SoMa Equity Partners helps build community with Hamilton Families while sheltered-in-place

Hamilton Families Communications Manager Cory Winter speaks with Jessica Lane, Vice President of Operations and Director of Social Impact for SoMa Equity Partners, on their commitment to help end family homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area

Children of Tal Simon, Partner at SoMa Equity Partners, donating used laptops and tablets to Hamilton Families.

San Francisco, CA — Hamilton Families has partnered with SoMa Equity Partners, a San Francisco-based tech-focused hedge fund founded by Gil Simon, working with the firm for the past several months to support its mission to end family homelessness in the San Francisco Bay Area.

With the effects of COVID-19 and the Bay Area shelter-in-place order impacting 7.8 million people, the outbreak represents a significant health risk for people experiencing homelessness. “Now, more than ever, families in our programs are at risk of returning to homelessness,” says Rachel Kenemore, Chief Development Officer for Hamilton Families. “One-third of the families who are in our rapid rehousing program have filed for unemployment, and we need to ensure that those families stay housed and stay stable,” Kenemore explained.

SoMa Equity Partners’ support could not have come at a more pressing and needed time. “We’re better together,” Christina Alton, Community Partnerships Manager for Hamilton Families, said in describing the partnership. “Jessica and everyone at SoMa Equity Partners wants to support us in a dynamic and intentional way; their entire team is invested and engaged with all of our activities from corporate sponsorships to volunteer activations to donation drives.”

Alton is referring to Jessica Lane, Vice President of Operations and Director of Social Impact for SoMa Equity Partners. From day one, Lane has been steadfast in her research of issues afflicting the San Francisco Bay Area and the service providers that exist to resolve them. “Living and working in the Bay Area,” Lane explains, “homelessness is top of mind as a central cause for our firm to focus on.”

Jessica Lane of SoMa Equity Partners donating used laptops and tablets to Hamilton Families.

After speaking with several of her peers who had built giving programs in other local San Francisco companies, Lane was recommended to contact Hamilton Families. She thoroughly researched the organization from the ground up, toured Hamilton Families’ Shelter in the Tenderloin, and joined a children’s services volunteer orientation to witness the organization’s work.

She contacted Alton to host members of the Hamilton Families’ executive team at their offices in late Feb. 2020, as well as meeting with former Hamilton Families CEO Tomiquia Moss, to gain a greater insight as to how well each organization’s mission, values, and future aligned with one another. This, in turn, lead SoMa Equity Partners to direct their first-ever firm contribution to Hamilton Families.

Lane’s commitment and tenacity was welcomed with open arms by Hamilton Families. “Jessica’s comprehension of the state of homelessness in the Bay Area–from current affairs, to policy, to the nuances of family homelessness–is unquestionable,” says Kenemore.

Now, even while the San Francisco Bay Area is sheltered-in-place, SoMa Equity Partners are stepping up. Recently, their team organized a laptop and tablet donation drive with their employee network for participant families in Hamilton Families’ programs. With a majority of school-aged children in Hamilton Families’ programs not having access to a laptop or tablet device capable of online learning or even reliable internet access, computer devices and internet hotspots are desperately needed so children and families can stay connected and occupied during shelter-in-place.

“We’re not stopping there,” says Lane. “We’re working with the Hamilton Families Community Partnerships team to plan a carnival evening for the participants at the Hamilton Families Shelter in the Tenderloin once social distancing requirements are relaxed.”

SoMa Equity Partners’ tech-expertise, along with their reverence for issues surrounding homelessness, contributes to the strength of the Hamilton Families partnership community and its family-centered approach to ending family homelessness.

To learn more about Hamilton Families partnerships, visit hamiltonfamilies.org/partners.