Bay Area need for affordable housing, San Francisco

San Francisco Chronicle/C.W, Nevius, 11/8/14.  "Microcosm of San Francisco housing plight: 2,595 applications for 18 units."

20% affordable housing,
80% not affordable housing

2175 Market street, San Francisco infill housing

"When real estate developer Forest City began construction on a new apartment complex at 2175 Market St., it announced that it would build more affordable units than required by the city — 20 percent instead of 12.

The response was overwhelming.  .... Despite the odds, 2,595 individuals and families completed and returned the eight-page application. Their names were put in a lottery to draw 400 finalists.  Four hundred names for 18 apartments, 11 of them one-bedrooms.

....  The Mayor’s Office of Housing has put together a list of sample incomes to make the point. For instance, cashiers typically make about $27,000 a year, construction laborers $48,000 and elementary schoolteachers are at $61,000. The problem, as the Forest City lottery makes clear, is a crippling shortage of affordable units."   Read article.

Reference - Van Meter Williams Pollack, LLP, Architecture.  "2175 Market sits at the nexus between three distinct neighborhoods in San Francisco: the Castro; Duboce Triangle; and the Mission. This 85-unit, six level, mixed use building creates a dramatic marker at this crossroads location. .... The building is currently evaluated to achieve a LEED for Homes Gold level."
 
Related -  Curbed, 2175 Marked Street, San Francisco."New Castro Mini-Rentals have tensy floorplans, lofty prices."  "The brand-new rental units at 2175 Market Street are ready to rent, and they are, not surprisingly, very small and quite expensive. There are 88 one- and two-bedroom apartments in the building, but the one-beds are really the size of studios. The cheapest starts at $2,903, which doesn't sound too horrific for San Francisco until the 509-square foot size pops up. The bedroom is a very compact 10' x 10', while the living room is 13' x 13'. The largest one-beds are 649 square feet, while the most expensive are $3,532 per month and also include a loft accessed by a ladder. Floor plans (rents go as high as $5,600)."

Note graphic/photograph:  Mixed use infill housing rendering, 2175 Market Street from the Van Meter Williams Pollack, LLP Architecture reference. Construction image by Andrew Harrer/Getty Images from Bloomberg View, "Washington's affordable-housing bind", 9/24/14. 

Posted by Kathy Meeh