Jazzie Collins Apartments

Jazzie Collins Apartments is a permanently supportive housing development that provides 96 new homes for formerly homeless individuals. Named in honor of famed trans housing advocate and activist Jazzie Collins, the building is part of the larger Brady Block development, six new buildings surrounding a new public park just off the Market Street corridor.

Developed by HomeRise (formerly Community Housing Partnership) and Strada Investment Group, the community was built with Union labor during the Pandemic and represents affordable housing as an essential service.

The residential entrance opens out toward an upcoming public park—Joseph P. Mazzola Gardens—the heart of the new mixed-income community, which also includes market-rate housing and a new Plumbers Union Hall. 

The building offers shared spaces—a community room and community kitchen linked with a private courtyard—as well as a comprehensive onsite services suite to support residents.

Site constraints include a limited 8,000-sf footprint; proximity to the BART tunnel, which runs under the northwest corner; and height limitations. The building’s excavated basement, which was required to offset weight being placed on the BART tunnel, is designed to accommodate the building’s communal areas. Light is brought to these below-grade spaces via a south-facing courtyard, which became the central organizing element for the project. On an axis with the residential entry, this courtyard serves as the end point of a dramatic three-story view corridor. 

The ground-floor is preserved for supportive services, offices, and residences, and the balance of homes top this space in five levels of efficient, compact micro-units measuring just under 300-sf each.

The all-electric building features roof-top solar PV arrays and is pending GreenPoint Rating.