Life at North Beach Place

Abstract

Chapter 12 investigates the post–HOPE VI version of North Beach Place, while discussing how San Francisco’s leaders sought to make this a model for public housing transformation citywide. In addition to increasing the number of on-site affordable housing units, the new North Beach Place added a supermarket, substantial below-grade parking, and new street-level retail. At the same time, however, the struggle to rehouse former residents proved contentious and protracted. Ultimately, only 36 percent of the original households chose (or were able) to return to the new development. Most of the initial tenant leaders did not come back, and many current residents—while grateful for their housing—lament the strictures of life under the close surveillance of private management. The chapter concludes with discussion of San Francisco’s HOPE SF initiative, a post–HOPE VI effort to use the North Beach Place experience to implement mixed-income housing elsewhere in the city.