GRASSROOTS
Posts
new research reveal

new research reveal

sneak peek of the maps, graphics and illustrations about to go to print with all-new data on san francisco's community houses

Jasper Lydon
July 29, 2025 • Estimated Reading Time: 5 minutes

hi friends,

happy end of july! apologies for missing last week… i got completely wrapped up in the latest series of fiction novels i’ve been reading!

plus, it’s been crunch time for a local ‘zine (community-made magazine) that I write for, and i’ve been finalizing things for publication in just a few weeks. the plus side? i’m about ready to share the results of one of my pieces:

visual mapping of sf community houses!

I generated this data by combining an original survey, three existing spreadsheets, and combing forums and groupchats that list rooms for rent. with some google sheets action and some free online software, i was able to convert that data into this proportion-accurate heat map of sf group houses !

Each yellow house icon represents the general location of a community house
The size of the house icon shows how many people live there
The color gradient shows the concentration of community houses by area, going from blue to pink (highest density)

there were 40 houses that shared just their zipcode or neighborhood, which factor into the ‘heat map’ gradient but don’t have their own yellow house icon

the above version is pure data, but we’re making it pop for print with this version,

partnered with a local illustrator:

the drawings are based on the real names of community houses, but their arrows point to random houses to protect privacy :)

illustrations & graphics were designed & drawn by the amazing eudora dong!

early analysis

there are 60 confirmed active community houses in San Francisco
- this number doesn’t include the larger bay area, where there are currently predicted to be around 150 houses
each house has between 4 and 25 people
so, there are around 500 confirmed community housing residents in SF proper, and we predict around 2,000 in the Bay Area total
- this is pretty small proportion of the total population!
- but, if you think of these numbers in terms of the number of people in the community housing scene who are in some way socially or digitally connected to each other, its pretty impressive!

The highest concentration of SF community houses is along the Panhandle district - an area with many large, old victorians, relatively high population density, and historic roots with the 1960s hippie movement along Haight Street

The vast majority of SF’s communal houses - and in even higher proportion, the vast majority of the SF community housing population - resides in just a few zipcodes (the Haight, the Mission

its impossible to really have accurate numbers on community houses using these network-based survey methods. we would need more random sampling, surveys sent out, postering, etc, to hear from citizens who have no ties to anyone who lives in community housing. plus, this current survey relied on how people self-define; an interesting follow up would be to set a clear definition and then reach out to more groups like halfway houses and extended families sharing apartments, to see what results that yields.

still, this is an interesting start with some useful relative & distributional data

adding layers

as I continue to develop this project, I plan to make a multi-layer map that can compare community house density with factors like

—> zoning restrictions

—> house size/type (i.e. availability of apartments)

—> neighborhood demographics

to allow for a visual that will easily show how these factors correlate! essentially creating a visual model for how factors like housing scarcity and zoning restrictions impact the spread of unlawful community housing

what’s new

l’m going to post some of this data on my website and a few other websites in the coming weeks, so if you have any thoughts/comments/concerns/potential edits, please let me know so I can review everything before posting!

i hope this is interesting to you all 🙂 more narrative/story-based content will be back soon!