About Us

By Calvin Welch, HANC Board Member

HANC's monthly (except August) general membership meeting is usually held downstairs at the Park Branch Library, 1833 Page Street (between Cole and Shrader) on the second Thursday of the month, beginning at 7 pm.  Our meetinngs are open to the public and free to attend.

The Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) has announced its intention to seek qualifications from developers for the permanent 100 % affordable housing proposal at 730 Stanyan, the former McDonalds at Haight and Stanyan.  MOHCD has set November 29th as the date for its final "selection of the development team."

HANC will discuss the site, the City process and efforts of the Coalition for a Complete Community (CCC) to ensure a development of maximum benefit to our neighborhood at our October 10th monthly meeting. 

The September 10th "Request for Qualifications" for the development of the permanent affordable housing is the second time MOHCD has issued a "request" for the 38,000 square-foot  site. The first, a Request for Proposals (RFP) For Interim Uses, was issued on December 1st, 2018 after the completion of a January, 2018 environmental assessment in January, 2018. 

In an odd move MOHCD , after interviewing two respondents to the Interim Use RFP  in April, 2019, including one by the CCC in which HANC was the fiscal sponsor,  abruptly cancelled the RFP stating the City decided to put  it "on pause for a moment" because Supervisor Brown wanted to offer the site to Haight Street  merchants for parking and because of the possible passage of a bond measure this November (Proposition A, which HANC supports).  Per MOHCD, this meant that the final project might start sooner than originally estimated, eliminating the need for an "interim use."  The fact that the Haight Ashbury Merchants Association (HAMA) endorsed the CCC proposal for interim use in part because it did provide some 25 parking spaces was not mentioned by MOHCD or Supervisor Brown.  The fact that the CCC proposal also included services for seniors, families and young adults ( or, as they are known bureaucratically Transition Aged Youth, or TAY) and engendered opposition from the Captain of Park Station, Rec and Park staffers and our own neighborhood NIMBY's may have played a role in the cancellation as well.  The full drama of the cancellation of the  Interim Use RFP will be presented at our October meeting.

The CCC had presented not only an Interim Use proposal for the site but had developed, through a series of community meetings - the only ones held in the neighborhood-  a "Values Statement" for the final development.  The CCC urged:

1. The proposed development should meet existing city policies for publically financed affordable housing offering priorities to qualifying neighborhood residents and people who suffered Ellis Act evictions.
2. The development should be permanently affordable to households earning up to 80% of Area Median Income ($66,300 for a one person household to $94,700 for a four person household in 2018) or less;
3. The large size of the lot- some 38,000 square feet- allows a unique opportunity for our neighborhood to address the housing affordability issues of key portions of our neighborhood. Housing should serve three "target populations" most in need of housing in our community:
   • families with dependent children,
   • "transitional aged youth" (TAY) at risk of  becoming homeless,
   • seniors.
4. Supportive social and retail services should be integrated into the final development.
5. The housing should be "transit reliant", taking full advantage of the eight transit lines within walking distance of the site and not provide for any off-street parking on site. . The current curb cuts should be returned to use for pick up and drop off and dedicated loading zones for the neighborhood-serving retail and community services.

The September 10th RFQ calls for a development that is certainly similar to the CCC position:          

     The City’s expectations of the Selected Developer are the following:

• Provide an affordable housing structure containing a minimum of 120 units with ground-floor commercial use serving the surrounding neighborhood;
• Maximize the number of units and density within a mid-rise construction type:
• Serve low-income families (in 1-3 bedroom units) unsubsidized with an income range between 30%-100% MOHCD Unadjusted San Francisco Area Median Income;
• Serve formerly homeless families, in units subsidized by the City’s Local Operating Subsidy Program (“LOSP”) and a City services contract. The project should provide 40 units, or 25% of the total number of units, whichever is greater, as LOSP-subsidized units for formerly homeless families;
• In consultation with MOHCD and community stakeholders, identify additional populations that may be served by the project, including, but not limited to, transition age youth (TAY);
• Provide ground floor commercial spaces that serve the neighborhood (including the residents of the Project) with specific programming determined through a comprehensive community outreach process and financial/market analysis;
• Evaluate the potential for childcare and provide family-friendly amenities appropriate for the population served;
• Conduct community outreach to engender support for the Project;
• Secure construction and permanent financing that minimizes City General Fund resources to the greatest extent possible. For example, a State of California, Housing & Community Development (HCD) loan and / or the City’s No Place Like Home (NPLH) loan for homeless households;
• Commence constructions on the Project as soon as possible, using streamlined ministerial approval processes. For example, SB35, which may be used in conjunction with the Affordable Housing Density Program or the State Density Bonus Program

The HANC web site contains both the full text of the RFQ and the CCC's "Values” statement.  These can both be downloaded from  https://www.hanc-sf.org/the-voice-and-docs/730-Stanyan/  Click on “CCC Values and Goals” and on “Request for Qualifications.”  Please check them out.

The October meeting will outline the next steps in this process and will seek to answer all of your questions about 730 Stanyan.  Join us and bring a friend: Thursday, October 10th, 7 PM, Park Branch Library Community Room, 1833 Page Street.