Driving home
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced early this month that a field office of the Department of Motor Vehicles in San Francisco would be converted into a multiuse complex with affordable housing — and a new DMV field office. The move grows out of an executive order Newsom issued in 2019 to develop housing on underutilized state land.
The site, located at 1377 Fell St. at the tip of the Panhandle, would host about 372 homes “with a range of affordability levels located … near amenities and transportation,” according to the governor’s office. The redevelopment will be led by The Related Companies of California and the Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation.
“We will continue to use all our tools to create more affordable housing throughout California — including by converting underutilized state property into homes,” said Governor Newsom. “I’m particularly proud of this site for bringing affordable housing to the heart of San Francisco in a diverse and thriving neighborhood.”
New island treasure
Star View Court was unveiled Oct. 9 at a grand opening with city officials and community leaders in attendance. Located at 78 Johnson Street on Treasure Island, the family-oriented development is 100 percent affordable housing, with 138 units designated for formerly homeless families, legacy Treasure Island households, and households earning between 50–80 percent of the area median income.
Star View is part of the Treasure Island Revitalization Plan, which aims for 8,000 new residential units housing more than 18,000 residents and including 435 units targeted for homeless households. The mayor’s office says when completed, the project will add more than 2,000 below-market-rate homes to the city’s housing inventory.
“Treasure Island is becoming a model for San Francisco’s future, where growth and community go hand-in-hand,” said Matt Dorsey, supervisor for District 6, which includes Treasure Island.
Present tents
On the homeless front, Mayor London Breed has been touting a drop in the quarterly count of tents in the city, which her office says hit its lowest level since the city began counting back in 2018. The count, announced earlier this month, included no more than five encampments containing five or more tents or similar structures, and of the 242 tents/structures counted, 130 were tents and 112 were structures. In July 2023, there were 424 tents and 175 structures.
This latest count comes in the wake of an aggressive effort to close encampments and move people into shelter. The effort was criticized by some homeless advocates who accused the city of criminalizing the homeless; others criticized the mayor for not having acted sooner.
“We are a compassionate city that leads with services, but we also will continue to enforce our laws when those offers are rejected,” Mayor Breed said in a statement released by her office. “This latest count shows we are making progress, and we will not let up as we continue to move people into shelter and housing and improve the conditions of our neighborhoods.”
Breed reports that since Aug. 1, outreach teams have had more than 3,000 “engagements” with people in encampments, resulting in 365 accepted shelter offers, issuance of 296 citations or arrests (mostly cited for illegal lodging and released on the scene), and 25 transfers of people to emergency services; 46 people were already housed or sheltered.
Market report
Let’s check the numbers for the city’s housing market, according to Redfin. In September, San Francisco home prices were 5.6 percent higher than the same time last year, reaching a median price of $1.4 million. There were 313 homes sold this September, one fewer than September 2023.
Sale prices average out to 106.1 percent of the listing price, which is up 3.3 percent over last year; 54.3 percent of homes sold over listing price, and 18.1 percent of them sold for less than their listing prices.
And quo vadis, San Franciscans? Redfin says that in July and September of this year, 23 percent of San Francisco homebuyers were searching for a new home outside the city, while 77 percent were looking to stay in the metro area. Honolulu homebuyers looked to move into San Francisco more than any other metropolitan area, followed by New York and Pensacola. For San Franciscans looking to go elsewhere, Sacramento was the leading destination, followed by Los Angeles and San Diego.
