Housing Authority Board of Commissioners - Regular Meeting

Francisco's Board of Commissioners regular meeting for Thursday, April 23rd 2026 time is 4 o 3 p.m. Item 2 is roll call of commissioners Starting with President Doug Shoemaker here Commissioner Luana Kim Commissioner Juan Carlos can see you know Commissioner Marianne Pikes president Commissioner Cynthia Alvarez present Commissioner Fala futa Satie Lee and Commissioner live Thank you. Item 3 is the acknowledgement of the Ramatush Ohlone community. I

The housing authority of the city and county of San Francisco acknowledges that we are on the unceded ancestral homeland of the Ramatushaloni, who are the original inhabitants of the San Francisco Peninsula. As the indigenous stewards of this land and in accordance with their traditions, the Ramatushaloni have never ceded, lost, nor forgotten their responsibilities as the caretakers of this place, as well as for all peoples who reside in their traditional territory. As guests, we recognize that we benefit from living and working on their traditional homeland. We wish to pay our respects by acknowledging the ancestors, elders, and relatives of the Ramatishaloni community and by affirming their sovereign rights as First Peoples.

Thank you. Item four is the election of the vice president of the Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco Board of Commissioners. Noting that the vice president shall be elected from among the commissioners of the authority and shall hold office for the remainder of the previous term or the current term ending on September 25th, 2026. Said officers shall serve until they are removed or until their successors elect and have qualified. And then a subsequent election will be held at the authority's annual meeting on which a one-year term will begin on the first regular scheduled commission meeting in the month following that election. At this time, we could ask for a motion to nominate a vice president amongst the commissioners. Would anyone like to nominate?

If I may, I would like to nominate Cynthia Alvarez as vice president of the Housing Authority. I will just say very briefly, thank you so much. All the new commissioners are just wonderful, but I'm very impressed with Commissioner Alvarez with the many years of experience you have specifically with your deep commitment to affordable housing. And so I think you would be an amazing vice president. It would be great if you would accept the nomination as vice president.

Is there a second for this nomination?

I second.

Great. Ms. Alvarez, do you accept this nomination?

I do.

Perfect. Before we ask for a roll call vote, is there any public comment on this nomination for vice president?

And we should also just say that other people can be nominated, or how does that work if other people want to nominate?

Yeah, other people could be nominated if there's anybody else that anybody else had in mind.

I spoke too quickly.

No, no, no, that's great. We told people that anybody could be nominated or self-nominated if anyone else wants to be considered. Just wanted to make sure everyone felt comfortable. OK, seeing none, thank you, Bennett.

Great, so is there any public comment? Great, now we can ask for a roll call vote. And Ms. Alvarez, you can't abstain from vote. A motion for the vote? OK, yeah. OK, great. Is there a motion to elect Ms. Alvarez as vice president? So moved. And then a second? Roll call vote. And Ms. Alvarez, you can't abstain. Commissioner Marianne Pikes?

Yes.

Commissioner Cancino? Yes. Commissioner Kim? Yes. Commissioner Satili? Yes. Commissioner Lai? Aye. Commissioner Alvarez? Aye. And President Shoemaker? Aye. Congratulations. Thank you. Item 5 is the President's Report.

OK. Well, I'd like to, the traditional Vice President song hasn't been sung yet. Should we, you're going to wait? You're going to do your next meeting?

All right, great.

That counts. I do not have a president's report, but I'm very glad to know that there is a vice president in place. So thank you very much for taking the nomination, and we look forward to the additions you'll make in this role. Thank you.

Item six is general public comments. Noting this portion of the agenda is not intended for debate or discussion with the commissioner's staff, please simply state your business or the matter you wish the commission or staff to be aware of. It is not appropriate for commissioners to engage in a debate or respond on issues not properly set in a publicly noticed meeting agenda. If you have questions or would like to bring a matter to the commission's attention, please send your communication via email to sfhapubliccomment at sfha.org. Is there any general public comment? It'll be two minutes for public comment. Two minutes.

Good afternoon, Commission. My name is Sage, and I am a native of San Francisco. I'm currently raising my family in Bernal Heights, and I work at legal assistance to the elderly in San Francisco. I'm here with my client, Joseph Manilla, who is a Section 8 recipient and has been stably housed for the past 19 years through the Section 8 program with assistance from Section 8. Our office is representing Mr. Minella in the hopes of helping him get his voucher reinstated after his disabilities caused him to lapse in the recertification process in 2025. Mr. Manella has a disability with his short-range vision, which has caused him to lose the ability to read a paper when it's held in front. And he is in the process of getting assistance for that through his optometrist. Our office has assisted him with filing a reasonable accommodation request to reinstate the voucher. And it is our understanding that this must be approved by the executive and by HUD. So we are here to ask the commission to please approve this reasonable accommodation and assist Mr. Minella in getting the voucher reinstated. This would not only be a service to our client, Mr. Manila, but also to the community at large, among which he has been an active participant for the past 19 years. Thank you so much.

Hello. My name is Joseph. I'm from the Bay Area. I went to Galileo High School in 1968. I had five siblings. I've lost them all. And my only family right now is where I've lived for the last 17 years, 18 years. And I don't know what I'd do if I had to leave there. And I don't really know what I've done. I messed up some paperwork, which I didn't know I did. I didn't do it on purpose. I just want you to know that I really enjoy living where I do. I don't want to go anywhere else.

Thank you.

Thank you. Thank you for those comments. Sorry to hear of your struggle. We will definitely have staff follow-up on that issue and see if we can resolve it. Thank you. Thank you.

Okay. Other public comments? And just as a reminder for folks in the audience, it's sometimes unclear, but if you are here to speak on an item that is not on the agenda, this is the time to speak on items that are not agendized. OK, so if you're here to speak about any other properties or any other situations that you might be experiencing, this is the one time to speak on non-agendized items. Thank you.

OK.

Seeing none.

Closing general public comments. Item 7 is a tenant representative report. Anyone from CCSD or PHTA? Online or in person, I'd like to give a report out to the board. If not, we can ask for any public comment on item seven. Any public comment? Also seeing none. Item eight is the chief executive officer's report. We have one report out for the acting executive director of communications by Daniel Adams.

Thank you, Bennett. Just a few items to update commissioners on. First of all, I want to remind you that we have an open RFQ to select a development partner for Plaza East. We have extended that RFQ to ensure that we've done sufficient outreach to our development community, and so we have a robust response for the RFQ. I'll just mention that our pre-submittal meeting is on April 28th. with qualifications due on the 15th of May. So just once we have more information on submissions and initial selection proposals, we'll bring that back for your consideration at this commission. Secondly, I wanted to update you on our ongoing work for the emergency housing voucher transition. I'm very happy to report that after, I think, eight months of application and pleading and supplication, we did receive our waiver from HUD to allow us to place current EHV holders both on a tenant-based voucher waiting list, which we'd already received, and on our project-based voucher waiting list. So this will allow us to make informed decisions moving forward about the mechanics and the timing of this work. We are still waiting for our HUD budget letter, which will identify our tenant protection voucher budget to support this transition work. So we don't have that yet, nor do we have any of our other budget affirmations. We had expected to receive that by now, but as with a lot of things with HUD, they are delayed in sending those letters. Not unique to us, as we understand it, but we expect to receive that shortly. Let me see here. Voucher holders have received two notices to date, in effect saying, stay tuned. We'll give you more information, and you're at no risk of losing your current tenancy. So we have been trying to reach out to voucher holders to provide them with information that we had. Unfortunately, we didn't have a lot of information. We do plan, in early May, to send information to voucher holders about how they will be placed on the waiting lists so they'll understand that process and so we're working on that communication now we're also beginning to engage with our landlord population who will need to understand the referral process for folks moving from EHV vouchers to their properties and so we'll be doing again in May hosting a landlord engagement and orientation meeting in May. We anticipate currently that the first moves from an EHV unit to a project-based voucher unit will likely happen toward the end of this year, the last quarter of this year. Again, I want to remind folks that we do have an EHV transition reserve funded through the city to allow us to extend the existing tenancies while we find alternative placements in our project-based voucher portfolio. So that work is ongoing. There are multiple working groups. We have a project manager assigned to that from OCD who is coordinated with the lead at the Housing Authority as well as folks at HSH. And so eager to move that work forward now with this clarification on the waiver. I'll pause there and see if there are any questions on the EHV process itself. Do you have a question? Sure.

A quick question. I should have probably asked this the last time you presented on it. I'm just curious, in the transitional reserve pot that we're very fortunate to have, thank you for that, whether or not that pot can be used towards relocation costs or any of those things.

Yes. Yes, it is flexible. So not only will it substitute during this transition period for the voucher payment itself, the rent subsidy, but also be used if there are any breakage fees with existing leases, moving, and then there's services support provided in conjunction with this reserve. So it's a full team effort. Next, I wanted to update you all. I mentioned last time that the city was preparing, both the city and the housing authority, were preparing comments in response to the proposed rule change around mixed status households. The deadline for that was the 21st of this month, just a few days ago. We submitted comments authored by the city attorney's office, signed by David Chu, on behalf of both the housing authority and the city. We didn't have time to put that comment list in your board package, but we'll make sure it's in the package for next month. It is available on the Federal Registry. It should be up now. If it's not, it will be up soon. Again, the process will be that HUD will need to receive and review and consider all the comments that they receive around the country. And as I understand it, the last time this rule was proposed, there were 30,000 comments received. We expect more this time around. So it will take some time for them to review those comments. There will be no rule change until such time as they review and publish their review of the comments that they receive. Then we expect there to be an actual rule change, timing of which we'll be monitoring, but it will be months away. And then we would expect there to be litigation if the administration pursues that rule change. One of the comments from the city attorney's office is that the rule change as proposed is illegal, along with the fact that it's harmful to residents and it will cause operational and financial challenges both to the city and to the housing authority. So again, this is a 15-, 16-page document. I commit to have it in your commission package for next month, which will then be available to the public. But it is a public document as of today, and you can find it on the Federal Registry should you wish to see it sooner. Or reach out to me, and I can email it to you as well. Finally, I wanted to recognize some of the conversation that we had last time around providing updates on performance metrics and property oversight. We're going to continue to work on what the right format and cadence for those updates is for you, and I'll be reaching out to individual commissioners to help shape that content so that we can provide on a regular rhythm updates to inform how you understand the voucher portfolio, our remaining public housing portfolio, and our performance therein. So nothing to provide at today's meeting, but expect that in the months to come. And again, feel free to reach out in the interim if you have specific suggestions. And those are my reports for today.

Any questions on those or other questions you might have for the executive director? OK. Seeing none.

Then we can open for public comment on item 8. Any public comment? Not seeing any. Closing public comments. Item 9, this is the consent agenda for two different items, one for the commission's special meeting minutes of March 10, 2026, and the commission's special meeting minutes of April 6, 2026. Would commissioners like to pull either one of these items for further discussion? Then we can ask for any public comment on the consent agenda. And since I'm not seeing any, we can ask for a motion for approval of the consent agenda. Is there a motion?

Motion to approve.

And a second? Second. Thank you. Roll call vote. Commissioner Bikes? Aye. Commissioner Cancino? Aye. Commissioner Kim? Aye. Commissioner Alvarez? Aye. Commissioner Satili? Aye. Commissioner Lai? Aye. And President Shoemaker? Aye. Thank you. Item 10 is regular business action items. We have one action item today, item 10A. That's the resolution of the Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco, approving and authorizing the Acting Executive Director to enter into a construction license agreement with Sunnydale Phase 3 Infrastructure LLC and SFHA Housing Corporation to install a fence around certain existing buildings located in the Phases 2A and 2B areas within Sunnydale Public Housing Project and the Velasco Public Housing Project for security purposes. And this will be presented by our Housing Operations Director, Kendra Crawford.

If I might just make one comment before, Kendra, you jump in. This is quite a straightforward request. It's a fence. And it requires a construction license agreement. I did want to take the opportunity to provide a brief update on Sunnydale and why we're installing this fence and for what reason. There'll be additional and future authorizations that will be coming to this commission And so I thought it was a good idea to give you a little bit of an overview, even though this particular action is quite straightforward. I will say, given that this is the published and agendized action, should you have expansive questions about Sunnydale, we'll likely need to save those for a future update meeting. We'd be happy to provide a broader update. But again, I think the information following Kendra's presentation that Ryan will present should provide some helpful context for this action. Thank you.

Thank you. The developer, Sunnydale Phase 3 Infrastructure, LLC, an affiliate of Mercy Housing, would like to go into a construction license agreement to fence area in Sunnydale that is scheduled for demolition later this year. And that is important so that it prevents unauthorized people from going into those apartments. It's 16 buildings, around 70 apartments spread out within the site. This report is missing one of the maps to show you the before and after, but you can see it on your screen. The developer intends to construct certain infrastructure improvements in that area in 2028. This fencing will secure that area and ensure that the site remains safe for the current residents who are still in Sunnydale. Any questions before Ryan comes?

Thanks, Kendra. Should I plug in the PowerPoint, or does everyone? You have it? Great.

Yeah, as part of TV, we do have slides for this. Thank you.

Great. Good afternoon, commissioners. My name is Ryan Van Zylen. I'm a senior project manager at the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, or MOCD. I'm here to present on the resolution before you to approve the construction license agreement that was previously mentioned to install fencing around the existing vacant buildings at Sunnydale Hope SF. I put together this brief update on development progress at Sunnydale for finished projects and those under construction. Next slide. As I'm sure you know, the Sunnydale Hope SF master plan seeks to redevelop the 775 Sunnydale Velasco public housing site into mixed income community of roughly 1,770 units with new streets, infrastructure, and open space. The team at Sunnydale Hope SF has had a very exciting past few years and is steadily moving forward on its promise to revitalize the site. Last fall, the two newest 100% affordable housing buildings known as Amani and Nia, one of which is shown here, were fully leased up, adding 170 new units to the community. 75% of those units were for right to return households for former public housing residents, with the remaining 25% marketed through the city's Dahlia lottery portal. Amani, formerly Block 3A, includes the Sunnydale Resource Center for Neighborhood Services, CBOs like the Bayview Y, Viz Valley Strong Families, and Phoenix Project, and will include a DPH Wellness Center and an early childhood education center, food hall, and small grocer. Nia, formerly Block 3B, will include seven community-serving retail spaces. The Hub Community Center, which opened in 2024 through extensive philanthropy and fundraising from Mercy Housing and Related California, as well as public funds, includes large community rooms, Woogie Early Childhood Education Center, and a Boys and Girls Club. Next slide. The next affordable buildings, block nine of which is seen here, block seven and nine will add 184 units to the Sunnydale neighborhood. Construction for these two buildings started last summer, so almost a year ago, and is expected to finish in spring of 2027. Next slide. The current phase of infrastructure ongoing right now is collectively known as phase three. It's seen here in the yellow outline, encompassing work from the northern part of the site at Sunnydale Avenue to the southern portion at Velasco. Construction started in fall 2024 and is expected to finish in fall 2026, with the public right of ways accepted by the city in early 2027. This is the largest infrastructure phase yet at Sunnydale, which is very exciting. The team provided site preparation for the previously mentioned blocks seven and nine last year so that they could start construction. This infrastructure will additionally provide site prep for two market rate parcels, two public open spaces, as well as streets, utilities, sidewalks, landscaping, and other infrastructure improvements.

Next slide.

on to the resolution before you today. This is for the next phase, collectively known as phase four. To address safety concerns that Kendra mentioned associated with vacant buildings, MOCD and the project team and the housing authority are requesting to install fencing roughly along the perimeter of phase four shown here in green. The current plan is to install fencing around these 16 buildings with personnel and vehicle access gates shown in red. To install the fence, the phase three infrastructure LLC will need to enter a construction license agreement with the housing authority, a substantially complete draft of which has been approved by council and provided to the commission. We hope to install the fence in May shortly after HUD approval and approval from this commission. Next slide. This is the future phase four demolition work. So the next phase of work will be to demolish the vacant buildings in the phase four footprint shown here in green. This work will require a different construction license agreement, which we will bring to the commission for approval later this summer. The proposal is to demolish 23 buildings down to foundations and perform associated abatement work. The project team, MOCD, and the Housing Authority are in the process of procuring consultants and securing permits from DBI and planning. Households within this area were part of the phasing plan to move into blocks 3A and 3B, which are fully leased up. And the Housing Authority, Bell, Mercy, and MOCD will continue relocation efforts for any remaining occupants in this area prior to demolition. Construction is expected to start in August 2026 and finish in early 2027. Thank you. Happy to take any questions.

Commissioners, any questions, comments, statements of excitement? Well, I'm very excited, Ryan, so thank you for the presentation. I've been eagerly anticipating this next stage of demolition, and I'm excited to see that you only have one off-lease occupant. Hopefully it stays that way, and excited that you're moving to begin demo and abatement quickly. So that's great. Any other questions or comments? No? Okay. I guess we go back to Ms. Kendra. Are you finishing up this item, or are we done? No?

Yes, thank you Authority staff recommends approval of the construction license agreement to provide access for the developers who install the fencing.

Thank you There's no further commissioners comment we can open for public comment Not seeing any is there a motion for approval motion to approve and a second second I Roll call vote. Commissioner Pikes. Aye. Commissioner Cancino. Aye. Commissioner Kim. Aye. Commissioner Alvarez. Aye. Commissioner Satili. Aye. Commissioner Lai. Aye. And President Shoemaker. Aye. Thank you so much. Item 11 is any additional commissioner's comment or report.

Yet another opportunity to express your excitement over the fencing or other things like that. No? Okay. Any other commissioner's comments? Okay.

would just leave item 12 for adjournment all right motion to adjourn time is 4 23. thank you