San Francisco Redevelopment Agency

SFRA demolished over 14,000 housing units in San Francisco between 1948 and 1976, claiming the agency was working on slum clearance and addressing urban "blight".

[3] In 1954, real estate promoter Ben Swig presented the San Francisco Prosperity Plan which involved a complete overhaul of the south of Market street (SOMA), a project that the city approved in 1966.

[5] He led the Western Addition redevelopment project, which was criticized because a vast majority of its previous residents could not move back as rents had gotten much higher.

[7] In 1970, Justin Herman, executive director of the SFRA, said about the SOMA "This land is too valuable to permit poor people to park on it.

[8][9][10] The City and County of San Francisco created the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure (OCII) as the successor agency.

[23] The SFRA took this as an opportunity for urban renewal to create the new Western Addition neighborhood — particularly the formation of the Fillmore District into an African American area.