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Committee backs BMR designated-childcare units on ground floor to help family childcare providers
Summary
Supervisors advanced an ordinance to allow one permanently affordable BMR designated childcare unit (BMR DCCU at 80% AMI) on the ground floor in some commercial corridors; Planning staff presented childcare gaps and operational requirements; committee approved amendments and will forward a committee report.
Supervisor Norman Yee introduced legislation to expand the Designated Childcare Unit (DCCU) program by allowing one permanently affordable BMR (below-market-rate) DCCU per project, aimed at stabilizing family childcare providers and increasing infant care slots.
Sheila Nicholas of the San Francisco Planning Department laid out the proposal and data: "There are more than 23,000 children ages 0 to 2 in San Francisco, but only 3,400 child care spots for them," she said, noting that DCCUs have not previously been used because market-rate units are unaffordable for many providers. Under the proposed changes a single BMR DCCU would be set at 80% of area median income (AMI), be permanently affordable, and in certain commercial corridors it would be counted as an active ground-floor use rather than prohibited residential ground-floor use.
Nicholas described operational safeguards and monitoring: eligible tenants would be selected in coordination with the Office of Early Care and Education, MOHCD would monitor tenancy, a tenant who did not begin operating within nine months or who stopped providing childcare within the first 10 years would be required to vacate within 180 days, and a tenant providing care for 10 years could stop providing care and remain in the unit.
Supervisors asked technical questions (eg., egress/open-space and why one unit per project). Supporters from Parent Voices and the Housing Action Coalition urged the policy as a tool for stabilizing providers; the Planning Commission recommended the legislation without modification. The committee accepted the proposed amendments without objection and agreed to forward the item as a committee report for full-board consideration.
