Practice Area Archives

Supporting Municipal Power in Puerto Rico

July 11, 2024 / Comments Off

HR&A was instrumental in the formation of La Liga, an organization that equipped Puerto Rican mayors with unprecedented communication channels in the wake of Hurricane Maria, and we continue to provide strategic and analytic support to help the organization build collective action, resilience, and more effective local government on the Island.

La Liga is a first-of-its-kind, community-focused, collaborative vehicle for Puerto Rico to address fiscal, economic, rebuilding challenges and gain deserved visibility and support from the U.S. mainland — work that emerged from necessity in the wake of a climate disaster and continues to build a more resilient and prosperous future for the people living there.

In the years since La Liga was formed, HR&A helped design and execute La Liga’s Municipal Innovation Laboratory, which offers a tailored, comprehensive curriculum to promote equity-driven community power, transparency, fiscal responsibility, and economic well-being for local governments in Puerto Rico. HR&A also designed La Liga’s Federal Funding Navigator, an online platform that streamlines municipalities’ access to funding opportunities provided by the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). This tool simplifies the process of accessing over $107 billion for which Puerto Rico is eligible for climate change and infrastructure projects.

Supporting Trinity Church Philanthropies to End Mass Homelessness and Mass Incarceration in New York City

July 11, 2024 / Comments Off

For the past several years, HR&A has provided strategic partnership to Trinity Church Philanthropies to help them advance their goals of ending mass incarceration and mass homelessness in New York City.

HR&A supported Trinity Church Wall Street to launch Faith Communities for Just Reentry (FCJR), a coalition of over 40 faith leaders across New York State demanding that City leaders take action to ensure that New Yorkers leaving city jails transition home effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. HR&A supported the development of the coalition’s policy platform, which includes keeping people safe during the pandemic, ensuring justice-involved families can access housing, and calling for the creation of a coordinated reentry system.

HR&A also provided direct support to Trinity’s grantees, including helping Fountain House — a national nonprofit that serves and advocates for people living with serious mental illness — plan for the expansion of its effective clubhouse model, which has been shown to dramatically reduce homelessness and improve health outcomes for its members. To support Trinity’s goals, HR&A analyzed how public hospital real estate assets could be repositioned to address the needs of patients experiencing homelessness and on the workforce it will need over the next decade to implement evidence-driven, community-based programs — such as permanent supportive housing — that have been shown to reduce homelessness, hospitalization, and jail admission.

Transition for Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato

July 11, 2024 / Comments Off

Starting the morning after Sara Innamorato was elected as the first female County Executive in Allegheny County, HR&A provided intensive daily project management and strategic guidance to her transition and helped create an Action Plan to guide her Administration.

First, we structured and supported a Transition Committee of over 200 diverse community leaders, organizers, local employers, academics, and government experts. With this committee, HR&A sourced, vetted, and recommended appointments to critical leadership positions in County departments and the Executive Offices. We also designed and implemented All In Allegheny, the largest community engagement initiative in County history. Nearly 19,000 residents responded to the All In community issue survey, sharing the actions they would like County government to take on topics including housing affordability, infrastructure projects, neighborhood safety, small business support, reducing pollution, and supporting young people. HR&A project managed the development of the All In Action Plan, in which the Innamorato Administration lays out the 91 actions it will take over the next several years to deliver on the community priorities articulated in the survey findings and workshops held across the County. This Action Plan was released on County Executive Innamorato’s 100th Day in Office, in mid-April 2024.

HR&A’s proven ability to translate newly elected leaders’ campaign promises into tangible reforms has been enshrined in a playbook prepared for Local Progress, a movement of elected municipal officials who activate the powers of local government to advance racial equity and economic justice.

Supporting the Creation of a San Francisco Public Bank

July 11, 2024 / Comments Off

HR&A Advisors led the development of a business and governance plan and feasibility study for the City of San Francisco to establish a municipal public bank to reinvest public funds into expanding affordable housing, small business lending, and green investments.

The team created detailed plans outlining the bank’s vision, mission, structure along with a range of products and services to benefit city communities. The HR&A team also produced a viability study and pro forma financial statements that inform the investment and return conditions to guide City planning and bank management. In 2023, the San Francisco Reinvestment Working Group and the Government Audit & Oversight Committee both voted unanimously to advance these plans to the Board of Supervisors for consideration and adoption.

Information on the submission of the plans to the Board of Supervisors and the full business and governance plan and viability study are available here and here.

Photo via: Shen Pan

Supporting SEIU State Public Banking Legislation

June 8, 2023 / Comments Off

HR&A Advisors worked with a coalition of racial and economic justice organizations, financial access advocates, and labor unions, including the California Service Employees International Union (SEIU) and the California Public Banking Alliance, to provide analysis of the financial and social impacts of unfair banking access to support advocacy for the California Public Banking Option Act (AB-1177). Our findings showed how inadequate and disparate access to free and safe banking accounts results in billions of dollars lost to the California economy annually, contributes to people remaining in poverty, and increases the use of taxpayer dollars towards providing social services.

In October 2021, the California Assembly and Senate passed the California Public Banking Option Act and Governor Gavin Newsom signed it into law in a move that sets the foundation for providing universal access to banking that will benefit households, local economies, and taxpayers. This is the first bill in the nation guaranteeing universal banking access, paving the way towards giving all Californians access to high-quality, low-cost financial services. 80.7% of unbanked Californians earn less than $15 per hour, and nearly half of Black and 41.1% of Hispanic households in California are unbanked or underbanked. Unbanked communities lack access to basic financial services — like checking and savings accounts — that are critical to financial stability.

HR&A Advisors novel analysis examined who is not being served by the formal banking system, where they live, what the financial costs are to individuals and to the economy of un- and under-banking, and the economic benefits of the legislation to California. AB-1177 established a framework to study the feasibility and implement the CalAccount public banking option program, an alternative to the high fees that many Californians face from existing predatory banking options that stand as a barrier to wealth accumulation.

Our analysis delineated how the CalAccount program could offer critical services to Californians and become self-sufficient within the next five years. CalAccount could draw on existing state programs to reach a customer base of millions of Californians resulting in an estimated $3.3 billion in savings for low-income households, potentially creating 22,000 jobs, and boosting the California economy by an estimated $4.2 billion by redirecting spending away from costly interest and fees.

Photo: Louis Velazquez

NYC Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Assessment for For-Hire Vehicles

February 14, 2023 / Comments Off

In 2022, Uber engaged HR&A to assess the current state of electric vehicle (“EV”) charging infrastructure available to New York City’s for-hire drivers and what is needed to reach the Mayor’s goal for zero emissions by 2030.

The report revealed critical gaps in the New York City’s infrastructure that will pose significant challenges to achieving this transition in the next 7 years and identified a set of strategies that bring together the City, utilities, EV charging companies, and mission-driven landowners to work together to accelerate the path to a cleaner, greener future.

The report recommends 10 strategies that will support enhanced access and affordability to EV charging infrastructure, build the processes and systems to support for-hire driver needs, and help achieve the 2030 zero-emissions goal:

Identify high-need neighborhoods that overlap with where for-hire drivers live to prioritize where to place low cost and fast chargers.
Work with utilities to identify high-volume pick-up and drop-off areas in which the grid currently has capacity to support new fast chargers.
Develop a comprehensive EV infrastructure deployment plan to strengthen coordination with utilities, optimizing the City’s ability to achieve its emission reduction and environmental equity goals, and electrify the for-hire vehicle fleet.
Aggressively pursue new federal funding opportunities to direct investment to target neighborhoods.
Streamline the permit process for EV charging as part of the City’s ongoing efforts to improve land-use processes.
Leverage real estate assets owned/managed by public or faith-based entities to provide land for accessible, affordable chargers in targeted neighborhoods and near high-volume trip areas.
Explore land use incentives for private developers to integrate public chargers with no gate/parking fees into new developments.
Continue targeted outreach and engagement specific to the for-hire vehicle industry.
Support EV charging operators in communicating electricity prices and charger availability with drivers, as well as in developing driver-centric incentives to reduce charging during peak load times.
Further develop a new pricing structure for the cost of power for charging operators that makes charging more affordable.

The report findings were announced within this Op Ed in the Gotham Gazette on February of 2023.

Read the report here.

FLOW Youth Center

October 10, 2022 / Comments Off

HR&A has been working with a coalition of advocacy groups including JusticeLA (JLA) and Designing Justice+Designing Spaces (DJDS) in their efforts to advance projects around L.A. County’s transformative Care First Community Investment (CFCI). JusticeLA is a collaborative of several L.A. based organizations organizing with communities to disrupt where and how L.A. County incarcerates justice-involved individuals. DJDS is the nation’s foremost design nonprofit working to build and transform communities through restorative Justice. DJDS will steward an authentic, ground up engagement effort with community to design, build and operate new infrastructure that challenges the traditional paradigm around justice and incarceration. HR&A developed a concept plan for a pilot campus in Long Beach that builds on DJDS’s argument: that community-based solutions including mental health, substance abuse treatment, jail diversion, and quality design can disrupt the revolving door for justice-involved individuals. In 2022, DJDS, JLA, and HR&A released a concept paper, proposing the development of a piece of the FLOW (For the Love of Well-being) Youth Center.

The FLOW Youth Center will be a new prototype for juvenile restorative justice, designed to break the cycle of investing in punishment by reinvesting in spaces and programs focused on care and healing. The Center will proactively address the root causes of youth incarceration and the lack of physical infrastructure and associated programming for holistic health services, education, and employment. Our concept paper describes an innovative and replicable process for radically inclusive, equitable, community-engaged design for restorative justice.

HR&A worked with JLA and DJDS to develop a robust engagement strategy and the estimated time and budget to complete the work outlined within the concept plan. With this concept paper as a guide for development, DJDS is currently looking for partners in government and philanthropy to invest in their concept development fund and inspire grass roots efforts to design and build these centers throughout Los Angeles and the country. We look forward to continuing this partnership as DJDS and JusticeLA work with communities to transform the built environment and L.A.’s criminal justice system.

Richmond Business Recovery Action Plan

October 5, 2022 / Comments Off

There is no comprehensive playbook for how local communities should recover from COVID-19, but it’s critical to balance meeting immediate needs with building a more equitable and resilient economy.

In Richmond, HR&A collaborated with the City and the Economic Development Commission to develop guiding principles for inclusive recovery that set the foundation for a comprehensive Business Recovery Action Plan focused on addressing the short-term needs of small and locally-owned businesses. The team identified recovery needs and available resources and made recommendations such as expanding available grants for small businesses, often owned by people of color and reluctant to take on additional debt in an uncertain economic environment; removing barriers to access and consolidating information about City services, recovery resources, and regulatory approvals; and identifying opportunities to use federal recovery dollars to support workforce recovery and capital improvements.

The plan focused on identifying priority actions that could be meaningfully advanced within a six-month timeframe and that aligned with equitable recovery principles including addressing community needs, building local capacity, and improving equitable access. HR&A has since helped the City to advance several recovery actions including the creation of a new Economic Development Working Group, and to identify longer-term economic development strategies with a focus on building the capacity of the City and local businesses. As we help advance the plan, including forming the initial agenda for the multi-stakeholder economic working group and framing a buy local campaign, we look forward to applying lessons to other communities across California and beyond. The City of Richmond continues to demonstrate its commitment to supporting underserved residents and recently retained HR&A to lead a community-centered engagement process for allocating the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars.

SDSU Mission Valley Innovation District Development

September 30, 2022 / Comments Off

Universities across the country are taking on new roles to increase opportunity for their students, faculty, and surrounding communities by creating inclusive spaces for innovation.

San Diego State University (SDSU) made the bold move to purchase a 135-acre site from the City of San Diego to create SDSU Mission Valley, a mixed-use, transit-oriented community that will help expand SDSU’s educational, research, and entrepreneurial missions. This site will include a 1.6 million square foot Innovation District, up to 4,600 residential units, a multi-use stadium, and over 80 acres of parks and open space. The entire project will increase career opportunities for SDSU’s 35,000 students, 54% of whom are students of color, and grow SDSU’s $5.7 billion annual impact on the San Diego region.

Quidel Corporation, a provider of rapid diagnostic testing solutions, cellular-based virology assays and molecular diagnostic systems, was announced in July of 2022 as the first partner in the Innovation District and a Founding Partner at SDSU’s Snapdragon Stadium. SDSU expects more private, public and non-profit-sector partners to be announced in the coming months, who will contribute to interdisciplinary hubs of research and innovation.

We collaborated with SDSU to refine a vision and business plan for the Innovation District and to guide refinement of a master plan for the district. We are currently supporting the procurement of a developer to construct as much as 500,000 square feet of space within the Innovation District, where SDSU will expand its research presence to anchor the new development.

SDSU Innovation District Quad and Public Realm, Image courtesy of SDSU.

Minimum standards for JPA-sponsored, California Middle Income Housing Conversion Transactions

September 30, 2022 / Comments Off

The housing supply crisis in California is being addressed through a wide range of critical yet complex public and private investments. But very few resources support new housing for middle-income households.

In the last two years, three California Joint Powers Authorities (“JPA”) and their developer partners, with approval from local governments, have originated more than $5 billion of tax-exempt bonds paired with property tax exemptions to finance acquisition of 9,000 apartments, which will be converted into affordable rentals for middle-income households. The total financing exceeds the current $3.7 billion annual allocations of Low-Income Housing Tax Credits for low- and very low-income households in California.

Our work with local governments across the state has been focused on ensuring that these investments maximize public benefits and meet local policy objectives. Our project evaluations help guide negotiations for this new type of transaction and illuminate the issues that local governments in California should consider before approving participation in these transactions.

A white paper, co-authored with the California Housing Partnership and CSG Advisors, guides our analysis approach and highlights the urgent need for local governments to carefully weigh the merits of middle-income housing JPA bond transaction proposals. As a result of this work, Assembly Member Ward proposed AB 1850 to establish minimum standards for JPA-sponsored middle-income conversion transactions.

Project evaluation examples include two for City of Long Beach, where we helped negotiate better terms for a 215-unit building conversion, the Oceanaire and new construction of a 580 units, the Midblock Civic Center.

Image courtesy of Oceanaire