SAN FRANCISCO—On Wednesday, January 30, Mayor London Breed, Board of Supervisor Hillary Ronen and community leaders celebrated the groundbreaking for Casa Adelante, a nine-story building at 2060 Folsom Street. The new building will provide 127 permanent affordable apartments for low-income households, which includes 29 units for homeless transitional age youth and parenting youth.

“We need more projects like Casa Adelante in San Francisco in order to create the affordable housing our residents need,” said Mayor Breed. “Today I announced a ballot measure to streamline affordable housing developments like this one throughout the City, so we can build affordable housing and build it faster. With the addition of a $300 million affordable housing bond, this plan will significantly help our low- and middle-income residents afford to continue to live and work in the City.”

According to a press release from the Mayor’s Office, the ground floor of Casa Adelante will feature community-serving uses adjacent to In Chan Kaajal Park. Casa Adelante will provide birth-to-career resources ranging from a preschool to after-school programs and activities for youth and young adults. Proposed service providers with on-site offices will include PODER, Good Samaritan Family Resource Center and Mission Graduates, while Larkin Street Youth Services and Chinatown CDC will offer family-strengthening services. PODER, Mission Graduates and Good Samaritan Resource Center will build their service spaces, offices and a childcare center on the site, and their programs will be open to residents and the surrounding area.

“This is such a special day, and I celebrate with my Mission community,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “It took hard work and imagination to turn what was once a city-owned parking lot into what is now the beautiful In Chan Kajaal playground and soon to be affordable homes for families and homeless youth. Viva Casa Adelante!”

The Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA) and Chinatown Community Development Center (Chinatown CDC) were chosen as the joint-venture nonprofit developers of Casa Adelante – 2060 Folsom by the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD). In September 2011, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors (BOS) accepted the jurisdictional transfer and purchase of land that includes the site by MOHCD from the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC) for the goal of developing affordable housing. The Board of Supervisors approved the purchase of the adjacent PUC land by the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department for the purpose of developing In Chan Kaajal Park, which opened in 2017.

“We are thrilled to be breaking ground at 2060 Folsom, one of seven new affordable apartment buildings underway in the Mission,” said Kate Hartley, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. “We are also grateful for the support of our transit agency partners and the State of California for their funding, which allowed the project to move forward in this time of rising construction costs.”

“I’m excited that some of the units will house transitional-age youth on the verge of adulthood, who are at risk of falling through the cracks into homelessness, and it is wonderful that Casa Adelante – 2060 Folsom will be able to include space for child care, and other community organizations on site,” said Reverend Norman Fong, Executive Director of Chinatown CDC.

“Good Samaritan is excited to be part of this wonderful community vision to support low-income families and offer our Dual-Language preschool services at Casa Adelante – 2060 Folsom. The expansion of our quality program will strengthen our goal to assure that every child succeeds in school and in life,” said Martha Elena Martinez, Early Care and Education Director of Good Samaritan Family Resource Center.

“We are excited to create a permanent home for Mission Graduates in the Mission District,” said Eddie Kaufman, Executive Director of Mission Graduates. “By participating in the project at 2060 Folsom, we are committing to serve our neighborhood students and parents; together we are making college the expectation, not the exception, for Mission youth and their families.”

“Casa Adelante—2060 Folsom is an innovative and inspiring expansion of housing opportunities for formerly homeless transition-age youth. Every expansion of housing for young people is so meaningful because it means they will no longer have to sleep on our streets, but we’re especially excited for this new housing in the Mission which gives young people the opportunity to live in their community of choice,” said Executive Director Sherilyn Adams of Larkin Street Youth Services.

The affordable housing development was made possible by financing from the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, US Bank Community Development Corp, California Tax Credit Allocation Committee, California Debt Limit Allocation Committee, California Department of Housing and Community Development, and the Strategic Growth Council.

Written By Casey Jacobs