SF Residents Get Priority for Senior Housing

Preference will be given to seniors living or working in San Francisco for the city's first affordable housing development aimed at LGBT elders, under a significant change from what was previously announced.

Those 55 and over will have until next Thursday to turn in their applications to be entered into the lottery that will select residents for the first 39 units at 55 Laguna Street.

As expected, the period to turn in applications for the lottery has been truncated from the normal monthlong window to just eight days. The first day applications became available was Wednesday, June 8 and the completed forms must either be postmarked by June 16 or turned in by 5 p.m. that day.

But in a significant change from what had been announced earlier this year, it is unlikely any seniors residing outside San Francisco who do not work in the city will be moving into the renovated building.

According to a flier produced by Openhouse, the LGBT senior agency spearheading the project, households that submit acceptable documentation that at least one member lives or works in San Francisco will be given the fourth highest preference in the lottery ranking process, as the Bay Area Reporter noted on its blog June 3.

"If the number of units available exceeds the number of qualified applicants in the above listed preference, the units will become available to other qualified applicants outside of San Francisco," states the flier.

It is a marked policy change from what Openhouse had announced in April, when the agency's former executive director, Seth Kilbourn, said he had rejected instituting such a preference since many LGBT seniors in recent years have left the city either due to being evicted or priced out of their housing.

Tim Daniels, Openhouse's interim executive director since May 25, told the B.A.R. this week that he couldn't speak to why the change had been made, saying it came from the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development.

"I was not privy to how that decision was made," said Daniels.

Maria Benjamin, director of homeownership and below market rate programs at the city's housing office, explained that the preference is a standard one implemented for projects that do not receive federal funds.

"While anybody in the whole world can apply, and we can't stop them if they can, yeah you are right the chances of them being successful if they live in Arkansas are much slimmer than if they live in Noe Valley," said Benjamin.

Openhouse is working with Mercy Housing California, which develops below-market-rate housing, to build what will be a $40 million two-building campus of 159 apartments at the corner of Laguna and Hermann just off Market Street and a block away from the LGBT Community Center.

The first phase, set to open in September, will feature a total of 40 pet-friendly rental units built inside Richardson Hall, a former college building whose address is 55 Laguna. Any senior, whether LGBT or straight, at least 55 years of age and meets the income requirements can apply.

Sixteen of the units will be given to seniors who live in District 8, which includes the gay Castro neighborhood, due to a rule the city adopted that sets aside 40 percent of the units in new affordable housing developments for people who live in the supervisorial district the project is located in, or within a half mile of the site.

Another eight units are designated for people living with HIV at risk for homelessness, an additional eight are for people recently evicted from their apartments in the city, leaving just seven units up for grabs to the general public. (An additional unit will house an on-site resident manager.)

Lottery

A random drawing lottery will be held at 10 a.m. July 7 to select the order for all of the applications deemed eligible. Of those, up to 400 applicants will be placed on a waiting list for the units in the order their names are pulled.

The flier also states that first preference will be given to people who have a Certificate of Preference from San Francisco's former Redevelopment Agency. Benjamin explained those are people who were displaced by government action in the 1960s, 1970s and some in the 1980s, largely because of city-sponsored redevelopment.

However, Benjamin said such applicants securing most of the units at 55 Laguna is "very, very minimal."

Second highest preference will be given to people who have a Displaced Tenant Housing Preference Certificate from the mayor's housing office, as eight units have been set aside for such applicants. Since 2010 those have been given, explained Benjamin, to people who were displaced either by an owner move-in or Ellis Act eviction.

Third highest preference will go to applicants who meet the neighborhood resident housing preference for the 16 units set aside for people who live in District 8 or within a half-mile of Richardson Hall. Benjamin said the city expects a large portion of applicants will fall under this category.

Asked about the likelihood of LGBT seniors moving into the building, Benjamin said, "If those seniors fall in those categories, it increases their chances. If they don't, or already had to move out of the city, then it is going to be tough for somebody from the LGBT community who does not live or work in San Francisco any longer to get into one of those units."

Even if people do not fall under the four preferences, Daniels said any LGBT seniors interested in moving into 55 Laguna should turn in an application. Openhouse has targeted getting at least 3,000 LGBT seniors to do so.

"What we are wanting to stress is, regardless of the preferences, we are encouraging people to apply," said Daniels.

Rents for studios will be $943 a month, one bedrooms will range from $922 to $1,078, with two bedrooms priced $1,107 to $1,213, according to Openhouse. The income limits will range from $37,700 for a single person living in a studio up to $58,150 for a five-person household in a two-bedroom unit.

The second phase of the project, expected to break ground next year, will see 119 units of affordable senior housing be built on what is now a surface parking lot. The age limit for seniors able to apply will rise to 62 due to a change in policy attached to the financing for the building, which will have an address of 95 Laguna.

One unit will be given to a resident manager and 14 will be designated for people living with HIV or AIDS at risk of homelessness. The lottery to select residents for those units should take place sometime in 2018.

The applications for 55 Laguna can be picked up in person at the Francis of Assisi Community Senior Center at 145 Guerrero Street. The site is also where the applications will need to be returned to by June 16 and where the lottery will be held next month.

Applications can also be downloaded from Openhouse's website at http://openhouse-sf.org/ class=st>.

Openhouse is hosting a community information meeting about the applications and lottery process for 55 Laguna from 3 to 5:30 p.m. Thursday, June 9 at Francis of Assisi.