march 2024 primary
Yes On Prop A
Affordable Housing Bond
This measure would create a $300 million housing bond to finance the construction of affordable housing, preserve and rehabilitate existing sites, and help people become first-time homeowners. San Francisco needs to construct 82,000 new housing units by 2031 (we’re nowhere near that), so voting yes is kind of a no-brainer.
ENDORSEMENT TEMPERATURE: CAN’T HURT
The Context
The Affordable Housing Bond Measure, introduced by Mayor London Breed and Supervisor Aaron Peskin, seeks a $300 million housing bond to finance the construction of affordable housing, site acquisition for affordable developments, preservation and rehabilitation of existing affordable housing, and down payment assistance for first time homebuyers. This bond aims to build on the success of a previous $600 million housing bond passed in November 2019. The 2019 measure created 1,610 new affordable homes, rehabilitated almost 1,000 public housing units, preserved 100 existing homes, and assisted 100 homeowners with down payment contributions.
San Francisco has a massive shortage of affordable housing, affecting thousands of middle- and low-income families. This bond measure attempts to address part of the gap by funding $240 million for the production of low-income housing (about 1,500 homes), $30 million for affordable housing preservation, and $30 million for new homeownership opportunities. Funding affordable housing helps everyone in San Francisco—housed and unhoused alike. More affordable housing means fewer encampments on the street and fewer people crowded into small, cramped apartments. More affordable housing means better living conditions for everyone.
Since the bond measure is integrated into the City’s 10-Year Capital Plan (which plans out infrastructure investments over the next decade), it won’t explicitly increase property taxes, but does permit them if necessary—and landlords could pass up to half of that property tax on to tenants.
The Support & Opposition
Support for this measure is broad, and stretches across a number of political divisions in San Francisco. The entire Board of Supervisors voted in favor of placing this bond before voters, and as expected, local housing organizations like Council of Community Housing Organizations, the Mission Economic Development Agency and the Chinatown Community Development Center all support the measure.
There’s no organized opposition for this measure, but the California Department of Housing and Community Development released a report stressing that San Francisco needs to do more to develop more new housing, besides allocating more money to address the problem. We strongly agree with this position (but the extra money won’t hurt).
Paid for by TogetherSF Action (tsfaction.org). Not authorized by any candidate or committee controlled by a candidate. Financial disclosures are available at sfethics.org.