{"id":30372,"date":"2023-12-05T12:49:55","date_gmt":"2023-12-05T20:49:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=30372"},"modified":"2023-12-05T12:49:55","modified_gmt":"2023-12-05T20:49:55","slug":"the-housing-crisis-scott-wiener-created","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2023\/12\/05\/the-housing-crisis-scott-wiener-created\/","title":{"rendered":"The housing crisis Scott Wiener created"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Demolitions. Displacement. And zero new affordable housing. That’s the bill the state senator got passed, and the supes have to deal with it this week.<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

DECEMBER 3, 2023 (48hills.org)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On KQED news Sunday night, a reporter announced that \u201chousing advocates\u201d in San Francisco were pushing the Board of Supes to approve the mayor\u2019s housing legislation this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reporter quoted one person, from Habitat for Humanity, which is a fine organization but has never been involved in local housing politics and isn\u2019t a member of the Council of Community Housing Organizations<\/a>, which has serious problems with the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nobody from CCHO, from the Race and Equity in All Planning Coalition, or from the Anti-Displacement Coalition, made the cut.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

State Sen. Scott Wiener has deeply hurt his own city.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s just part of the general news media problem here: Mayor London Breed\u2019s legislation is presented as pro-housing, when it\u2019s actually, at best, pro-luxury housing\u2014and does nothing for affordable housing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, the bill will probably be approved Tuesday\/4<\/strong> by a Board of Supes that doesn\u2019t like, with a large community-based coalition opposing it\u2014and the politics here is important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breed is pushing for more \u201cconstraints reduction\u201d that would allow market-rate developers to build high-end housing without public input. Legislation pushed by State Sen. Scott Wiener, and supported by Assemblymembers Phil Ting and Matt Haney will force the city to give up almost all land-use authority if it doesn\u2019t go along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all of the news media coverage about the issue, there\u2019s been little discussion about the role Wiener has played in essentially screwing his own city<\/a>. But the Wiener bill, and the Newsom administration, with the apparent support of Breed, are pushing toward the point where developers will have what\u2019s called the \u201cbuilder\u2019s remedy,\u201d which means anyone can build anything they want, including demolishing existing rent-controlled housing, without any public input.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breed, with the support of almost all of the local news media, is trying to blame the supes for delaying or seeking to amend her legislation<\/a>. And if the supes don\u2019t go along with everything the state is asking for, the Yimbys and the mayor will blame them when a 50-story tower that Wiener and the Breed Administration say they oppose<\/a> starts construction near Ocean Beach.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Gee: If the supes only allowed the demolition of rent-controlled housing and the bulldozing, without any community impact, of historic buildings in the city, this would never have happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey want to blame the board, and affordable housing and tenant advocates, not the lack of affordable housing policies from the Mayor\u2019s Office,\u201d Dyan Ruiz, co-founder of People.Power.Media and a member of the Race and Equity in All Planning Coalition, told me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a Nov. 28 letter, David Zisser, assistant deputy director for local government relations and accountability at HCD (and there\u2019s a hell of a job title) says, specifically, that the supes should not approve any effort to protect existing historic properties:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The new amendments could potentially limit the impact of the Ordinance and undermine the City\u2019s ability to implement Required Action 1.10. Specifically, the amendments would require a conditional use authorization for removal of one or more residential units unless the building was built after 1923 (regardless of the building\u2019s significance), is not located in a historic or conservation district (regardless of the building\u2019s significance), or has not been determined eligible for historic designation (regardless of whether it will actually be listed as historic). To safely ensure that the City implements this Action on time, HCD recommends that the Board of Supervisors pass the Ordinance without these or additional substantive amendments.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

This is pretty radical: The state is telling the supes which amendments to local land-use law are acceptable. I\u2019ve never seen anything like this happen in the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that\u2019s what Wiener wanted\u2014and based on her responses so far, it appears that this is what Breed wants.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sup. Rafael Mandelman told me that the situation is, at the very least, a matter of some concern: \u201cI don\u2019t think HCD should be a super planning agency that manages all local decisions.\u201d He said he hopes there is some room for compromise, \u201cbut I really don\u2019t want demolition with no process for a building that has historical significance.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From a press release issued by the Council of Community Housing Organizations, the Race and Equity in All Planning Coalition, the the Anti-Displacement Coalition:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The \u201cBuilder\u2019s Remedy\u201d  would be at the expense of vulnerable communities who desperately need truly affordable housing and are more likely to live in rent-control housing, which are both being threatened by HCD. In HCD\u2019s PPR, they made clear that if the City of San Francisco does not pass the Mayor\u2019s streamlining legislation<\/a> which removes processes used to protect tenants from eviction and without amendments that would protect the demolition of rent-controlled housing, the State will withdraw funding for affordable housing and transportation to San Francisco.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really clear who the winners and losers are when it comes to HCD\u2019s strong-arming San Francisco. Luxury developers are going to get automatic approvals for developments that they can cash in for more profits without even building. Meanwhile, low-income communities of color are going to have less affordable places to live and will be silenced,\u201d says Jeantelle Laberinto of the Race & Equity in all Planning Coalition \u2013 San Francisco (REP-SF)<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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The author of the November letter, Assistant Deputy Director of HCD David Zisser, and lead researcher for the PPR, Prof. Moira O\u2019Neill, even presented at a developer lobby event on November 28, hosted by YIMBY Action called \u201cClock\u2019s Ticking\u201d where it was clear that developers are eager for all the power they may soon get when the state removes all of San Francisco\u2019s local decision-making power over development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt looks to us like the \u2018constraints\u2019 HCD is so focused on reducing are actually the people living here,\u201d says Molly Goldberg of the San Francisco Anti Displacement Coalition<\/a> (SFADC). \u201cThousands of low-income seniors and working class people who have managed to hang on onto lower rent units could be facing evictions if the Builder\u2019s Remedy kicks in. It\u2019s as if the state sees low-income renters as simply impediments in the way of new luxury condos.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

I reviewed a video and a transcript of the event, and Zisser essentially supports the entire Yimby narrative. He also says this:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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If San Francisco\u2019s current rate of housing approvals and construction were to continue the city would you know by far miss its housing production goal of 82,000 new homes by 2031. So it has to add about 10,000 new homes each year and that includes about 5,800 affordable homes and meanwhile as of you know, a couple weeks ago when I saw the data San Francisco was permitting about less than one home a day.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Amazing: There is absolutely nothing in the HCD letter, or in the legislation, that does anything at all to help nonprofits in the city build 5,800 affordable units a year. There\u2019s no new state money\u2014and according to the people who build affordable housing, and the Planning Department, the main \u201cconstraint\u201d limiting affordable housing isn\u2019t community input or public process; it\u2019s money<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Breed admitted in March that the city will not live up to the affordable housing goals in the Housing Element<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So this entire discussion is just about luxury developers making higher profits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the bulldozers arrive, and the evictions soar, and displacement gets even worse, and housing is still too expensive for anyone who isn\u2019t rich, perhaps the local media will remember who created this situation. It wasn\u2019t \u201canti-housing\u201d supes, who have already approved a long list of measures making life and profit easier for developers. It was State Sen. Scott Wiener, Gov. Gavin Newsom, and Mayor London Breed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mayor called the Asian Pacific Economic Cooperation<\/a> summit<\/strong> a grand success for the city.<\/a> But for a lot of small businesses and residents of the Soma area that was most directly impacted, the summit caused a long list of problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sups. Matt Dorsey and Connie Chan are holding at hearing at the Budget and Finance Committee Wednesday\/6 on the impacts, and have asked Soma Pilipinas and the Yerba Buena Community Benefits District to report. That hearing starts at 10am.<\/a><\/p>\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":"

Demolitions. Displacement. And zero new affordable housing. That’s the bill the state senator got passed, and the supes have to deal with it this week. By TIM REDMOND DECEMBER 3, 2023 (48hills.org) On KQED news Sunday night, a reporter announced that \u201chousing advocates\u201d in San Francisco were pushing the Board… 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":[531,659],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30372"}],"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=30372"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30372\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30374,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30372\/revisions\/30374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}