Marvel in the Mission: 382-Unit Affordable Housing Tower Breaks Ground

Crews have started work on the long-delayed “Marvel in the Mission” affordable housing tower near the 16th Street Mission BART Station, with dirt moving at 1979 Mission Street weeks before a formal ceremony scheduled for April 23.

The first phase of the 19-story, 382-unit project will deliver 136 units of permanent supportive housing for formerly homeless residents. Phases two and three follow with 134 and 112 affordable family housing units, respectively. When complete, it will be the largest affordable housing site the Mission has ever seen.

The project goes by two names: “Marvel in the Mission” and “La Maravilla.” Co-developers are Mission Housing Development Corp. and the Mission Economic Development Agency, known as MEDA. Their goal, as stated on Mission Housing’s website, is a building that doesn’t just house people but keeps them housed, with on-site services built into the model from day one.

Not a simple path to get here.

The site at 16th and Mission spent years as a battleground. A market-rate condo proposal once nicknamed “Monster in the Mission” drew fierce neighborhood opposition before its developer walked away citing financing problems. The city acquired the land in 2022 and committed it to 100-percent affordable use. Then, last summer, nearby residents tried again to block the project. Parents from Marshall Elementary School raised concerns about safety and an unusual plan to divide the property into multiple addresses. Supervisors let the project move forward anyway.

Last month, the [San Francisco Board of Supervisors](https://sfgov.org/bdsupvrs/) voted unanimously to approve a financing package for Phase 1. The deal includes a $61 million loan from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, tax-exempt bonds, and a long-term ground lease. Funding draws from a mix of local, state, and federal sources, plus bond proceeds.

“I pinch myself when I walk by at least once a day to see it,” Mission Housing Executive Director Sam Moss said, speaking to the Chronicle. “It was one of the hardest closings in history. Everyone worked really hard the last three months of 2025 and pulled off a not very small miracle, and closed all the funding that was needed. Now there’s a tangible building coming out of the ground that represents going on two decades of organizing and difficult work.”

Two decades is not an exaggeration. The corner of 16th and Mission has been a symbol of the city’s affordable housing crisis for years, a place where ambition, money, politics, and neighborhood anxiety have collided in slow motion. The lot sat vacant for years while the city and advocates fought over what should go there. A building actually rising from that ground is, by any measure, a shift.

SFist first reported on the start of construction and the project’s full financing picture.

The April 23 ceremony will include speakers from Mission Housing and MEDA, along with city representatives. It’s a formal moment, but the cranes and concrete trucks haven’t waited for it.

Permanent supportive housing, the model at the core of Phase 1, pairs affordable units with case management, mental health services, and other support. The approach has shown results in cities across the country at reducing chronic homelessness, though outcomes depend heavily on the quality and consistency of services provided on-site.

La Maravilla sits on one of the busiest transit nodes in San Francisco. The 16th Street Mission BART Station sees heavy foot traffic daily, and the surrounding blocks carry all the compressed energy of a neighborhood that is simultaneously a historic Latino cultural hub, a transit crossroads, and a front line of the city’s housing struggle.

The building going up there now won’t fix all of that. But 382 units of affordable housing, two decades in the making, is not nothing.