SAFER DIY SPACES is an Oakland-based, non-profit coalition of activists, architects, contractors, and artists that emerged in the wake of the tragic Ghost Ship fire in Oakland, CA in December 2016.   We offer guidance, financial assistance, and labor to the frequently vulnerable members of the Bay Area's communities who live and/or work in non-traditional "DIY" spaces. DIY communities not only face the threat of displacement but also the risk of physical harm because the spaces in which they work or reside frequently require repairs and/or may not be up to code. 

While assuring complete anonymity to those in these spaces, SAFER DIY SPACES provides support in the form of pre-inspection walk-throughs and guidance, reparative construction, and micro-grants to help fund the materials and labor necessary to implement core life-safety improvements.  

Our TEAM.

Our awesome FINANCE + FUNDRAISING group manages the DIY Communities Safety Fund: our micro-grant program which helps cover the costs of labor, materials, and permits for the work we do to help make DIY spaces safer.  

Our tireless and amazing CODE COMPLIANCE + CONSTRUCTION group is comprised of architects, contractors, building professionals and planning code nerds.  We directly assist DIY spaces, conduct walk-throughs and pre-inspections, identify and propose life-safety improvements, create a budget and punch list, and work with FINANCE to fund and implement solutions through materials and labor.  We advocate for compassionate code compliance to municipal Fire, Building, and Planning departments.

Our Values.

We aim to support a diverse and vibrant artistic, cultural community throughout the San Francisco Bay Area in which alternative, creative and otherwise non-traditional DIY spaces play a crucial role.  

We believe that DIY spaces provide creative and alternative ways of living, working, and building community - and that these interstitial spaces have become even more vulnerable in the wake of the Ghost Ship fire, and many face immanent displacement. 

We strive to foster equitable access to resources, and meeting human needs over private interests or corporate profit.  

We operate outside any government-affiliated program, and are well-positioned to understand the needs of DIY spaces.  

We recognize the crucial  importance of anonymity for DIY spaces, and uphold the greatest degree of privacy we can for those we serve, ensuring, to the best of our ability, protection from unwarranted scrutiny, legal prosecution, and media misrepresentation.

Our aim is to keep vulnerable communities in their homes by making them safer.