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Budget committee advances $600 million affordable housing bond to November ballot
Summary
The Board of Supervisors Budget & Finance Committee on June 21 voted to forward a trio of items — a resolution, an ordinance and a motion — that would place a $600 million general-obligation bond for affordable housing on the Nov. 5 ballot and direct the mayor’s housing office to update the bond report.
The San Francisco Board of Supervisors Budget and Finance Committee voted June 21 to send a $600 million affordable housing bond to the full Board with a positive recommendation, advancing a resolution, an ordinance and a staff motion that would place the measure on the Nov. 5 ballot.
President Yee, speaking to the committee, said the measure is intended to boost investment across public housing, low- and middle-income housing, senior housing and educator housing. "We made amendments to support a $600,000,000 housing bond for the November ... that will offer much needed investment in public housing," he said.
The ordinance called for a special election on Nov. 5 to ask voters to approve incurring general obligation bond indebtedness not to exceed $600 million. The accompanying motion asked the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to update the agency’s 2019 bond report to reflect the higher bond amount, proposed allocations and prioritized uses.
Public commenters criticized the bond’s income targeting and asked for clearer commitments to very low-income households. One commenter, identified in the transcript as Mr. Wright, accused the measure of favoring higher-income renters and highlighted apparent inconsistencies in the documents’ area median income (AMI) figures, saying the lowest-income units were effectively targeted at households earning 80% of AMI. "You’re only helping people in high income brackets," he said during public comment.
Committee members and city staff responded that the measure contains multiple categories of eligibility, including units accessible at lower income thresholds and a new category for educators. Kate Hartley of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development told the committee staff had updated the bond report to reflect the committee’s requests and said the office stands ready to answer follow-up questions.
The clerk noted the committee’s action would appear on the Board of Supervisors July 9 agenda unless otherwise stated. The committee took the motion and second without objection and forwarded the items to the full Board.
Next steps: the full Board will consider the resolution and ordinance as part of its regular agenda; any changes to allocations or eligibility would need to be reflected in the updated bond report from the mayor’s housing office.
