Operating since 1950, St. Anthony’s Foundation (SAF) provides meals, social services and medical care to more than 1,600 poor and homeless people in San Francisco every day. LIIF provided SAF with a $10.5 million allocation of New Markets Tax Credits (NMTCs) as part of a $22.5 million transaction to build a new kitchen, dining room, clothing distribution center, food pantry and social work center. The facility is located in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco, an area with the highest concentration of poverty and homelessness in the city.
The new 40,000 sq. ft. dining room is 43% larger than the current space, enabling SAF to serve more than 3,000 meals per day. The expanded facility also includes new, enlarged spaces for SAF’s existing free clothing program, fresh food pantry and social work center, which will move to the dining center from another location.
In addition to the community facility space, Mercy Housing is separately financing the construction of an 87-unit affordable senior housing project above the dining facility. Bank of America provided additional NMTCs and the equity investment for the deal.