Housing

Our goal: Make it affordable to live here.

SPUR’s housing agenda:

• Zone for more housing—in the right locations.
• Invest in permanently affordable housing.
• Enable more housing to be affordable by design.
• Rethink parking requirements.
• Encourage secondary units.
• Get housing development fees right.

Read more from SPUR’s Agenda for Change

  • SPUR Report

    8 Ways to Make San Francisco More Affordable

    San Francisco is in the midst of an affordability crisis. Reversing the situation will require far-reaching changes to the city’s housing policies. But there are many things we can do at the local level to make San Francisco more affordable for the people who live here.

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  • SPUR Report

    Re-Envisioning the San Francisco Housing Authority

    The San Francisco Housing Authority has a budget short fall and lacks funding to meet its capital needs. SPUR offers recommendations to help the agency become financially sustainable over the long term.

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  • SPUR Report

    Affordable by Design

    Housing units that are affordable "by design" cost less to produce because they’re small, efficiently designed and don’t come with a parking space. Could this be a new way to produce middle-income housing without using public subsidy?

    Read More

  • SPUR Report

    A Housing Strategy for San Francisco

    San Francisco’s unique culture is threatened by the high cost of housing. Unless we do something, the city will lose its artists, its progressive politics, its immigrants and its young people. This second edition of our Housing Strategy for San Francisco updates the policy reports that define SPUR's housing agenda.

    Read More

Updates and Events

What San Francisco Needs to Do About Housing Affordability

News February 17, 2015
Last week the San Francisco Planning Commission adopted the 2014 Housing Element. SPUR supports the housing element, but we believe the city needs to do much more to address the housing deficit. At a time when San Francisco is experiencing growth in jobs and residents, the city is not planning, approving and building enough housing. We have five suggestions for how to get things moving.

SPUR Supports Addition of Dwelling Unit in Seismic Retrofit Buildings

Policy Letter February 16, 2015
SPUR supports the ordinance introduced by Supervisor Wiener that provides an incentive for property owners to complete the earthquake-safety retrofitting of existing housing, and at the same time enables the addition of more housing to our city's supply.

SPUR Comments on SF Housing Element 2014-2022

Policy Letter February 9, 2015
SPUR supports the adoption of San Francisco's 2014-2022 Housing Element in order to allow many of the Mayor's Housing Work Group's pending policy initiatives to move forward. However, SPUR maintains that the City can do more to address the housing deficit.

Housing Affordability: A Report Card

Urbanist Article December 16, 2014
Housing affordability is the No. 1 problem in San Francisco and, increasingly, in the other cities of the region. SPUR's approach proceeds from two primary ideas: try many different solutions, and think at the regional scale while acting at the local scale. We take a look at progress made so far — and the work still left to do.

How Should San Jose Pay for Affordable Housing?

News December 3, 2014
Silicon Valley has become one of the most expensive housing markets nationwide, and funding for affordable housing in Santa Clara County has been steadily decreasing or stagnating. Last month the San Jose City Council approved an affordable housing impact fee to be paid by developers. Once it’s fully operational, the program is anticipated to generate between $20 and $30 million per year for affordable housing.

Non-Primary Residences and San Francisco's Housing Market

White Paper October 21, 2014
How many housing units in San Francisco are not occupied by a permanent resident? And do such units further constrain the city's tight housing market and drive up housing prices? While it's very difficult to exactly quantify the number of non-primary residences in San Francisco, we provide a rough picture of how many there are and how SF compares to other cities on this issue.

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