The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project
For more than 40 years, the San Francisco Tenants Union (SFTU) has been a place for SF residents to learn about their rights as tenants and get advice on how to secure and maintain habitable, affordable housing.
The Anti-Eviction Mapping Project (AEMP) uses data-visualization, data analysis, and storytelling to document how the City's changing politics, economy, and the real-estate and high-tech industries impact San Francisco residents. It's run by the SFTU and its volunteers, many from the tech community, use their skills in coding, data analysis, and design to raise awareness about increasing inequality in the City. I joined because I'm a data visualization nerd, and love using my skills to support causes I believe in.
As part of the AEMP, I worked with a front-end developer and a back-end engineer to design and implement a website for AEMP's Anti-Eviction Pledge. The site allows you to check the eviction history of a unit before you buy or rent it, and pledge not to rent or buy any unit that is available as the result of a no-fault eviction.
I picked red, white, blue and gray as the site's colors because, to me, housing equality is directly tied to the American Dream. I wanted to evoke patriotism in a subtle and modern way. The image in the top banner is one I took in the Haight neighborhood, a neighborhood reknown for its ties to the hippy movement, but also home to some of the most expensive housing in the city.
So far, 450 people have signed their names to the pledge, and we even got covered as part of a TechCrunch article about the San Franisco housing crisis: How Burrowing Owls Lead to Vomiting Anarchists (Or SF's Housing Crisis Explained).
