San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie introduced legislation on Tuesday, Oct. 20, 2026, to advance Freedom West 2.0, a plan that could bring nearly 2,400 new homes to four blocks of the Western Addition. More than 17% are expected to be affordable. The first phase, 115 affordable senior homes and a rebuilt Freedom West Cooperative, could break ground in the first half of 2027.

Why it matters:

  • Freedom West is a limited-equity housing co-op founded for Black and immigrant families displaced from the Fillmore. Residents have pushed for decades to rebuild it.
  • The city says a majority of current shareholders would remain homeowners in the rebuilt co-op.

What the legislation does

The legislation, written with the Office of Economic and Workforce Development and co-sponsored by District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, sets up a development agreement that locks in the project's entitlements for a base term of 25 years, the mayor's office said. The developer is MacFarlane Partners, which worked with the co-op's tenant-owners on the plan.

The 115 senior homes are backed by $23 million from the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development, plus a voucher commitment from the San Francisco Housing Authority. The new co-op follows the senior building.

What else is planned

  • 1.5 acres of open space, with easier access to Margaret Hayward Park and Octavia Street reconnected through the site.
  • A roughly 5,000-square-foot STEM entrepreneurship and innovation center.
  • Workforce agreements the city says will support 9,000 construction and permanent on-site jobs.

To keep the co-op financially stable, the plan relies on ground leases with affordable housing developers, retail space and profit-sharing from future market-rate buildings, Connect CRE reported. Because limited-equity co-ops can't use Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, the city plans to commit SB 593 tax-increment money through the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure, pending approvals.

What they said

"Our families will not be moved out to make way for progress," said Mattie Scott, Freedom West board president. "We will be part of it, in new homes we own."

"Freedom West 2.0 shows that San Francisco can build at scale without displacing the families who built this neighborhood," said Victor B. MacFarlane, MacFarlane Partners' executive chairman and CEO.

What's next

The legislation now goes through the city's approval process at the Board of Supervisors. For more on the city's housing push, see our story on 152 apartments set to break ground at 321 Florida Street.