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Analysis: Strategies to lower cost and speed permanent supportive housing production

From UC Berkeley’s Terner Center for Housing Innovation, February 9, 2021

A new analysis that finds that the 833 Bryant Street project, a housing development for individuals experiencing homelessness in San Francisco, offers a model for building needed housing quicker and at lower cost.

“The development was funded and planned through a collaboration between Tipping Point Community, a Bay Area philanthropic organization, and the San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund (HAF), a public-private partnership that produces and preserves affordable housing in San Francisco, with Mercy Housing acting as the developer.

The analysis finds that the combination of the following four factors have put the 833 Bryant Street development on track to achieve these projected time and cost savings:

  • Up front commitment to time and cost savings by funders and developers.
  • Flexible, unrestricted funding through private capital in the pre-construction phase.
  • Streamlined approvals under SB 35.
  • Modular construction. Vallejo-based Factory_OS constructed the units off-site, reducing development times.

Read the full press release here. (~2min.) Access the report here (PDF).

Roundup previously included coverage of construction union disputes over Factory_OS’s business model.

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