Homeless

S.F. Mayor London Breed Announces Major Developments in Affordable Housing

Published

5 years ago

July 9, 2020

Kiki

Mayor London Breed announced July 2 that the city of San Francisco was awarded over $130 million in state funds for affordable housing, transportation and infrastructure projects.

“This $130 million in grants from the state could not have come at a more critical time as we continue to deal with the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” said Breed. “The funds will allow us to accelerate construction on more than 350 affordable homes and undertake major infrastructure improvements. This will help us free up financing capacity for other badly needed affordable housing developments across San Francisco and put people to work with well-paying construction jobs.”

The grants were provided by the California Strategic Growth Council’s Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities Program (AHSC) with funds from California Climate Investments.

AHSC provided $30 million, of which $20 million will fund a 157-unit affordable housing project scheduled to begin construction in the summer of 2021.

“I am thrilled that these important projects will receive state funding and applaud our City’s efforts to build affordable housing. Now more than ever, due to COVID-19 and the economic fallout, people are suffering financially,” said state Senator Scott Wiener, chair of the California Senate Housing Committee. “Housing insecurity and homelessness are spiking, and we need long-term solutions that get people housed. This is great news in a challenging time, and I look forward to seeing these projects serve our community.”

Balboa Park Upper Yard will be adjacent to the Balboa BART Station with 131 units of affordable housing, 39 subsidized by the San Francisco Housing Authority. The ground floor will have 10,000 square feet of community space, including an early-childhood education center and family resource center. Construction is scheduled to begin in spring 2021.

Road work will be done on Hillcrest Road on Yerba Buena Island and Sunnydale Block 3B will have mixed-use family residential housing with community spaces and retail at the intersection of Sunnydale Avenue and Hahn Street.

It will also have 92 units of affordable family housing with 69 to be set aside and subsidized by Project-Based Section 8 Vouchers from the San Francisco Housing Authority.

Also on June 30, the San Francisco board of supervisors approved Breed’s resolution to lease 833 Bryant St., formerly a surface parking lot in SoMa near the Hall of Justice at 855 Bryant.

The 145 units are scheduled to open in the fall of 2021 and is part of a city-wide effort to add 1,000 units by the end of 2024.

No city funds were used for the project currently under construction. Monies came from the Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF) and Tipping Point Community. Mercy Housing California is the developer.

The quick development process was praised by the interim director of the San Francisco Dept. of Homelessness and Supportive Housing. “This project not only provides much needed permanent supportive housing but also takes an innovative approach in reducing time and costs,” said Abigail Stewart-Kahn. “833 Bryant St. public-private partnership demonstrates that supportive housing can be developed rapidly and effectively to serve chronically homeless people in our community.”

HAF, which is contributing $35 million to the project, is “thrilled to be achieving its goals” to quickly get unhoused people into permanent shelter, said CEO Rebecca Foster. “Two years ago, the Housing Accelerator Fund set out on an ambitious mission: to cut the time it takes to build permanent supportive housing in half and to significantly reduce production costs,” Foster added. She offered thanks to their partners Mercy Housing, Tipping Point Community and the city of San Francisco for helping advance the innovations that will soon result in 145 new homes for people experiencing homelessness.

Philanthropy plays a key role in the project, according to Daniel Lurie, chairman of the Tipping Point Community. “Philanthropy has the ability to act quickly and take risks to identify bold solutions of our community’s greatest challenges. This project is a great example of how private donors can provide risk capital for a proof of concept, and work with government to sustain the solution for the long run.”

“By deploying modular construction and an entrepreneurial financing approach, this project demonstrates the potential for time and costs savings for developing affordable housing in San Francisco,” said Doug Shoemaker, President Mercy Housing California.

The city is also using hotels during COVID-19 for housing the homeless.

Kiki

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Activism

Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of May 21 – 27, 2025

Published

3 days ago

May 25, 2025

Oakland Post

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Oakland Post

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Alameda County

Oakland Begins Month-Long Closure on Largest Homeless Encampment

At 8 a.m. sharp, city workers began piling up trash and dismantling makeshift homes along the nearly five-block encampment. City crews blocked off streets from 14th Ave to 17th Ave, between E. 12th and International Blvd, due to the Safe Work Zone Ordinance that was passed by the city council in 2022 to protect workers from harassment during cleanings, according to a city spokesperson.

Published

1 week ago

May 18, 2025

Oakland Post

The City of Oakland began sweeping their largest homeless encampment on E 12th St. Monday morning. Advocates claim that the city has not done its due diligence with providing ample resources or outreach for residents at the encampment. Photo by Magaly Muñoz.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland began a three-week-long breakdown of the largest homeless encampment in the city on E. 12th Street on Monday morning. Residents and advocates said they are devastated about the displacement of dozens of people.

Jaz Colibri, one of the many advocates at the closure, said the encampment sweeps were “intense and terrifying” to witness. They claimed that several residents, many of them non-English speakers, had not been aware that the sweep was happening that day because of a lack of proper communication and outreach from Oakland.

Colibri added that the city had done a Census “many months ago” and “had not bothered to count people since then”, meaning dozens of individuals have missed out on housing and resources in the last few weeks because the city doesn’t offer outreach in multiple languages.

“Basically, [Oakland] dropped the ball on actually getting to know everybody who lives here and then creating a housing solution that meets everyone’s needs,” Colibri said.

City spokesperson Jean Walsh told the Post that notices of the closure operation were posted in Spanish and Chinese prior to Monday, but did not clarify if outreach was done in those languages as well.

Nearly a dozen Oakland police vehicles, California Highway Patrol officers, and Oakland Public Works staff were gathered along E 12th waiting for residents to pack up their belongings and move away from the area.

Advocates said residents “felt unsafe” due to the hefty law enforcement presence.

One city worker, who was picking up debris near 16th Ave, said, “They’ve known we were coming for a long time now” in reference to resident confusion about the sweeping.

The state doubled down on its requirement to get cities and counties to deal with their homelessness crisis at a press conference Monday afternoon. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s office released a “model ordinance” that is intended to provide a starting point that local municipalities can use to build from and adjust in creating their own policies on encampments, if they haven’t done so yet.

Newsom said “No more excuses, time to deliver” after the state has poured hundreds of millions of dollars into solving the issue.

Oakland was awarded a $7.2 million grant from the state in 2024 to close long-standing encampments in the city, including camps at Martin Luther King, Jr. and 23rd Street, and Mosswood Park.

Residents at these encampments were offered wraparound supportive services, temporary shelter, and eventually will be transitioned to permanent supportive housing, according to a city statement from last year.

Residents who accepted housing at these three encampments were moved into newly acquired property, formerly the Extended Stay America Hotel in West Oakland, which will first serve as interim housing for up to 150 individuals and couples in 105 units, and in the coming year, will be converted into 125 units of permanent housing.

Walsh said as of May 2, “32 residents of the recently closed Mosswood Park encampment moved into the Mandela House program” and as of May 12, “41 residents of the East 12th Street encampment have already accepted offers to move to the Mandela House.” The city will provide final numbers of how many accepted and moved into housing after the closure operation is over.