By Lisa Awbrey, HANC Vice-President
For nearly six years, our community (comprised of local business leaders, 3 community groups, service providers for Transitional Aged Youth/TAY and unhoused people, seniors and parents of young children) has robustly participated in the plans to build 100% affordable housing at 730 Stanyan.
I cannot overstate the value (and rarity) of partnership among local residents working with their electeds and city departments to find solutions for San Francisco’s chronic problems. Neighborhood workers and residents understand our neighborhoods best and, consequently, are a critical part of local problem solving. So why then does it seem that some at City Hall and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development/MOHCD aren’t partnering with us?
On April 4, 2023, 730 Stanyan project developers CCDC and TNDC, along with MOHCD hosted a meeting at the Park branch library. Our community was surprised and disappointed that the city had removed all previous references to a Transitional Aged Youth/TAY drop-in center from the site map, and changed the definition of ground floor commercial space use to “micro retail.” This change is contrary to previous and consistently documented information from MOHCD and the developers up to this point, as evidenced in graphics and slide shows from the many public community meetings, and as stated in financial loan documents and state applications for the project, where a drop-in center with TAY services was always represented. Another huge alteration: the original number of 30 units dedicated for TAY was decreased to 20.
In order to address the shortcomings which conflict with what the community has consistently been promised about this project, the Coalition for a Complete Community/CCC and D5 Supervisor Dean Preston worked on an amendment to a funding resolution, adding clear language in support of a TAY drop-in service center on the ground floor. Doing so keeps faith with the community process and public planning done at the local level, not just for new arrivals to our neighborhood, but to meet the critical needs of existing residents in three of our most underserved local populations: 1) TAY, 2) seniors and 3) low income families.
The text of the amendment reads: “this Resolution be AMENDED, AN AMENDMENT OF THE WHOLE BEARING SAME TITLE, on Page 6, Line 22 through Page 7, Line 2, by adding 'FURTHER RESOLVED, That the Board of Supervisors urges MOHCD to include Transitional Aged Youth services as a ground floor use, as MOHCD previously represented in prior loan applications, including an Approved Pre-Development Loan from October 2020, a California Tax Credit Allocation Committee Application from 2022, and representations made in multiple community meetings.”
On 5/17, Preston’s resolution was introduced at the Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee loan hearing for 730 Stanyan. At the hearing, MOHCD representatives confirmed that no solicitation or outreach to TAY service providers had yet been done. At the same hearing, Supervisor Mandelman stated that there is no proof that the addition of homeless services to a neighborhood improves that neighborhood. The CCC strongly disagrees. For decades now a stark need for services for unhoused people already living in the Haight and surrounding neighborhoods has existed. Neighborhood groups like the CCC, the Haight Ashbury Neighborhood Council/HANC and the Cole Valley Haight Allies/CVHA seek to stabilize our most vulnerable community members. We are a hands-on community. We roll up our sleeves to create solutions, and we have a vested interest in the successful development of 730 Stanyan.
Proof of our commitment to community is in our actions. Since the purchase of 730 Stanyan in 2017, local neighbors have done the hard work of engaging with community members, local business people, the two developers TNDC and CCDC, and MOHCD in the planning process for this once-in-a-century development opportunity. In that time, the CCC has organized and held 7 community meetings where hundreds of residents participated. During the COVID pandemic (May 2020 through June 2021) when 730 Stanyan was activated as a CAMP/Safe Sleeping Village, residents engaged with the CAMP service providers and the more than 80 campers to organize weekly community dinners, movie nights and clothing and gear drives: further tangible proof of positive outcomes for both neighbors and unhoused people when we (residents, electeds, city departments and service providers) work together.
More proof of positive outcomes: last year local residents and the CCC twice activated the site to host community events offering vaccinations, voter registration, kids’ events, music, food, senior and homeless services, movies and gardening workshops. Over 200 people participated in each of the two events. This is hard work. We are volunteers. We are the literal definition of “stakeholders.” Many of us own homes and businesses in the Haight Ashbury and adjacent neighborhoods.
In light of our many years of advocacy, along with the history of events and promises made to our community regarding 730 Stanyan, we asked that our elected representatives along with MOHCD support Supervisor Preston’s resolution, which adds clear language supporting a TAY drop in service center on the project’s ground floor.
The resolution was unanimously adopted at the Board of Supervisors general meeting on 5/23/23. Stay tuned: because of city and state funding considerations, the resolution is not legally binding; it urges MOHCD to keep faith with our community and to honor the nearly six years of hard work local residents have done on 730 Stanyan.