Hope SF is a project dedicated to revitalizing low-income areas by rebuilding old housing projects and offering a range of social services to the mostly low-income residents. It is led by the Mayor's Office of Housing and the San Francisco Housing Authority, in collaboration with government, philanthropic, and community partners. The goal is to transform a handful of severely underserved and aging public-housing sites, without forcing out current residents. Potentially, it provides a model to other urban areas, which are looking to revamp public housing while retaining cities' socioeconomic mix of residents.

Public-housing reform is not new, but Hope SF's emphasis on resident-based programs like the walking school bus, in addition to rehabbing old buildings, could lead the effort to succeed in a way other housing projects have not—particularly in a city like San Francisco with its rapidly rising housing costs. The biggest challenge now is convincing residents, who have been so neglected in the past, that this time is different.

"There is no reason in hell for public-housing residents to trust officials that come in and say they'll make their lives better," says Pam David, former director of the Mayor's Office of Community Development and member of the Steering Committee for the Campaign for Hope SF. "Our history is with most things that have been tried, most were delivered to them, not with them. And they have not worked and not been sustained."