SFHA outlines Plaza East repairs, schedules resident RADBLEND meetings

The Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco reported on July 6 that emergency repairs at the Plaza East public-housing site are progressing and said it will begin resident outreach tied to a prospective RADBLEND application to HUD.

Tanya Lehi, the housing authority’s chief executive officer, told commissioners the authority will issue a resident information notice and hold two resident meetings to explain the RADBLEND process and answer questions. "HUD requires a resident information notice," Lehi said, and the authority tentatively scheduled meetings for Saturday, Aug. 5 at 10 a.m. and Wednesday, Aug. 9 at 6 p.m.

Property-management presenters reported operational details for Plaza East and associated service partners. They said four units are ready for occupancy — two on Larch Street, one on Eddy Street and one on Buchanan — and that 28 resident repair requests were received in June, with 27 completed and one carpet-replacement remaining to be scheduled. On emergency repairs, staff reported that of 187 units 150 are complete and 37 remain outstanding; with outreach progress some previously denied-entry cases have been reduced to about four residents. Staff said work is expected to resume next week and that a completion schedule targeting September is in place.

Officials said they are finalizing a contracting and financing path to avoid intermittent start-stop repair cycles. Staff described coordinating approvals with the mayor’s office of housing and community development and bringing on a small minority-owned partner to increase on-site capacity. "We are working towards an approval letter with MOHCD this week, and that will cause him to be on-site next week," staff said.

Commissioners pressed staff for more longitudinal data. Commissioner Luana Kim asked for month-over-month trend reports on work orders and repairs rather than single-month snapshots; staff agreed to provide expanded charts and context in future reports.

The authority emphasized that submission of a RADBLEND application is a step to begin HUD review and to secure financing and does not by itself finalize development decisions. City partners signaled support for beginning the application process while continuing resident engagement.

Next steps: the authority will issue the resident information notice and hold the two meetings in August. Any formal RADBLEND application will be presented to the commission before submission to HUD and, if submitted, HUD will take up to Oct. 1 to act.