• Community Housing Partnership receives national recognition from the American Institute of Architects and the American Society for Landscape Architects for the design of Drs. Julian & Raye Richardson Apartments.
• Community Housing Partnership consolidates its programmatic and administrative offices into a newly renovated office at 20 Jones Street, serving as a visible anchor to the mid-Market neighborhood of San Francisco.
• After operating the building for 5 years for another organization, Community Housing Partnership acquires the Cambridge, a 59 unit building and begins construction on a rehab project to add private kitchens for building residents, upgrade building utilities, and improve common spaces.

• Community Housing Partnership began construction of Rene Cazenave Apartments, a 120 unit building named after one of the founding board members of CHP and a long-time advocate of social justice and progressive causes.
• With the support of housing advocates throughout San Francisco, Community Housing Partnership gets approval to proceed with development of the Edward II, a planned development in the Marina District for transition-age youth.
• Community Housing Partnership opens Drs. Julian & Raye Richardson Apartments in Hayes Valley on a parcel formerly occupied by the Central Freeway. At 120 units, the building is CHP's largest to date, and is named after the founders of the oldest African American bookstore in the nation.
• Community Housing Partnership rebrands and expands its social enterprise as Solutions SF, creating even more opportunities for advancement for hardworking individuals and positioning CHP as an engine for economic development
• Community Housing Partnership hires its first Chief Financial Officer, Eric Broque providing prudent oversight of CHP's financial affairs, resources, and the strength of its business strategy.

• Community Housing Partnership opens Zygmunt Arendt House, creating a home for 47 formerly homeless seniors.
• Community Housing Partnership acquires a new site that will serve as a home for 24 transition-aged youth.
• Community Housing Partnership celebrates its 20th anniversary with 785 units of housing at ten sites and 265 more units at three sites in the development pipeline. The budget for the agency is over $15 million, and the agency employs over 200 people, more than half of whom were once homeless. Between our housing, job training and other programs, Community Housing Partnership serves nearly 2,000 people each year.
• Gail Gilman, Director of Tenant Services for eight years succeeds Jeff Kositsky as Executive Director of Community Housing Partnership.

• Community Housing Partnership opens Arnett Watson Apartments in February, named in honor of one of our original tenants and a former Board member who passed away a few years earlier. Arnett Watson Apartments is an 83 unit building for 36 individuals and 47 families, and is the first new construction project for the agency.
• The line staff of Community Housing Partnership join SEIU local 1021 with the full support and cooperation of the Board and Senior Management.
• Community Housing Partnership is awarded the development rights to Parcel 11A in the Trans Bay redevelopment area. This building will serve over 120 formerly homeless adults.

• Community Housing Partnership opened the Essex in February 2008, renting up the building in only 16 days.
• Community Housing Partnership promotes Elizabeth Hewson to serve as our first Deputy Director.
• Staff, residents and supporters of Community Housing Partnership participate in the Prop. 98 rally, helping to defeat the anti-rent control measure.
• Community Housing Partnership began providing property management services to two sites owned by Chinatown Community Development Center, serving 126 units. We also provide tenant services at these locations.
• Community Housing Partnership starts construction for Zygmunt Arendt House, a home for 47 seniors who have been homeless.
• Community Housing Partnership launches a federally funded substance abuse treatment program called Treatment and Supportive Housing (TASH), and is the only housing provider in the nation to receive funding for the program.
• Community Housing Partnership receives Bank of America’s prestigious Neighborhood Builders award.

• Community Housing Partnership is awarded development rights for a parcel at Fulton and Gough, to develop Dr. Raye Richardson Apartments, a 120 unit building for formerly homeless individuals.
• Community Housing Partnership starts rehabilitation of the Essex Hotel, to become 84 studio units.
• Community Housing Partnership begins construction for Arnett Watson Apartments, which will become 83 units for individuals and families.
• Community Housing Partnership begins providing tenant services at 3 sites owned and operated by Chinatown Community Development Center, serving 217 units.
• Community Housing Partnership expands its housing portfolio on Treasure Island, opening 42 new units, bringing our total to 66 units on the island.
• Community Housing Partnership launches the Community Housing Organizing Project (CHOP) to expand leadership development and civic engagement agency-wide.
• Community Housing Partnership launches CHP Enterprises, a social venture to provide increased employment opportunities for graduates of our training programs.
• Community Housing Partnership is awarded First Place in the 2007 MetLife Awards for Excellence in Affordable Housing in the Supportive Housing category due in-part to our 98% housing retention rate.

• In our continuing tradition of working with other non-profit agencies that serve formerly homeless persons, Community Housing Partnership contracts with other organizations to provide them with quality property management.
• Community Housing Partnership also enters into an agreement with the Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) to gradually assume ownership of their 3 supportive housing sites (Cambridge, Hamlin and William Penn).
• Community Housing Partnership is awarded development rights for a site at 850 Broderick to develop Zygmunt Arendt House, a home to 47 seniors.
• Community Housing Partnership is awarded 42 additional units on Treasure Island as part of the City's re-development plan for the Island.
• Community is named recipient of the 2006 Union Bank of California Cornerstone Award for Excellence in Affordable Housing.
• Community Housing Partnership acquires the Essex Hotel.
• Community Housing Partnership gains site control of the lot at 650 Eddy Street to develop Arnett Watson Apartments for 83 families and individuals.

• A complete rehabilitation of the Senator Hotel is finished, restoring the building to better accommodate residents and improve the community. Two units are added, bringing the total to 89.
• Community Housing Partnership partners with Catholic Charities on Treasure Island to provide property management services for an additional 66 units of family housing.

• Community Housing Partnership completes a plan to expand by providing property management and tenant services at buildings owned by other agencies to serve more people in our community who have experienced homelessness.
• Community Housing Partnership takes on administration of the Shelter Advocates Program to help people who utilize shelters in our City.

• Community Housing Partnership is honored with the MetLife Award for Excellence in Property Management for our operations at the Iroquois Hotel.

• Island Bay Homes opens to 24 families on Treasure Island.
• Community Housing Partnership launches the Desk Clerk Training Program to train residents for entry level property management positions in supportive housing buildings.

• Community Housing Partnership hires Jeff Kositsky to serve as Executive Director. Jeff launches an intensive strategic planning process that capitalizes on Community Housing Partnership's strengths while positioning the organization for future growth and development.

• Community Housing Partnership celebrates its 10th anniversary and is home to 288 tenants in 217 units of housing.

• Community Housing Partnership hosts our first-ever community event and fundraiser, "A Night with the Stars," talent show featuring performances by by those who reside in Community Housing Partnership's housing.

• Community Housing Partnership begins working on developing housing for formerly homeless families on Treasure Island.

• Matt Starr succeeds Mike Davis as Executive Director.

• Rehabilitation of the Iroquois Hotel is completed and the residence opens to 11 families and 63 individuals.
• Community Housing Partnership is hired by Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation to supervise a tenant work crew at the Cameo, which is our first contract to provide services for another agency.
• Community Housing Partnership formalizes the Maintenance Work Crew training program based on the experience of tenants who have worked on rehabilitation of Community Housing Partnership buildings.

• Community Housing Partnership acquires the Iroquois Hotel and a 20-member crew of tenants works with contactors on rehabilitation of the building.
• Community Housing Partnership formalizes the Training Institute, where participants take courses to learn basic skills and explore vocational interests.
• Community Housing Partnership forms the Supportive Housing Employment Collaborative (SHEC).

• Rehabilitation of the San Cristina is complete and the residence opens to 58 individuals.
• CHP helps form the Treasure Island Homeless Development Initiative (TIHDI), to ensure housing for people who have been homeless would be included in the re-use plan.

• A team of tenants and staff work together on rehabilitation of the Senator Hotel and San Cristina Residence.
• The initial rehabilitation of the Senator Hotel is complete, and the building is fully occupied by 70 individuals and 17 families.

• The Senator Hotel becomes the first building of Community Housing Partnership to open, and 50 people move in to the 87 unit building.

• CHP obtains a Davis-Bacon volunteer waiver, allowing CHP tenants to work alongside and integrated with contractors on construction projects.
• San Cristina Residence acquired.
• Senator Hotel acquired.
• First contract with the Department of Human Services to provide support services to tenants in our housing.

• The Community Housing Partnership is formally incorporated on March 6th.
• The first CHP Board is selected, including 20 percent of the seats for tenants, ensuring the people served would maintain a strong voice in the direction and operation of the organization.

The Community Housing Partnership was created from advocacy efforts around the crucial need for affordable, permanent housing for homeless people.

In 1988 a study called "Transitional Housing: The Next Step" was drafted by Paul Boden, Joe Wilson, Greg Francis and Laura Ware of the Coalition on Homelessness. This study emphasized the need for the City of San Francisco to begin prioritizing the creation of affordable, permanent housing rather than continuing to emphasize transitional housing and shelters. This study also proposed that the basic concept of transitional housing be reversed - that housing be developed in which the tenants stayed permanently and the staff were the ones to move on as the tenants’ developed the ability to manage their own communities. This concept, which at the time was very radical and unusual, became the driving force that has guided us ever since.

This same study was reviewed by then Mayor Art Agnos, and ultimately adopted by the City as formal policy. But it was the Loma Prieta Earthquake in October of 1989 that gave impetus to the implementation of the ideas outlined in this study. With the destruction caused by the earthquake, many of the hotels used for emergency housing by the Department of Human Services had been rendered unsafe for residency. The City thus had these emergency housing funds as well as FEMA funds to support reconstructing projects; private foundations were also looking at ways to support rebuilding after this destruction. This combination of factors led to a meeting between various city departments, members of the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO - the San Francisco coalition of non-profit housing developers), and members of the Coalition on Homelessness (COH - an advocacy organization composed of homeless people, advocates, service providers, and community members). At this and subsequent meetings it was decided that these two coalitions would work in partnership to create a new organization whose specific purpose and mission was to develop housing dedicated and affordable to homeless people.

In order to create this new organization, CCHO and the COH decided to integrate it into the ongoing work of their memberships. The COH does nearly all of its work through the structure of working groups, comprised of homeless people, providers, and other interested members of the community. The decisions of these working groups are carried out by the staff employed by the COH, and members of the working groups also serve as representatives on the COH Board of Directors. Similarly, the CCHO has working groups which are created depending on specific issues at any given time, and are staffed by the CCHO staff, with overall decisions made by the full membership.

With similar structures and philosophies in place, the COH and CCHO moved forward create this new entity, named the Community Housing Partnership. Community Housing Partnership consisted of the following work groups:

The Housing Workgroup of the COH - its membership consisted of property managers, tenants, service providers, city staff, advocates and homeless people. Its main work was to develop the infrastructure for operations of the potential housing, such as the lease, house rules, quality of life concerns, and some screening policies. This group also focused on how Tenant Councils would be created, and how tenants would be included in future decision-making. This group was facilitated and staffed by a COH staff member, and later joined by the Program Director of the Community Housing Partnership.

The Vocational and Economic Development Workgroup of the COH - its membership consisted of training and employment service providers, city staff, participants, construction union members and contractors, business and corporate reps, advocates and homeless people. Its main work was to develop a hiring plan and vision for including homeless people and future tenants in the construction and ongoing operations of the building, and to implement a vocational and employment service plan for future staff and tenants. This group was facilitated and staffed by a COH staff member, and later joined by the Program Director of the Community Housing Partnership.

The Support Services Workgroup of the COH- its membership consisted of shelter and service providers, medical and treatment providers, legal and other advocates, and homeless people. Its main work was to develop the potential services plan (on-site and off-site) which would support future tenants in retaining their housing and re-establishing a sense of community. This group was facilitated and staffed by a COH staff member, and later joined by the Program Director of the Community Housing Partnership.

The Housing Development Workgroup of the CCHO - its membership consisted of housing developers and property managers from the various member organizations of CCHO. Its main work was to initiate pre-development on potential properties of the new entity, and provide ongoing technical support and leadership through identifying the properties to purchase, development, construction and occupancy. This group was facilitated and staffed by a CCHO staff member, and later joined by the Executive Director of the Community Housing Partnership.

The cumulative work of these workgroups lasted for over 2 years and resulted in the infrastructure of the new Community Housing Partnership. Each workgroup elected a representative to the COH Board (thus perpetuating its structure and communication linkages), and a representative to serve on the newly created Board of Directors of the Community Housing Partnership. Within CCHO, the staff of all the workgroups attended CCHO meetings, and the Community Housing Partnership's Executive Director became a member once he was hired. Lastly, the Board of Directors for the Community Housing Partnership was structured such that it would continuously have 4 representative seats each for the COH and CCHO, 3 tenant representative seats (1 for each of our current buildings) and 5 at-large seats. Each of these elements was designed to ensure ongoing communication with the founding coalitions, as well as ongoing input from homeless people, advocates, service and housing providers.

This process has reaped the benefits of a base of support which has been expanded to include tenant input as a primary priority. The inclusiveness and openness of the structure has ensured that tenants are involved in ongoing decision-making as well as be asked for input before specific decisions are made which will effect the overall functioning of their buildings and the organization.