Applications are pouring in for affordable units at San Francisco’s the George, a new apartment complex near Fifth and Mission Streets.
More than 1,000 people have submitted applications for 91 below-market units, the San Francisco Chronicle reported. Some 30 percent of the 302 units available at the 434 Minna Street building have been reserved for households of two people earning between 100 and150 percent of the area’s median income, which is between $106,000-$155,000.
The George, which is scheduled to open on Jan. 18, has the highest percentage of middle-income, below-market-rate units in a market-rate building in San Francisco’s history.
The development, named for the Hotel George on the same site, is the first building to open in the larger 5M project. The full mixed-use complex will yield 856 housing units, a 648,000-square-foot office tower and 12,000-square-foot community arts center. Hearst, which owns the nearby San Francisco Chronicle, is developing parts of the project.
“It’s good to see so much new housing open in a transit-rich area,” Supervisor Matt Haney, who represents the neighborhood, told the Chronicle.
The deluge of applications shows just how much need there is for middle-market housing in the city for those who don’t qualify for supportive housing yet also still struggle to meet the region’s famously high rents.
“There is a well-known challenge in providing housing for the missing middle — that family with two educators or firefighters or someone who owns a small business, who don’t qualify for low-income housing,” Haney said.
The 5M development will ultimately consist of 40 percent below-market-rate units and will include 83 low-income senior housing units.
The George building replaced a parking lot along the recently landscaped, pedestrian-only portion of North Mary Street.
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