There are countless ways to measure quality leaders. In San Francisco’s housing policy world, our elected officials have been leading by example for the last few years and it’s only looking to continue.
State Senator Scott Wiener, a true urbanist wonk, pushed forward a bold piece of legislation in Sacramento that will hold smaller, NIMBY suburban towns accountable for not building housing. David Chiu wrote legislation that rewards cities for rezoning transit hubs for denser housing, and will work next year on a two year bill to generate more than $200 million annually for subsidized affordable housing. Earlier this year, Supervisors Katy Tang and Ahsha Safai championed Home-SF, which will lead to more density across the City along MUNI lines. Most recently, Supervisor London Breed and Jeff Sheehy are both advocating for new housing and, independently, additional tenant protections for renters.
A few weeks ago, a story broke about Supervisor London Breed working to have the City buy the McDonald’s on Haight and Stanyan to build subsidized affordable housing. Being familiar (it’s my neighborhood), I was thrilled to hear active steps were being taken to improve the neighborhood. At a subsequent community meeting, neighbor after neighbor applauded the decision (the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood is a bit of an outlier in terms of actively supporting subsidized affordable housing, it’s pretty cool) but the Supervisor was sure to specifically repeat an important concern about the lack of affordable food in the neighborhood. It’s a straightforward example, but I’m certain Supervisor Breed wants to ensure people in the neighborhood can buy an affordable meal.
During a recent debate, Supervisor Jeff Sheehy proudly stated: “I'm for housing. Period. I'm willing to take the heat.” He’s been working with the building team on creating additional housing on 24th in Noe Valley, pushing the Real Foods site to utilize Supervisor Katy Tang’s Home-SF legislation to create more market-rate and subsidized affordable housing. He’s stated he’s supportive of supportive (formerly homeless) housing in his district, especially for young people. He’s also declared support for the by-right subsidized affordable housing measure, a move that some would have considered political suicide a few years ago.
Fortunately, Breed and Sheehy aren’t only leading on the creation of new housing, but also focusing on protecting current residents. Breed’s victory on “Neighborhood Preference” has been well documented, but she hasn’t stopped. The concept of “Right to Counsel” has been discussed before, but the politics couldn’t catch up.
Breed and Sheehy saw an opportunity to ride the momentum and began work on a legal representation law for those who need it. The pro-housing wave must have been felt, because tenants advocates simultaneously introduced a ballot measure to ensure new rules are created. Now, legislation introduced by Supervisors Breed and Sheehy will be discussed at the Board of Supervisors to ensure rules built through consensus go to the Mayor’s desk for approval.
While the leaders play a huge role, much of this is possible simply because it’s politically smart to be pro-housing and pro-tenant in San Francisco. Lucky for us, we have the right folks to follow.
Corey Smith is the Community Organizer with the SF Housing Action Coalition and has a regular column with the Bay City Beacon.
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