Refugee Placemaking and Community in San Francisco: Building a Little Saigon Community in San Francisco, from the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation Archives (1980-2000)

Abstract

The article draws from Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation (TNDC) archival materials, housed in the San Francisco History Center, to present a case study of how post-1975 Vietnam War refugees (from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia) and a collection of actors collectively affected the local space (1980-2000). This article (1) examines the discourse of “neighborhood stabilization” amidst housing precarity, (2) discusses the implications of refugees as “revitalizers” and “entrepreneurs,” and (3) documents the role of community partnerships and urban planning in building a Little Saigon community in the heart of San Francisco. Overall, the article argues that efforts to build affordable housing within a unique urban planning environment were instrumental in the formation of the Little Saigon community of San Francisco, and it demonstrates how local affordable housing and the built environment in refugee resettlement sits at the nexus of competing discourses about development and about inclusion.