Since the San Francisco Government acquired the McDonald’s located at 730 Stanyan Street in 2017, they have been committed to building affordable housing at the site. In June of 2023 — despite many debates about the land’s usage — construction of the 160-unit affordable housing complex began on the corner of Stanyan and Waller. The San Francisco Government committed to a vision reached after discussions between San Francisco residents and officials.
730 Stanyan Street was home to a McDonald’s for 50 years, but the location was widely considered unsafe during the last decade of the fast-food chain’s operation. During that period, San Francisco officials received numerous complaints about crimes occurring at the site, leading to City Attorney Dennis Herrera writing a complaint to the McDonald’s corporation in 2015.
According to an SF Curbed article from 2017, “Herrera’s complaint letter called the site ‘a safe haven for drug dealers and users’ and said that San Francisco Police Department responded to calls at this one McDonald’s some 1,100 times in the preceding three years.”
In a New York Times article from 2012, the former owner of the Stanyan Street McDonald’s location, Natalie Gonzales, said that the restaurant’s employees made 300 calls to the police in that year alone. While some of the calls were related to fights or robberies, a number of the calls cited people, many of whom were homeless, loitering without making purchases, according to Gonzales.
San Francisco subsequently purchased the McDonald’s and its adjoining parking lot for $15.5 million in 2018, hoping to convert the spot into housing. “Anytime we can acquire land for affordable housing, we need to do it,” said Former Mayor Ed Lee in an SF Curbed article.
In the summer of 2020, plans for the unit on Stanyan were briefly put on hold, and the lot transformed into District 5’s first safe sleeping site — a temporary fix amidst the height of the COVID-19 Pandemic.
Whitney Jones is the Deputy Director of Operations for Chinatown Community Development Center, one of the two partners developing the 730 Stanyan site. In an interview with the Urban Legend, Jones said, “There had been a lot of back and forth about whether the safe sleeping site would continue. There was neighbor concern over it, and there was a question about creating a drop-in center for the site as part of the affordable housing development.”
Citizen concerns and complaints are a recurring issue surrounding the construction of affordable housing in San Francisco. Residents in wealthy neighborhoods often employ the Not In My Backyard (NIMBY) Movement to prevent affordable housing from being constructed in their area.
Housing Rights Group (HRG) Co-leader Ellis Monty ‘24 said, “A lot of the time it’s not that the city doesn’t want to build affordable housing in richer neighborhoods, it’s just that people in richer neighborhoods have the money to file lawsuits against developers and make complaints.”
Groups backing NIMBY often use the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This law notifies the government about the potential environmental harm of proposed construction to claim that building a new housing unit will negatively impact the environment.
Ben Slater, the faculty advisor for HRG, explained why some residents wish to avoid affordable housing units being built in their neighborhoods.“There’s a fear that when you bring affordable housing into your neighborhood your personal property value will decline … which for a lot of people is their main asset,” he said.
Nonetheless, San Francisco’s Planning Department finalized the plans for the affordable housing unit in June 2022. The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved the plans in October of the same year, demonstrating the project’s continued support.
In 2023, District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston told the San Francisco Chronicle that the site would be built regardless of state officials’ advocacy. “This is not a site that anyone is telling us we don’t have the funds to do,” he said. “It is absolutely essential.”
The unit on 730 Stanyan Street will be permanent affordable housing aiming to accommodate those earning between 25 to 85% of the area’s median income. Jones said, “The area median income is a calculation that HUD [Housing and Urban Development] does, and then the City of San Francisco does additional calculations on top of that to try and reflect the San Francisco specific median income.”
The units are also designated for families exiting homelessness, young adults who are at risk of struggling in adulthood (likely coming from foster care), recipients of vouchers from the San Francisco Housing Authority and District 5 residents who were previously displaced.
The project’s total expected cost is $153.2 million, funded by federal tax credits and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD). The San Francisco Government’s website attributes part of the MOHCD funding to the voter-approved Affordable Housing General Obligation Bond passed in 2019 with over 71% of voters in favor.
Jones believes that this project represents what San Francisco does well. “San Francisco has always demanded of its affordable housing that it be done in a way that reflects the quality, that it doesn’t look like it’s low-cost housing that is dumped in a neighborhood, but that it speaks to the neighborhood. Often, affordable housing in San Francisco are effectively the best buildings in the neighborhood,” he said.
Continuous conversations about the future of affordable housing in the Bay Area are crucial, as many residents disagree on the solutions to the housing crisis. Slater said, “One big controversy is should we just build more housing in general? Or should we just focus on building affordable housing?”
Continuous conversations about the future of affordable housing in the Bay Area are crucial as many residents continue to disagree on the solution to San Francisco’s housing crisis. Slater said, “One big controversy is should we just build more housing in general? Or should we just focus on building affordable housing?”