SF looks to buy fourth hotel this year to turn into homeless housing

San Francisco plans to turn a fourth hotel into permanent supportive housing for the homeless, less than a mile from a planned Japantown tourist hotel conversion that fell apart after a neighborhood backlash.

The city aims to buy a 114-unit SRO at 835 Turk St., which has private bathrooms and shared kitchens, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. The building has 42 tenants who won’t be displaced, meaning that there may be just 72 units for people in need of housing.

San Francisco bought three hotels this year to house 300 people, using funds from the state’s Project Homekey, a two-year $2.7 billion program to convert hotels into permanent housing. The largest deal was the $86.7-million purchase of a 160-unit SOMA apartment complex originally built as student housing.

The city hasn’t disclosed the price for its latest purchase, Vantaggio Suites, saying it will wait until the deal is done. Supervisor Dean Preston, who represents the neighborhood, identified the SRO in a September letter to the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing in which he asked the city to look at nearby options, rather than move ahead with the Japantown hotel.

Preston told the Chronicle he’s not expecting the type of objections that arose around the Japantown site, which neighbors and merchants argued would remove one of only two hotels in a tourist-dependent area that’s already been hard hit by the pandemic.

“There will always be some voices in opposition to anything like this,” Preston said. “We will hear those voices if they’re there and listen to them, but I have not heard any real concerns to date about this spot.”

He’ll co-sponsor the proposal to purchase Vantaggio as it moves through the approval process, starting with a community meeting next week. Depending on feedback there, it could head to the Board of Supervisors in January.

[SFC]

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