Long before federal laws prohibited housing discrimination, Bill Vandenburgh advocated for fair and affordable housing.

The roots of the affordable housing movement, at least in the San Francisco Bay Area, are found in activist circles. Back in the 1960’s a group of ministers and concerned lay people gathered to see what they could do to protect low income families from being victimized by housing discrimination. They embarked on a few projects, hiring minority contractors to renovate homes and then helped a few families to purchase those homes. It was a bold experiment that paved the way for Eden Housing to accomplish much in its first forty years. In this episode of the Affordable Housing podcast, William Vandenburgh, a current and original board member of Eden Housing, describes the roots of the movement and what the issues are that currently need attention.