After Pledging to Start Affordable Housing Project in Hayes Valley in August, Mayor Breed Breaks Promise and Now Refuses to Commit to Timeline

Despite a two decade delay, advocates were encouraged earlier this year when the Mayor’s office committed to starting predevelopment in August of a long-promised affordable project in Hayes Valley. Those promises appear to have again been broken, as Mayor Breed refused to commit to a timeline for affordable housing at Parcel K at a Board of Supervisors hearing today.

“When the Mayor makes a promise to community members on a timeline for affordable housing, our constituents should be able to rely on those commitments,” said Supervisor Dean Preston. “To not only backtrack on a previous promise, but to now have no timeline whatsoever, is completely unacceptable.”

Parcel K, a paved lot at the corner of Hayes and Octavia where the Central Freeway once stood, was transferred from the state to the city in 2003, with the express purpose of developing 100% affordable housing. It has the capacity to create nearly 100 homes for low-income San Franciscans in a neighborhood where working people struggle to find affordable housing.

The original plan back when an interim use was launched in 2010 was for Proxy – the lease holder that currently operates the space – to last two or three years. As District 5 supervisor, London Breed pushed a seven-and-a-half-year lease extension for Proxy in 2013, effectively blocking the property from becoming affordable housing. When Supervisor Preston took office in 2019, Mayor Breed’s administration proposed another long-term extension, to which Supervisor objected on grounds that this was and is a site for desperately needed affordable housing.

Preston has since organized conversations with neighbors, city agencies, merchant groups and multiple neighborhood organizations around the efforts to realize affordable housing at Parcel K. These efforts culminated when the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development published in March a timeline for development, with a commitment to issuing an RFQ by August of this year (see below for image of timeline provided by MOHCD). To date, no RFQ has been issued.