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Smart Voter
San Francisco County, CA November 4, 2014 Election
Proposition K
Affordable Housing
City of San Francisco
Policy Resolution - Majority Approval Required

Pass: 143,582 / 65.56% Yes votes ...... 75,430 / 34.44% No votes

See Also: Index of all Propositions
Information shown below: Summary | Fiscal Impact | Yes/No Meaning | Arguments |

Shall it be City policy to help construct or rehabilitate at least 30,000 homes by 2020, more than 50% of which will be affordable for middle-class households and more than 33% of which will be affordable for low- and moderate-income households, and secure sufficient funding to achieve that goal?

Summary:
The Way It Is Now: San Francisco has established goals for affordable housing production and preservation based on the housing needs for low- and moderate-income households.

To accomplish these goals the City has programs to:

  • build and improve affordable homes,
  • provide down-payment assistance to homebuyers, and
  • help families and individuals stay in affordable homes and prevent displacement.

Federal, state, local, and private funds are used to achieve these goals. One source of affordable housing funding is fees paid by new housing and office development. Another major funding source has been a set- aside of increased property tax revenues from redevelopment project areas. Because of changes in state law ending redevelopment agencies, these funds are expiring.

In November 2012, the voters approved a measure establishing the HousingTrust Fund (Fund) to set aside a portion of the City's budget for affordable housing programs.The City is required to make contributions to the Fund that increase annually; however the cur- rent funding level is only half of the average annual funding from redevelopment.

Without additional revenues, the City may not be able to meet its housing goals.

The Proposal: Proposition K would establish the following as City policy:

  • by 2020, the City will help construct or rehabilitate at least 30,000 homes. More than 50% of the housing will be affordable for middle-class house- holds, with at least 33% affordable for low- and moderate-income households;
  • the City will attempt to ensure that 33% of new housing in areas that are rezoned to provide more residential development is affordable to low- and moderate-income households;
  • the Mayor and Board of Supervisors will create a funding strategy to build new affordable housing, to purchase land for affordable housing, to pre- serve existing rental units, and to fund public housing rehabilitation;
  • by January 1, 2015, the Mayor and the Board of Supervisors will introduce legislation requiring a regular review of the ratio of affordable to mar- ket-rate housing production; and
  • the Board of Supervisors will hold an annual hearing on progress toward the

City's housing goals and work with the Mayor to accomplish them.

Fiscal Impact:
City Controller Ben Rosenfield has issued the following statement on the fiscal impact of Proposition K:

Should the proposed declaration of policy be approved by the voters, in my opinion, it would not affect the cost of government.

A declaration of policy cannot bind future Mayors and Boards of Supervisors to provide or reduce funding. Budget amounts for affordable housing or any other purpose or program depend on decisions made through the City's budget and fiscal processes as specified in the Charter.

Meaning of Voting Yes/No
A YES vote on this measure means:
f you vote "yes," you want to make it City policy to help construct or rehabilitate at least 30,000 homes by 2020 and secure sufficient fund- ing to achieve that goal. More than 50% of the housing will be affordable for middle-class households, with at least 33% affordable for low- and moderate- income households.

A NO vote on this measure means:
If you vote "no," you do not want to adopt this City policy.

  
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Arguments For Proposition K Arguments Against Proposition K
Yes on Proposition K - Housing Action and Neighborhood Stabilization Plan Housing affordability is currently one of the City's greatest challenges. In response, the City is commit- ting to take immediate action to generate revenue and execute strategies that will preserve and build housing for our residents at all income levels.

In San Francisco, rents are three times higher than the national average. The average rent for a two bedroom apartment is $3,898 a month. We, as policy makers, need to do more.

Proposition K holds the City accountable to an action plan to:

  • Build 30,000 new units by 2020, half of which are affordable to working households, with 33% permanently affordable to low and moderate-income households and 17% accessible to middle-income earners.
  • Establish a Neighborhood StabilizationTrust to protect existing tenants and curb rapidly rising rents by acquiring buildings and converting them into permanently affordable housing.
  • Enact a goal of 33% affordable housing in areas of the City where significant new housing is added.
  • Generate new revenue to build affordable housing at all levels.

Proposition K is a unified effort to make the City affordable and accessible for all.

Enough is enough. San Francisco has already reached it's reasonable population carrying capacity.The City already has more people per square mile than any other of the 9 Bay Area Counties.

Money-seeking developers may dream of running up the population of the City and County of San Francisco beyond one million residents, but - given the land area of the City + there is a serious price to be paid in traffic problems, auto accidents, Muni transportation limits, and unavailable and overtaxed public services. Greed runs ahead of good zoning.

Parkmerced's management wants to increase the population on their 150 acres from 8,000 to perhaps 25,000 people + but 19th Avenue already has more automobiles than it can properly handle.

Other builders and planners want to stuff another 250,000 residents into the City's Sunset Parkside, Richmond, St. Francis Wood, Forest Hill, Mt. Davidson, Ingleside, Crocker-Amazon, Mission, Potrero, and other districts... regardless of the social and economic damage to be caused locally.

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Created: July 23, 2015 14:58 PDT
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