City buys Excelsior building to safeguard affordable units

San Francisco has purchased a four-story, 21-unit building at 4830 Mission St. in the Excelsior district through the city’s Small Sites initiative, a program designed to prevent displacement of low-income tenants.

The mixed-use building, which also includes six commercial spaces, is home to several multigenerational families, including children and seniors, according to the mayor’s office.

Prior to the city’s acquisition, the building was not subject to rent control, but under the Small Sites program it will become permanently affordable housing. The purchase represents the first non-rent-controlled building purchased through Small Sites.

“San Francisco is in a housing crisis that is driving up rents and resulting in displacement of our low- and middle-income communities across the city,” said Mayor London

Breed in a statement. The purchase “will ensure 21 families and six local small businesses are stabilized, keeping them in our community.”

There are 68 people living in the building.

The newly acquired building was going to be put up for sale by its previous owners, according to Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, putting residents there at risk of eviction. Safaí represents District 11, which includes the Excelsior.

Since the program began in 2014, the city has acquired 26 buildings made up of 184 units, with another 11 buildings comprising 134 units in the pipeline.

The purchase of 4830 Mission is also the first Small Sites acquisition in District 11. And counting the commercial properties on site, it’s also the largest Small Sites purchase to date — the program usually focuses on properties with smaller clusters of units.

The city paid $13.2 million for the property, using a loan provided by the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund, a nonprofit lender that provides loans to acquire and preserve affordable housing. The fund, which the city helped launch, is meant to help provide capital for affordable housing more quickly than the city can.

“In the context of all this massive property value escalation and displacement and gentrification happening across the board in San Francisco, to have an opportunity to stabilize these units and keep working and immigrant families in place, who would be in grave danger of being displaced, this is exactly what the housing fund and the Small Sites program was created for,” Safaí said.