Development permits are in for a six-story affordable housing complex at 7954 MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland's Eastmont neighborhood, setting the stage for roughly 50 new apartments over ground-floor retail and on-site parking. The project would wipe out the low-slung commercial building at the corner of MacArthur and Ritchie and replace it with deed-restricted homes, with community housing groups teaming up with the church that owns the lot. Most of the units would be reserved for very low and low-income households, and if the plan wins approval, it will slot into a growing cluster of income-restricted projects moving through East Oakland's pipeline.
Permit details and design
As reported by SF YIMBY, the formal application outlines a 63-foot-tall, six-story building totaling about 31,240 square feet. Roughly 25,400 square feet would be dedicated to housing, with 1,400 square feet carved out for retail and a 790-square-foot rental office on site. The paperwork calls for 50 apartments: 36 very low-income units, 13 low-income units, and one market-rate two-bedroom reserved for an on-site manager. Plans show parking for 18 cars and 18 bicycles. Architect Kodama Diseno is listed on the filing, and early renderings depict a mixed facade using wood panels, vertical wood slats, fiber-cement board, and stucco. Getting there would mean demolishing the existing one-story commercial building, and no published estimate of the total cost or construction timeline is available yet.
Who’s behind the plan
Housing Trust Silicon Valley reports that it put up $660,000 in early financing so the church could buy the site, with Community Housing Development Corporation stepping in as co-developer. It is the kind of faith-based partnership that has been showing up more often in recent local housing efforts. Public commercial listings describe the corner parcel as roughly 0.20 acres, with RU-4/U-4 zoning and a long storefront frontage. Kingdom Builders Christian Fellowship, which lists an Oakland address, operates the ministry tied to the property. Statements from the church and its development partners say they hope to flip the long-time commercial corner into deeply affordable homes.
Where it fits in Eastmont
The project site sits only a few blocks from Eastmont Town Center, the neighborhood's shopping and social services hub that gathers transit connections and county services for East Oakland residents. Alameda County Social Services lists the public services that future tenants would find nearby. The filing arrives as part of a wave of affordable housing proposals and approvals along this stretch of MacArthur, with nearby projects tracked by local development outlets as Oakland leans on state streamlining tools to push more deed-restricted housing toward construction.
Next steps and timeline
With the development permits submitted, the plan now moves into Oakland's review and entitlement process. Separate demolition permits will be required if the existing storefront is ultimately torn down, and the city's permitting rules outline recycling and demolition standards for projects that remove significant exterior walls. So far, project sponsors have not released a construction schedule or a detailed budget.
