Jake McGoldrick: Increasing our Affordable Housing

Perhaps the most important continuing challenge facing the city of San Francisco is the issue of providing housing that is affordable to our residents. It was the single most important issue in my campaign to become supervisor and it has continued to occupy much of my time on the Board of Supervisors.

This issue has been an important one for some time. The increasing cost of housing has resulted in many working families, seniors, disabled folks, people with AIDS, people of color, artists, students and others being forced to leave our city because they no longer can afford to live here. The result of all of this economic dislocation is that the diverse cultural fabric of our City has steadily been eroded. We simply must build more housing, particularly affordable housing, if we are to stem this tide.

Building more housing also promises to be an economic boost to our local economy in a recession. There is no single economic activity that has a more potential positive effect on our economy than the construction of housing. Studies by the Chamber of Commerce have demonstrated that dollars from housing construction stay in the local economy and have a significant multiplier effect. That means that every dollar spent on housing construction also results in additional money being spent in other parts of the local economy.

For example, San Francisco construction workers spend their paychecks at their neighborhood groceries. Once the housing is constructed, families occupying the housing spend money at their local hardware stores to improve their homes. In addition, when we build more affordable housing, more San Francisco workers will be able to afford to live in San Francisco. Put simply, building affordable housing is good for the economy.

A number of initiatives are under way that will address aspects of this problem and I would like to share them with you and have your feedback. Perhaps, most significantly, I am working with Mayor Willie Brown, Supervisor Tony Hall and various stakeholders to develop an affordable housing general obligation bond to be submitted to the voters in November 2002. While the exact amount and the exact uses of the money are the subject of intense discussions, it appears the bond will be at least $200 million and will fund construction and preservation of permanently affordable rental and homeownership opportunities.

In 1996, voters approved a $100 million affordable housing bond that will soon be depleted, after providing more than 2,100 affordable rental housing units and assisting more than 240 families in purchasing homes. Yet, this has only scratched the surface of our need. San Francisco voters, in polls over the past two years, have consistently ranked increased affordable housing as one of their top priorities. The San Francisco Organizing Project, a faith-based coalition with members throughout the City and the Richmond, has been crucially involved in developing this proposal and building grassroots support in the neighborhoods and churches. With such widespread support, it is my hope that voters will continue to show their generosity by supporting this necessary housing bond.

But this is only part of the picture. Affordable housing bonds enable the City to subsidize housing for families at income levels the market will never serve. In addition, the Chamber of Commerce has been engaged over the last year in an innovative project designed to provide new mechanisms for financing housing for working families at levels above the median income (currently about $80,000 for a family of four).

This project is part of the chamber's Workforce Housing Initiative, and I strongly support its efforts to help the market provide much needed housing for this segment of the population, allowing government subsidies to be concentrated on families in lower-income groups. And, once again, the chamber's efforts also help our local economy.

Finally, I am also supportive of Supervisor Mark Leno's efforts to legislate a requirement that market-rate housing developers provide 10 to 12 percent of the units in their projects as permanently affordable units. This measure will provide that a portion of all market-rate housing built in San Francisco will be affordable to working families, seniors, the disabled and others currently being pushed out of the City.

Taken together, these initiatives will be a significant step towards meeting our needs for affordable housing. I hope you will join me in supporting these important proposals.

Jake McGoldrick is a San Francisco supervisor representing District 1.