Plumbing

Constructing Tiny Properties a Gigantic Job in Damaged San Francisco

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Building small homes in San Francisco comes with a huge price tag. And it’s not easy to get a straight answer from city officials as to why they cost so much.

Last week, a proposal to build 70 to 80 tiny homes in a gated Walgreens lot in the Mission was scrutinized by the San Francisco Chronicle as the project met strong opposition from neighbors.

In many ways, that’s to be expected: NIMBYs are a determined bunch, and Capp Street residents are already grappling with prostitution-related issues.

But it was the bill — the project is estimated to cost $7.4 million, or nearly $100,000 per unit — that made many question whether the city can be taken seriously in addressing two of its most pressing crises: homelessness and housing.

The parking lot behind 1979 Mission St., seen February 21, 2023, could serve as the site for 70 tiny homes. | Morgan Ellis/The Standard

The Standard submitted public record requests for detailed cost breakdowns of the Tiny House project — and the level of detail in the city’s responses ranged from napkin math to nonexistent.

The Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing (HSH) provided a three-page PowerPoint presentation interspersed with a mandatory cover page and a back page reading “Questions? Thanks” was something like context.

The estimate shows the difference between two proposed scenarios, the more expensive of which would require the demolition of a $1 million building to expand parking space for an additional 10 small homes. Meanwhile, the brief bullet points include a note stating that the calculations were based on a 70-unit small-house community at 33 Gough Street.

Compared to the Gough site, the projected cost per unit for the Mission project was 20% higher as the Department of Public Works increases labor, design, engineering and project maintenance costs, according to HSH.

Emily Cohen, a spokeswoman for HSH, said the whopping $7.4 million price tag was due to a “very robust program model that includes 24/7 staffing, case management, housing health, meals and security.”

She noted that the estimated cost “is a rough estimate and we anticipate the actual cost will be lower once Public Works has tendered the works.”

However, the PowerPoint presentation, with HSH Director Shireen McSpadden’s name on the cover, says the exact opposite: “We recently received an estimate from Public Works that puts the cost of capital even higher and includes several contingencies,” the document states .

A cost breakdown of a tiny home project in Mission provides few details. | Screenshot of a Department of Homelessness and Supported Housing budget

Pinning down the differing narratives between city offices proved impossible.

The Department of Public Works (DPW), which would oversee the actual work to build the Tiny House site, refused to provide its itemized cost breakdowns, citing an exemption from the state’s public records.

Rachel Gordon, a spokeswoman for DPW, said agency lawyers have ruled that releasing details could put companies at a competitive disadvantage if they don’t read the story before making bids. (Note: Thank you for reading the standard.)

DPW doesn’t typically get media inquiries for itemized cost breakdowns for projects, Gordon said, so even trying to find an estimated cost document was a unique exercise for the agency. She added that the Gough Street project had significant donations to cover costs, which is why these new homes cost only about $50,000 each — almost half the price of the Mission Street project.

Elizabeth Funk, executive director of DignityMoves, a nonprofit organization that helped oversee the Gough Street project and specializes in providing personal housing at a lower cost, confirmed that donations kept this project significantly lower than the city could afford internally.

Gensler donated approximately $640,000 towards the architectural design, while furniture, legal counsel and the general contractor’s fee were mostly volunteer, according to a detailed budget.

“Gensler won’t be working for the city for free, but they will be working for a nonprofit organization,” Funk said.

Bill Kelley of California Sheds prepares a home in a new community of portable sheds for homeless residents below the MacArthur Maze in Oakland July 3, 2019. | Paul Chinn/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

The overall project in Gough came in at just over $2.3 million, while a 35-unit tiny home site in Santa Barbara cost $1.85 million thanks to donated equipment, furnishings and project management fees, the authorities said DignityMoves budget documents.

“I think this model has a lot of potential to be widely replicated,” said Funk. “Nonprofit organizations can be much more flexible.”

If the calculations are correct on all sides, it would seem that San Francisco has essentially quashed with bureaucracy, and all of that bureaucracy is just a nod to San Francisco’s inability to make progress on housing and homelessness.

A 25-unit project was built in San Jose for $1.4 million, and Oakland created inexpensive pallet shelters for 71 people, but not all tiny home projects can be judged “apples for apples,” Funk said. Build quality, access to plumbing and electrical, and additional services may vary by tiny home project. DignityMoves houses are designed to last 20 years.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen, who represents the mission and did not respond to a request for comment on the story, lamented to the Chronicle that she supports the Tiny Houses project, but the backlash from apartment buildings and the high price have given her pause.

She expressed a sense of resignation that such a small project will not alleviate the city’s staggering homelessness crisis, when one obvious solution to a hyper-local crisis in Mission would be to prioritize homeless people currently living on the streets around the project.

Ronen added that she was tired of being the city’s “sacrificial lamb” in the fight for progress.

And so the tyranny of the San Francisco bureaucracy claims another victim.

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