Opinion

Legal in-law units would boost affordable housing

The rejection of Propositions B and C in the Nov. 5 election highlights an important failure of San Francisco's affordable housing strategy. Advocates of 8 Washington pleaded that defeat meant losing its $11 million contribution to the city's affordable housing fund. But strategies that tie our capacity to build affordable housing to the approval of luxury condos hold the needs of our low and moderate-income neighbors hostage to the success of highly controversial projects.

There is another way.

Secondary units (known as in-law apartments) have been described as the third rail of San Francisco politics. The city's policy of avoiding secondary units hasn't succeeded in preventing them. Instead, it has created a caste of renters living in the shadows. It's time we brought them into the light and captured the benefits of this supply of affordable housing.

All across this city, secondary units are a part of life. As part of a responsible program, they can provide essential supplementary revenue for middle- and lower-income homeowners-turned-landlords and affordable housing for lower-income residents.

Secondary units require no investment in new city infrastructure such as water, power line and transit routes, so they advance the city's sustainability and climate change goals without adding to the skyline. Unlike mega developments that take years and mega funding, secondary units use local small contractors and skilled workers at a far more modest cost. Big developments such as 8 Washington create enclaves of luxury properties while shunting moderate and lower income San Franciscans off to another part of town. Secondary units build on our existing communities.

Often-cited downsides of secondary units (effects on parking and property values) aren't particular to them; they are just facts of life in a dense city. Others largely result from the city's "don't ask, don't tell" policy: Many units are illegal and don't comply with building codes - endangering both their occupants and neighbors.

A comprehensive program to permit new secondary units, along with a path for code compliance for currently illegal ones, would create thousands of units of affordable housing, hundreds of jobs and make existing ones safer. A prequalification system would ensure the work goes to responsible contractors; policies for parking permits, assessments and control of condo conversions could be crafted to address important neighborhood concerns. Existing city housing programs working with banks could create financing to encourage single-family homeowners to build rent-restricted affordable housing.

The city's central and southeast neighborhoods are ripe for a pilot program. Sticker-shocked renters in the Mission and Castro districts would benefit from more options. Building secondary units hits the sweet spot of job skills for many in the southeast. And everyone would benefit from a program providing amnesty for homeowners who improve and legalize existing unpermitted units.

San Francisco shouldn't become a city for the well off because of our housing development choices. Embracing secondary units will substantially increase our affordable housing supply, the number of shoppers frequenting neighborhood businesses and Muni revenues. It will also extend the sharing economy, and improve the lives of countless renters and homeowners.