Authorizes the city to issue $300 million in general obligation bonds to fund the construction, development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable housing for extremely-low-, low-, and middle-income households.
Proposition A would authorize the City of San Francisco to issue $300 million in general obligation bonds to fund the construction, development, acquisition, rehabilitation, and preservation of affordable housing for extremely-low-, low-, moderate-, and middle-income households.[1] The bond would provide $270 million for the construction, acquisition, and rehabilitation of low-income housing, including supportive housing, for households earning between 0% and 80% of area median income (AMI). It would provide $30 million for extremely-low-, very-low-, and low-income households needing safe and stable housing and currently experiencing trauma-related homelessness, street violence, domestic violence and abuse, sexual abuse and assault, or human trafficking.
The ballot only authorizes the bonds. It could take a year for the Office of Capital Planning to put together all of their underwriting and to price the bonds when they would yield the best rates. San Francisco’s policy is to issue new bonds only as older ones are retired or as assessed values increase. Therefore, Prop. A would not increase property tax rates. An existing citizens’ oversight committee would annually audit use of the bond funds.
San Francisco is experiencing a well-documented housing affordability crisis. The city is reported to have the highest median rent in the United States and a median home sales price of $1.42 million.[2]
San Francisco has many sources of funding dedicated to affordable housing, including impact fees, federal grants, the General Fund, the Housing Trust Fund, and several state and local affordable housing bonds. Nearly all of these sources are either formally encumbered or informally assigned to existing affordable housing proposals. Many unfunded projects are reliant for construction on a future source of funding like this bond.
In fall 2022, Mayor London Breed reconvened the Technical Advisory Committee for Inclusionary Housing to adjust affordability requirements to reflect the challenges of post-COVID economic conditions. As part of the negotiation process with community stakeholders and the Board of Supervisors, the committee reduced the inclusionary housing requirements for development in San Francisco. In exchange, city leaders committed to move an affordable housing bond in the capital planning schedule from the November 2024 ballot to the March 2024 ballot to make up for the reduced fee revenue projected to fund affordable housing through the Housing Trust Fund.
Prop. A was championed by Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin and by Mayor London Breed and was unanimously placed on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors. It requires a two-thirds vote to pass.
By providing funding to increase low-income housing stock, the $270 million bond would assist San Francisco’s low-income households. The $30 million bond for households needing safe and stable housing and currently experiencing trauma-related homelessness, street violence, domestic violence and abuse, sexual abuse and assault, or human trafficking would overwhelmingly assist women.
Housing affordability and homelessness remain among the most urgent challenges of our time. San Francisco faces high construction costs and land prices, labor shortages, process and structural challenges, and a persistent funding gap, all of which delay or confound efforts to deliver housing to San Franciscans across the income spectrum. Prop. A is a significant step toward addressing the problem of subsidy for affordable housing, and it ensures that affordable housing development can continue — even when for-profit housing development has slowed.
[1] The definition of low-, moderate-, and middle-income housing is determined by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and varies across jurisdictions. In San Francisco, low-income housing is currently priced to be affordable (i.e., with rents less than 30% of household income) to people making up to 80% of the area median income (AMI). Moderate-income housing is affordable to people making up to 120% of AMI, and middle-income housing is affordable to people making up to 175% of AMI. Area median income in San Francisco is currently $100,850 for one person and $144,110 for a family of four. The Mayor’s Office of Housing produces a helpful chart of the various income definitions: https://sf.gov/reports/may-2023/income-and-rent-limits-affordable-rental-projects-under-contract-mohcd.
[2] Redfin, “San Francisco, CA Housing Market,” accessed October 2023, https://www.redfin.com/city/17151/CA/San-Francisco/housing-market.