Challenge
In a dense city like San Francisco, there are still many underutilized and vacant properties. Empty warehouses, dilapidated one-story commercial buildings, and parking lots, for example, can be transformed into new affordable housing sites if developers have the money to buy them when opportunities arise.
Solution
HAF provides affordable developers with loans to buy vacant and underutilized sites for new affordable housing construction. The Fund also offers predevelopment financing (e.g., funding for architecture, engineering, and permitting work), which ensures that developers can secure the construction funding they need to develop new homes as quickly as possible.
Impact
HAF’s first loan ever was to BRIDGE Housing for the acquisition of an Excelsior-neighborhood site, which will be developed into more than 130 affordable units for very low-income residents. To date, HAF has provided financing for projects creating more than 430 new, permanently affordable homes on vacant and underutilized sites.
