Tenderloin Community Action Plan

What is the Tenderloin Community Action Plan?

The Tenderloin Community Action Plan (TCAP) is a neighborhood-driven collaboration between residents, community organizations, businesses, and City agencies. The Plan identifies current needs for the neighborhood’s diverse culture and population and provides a collective vision for Tenderloin’s future. It will serve as the third phase of Mayor Breed’s Tenderloin Emergency Initiative.

Based on the Tenderloin Vision 2020 plan and a year of outreach and engagement, as well as the Emergency Initiative, the action plan will implement projects and programs in the following priorities identified by the community: health and wellness, housing and houselessness, open space, transit and mobility, economic development, arts and culture, and environmental justice.

The Plan is directed by Tenderloin residents and community-based organizations who advise the city’s efforts to implement said projects and programs. Stakeholders can also participate in the various working groups that analyze local issues and support the general group by proposing solutions and advising decisions. Both the CSG and Working Groups provide direct recommendations to the Planning office and other implementing agencies.

What are we trying to do?

The TCAP seeks to address the immediate public health and safety crisis in the Tenderloin while implementing medium and long-term actions to ensure residents and businesses are safer, more secure, and have more opportunities to thrive.

Who is this affecting?

The TCAP aims to meet the needs of the neighborhood’s residents, community-based organizations, and businesses.

Why are Planning and DEM working together?

Planning has a long history of working with community and City agencies in the neighborhood and has long standing relationships with community leaders and stakeholders. The Department has a wealth of experience in convening City agencies to achieve common goals and meet the needs of communities, including the Mission Action Plan 2020, Sustainable Chinatown, and Outer Mission/Excelsior Action Plan. These Plans were managed by the Planning Department, developed in partnership with community, and implemented with City agencies, community-based organizations, residents, and businesses.

Planning has already spent over two years working with the community, and we are familiar with the needs of the neighborhood. This is an opportunity for Planning to ensure implementation of the Tenderloin Community Action Plan with dedicated resources.

The Department of Emergency Management originally led the Mayor’s Tenderloin Emergency Initiative and was responsible for the crisis phase of the project. As the Initiative moves to a phase of sustained operations, the City will continue coordinating as they have since the beginning. Joint Field Operations will continue to facilitate a daily assessment of the neighborhood, coordinate needs and actions for the day, and communicate the status of those commitments. Now that we are moving out of the initial emergency phase and into sustaining operations, a different City agency must take the lead as of July 1, 2022. The Department of Emergency Management will continue working at the operational and street coordination level.

What happened on July 1, 2022?

The Planning Department began to serve as the lead agency. The Department’s Tenderloin Action Plan team serves as the coordinators of sustained operations; the City agency convener to discuss, refine, and implement projects and programs, facilitate and ensure an equitable community governing process, and gather and report data to share progress to meet outcomes. We will continue to share data publicly on the dashboard, and as we finalize the near, medium, and long-term actions in the Plan over the next six months, we will identify the metrics and corresponding data for each goal.

The Tenderloin is a unique neighborhood with a range of perspectives, with the highest density of children in the city, and high concentrations of communities of color, seniors, people living with disabilities, artists, and community-based organizations and merchants. The neighborhood has long been a refuge for immigrants and the LGBTQ+ communities.

The Tenderloin has a long-standing history of activism and resiliency. The Uptown Historic District, the nation’s first Transgender District, North of Market Special Use District, and the Hotel Conversion Ordinance are a few examples of community-based efforts that preserve and protect affordable housing and tenants and celebrate the neighborhood’s diversity. Today, several community organizations and residents are continuing this tradition. Highlighting one of these achievements, the Tenderloin People’s Congress engaged over 1,200 community members in a conversation envisioning the neighborhood’s future in 2017, which resulted in the Vision 2020 Plan and sparked advocacy for the creation of the Tenderloin Community Action Plan.

On December 17, 2021, Mayor Breed declared an official 90-day State of Emergency in the Tenderloin, allowing the City to waive certain laws to more quickly respond to the conditions relating to the health and safety of the people in the neighborhood. As the operational lead, the Department of Emergency Management (DEM) drafted the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative (TEI). The TEI is a three-phase plan that outlines an initial assessment of conditions, crisis operations and plans for sustained operations in the Tenderloin to help stabilize conditions on the street.

The City recognizes that Tenderloin Community Action Plan is in alignment with community values and vision for the neighborhood. As crisis operations in Phase II (December 17, 2021 – March 17, 2022) of the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative transitions to Sustained Operations in Phase III, management transition from DEM to the Planning Department (CPC). The Tenderloin Community Action Plan, as of July 1st, 2022 includes Phase III, Sustained Operations, of the Tenderloin Emergency Initiative.

Partners

We are collaborating with community-based organizations in the Tenderloin and City agencies that manage and administer work in the neighborhood.

Community-based Organizations

• Tenderloin People’s Congress
• Tenderloin Community Benefit District
• Central City SRO Collaborative
• Boys and Girls Club
• Code Tenderloin
• Urban Alchemy
• The Healing Well
• Faithful Fools
• Glide
• La Voz
• Familias de la Tenderloin
• La Cocina
• Downtown Streets Team
• Tenderloin Housing Clinic
• St. Anthony’s
• HomeRise
• Block Safety Groups
• Southeast Asian Community Center
• Southeast Asian Development Center
• Chinatown Community Development Corporation
• San Francisco Community Health
• Tenderloin Merchants Association
• Transgender Cultural District
• Mid-Market Business Association
• Civic Center Business District
• Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation
• WalkSF
• Bicycle Coalition
• Hospitality House

City Agencies and Offices

• Mayor’s Office
• District 5 Supervisor’s Office
• Department of Public Health
• Department of Public Works
• Department of Emergency Management
• San Francisco Arts Commission
• San Francisco Human Rights Commission
• Department of Children, Youth & Their Families
• District Attorney’s Office
• Department of Building Inspections
• San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
• Office of Economic and Workforce Development
• Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing
• Healthy Streets Operations Center
• San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency
• Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development
• Recreation and Parks Department
• Fire Department
• Police Department
• Planning Department

Register to join the Community Stakeholders Group meetings for residents or for community-based organizations and small business representatives.