By David Woo, HANC President
The Mayor and her YIMBY allies demand the city “build more housing” at any and all cost. Especially, they say, given the state mandated Housing Element goal of San Francisco producing 82,000 new housing units in the next eight years. The problem is that 46,000 of those state mandated units (more than half) have to be affordable, and the Mayor and the YIMBYs don’t have any affordable housing plan to build those units. What are the Mayor’s priorities? The police have been getting funding increases, and the Mayor is anti-homeless to the point of violating a federal injunction against sweeps. And while the Mayor readily supports efforts to deregulate private housing development, streamline private development and increase profits for developers, she withholds affordable housing funds and refuses to land-bank scarce land to build affordable housing. Will the Mayor ever have an affordable housing plan?
The Housing Element is targeting “Well-resourced Neighborhoods,” primarily on the West side of the city, for upzonings where new luxury housing will be built. The Haight is also included in these potential rezoning areas. The Housing Element includes a market-rate “circuit breaker,” where additional rezonings, streamlining and cost reductions for private development would kick in if certain development “goals” aren’t met by 2027 (Housing Element policy 8.1.5). So there is an aggressive plan to develop market-rate units, but no comprehensive plan to develop affordable units. This was made clear at the January 24th Land Use Committee hearing on the Housing Element where the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) said they refuse to land-bank sites for affordable housing even though it’s stated as a strategy in the Housing Element. MOHCD also said they needed additional funding, but refused to support the use of actual existing affordable housing funds that the city already has.
Take for example the Divisadero car wash site. As reported by 48Hills, the 400 Divisadero car wash site was available to purchase after the private development fell through, and there were plans to develop the site as 100% affordable housing, but the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development never held up their end to fund the site. And Mayor Breed is holding up other affordable projects across the city. So if the Mayor’s strategy to meet the Housing Element goals is to obstruct, not fund, and withhold existing funds for affordable housing, then it is going to be nearly impossible to reach 46,000 affordable units in eight years.
However, communities on the ground and neighborhood based organizations who actually care about securing, funding, and building affordable housing do have a plan. As outlined in the Citywide People’s Plan, the Race and Equity in all Planning Coalition did all of the heavy lifting to create for the city affordable housing strategies to meet the Housing Element’s goals around affordable housing. Some of these were incorporated into the Housing Element, because again the city had no affordable housing plan. The People’s Plan details strategies like an aggressive land-banking program that takes seriously the state mandate, and creates a path towards achieving the stated affordable housing goals.
Join us at our next HANC meeting on Thursday February 9th where we have invited Supervisor Preston, the Race and Equity in all Planning Coalition, and the Council of Community Housing Organizations to discuss this issue, including affordable housing, funding, the budget, the Housing Element, and other topics of interest for 2023.