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Committee hears BLA jobs‑housing fit report and forwards phased linkage‑fee increase to full Board amid divided business and labor testimony
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Summary
The committee reviewed a BLA report showing a large deficit of low/moderate affordability units and heard economic modeling from the Controller; Supervisor Matt Haney moved a phased increase of the jobs‑housing linkage fee (to $69.60 for office in the long term) and the committee forwarded the amended legislation to the full Board for final action.
The Land Use and Transportation Committee held a combined hearing on Oct. 21 to consider Supervisor Matt Haney’s legislation to update the jobs‑housing linkage fee and a new Budget & Legislative Analyst (BLA) 'jobs‑housing fit' report estimating the city’s shortfall of low‑ and moderate‑income housing relative to job growth.
Fred Broussso of the BLA summarized the report’s principal finding: between 2010 and 2018 San Francisco added roughly 210,000 jobs but only about 24,671 housing units, shifting the housing stock toward high‑income households and producing an estimated deficit of roughly 11,000–13,800 low/moderate income units depending on calculation. “The biggest takeaway… is that we are exceeding housing production for high wage workers… but we are failing miserably at producing housing affordable for our growing low and moderate income workforce,” Broussso said.
Supervisor Haney proposed raising the office linkage fee and indexing it going forward, phasing the increase in over time to avoid sudden shocks to projects already in pipeline. Under his draft the full office fee would reach $69.60 per square foot (lab at $46.43) and funds would be allocated to acquisition/preservation, new construction of permanent supportive housing and a citywide affordable housing fund. Haney told the committee the ordinance would generate roughly $500 million over 10 years and yield close to 2,000 permanently affordable units.
The Controller’s office presented an economic impact study modeling the fee’s effect on development feasibility. Ted Egan said a $40/sq ft increase is roughly a 6% rise in non‑land development costs and that his model projects a marginal decline of about 125,000–140,000 square feet of future office development per year (roughly a 0.2% reduction relative to baseline growth) and an annual revenue increase of roughly $8–9 million. Egan emphasized this is a change in future growth, not a removal of existing office space or jobs.
Public comment split along familiar lines: unions, housing advocates and tenant groups urged immediate, substantial increases to fund low‑income housing and stop displacement; business and developer representatives asked for more time to study feasibility and urged a phased approach or lower starting points to avoid making some office or lab projects infeasible. Many community groups and labor speakers argued the fee has not been updated in 22 years and must be increased to reflect current construction and housing costs.
After extended discussion Supervisor Haney offered a phase‑in schedule for the fees (transitional rates for projects in process, with full rate effective January 1, 2022) and committed to continued stakeholder negotiation and regular review of fee levels. The committee voted to forward the legislation and the amendments to the full Board as amended for final action.
Next steps: the full Board will receive the ordinance and the BLA report; Haney and staff committed to further stakeholder meetings between committee and Board consideration.
