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Supervisors advance preference and a new fund to help San Francisco fire victims access housing
Summary
The Land Use and Transportation Committee advanced two related measures July 11: Supervisor Scott Wiener's amendment to add fire-displaced residents to an affordable-housing preference and President Breed's ordinance to create a permanent Fire Victims Assistance Fund to provide rental assistance to displaced residents earning up to 100% of AMI.
Supervisor Scott Wiener introduced an amendment to the city's administrative code to add people displaced by residential fires to a local affordable-housing preference category, saying the change would align fire victims with those displaced by Ellis Act or owner-move-in evictions and help them access scarce affordable units. "We have seen way too many fires in San Francisco, year after year," Wiener said, adding that displaced residents often lose possessions and struggle to remain in the city.
President of the Board of Supervisors London Breed presented a complementary ordinance to establish a permanent Fire Victims Assistance Fund in the Human Services Agency. Breed said the fund would accept private donations and public appropriations and would carry forward year to year. "When fire strikes, we should help," Breed said, explaining the fund would extend assistance beyond current HSA subsidies that are limited to households earning below roughly 35 percent of area median income. Breed said the proposed fund would allow assistance for victims earning up to 100 percent of AMI and would change an earlier dollar cap so benefits could be provided for up to two years depending on need.
Breed told the committee the board secured about $300,000 in this year's budget to help fire victims and that HSA would determine allocations. The ordinance sets a sunset/reevaluation point in existing preference language of Dec. 31, 2020, to allow the board to revisit whether the preference should continue.
Committee action: Supervisor Peskin moved the amendments to Breed's ordinance; the committee approved the amendments without objection and recommended the item as amended to the full Board of Supervisors as a committee report.
Why it matters: Committee members said the changes aim to provide short- and medium-term relief to people displaced by fires and to help prevent displacement from pushing low- and middle-income residents out of the city. The Fund also creates a vehicle for private donations to target assistance to fire victims.
What's next: The ordinance and the preference amendment will go to the full board for consideration; the committee left a Dec. 31, 2020 sunset provision so the board can revisit the preference later.
