Affordable Housing Development Breaks Ground

SAN FRANCISCO, CA - New condo development may be dead in the water, but San Francisco's affordable housing builders just keep pouring foundations and putting up steel. At 850 Broderick St. in the North of Panhandle neighborhood, Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corp. and the Community Housing Partnership have started construction on a $16 million 47-unit development to house formerly homeless seniors.

The project is called Zygmunt Arendt House and is being named after a World War II refugee who left $6 million to the City and County of San Francisco. His will specified that 60 percent of his estate be used for the poor and needy and 40 percent for the neediest seniors. Some of that money paid for the land at 850 Broderick.

Zygmunt Arendt House is being designed by WRT Solomon E.T.C. and built by James E. Roberts Obayashi Corp. The project is being co-developed by TNDC and Community Housing Partnership with financing from the City and County of San Francisco's Mayor's Office of Housing, the Zygmunt Arendt Fund, the California Department of Housing and Community Development, Silicon Valley Bank, the Federal Home Loan Bank Affordable Housing Program, and National Equity Fund.

"We're thrilled to be breaking ground on new homes for our senior neighbors," said Don Falk, Executive Director Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation. "In this economic climate, providing a stable, affordable home for seniors is critical since they are a population that often falls through the cracks."

When completed Zygmunt Arendt House will provide 47 studio apartments, each with a full bathroom and kitchenette. Five of the apartments will be fully accessible to persons with disabilities. The building will include a welcoming lobby; an outdoor courtyard garden and landscaped roof deck; a community room with a kitchen and dining areas; onsite laundry facilities; as well as offices for property management and social services.

While TNDC does most of its development in the depressed Tenderloin neighborhood, Falk said it's healthy to build affordable housing throughout the city. "The term is de-concentration of poverty," he said.

TNDC is currently building 56 units at 149 Mason in partnership with Glide Memorial Church and is preparing to start construction this year on 1400 Mission St., 210 studio apartments in the Civic Center. The nonprofit is also working on a major renovation at 44 Macallister St. and is entitling a 150-unit project on Taylor St.

Falk said the affordable building would slow down this year as money runs out from Proposition 1C, the $2.8 billion affordable housing bond California voters passed on 2006. In 2008 San Francisco voters rejected Prop B which would have set aside money for affordable housing.

"The city just doesn't have enough money for all the projects in its pipeline, so there are projects that have to go on hold," he said. "We have four (other) projects that will have to be put on hold."