Preston Introduces Resolution Calling on Housing Authority to Use Federal “Faircloth-to-RAD” Program to Create 3,600 New Affordable Units Before Program Expires
City Missing Out on Critical Opportunity to Tap Federal Funds to Produce Nearly 10% of the City’s Affordable Housing Goals
With the city facing an affordable housing crisis and ambitious new state-mandated affordable housing targets, Supervisor Preston is introducing a resolution calling for the San Francisco Housing Authority to fully leverage the “Faircloth-to-RAD” option provided by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development to create up to 3,668 new deeply affordable rental units with a permanent federal subsidy in San Francisco.
“This time-limited federal program could fund thousands of new deeply affordable homes for low-income and working-class San Franciscans,” said Supervisor Preston. “While other big city Mayors and Public Housing Authorities across the nation jump at this opportunity to fund thousands of new HUD-subsidized units, SFHA has inexplicably refused to even initiate the process to access these funds, and now time is running out.”
The City and County of San Francisco has a critical shortage of affordable rental housing, particularly for low-income households. According to the City’s recently passed housing element, it must create over 46,000 affordable units during the eight-year cycle 2023-2031, but it has no current plan to achieve that goal in part due to a lack of funding.
Under the Faircloth-to-RAD program, SFHA has the Faircloth Authority to create or designate up to 3,668 new deeply affordable rental units in the City which would be subsidized in perpetuity by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) under a development option introduced by HUD in April 2021 commonly referred to as “Faircloth-to-RAD.” The program is set to stop accepting applications by September 30, 2024.
“This resolution importantly urges the SFHA to leverage a new HUD tool which helps support public housing agencies across the country create more deeply affordable housing,” said Deborah Thrope, Deputy Director of the National Housing Law Project. “San Francisco, like other high-cost cities across our state, can and should seize this valuable and urgent opportunity to use "Faircloth-to-RAD" to ensure more affordable housing is available to the people who need it most.”
Nationally, more than 4,000 units have already been added to HUD’s “Faircloth-to-RAD” pipeline, including projects by the D.C. Housing Authority, Cambridge Housing Authority in Massachusetts, Philadelphia Housing Authority in Pennsylvania, Chicago Housing Authority in Illinois, and Galveston Texas Housing Authority.
The Boston Housing Authority is already fully leveraging HUD’s limited-time, rent augmentation flexibility for Faircloth-to-RAD developments to grow their affordable housing units by roughly 3,000 units on city-owned land and in private developments over the next 10 years. Mayor Wu issued a Request For Quotes by developers and owners of new multifamily rental construction or multifamily properties requiring rehabilitation within the City of Boston who are interested in developing these deeply affordable, HUD-subsidized housing units. Similarly, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles amended its 2024 Agency Plan “to use all of its Faircloth Limit authority” (1,965) through the Faircloth-to-RAD program.
Supervisor Preston’s Resolution specifically calls on the San Francisco Housing Authority to promptly identify potential sites, solicit interested developers, and initiate the Faircloth-to-RAD application process to create new deeply affordable housing units in San Francisco, and report back to the Board of Supervisors within 30 days.
“It is simply unacceptable to leave this money on the table when the residents of San Francisco so desperately need affordable housing,” said Preston.
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