Housing Main Theme of SF Election

In a city with some of the highest property prices and apartment rents in the country, it is no surprise that housing is the dominant theme in this year's municipal election in San Francisco.

One indicator of how the housing crisis is dominating the city's political discourse this election season: Five of the 11 local propositions on the November 3 ballot are related to housing concerns.

The $310 million affordable housing bond, Proposition A, has wide support but needs two-thirds of the vote in order to pass. It would finance the construction, development, acquisition, and preservation of housing affordable to low- and middle-income households with priority given to working families, veterans, seniors, and disabled people.

It would also help finance the reconstruction of the city's dilapidated public housing stock and fund a middle-income rental program. Mayor Ed Lee, who struck a deal with the Board of Supervisors to place the bond on the ballot, has been the face of the Yes on A campaign and its ubiquitous television commercials.

"I think, as a city, the biggest disappointment - and it includes me and everybody else - is I think the housing crisis has been decades in the making," Lee said during an editorial board meeting with the Bay Area Reporter. "I don't think we have done well on building and rehabbing affordable housing in the city. With the expectation that is a way we can help a lot more people."

Prop I

While the city's various political camps are largely united behind Prop A, there is no such unity when it comes to Proposition I, which would impose a moratorium on housing and business development projects in the Mission district for at least 18 months. It is meant to hit pause on projects that neighborhood leaders contend will further gentrify the largely Latino district while City Hall develops a neighborhood stabilization plan for the area by January 31, 2017.

"It is not a change in supply, just a delay," said tenant rights attorney J. Scott Weaver, the primary author of Prop I who lives in Noe Valley. He stressed that the proponents "are not against building housing. But we want more density and more affordable housing."

Gay District 9 Supervisor David Campos, who represents the Mission, worked with a coalition of neighborhood groups to place Prop I on the ballot after the Board of Supervisors failed to support it this summer. His office pointed to a report released Tuesday by the Budget and Legislative Analyst, which Campos had requested, that found the Mission has lost 27 percent of its Latino/Hispanic population since 2000, though citywide the number of Latino/Hispanic residents increased by 13 percent.

The report also found that, since 2000, households earning less than $35,000 per year increased in the Mission by 25 percent. As for middle-income households earning between $35,000 and $99,999, the report found they decreased over the same time period by 13 percent in the Mission.

Backers of Prop I contend the report bolsters their arguments that the city cannot build its way out of the housing crisis, particularly in the Mission.

"In order for housing prices to have stabilized, we would have had to have built the equivalent of another city the size of San Francisco on top of our current city, which is impossible," stated Campos.

Yet the report does provide ammunition to opponents of Prop I who counter any stoppage of homebuilding in the city will only exacerbate the city's housing crisis and prolong skyrocketing prices.

The Legislative Analyst's office concluded that had an average of 15,300 housing units been added each year between 1980 and 2010 instead of the actual average of 2,011, then the median 2010 housing value in San Francisco would have been approximately $525,000 (in 2015 inflation-adjusted dollars) instead of the actual median of $839,357.

"This moratorium will not stop a single eviction or create a single unit of housing," argued gay District 8 Supervisor Scott Wiener, a vocal Prop I opponent. "People are going to want to live in the Mission whether the moratorium is in place or not. It will create more pressure for Ellis Act evictions and other efforts to get people out."

Another outspoken critic of the measure has been Peter Acworth, Kink.com founder and CEO. His plan to turn the SF Armory building at 14th and Mission streets into an entertainment venue would be stalled by the ballot proposal, contends Acworth, and would result in the loss of at least 50 living wage jobs.

"We'll be stuck with an empty space for up to three years and no jobs," stated Acworth. "It's insanity, and I think is a good example of the muddled thinking behind Prop I."

Doubtful the moratorium would be lifted, Wiener added that blocking market-rate housing from being built in the Mission would result in even less affordable housing units as developers of such projects are required to either include a portion of units on site as below-market-rate or pay a fee to the city to create the affordable housing nearby.

"I think this is counterproductive and it isn't going to change the trajectory of the Mission," said Wiener.

Other Housing Measures

The other hotly contested housing-related ballot proposal, as noted two weeks ago in the B.A.R.'s Political Notebook, is Proposition F. Primarily aimed at reining in the short-term rental site Airbnb, it would limit homeowners who rent out rooms, whether hosted or shared, to doing so 75 nights per year. They would also be required to submit quarterly reports on the number of days they live in the unit and the number of days the unit is rented.

The measure would also prohibit the listing of in-law units as short-term rentals and allow people to sue hosting platforms. It would make it a misdemeanor for a hosting platform to unlawfully list a unit as a short-term rental.

The other two housing ballot measures have not garnered nearly as much opposition. There is wide support for Proposition D, which would grant city backing to the San Francisco Giants' redevelopment plans for Mission Rock, the port-owned parking lot and pier adjacent to the waterfront AT&T Park. Although the project would exceed height limits at the site, most opposition melted away after the baseball team agreed to increase the set aside for affordable units to 33 percent and then upped the percentage to 40 percent.

"The political reality is we need to deliver on this project all the affordable housing on-site," said Jack Bair, the team's executive vice president and general counsel.

Proposition K, authored by District 6 Supervisor Jane Kim, would direct the city to use its surplus property for building affordable housing for the homeless, very low-income residents, and for those with incomes up to 120 percent of the area median income. Projects with more than 200 units would need to set aside some of the housing for households earning up to 150 percent or more of the area median income.

Kim, who pushed the Giants to increase their set aside for affordable housing, said the Mission Rock project "is the poster child for Prop K and what we can do on public land."