09/24/2022
GET TO KNOW Filipino Community Development Corporation-FCDC
FCDC is a community-centered affordable-housing and community development corporation established in March 2016 by tenant association members, community advocates, lawyers, social service professionals, and representatives of different community organizations united by a vision to end homelessness.
We came together initially in San Francisco, to further the use of our world-renowned culture of hospitality to serve the needs of the poor and the homeless of our American diaspora. We have agreed that as Filipinos, housing unhoused new immigrants, the poor, and homeless in our own homes is no longer enough and more had to be done to address the moral issue of homelessness and the poverty that has spawned it in the richest country in the world.
Providing housing including transitional housing are obvious solutions. But plugging the cracks leading to poverty and homelessness from our society’s super economic abundance where the homeless trickle from and overflow our streets, parks, forests, deserts, and beaches are issues we cannot avoid as part of our civic duty in the land that has provided more than ample opportunities for our diaspora..
Filipino-American Households are now second highest earners despite the immigration difficulties after all. And the Filipino diaspora in the US even keeps the corruption-driven and poverty-creating Philippine government afloat from our remittances.
So, we organize our diaspora with citizens and fellow immigrants to this land that is now also ours.
As part of our initial organizing process, we developed a historical timeline of the Filipino Community in San Francisco to provide perspective to our work. In partnership with the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation, with funding from the 5M Project, we conducted survey research involving 253 Filipino respondents living in SoMa to describe their situation and identify their needs and concerns.
We collaborate with the Mint Mall Residents Association, Canon Kip Senior Center, Tenderloin Filipino-American Community Association, Pilipino Senior Resource Center, West Bay Pilipino Multi-Service Center, church groups, and other organizations on this project, and in the process expand our network. FCDC participates in community initiatives such as SoMa Pilipinas and the Asian Pacific Islander Partnership.
We advocated to keep the Gran Oriente Filipino Hotel as affordable housing and supported the passage of Proposition I, known as the Dignity Fund which supports the needs of seniors and people with disabilities.
