A new S.F. housing complex for homeless people was faster, cheaper to build. So why isn’t it being replicated?

The permanent supportive housing complex — called Tahanan, which means home in Tagalog — was built in three years, and construction costs were $385,000 per unit.

In this incredibly expensive, bureaucratic city, affordable housing usually takes five to seven years to build, though a full decade isn’t unheard of. And it usually costs at least $600,000 per small studio like Isaiah’s and far more for larger units.