San Francisco, CA — Today, Mayor London N. Breed joined State Senator Scott Wiener, representatives from the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA), and development partners to celebrate the grand opening of 363 Noe Street, the final of five former public housing sites rehabilitated by non-profit developer Mission Housing Development Corporation (MHDC) as part of the Scattered Sites project.
The Scattered Sites project reaffirms San Francisco’s commitment to preserving affordable housing in neighborhoods where production has been scarce. The five sites comprising the Scattered Sites project are located in four diverse San Francisco neighborhoods, many of which have produced little to no affordable housing in recent years:
• 2206-2268 Great Highway located in Outer Sunset (16 units)
• 4101 Noriega Street located in Outer Sunset (8 units)
• 200 Randolph/409 Head Street located in Ingleside (16 units)
• 363 Noe Street located in the Castro (21 units)
• 1357-1371 Eddy Street located in the Fillmore (8 units)
363 Noe Street is a three-story development consisting of 21 income-restricted homes serving low-income seniors and people with disabilities making up to 50% of the Area Median Income (AMI) and one manager unit. The building is just one of five sites—representing 69 units in total—that have been fully rehabilitated and preserved as permanently affordable housing.
“I am proud of our collaborative work to ensure San Francisco is a place that provides vulnerable populations the opportunity to access housing in neighborhoods across the City,” said Mayor London Breed. “I thank Senator Wiener and our partners SFHA and MHDC for their support on this project, helping us deliver affordable housing to our residents as we work to meet our housing goals."
Preservation of existing housing affordable to lower-income and vulnerable residents is a key priority in the City’s Housing Element, which sets out a plan for San Francisco to create over 82,000 new homes in the next eight years. The Plan calls for additional funding for affordable housing production and preservation like the investments in these homes. The rehabilitation and preservation of 363 Noe and the other public housing units serving senior and disabled, low-income residents is a small but significant step in achieving the City’s housing goals.
“Preserving our affordable housing stock is an essential first step to meeting our housing goals,” said Senator Wiener. “Scattered Sites is an essential effort to build on San Francisco’s success partnering with affordable housing developers to keep our public housing stock serving communities that have relied on those affordable units for generations. I applaud the Mayor and the Mission Housing Development Corporation and look forward to working with them to get more affordable housing built in San Francisco.”
In 2015 and 2016, the City and SFHA successfully converted over 3,500 units of public housing to the Section 8/Housing Choice Voucher program under the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program. To further San Francisco’s SFHA Re-envisioning Initiative, SFHA selected MHCD to develop the remaining Scattered Sites that were not converted as part of the RAD program. Construction began in early 2022, and as of August 2023, all five sites have successfully been rehabilitated and are fully occupied.
"Realizing the $4.6 million investment into 363 Noe Street to transform every unit to a residence whereon-site services are available daily to serve participants, long term maintenance subsidy is increased, and units have been entirely rehabilitated, is a testament to strong partnership and strategic planning that the Housing Authority will continue to embark on,” said SFHA CEO Dr. Tonia Lediju.
“There’s a lot that goes into developments of this caliber. The importance of preserving affordable housing is often overlooked, but it’s a key component of Mission Housing’s values, said Sam Moss, Executive Director at MHDC. “Restoring 69 units across five different sites is the kind of common-sense preservation that makes Mission Housing Development Corporation proud to a part of San Francisco’s affordable housing community.”
363 Noe Street and the other four Scattered Sites offer free fiber internet to residents, courtesy of the City’s Fiber to Housing program, a collaboration between San Francisco's Department of Technology and the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) aimed at bridging the digital divide by providing free, high-speed internet to low-income residents. As of August 2023, free fiber internet is available in 13,900 units across nearly 100 properties in San Francisco. The Fiber to Housing program will result in a service benefit of approximately $400 million over 20 years.
“The last few years have highlighted how important being connected to the internet is when it comes to accessing critical life safety information, searching for employment opportunities, attending classes or even connecting to loved ones when in-person options are not possible,” said City Administrator Carmen Chu, whose office oversees the Department of Technology. “I am proud of the ongoing work of our Fiber-to-Housing team who work tirelessly to connect residents of our City’s affordable housing units to reliable, high-speed connections in the ground. I also want to commend MOHCD on their commitment to bridging the digital divide in partnership with our team.”
The $84 million Scattered Sites project enabled the rehabilitation of 66 affordable homes and three management units with support from a variety of state and local sources, including more than $7.4 million from MOHCD and $32 million in tax credits through the California Debt Limit Allocation Committee (CDLAC). MOHCD has provided, and will continue to provide, technical assistance to facilitate the rehabilitation of the Scattered Sites, including project management, construction management, and services support to ensure the buildings’ long-term safety, stability, and habitability.
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