Low-cost units hailed as real Ed Lee legacy
On the first anniversary of Ed Lee’s unexpected death last December, San Francisco officials are planning to gather on the mayor’s balcony in City Hall on Wednesday morning to commemorate the late mayor.
But across town, in the Inner Richmond District, another tribute to Lee’s life will quietly unfold, one that those who knew him say pays homage to his work as a civil rights attorney and affordable-housing advocate.
On Wednesday, San Francisco housing officials and the Chinatown Community Development Center are expected to announce the acquisition of two adjoining buildings through the city’s Small Sites program, which is designed to prevent displacement of low-income tenants.
By putting up the money to buy the building, the city and CCDC will ensure that 16 apartments and single-room- occupancy units will be permanently preserved as affordable housing. The buildings — at 289-291 Ninth Ave. and 800-810 Clement St. — would otherwise have been sold on the open market, potentially displacing the Chinese residents, whose ages range from 67 to 99.
Both the Small Sites program and the acquisition of the Ninth Avenue building are legacies of Lee’s work as an advocate for low-income tenants in San Francisco.
As mayor, Lee launched Small Sites in 2014 as a way to combat the evictions of low-income residents brought on by the city’s soaring housing costs. When a smaller, multifamily building, usually between five and 25 units, goes up for sale, the city can purchase it, preserving the units for lowincome individuals and families in perpetuity. The city provides the financing and then partners with nonprofits, like CCDC and the Mission Economic Development Agency, to own and operate the buildings.
To date, the city has provided funding for 27 buildings, preserving 200 units as permanently affordable. The Inner Richmond buildings are being purchased for $7.4 million. The city is supplying $4.55 million of that in loans to CCDC, and the organization is separately taking on $2.85 million in loans and grants on its own.
The 800 Clement building was constructed in 1907 and consists of two two-bedroom apartments and four groundfloor commercial spaces. The apartments will be maintained as affordable units for the first time under the terms of the deal between CCDC, the city and the family trust that owned the land where the buildings now sit.
The 14 housing units at 289-291 Ninth Ave., however, are products of Ed Lee’s work as a tenants’ rights attorney in the early 1980s.
In 1981, Lee sued the Bank of Canton for illegally evicting a group of low-income seniors living in a Chinatown SRO. They had been booted from their building so the bank could build its highrise headquarters at the corner of Montgomery and Clay streets.
By 1982, thanks to Lee’s lawsuit and grassroots activism, the bank agreed, as part of a settlement, to build replacement housing on Ninth Avenue. It opened in 1989. Lee’s office had begun the work to fund the acquisition of the buildings under the Small Sites program before his death.
“This is bittersweet because he’s not here to enjoy it, but he laid the groundwork for this opportunity,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed. “I think that this is really carrying on his legacy and the work that he invested in, not just as mayor, but when he was an attorney protecting civil rights, too.”
Nearly four decades after Lee brokered the settlement agreement, “To me, this is Ed’s career coming full circle in a very touching and meaningful way,” said Malcolm Yeung, a deputy director at CCDC.
The ceremony on the mayor’s balcony at City Hall on Wednesday begins at 8:30 a.m.