UC Berkeley finds new developer to build affordable housing at People’s Park

A five-story affordable and supportive housing building will line one side of the former People’s Park site, sharing the space with a T-shaped dorm housing 1,100 students, according to this rendering shared by UC Berkeley.

Berkeley-based developer Satellite Affordable Housing Associates will spearhead the building of about 100 affordable and supportive apartments in People’s Park, UC Berkeley announced Thursday.

The announcement kicks off the next phase of a controversial development that will see the storied park – a longtime site for political activism and symbol of Berkeley’s progressive history – transformed into a mix of housing for students and formerly homeless people.

The city of Berkeley is contributing $14.5 million, and the state of California $16.6 million, for a five-story affordable housing building that will share the space with a separate, high-rise dorm for 1,100 undergraduates that’s now rising on the site.

The developer will need to raise additional public and private funds to complete the affordable housing, which is projected to cost approximately $60 million, university spokesperson Kyle Gibson said. UC Berkeley, which owns the land, will build and operate the student housing itself, and about 60% of the 2.8-acre park will remain as open space.

The selection of Satellite Affordable Housing Associates comes after a multi-year battle over the future of the park that saw a previous developer, Resources Community Development, pull out of the project after opponents sued to block it. The university has spent many millions of dollars to secure the site with a wall of double-stacked shipping containers, to police protests from students and community advocates opposed to building there, and to defend the project in court.

Still unresolved is how many of the affordable housing units will be supportive – meaning they come with services, such as counseling and benefit application assistance, that can help formerly unhoused people settle into stable homes.

The affordable and supportive housing building, according to a rendering shared by UC Berkeley.

The original plan greenlit by UC Regents in 2021 called for up to 125 units of supportive and affordable housing, an acknowledgement of the fact that many unhoused residents had found refuge in the park and would be displaced.

“We want as much permanent supportive housing as possible, and if the entire building can be permanent supportive housing, that is the goal,” said Gibson. But he added that permanent supportive housing is more costly to build and maintain, and that the final mix will depend on the funding sources that developers assemble.

Non-supportive affordable housing units will be aimed at extremely low-income residents earning up to 20% of the area median income, Gibson said.

Some park advocates have doubted whether affordable housing will get built
A view Thursday of the student housing project being built at People’s Park behind a wall of shipping containers topped with barbed wire. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for Berkeleyside

Satellite Affordable Housing Associates has developed and operated dozens of affordable housing communities in the Bay Area, according to the company, and is currently working with the Berkeley Unified School District to build housing for teachers and school staff on San Pablo Avenue.

The supportive housing plan emerged as part of negotiations between the city of Berkeley and UC Berkeley over the university’s long-term development goals. As the project dragged on, some critics wondered if the affordable units would be built at all.

The entrance to the construction site on Thursday. Credit: Estefany Gonzalez for Berkeleyside

“We were doubtful if it was happening, and it looks like it’s happening,” said Harvey Smith, a member of the People’s Park Historic Advocacy Group, which sued the university in an attempt to force it to consider other sites instead of the park for student housing. The California Supreme Court sided with the university, the city of Berkeley and the state of California, allowing the project to move forward.

Smith said even with the permanent supportive housing included, the project will still rob the Southside neighborhood of precious open space and “destroy” a landmark listed on the National Register of Historic Places.

California Assemblymember Buffy Wicks, who authored legislation that helped project supporters win in court, said in a statement that the selection of an affordable housing developer “demonstrates that we can honor the site’s history while delivering permanent supportive housing and real stability for people who need it most.”

The student apartments at People’s Park are part of UC Berkeley’s 10-year plan to solve a campus housing crunch. About 23% of students currently live in university housing, and the campus guarantees housing only for first-years. With the completion of the new dorm in People’s Park, named Heumann House for disability rights activist Judith Heumann, the university will extend that promise to two years of on-campus housing for the class entering in fall 2027, Gibson said.
UC Berkeley walled off People’s Park in January 2024 and broke ground on the student housing that July. Construction will begin on the permanent supportive housing once the student housing is complete, said Gibson, though he did not have an estimate for when it would open.

UC Berkeley finds new developer to build affordable housing at People’s Park

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