One of the criticisms of affordable housing activists is that they don’t provide viable alternatives to developer plans. But at the former Kelly-Moore Paints site at 3400 Cesar Chavez, the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition (MAC) and Bernal Heights Neighborhood Center (BHNC) have teamed up to create what they say is a practical alternative to a condominium plan currently under appeal by the Board of Supervisors.

On July 9th, advocates held a rally in front of the building site to call attention to the July 17th meeting of the Board of Supervisors. At that meeting, the Board will consider MAC’s appeal of the environmental impact document at the building site. If the appeal fails, Seven Hills Properties, who owns the site, can go ahead with their development. If the appeal succeeds, the project will go back to the Planning Department for review.

Under the alternate plan, BHNC would build 60-70 affordable housing units for families earning less than 60% of San Francisco’s median income – $54,700 for a family of four. The Seven Hills plan contains only nine affordable housing units, that would be sold to households earning 100% of median income.

On the ground floor would be an area for the Day Laborer program, instead of a Walgreens' in the Seven Hills plan. BHNC would buy the land from Seven Hills for what they say is a competitive market rate of about $5.88 million. However, BHNC would need to acquire this funding from the Mayor’s Office of Housing.

Nick Pagoulatos of MAC doesn’t blame the developers. Developers, he says, are in the business to make a profit, and that isn’t who his organization is targeting. “It is Mayor Newsom and the San Francisco Planning Department who are to blame here,” he said.

“It goes beyond this project,” he said. “We want the Board to tell the Planning Department on July 17th that approving projects like these go completely against their own guidelines regarding the need for more affordable housing in this part of the city.”

Organizers planned an occupation of the building site on Monday. However, police arrived to control the crowd – which was spilling onto Mission Street. The police on the scene confiscated a pair of bolt cutters that apparently was used to cut part of the fence surrounding the abandoned lot.

Over the weekend, Police Commissioner David Campos (who is running for Supervisor in District 9) talked to Police Chief Heather Fong, and had warned her of the upcoming building occupation. “I told her that it was going to be a peaceful protest," he said, "and that I hoped the police would be respectful to the community.” Campos was at the rally as well as another District 9 candidate, Eric Quesada.

It’s been a war of words between affordable housing activists and the developer, Seven Hills Properties. Seven Hills has said that their plan is “widely supported” by local residents. MAC and others at the rally told the crowd that the plan is not supported, and the alternative plan better suits the needs of the community.

Tom Rocca of Seven Hills released a statement regarding Monday’s rally, saying that the alternative plan is not feasible. “It was unfortunate,” he said, “that today a group of activists cut our fence and tried to gain access to the project site before being stopped by police. These same people falsely claim to have an alternative plan. They have neither land nor money, and the Mayor’s Office of Housing says that no funds have been earmarked for this site.”

Joseph Smooke of BHNC cited the completed Bernal Gateway, which contains 55 affordable family units, across the street from 3400 Cesar Chavez as an example of a similar plan that his organization completed in 2001.

For now, 3400 Cesar Chavez sits as a chain link fenced vacant lot. People supporting the BHNC plan will be sitting on the sidewalk alongside the property all week in the lead up to the appeal decision on July 17th. While the Seven Hills plan would be completed sooner, community activists say that the BHNC plan is what the community truly needs.

You can make your voice heard on this issue either way by showing up to the Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday July 17th.

Send feedback to bmalley@sfsu.edu