The mayor’s own announcement on the Fillmore co-op’s rebuild promises nearly 2,400 homes. Read the fine print, and the promise to current owners gets smaller.
SAN FRANCISCO — Mayor Daniel Lurie introduced legislation Tuesday to move Freedom West 2.0 forward, and his office sent out a press release with nine quotes, a dozen numbers and one word that matters more than the rest.
Majority.
The rebuilt co-op, the release says, will keep the limited-equity model “and ensuring a majority of current shareholders remain homeowners.”
Not all of them. A majority.
What the City Announced
The legislation, cosponsored by District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, sets up a 25-year development agreement with the developer, MacFarlane Partners, for the four-block Western Addition site. According to the mayor’s office:
- Nearly 2,400 new homes, with more than 17% expected to be affordable.
- A first phase of 115 affordable senior homes, backed by $23 million from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, with groundbreaking expected in the first half of 2027 and the new co-op to follow.
- 1.5 acres of open space, a reconnected Octavia Street and better access to Margaret Hayward Park.
- A roughly 5,000-square-foot STEM entrepreneurship and innovation center.
- 9,000 construction and permanent jobs, by the city’s estimate.
The city also plans to put “millions” from a state law by Sen. Scott Wiener, SB 593, toward the replacement homes, pending approvals. That law lets the city use future property-tax growth from the project to pay for them.
Read the Verbs
Every official in the release promises Freedom West’s families a future. They just don’t promise the same one.
The mayor’s office promises “a majority of current shareholders remain homeowners.”
Supervisor Mahmood says the current co-op residents “will remain in the neighborhood as their homes are rebuilt.”
The city’s economic development director says the legislation “ensures longtime residents can remain in their community.”
And Victor MacFarlane, the developer, says it gives residents “the right to stay, and a real stake in the value being created around them.”
Staying in the neighborhood and owning your home in it are two different things. On a co-op founded so Black and immigrant families pushed out of the Fillmore could finally own something, that difference is the whole story.
There’s one more word worth reading twice. The housing director says his office and the city’s Housing Authority backed the first phase with “capital funding and a voucher commitment.” Housing vouchers are rental assistance. The release doesn’t say whether the seniors moving into the first building will keep their ownership shares in the co-op or become renters on land their families have held for half a century.
The Residents’ Side
Freedom West’s board is behind the plan. After more than 40 years of deferred maintenance, residents have pushed for years for safe, modern homes.
“Freedom West was born out of displacement,” Board President Mattie Scott said in the release. “With this legislation, Mayor Lurie and Supervisor Mahmood are standing with us to make sure that the people who stayed are the people who benefit. Our families will not be moved out to make way for progress.”
That’s the standard. The legislation is where it gets met or it doesn’t.
What Comes Next
The development agreement now goes to the Planning Commission and the Board of Supervisors. Those hearings are where the questions belong:
- How many current shareholders are in the “majority,” and what happens to the rest?
- Will seniors who move into the new senior building keep their co-op shares?
- Is every family’s right to return as an owner written into the agreement?
The press release came out two weeks before Election Day. The hearings will come after it. Freedom West’s families will still be there for both.
Read the Sun-Reporter’s earlier coverage: They Built Freedom West So Nobody Could Push Them Out Again. Now Comes the Hard Part. Freedom West residents: email us at sunreporter@sbcglobal.net.
This story is based on an Oct. 20 press release from the Office of the Mayor.
Photo: San Francisco City Hall at night. Photo by Dllu via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0.
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