San Francisco to Become Novva’s Fifth Data Center Location

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 29, 2023 /PRNewswire/ — Novva Data Centers, a state-of-the-art data center company providing purpose-built data center facilities, announced today the acquisition of a 7.5-acre campus comprised of several buildings located in South San Francisco. The newest data center location will include an investment of over $500 million and provide a 28MW critical load. The first phase of 9MW will launch in the summer of 2026, guided by an avante-garde vision that is poised to make the new location one of the most innovative and sustainable data centers in the United States.

A rendering of Novva’s newest data center in San Francisco.

The data center will host numerous advancements in data center design:

• 28MW N+1 critical compute load via Novva’s proprietary electrical delivery system which boasts no centralized infrastructure and is designed for the ultimate in resiliency, concurrent maintenance, and distributed redundancy.
• Novva’s innovative water-free air-cooling system
• All generators will operate using HVO, which stands for hydro-treated vegetable oil (biodiesel)
• Sodium Ion UPS batteries with no thermal runaway risk or rare earth materials
• Recyclable polypropylene employed for the chilled water loop air supply
• Direct-to-chip cooling loop

The data center facility will represent 182,000 square feet on two floors, and a 56,000 square foot state-of-the-art office and operations support center.

Novva’s San Francisco operation will be one of a handful of such facilities in the northern bay region. According to Novva’s CEO Wes Swenson, “This will be one of the greenest data centers ever created in the area and represents a very rare opportunity for clients to locate intelligent computing in one of the most important cities for software and hardware development in the world.”

The topology, density, and ability to provision power and operate data centers in areas of critical mass is becoming more challenging every day.

The fifth location announced by Novva in less than three years, the San Francisco data center complements the company’s ever-growing footprint in the Western United States. Novva has campuses in West Jordan, Utah; Colorado Springs, Colorado; Reno, Nevada; and Las Vegas.

About Novva Data Centers

Novva Data Centers creates purpose-built data centers for the future across the Western United States, providing scalable wholesale infrastructure services for local, national, and international clients. Novva’s human-centric, sustainable data center solutions are married with an extensive portfolio of high capacity, scalable data center amenities to provide turnkey, client-designed solutions. Novva’s data center campuses in Utah, Colorado, Nevada and California stand out for their forward-thinking features such as state-of-the-art water-free cooling systems, renewable energy usage, drone and robot dog facility monitoring and thoughtful design approaches that provide a one-of-a-kind, modern day data center experience. Learn more at www.novva.com.

Novva Media Contact

Jaymie Scotto & Associates (JSA)
+1 866.695.3629 ext. 11
[email protected]

SOURCE Novva Data Centers

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CNN
 — 

As a child, Robin Rue Simmons didn’t know the Evanston neighborhood she called home was an area where Black families were once forced to live.

Rue Simmons grew up just north of Chicago in Evanston’s 5th Ward, where banks refused to give mortgage loans to Black families until 1969.

In Evanston, Black people were restricted to a certain portion of the 5th Ward and excluded from other parts of the city.

The area “was disinvested in, stripped of a neighborhood school and access to health care,” Rue Simmons told CNN.

“There were specific anti-black zoning laws and housing practices that are responsible for our racial segregation – not only our physical segregation, but our wealth gaps and home ownership gaps and all other racial gaps that we have here in Evanston,” she said.

Those discriminatory housing policies led Rue Simmons, a former alderwoman, to push for reparations. Under Rue Simmons’ leadership, Evanston became the first city in the United States to pass a reparations resolution in 2019 for Black residents who qualified.

“It is a $25,000 direct benefit to build wealth through home equity,” Rue Simmons said. “Black Residents that lived in Evanston during the period of harm, which was 1919 – 1969, or their direct descendants are eligible.”

In March 2021, officials voted to release the first batch of funds in that program, and the first recipients were awarded grants in 2022.

Initially, the grants of up to $25,000 were restricted to mortgage assistance, renovations or a down payment on a home. Earlier this month, the Reparations Committee unanimously recommended the inclusion of a fourth option for beneficiaries receiving payment through the housing program: a direct cash payment to beneficiaries.

On Monday night, Evanston’s city council approved a cash option to its Housing Restorative Program. The meeting lasted three hours and it took the council three seconds to approve the cash option. Now, the program includes direct cash benefits for those who qualify.

There was no discussion because it was listed on the consent agenda. Council member Devon Reid told CNN by phone after the vote, “the items on the consent agenda are non-controversial items.”

At the end of the meeting, Reid appeared via Zoom with his camera off and spoke about the change.

“I just want to highlight how special Evanston is. Tonight, we passed what I believe is a historic amendment to our reparations program. It was just on the consent agenda and there’s no fuss, no folks coming out, you know protesting. No dissent amongst the council,” Reid said.

He added this will allow Evanston to move forward swiftly.

“This will allow us to get funding to our ancestors in a much more expedient fashion. We will be able to get that money out to folks and be able to provide some repair to our Black community and to the harmed community who has suffered from uh housing discrimination,” Reid said.

So far, the city has only spent $326,836 of the $10 million promised.

Tasheik Kerr, an assistant to the city manager, told CNN 124 people are still on a waiting list to receive money. Six who were eligible died before receiving payment.

Overall, Kerr said 650 residents have applied. The city is still sorting through applications and at least six people who qualified have died while waiting for their grant.

“We have stalled because of complications,” Rue Simmons said. “It has taken longer than we expected. And some of those challenges have been really underestimating, operationally, the work.”

From Asheville, North Carolina, to Detroit, Michigan, cities across the country are trying to repair harms caused by institutional racism. In San Francisco, a reparations committee is seeking payments proposed of $5 million to every eligible Black resident. A final report that includes board feedback is due in June, according to the San Francisco African American Reparations Advisory Committee.

The complications Evanston has seen with funding and distributing funds will come up across the US, Rue Simmons said. “We’ve had challenges, but we have found solutions,” she said. Those struggles were highlighted in the 2023 documentary “The Big Payback,” by Erika Alexander and Whitney Dow.

Funding for a repair of this magnitude is a tough hurdle to clear, Rue Simmons said. While she and her team worked on reparations in Evanston, the state of Illinois approved recreational marijuana, which went into effect in 2020 – and that provided the initial funding for Evanston’s reparations initiative.

“It is one thing to identify a harm and prescribe a remedy,” Rue Simmons said. “In the case of Evanston …we have been led to understand and appreciate that home rule taxes are our most viable way to fund reparations being that they’re within our purview.”

Ramona Burton is among the 14 people who have received the $25,000 grant so far. The 74-year-old woman has lived in Evanston her entire life but was born in Chicago. Back then, the city didn’t allow “the birth of Black” babies in certain hospitals, she said.

Burton said she used the money to purchase a new roof, install eight new windows and a privacy fence, as well as repair her chimney.

“I wasn’t planning on buying a new home at my age and my home is paid off. So, I used it for renovations,” the 74-year-old told CNN. “I was so excited when I found out. We didn’t get the money in our hands. We never see the money. The city paid the contractors for the work.”

That’s what 88-year-old Louis Weathers, another grant recipient, said he wants to remain in place. He is not in favor of the cash option the council approved Monday.

“I don’t think they should do that. They should have some stipulations that will help the city in housing. Something that will help the value of my property stay stable or go up,” he said. “Giving people cash isn’t a good idea unless you put it in a trust, and you can only get so much each year.”

Kimberly Holmes-Ross is among 124 approved residents but is still waiting to begin her project.

Her father, she said, migrated to Evanston from the South following the Korean War. Like Rue Simmons, she was raised in the 5th Ward with her parents but has since moved to the city’s 2nd Ward.

“My parents weren’t even shown houses in this ward in 1962 – everything was over in the 5th Ward. That is what they were shown and allowed to buy,” she said, standing in the neat yard of her home. “We’re looking to either build another house or add on to our garage.”

Holmes-Ross expressed some hesitation about the cash option and said there must be checks and balances.

“I hope it doesn’t stray too far from the original plan, where they could prove the harm. The harm was in housing and in redlining,” she said.

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Another Ross Dress for Less may open in downtown San Francisco, just a block from one of its existing stores at 799 Market St., the San Francisco Business Times first reported.

The new department store would occupy the 40,000-square-foot space at 901 Market Street where Saks Off 5th and Nordstrom Rack are currently located. Permit details SFGATE received from the San Francisco Department of Building Inspection show plans are underway for an “interior remodel” of the lower and ground floors of an “existing Ross store,” including the installation of merchandise shelving, Cash desks and equipment rooms.

However, it remains unclear if the Dublin-headquartered discount clothing retailer plans to move from its current Market Street location to this one, or if it plans to open a new store, replacing Nordstrom Rack and Saks Off 5th. The latter isn’t entirely out of the question: As the Business Times pointed out, Jamestown Properties CEO Michael Phillips said the 55,000-square-foot store at 799 Market St. is “one of the top five producers in the entire Ross chain.” and often customers queue outside to enter. (Jamestown sold the property in 2016.) SFGATE attempted to contact Ross representatives but received no response at the time of publication.

However, a spokesman for Saks Off 5th confirmed that the Market Street location will close permanently later this fall, and on Tuesday Nordstrom announced that the leases for its Nordstrom Rack store on Market Street and also for its giant Nordstrom -Store in non-renewable Westfield San Francisco Center.

Ross has one of his longstanding businesses at 5200 Geary Blvd. closed. in January, leaving only three other locations in San Francisco, including the one on Market Street, one on Sloat Boulevard, and one on 16th Street. However, the company announced in a press release in March that it had opened 11 new Ross stores and eight dd’s Discounts stores in the US during February and March — part of the company’s plan to “further develop” its footprint to 2,900 locations. and present around 100 new locations this year.

As of March, Ross Dress for Less had 2,034 stores operating.

This breaking news has been updated.

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Samsung HVAC America is expanding its operations at AllianceTexas’ Alliance Gateway 55 in Roanoke. [Photo: Hillwood]

Samsung HVAC America is the North American headquarters for Samsung’s heating and cooling products – including innovations like The Hylex, a compact, “breakthrough” outdoor unit that is compatible with virtually any existing HVAC system without the need for new wiring, wiring harnesses or ducting.

This week, the company announced that it’s not only innovating, but growing. Previously, the company was headquartered in 228,000 square feet at Alliance Gateway 55, a sprawling AllianceTexas industrial building in the northeast Fort Worth suburb of Roanoke. In the future, the company will occupy the entire 33,000 square meters of the building.

The facility is Samsung HVAC’s main distribution center for ducts in the United States and Canada.

“Samsung HVAC has experienced tremendous growth over the past several years and we are pleased that AllianceTexas will continue to be an integral part of their success story,” Hillwood SVP Reid Goetz said in a statement. Hillwood is the Dallas-based company that developed AllianceTexas’ 27,000-acre master-planned mixed-use development.

“Samsung is a global leader in the HVAC business and being in AllianceTexas provides them with tremendous value and continued ability to expand while maintaining direct access to their customer base across North America,” added Goetz.

location, location

For a North American HQ, location and logistics are key, and apparently both are paying off for Samsung at Alliance Gateway 55. It is located within the AllianceTexas transportation infrastructure platform, which also includes the AllianceTexas Mobility Innovation Zone (MIZ), Perot Field Fort Worth, Alliance Airport and the BNSF Railway’s Alliance Intermodal Facility.

Located off SH 170 just a few miles off I-35W, Samsung HVAC’s location offers optimized freeway and airport access in North Texas, as well as close proximity to AllianceTexas shipping options including the FedEx Ground Hub, two UPS Ground Sort Hubs and FedEx Express Southwest Regional Air Hub and Amazon Air Regional Hub.

Cushman & Wakefield’s Mark Becker, Jay Benner, Adam Cooke and Lou D’Avanzo represented Samsung in the transaction. Samuel Rhea and Reid Goetz of Hillwood represented Hillwood.

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• 

  Also find news from Catalyze Dallas, Flexport, Oceans Healthcare, Costar Technologies, TXOne Networks, North Texas Food Bank, Holt Lunsford Commercial and more in this week’s roundup of North Texas hiring, promotions and awards.

• 

  Wing – the drone delivery unit of Google parent company Alphabet – is working with Blue Bell Creameries, easyvet and Texas Health Resources on the launch. Wing calls the service “the first in a major metropolitan area of ​​the United States” and wants to offer “6 miles, 6 minutes, free delivery.” Test shipments of Wing from Walgreens’ Frisco and Little Elm stores also officially begin Thursday.

• 

  The Samsung Galaxy Creator Collective – a two-day event designed to help content creators accelerate their growth and turn their passions into careers – will be streamed live from Gilley’s Dallas today and Wednesday. The live stream features over 40 hours of content from the industry’s best creators and social platforms across Samsung’s Twitch and YouTube channels.

• 

  Dallas-based Hillwood has broken ground on two custom industrial buildings at its AllianceTexas project in Fort Worth. The two buildings will total approximately 1.7 million square feet with cross-dock configurations and a headroom of 40 feet. Overall, industrial development at AllianceTexas will grow nearly 4 million square feet this year, Hillwood says.

• 

  HomeVestors filed a lawsuit against HGTV’s parent company yesterday. Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc. said the show infringes the intellectual property rights of HomeVestors’ “Ugliest House of the Year” brand.

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After a particularly rocky week for tech companies diving their San Francisco real estate, at least one is reportedly bucking the trend and expanding its office space.

Asana, co-founded by Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz, is subleasing office space at 680 Folsom Street in SoMa. It’s taking over space that was previously home to Macy’s San Francisco offices, according to the Business Times. The New York retailer shuttered its offices in the city in 2020.

In 2019, Asana moved its headquarters to 633 Folsom Street, snagging a nearly 266,000-square-foot lease.

With this expansion, the productivity company is investing in city real estate during a particularly troublesome time for the tech industry at large. Meta reported troubling numbers Wednesday, including a decline in annual revenue for the first time since the company went public, while both Alphabet and Microsoft announced misses on both earnings and revenue estimates.

And due to a confluence of economic headwinds and the popularity of hybrid work, companies are increasingly abandoning their office space in the pricey San Francisco Bay Area market. This week, Twitter reduced its footprint in San Francisco and abandoned its plans to expand into Oakland, while Etsy will close its San Francisco offices for good come September due to low “employee office utilization.”

They follow Block, Salesforce and PayPal, which cut down or outright closed its San Francisco offices earlier this year.

Editor’s note: This story was amended on Aug. 2, 2:30 pm to accurately reflect where Asana’s new offices are located.

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San Francisco native John Tellez remembers when he could take BART to the end of the line for just 60 cents, a bygone era when he could more easily afford to live in The City and work as an in-home caregiver for his grandmother in Daly City .

But after his grandmother passed, Tellez had to find new work on top of bearing the loss of a family member. Construction jobs helped him get by, but the rising cost of living ultimately left him homeless for nearly four years.

These days, Tellez is back on his feet and doing what he loves: helping others live safely and comfortably at home. Not only that, but the 57-year-old is heading back to school to take his real-life expertise as an in-home care provider to the next level with training to become a certified nursing assistant.

“I like helping people. You know, it’s like karma. One day I might need help again myself,” said Tellez, who now works with clients in San Francisco’s shelter-in-place hotels, many of whom request working with him due to shared experiences with homelessness.

Tellez is one of five inaugural cohort members for a pilot program between City College of San Francisco, University of California, San Francisco, and Homebridge, a San Francisco-based, in-home caregiving provider that serves older adults and individuals with complex health and behavioral needs.

On a typical day, Tellez meets with clients such as a stroke survivor living in a Japantown shelter-in-place hotel, where he assists with everything from running errands, to changing bedding, to administering medications and helping the client move safely about.

It’s the same type of work that Tellez did while supporting his grandmother and more recently as a trained in-home caregiver at Homebridge, where he has now worked for two years. But now, those hours are helping him earn a new credential and higher earning potential in his next job, which he hopes will be at a nursing home or hospital.

The program, which is funded by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Metta Fund, provides free on-the-job training to in-home supportive service workers at Homebridge and clinical training with UCSF, culminating in a certified nursing assistant certification through City College of San Francisco.

The 15-week fully accredited course started in September. It includes 10 hours of weekly instruction through CCSF plus a clinical practice requirement of 100 hours at UCSF Health.

In-home health services are a vital cog in San Francisco’s health care network that helps keep extremely low-income residents in their own homes, providing both a sense of independence and keeping the hospital and emergency room beds open for patients with other immediate needs.

But the training initiative comes at a time when San Francisco is facing a serious shortage of in-home service providers coupled with an aging population, creating the perfect storm for unmet hospital bed demands and rising homelessness.

“If you can’t survive well at home, you could lose your housing,” said Mark Burns, executive director of Homebridge. “You can’t keep the place clean and can get evicted. You could have too many emergency health experiences, end up in the ER more, and can’t help yourself at home. So you could end up in a nursing home, but there are not even enough beds.”

Older adults make up the fastest growing age group in San Francisco. By 2030, The City’s Human Services Agency estimates 30% of the population will be 60 and older.

There are currently about 25,000 people who receive in-home care and 23,000 caregivers, according to the San Francisco Human Services Agency. Demand for in-home care recipients has grown by about 5% annually over the last two years, a trend that’s expected to continue unless workforce patterns shift.

“There’s a huge need and a huge gap. As you can imagine, it’s a really tough job,” said Kelly Dearman, executive director, of disability and aging services for SF Human Services Agency. “It’s not just about recruiting anyone, but we need people who speak various languages ​​and can meet a variety of needs.”

In-home care is a cottage industry relative to other medical practices. In many cases, these caregivers are family members who are paid to take care of a relative full-time.

Clients who can’t afford to manage their own services, or don’t have a family member who can support them, can find in-home caregivers through San Francisco’s in-home supportive services caregiver registry or through Homebridge. (To ask questions or to apply for in-home supportive care services, San Francisco residents can call (415) 355-6700 or find out more here.)

Veronica Diaz-Gracida and John Tellez, pictured at Homebridge, are taking classes to become certified nurses. (Kevin N. Hume/The Examiner) Homebridge is a San Francisco-based, in-home caregiving provider serving older adults and people with complex health and behavioral needs. (Kevin N Hume/The Examiner)

But in-home support services typically pay minimum wage salaries, making it harder for caregivers to live in San Francisco and work a physically and emotionally demanding job.

Across the city, 65% of in-home service providers are women and 34% are men, according to the Human Services Agency. Black and Latinx women make up a large majority of in-home caregivers in San Francisco and beyond.

“People who work in that industry are predominantly immigrants and women of color, people who are often taken advantage of for working long hours with low pay,” said Burns. “Our goal is to move them to a place like Laguna Honda where starting (salary) is closer to $25-$26, and (they can) experience more growth in pay scale there.”

Veronica Diaz-Gracida, another program participant, has been working as an in-home caregiver for the last four years. She decided to do the program once she saw a chance to move up in the medical field, an opportunity she hadn’t considered when fees and regular work responsibilities were in the way.

“I don’t want to worry about whether or not I can pay my rent, or how I can take care of my kids and work at a job that’s a good fit for me,” said Diaz-Gracida, 32, who lives in the Mission.

Throughout the pandemic, home and community-based care workers have been first responders to older adults and people with disabilities living at home in isolation. By offering more opportunities for advancement within the field and training to move on to other medical professions, Burns and Dearman believe more people will be interested in taking on these jobs.

“This is how we get people in the door,” said Dearman.

Diaz-Gracida has goals beyond a bigger paycheck in mind. She hopes her children will see her studying and discover opportunities they could pursue, too.

“I tell my kids, ‘Every day, I had to learn new things,'” Diaz-Gracida said, adding that she plans to show them the campus once she starts her clinical training at UCSF. “I want to show them that if you want something, you have to work for it.”

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com

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MARIETTA, Ga., Aug. 06, 2021–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Wrench Group, LLC (“Wrench”), a national leader in home services, announced that Boothe’s Heating, Air & Plumbing, based in Hollywood, Md., has joined the company’s family of regional brands. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

The transaction expands the Wrench Group presence into the Mid-Atlantic region. Boothe’s was founded in 1993 and provides a wide array of services for homeowners in southern Maryland, including heating, air conditioning, indoor air quality, plumbing and drains.

“Boothe’s has built a reputation for outstanding customer service and rapid response from certified technicians over their nearly three decades in business,” said Ken Haines, Wrench Group CEO. “Their track record of growth is a perfect match for Wrench Group as we move into the mid-Atlantic for the first time.”

“Joining the Wrench Group family is a major milestone for us, as they embody the same values ​​of excellence that I founded our business upon,” said Wayne Boothe, president and owner of Boothe’s. “Wrench’s technology and operations support will enable us to grow more efficiently while providing the same high level of service that our customers have come to rely on.”

Boothe’s will retain its local leadership and management, and continue to operate under its current brand. They currently have over 115 team members and serve approximately 25,000 clients across southern Maryland, with a service area that spans from the southeast Washington DC suburbs to Point Lookout, from the Potomac River across to the Chesapeake Bay.

About Wrench Group

Wrench Group, LLC is a national leader operating under 22 brands in 16 markets across the United States. The locations provide home repair, replacement and maintenance services specializing in heating, ventilation and air conditioning, plumbing, water, and electrical services. The company collectively serves more than 1.1 million customers annually with over 3,600 team members in the Atlanta, Austin, Cincinnati, Dallas, Denver, Fort Myers-Naples, Houston, Indianapolis, Jacksonville, Louisville, Orlando, Phoenix, Sacramento, San Francisco Bay Area , southern Maryland and Tampa Bay metropolitan areas. The locations have developed strong reputations with brands that date back to the 1940s. For more information, please visit us at www.wrenchgroup.com.

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View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210806005343/en/

Contacts

MEDIA CONTACTS
Meghan McNally
678-784-2260
mmcnally@wrenchgroup.com

Shawn Malaysian
872-267-2636
smalayter@greenhousepartners.com

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Waymo is beginning to operate electric Jaguar I-PACE SUVs in San Francisco with no human safety driver at the wheel.

Waymo

Waymo, the first self-driving company to launch a US robotaxi service, said it’s shifting to fully autonomous vehicle operation in San Francisco and expanding the service area where its Arizona robotaxi fleet operates into downtown Phoenix.

The Alphabet Inc. unit, which began testing Jaguar I-PACE electric SUVs loaded up with cameras, laser lidar sensors, radar and computers in San Francisco in 2020, said it’s operating some of those vehicles without a human backup driver behind the wheel. For now, they’ll only be hauling Waymo employees, rather than paying customers. Cruise, backed by General Motors, is starting to offer paid autonomous rides to commuters in San Francisco, although Waymo claims it’s the first company to have robotaxi services in more than one location.

“We’re particularly excited about this next phase of our journey as we officially bring our rider-only technology to San Francisco—the city many of us at Waymo call home,” co-CEO Tekedra Mawakana said in a blog post. “We ‘ve learned so much from our San Francisco Trusted Testers over the last six months, not to mention the innumerable lessons from our riders in the years since launching our fully autonomous service in the East Valley of Phoenix. Both of which have directly impacted how we bring forward our service as we welcome our first employee riders in SF.”

The arrival of autonomous ride services in a dense, urban environment like San Francisco is a big accomplishment for a technology that’s proven to be more complex and challenging to perfect than anticipated a few years ago, despite billions of dollars of investment and, in Waymo’s case , more than a decade of R&D. Along with Cruise, Amazon’s Zoox unit is also preparing to launch a San Francisco-based robotic ride service. Competitors including Argo AI, backed by Ford and Volkswagen, and Motional, supported by Hyundai Motor and Aptiv, have plans for their own autonomous ride services in Miami and Las Vegas, respectively.

In addition to its robotaxi program, Waymo is starting to deploy autonomous semi-trucks, initially in Texas, and has been lining up customers and truck builders for what some analysts think could be a compelling business owing to rising demand for freight and a shortage of long-haul truck drivers.

Waymo began giving test rides in autonomous minivans in suburban Phoenix in 2017, and introduced fully autonomous rides in 2020, limiting the service area to East Valley communities including Chandler and Tempe. The company is planning to make the service available in downtown Phoenix as well though just like in San Francisco, initially, only Waymo employees will be getting rides in that part of the city.

“It’s not a matter of validating your technology for certain streets, but deploying a confident Waymo Driver that is prepared to handle what could happen on that type of street anywhere,” Dmitri Dolgov, also Waymo co-CEO, said in the post. ” Just as our learnings from Phoenix’s East Valley transferred to San Francisco, our learnings from San Francisco are already informing our progress in downtown Phoenix.”

Though it’s been generating revenue for a few years, Waymo hasn’t yet disclosed that information or said when it expects to become profitable.

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Federal Home Loan Bank Of San Francisco

New Empowering Black Homeownership grants will flow through the Bank’s member financial institutions to housing counseling agencies in targeted areas

SAN FRANCISCO, March 01, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco (FHLBank San Francisco) is making $1 million available to help expand the capacity of HUD-approved housing counseling agencies to serve more aspiring and at- risk homeowners in communities of color. The Empowering Black Homeownership grant program is a key component of FHLBank San Francisco’s commitment to advancing racial equity in homeownership and narrowing the Black homeownership and wealth gaps.

The program allows eligible FHLBank San Francisco member financial institutions to request dollar-for-dollar matching grants up to a total matching amount of $125,000. The grants will be made to approved housing counseling agencies (HCAs) and used for HUD-eligible activities in 2022 – 2023, including staffing, marketing, and pre-and post-purchase counseling.

“Knowledge is power, and this funding can help ensure that Black homebuyers and homeowners have equal access to all the information they need to feel confident in their own ability to purchase a home or sustain homeownership,” said Teresa Bryce Bazemore, president and CEO of FHL Bank San Francisco. “Empowering Black Homeownership grants are an important new way the Bank can partner with our members to advance racial equity; we are providing financial support to HCAs that directly serve populations that have been historically disadvantaged when it comes to building wealth through homeownership.”

Historically, homeownership is a primary wealth builder in America, passed down through generations. Communities of color are often at a disadvantage and systemically challenged with tighter lending standards, higher debt-to-income ratios, lower liquid savings, and thus a disproportionate risk of foreclosures. Empowering Black Homeownership grants target providing education to Black homeowners and homebuyers who continue to face such hurdles in advancing their financial stability and also that of their children and grandchildren.

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“These grants will help hardworking people obtain the necessary resources to guide them through the homebuying and owning process,” said Marietta Núñez, senior vice president and community investment officer at FHLBank San Francisco. “The tools and knowledge available through expert counseling are lifelong lessons to ensure confidence and successful homeownership.”

For more information about the Bank’s dedication to supporting housing opportunity, visit www.fhlbsf.com/community-programs.

About Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco

The Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco is a member-driven cooperative helping local lenders in Arizona, California and Nevada strengthen communities, create opportunity and change lives for the better. The tools and resources we provide to our member financial institutions — commercial banks, credit unions, industrial loan companies, savings institutions, insurance companies and community development financial institutions — promote homeownership, expand access to quality housing and boost economic development. Together with our members and other partners, we are making the communities we serve more vibrant, equitable and resilient.

Media contact:
Mary Long
Senior Director, Marketing Communications
longm@fhlbsf.com
415.616.2556

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San Francisco-based John Tellez recalls taking BART to the end of the line for only 60 cents, a bygone era when he could more easily afford to live in The City and as a caregiver for his grandmother in Daly City to work .

But after the death of his grandmother, Tellez had to find a new job in addition to the loss of a family member. Construction jobs helped him make ends meet, but the rising cost of living eventually left him homeless for nearly four years.

Today, Tellez is back on his feet doing what he loves: helping others live safely and comfortably at home. In addition, the 57-year-old is going back to school in order to take his practical know-how as a home care worker to the next level with the training to become a state-certified nursing assistant.

“I like helping people. You know, it’s like karma. I might need help myself someday,” said Tellez, who now works with clients at San Francisco’s shelter-in-place hotels, many of which are due common experiences with homelessness wish to work with him.

Tellez is one of the first five cohort members for a pilot program between the City College of San Francisco, UCSF and Homebridge, a San Francisco-based home care provider serving older adults and people with complex health and behavioral needs.

On a typical day, Tellez meets with clients like a stroke survivor who lives in a shelter-in-place hotel in Japantown, where he helps out with everything from running errands to changing sheets to administering medication and the Helping the customer move safely.

It is the same type of job Tellez did while helping his grandmother and most recently as a trained housekeeper at Homebridge, where he has now been working for two years. But now these hours are helping him to gain a new qualification and higher earning potential in the next job he hopes to find in a nursing home or hospital.

The program, funded by the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the Metta Fund, offers free on-the-job training for supportive service workers at home at Homebridge and clinical training at UCSF that culminates in a Certified Nursing Assistant certification through CCSF.

Fifteen weeks of fully accredited classes began in September. It includes 10 hours of weekly tuition from CCSF as well as a clinical practice requirement of 100 hours from UCSF Health.

Home health care is a key cog in the San Francisco health network that helps keep extremely low-income residents within their own four walls.

However, the training initiative comes at a time when San Francisco is facing a serious shortage of home service providers coupled with an aging population, creating the perfect storm for unfulfilled hospital beds and rising homelessness.

“If you can’t survive at home, you could lose your home,” said Mark Burns, Homebridge’s executive director. “You cannot keep the place clean and can be evacuated. You could have too many emergency health experiences, end up in the emergency room more, and not be able to help yourself at home. You could end up in a nursing home, but there aren’t even enough beds. “

Older adults are the fastest growing age group in San Francisco. By 2030, the city’s Human Services Agency estimates that 30% of the population will be 60 and older.

According to the San Francisco Human Services Agency, there are currently approximately 25,000 people receiving home care and 23,000 caregivers. The demand for home care recipients has increased about 5% annually over the past two years, a trend that is expected to continue unless workforce patterns change.

“There is a big need and a big gap. As you can imagine, this is a really tough job, ”said Kelly Dearman, Executive Director, Disability and Aging Services, SF Human Services Agency. “It’s not just about recruiting anyone, we need people who speak different languages ​​and can meet different needs.”

Compared to other medical practices, home care is a homework. In many cases, these caregivers are family members who are paid to care for a loved one full-time.

Customers who cannot afford to manage their own services or who don’t have a family member to support can find home care workers through the San Francisco Caregiver Register or Homebridge. (To ask questions or request home support services, San Francisco residents can call (415) 355-6700 or learn more here.)

A classroom in Homebridge’s mid-market offices. (Kevin N. Hume / The Examiner)

However, home support services typically pay minimum wage salaries, making it difficult for caregivers to live in San Francisco and do a physically and emotionally demanding job.

According to the Human Services Agency across the city, 65% of in-home service providers are women and 34% are men. Black and Latinx women make up the vast majority of home care workers in San Francisco and beyond.

“People who work in this industry are mostly immigrants and women of color, people who are often exploited to work long hours on low wages,” said Burns. “Our goal is to get them to a place like Laguna Honda, where the entry (salary) is closer to $ 25-26 and (they can) see more growth in the salary scale there.”

Veronica Diaz-Gracida, another participant in the program, has been a home carer for four years. She chose the program when she saw an opportunity to advance in the medical field, an opportunity she hadn’t considered when fees and regular job duties got in the way.

“I don’t want to worry about whether I can pay my rent or how I can take care of my children and do a job that suits me,” says Diaz-Gracida, 32, who lives in the mission district.

Throughout the pandemic, home and community caregivers have been first responders to older adults and people with disabilities living in isolation at home. Burns and Dearman believe that more people will be interested in these jobs by providing more opportunities for advancement in the field and training to move into other medical professions.

“That’s how we get people in the door,” Dearman said.

Diaz-Gracida has goals beyond a bigger paycheck. She hopes her children will see her study and discover opportunities to pursue.

“I tell my kids, ‘I’ve had to learn new things every day,'” said Diaz-Gracida, adding that she plans to show them around campus as soon as she starts her clinical training at UCSF. “I want to show them that if you want something, you have to work for it.”

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com

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