MidPen Housing Corp. To Develop Second Teacher-Specific Affordable Housing Project
Foster City-based MidPen Housing Corp. will build a second affordable housing community aimed at housing teachers, staff and families working for the San Francisco Unified School District.
Word of the new project comes as the city of San Francisco opens the application process for its first educator housing project in the Sunset District.
MidPen plans to build 750 Golden Gate Ave., a 100% affordable housing development near Civic Center and the Tenderloin neighborhoods, on excess state-owned land, MidPen Vice President of Corporate Communications Lyn Hikida said. The 75-unit project will serve people earning 40% to 120% of the San Francisco area median income.
Construction could begin on the first phase of 750 Golden Gate Ave. as soon as early 2025, Hikida said. The project will carry a preference for SFUSD and San Francisco Community College District educators, employees and their families.
“The need for affordable housing remains a critical issue when attempting to recruit and retain public servants, particularly educators and school district staff,” Hikida said in an email.
New York-based real estate investment firm Tishman Speyer is a development partner and consultant on 750 Golden Gate Ave.
Earlier this week, the city of San Francisco announced it was accepting applications for MidPen’s 135-unit Shirley Chisholm Village, the city’s first 100% affordable housing project specifically for educators in the SFUSD.
“If we want to keep families in San Francisco we need more housing and we need good public schools,” San Francisco Supervisor Joel Engardio said in a press release issued by Mayor London Breed’s office. “Good schools require teachers, and teachers need a place to live. That’s why the affordable housing we’re building in the Sunset for SFUSD employees is essential for our city to thrive. Let’s do more. This should only be the beginning.”
Households with at least one member who is an educator or other employee of the San Francisco Unified School District and households earning up to 120% of the area median income will receive first consideration for Shirley Chisholm Village. In 2023, 120% of AMI came to $121K for a household of one and $172,900 for a household of four.
The minimum annual income required to rent a two-bedroom unit without being rent-burdened in the San Francisco area was $127K per year in 2023, the National Low Income Housing Coalition said in a recent report.
According to the city, “the project’s location in the high-resource area” of the Sunset District was crucial in receiving more than $24M in federal Low-Income Housing Tax Credits. In addition, the asset received a permanent loan from Silicon Valley Bank, now a division of First Citizens Bank, as well as local funding from the voter-approved 2015 affordable housing general obligation bond.
MidPen, a 54-year-old nonprofit developer, is building affordable housing throughout the Bay Area. The company has 1,500 rental homes under construction locally and a total pipeline of approximately 4,500 units, according to a spokesperson for the firm.
Kiku Crossing at 480 E. Fourth Ave. in San Mateo, a 225-unit affordable housing community for public employees, is in the final stages of construction, Hikida said. Expected to come online this spring, the asset will include 22 units for formerly homeless households, eight units for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and 57 units for public employees.
In the Brooklyn Basin along Oakland's waterfront, MidPen received a temporary certificate of occupancy for Foon Lok East, part of a master-planned community with 465 affordable units. The property will include 124 affordable rentals for low- and extremely low-income working families and individuals experiencing homelessness. Foon Lok East is the fourth and final phase of affordable housing development at Brooklyn Basin.
