By David Woo, HANC Vice-President
The Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, has announced an investigation into San Francisco’s housing approval process. Newsom, a former District 2 Supervisor and former Mayor of San Francisco, is intimately familiar with the system of housing approval in San Francisco and how building permitting works. City government cannot force developers to build housing - developers develop housing, not the city - and Newsom knows that. Newsom’s “investigation” is all about pushing the build, build, build mentality, to the direct benefit of private developers and real estate interests, as he continues to target and undermine San Francisco’s local land use controls and policies. This directly and negatively affects tenants, the working-class, low-income residents and people of color in San Francisco. At the neighborhood level and as a city we must continue to organize for and put forward alternatives to the market-driven approach to housing, including supporting propositions such as Prop E and Prop M in November.
At HANC’s September 8th meeting, 7-9PM on Zoom, Calvin Welch will discuss Newsom’s attack on San Francisco, and we have invited proponents of Propositions E and M to speak.
Proposition E, the Affordable Housing Production Act, seeks to provide affordable housing to residents, families, and workers across the city. Prop E would create expedited approval of 100% affordable housing projects, educator housing, and market-rate projects that provide increased affordable housing.
Proposition M, the Empty Homes Tax, will tax vacant housing units in San Francisco to fund rent subsidies for older adults and low-income households and fund the purchasing of existing housing to take it off of the private market and keep it as permanently affordable.
The fact that there are 40,000 vacant housing units in San Francisco gets to the heart of the manufactured “housing crisis,” showing that there is not a housing supply crisis, but instead a housing affordability, speculation, and displacement crisis created by privatized market-rate housing.
Join us at HANC’s September meeting to learn more!