Board of Supervisors Unanimously Call on San Francisco Housing Authority to Explore Alternative Redevelopment Plans for Plaza East

SAN FRANCISCO — Supervisor Dean Preston’s Resolution passed unanimously earlier today calling on the San Francisco Housing Authority to present alternatives to the current demolition and redevelopment plans for Plaza East, a public housing site located in the Fillmore. Preston introduced the measure at the request of residents, many of whom gathered earlier in the day at a press conference earlier today demanding increased transparency regarding the future of Plaza East, a site that was demolished and rebuilt by the same developer 21 years ago.

“The residents at Plaza East have dealt with decades of government neglect and inaction”, said Supervisor Preston. “It’s truly remarkable that after a year of obscuring their intentions, the developer now wants to bulldoze the property to make way for market-rate housing on a public housing site. I stand with residents and support their calls to be presented with options, including plans that do not rely on market-rate units on a public housing site, to allow residents the opportunity to fully weigh in on the future of their homes and community.”

The Resolution passed by the Board of Supervisors calls on the SFHA to explore alternatives to the plans currently being proposed by MBS. “I’ve asked more times than I can count for MBS to lay out an alternative that’s 100% affordable, identify any funding gaps, and work with residents and my office to make it happen. They’ve refused to work with residents to lay out options that do not include adding hundreds of market-rate housing that most residents can not afford,” said Supervisor Preston.

“There has been no transparency in their plans, and we are concerned that MBS will displace residents while building market-rate units for wealthy and mostly white residents in our predominantly Black community,” said Plaza East resident Yolanda Marshall.

The resolution also references the new Faircloth-to-RAD program recently announced by HUD. The program offers an opportunity to grow the number of units at Plaza East while keeping them all affordable to low-income and working class San Franciscans. To date, the Housing Authority and MBS have dismissed, without even reaching out to HUD, the potential use of the program to ensure broader affordability at Plaza East.

“With all this talk about investing in the black community, I’d like to see it here. Let the residents lead development planning that centers resident needs, keeps us housed, improves living conditions, and offers more homes that members of our community can afford,” said Rashad Owens, a displaced resident from Plaza East.

Preston’s Resolution also calls for any development plan to replace not just the current 193 public housing units, but also the 83 units that were lost in the 2001 demolition and redevelopment under HOPE VI. That redevelopment, also by the same developer, MBS, resulted in a 30% reduction of the units from 276 to 193, displacing many Black families from the Fillmore.

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