San Francisco Chronicle

Mission District housing project clears major hurdle

The long saga of “the Mess on South Van Ness” may finally be coming to a neat conclusion.

On Tuesday, California Department of Housing and Community Developmen­t announced that it had awarded $37.9 million to San Francisco for 1515 South Van Ness, a 168-unit affordable housing project in the Mission District.

The loan represents the final installmen­t of funding needed to develop the vacant site, which is slated to provide housing for low-income families, formerly homeless families and people living with HIV earning between 25% and 80% of the San Francisco area median income. That translates to between $23,050 and $92,250 for a two-person family.

In a statement, Mayor London Breed said the “funding unlocks our ability to move on building affordable housing units for families in San Francisco at a crucial time.”

“We understand the level of need for more housing that is accessible, and like the state, the City continues to face a challengin­g budget cycle,” she said.

The funding comes eight years after the longtime property owner, McMillan Electrical, sold its warehouse to Lennar Urban, which hoped to build apartments and take advantage of the techfueled boom that was transformi­ng the Mission District at the time.

That 2016 proposal was derided by opponents as “The Mess on South Van Ness,” one of a trio of high-profile market-rate developmen­ts — the others were “The Monster in the Mission” and “The Beast on Bryant” — seen by many longtime Mission residents as contributi­ng to the rising real estate values that was displacing low-income families and artists in the neighborho­od.

Eventually, that project won approval, but only after Lennar Urban agreed to make 25% of the units affordable, offer discounted space for artists and contribute $1 million to the Calle 24 Cultural District. By that time constructi­on costs had escalated to the point that the project was no longer feasible, and Lennar sold the property to the city in 2019 for $18.5 million.

For the past five years the city has been working to design and raise money for the affordable project, while the property was temporaril­y used as a village for unhoused individual­s. In May 2021 the city selected Chinatown Community Developmen­t Corp. and Mission Economic Developmen­t Agency to develop the property. The project is expected to begin constructi­on in winter 2025 and be completed in early 2027 — 11 years after the original project was proposed.

“From the beginning of my term as supervisor, I have fought to bring affordable housing to 1515 South Van Ness,” said Supervisor Hillar Ronen, who represents the Mission. “In the interim, the site has been utilized for homeless services and shelter, and I am thrilled that HCD has recognized the value of this developmen­t, and we are finally ready to break ground.”

San Francisco has committed to a state-mandated plan to rezone the city to create capacity for 82,000 units by the end of 2031, 46,000 of which are supposed to be affordable to lowand moderate-income households.

“We are thrilled — not just to bring a project of this size to a community with great need — but to do so with communityb­ased developers and their partners who understand the neighborho­od and sensitivit­ies around cultural preservati­on,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez.