San Francisco Housing Plan Gets State Approval

A plan to build over 82,000 new homes over the next ten years in San Francisco was approved by the city’s mayor and Board of Supervisors and certified by the state of California last week, reports Sunni Khalid for KALW. “Over half of those homes are planned to be affordable homes for low- and middle-income residents.” The goal is triple the city’s average housing production over the last decade.

The plan comes in response to the state’s crackdown on local housing elements, which often fail to deliver the number of new housing units needed to keep up with demand. As Khalid explains, “In its last housing plan, San Francisco only reached about 50 percent of its goal to build 16,000 affordable housing units from 2015 to 2022.”

Now, more stringent state rules and enforcement mechanisms, such as the newly created Housing Accountability Unit, mean that cities will be held responsible for meeting specific milestones. San Francisco is required to permit 29,000 housing units in the next four years, or the city will have to suggest further rezoning actions.