Soaring Rents Put Squeeze on San Francisco Nonprofits
Rapidly rising rents in a red-hot real estate market have left many San Francisco nonprofit arts and social service groups without the resources to stay in the area, the San Francisco Examiner reports.
Nonprofit officials attribute the increased competition to the migration of dot-com companies into the Bay Area. Over the past five years, rents in the area have increased more than 250 percent and the vacancy rate for commercial space has fallen to between 1 and 2 percent.
"Our space has been claimed by a dot-com [company] who's paying 6 1/2 times what we pay," said Anna Ghriger of Equal Rights Advocate, a nonprofit legal firm. "We have nowhere to move to."
Appearing last week before the city's Small Business, Economic Vitality and Consumer Services Committee, Glynn Washington of the nonprofit Human Services Network, said, "I do not hesitate to use the word 'crisis'. Human service organizations have told me they are grateful their rents are only being tripled."
Among the solutions to the problem proposed by various parties are tax exemptions for property owners who lease to nonprofit organizations, the construction of a philanthropy center out of which smaller nonprofits could operate, and the creation of a database that could be used to track and foster public/private housing partnerships between nonprofits and businesses.
Epstein, Edward. "Nonprofit Groups Tell S.F. Panel of Rent Woes." San Francisco Chronicle 05/19/00.
Kim, Ryan. "Space Crunch Grips Nonprofit Companies." San Francisco Examiner 05/19/2000.
Likcteig, Mary Ann. "Dot-coms Displace San Francisco’s Arts, Social Services Organizations." Associated Press 05/20/2000.
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