Stimulus funds secured for public housing
By: Tamara Barak Aparton
Examiner Staff Writer
March 30, 2009
SAN FRANCISCO — San Francisco’s crumbling public-housing facilities will receive nearly $18 million in repairs thanks to federal stimulus dollars.
The funds represent a 48 percent increase from the annual amount provided to The City’s Housing Authority by the federal government. The money will be used to improve 1,800 units.
Work began last week on the project to repaint, weatherize and replace fire-alarm systems in existing units, and bring 300 previously uninhabitable residences up to code. Safety lighting will also be improved.
Mayor Gavin Newsom announced the upgrades Monday at the Potrero Terrace and Annex complex.
Resident Donald Williams listened to the news from a nearby sidewalk. He hopes the improvements will make the housing facility safer and more efficient.
“We need better locks on the windows and doors, and repairs to the heaters,” he said. “The sinks back up all the time. I’d like it if they fixed the stoves, so people’s babies don’t have to smell the gas.”
The work accounts for the equivalent of a year’s worth of 178 new full-time jobs, Newsom said.
In the coming weeks, city officials will compete for the remaining $1 billion in stimulus funding for public housing projects that leverage private financing.
Newsom hopes to secure funding to support his HOPE SF plan, which would raze and rebuild Hunters View — one of the worst public-housing developments in the nation, according to federal inspectors — and seven other projects. The plan would create 2,500 public-housing units, 1,000 affordable units and 2,500 at market rate.
HOPE SF is largely financed by revenue bonds, which will be repaid with city money and taxes generated by the new units. However, city officials estimate that about $100 million in infrastructure funding is needed.
Hunters View would be the first development to be revitalized through HOPE SF. The federal stimulus funds will be used for preparing families for the project, Newsom said.
