By Ed Diokno
Views From The Edge
San Francisco rent is among the highest in the country. Rents have risen even faster and higher in the trendy South of Market neighborhood.
The city and housing advocates have succeeded in preserving the historic Gran Oriente Hotel, which provides 24 single-room affordable housing units for recent immigrants and their families, reports Balitang America.
“I think community members around the city and county of San Francisco and the Bay Area and beyond are watching exactly what’s happening in the heart of the Filipino cultural heritage district, and watching how the community is taking back its cultural assets, partnering with non-profits and housing organizations to really not only sustain but, in the long term, empower,” said San Francisco Mayor London Breed during a ribbon cutting ceremony.
The preservation of the low-rent property grew stronger when the hotel formed a partnership with Filipino community organizations and the Mission Housing Development Corporation. The hotel’s 24 units of affordable housing will remain available and all existing tenants can remain.
Smack dab in the middle of it all is the modest Gran Oriente Hotel, owned by Gran Oriente, one of the fraternal lodges formed in the early part of the last century by Filipino men who worked in the hotels, Merchant Marine and the farm fields of California. Because of the racist laws of the early 20th century, Filipinos were not allowed to purchase property. However, that law didn’t apply to lodges.
So the Filipino men (because of another racist labor rule that limited immigration of Filipinas) banded together to purchase property that included the hotel. They bought the hotel in the South of Market area, which at the time was a primarily Irish American neighborhood.
While nearby Manilatown was devoured by the financial district, including the famous International Hotel which unsuccessfully fought for survival, the Gran Oriente continued to provide an affordable home for Filipinos, and South of Market was designated as a Filipino Historical District known as SoMa Pilipinas.
As property values in the area shot up, the organization received offers to purchase the Gran Oriente Hotel. Community leaders were unsure how long they could hold off the gentrification of the region from taking over the building.
“The Gran Oriente Hotel is a significant building to the Filipino community in San Francisco and for the South Park neighborhood,” said San Francisco District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim. “It also provides 24 SRO units which provide critical affordable housing for the community.”
“I am honored to have worked with SoMa Pilipinas and Mission Housing over the last two years to facilitate its purchase through the Small Sites Program and ensure it remains a community-owned site.”
The Filipino Community Development Corporation, the Filipino-American Development Foundation, SOMA Pilipinas, the SOMA Stabilization Fund Community Advisory Committee and Mission Housing representatives held meetings to figure out how to honor the Filipino legacy of the building and to find a co-ownership structure that involves the Filipino community.
The outcome they reached is that a Filipino organization will own or co-own the Gran Oriente by 2025.
Until then, Mission Housing Development Corporation writes that they will be “working with community members on rehabilitating the site, ensuring that all existing tenants remain, and utilizing the site for future community activism and support.”
“I am committed to making sure that we invest more in small-site acquisition programs like this so that we can have incredible block parties where we are saving housing,” said Mayor Breed.
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