Supervisor Haney announces pending ordinance to cap rents in city-funded permanent supportive housing at 30% of tenant income

Supervisor Haney told the Board of Supervisors she will introduce pending legislation with the city attorney to require that no tenant in city-funded permanent supportive housing pay more than 30% of their income in rent.

"Permanent supportive housing is a critical piece of San Francisco's homelessness response system," Haney said. "Tenants in all of the new buildings opened since 2016 are all paying no more than 30% of their income to rent... Nearly a third of our supportive housing tenants, approximately 3,000 of the most vulnerable tenants in the city are rent burdened, paying significantly more than a third of their already low incomes to rent."

Haney said approximately 10,000 formerly homeless residents are housed in city-funded supportive settings each night. She told the Board that "approximately 800 written notices of eviction for non payment of rent were issued last year," and characterized the uneven rent-setting policies as creating an inequitable burden on the city's most vulnerable tenants.

The supervisor said the Board previously approved $1 million to begin the transition to 30% rents for the most vulnerable tenants, and that her office had reached an agreement with the mayor's office to begin allocating those funds by the summer. Haney asked for a single rent standard to be applied to current and future supportive housing projects and said the change would be implemented "in a fiscally responsive, responsible way."

Why it matters: Haney framed the measure as closing an inconsistency in how the city sets supportive-housing rents, and said the proposal is intended to reduce eviction risk, increase tenant stability and better align city practice with federal standards for supportive housing affordability.

What comes next: Haney announced the pending ordinance and said it will be introduced with the city attorney; no committee hearing or vote occurred on March 3.