Q Foundation Reaps Big Win With Bill.com for Rent Relief Platform
bill.com • December 3rd 2021
Bill.com agrees Q Foundation is a technology leader in the social sector.
Apple Inc. Promotes Q Foundation
theQFoundation.org • September 11th 2020
Q Foundation leads the way using technology to prevent homelessness.
Letters from Lockdown – Sarajevo, Yangon, New Orleans, San Francisco
SnapJudgment.org • June 15th 2020
NPR’s hit show Snap Judgment brings you thoughts on how to survive lockdown from four amazing people and features Q Foundation’s Brian Basinger.
Eviction Defense Collaborative and Q Foundation partner to keep friends housed
SF.gov • February 18th 2020
Though Edwin eventually started to receive disability benefits, their shared income was still too little to cover the full rent. The Q Foundation then agreed to provide a rent subsidy to the two individuals, which has given Mary and Edwin the extra help they need to stay in their home.
$1 million in funding from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development for first new HIV rental subsidies in 12 years; Q Foundation now accepting applications for the program
SF.gov • December 20th 2019
The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development will award $1 million this year to the Q Foundation for rental subsidies for people living with HIV, according to the agency.
Q Foundation will also be receiving $500,000 for rental subsidies for seniors and disabled people from the Department of Aging and Adult Services, Executive Director Brian Basinger said.
SF awards $1M in rental subsidies for people with HIV
Bay Area Reporter by John Ferrannini • November 13th 2019
The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development will award $1 million this year to the Q Foundation for rental subsidies for people living with HIV, according to the agency.
Q Foundation will also be receiving $500,000 for rental subsidies for seniors and disabled people from the Department of Aging and Adult Services, Executive Director Brian Basinger said.
How to Preserve LGBTQ Culture
KCBS Radio • How To Bay Area Series • June 29th 2019
There was a time when the Bay Area was home to highly visible queer communities full of LGBTQ-friendly businesses. And while you do still have plenty of rainbow flags in the Castro, if you look past the obvious symbols, the character of these neighborhoods has changed dramatically with many of those businesses shutting down and many long-time residents pushed out by the high cost of living.
So on this edition of How to Bay Area we speak with the people at ground zero of this change to find out what they feel like they’re losing and what they are fighting to preserve.
Through the course of this episode we learn how this preservation work is being carried out, how community organizers are adapting their work to the internet age and also offer practical advice on how to find queer-friendly housing in the Bay Area.
Hosts: KCBS Radio reporter Keith Menconi and KCBS Radio production assistant Mary Hughes.
Guests: Terra Haywood, co-owner and business operations manager for The Stud, Jolene Linsangan, owner of Jolene’s Bar, Terry Beswick, executive director of the GLBT Historical Society, Brian Basinger, executive director of the Q Foundation, and Juanita MORE!, creator of Juanita’s List, et. al.
The Fight to Keep Castro Queer
AltaOnline.com • June 25th 2019 • Shane Downing
Gentrification in the neighborhood predates the Faeries’ Sausage Factory scare. It goes back almost 40 years, to when two powerful forces tore through the neighborhood. First, there was the AIDS crisis. Between 1981 and 1990, an estimated 8,000 San Franciscans died of AIDS-related illnesses. By 1992, approximately 30 people were dying each week, many of them Castro residents. And according to Brian Basinger, the executive director of the Q Foundation, a nonprofit in San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood formerly called the AIDS Housing Alliance, just as the Castro was ground zero in the city for the AIDS epidemic, the neighborhood was also ground zero for San Francisco’s eviction epidemic, the second ravaging force.
Q Foundation Re-Dedicates San Francisco’s Iconic ‘Rainbow Flag Apartments’ to Honor Gilbert Baker, Creator of LGBTQ Movement’s World-Famous Multi-Colored Flag
Business Wire • June 11th 2019 • Photo by Spencer Platt for Times Magazine
SAN FRANCISCO – In an event led by Mayor London Breed, Supervisors Matt Haney, Rafael Mandelman, City & State officials, the Q Foundation today honored a piece of San Francisco LGBTQ history by re-dedicating the 324 Larkin building as the “Gilbert Baker Rainbow Flag Apartments”.
324 Larkin
Rent SF Now • Date unknown • 2019
324 Larkin commands a special place in San Francisco’s rich, storied history as a center for the LGBTQ community, which was enshrined in June 2019 when owner Veritas Investments rechristened the building as the Rainbow Flag Apartments at the behest of The Q Foundation.
Black Trans Women Created the World’s First Trans Cultural District
Out Magazine by Raquel Willis • February 18th 2019
San Francisco’s Tenderloin neighborhood has a rich history that is being reclaimed for a new generation. Three years before the Stonewall Riots lit the flame of the LGBTQ+ Movement, the Compton’s Cafeteria Riot of 1966 poured the lighter fluid on the pavement. As recounted in author Susan Stryker’s 2005 documentary, Screaming Queens, the San Francisco uprising began after years of police profiling and harassment when a fed-up drag queen threw a hot cup of coffee in a police officer’s face. Brian Basinger, executive director of Q Foundation, a nonprofit in the neighborhood that focuses on preventing homelessness for people living with HIV/AIDS, initially filed a negative declaration in opposition to the developer’s assessment that “there was no historical value to that neighborhood, that the neighborhood was just filled with substance users and poor people, and that there’s no actual historical value within the block,” recalls Aria Sa’id, LGBT policy advisor for San Francisco Human Rights Commission.
New cultural district director hopes to create employment opportunities for transgender residents
San Francisco Examiner by Victor Tence • February 5th 2019
When Aria Sa’id first came to San Francisco 10 years ago they thought they were “extremely employable.” However, their three compounding identities as a black, transgendered woman limited their options for work. They ended up sleeping either at the Larkin Youth Center or on a BART train car.
Election 2018: Final tally from Election Night — Prop. C wins, Haney declares victory
Mission Local by Mission Local Staff • November 6th 2018
Prop. C garners 60 percent; Mandelman wins; Haney holds commanding lead; Mar, Stefani, Walton win initial ranked-choice tally
“Our opposition worked to our advantage, because they fucking sucked,” crows Prop. C architect Jennifer Friedenbach
With a month to go, both sides of Prop. C homeless tax measure heating up
Hoodline by David-Elijah Nahmod • October 10th 2018
With less than four weeks to go until Election Day, campaigning in the city is heating up around Proposition C, the “Our City, Our Home” initiative aimed at taxing corporate revenues to pay for services for the homeless.
If passed, Prop C would impose an average of a half-percent in gross receipts tax on corporate revenues of over $50 million. The tax revenues, which would amount to $300 million per year, would be used to create 4,000 affordable homes for the lowest-income San Franciscans, more than the city has built in 30 years.
Editorial: SF ballot measure endorsements
Bay Area Reporter by BAR Editorial Board • October 17th 2018
There are only five San Francisco propositions on the November ballot, but they could have lasting effects on city policy.
Proposition C: Additional Business Taxes to Fund Homeless Services: YES. This is the most contentious measure on the ballot. The city has tried before to raise tax money to fund homeless services and it was rejected. Prop C is a new plan that would tax the wealthiest businesses that pay a gross receipts tax an additional 0.175 percent to 0.690 percent. Only companies that have gross revenue of over $50 million would be taxed. Prop C would deposit this revenue into a dedicated Our City, Our Home fund serving homeless people and preventing homelessness. The Board of Supervisors would determine each year how to distribute the additional funds, within these limits:
Prop C supporters kick off campaign in Castro
Bay Area Reporter by David-Elijah Nahmod • September 5th 2018
Seeking to galvanize support for Proposition C, which would raise taxes on big corporations in San Francisco to fund homeless services and supportive housing, about 100 people rallied and knocked on doors in the Castro last weekend.
If passed, Prop C will levy a half percent in gross receipts tax on corporate revenues over $50 million. According to supporters, if passed, Prop C will generate $300 million per year to help tackle the housing affordability and homelessness crisis. The money would, supporters say, create 4,000 affordable homes for low-income San Franciscans, fund 1,000 new shelter beds to move people off the street and indoors, fund mental health and substance abuse treatment, and add more public restrooms, jobs for people to help keep the city clean, and create thousands of rent subsidies to help people stay in their homes.
Tenderloin nonprofit offers transgender veteran housing security
Fox KTVU News by Andre Torrez • August 28th 2018
Hollie Beck is a 77-year-old transgender veteran. She served in the Navy from the mid-1950s to early 1960s, where in a past life as a male, she was stationed aboard a ship, based in San Diego.
Protest held for drag queens facing eviction
Bay Area Reporter by Alex Madison • August 8th 2018
A spirited protest was held Monday night in front of the home where four LGBT tenants and a straight woman are fighting an Ellis Act eviction.
Well known figures, including gay former state lawmaker Mark Leno and gay District 8 Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, called for the repeal of the Ellis Act at the August 6 gathering at 1781 15th Street that included about 75 people.
SF Measure To End Homelessness Gets Enough Signatures For November Ballot
CBS SF Bay Area • July 9th 2018
Supporters of a campaign seeking solutions to San Francisco’s homelessness problem celebrated Monday, after learning that they collected more than twice the number of signatures needed to place a measure on the November ballot.
Advocates submit signatures for big business tax to fund homelessness solutions
San Francisco Examiner by Ian Williams • July 9th 2018
Advocates for a new initiative to fund homelessness solutions by taxing big business submitted thousands of signatures to put the measure on the November ballot at San Francisco City Hall Monday.
Q Foundation Secures Housing And Healthcare For Clients: Jefferson Award Winners Created The Q Foundation
CBS SF Bay Area by Allen Martin • June 22nd 2017
When their friends were dying of AIDS or being evicted from their homes, two friends decided to take on San Francisco’s housing crisis. Fourteen years later, not only are they helping AIDS survivors, their non-profit has expanded to help the entire LGBT community. And they are this week’s Jefferson Award winners.
Bay Area Marks Pulse Anniversary
The Bay Area Reporter by Seth Hemmelgarn • June 7th 2017
“The shooting at Pulse Nightclub hit me hard because I had spent years in the 1990s lip-synching in drag at clubs” in San Francisco, particularly at the former Trannyshack drag show at the Stud bar, Maxson said. “After seeing all the names and faces of the people that passed that night at Pulse” on TV several days later, Maxson added, “I created a 14-foot sculpture made of aluminum flowers that spelled out the word Pulse. I wanted to honor and pay respect to those that were killed in the most disrespectful way. And I was impressed with all the other people who felt the same way and were sharing their art on social media. A year later I wanted to do my part to honor those that had fallen at Pulse and to give the opportunity for other artist to participate.”
The money raised from portrait sales will go to the Q Foundation and the LGBT Asylum Project.
Nonprofit execs say results weigh more than pay
The Bay Area Reporter by Seth Hemmelgarn • April 6th 2017
For years after he founded San Francisco’s AIDS Housing Alliance in 2004, Brian Basinger was paid only what would fit within the limits that Social Security Disability Insurance would allow.
But Basinger, a gay man who’s living with AIDS himself and remains executive director of what’s now known as Q Foundation AIDS Housing Alliance, recently had to make a change.
His low wages “left the organization in a vulnerable place as far as sustainability planning is concerned,” Basinger said in an email. “If something were to happen to me, the organization would be hard pressed to find another person with the required skill set to work for $700 per month. After much soul-searching, I decided to let go of disability so that we could grow the compensation for my position to market-rate.”
San Francisco Plans Nation’s First Transgender Cultural District In The Tenderloin
Hoodline by Carrie Sisto • February 1st 2017
A transgender cultural district is being formed in the Tenderloin, with support from the developer of a major project that will soon span the heart of the preserved area.
District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim yesterday introduced a legislative package to develop the Compton’s Transgender, Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual (TLGB) District, which would span six blocks of the lower Tenderloin and cross over Market to encompass two blocks of Sixth Street.
SF To Designate Nation’s First Transgender Historic District In The Tenderloin
SFist by Caleb Pershan • January 31st 2017
After a complicated back-and-forth process between local activists, politicians, and the developer of a large hotel and condo complex on Market Street, San Francisco will designate the nation’s first transgender historic district located within the Tenderloin as the development project moves forward.
Supervisor Jane Kim announced the deal, which she helped broker, on the steps of City Hall today, also introducing legislation to define the district. That’s to be called Compton’s TLGB District: A reference to a historic local uprising and an arrangement of the acronym more commonly rendered as LGBT that serves to highlight the contribution of trans people in that uprising, the district, and the queer rights movement generally. The official district will comprise six blocks in the southeastern Tenderloin, crossing over to Market Street to include two blocks of 6th Street.
As of last fall, local advocates citing historic LGBT sites in the area were hoping to halt Developer Group I in its efforts to build a 12-story mixed-use project at 950-974 Market with 250 residential units, 232 hotel rooms, and ground floor retail space. Tenderloin nonprofit the Q Foundation, an extension of the AIDS Housing Alliance, was at the helm of the preservation effort, led by Brian Basinger. The Q Foundation cited LGBT bars in the area, like the Old Crow at 962 Market, which served the neighborhood’s well-represented LGBT population from 1935 until it closed in 1980, and the Silver Rail at 974 Market.
Housing subsidy program up in the air
The Bay Area Reporter by David-Elijah Nahmod • January 26th 2017
Citing the voters’ decision not to approve a sales tax increase last fall, San Francisco city officials have not restored $3 million in housing subsidy funds, setting off a scramble so that low-income people, including those living with HIV/AIDS, can get shelter.
Last week, about two-dozen clients of the Q Foundation met at City Hall to implore the Board of Supervisors to restore $1.6 million in housing subsidy money that had been cut by Mayor Ed Lee, according to Brian Basinger, executive director of the Q Foundation.
Q Foundation provides rental assistance subsidies to low-income people with AIDS and other disabilities, as well as to low-income LGBTQ seniors.
Funding cuts for AIDS housing a worthy first battle for HIV-positive supervisor
San Francisco Examiner by Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez • January 10th 2017
San Francisco’s first openly HIV-positive supervisor, Jeff Sheehy, is already facing his first major task from his community.
Nearly 250 people bordering on homelessness, many of whom are diagnosed with HIV/AIDS, are seeing their housing subsidies cut by Mayor Ed Lee.
Will Sheehy push to restore that funding?
Mayor Lee made the cuts in the wake of 2016’s failed Proposition K, which promised millions of dollars for San Francisco homeless programs. That includes a $3.1 million cut in funding to the AIDS Housing Alliance, leaving potentially dozens of homeless and HIV-positive San Franciscans at risk.
Some may sleep on our streets, a “solution” no one wants.
The mayor approved 2016’s budget last year, with millions of dollars factored in under the assumption Prop. K would pass. But as moderate and progressive Democrats tussled over a ridiculous number of propositions on last year’s ballot, Prop. K failed under a sea of in-fighting — including the god-awful, hate-filled Proposition Q, authored by Supervisor Mark Farrell, which promised to take tents away from people living on the street.
According to Brian Basinger, head of AIDS Housing Alliance, Mayor Lee said he would not release the $3.1 million to the organization — crucial to subsidize (and not even fully) housing for at least 250 San Franciscans — after Prop. K failed.
Mission Family Near Homelessness After City Budget Shortfall
Mission Local by Laura Wenus • December 22nd 2016
A group of women who have lived in San Francisco for 27 years are on the brink of homelessness just before the holidays, even after winning a coveted spot in an affordable housing unit. As it turns out, they earn too little and a city subsidy that might have helped didn’t make it into the budget.
Enter the Q Foundation, which runs a housing subsidy program for senior and disabled San Franciscans. Brian Basinger, the executive director there, hoped the subsidy of $500 a month would allow the family to accept the housing placement they were offered and move in. But with a restructuring of the city budget, Basinger said, those subsidies were not funded and the family is out of luck.
Major Mid-Market Development Approved As Planning Denies LGBTQ Activists’ Appeal
Hoodline by Steven Bracco • November 21st 2016
n a meeting that lasted nearly nine hours, the San Francisco Planning Commission voted in a 4-3 decision Thursday to deny an appeal against the 12-story development proposed for 950-974 Market St.—paving the way for the major development’s approval.
The appeal was filed against the project’s Preliminary Mitigated Negative Declaration (PMND), which allows the project to move forward without undergoing the state’s full environmental review process. Filed by Q Foundation activists Brian Basinger and Rick Galbreath—who hope to designate the area as an official LGBTQ historic district—the appeal requested a full environmental impact review (EIR) for the project due to its impacts on historic resources relating to the city’s LGBTQ social and cultural history.
Residents begin moving into 55 Laguna project
The Bay Area Reporter by Matthew S. Bajko • November 17th 2016
The first residents of a $16 million San Francisco affordable housing development intended for LGBT seniors began moving into their apartments this week, a month later than initially expected.
Brian Basinger, co-founder of San Francisco’s Q Foundation who had fought to see the 55 Laguna project be set aside for low-income LGBT and HIV-positive seniors, said that he had yet to hear that any of his foundation’s clients of its AIDS housing programs had been picked to move into the building.
“No one has showed up on my doorstep asking for a move-in deposit, which they normally do,” Basinger told the B.A.R. Tuesday afternoon.
Solutions exist to end HIV homelessness
The Bay Area Reporter by Matthew S. Bajko • June 30th 2016
At first Paul Ernest Pingol-Eulalia adjusted well to his moving from the Philippines to Los Angeles in 2003. But the graphic designer’s life began to spiral out of control after he began abusing drugs and alcohol. He soon found himself living out of cheap motels and turning to prostitution to ensure he would have a roof over his head for the night. In March 2008 Pingol-Eulalia, who is gay, learned he had contracted HIV.
Today: Q Foundation Workshop On Affordable Housing For 55 Laguna
Hoodline by David-Elijah Nahmod • June 3rd 2016
Fresh off its success at 101 Polk Street, where Q Foundation (formerly known as AIDS Housing Alliance) procured below-market-rate housing for six of its clients, the organization now hopes to help low-income and disabled LGBTQ seniors obtain some of the coveted BMR units coming to 55 Laguna on the border of Hayes Valley and the Lower Haight—the “first affordable, LGBT-welcoming housing” that’s opening to residents this fall.
The LGBTQ 100
San Francisco Magazine by Brock Keeling & Leilani Marie Labong • June 2016
From the guy who runs Apple to the queen who rules nightlife to the lady who coined #BlackLivesMatter, these are the Bay Area’s most influential non-straights.
ACTIVISM: Brian Basinger, Housing Advocate. The founder of AIDS Housing Alliance is trying to secure fair-housing protections for LGBTQs with the Equality Act, which will pass in Congress only when, he says wryly, “the Dems are in charge.”
Today: Q Foundation Workshop On Affordable Housing For 55 Laguna
Hoodline by David-Elijah Nahmod • June 3rd 2016
Fresh off its success at 101 Polk Street, where Q Foundation (formerly known as AIDS Housing Alliance) procured below-market-rate housing for six of its clients, the organization now hopes to help low-income and disabled LGBTQ seniors obtain some of the coveted BMR units coming to 55 Laguna on the border of Hayes Valley and the Lower Haight—the “first affordable, LGBT-welcoming housing” that’s opening to residents this fall.
To that end, Q Foundation Executive Director Brian Basinger and Vanessa Doyle of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development will be hosting an affordable housing workshop, titled Worqshop, from 4-5:30pm today at the Main Public Library, 100 Larkin St.
AIDS housing agency changes name
The Bay Area Reporter by David-Elijah Nahmod • May 5th 2016
For the past 13 years, AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco has provided rental subsidies and help with back rent, among other services, for low-income people living with HIV/AIDS. On May 1, AHA co-founder Brian Basinger announced that the organization would be known as the Q Foundation going forward.
Brian Basinger Finds Sanctuaries With The AIDS Housing Alliance
Hoodline by David-Elijah Nahmod • December 13th 2015
We recently asked readers to nominate local people, businesses and organizations that are doing good in their communities to be featured here on Hoodline. We’ve been running a series based on those reader suggestions. Here’s one such story.
For longtime HIV survivor and current AIDS Housing Alliance SF (AHA) Executive Director Brian Basinger, no issue facing San Francisco is more important than affordable housing.
For Gay Community, Finding Acceptance Is Even More Difficult on the Streets
The New York Times by Erica Goode • December 2nd 2013
SAN FRANCISCO — There were times — after he told his parents he was gay, for example, and his mother wept and his father tried to hit him — when Fredy Bolvito curled up on a bench in Union Square here and cried because he had AIDS and no job and no place to stay and he felt, he said, that “my life was over.” But there were also days when he sat on the bench in the square and sang “The Star-Spangled Banner,” looking up at the flags atop the Westin St. Francis hotel and thinking, “That’s breathtaking, that’s my American dream.” Or when he mingled with tourists, giving them directions to the cable cars, or gazed through the windows at the shoppers in Macy’s and was saddened by how rich and healthy they looked.
Most vulnerable homeless sector seeks shelter
El Tecolote by Krystal Peak • April 21st 2010
Within the homeless community there are invisible subgroups that face even greater disadvantages and larger stumbling blocks –monolingual Spanish speakers, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered individuals, and persons infected with HIV. Now efforts are being made to give them the resources they need.
Home Work: Building access to a place you can afford
POZ Magazine by Patrick Letellier • October 1st 2005
San Francisco HIVer Brian Basinger, 38, knew his Sustiva combo couldinduce some odd dreams, but nothing prepared him for a late-night housecall from God. “You must organize housing for people with HIV,” theAlmighty boomed in 2004. And so it came to pass that less than sixweeks later, Basinger, a former marketing manager, and his positivepartner, James Nykolay, 39, had put their disability checks towardstarting AIDS Housing Alliance/San Francisco (AHA/SF). People lined up—and today he has helped hundreds find homes.
Tenants with HIV gain link to resources / Alliance tracks friendly landlords, roommates in S.F.
SF Gate by Rona Marech • January 29th 2004
Within the homeless community there are invisible subgroups that face even greater disadvantages and larger stumbling blocks –monolingual Spanish speakers, gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgendered individuals, and persons infected with HIV. Now efforts are being made to give them the resources they need.