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The program has since allocated $427.5 million to roughly 1,880 units across 41 properties across the state, said Lindy Suggs, of HCD. The funding was distributed in two rounds \u2014 the second, she said, was \u201coverprescribed within two minutes of the portal opening\u201d as applications flooded in. Money targeted properties presenting the \u201cgreatest risk\u201d within HCD\u2019s portfolio, meaning buildings the department financed decades earlier or previously invested in. The program also supported smaller SRO hotels and buildings that had gone through foreclosure, which are less likely to attract private financing.<\/p>\n
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Even so, the buildings that received the financial assistance represent only a \u201cdrop in the bucket,\u201d said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. Between 2000 and 2024, California lost 18,000 income-restricted homes as affordability requirements expired, he said, often because nonprofits operating them lacked the resources to finance necessary upgrades once restrictions lapsed.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is estimated that in the next 10 years, we may be losing an additional 48,000 affordable homes that are at risk,\u201d Velasquez said. \u201cEvery year when these restrictions expire, investors are out there who may offer the financial incentives for these owners to give these buildings away.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Kung Bi Fung, tenant of the Clayton Hotel, stands with property assistant manager, Bing Shu Zhu, in San Francisco.<\/p>\n
Giselle Garza Lerma\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Velasquez said both California\u2019s government and the private affordable housing sector have been \u201coverly focused on new construction\u201d financing \u2014 and for good reason. The state has imposed aggressive mandates to create more than 1 million homes for people in the moderate- to low-income range. San Francisco is expected to permit 82,000 new homes by 2031, roughly half of which must be income-restricted.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe still cannot ignore the fact that we have so many older buildings, especially in urban cores \u2026 that are in severe need of repair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
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Even with the state funding, CCDC spent nearly $2 million of its own funds on hard costs and to relocate the Clayton\u2019s tenants during renovation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had to find 82 units in San Francisco that we could move people into for 10 months \u2014 you can imagine the cost of that,\u201d said Whitney Jones, CCDC\u2019s deputy chief of community real estate. The state\u2019s funding covered the replacement of the roof and upgrades to community spaces, including kitchens, bathrooms and laundry facilities.<\/p>\n
Inside, the rooms \u2014 ranging from 60 to 85 square feet \u2014 have been outfitted with new bedframes and refrigerators. Tenants of the Clayton have an average annual income of about $17,000, Jones said.<\/p>\n
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The exterior of the Clayton Hotel, an 82-unit single-room occupancy hotel in San Francisco\u2019s Chinatown.<\/p>\n
Giselle Garza Lerma\/S.F. Chronicle<\/p>\n
Velasquez, of HCD, said the state is taking steps to shift more resources toward housing preservation. Recent actions include the Tax Credit Allocation Committee pushing to expand the use of tax credits and tax-exempt bonds for rehabilitation and maintenance, not just new construction<\/a>, allowing developers like CCDC to finance upgrades to existing units. At the same time, California faces declining revenues, making future funding uncertain \u2014 the state is exploring additional incentives to sustain preservation efforts, though the scale of support will remain tied to the budget cycle, according to Velasquez.<\/p>\nArticle continues below this ad<\/p>\n
After his tour of the Clayton wrapped up, Mayor Lurie acknowledged that the city\u2019s budget crisis presents a challenge to fund preservation work, which he described as an \u201cimportant part\u201d of its housing ecosystem.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can\u2019t do this alone \u2014 we absolutely need support from the state and the federal government,\u201d Lurie said, adding that he supports any initiatives that can help \u201cmake this city more affordable and create more housing.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yufeng Lin, tenant of the Clayton Hotel, speaks to Mayor Daniel Lurie in San Francisco. The refurbishment of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":239175,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30],"tags":[13005,1011,388,101,103,102,104,106,105,39985],"class_list":["post-239174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-francisco","tag-chinatown","tag-housing","tag-real-estate","tag-san-francisco","tag-san-francisco-headlines","tag-san-francisco-news","tag-sf","tag-sf-headlines","tag-sf-news","tag-supportive-housing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=239174"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/239174\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/239175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=239174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=239174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=239174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}