San Francisco's State of the City address provided an opportunity to check in on the progress of the affordable housing agenda of San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee.
John Coté provides background on a housing agenda laid out by Mayor Lee the day prior to the annual State of the City address. Before laying out Mayor Lee's agenda for the upcoming year, Coté also surveyed the accomplishments of the last year, which included adding 4,000 units of housing. That number fell short of the 5,000-unit annual goal necessary to meet the mayor's long-term goals. In addition, 25 percent of those units were below market rate, "which also is short of Lee’s goal of having more than half of the new housing being affordable to low- or middle-income residents," writes Coté.
Among the proposals laid out by Mayor Lee last week and shared by Coté:
- A housing bond for the November 2015 ballot.
- An Ellis Act Amendment.
- Partnering with the city’s Retirement Board, "which oversees oversees a $20 billion investment portfolio, to add $100 million over 10 years to an existing city fund that loans first-time home buyers up to $200,000 for a down payment."
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