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OCII outlines plan under SB 593 to finance up to 5,842 replacement housing units, emphasizes COP outreach and local hiring
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Summary
At a March meeting, OCII staff described how Senate Bill 593 lets the agency use a portion of tax increment financing to fund up to 5,842 replacement housing units, outlined an early funding window in 2025–2026, and said COP holders will get first preference while staff expands outreach and small-business participation.
OCII staff on March 5 presented a workshop setting out priorities to implement Senate Bill 593 and to develop up to 5,842 replacement housing units that were destroyed and never replaced by the former redevelopment agency. Director Kozlovsky introduced the session and Elizabeth Colomello, OCII housing program manager, summarized the law, the financing approach and outreach plans.
Colomello said SB 593 allows OCII to use a portion of tax increment financing, after current enforceable obligations and school pledges are funded, to pay for replacement housing. She said the agency’s current estimate places the earliest availability of funds in late 2025 or 2026 and that meeting the full unit count will require several bond issuances spread over more than 30 years. “The timeline assumes we’re able to leverage funding sources for affordable housing development, which would cover about 50% of project costs,” Colomello said.
Colomello described policy restrictions and priorities required by the legislation: replacement units must meet state redevelopment-affordable-housing standards, may be built anywhere in San Francisco, and must be restricted to households at or below the income categories of those displaced, with an upper limit of 120% of area median income (AMI). She said OCII’s practice is to keep long-term affordability restrictions for the “life of the project.”
On beneficiaries, Colomello said Certificate of Preference (COP) holders — including descendants — will receive first preference for replacement units. OCII staff reported active outreach and a contract with LINCS to locate and confirm contact information for COP holders; Colomello said OCII approved 187 COP applications between the end of the last fiscal year and January, including 146 descendant approvals, and that staff will present a fuller COP annual report at the March 19 meeting.
Commissioners pressed staff on the commission’s authority and how projects outside existing OCII project areas would be handled. Commissioner Drew asked what the commission controls and when city partners must be engaged. Kozlovsky replied that OCII’s core role under SB 593 is financing — issuing bonds and managing debt service — and that land-use and entitlement authority remains with OCII only within existing project areas such as Mission Bay and Hunters Point Shipyard. “Outside of those project areas, especially on MOHCD projects, we’d work with them on a project-by-project basis,” Kozlovsky said.
On siting and project types, staff said possible approaches include adding units within existing project-area parcels (to avoid acquisition costs), developing in former redevelopment areas where displacement was greatest (for example, the Western Addition), or collaborating citywide with the mayor’s office of housing and community development (MOHCD) on projects that meet SB 593 goals. Colomello noted nonprofit-led development teams and San Francisco small-business enterprise (SBE) goals will guide solicitations and scoring criteria.
Several community members and contractors spoke in favor of the work and urged strong local hiring. Cladis Norman and Demetrius Williams, leaders in local trades groups, asked OCII to prioritize hyper-local contractors and workforce for the projects. Community representatives working with LINCS and the National Coalition for Literacy Funding (NCLF) detailed active outreach to locate COP holders and descendants and urged continued and amplified outreach to ensure eligible people can apply when units become available.
Members of the public also raised operational concerns about application processing speed. A LINCS representative said many people found through outreach were delayed by processing backlogs at the mayor’s office. Kozlovsky and staff said MOHCD will present efficiency improvements at the March 19 meeting, that MOHCD has added staff and streamlined documentation, and that a COP hotline staffed by Cora Stone has been established to speed issuance of certificates when lineage has already been confirmed.
Staff outlined next steps: coordinating with the city on available residual tax-increment revenues, soliciting a bond-financing team for an initial SB 593 issuance, preparing a new COP survey next fiscal year, and continuing phased outreach and predevelopment work where possible before any initial bond issuance.
Votes and formal actions: no binding policy or bond issuances were approved at the workshop; commissioners did approve routine consent items earlier in the meeting (4 ayes, 1 absent). The workshop was presented for discussion and no final financing decisions were made.
