S.F. bill seeks to ensure a third of new housing is affordable

San Francisco will monitor how much new housing development will be market rate and how much is in reach of low-income residents — and aim to make one-third of new construction affordable — under legislation introduced by Supervisor Jane Kim Tuesday.

The proposal is the compromise outcome of a bitter debate last summer between Kim and affordable-housing advocates on one side and market-rate developers and Mayor Ed Lee on the other.

Initially, Kim proposed legislation that would have subjected market-rate developers to a rigorous and time-consuming review process anytime the ratio of affordable housing in the city’s development pipeline slipped below a 30 percent threshold.

After Lee and others balked, Kim backed off that plan and, eventually, both sides coalesced behind a ballot measure that set the same high goals for below-market-rate development but didn’t require them. Proposition K made it official city policy to construct or rehabilitate 30,000 new housing units by 2020, with at least one-third of those permanently affordable to low- and moderate-income households, and half within reach of middle-class San Franciscans.

Voters overwhelmingly approved that ballot initiative, which was seen by affordable-housing activists as a watered-down measure that would have little impact.

But Kim said the outcome — legislation such as the measure introduced Tuesday — will help San Francisco achieve its housing goals.

“If we don’t even know the numbers, how can we know how to meet the goal and what more we need to do to get to 30 percent?” she said, adding that the legislation will also be helpful by defining what the city means by “affordable.”

The measure includes definitions for a wide range of so-called affordable housing, ranging from that in reach to the “extremely low-income” (defined as an individual who makes less than $20,400 a year) to that which someone who is “middle-income” (defined as an individual making up to $101,950 a year) can afford.

It requires the Planning Department to “monitor the balance between new market rate housing and new affordable housing,” and to better track when rent-controlled and affordable housing is withdrawn from the market. The legislation calls for the department to publish this information twice a year in a publicly available report and for the Board of Supervisors to hold an annual hearing on the data.

Also Tuesday, the board unanimously approved legislation by Supervisor Mark Farrell that would require city-funded housing providers to submit annual reports detailing how many eviction notices were issued in a given year, how many evictions resulted, why people were evicted and how many tenants were impacted.

— Marisa Lagos

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