Housing Crisis Hot Topic at Monthly Town Hall Meeting

By Deanna Yick

District 1 Supervisor Jake McGoldrick and a panel of city officials hosted a Town Hall meeting July 21 to update residents on the current status of the affordable housing crisis and listen to public feedback and ideas. Because demand exceeds supply, the prices for housing have skyrocketed in the past two years.

Catherine Bauman, senior planner for the Planning Department, brought everyone up to date on the housing element of the city's general plan, a draft of which will be reviewed by members of the public, the City Planning Commission, the California Department of Housing and Community Development and the Board of Supervisors in the fall and then certified by the state of California by the end of the year. The plan will guide the city's housing policy and programs through 2006.

The housing plan is composed of three parts: data analysis, policies and implementation programs.

As of presstime, the first part of the housing plan was nearly complete. Facts and figures that were collected included population and employment trends, financial issues, the state of existing housing, availability, cost of land, infrastructure, transportation, public policies and community acceptance of new housing. The data was analyzed to determine what kinds of housing and how much more housing the City needs to provide.

"The City needs almost 3,000 units every year, from now until 2006, and two-thirds of those units should be affordable units for people with low or moderate incomes," Bauman said.

Yet the City may not need to build all of these units from scratch since planning department studies show a number of existing buildings that can possibly be converted into rental units.

Daryl Higashi, deputy director of the Mayor's Office of Housing, noted that taking advantage of already existing buildings and turning them into affordable rental units would be an economically efficient plan.

"The state and federal governments are not providing the housing, so the financing for the program must come from this city," Higashi said. "We have a $160 million budget approved by Mayor Brown, yet that is still not enough. The $160 million will build only about 200 units."

Panelist Calvin Welch of the Council of Community Housing Organizations also urged the utilization of existing structures rather than just creating new buildings to alleviate the housing shortage.

"It would be wise to preserve the existing housing stock and convert it into affordable rental housing," Welch said. "The reality is San Francisco is already a developed city, and there are no large areas of underdeveloped land we can clear and build upon. So affordable housing in an urban context has to be in existing neighborhoods. This means we have to talk about communities."

Indeed, the community talked back. McGoldrick opened the forum to residents who voiced their ideas and opinions about the housing issue and prompted discussion with the panel.

One resident suggested that offstreet parking areas, such as surface level parking lots, could be used to build more housing since the City has minimal undeveloped land but a good public transit system.

Both the panel and the public agreed that this idea hinged on reducing the number of vehicles in the City and a change of lifestyle. Jose Luis Moscovich, executive director of the San Francisco Transportation Authority, assured the public that it is very possible for San Franciscans to live without cars by walking to their destinations or coordinating with transit services while also reducing pollution.

One resident proposed that San Francisco look to foreign lands such as Hong Kong and Singapore, citing that they managed to build large amounts of housing in a constricted space while still offering it to the public at affordable costs.

However, Higashi noted that those places made housing a top national priority, which is clearly not the case here.

Other residents demanded action, saying that a solution needed to be made quickly because San Francisco's housing situation is continually worsening.

Another speaker expressed concern that immigrants were being blamed for the housing crisis.

"We can't blame immigrants," she said. "You or your ancestors were all immigrants at one time." She stressed that the housing policy is the problem, not immigrants, so everyone needs to work together to find a solution without allowing the divisive issue of discrimination to detract from the central problem.

One resident reminded her neighbors that everyone needed to cooperate and do their part if they wanted the housing crisis to end.

"We must be willing to increase the housing density and live closer together in a community," she said.

Another relevant issue deemed important was who would live in the housing units. Residents want units opened not only for individuals with low or moderate incomes, but also for seniors, the disabled and people who work hard and want their dreams of their own living space realized.

Marc Trotz, director of housing and urban health for the Department of Public Health, also emphasized the need to house individuals with mental and chronic health conditions.