San Francisco– Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer introduced legislation today to create an Affordable Housing Production and Preservation Fund that will receive appropriated excess Education Revenue Augmentation Fund (ERAF) revenues received by the City from the State. The fund is being created for the purpose of funding both the production of new 100% affordable housing and the acquisition and preservation of existing housing to make it permanently affordable. Supervisors Brown, Walton, Mandelman, Peskin, Haney, and Mar are co-sponsors of the legislation.

San Francisco is currently on track to exceed its Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA) goal for market rate housing, but is falling far short of its goals for very low, low, moderate, and middle income housing. According to the Planning Department’s latest Housing Balance Report, only 25% of new units produced in San Francisco in the last 10 years have been affordable, despite the City’s goal being 33%. The projected housing balance shows the City falling even further from its affordability goal, with only 22% of new units in the pipeline projected to be affordable. On top of this, the report also found that for every 2 new units of affordable housing the City created, 1 unit of existing affordable housing was lost to Ellis Act evictions, Owner Move In Evictions, Demolitions, and Condo Conversions.

“This data from the Housing Balance Report illustrates why it is so critical that the City invest more in both the production and preservation of affordable housing, instead of taking two steps forward and one step back,” said Supervisor Fewer. “If we are serious about meeting our housing balance goals and addressing our affordability crisis, we cannot merely rely on market rate developer fees to fund our affordable housing.”

The legislation calls for 50% of future excess ERAF revenues received by the City to be appropriated to the Affordable Housing Production and Preservation Fund. Half of the monies in the fund would be allocated for production of new 100% affordable housing, and half would be used for the acquisition and preservation of existing housing through anti-displacement programs such as the Small Sites Program.

“The Board of Supervisors understands that addressing our affordability crisis by producing and preserving more affordable housing should be our top priority,” added Supervisor Fewer. “This is an opportunity to put our money where our mouth is.”