How San Francisco Ran Out of Affordable Housing Funds, and What to Do About It
"San Francisco is running out of funds to build affordable housing, and the city will need to make changes quickly to fix the problem," according to an article by Adhi Nagraj.
One question that must be asked in response to this reality: How did a city riding an economic boom get so short on funding to solve one of its most visible and morally troubling challenges? And another question: What can the city do about it?
To explain how the city got to this point, Nagraj has this to say: "Many factors are at play, but a look at data from the city indicates that a combination of rising construction costs and new requirements is slowing down new development and curtailing incoming funds from development fees.
And as for what to do about it, Nagraj shares five immediate suggestions endorsed by SPUR, including:
- Audit the building code to reduce costs.
- Support pre-fab construction outside of San Francisco.
- Set new inclusionary requirements.
- Allow more density bonuses.
- Pause increased inclusionary requirements.
The article includes a lot more detail on the how of San Francisco's funding shortage, as well as more detail on each of the five recommendations for what to do about it.
Topics
- Report: No City or State in the U.S. Has Enough Housing for Low-Income Residents
- Scooter Media Brief: Safety, Security, and Business Models Raise Concerns
- The New New Protected Bike Lane
- Review: The Hudson Yards Mega-Development, Open to the Public Today
- Trump's Budget Would Cut Funding for HUD, Transportation, EPA, More
- 3D Printing Affordable Housing at Scale
- Editorial: Raise Height Limits to San Jose's Proper Stature
- It Takes a Fatality to Remove On-Street Parking
- Five Years of 100 Resilient Cities
- Where Gas Taxes Only Serve the Needs of More Sprawl
- Google Doodle Commemorates Those Bumps on the Edge of the Transit Platform
- Express Bus Service Coming to the Suburbs South of Seattle
- On-Street Parking a Sticking Point for Cincinnati's Road Diet Plan
- Bus Transit Used to Be Profitable on the Las Vegas Strip
- Study: Density Can Impede Growth
- Climate Resilience Plan Would Extend Manhattan
- Deadly Flooding Follows Bomb Cyclone in the Midwest
- Many Norms, Few Plans: Urban Rubble Clearance in the Cities of the Global South
- Home Builders Aren't Building the Smaller Homes the Market Wants
- An App for Finding the Best Ground Transportation Options at Airports
