South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN)

During the late 1990s, spurred on by the Dot Com Boom, many parts of San Francisco were reeling from rapid gentrification. SOMA, one of the last affordable neighborhoods in the City, suddenly became unaffordable. Many small businesses, non-profits, immigrants, working-class residents and their families that have called SOMA home since the early 1900s, were suddenly facing displacement.

In 2000, as a direct response to the increasing threats in the sustainability of the SOMA community, SOMCAN was formed by community leaders from youth, senior, veteran, Filipino, and housing organizations to address gentrification and displacement issues. SOMCAN built a resident base that would educate, organize, and mobilize the neighborhood in fighting for their basic human rights to live, work, and thrive in SOMA and San Francisco. Since inception, SOMCAN has been able to achieve major victories for the community.

Established in 2000, SOMCAN is a multi-issue and multi-strategy organization that nurtures the lives of youth, families, individuals and workers. We work on a wide range of issues—from tenant rights to community planning to Filipino language access to workers rights—and provide culturally competent direct services ranging from tenant counseling to family support to youth empowerment to employment.

SOMCAN believes in uplifting the voices of immigrant, people-of-color, and low-income communities, so they will be heard in local policy-making decisions and so civic offices are accountable to their needs.