AAYEJ and Brightline Defense Project have come together to fundraise and deliver high-quality air filtration units to SRO residents in 2022. Thanks to your donations to the Brightline Air Filtration Fund, Brightline will be able to distribute over 100 individual air filtration systems to SRO residents in Chinatown, Tenderloin, South of Market, and Mission District. Donations to Brightline are tax deductible and no donation is too small.

Please make checks payable to: Brightline Defense Project. Attn: Brightline Air Filtration Fund.

1028-A Howard Street. San Francisco, CA 94103.

Listen to our partners at Brightline Defense Project speak about air quality affecting Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) in the Bay Area.

Brightline is an environmental justice nonprofit that serves frontline communities through air quality monitoring, job training, youth leadership, and more. Since 2020, Brightline has worked with nonprofit organizations across San Francisco to build community access to clean air. With 19 air quality sensors in the Brightline network, underhoused populations and low-income families now have access to real-time air quality readings in their neighborhoods and increased environmental health awareness. Moreover, Brightline has hosted air filtration workshops to show Single-Room Occupancy (SRO) tenants how to create affordable air filtration systems within their homes.

San Francisco Chronicle California Air Quality Map: before (left) and after (right) integrating Brightline’s Air Quality Monitoring Program Sensor Network. As indicated in the green highlighted area, Brightline’s monitoring network addresses the gap of local air quality monitoring in underserved areas such as the Tenderloin, Chinatown, and South of Market (SoMa).

About SROs

While living in some of the densest and poorest urban conditions across the nation, residents of Single Room Occupancy (SRO) hotels in San Francisco face unique environmental justice issues. Primarily located in the neighborhoods of the Tenderloin, Chinatown, the Mission District, and South of Market (SoMa), SRO buildings mainly house low-income tenants and entire families living in rooms as small as 8 by 10 feet with shared bathrooms and kitchens. SRO buildings also face chronic maintenance issues and health code violations while making up the largest supply of low-cost housing for vulnerable populations such as seniors, adults with disabilities, and children. Despite the poor living conditions, the monthly rent for a single SRO unit in 2019 was around $800 and $1,000 for units with a bathroom, a price range unaffordable to many of San Francisco’s low-income and fixed-income residents. Now, prices have shifted into an average monthly rent of $1,200 for a single-room unit and $1,500 for units with a restroom.

Photo Credit: Zachary Hearst/Courtesy of Chinatown Community Development Center.

A unique need exists to distribute individual air filtration systems for SRO residents. Brightline’s surveys found that 73.4% of SRO respondents reported not having an air filtration system in their unit. Unfortunately, only 18% would be able to afford and install a $200-600 portable air filtration system. SRO residents consequently face poor air quality and exacerbated health impacts because they lack access to indoor air filtration.

About Brightline's Work with SROs

Brightline has long worked to increase awareness about air quality amongst community members, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, media outlets, and more to highlight the needs of SRO residents and monolingual communities. For instance, Brightline facilitated a tour with CARB Chair Liane Randolph and Air District Director Davina Hurt around Chinatown SROs and with local API community leaders to discuss language access, air monitoring, and air filtration. Brightline has also published a first-of-its-kind report and survey that revealed the needs, interests, and concerns around air quality of over 250 SRO tenants.

During the catastrophic 2020 wildfires across California, air quality disparities grew larger for SRO residents. Although public health officials recommend communities to stay home during smokey days, researchers find that indoor air pollution is at unhealthy levels during wildfires. A majority of SRO community members face chronic health conditions, suffer from a lack of air purifying infrastructure and many still have little to no resources to protect themselves from poor air quality during catastrophic air quality events. In response, Brightline piloted education efforts such as a DIY emergency air filtration workshop in 2021 that taught SRO residents how to stitch together emergency air filtration units using duct tape, a box fan, and MERV-13 filter (totaling about $40 in costs).

While these DIY units are valuable as a stopgap emergency measures, Brightline is now seeking to deliver higher-quality air filtration units to SRO residents in 2022. Thanks to your donations to the Brightline Air Filtration Fund, Brightline will be able to build upon our prior work and deliver over 100 individual air filtration systems to SRO residents in Chinatown, Tenderloin, South of Market, and Mission District.