San Francisco housing shortage

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Starting in the 1990s, the city of San Francisco, and the surrounding San Francisco Bay Area have faced a serious housing shortage. As of October 2015, San Francisco had the highest rents of any major US city. The nearby city of San Jose, had the fourth highest rents, and adjacent Oakland, had the sixth highest. Over the period April 2012 to December 2017, the median house price in most counties in the Bay Area nearly doubled. Late San Francisco mayor Ed Lee has called the shortage a "housing crisis", and news reports have said that addressing the shortage is the mayor's "top priority".

Video San Francisco housing shortage

Causes

Since the 1960s, San Francisco and the surrounding Bay Area have enacted strict zoning regulations. Among other restrictions, San Francisco does not allow buildings over 40 feet tall in most of the city, and has passed laws making it easier for neighbors to block developments. Partly as a result of these codes, from 2007 to 2014, the Bay Area issued building permits for only half the number of needed houses, based on the area's population growth. At the same time, there has been rapid economic growth of the high tech industry in San Francisco and nearby Silicon Valley, which has created hundreds of thousands of new jobs. The resultant high demand for housing, combined with the lack of supply, (caused by severe restrictions on the building of new housing units) have caused dramatic increases in rents and extremely high housing prices. For example, from 2012 to 2017, the San Francisco metropolitan area added 400,000 new jobs, but only 60,000 new housing units.

Maps San Francisco housing shortage

Effects

The city of San Francisco has strict rent control laws. However, a California state law called the Ellis Act allows landlords to evict rent-controlled tenants by "going out of business", and fully exiting the rental market. In recent years, hundreds of tenants have been evicted through the Ellis Act process.

The high rents have made San Francisco and surrounding cities unaffordable for many residents, particularly workers in their 20s. Even workers with full-time jobs have been forced to live in their cars, due to the shortage of housing.

While residents of San Francisco and greater California appear to pride themselves on being friendly to immigrants (See Sanctuary city), the effect of their housing policies has been to strongly discourage "immigration" to California, especially San Francisco and other coastal areas, as the California Legislative Analyst's Office 2015 report "California's High Housing Costs - Causes and Consequences" details: [From 1980-2010]

"If California had added 210,000 new housing units each year over the past three decades (as opposed to 120,000), [enough to keep California's housing prices no more than 80% higher than the median for the U.S. as a whole--the price differential which existed in 1980] population would be much greater than it is today.

We estimate that around 7 million additional people would be living in California.

In some areas, particularly the Bay Area, population increases would be dramatic. For example,

San Francisco's population would be more than twice as large (1.7 million people versus around 800,000)."

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Responses

Housing has become a key political issue in Bay Area elections. In November 2015, San Francisco voters rejected two ballot propositions both of which were claimed by their supporters to reduce the crisis. The first, Proposition F, would have enacted a number of restrictions on Airbnb rentals within the city. The second, Proposition I or the "Mission Moratorium", would have blocked all housing development in San Francisco's Mission District for 18 months, except for developments in which every apartment was subsidized at a below-market rate.

To address evictions, San Francisco City Supervisor David Campos (D9) passed two new city ordinances, each requiring landlords to pay tens of thousands of dollars to each tenant evicted under the Ellis Act. The first ordinance was struck down as unconstitutional under the Fifth Amendment, while the second was rejected as contrary to California state law.

Mayor Ed Lee has responded to the shortage by calling for the construction of 30,000 new housing units by 2020, and proposing a $310 million city bond to fund below-market-rate housing units. The goal of 30,000 new units was approved by San Francisco voters in 2014's Proposition K, and the affordable housing bond was passed in 2015 as Proposition A.

City Supervisor Scott Wiener (D8) has criticized the advocates of anti-development laws, writing an article titled "Yes, Supply & Demand Apply to Housing, Even in San Francisco" in response to Proposition I. Wiener called for greatly increasing the supply of all housing, including both subsidized housing and housing at market rate.

src: www.slate.com

2017 State Housing Package

On September 29, 2017, Gov. Jerry Brown signed a package of housing bills, pushed by Democrats and Republican Assemblyman Brian Maienschein, aimed to address California's housing crisis. The housing package, 15 bills in total, seek to finance the construction of low-income housing projects, expedite buildings, and prevent counties and cities from blocking any new development.

Highlights

Senate Bill 2, by Sen. Toni Atkins (D-San Diego), will impose a permanent fee of $74 to $225 dollars for certain real-estate transition development to be put in a trust fund programs affordable housing and homeless assistance. The revenue received in 2018 will be split between local government projects and the other half towards homeless programs.

Senate Bill 3, by Sen. Jim Beall (D-San Diego), will introduce $4 housing bond in the November 2018 ballot. SB 3 will also provide $3 billion dollars for affordable housing and redevelopment programs. Once approved, $1 billion dollars will be set side for the CalVet Home Loan Program in assisting military veterans to purchase their first home.

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See also

• California housing shortage

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References

Source of the article : Wikipedia