San Francisco Demands State Restore Proposed Cuts to Affordable Housing

With the city facing ambitious new state-mandated affordable housing targets, and in light of proposed state budget reductions, the Board of Supervisors voted unanimously today to demand state lawmakers restore potentially devastating cuts to affordable housing programs.

“The only way to make sure working people and their families have a place in San Francisco is to get serious about funding affordable housing,” said Supervisor Dean Preston, whose Prop I ballot measure has raised $300 million in local funds intended for affordable housing. “The state must be a partner and find new ways to deliver affordable housing funds, and we will not accept any cuts to critical housing programs.”

On January 10, Governor Gavin Newsom unveiled a proposed statewide budget that sought to address a shortfall through the use of reserves, delays or deferrals of spending authorized in earlier years, and spending cuts. Among the cuts, a reported $1.2 billion of reductions in funding levels and delays and deferrals in funding to later years are proposed to affordable housing programs. 

Advocates who have worked on these programs for years are sounding the alarm.

“San Francisco already contributes the highest proportion of local dollars to affordable housing of any local city in California, producing substantial affordable housing for working families, seniors and people facing homelessness,” said Charlie Sciammas, Policy Director for the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO). “But we can’t develop the amount of affordable housing the State demands we produce without the State putting in its fair share.”

On January 24, the local San Francisco Democratic Party voted to support a resolution to demand Newsom restore the more than $1.2 billion for affordable housing programs the Governor proposed to cut from his budget.

“So many of our communities are barely getting by because of the high cost of housing. The proposed cuts by the Governor will mean low-income families, people facing foreclosures, veterans, students, young adults leaving foster care, as well as first-time and low-income homebuyers, will all have a harder time finding safe, affordable housing,” said Dyan Ruiz of the Race and Equity in all Planning Coalition (REP-SF). “Instead of these cuts, we need the State to put affordable housing first.”  

In San Francisco’s most recent RHNA cycle, the City produced less than half (48%) of its targeted goals for affordable housing, while producing 151% of its market rate housing goals, according to the 2015-2022 Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) data. The new Housing Element goals increase the affordable targets by a factor of three – from 16,333 affordable units in the 2015-2022 cycle to 46,598 in the 2023-2031 cycle. 

If the proposed cuts remain, more than 6,400 affordable homes will be lost, according to statewide coalition Housing California.