Freedom West 2.0: Lurie Introduces Plan for About 2,400 Homes on Western Addition Co-op Site

Mayor Daniel Lurie introduced legislation on October 20, 2026 for Freedom West 2.0, a plan to replace the Freedom West housing cooperative in the Western Addition with up to about 2,400 homes over two blocks between Gough and Laguna streets. The legislation sets up a development agreement that locks in the project’s entitlements for a base term of 25 years, according to the mayor’s office announcement. District 5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood is the co-sponsor. The first phase, 115 affordable homes for seniors, is set to break ground in the first half of 2027.

Where It Is

The site covers about 10.37 acres bounded by Gough Street, Golden Gate Avenue, Laguna Street and Fulton Street, split by McAllister Street, per the San Francisco Planning project page. Today it holds the Freedom West cooperative: 382 limited-equity co-op units in 22 low-rise buildings, with nearly two acres of surface parking and about 1,000 residents, most of them seniors. The co-op was formed in the late 1960s and is led by the Rev. J. Austell Hall of Bethel AME Church, per Planning. The blocks are a short walk from Hayes Valley to the south and Japantown and the Fillmore to the north.

What Would Be Built

The Planning Department’s project summary lists:

• Up to 2,393 homes in 15 mixed-use buildings ranging from 85 to 335 feet tall, replacing the 22 existing buildings.
• Replacement of 267 co-op units, plus the 115-unit affordable senior building at 880 McAllister St.
• An optional 150-room hotel, up to 68,600 square feet of commercial space and 14,800 square feet of cultural, institutional and educational space.
• Up to 1,640 parking spaces and 1,732 bicycle parking spaces.
• A new Octavia North connection and new walking and bike routes.

The mayor’s office says more than 17 percent of the homes are expected to be affordable, and that the plan includes 1.5 acres of open space with improved access to Margaret Hayward Park and a roughly 5,000-square-foot STEM and entrepreneurship center. MacFarlane Partners is the developer, working with the co-op’s resident owners. SFist, citing the San Francisco Chronicle, reports that about two-thirds of the property will be sold to market-rate developers.

How the First Phase Is Paid For

The Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development is putting $23 million toward the senior homes, and the San Francisco Housing Authority has made a voucher commitment, per the mayor’s office. The city also plans to commit tax increment funds through the Office of Community Investment and Infrastructure under state Sen. Scott Wiener’s SB 593, pending approvals. The rebuilt co-op is meant to keep its limited-equity model, with income from ground leases, retail space and a share of profits from the market-rate buildings.

“Our families will not be moved out to make way for progress,” Freedom West board president Mattie Scott said in the announcement.

What Still Has to Happen

Introducing the legislation starts the approval process; it does not approve the project. Planning’s page lists the steps still ahead, none of them scheduled yet: a Planning Commission approval hearing, hearings at the Board of Supervisors’ Land Use and Transportation Committee and Budget and Finance Committee, and two votes by the full board. The draft environmental impact report was released January 13, 2026, and responses to comments are still pending, per Planning.

The first plan, filed in July 2020, called for 2,515 units, SFist reports. For residents and visitors, nothing changes on the ground until the senior building breaks ground, which the city expects in 2027.

For the history of the surrounding neighborhood, see our walking tour The Fillmore: Harlem of the West and Japantown and our Hayes Valley guide.

Image: rendering of Freedom West 2.0 by DLR Group, via San Francisco Planning.