it within 10 years.

Coordinated by the Center on Homelessness of the Human Services Agency, HOPE is a ten-year action plan that brings together the business, nonprofit, and public sector communities to address the challenging issue of homelessness at its core, rather than manage it at the margins. This plan reflects the Board of Supervisors' goal that housing should exist in our community for people at all income levels and all generations of families -- including those who are extremely low-income or who are homeless. HOPE is based on a belief that we can achieve this goal through proactive, coordinated action and investments in cost-effective initiatives that solve homelessness.

• To view the HOPE Year One Report, click here.
• To view the HOPE 10 Year Plan, click here.

Contact Information
P: (650) 802-3378
E: wgoldberg@smchsa.org
www.smchsa.org/HOPE

Threshold 2008

In 2002, a group of civic leaders from diverse segments of the community came together to address the growing crisis of the cost and availability of housing in San Mateo County. A year later they launched a civic engagement project that involved residents and stakeholders in four daylong community conversations about housing, which resulted in a clear vision of the kinds of housing policy choices that the public could be expected to support.

Threshold 2008 is the next phase of the civic engagement effort. Their goal is to create a more informed, active constituency for moving housing solutions forward by mobilizing people own capacity to confront difficult choices through constructive dialogue.

• To view the Threshold 2008 Briefing Packet, click here.

Contact Information
P: (650) 366-4163
E: threshold1510@yahoo.com
www.threshold2008.org

San Mateo County Transit District

Given the direct relationship between housing and transportation, the San Mateo County Transit District is a vital partner in formulating a new vision for housing that can be complimented by use of public transportation and improvements in the local transit infrastructure. The District oversees the peninsula corridor of Caltrain, SamTrans, and the San Mateo County Transportation Authority. In 2007, SamTrans commissioned a study to analyze opportunities and constraints of transit-oriented development (TOD) in San Mateo County.

• To view the TOD study, click here.

Contact Information
P: (650) 508-6200
E: www.samtrans.com/contact.html
www.samtrans.com

City/Council Association of Governments

The City/County Association of Governments is a cooperative among the 20 local cities and the county to address planning, transportation, and other issues on a regional basis. C/CAG deals with issues that affect the quality of life in general; transportation, air quality, storm water runoff, hazardous waste, solid waste and recycling, land use near airports, and abandoned vehicle abatement.

In 2006, the City/County Association of Governments, the County Department of Housing, and the Housing Endowment and Regional Trust Act commissioned a study of the housing needs in San Mateo County for the next twenty years. The purpose of the study is to project the housing demand and supply in our community through 2025 and explore implication of the probable housing shortfall.

• To view the Housing Needs Study, click here.
• To view C/CAG's Annual report, click here.

Contact Information
P: (650) 599-1406
E: nblain@co.sanmateo.ca.us
www.ccag.ca.gov

Peninsula Interfaith Action (PIA)

Peninsula Interfaith Action (PIA) is a coalition of congregation-based community organizations on the Mid-Peninsula. PIA serves as a catalyst for exploring common neighborhood concerns and seeks to engage the faith community with the larger community in a grassroots approach to improve quality of life for local families. PIA advocates on behalf of people on a variety of social issues, from increased housing production that is affordable to improved schools and safer communities to adequate access to health care in local counties.

• To view PIA's work on housing, go to http://piapico.org/news_housing.html

Contact Information
P: (650) 592.9181
E: piapico@sbcglobal.net
www.piapico.org

Building Trades Council

The San Mateo County Building and Construction Trades Council, AFL-CIO, is affiliated with 26 local unions. Their mission is to help improve the quality of life for all construction workers, promote the value of high skilled crafts men and women, and work to increase the union market share in the construction industry.

Contact Information
P: (650) 358-9977
E: smbtc@aol.com
www.smbtc.org

County Department of Housing

On January 11, 2005, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors, in their efforts to focus on housing issues within the County, adopted Ordinance 04248, amending the County Ordinance Code which allowed and approved the creation of the Department of Housing as a distinct entity.

The Department of Housing assists very low, low and moderate income residents with rental and housing assistance, housing, community and economic development financing, and technical assistance in partnership with non-profit organizations, public agencies and the private sector to improve the qualify of life in the community. The Department of Housing operates and supports a wide variety of programs to help the housing needs of residents of the County of San Mateo.

Additionally, the Department of Housing is a leader in collaborating with other County agencies and housing organizations to identify new opportunities, promote best practices and formulating policy alternatives to increase the production of housing and provide realistic choices for people living and working in our communities. In 2006, the Department of Housing issued a series of policy handouts on meeting the housing needs of the County and on infill development.

• To view the "Housing Our Future" handout, click here.
• To view the "Filling in the Gaps" handout, click here.

Contact Information
Phone: (650) 802-5050
www.smchousing.org