The Kelsey Civic Center is a vibrant urban community offering 112 homes for people with and without disabilities of all incomes and backgrounds.

Anchored in inclusion, 25% of homes are reserved for people with disabilities in an accessibly designed building that supports multiple impact areas and access needs, supported by live-in Inclusion Concierge. The community serves as a beacon of sustainability and disability justice in the heart of a city with a rich history in both.

Photo Credits: Bruce Damonte

Twenty-five percent of the units are dedicated to people with disabilities who use Home and Community-Based Services (HCBS), and The Kelsey Civic Center is the first project in the San Francisco housing lottery system to set aside units for people who use HCBS. The universally designed and accessible building provides programming for all residents and neighbors with the goal of fostering a mutually supportive environment rooted in the ethos of interdependence and informal support networks. Two full-time Inclusion Concierge staff members help residents navigate their neighborhood, engage with their city, connect to programs and activities, and build community among residents with and without disabilities.

The 1400sq commercial space on the first floor, directly across from city hall, houses the country’s first publicly funded Disability Cultural Center. The Center offers in-person and virtual programming. The Center’s design is aimed at accessibility and inclusivity with attention paid to systems and design features that creates a welcoming and accessible space for everyone in the disability community.

The Kelsey and its partners were awarded the site through Reinventing Cities, an unprecedented global competition organized by the C40 to drive carbon neutral and resilient urban regeneration. The Kelsey Civic Center models that an all-electric, low-carbon building can be affordable to people of all incomes. To support biodiversity and urban agriculture, the project offers a large garden within the building’s courtyard. Efficient units with shared community spaces minimize resource waste, support low carbon design, and foster a resilient community.

The project offers 100+ units of affordable housing. All units are open to those who qualify at 20%, 40%, and 60% of area median income, creating a truly mixed-income community.

Mercy Housing California is a California-based nonprofit housing development organization with the mission of creating and strengthening healthy communities. They have created and preserved affordable housing for Californians for over 35 years. Today Mercy owns and manages 151 communities with over 10,300 homes statewide for more than 19,600 people.

The Kelsey Civic Center was designed by WRNS Studio, an architecture and planning firm specializing in high-quality sustainable design, and Santos Prescott and Associates, an architecture and urban design practice acclaimed for the spatial inventiveness and social responsibility of its work. San Francisco-based Cahill Contractors is the construction partner. 

Public funders for this project include:

Financing partners for this project:

Explore living at The Kelsey Civic Center by visiting thekelseyciviccenter.com.