“In a joint venture with partners Devine & Gong and Ridgepoint Non-Profit Housing Corp., Stewart and his team are proposing to raise $300 million to demolish a 267-unit public housing project on a Hunters Point hillside and replace it with a roughly 667-unit mixed-income neighborhood.
The public housing would be replaced one for one, but the new neighborhood would also feature 80 affordable rentals, 50 below-market for-sale units, and 250 to 300 market-rate condos, which would be priced at about $425 a square foot.” ($300M housing dream)
∙ $300M housing dream [San Francisco Business Times]
Without being able to access the full SF bus times story on-line, I have to say this is the best idea I’ve heard in sometime. That hillside is just beautiful, and its redevelopment would be a boon to the Shipyard, the embattled community around Innes Ave/India Basin, and all of Hunters Point.
However, it is TRULY a “brain damage” project as Stewart notes, with all of the racial and gentrification politics. I don’t think anyone other than John Stewart could even attempt it. But he has a great track record in this city for doing the right thing.
Thank you! This is fabulous, fabulous news. Is there anyway we can keep the City from ruining it??
Just think of the potential this has for the Western Addition. What is considered an irrevocable scar on the city landscape by even the city government itself has a chance for a future in this model. Demolish the projects and build higher density, mixed-income housing – it’s the only solution. And, no current resident needs to lose their home in this model.
Dealing with the current residents there is going to be tricky, though. I doubt they’ll be relocated because there’d be tons of objections by the local community, as there should be. But on the other hand, it’s a high-crime, high-murder, area due to some the people who live there. How do you bring these very different worlds together?
“But on the other hand, it’s a high-crime, high-murder, area due to some the people who live there. How do you bring these very different worlds together?”
Easy: You just bulldoze the damn projects down. They never should have built. You then do what the private sector has to do under prop H. Pay them to move. Why should the city get away with anything different? I know it’s a stupid question.
M.R.
As someone who used to live on that side of the hill in the ’90s, I can confirm that it is indeed some of the best real estate in the city mired in a “high-crime, high-murder” area. There is so much potential on that hill that it makes you want to scream because it’s potential for being a great neighborhood is going untapped due to the MFers who screw it up with their gangbanging, drug selling, and shootings.
But it’s that small bad element that winds up affecting the rest of the community there. Remove that element and that neighborhood will thrive.
It will be interesting to see how this all turns out and if this project will even take off.
“I doubt they’ll be relocated because there’d be tons of objections by the local community, as there should be. But on the other hand, it’s a high-crime, high-murder, area due to some the people who live there. How do you bring these very different worlds together?”
I used to live in Emeryville and although not entirely the same, there were a few apartment complexes that were 50% market rate rental and 50% Section 8 housing. I never lived in any one of those but have heard bad things about them (can’t completely verify this of course).
Here’s a link to reviews for that complex.
http://www.apartmentratings.com/rate/CA-Emeryville-Bridgecourt.html
Regarding the projects, I agree with MysteryRealtor, the projects should never been built. I’m all for building market rate housing there like it should be (I realize that’s politically incorrect). I’m suprised more people don’t think that. My guess is that they would if its right in their backyard.
Looks like Hunters View is one of several (http://www.sfha.org/pha_plans/cin.htm). [not sure of the date].
Western Addition next, please.
SITES PROPOSED FOR REVITALIZATION
The following sites are severely distressed and require comprehensive revitalization.Over $200 million in Comprehensive Grant Program funds would be needed for capital improvement needs if funding through HOPE VI and leveraged financing is not made available.
Hunters View
Demolish and rebuild the site with a total of 442 mixed income units ö 346 rental apartments (267 public housing and 79 tax credit) and 96 for sale homes.All 267 public housing units will be replaced and 175 new housing units will be added.
* 267 public housing rental (237 family and 30 senior)
* 50 senior apartments
* 29 market rate rental units
* 96 first-time homeowner units (50 at 40% to 60% median income, 46 at 60% to 80% median income) All 267 public housing units will be replaced and 175 new units will be added.
Proposed Federal sources of funds – $35,000,000
Proposed Non-Federal funds – $71,649,444
* Tax Exempt Bonds – $670,338
* Low Income Housing Tax Credits – $38,274,396
* Grants/Sweat Equity (Habitat Home) – $9,975,332
* Private Mortgage – $18,567,099
* Local – $2,979,259
* PHA – $1,183,020
Alice Griffith
Demolish and rebuild the site with a total of 406 mixed income units ö 351 rental apartments (256 public housing and 95 tax credit) and 55 for sale homes.All 256 public housing units will be replaced and 150 new housing units will be added.
Proposed Federal sources of funds – $35,000,000
Proposed Non-Federal funds – $91,532,880
* Tax Exempt Bonds – $24,999,975
* Low Income Housing Tax Credits – $27,273,051
* Grants/Sweat Equity (Habitat Home) – $9,418,420
* Private Mortgage- $19,648,050
* Local – $9,025,000
* PHA – $1,168,384
Hunters Point
Demolish and rebuild the sites with a total of 330 mixed income units ö 285 rental apartments (213 public housing and 72 tax credit) and 45 for sale homes.All 213 public housing units will be replaced and 117 new housing units will be added.
Proposed Federal sources of funds – $29,994,727
Proposed Non-Federal funds – $75,915,991
* Tax Exempt Bonds – $20,908,170
* Low Income Housing Tax Credits – $27,204,477
* Grants/Sweat Equity (Habitat Home) – $7,937,159
* Private Mortgage – $15,785,243
* Local – $3,079,646
* PHA – $1,001,296
Westbrook
Demolish and rebuild the site with a total of 376 mixed income units ö316 rental apartments (226 public housing and 90 tax credit) and 60 for sale homes.All 226 public housing units will be replaced and 150 new housing units will be added.
Proposed Federal sources of funds – $35,000,000
Proposed Non-Federal funds – $88,634,468
* Tax Exempt Bonds – $23,877,908
* Low Income Housing Tax Credits – $23,110,698
* Grants/Sweat Equity (Habitat Home) – $10,900,320
* Private Mortgage – $20,844,750
* Local – $8,806,500
* PHA – $1,094,292
Sunnydale
Substantially rehabilitate 618 units (700 less 82 completed), demolish 67 units and add infill housing for a total of 960 mixed income housing units ö 816 rental apartments (767 public housing and 49 tax credit) and 144 for sale homes.
Proposed Federal sources of funds – $ 35,000,000
Proposed Non-Federal funds – $120,086,110
* Tax Exempt Bonds – $31,275,000
* Low Income Housing Tax Credits – $ 26,221,937
* Grants/Sweat Equity (Habitat Home) – $71,070,000
* Private Mortgage – $27,623,125
* Local – $4,938,514
* PHA – $3,081,966
Potrero Terrace
Substantially rehabilitate all existing units and add new housing for a total of 619 mixed income units örental apartments (469 public housing and 93 tax credit) and 57 for sale homes.All 469 public housing units will be rehabilitated and 150 new housing units will be added.
Proposed Federal sources of funds – $34,807,024
Proposed Non-Federal funds – $87,261,328
* Tax Exempt Bonds – $27,142,352
* Low Income Housing Tax Credits – $14,956,441
* Grants/Sweat Equity (Habitat Home) – $10,985,952
* Private Mortgage – $22,113,000
* Local – $9,654,330
* PHA – $2,409,253
Invented – that’s comprehensive, but it’s a wish list. Note all the “federal funds”. The current administration has repeated tried to kill the Hope VI program which provided funds for demo/rebuild of projects (SF used these funds, I believe for Hayes Valley, Bernal Dwellings, North Beach, and Valencia Gardens). It is extremely unlikely, in any admistration, that a huge infusion of federal funds will be available to simultaneously complete rebuilding of the biggest and most troubled complexes in the system. The list above reads like a decades long program.
Full article has been posted over at Bayview Home Blog
http://bvhp.blogspot.com/2007/05/300-million-housing-dream.html
I see that our Huse Speaker Nancy Pelosi has earmarked $1 million to the Huntersview Project. I also notice that this project ha the largest density of For sale units of housing than the other Opportunity Sites that will be converted to mixed use. I want to see tht th redevelopment plan addresses th requirement of using local professional services and construction small businesses in all aspect of the project. The Redevelopment plan calls for a percentage of jobs/contrcts be included by local participation from minority & women owned small businesses…we will see.