{"id":27153,"date":"2023-06-30T12:23:28","date_gmt":"2023-06-30T19:23:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=27153"},"modified":"2023-06-30T13:02:57","modified_gmt":"2023-06-30T20:02:57","slug":"this-is-the-state-of-housing-policy-in-sf-in-2023","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/06\/30\/this-is-the-state-of-housing-policy-in-sf-in-2023\/","title":{"rendered":"This is the state of housing policy in SF in 2023"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Planners say environmental law doesn’t matter, and supes approve a project almost everyone hates, all to deal with state Sen. Scott Wiener’s rules\u2014and Breed wants to make it worse.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By TIM REDMOND<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

JUNE 28, 2023 (48Hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Yimbys are going crazy about <\/a>the Board of Supes action on a townhouse project on the edge of Nob Hill and Chinatown, so let me take a moment to explain what happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The supes were considering a challenge to the Planning Department\u2019s determination that the project at 1151 Washington was categorially exempt from environmental review.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Developer image of the project, via socketsite<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the process of the discussion, Environmental Review Officer Lisa Gibson raised a pretty disturbing perspective, saying that because the state is demanding that San Francisco approve more housing development, the city might need to alter the way it handles the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CEQA, as Sup. Aaron Peskin pointed out, is a state law that is designed to give policy-makers the information they need to determine how to address a project. It\u2019s not something the city can change just because the state wants more housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCEQA is a state law to help us make decisions, but we shouldn\u2019t be using it because we are trying to meet our state housing goals?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In this case, people concerned about the project raised several issues that suggested the city might need to do a bit more further CEQA review. Site evaluations turned up small amounts of highly toxic hexavalent chromium (the stuff of Erin Brokovich and PG&E<\/a>) and PCE<\/a>. The project would also cast a shadow over a small playground in a congested area that lacks open space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the buildings would not exceed 40 feet, the threshold for invoking the city\u2019s sunshine-in-the-parks law, the playground in question is at least 20 feet below the project, Peskin said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Chinatown Community Development Center and the Community Tenants Association, two of the leading community organizations in Chinatown, both opposed the project.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gibson said that CEQA does not require an analysis of shadow impacts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sup. Myrna Melgar said that the toxics were a matter of concern; the construction dust could stir up some really nasty stuff and spread it to the playground. Gibson said that if the wind picks up and the dust starts to spread the city could order construction to stop\u2014but the reality is, by then the dust will already have spread.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat does give me cause,\u201d she said. \u201cThese are little kids, and I\u2019m not confident to say this is exempt from CEQA because it\u2019s an infill project.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peskin and Melgar both made clear that the supes were not \u201ckilling\u201d the project. They were simply sending it back to planning for further environmental review, which could mean simply a negative declaration, not a full environmental impact report.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Peskin\u2019s motion passed 7-4, with Sups. Ahsha Safai, Catherine Stefani, Matt Dorsey, and Joel Engardio in opposition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now the Chron is saying that<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

1151 Washington represented more than just the 10 homes it proposed to build. It was a test of whether supervisors would move past the long era of housing obstructionism that has put us in the mess we\u2019re in, or if they would embrace their promise to build the housing we so badly need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board failed the test.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So who cares about toxic dust or the Chinatown community. Build housing that won\u2019t address the crisis anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the supes got to 3832 18th Street<\/a>, <\/strong>which has been delayed and discussed for more than two years. It\u2019s a project that would create a type of housing the city doesn\u2019t need, for a population that is moving out anyway, for a developer trying to sneak in under a \u201cgroup housing\u201d loophole. The tiny condos would be too small for families, opponents said, and will likely become intermediate-term corporate rentals of Airbnb hotel rooms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think this is a great project,\u201d Sup. Rafael Mandelman, who represents the district, said. \u201cI sympathize with the neighbors who didn\u2019t think this was fair, and in many ways, it\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But he said that the mandates from the state (thanks to Sen. Scott Wiener\u2014Mandelman didn\u2019t say that, but I will), the city is out of options. \u201cI don\u2019t think this is a fight we want\u201d with the Governor\u2019s Office, he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So: A project that nobody except a developer wants, that the district supe agrees is a bit of a scam, got approved unanimously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks, Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile, the Planning Commission will consider Thursday\/29 <\/strong>the mayor\u2019s overall housing plan. I will give the Race and Equity in All Planning coalition space to weigh in:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

\u201cWe need to go from doom to bloom, with our communities flourishing instead of being shoved further into the \u2018Mayor\u2019s Doom Loop,\u2019\u201d says Jeantelle Laberinto with Race & Equity in all Planning Coalition (REP-SF). \u201cMayor Breed\u2019s housing streamlining legislation, coupled with her proposed budget cuts, will worsen inequality and homelessness, and displace low-income and BIPOC families and children out of their homes.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mayor London Breed\u2019s housing streamlining legislation, which will be presented to the public for the first time in front of the SF Planning Commission this Thursday, is full of developer giveaways that promote more surplus housing that most San Franciscans can\u2019t afford. Meanwhile, the Planning Department and the Mayor continue to have no real plan for affordable housing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Race and Equity in all Planning Coalition (REP-SF)<\/a> has developed the Citywide People\u2019s Plan<\/a> with member groups representing thousands of residents across the city. The Citywide People\u2019s Plan lays out a comprehensive plan to put affordable housing first, speed up permitting with a community first approval process, and protect residents from displacement. \u201cWhat we need is truly affordable housing as laid out in the Citywide People\u2019s Plan and the Mayor\u2019s legislation does nothing to house our essential workers and most families. Instead, we are going to see evictions and demolitions of housing and small businesses at levels not seen in San Francisco since Redevelopment,\u201d says Laberinto.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Mayor is introducing this legislation to instruct the SF Planning Department and other city agencies how to implement the Housing Element, the state mandated policy that guides San Francisco\u2019s housing policies for the next eight years. Such implementation instructions can be proposed by both the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors. The state is requiring that SF permit over 82,000 units of new housing during this period of which at least 57% of the units should be affordable for people with extremely low, low and moderate incomes. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than building for San Franciscans\u2019 needs, Mayor Breed is focusing on developer giveaways that will set SF on a track to repeat the same failures of the previous 2014-2022 Housing Element. During those years, SF overbuilt market rate units by almost double and under-built for low-income residents by almost half. Mayor Breed and the Planning Department are pushing this streamlining of even more luxury condos at a time when the city has an astoundingly high residential vacancy rate of 15% and a declining population. Despite the surplus in supply in San Francisco\u2019s market, housing prices are still out of reach for most residents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith this legislation, Mayor Breed is telling working class families like mine that there is no place for us in San Francisco\u201d, says Reina Tello, with PODER. \u201cFamilies like mine are under attack in San Francisco with the budget cuts to tenant protections and affordable housing. We wouldn\u2019t even qualify for what little affordable housing the Mayor\u2019s plan would produce. Where is the love, San Francisco? What we need are the solutions in the Citywide People\u2019s Plan and continued investment in SF\u2019s pandemic recovery.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Underpinning the Mayor\u2019s legislation and its developer giveaways are incentives for demolitions of existing housing which will result in the increased displacement of long time tenants resulting in San Francisco repeating the harms of Redevelopment and urban renewal that demolished BIPOC owned housing and businesses in the Fillmore, Japantown and South of Market from the 1950s to the 1990s. In fact, the geographic scopes of the Mayor\u2019s legislation and other Housing Element implementation legislative proposals cover a far greater area of San Francisco than the relatively small historic Redevelopment Project Areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Housing Element, the SF\u2019s Planning Department acknowledged the displacement risks will <\/em>occur during the implementation process and recommended increased <\/em>funding for tenant legal defense and counseling. Instead, the Mayor has decided to gut tenant protections and habitability enforcement in this year\u2019s proposed budget. The Mayor\u2019s legislation also moves to remove public notices and hearings for demolitions, which are vital means to protect tenants from displacement from predatory landlords and developers. The developers will not be held accountable for evictions and scare tactics preying on longtime, low-income tenants, such as seniors. To make matters worse, Mayor Breed is taking funding meant to house homeless families (Prop C dollars) and funding to acquire affordable housing sites (through Prop I funds for a nation-leading program called Housing Preservation Program) to instead increase the SF Police Department\u2019s budget. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe need homes not jails. Instead of policing us, the Mayor should be doing everything in the City\u2019s power to keep San Franciscans in their homes and build truly affordable housing, including acquiring sites to build throughout the City,\u201d says Christen Alqueza of Richmond District Rising. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rather than creating an actual plan and budget for new affordable housing, the Mayor merely created an Affordable Housing Leadership Council to publish a report that isn\u2019t even due until next year. As a whole, the Mayor\u2019s planning and budget policies will increase inequality, evictions, slum conditions, hunger, permanent homelessness, and policing to control the human toll of her austerity measures, all while catering to predatory and speculative real estate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDoom is the new blight. It\u2019s like the Mayor wants to further the blight conditions in certain neighborhoods, setting them up to deteriorate, just like they did during Redevelopment, to justify demolishing them in order to build luxury condos,\u201d says Don Misumi of the Westside Tenants Association. \u201cJapantown was completely demolished and rebuilt and now neighborhoods like the Richmond, the Sunset and the Haight have the urban renewal target on their back. The worst part is that communities don\u2019t know the extent of how the policies will affect them.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

REP-SF urges residents to turn out June 29th to the Planning Commission hearing and demand the City reject Mayor Breed\u2019s legislation and enact the Citywide People\u2019s Plan! For a more detailed analysis on why we must reject the Mayor\u2019s streamlining legislation and enact the solutions from the Citywide People\u2019s Plan, see REP-SF\u2019s letter to the Planning Department<\/a>.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planners say environmental law doesn’t matter, and supes approve a project almost everyone hates, all to deal with state Sen. Scott Wiener’s rules\u2014and Breed wants to make it worse. By TIM REDMOND JUNE 28, 2023 (48Hills.org) The Yimbys are going crazy about the Board of Supes action on a townhouse project on… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[738],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27153"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27153"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27153\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27156,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27153\/revisions\/27156"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}