SF March Ballot May Feature $300M Affordable Housing Bond

Faced with a state mandate to build 46,000 affordable homes by 2031, voters in San Francisco will likely decide the fate of a proposed $300 million bond to help pay for them.

The city’s Board of Supervisors voted to place the March ballot measure in committee with the full board expected to hear it soon, the San Francisco Chronicle reported.

The proposed bond, four years after voters approved a $600 million housing bond, stems from a deal between Mayor London Breed and the Board of Supervisors this summer that would cut a requirement for affordable homes in market-rate projects from 20 percent to between 12 and 16 percent.

It also comes as San Francisco struggles to build new homes. Approvals can take years, driving up costs. A single unit of affordable housing can cost up to $1.2 million, pushed up by land, labor and material prices.

The proposed bond measure would require a two-thirds vote and would appear on the March 2024 ballot.

The money would go toward reaching a state-mandated goal of approving 82,000 homes in eight years, of which 46,000 must be affordable for low- and moderate-income households.

Eric Shaw, head of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, said $240 million of the bond would largely be used to build 1,500 housing projects now in the city’s pipeline. The city will likely spend about $120 million to get about half of the 1,500 projects moving next year, and then another $120 million in 2025-2026, if voters approve the bond.

He said $30 million would be used to create 120 shelter beds for women who are survivors of domestic violence, street violence or human trafficking.

The remaining $30 million would be used to preserve 60 units of the city’s affordable homes, whether for repairs or revamped apartments. The city would prioritize housing for seniors and placing affordable housing in wealthier areas, according to the proposed measure.

The city relies mostly on local dollars to build homes, since the stream of state and federal dollars can be unsteady.

Shaw told the Chronicle that $19 billion in local funds would be needed to achieve the city’s targets based on current goals. “High development costs, hard costs, are undermining our goals, so local funding is a critical source of dollars,” he added.

In 2019, more than 71 percent of voters approved the city’s largest housing bond, at $600 million, not including interest. Voters approved a similar affordable housing bond in 2015 for $310 million, which led to 1,613 affordable homes created or preserved, according to Bloomberg.

— Dana Bartholomew