San Francisco, CA — Mayor London N. Breed today celebrated the grand opening of a 100% affordable housing project in the Mission at Casa Adelante—1296 Shotwell Street, which is comprised of 94 affordable homes for seniors and formerly homeless seniors. The project is also the first in the City to use the Planning Department’s Affordable Housing Bonus program, which resulted in three additional floors and over 33 more units.

“These 96 new affordable homes represent a new chapter for the residents who have moved in,” said Mayor Breed. “Housing is more than a place to live—it’s stability, community, and as we have seen so clearly during this pandemic, it’s also essential to public health. Projects like this one and the others that will break ground over the coming years are critical to addressing so many of the challenges we face as a city. As we emerge from this pandemic and work to get our economy and our City budget back on track, we need to make sure that we continue to create the new housing that San Francisco needs.”

The parcel at 1296 Shotwell was conveyed to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) via a land dedication—the City’s first—by the developers of the Vida Condominiums/Alamo Draft House at 2558 Mission Street in 2013. The transaction was conducted as part of the City’s Inclusionary Affordable Housing Program to create 100% affordable housing. The City’s newly piloted Senior Operating Subsidy (SOS) program is providing direct rental assistance to 40 of the tenants.

“Casa Adelante at 1296 Shotwell is a true victory for District 9, the first new construction of affordable housing in a decade in my district,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “It is, as most great wins are, the fruit of powerful and persistent advocacy, a partnership between community and the City. This same tenacity enabled us to break ground on another six affordable buildings since then. In this otherwise tragic year, I am thrilled to celebrate with MEDA and CCDC today and to welcome new elders to their forever homes in District 9.”

Casa Adelante—1296 Shotwell is the first project in San Francisco to utilize the Senior Operating Subsidy program created by Board President Norman Yee last year. The subsidy enables senior residents with incomes at 15% and 25% of the local Area Median Income (AMI) to meet the 50% AMI rents required to live at the development.

“This has been the result of years of advocacy from the community to ensure that our affordable housing units are truly affordable to seniors on fixed incomes,” said Supervisor Norman Yee. “We have so much more work to do, but I am thrilled to see that the SOS (Senior Operating Subsidy) program will provide new opportunities to house senior residents who are often left with few choices to age with dignity. I hope we can continue to build upon this program and make the transformative changes we need to house our City’s growing aging population.”

In August 2015, MOHCD selected Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) and Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC) to develop, own, and operate the affordable housing development proposed for the site. MEDA currently has three other Casa Adelante housing developments under construction in the Mission at 2060 Folsom, 1990 Folsom, and 681 Florida.

“When I look at this building—MEDA’s first to be completed—I see the collaboration of the City, funders, architects, structural engineers, our co-developer Chinatown Community Development Center and our community,” said Luis Granados, Chief Executive Officer, Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA). “They say the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, and that belief is embodied in Casa Adelante—1296 Shotwell.”

“After one year of not having stable housing, I found MEDA through church and was able to apply and be accepted to live at 1296 Shotwell,” said resident Irma Soberanis. “I love the community and staff members at 1296 Shotwell who go above and beyond to help the residents. I thank God and the people who helped give us this building, we hope that more opportunities like this one become available to more seniors.”

Built with senior residents in mind, amenities at Casa Adelante—1296 Shotwell include rooftop terraces with shared garden plots and landscaped courtyards, a spacious community room with a kitchen, 22 bicycle storage spaces, a solar hot-water system, and a communal laundry room. The property also incorporated a state-of-the-art seismic design that ensures maximum safety of the residents in the case of an earthquake, where they will be able to remain comfortably in place with no temporary displacement to complete safety inspections.

“Seniors are leaders in our community. The leadership of tenant movements are always seniors, and they take us along,” said Malcolm Yeung, Executive Director, CCDC. “Casa Adelante – 1296 Shotwell is for seniors, not only so that we can take care of them as they age in place with dignity, but so that we can provide a stable platform from which they can continue to lead the City, and we are deeply appreciative of that.”

Major financing for 1296 Shotwell was provided by a $27.6 million investment from MOHCD that enabled the $54.2 million project to move forward. This highly anticipated development has been made possible by financing from the San Francisco voter approved 2015 General Obligation Housing Bond for Affordable Housing Program, San Francisco Affordable Housing Fund, and HOME funds from HUD. Other financial partners include the California Community Reinvestment Corporation, California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, California Municipal Finance Authority, California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, Clarke & Soffa, Raymond James Tax Credit Funds Inc., and Silicon Valley Bank.

The nine-story building, designed by local architect, Herman Colliver Locus includes studios and one-bedroom apartments. Construction started in January 2018 and was completed in December 2019, with all apartments fully leased up in May 2020.

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