A reader wonders if we know what’s happening at the corner of Octavia and Oak long known as the fenced off Central Freeway Parcel Q. And that we do: Octavia Court.
Octavia Court will be a fifteen unit affordable housing development for disabled individuals and their families. Development by Satellite Housing and West Bay Housing Corporation, but the original design as proposed by Fougeron Architecture (below) isn’t what’s getting built (see UPDATE below that).
The ground floor will house a vocational art center and gallery run by Norcal Vocational which provides “developmentally disabled adults with the opportunity to use art as a vehicle for developing life skills.”
UPDATE: Our apologies to IE Collaborative whose design for Octavia Court has replaced that of Fougeron as rendered above. We’re working on the scoop.
“Octavia Court will be a fifteen unit affordable housing development.”
Is anyone else getting tired of all these “affordable housing” developments around the city that is anything but that ?
I’m not tired of the new housing for disabled people– society should help those who are disabled.
Who pays for these projects? I’m not complaining, but I’d like a better explanation than the “creative financing” mention on the developer’s website.
Looks nice. Hopefully the disabled include hearing impaired cause they apts gonna be loud!
I am fine with affordable housing and all but I cannot think of a worse location.
The amount of traffic going past this corner, making high speed right turns trying to catch the light to get to the 101, is pretty substantial.
Mixing that traffic with the disabled is a bad bad idea.
expect red light cameras there right after the first wheelchair casualty.
Funny Chad should mention it, cause I was just thinking to myself that all the developments that I read about are for affordable housing. It seems like the city is doing plenty to help low income people – now how about the city does something to help middle class families. It’s starting to feel like SF contains two types: very rich and very poor.
I’m over affordable housing just like I’m over Chris Daly (never was into him).
The reason you’re seeing more affordable right now is that their funding sources were not as reliant on the bubble as the market rate stuff was. All market rate stuff came to a screeching halt, while the affordable stuff didn’t. There isn’t any more of it now than there was a year or two ago, it just seems that way because all regular projects were halted.
how about the city does something to help middle class families
That’s not really how it works in a market system.
Developers build new construction for the affluent to maximize profits. Provided enough new housing is being built, older buildings gradually decay and become affordable for the middle class.
The exception to that process is low income housing, because the market naturally satisfies that demand with slums. If you don’t want slums, you have to build low income housing.
If insufficient new housing is being built, because of restrictions on development, the middle class is (indirectly) hurt the most.
I haven’t heard such a bunch of self-centered whiners in a long time. “Tired of affordable housing.” Those damn poor people better just fend for themselves! It’s those of us who spend our time reading real estate blogs and posting comments on Socketsite that really deserve the public’s assistance! You really need to get a grip.
And for you information, the “affordability” requirements for for-sale housing in this City are targeted at 100-120% of median income, so that IS middle class!
Low-income housing is necessary to subsidize the workers who cook our food, clean our houses and do all the other myriad low-end jobs that a city needs to function.
Middle class people, on the other hand, are expendable. Adios!
Octavia Court’s design, by Alameda-based ie collaborative, was selected via a competitive design process sponsored by the Hayes Valley Neighborhood Assoc. and San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Major financing includes SFRA, the U.S. Dept. of Housing and Urban Development, and the CA Dept. of Housing and Community Services, and the Federal Home Loan Bank. On-site Supportive Services and the on-site arts-based vocational day program will be funded by the Golden Gate Regional Center. HUD’s Section 811 program ensures that no resident will pay more than 30% of their monthly income for rent and utilities combined. While people with developmental disabilities live independently, with supports, all across SF, the Octavia Court team has negotiated $300,000 in traffic calming and pedestrian safety improvements, and the service provider will offer individualized pedestrian safety training, to ensure resident safety at the Oak & Octavia intersection. All units will be adaptable, two will be fully accessible for people with mobility impairments, and one will be accesible for people with visual or hearing impairments. Octavia Court has been designed to meet rigorous HUD sound insulation requirements.
You folks are misinterpreting Chad’s comment. He is commenting on how he is tired of so called “affordable” housing that really isn’t affordable.
actually @wiggle clearly voiced a discontent with providing more affordable housing: “I’m over affordable housing…”
and these units are going to be affordable to the population they serve. there are very strict rules.
UPDATE: Our apologies to IE Collaborative whose design for Octavia Court has replaced that of Fougeron as rendered above. We’re working on the scoop.
From what I understand the design shown here is outdated and Fougeron is no longer tapped to for this project. I have seen the alternate design for this site and it is a bit more tame.
But I like the Fougeron design. Tame, shame!
Jimmy’s on the ball. Affordable housing is the band aid on top of poor housing policies (rent control and restrictive building) that’s hollowing out the middle class.
Oak St. & Octavia Blvd.
#11 worst intersection involving cars
2007 injury collisions: 7
2006 injury collisions: 14
Change: -7
What’s new: The largest decrease in collisions occurred here, which was the city’s highest collision intersection in 2006. Changes to the location of various signal indications were made facing eastbound Oak St. in April 0f 2007 by SFMTA’s Signal Division. Further changes, such as installation of a red light camera, are being planned. SFMTA will continue to monitor this intersection.
Affordable housing is the band aid on top of poor housing policies (rent control and restrictive building) that’s hollowing out the middle class.
Affordable housing is the band-aid on top of the giant tumor known as the mortgage interest deduction and related capital gains breaks. These have done much more to create a culture of dependency and hollowing out of the middle class than affordable housing, rent control, and restrictive building combined. Curiously enough, these federal subsides and Prop 13 remain popular among the housing-welfare leeches.
“In the 1970s the federal government spent similar amounts on tax reductions for homeowners as it did on subsidies for low-income housing. However, by 2005, tax reductions had risen to $120 billion per year, representing nearly 80 percent of all federal housing assistance.”
the place looks like 10 dumps piled upon the pulverized gelatinous byproducts of said dumps many times over, in reverse lateral succession, temporally speaking.