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Freedom West secures funding path for 115 senior homes in Western Addition
A planned 115-unit affordable complex for seniors is expected to break ground in mid-2027, the first phase of a broader redevelopment of Freedom West. The revised plan calls for replacement co-op homes alongside market-rate development, under a 25-year agreement with San Francisco.
Freedom West Homes has secured a funding path for the first phase of a long-planned redevelopment in San Francisco’s Western Addition: 115 affordable homes for seniors at 880 McAllister Street, with construction expected to begin in mid-2027.
The city is set to provide millions of dollars through bonds backed by future property-tax revenue. The project is also expected to receive gap financing from the Crankstart Foundation, the Housing Accelerator fund and other sources. The mayor’s office said Tuesday it is signing a 25-year development agreement with Freedom West.
The project’s first phase, known as “Phase 0,” is part of a revised plan for about 2,400 homes across Freedom West’s four-block property. The complex, completed in 1973, contains 382 cooperative units within blocks bounded by Gough and Laguna streets and Fulton Street and Golden Gate Avenue. The site also surrounds Bethel A.M.E. Church.
Under the broader plan, Freedom West will sell about two-thirds of its property to market-rate developers and redevelop the remaining portion for affordable housing and replacement co-op homes. Later phases are expected to include 267 replacement co-op units and 1,885 market-rate homes. Seventeen percent of all future units are to be designated affordable.
Freedom West has about 1,000 co-op owners, roughly half of them seniors. Many are members of families who helped establish the cooperative as a way for Black and immigrant residents to remain in a neighborhood reshaped by urban renewal. Freedom West board president Mattie Scott said the redevelopment is intended to keep those families in homes they own, rather than displacing them for new construction.
The financing took time to assemble in part because the existing property is a shared-equity cooperative, while many state and federal affordable-housing programs are designed for rental housing. The original proposal, announced in 2020, envisioned 2,515 homes; the current plan has been scaled back to roughly 2,400.
The redevelopment comes as other privately owned affordable housing developments in the Western Addition face aging buildings and pressure to fund upkeep. Freedom West’s history reflects the community’s effort to retain housing and ownership after redevelopment projects devastated much of the Fillmore. Whether the plan delivers on that promise will depend on the later phases, including the construction of replacement homes for co-op residents.