By Eric Best
It’s a simple fact many take for granted: Where you live can influence the smallest details of life. For affordable housing developments, adding amenities and services like a community center, recreation center, communal garden, reading rooms, and coworking spaces could drastically enhance the quality of life for residents, improving chances at long-term success and economic mobility.
Just ask Antoine Lewis.
Lewis, a lifelong resident of Sunnydale, San Francisco’s largest public housing project, said he and his neighbors not only feel better today but are doing better, too. The difference is the result of a groundbreaking rebuild of an entire 50-acre community now under construction in one of the densest cities in America.
“Sometimes, [the old Sunnydale buildings] might’ve brought peoples’ attitude and behavior down, just because [they were] waking up to an environment like that. Now it looks a little brighter. There’s more greenery. It’s just better,” he said. “When you see better, you do better.”
Sunnydale co-developers Mercy Housing California and Related California are aiming to do more than provide housing, but strengthen community, too.
“It’s not just about the brick and mortar of rebuilding homes. It’s about how we create comfortable, vibrant communities,” said Ashlei Hurst, Mercy Housing’s vice president of community life, who is overseeing the revitalization of Sunnydale. “Our focus is on belonging. Do you feel like you belong here and can thrive here?”
At Sunnydale, many of these services are housed at The Hub, a 30,000-square-foot community center. It’s where residents and even neighbors who aren’t Sunnydale residents eat free meals and drink coffee, practice yoga, play board games, or enjoy amenities like a recording studio and library. Across the street, a new resource center offers counseling and supportive services.
For Lewis and his family, the new Wu Yee Children’s Services early learning center in the nearby Hub means his son, a toddler, has a place to be active during the day.
“The Hub is a really nice place to have a whole lot of activities here for people to do and everything,” he said.
Envisioning the next generation of community-building
The Hub is more than a community center for residents who’ve lived at Sunnydale for decades without many amenities. It’s become something for them to rally around.
“This is the heart of the neighborhood,” Hurst said. “People from all over San Francisco come to The Hub right now.”
To make The Hub and Sunnydale’s lengthy list of resources not only possible but sustainable, the development team turned to philanthropic partners in addition to traditional funding sources like city and state funds. “This work began more than a decade before construction started,” said Tiffany Bohee, president of Mercy Housing California. “In a neighborhood long underserved, The Hub represents lasting change made possible through investments by Mercy Housing California and a coalition of philanthropic partners who believe in Sunnydale’s future.”
“We’ve been longtime supporters of Mercy Housing to give people with limited income really good options for housing,” said Darlene Goins, president of the Wells Fargo Foundation, which contributed $1 million to seed a new endowment that funds The Hub’s resident services.
Wells Fargo, an early collaborator, supported multiple parts of the revitalization.
“The bank provided financing to 4 phases of the affordable housing project totaling more than $535 million in debt, equity, and permanent financing. The bank also provided $13.1 million in equity investment in New Market Tax Credit for the Community Center, bringing the total Community Lending and Investment (CLI) into Sunnydale to approximately $549 million.”
A development like Sunnydale that doesn’t displace residents and builds belonging is “some of the hardest work you can do” as a developer, Hurst said, but it will be a win if people feel proud of their community. It will be another win if others can look to Visitacion Valley as an example of how a neighborhood can be rebuilt in a way that honors residents, new and old.
“I would like [Sunnydale’s revitalization] to be replicated,” Hurst said. “If we’ve figured out some of the pieces and also share lessons learned, I think it would be helpful for the next generation of people who are trying to do this in their neighborhoods.”
Inside a resident-focused approach to affordable housing
Emerging building by building are Mercy Housing’s colorful four-story apartments with affordable hoimes. Even the original street grid is getting a modern overhaul.
Key to the developers’ resident-centered “housing-first” model is not displacing residents who choose to stay, Hurst said, a principle baked into the project as part of the HOPE SF initiative. So, as new homes become available, Sunnydale residents — including many who’ve lived there for decades — move in.
Plus, once completed, the project will add room for hundreds more families, with roughly 1,000 affordable units and potential for 600–700 market-rate apartments with a development partner.
This community-building approach addresses residents’ needs and intentionally creates places and moments for them to connect. Mercy Housing staff, including several Visitacion Valley residents, surveyed hundreds of neighbors to hear what they needed firsthand.
Commercial spaces will add a grocery store, a café, and a food hall, among other shops. Residents can connect over meals or cooking classes in The Hub’s community kitchen, too.
“The way we think about it is creating a community where people can be more self-sufficient within their own neighborhood,” said Julia Katz, Mercy Housing California commercial developer. “This not only makes people’s lives easier, because they can walk to services and goods, but it can also bring [them] together in really meaningful ways.”
Connections are forming. Hub activities like senior programs and art classes have brought Tim Harrison, who’s called Sunnydale home since the 1970s, out to socialize more.
“I’m happy to see Sunnydale changing and bringing in a lot of new people, bringing in businesses and stores,” he said. “The sudden change is something new for us and for new people — a new generation — to enjoy.”
Key takeaways
- Adding services and amenities to affordable housing could improve the success and economic mobility of residents, a new housing model asserts.
- Nonprofit affordable housing developer Mercy Housing California and its team are using an innovative approach to revitalizing San Francisco’s largest public housing project to address residents’ long-term needs.
- Because of its complexity, the revitalization of the Sunnydale community relies on private and philanthropic supporters like Wells Fargo and the Wells Fargo Foundation.
To learn more, please visit Wells Fargo Stories.
