All stories about "Public Housing"

"Those who have long criticized the McDonald’s mega-empire can feel better knowing that some of the billions earned by founder Ray Kroc are being put to great use." Beyond Chron calls off the dogs in honor of the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center, at 240 Turk Street, a new Salvation Army housing development that opens today in the Tenderloin. Quoted a couple of months back, Salvation Army Major George Rocheleau called the building will be "an island" in the 'Loin's "sea of shark-infested waters"— so in other words, there's new hope in the 'hood. Designed by Herman & Coliver: Architecture, the project will bring 113 "transitional" and permanent housing units to the nabe, including places for children whom have outgrown foster care, as well as a new youth center to keep some of those young sharks from gathering around unsuspecting chum. The center will offer a gym, dance studio, art studios, and even a climbing wall. At a cost of $52.6 million and with an area over 135,000 square feet, its the Salvation Army's grandest undertaking yet.
· Long Sought Community Center Opens in Tenderloin [Beyond Chron]
· Salvation Army Marches Bravely into the Tenderloin [Curbed SF]

City planners, can we get your take here? The San Francisco Redevelopment Agency has reviewed plans to demo and rebuild a 20-acre site in Hunter's Point that currently houses 267 units of public housing, only 154 of which are rented by the SF Housing Authority. Six towers' worth of units— 740 in all— will tower over 65 feet above the Bay, according to the new schematic; 267 will serve as public housing, 315 will sell at market rate, and 141 are to be designated as BMR units. (Random: seventeen will be built by Habitat for Humanity. Didn't know developers would let those folks near a construction site.) Today's Examiner describes the plans as such:

Narrow, tree-lined streets in the redeveloped site will follow a classical grid-pattern that connect with roads in surrounding neighborhoods

Our good mayor treated his staff to a poverty spotting expedition through Sunnydale at yesterday's weekly Monday meeting; about 50 staffers were piled onto a MUNI bus headed for the public housing development in Vistacion Valley. Newsom did the same at the beginning of his first term in office, though with Hunters View as the destination then; as the Chron notes, conditions in both nabes haven't exactly improved since then. Though Gavin has promised to "turn it up a notch" this round, his tour was described as a mainly informative one— a soapbox for him to stand on, ranting and raving on homelessness rather than making specific decrees. However, Newsom express one notable idea, proposing that public housing be treated more like "supportive housing" for people struggling with homelessness and drug use. 'Cause you know, all poor people are addicts, right? Brace for the backlash on that one, City Hall.
· Newsom tours Sunnydale with department heads [SF Gate]

[Image courtesy Sam Spade's San Francisco]