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A mockup photo of Shirley Chisholm Village. (MidPen Housing website)
“People who work in San Francisco should be able to afford to live here, especially our teachers who are critical to our community,” said Mayor London Breed in a statement Monday morning. “Shirley Chisholm Village is an example of our work in action to address that issue.”
Applications to rent or buy a unit can be made through San Francisco’s housing portal, DAHLIA, and will remain open through Tuesday, April 23. While the initial applications in April are for San Francisco Unified School District educators and employees only, a second application round open to the general public is expected this summer, according to the housing project’s website.
The mayor’s office said eligible applicants will need to provide employment verification, including their SFUSD job code, as part of the initial application on DAHLIA and that applicants will be further prioritized if they are eligible for other local housing preference programs.
“This is a family housing building,” said Anne Stanley, communications manager for the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. “It’s really an opportunity for educators to have an opportunity to afford and to live and contribute to the neighborhoods and the communities where they teach and they work.”
Built on the site of a beloved Sunset park called Playland, the development is named after the first Black woman elected to the U.S. Congress. Shirley Chisholm was a staunch advocate for public education.
“This is the first, 100% affordable educator housing project for the city and county of San Francisco,” Stanley said. “But last year, we did award two new projects to nonprofit developers. So, there are two additional educator housing projects on the horizon.”
The announcement Monday marks nearly a decade since the Board of Supervisors and the Board of Education passed resolutions supporting the development of educator housing in San Francisco in June 2015. Construction on the site didn’t begin until August 2022, after the project received $24 million in federal low-income housing tax credits as well as funding from banks, a voter-approved general obligation affordable housing bond, and the San Francisco Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development.
KQED’s Attila Pelit, Spencer Whitney, Sara Hossaini and Azul Dahlstrom Eckman contributed to this story.
