148 Affordable SF Apartments, and the First Deadline Is Oct. 6

The San Francisco affordable housing lottery has 148 new apartments open across three buildings this fall, with rents from $554 to $2,951 a month. The first deadline lands at 5 p.m. on Tuesday, October 6, for 34 studios at 3300 Mission Street.

All 148 are rentals, not for-sale BMR units, and every application runs through DAHLIA, the city’s housing portal operated by the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. 850 Turk Street closes at 5 p.m. on October 13. Luca, at 1652 Sunnydale Avenue, closes at 5 p.m. on October 22.

Three buildings, three different price points

The three listings share a portal and not much else. One is a 91 unit family building near Civic Center, one is a six story studio building on Mission Street, and one is a new block in the Sunnydale rebuild with most of its homes set aside for current residents.

850 Turk sits between Gough and Franklin streets on a former state parking lot, one of the sites in California’s Excess Sites program. MidPen Housing broke ground on June 18, 2025, with David Baker Architects designing the building, according to SF YIMBY. MidPen’s fact sheet expects move-ins from March to September 2027. The listing offers no resident parking, allows one household pet and has renters pay electricity, cable and internet.

3300 Mission is on the corner of 29th Street, the former site of the 3300 Club and the Graywood Hotel, a 28 room residential hotel lost to a five alarm fire in 2016. Bernal Heights Housing Corporation bought the lot for $3.85 million in 2023, SF YIMBY reported. The DAHLIA listing shows studios of 286 to 356 square feet with no parking, no application fee and no pets beyond service and support animals. It also notes the units are not covered by the San Francisco Rent Ordinance.

Luca is Block 9 of the Sunnydale HOPE SF rebuild, built by Related California and Mercy Housing. Mercy Housing says 75 percent of its 95 apartments are reserved for current Sunnydale households and the rest go to the lottery at up to 60 percent of area median income. Construction is set to finish in spring 2027, and the listing includes 17 free parking spaces for lottery households, one per home.

What the same neighborhoods cost on the open market

Each lottery rent sits well below the monthly cost of owning a median home in the same neighborhood, based on each area’s latest 12 month price history and this week’s mortgage rate.

The Western Addition, the neighborhood west of Van Ness Avenue where DAHLIA places 850 Turk, had a median of $1,010,000 in September 2026. It scores 3.0 out of 5 overall on Houseberry, with 3.2 for schools, 3.0 for safety and 3.0 for amenities.

Bernal Heights, the hill neighborhood just south of the Mission District, reached a median of $1.81 million in August 2026, up from $1.61 million in September 2025. It scores 2.8 overall, with 3.5 for both safety and amenities and 2.4 for schools. 3300 Mission sits on its western edge, along the Mission Street commercial strip.

Visitacion Valley, in the city’s southeast corner beside McLaren Park, had a median of $1.1 million in August 2026. It scores 2.6 overall, with 3.7 for safety, 2.4 for amenities and 1.8 for schools, which places it 82nd of 92 neighborhoods in our San Francisco neighborhood rankings.

Those payments assume 20 percent down at the 7.28 percent average 30 year rate Freddie Mac reported on October 1, before property tax and insurance. Renting a below market apartment and owning a home are different deals, with different rights and obligations.

Who qualifies for the San Francisco affordable housing lottery

Every unit has an income floor and an income ceiling. The floor is the same rule in all three listings: gross monthly household income of at least twice the rent, so a $1,749 apartment at Luca needs $3,498 a month.

The ceiling depends on household size and the unit’s AMI tier. 850 Turk and Luca use the 2026 state tax credit (TCAC) chart, which MidPen’s fact sheet prints in full. 3300 Mission uses the city’s MOHCD 2026 chart, and its studios hold one or two people.

Unit size also sets who can apply. At 850 Turk, studios take one or two people, one bedrooms one to three, two bedrooms two to five and three bedrooms four to seven. Our earlier piece on Bay Area affordable housing income limits covers how these charts are set and what happens when a tenant’s income rises.

How the lottery and the preferences sort the list

Each lottery ranks applications by random draw, then fills units by preference group. Veterans go first within each group, per the city. Certificate of Preference holders, displaced by the former Redevelopment Agency, come first. Displaced Tenant Housing Preference holders come next, followed by the Neighborhood Resident Housing Preference and then Live or Work in San Francisco.

The neighborhood preference covers anyone living within half a mile of the building or in its supervisor district. It applies to 22 units at 850 Turk, 13 at 3300 Mission and 9 at Luca. Luca adds a Right to Return preference ahead of all others, for households with a current or former Sunnydale public housing resident, and DAHLIA showed 77 of those applications on October 2.

On October 2, with the window still open, 3300 Mission had 2,970 Live or Work applications for 34 studios, about 87 per unit, plus 392 neighborhood preference applications for its 13 set aside units.

How to apply on DAHLIA, step by step

• Go to housing.sfgov.org, open Rentals and select 850 Turk, 3300 Mission or Luca.
• Match unit size to your household and check that your income clears both the floor (twice the rent) and the ceiling for your household size.
• Gather proof for any preference you claim, such as a current address for the neighborhood preference or proof that you live or work in the city, plus any Certificate of Preference or DTHP certificate number.
• Submit online before 5 p.m. on the deadline. 850 Turk takes applications online only.
• After each lottery, DAHLIA posts results on October 22 (3300 Mission), November 3 (850 Turk) and November 19 (Luca). Applicants who are reached are asked for income and asset documents, and building application fees are $0 at 3300 Mission, $35 at 850 Turk and $25 at Luca.

DAHLIA also lists free housing counselors around the city who help with applications and paperwork.

Sources

• DAHLIA San Francisco Housing Portal, rental listings and listing pages for 850 Turk, 3300 Mission and Luca, read October 2, 2026
• MidPen Housing, 850 Turk Street Fact Sheet and FAQ, September 2026
• SF YIMBY, joint groundbreaking for 750 Golden Gate and 850 Turk, June 2025
• SF YIMBY, groundbreaking for 3300 Mission Street, November 2024
• Mercy Housing California, Luca and Sunnydale HOPE SF development plan
• City of San Francisco, Get priority in the housing lottery
• MOHCD, 2026 Maximum Income by Household Size
• Freddie Mac, Mortgage Rates Average 7.28%, October 1, 2026
• Houseberry neighborhood pages for Western Addition, Bernal Heights and Visitacion Valley, October 2026