Thread by @_fruchtose

Hello San Francisco. I'm attending a Housing Element 2022 Update hosted by SF Planning.

There will be more events in other languages in the next few days.

A mental health hotline is available for those who need it.

Staff will share an overview of the SF housing element and listen to feedback from participants.

Zoom registration links

Today: zoom.us/meeting/regist…

Spanish language meeting (Sep 29): zoom.us/meeting/regist…

Chinese language meeting (Sep 30): zoom.us/meeting/regist…

Kimia Haddadan from Planning: SF's next housing plan will center racial equity. This is a 2-year process which started in June. Strategy is to meet people where they are in town halls, neighborhood events, and community organizations. This meeting is for all San Franciscans.

Malena Leon-Farrera from SF Planning acknowledging the history of SF as Ohlone land

Malena: Housing element is mandated by state law every 8 years so we can receive affordable housing funds from the state. It also represents our values.

Planning has compiled feedback from various initiatives over the years. "We don't start from scratch for each plan."

Themes for this housing element update:

• Racial and social equity
• Minimum displacement
• Housing choice for all, in all neighborhoods
• Neighborhoods resilient to climate and health crises

The Planning Commission recently passed a resolution apologized for racial inequity in previous plans. They will focus on correcting this in future plans.

State law also requires that environmental justice and fair housing be advanced by this housing element.

Malena presenting a redlining map from the 30s: Redlined neighborhoods were deemed high-risk, frequently homed to Black residents. It was difficult for those residents to obtain loans. Today, these areas have high rates of COVID-19, police violence, and poverty.

We can create policies for the housing element which advance racial equity, such as distributing housing throughout the City and investing in communities of color

BIPOC populations are more vulnerable to high housing costs.

This chart chows the displacement of certain populations in the last 30 years. BIPOC groups have been most vulnerable to displacement.

Unemployment from COVID-19 disproportionately affects BIPOC and low-income households

Some policy ideas for protecting vulnerable communities

Malena: "San Francisco's current zoning code makes [affordable housing] more difficult to be built in over 60% of residential parcels," especially on the west side

Policy ideas for building homes in the west side

Environmental issues like air qualities, earthquakes can harm neighborhoods and are important to consider

Policy ideas for promoting sustainable, livable, and resilient neighborhoods

Participation is crucial because policy and legislation are effective tools to enact community-demanded changes

We're now covering ground rules for the listening activity. Planning staff will try to transcribe people's comments and capture the essence of their comments. They are also looking for input on what ideas people agree with.

First speaker was able to buy a BMR unit 17 years ago: City doesn't monitor units very well. I know of many times where people qualify who shouldn't. Many in my building rent their homes for profit. Refinancing is a huge issue. Stairs in my home won't always be accessible.

Anastasia Yovanopoulos from Livable California: Planning Department has competing policies between preserving affordable housing and increasing density. LLCs buy up cheap units and then try to make a profit on the backs of tenants.

Yovanopoulos: Sometimes developers present plans which sound like ghettos. Renovation project sponsors should declare under penalty of perjury if tenants are present in the building. The tenants must not be ignored and must have rights stay in their homes.

Next speaker: I'm a renter. I love the idea of housing choice. We need a housing abundance. Renters need leverage with their landlords. We can do that by building more housing, especially in high resource areas.

Speaker: Downzoning in the 70s has prevented that. We need housing in the Marina, Pac Heights, Russian Hill, etc. We should shift the housing supply to areas not at risk of gentrification.

First speaker: BMR owners should be allowed to move into a different BMR space that meets their needs. Program users need flexibility based on their needs. City should do home visits to make sure BMR residents are not illegally subletting units.

Another Livable California member, Kathy Howard: It's important that the city preserve open space. People and wildlife need it—not just in parks, but in backyards. Wealthy people are leaving SF to get more open space. The plans I see are for poor people to live in denser homes

Howard: We should consider preserving single-family homes for housing, and then provide financial support to low-income families so they can enjoy their own homes. "Cities don't all have to be chock-a-block-a apartments."

Next speaker: Most affordable housing is existing housing. I know there's free market, but the city is trying to change zoning laws to increase height and density to bring units online when there are units—they're vacant. I don't know how we would check for that, though.

Contd: there are tens of thousands of entitled units. They're not being built for whatever reason. It's very expensive. We need to focus on what we can build in existing capacity—not throwing up an 8-story building in a community because they can.

George Wooding: Planning never goes to look at buildings for inspections. That task gets turned over the Department of Building Inspections, which is corrupt. It looks like Planning is going to become ADU-centric due to state law. People are not building ADUs—too expensive.

I gave some input on how SF doesn't house its own workforce.

Next speaker: We need more senior housing and more multi-family housing. People can't leave their homes or move because they don't see a path forward. And we need more navigation centers. The west side shouldn't be able to keep their communities exclusive.

Next speaker: The areas in the city with the lowest density are the wealthiest in the city. They don't need protection from the free market. San Francisco needs hundreds of thousands of units over the next decade or two.

We're now doing a poll.

Poll results for first question. I missed capturing the second, but most popular options were building market-rate and affordable housing, supporting ADUs, and building multi-unit apartment buildings.

Kimia: There will be more outreach, as well as an environmental impact report. We are trying to reach everyone we can, especially people who have not been typically involved in our outreach.

They posted poll results again. Here are the results for the second poll question.

That's it for me. Thanks for reading.