By Annie Gaus :sfstandard – excerpt

After posting a massive budget surplus earlier this year, California’s fortunes may be about to drastically change.

California is facing a $25 billion dollar deficit in the next fiscal year, according to the state’s nonpartisan legislative analyst. And that’s the beginning of what may become an ongoing, multiyear deficit in the billions driven by inflation, high interest rates and the threat of a recession.

That all adds up to a big “budget problem”—legislative parlance for a deficit—that California lawmakers need to fix in order to write a balanced statewide budget, the analysts wrote.

“California has enjoyed a good economic run, before and even during the pandemic, but we also know that the state’s budget has been built on a little bit of a risky platform,” said Rufus Jeffris, a spokesperson for the Bay Area Council…

It remains to be seen what budget cuts may materialize before the state finalizes a spending plan next June, but subsidies for affordable housing, transportation or other local initiatives could be on the chopping block, Jeffris added.…(more)

by Anna Tong : sfstandard – excerpt

Two dozen of San Francisco’s top YIMBYs gathered in a spacious Bernal Heights backyard in September to discuss the movement founder’s latest venture: a $1 million cash reserve to take San Francisco to court should it stymie any new housing projects.

YIMBY founder Sonja Trauss, who led a group discussion about the annals of housing policy while soothing her newborn baby, likened the Sue San Francisco Fund to a denial-of-service (DoS) attack on the city, referring to a type of cyber strike that paralyzes its target by blitzing it with an overwhelming number of requests…

To borrow a phrase from tech, their cause has been in hyper-growth mode. In about a decade, Trauss went from a lone dissenter facing off against neighborhood activists in San Francisco Planning Commission meetings to the figurehead for a sprawling movement with 140 groups in 29 states that goes toe-to-toe with local politicians and homeowners over housing construction.

But on their home turf, YIMBYs have watched their goals slip seemingly further and further out of reach. Last year, the city authorized 43% fewer units than its 10-year average. The Board of Supervisors has recently thwarted projects like a high-rise on an empty parking lot, drawing protests. In comparison, California as a whole has nearly tripled the number of annual housing permits issued in the last decade, according to the Census Bureau…(more)

By Tim Redmond

…The Planning Commission will hear an informal presentation on the latest draft of the Housing Element Thursday/3, and I have no idea what the planners can say that will make any sense at all. The Housing Element is largely a fantasy. It’s based on a premise of meeting the state’s housing (including affordable housing) mandates, but those are also a fantasy.

It’s as if the planners have no sense of economic reality. We know the city has approved more than 50,000 units of housing that haven’t broken ground. We know there are 60,000 empty units in the city. That’s more than the state mandate, by a lot. But nothing is happening to address either of those issues; it’s as if they commission can waive its hands and rezone the city and clear “red tape” and magically profit-seeking developers who need financing from international speculative capital are going to start building housing, instantly, that the workforce can afford.

They won’t even build housing that the workforce can’t afford. The only thing getting built is tiny micro-units for single people—but priced at more than $2,000 a month…(more)

Some assume that the only point of the RHNA operations is to assure failure so that state may step in and micromanage the local communities development schemes. There is a new program announced by the state NCD and whoever else is responsible for the RHNA counts called “Builders Remedy” that seems to be a punishment for cities that fail to meet their RHNA goals.\

According to Hollabd and Knight, “the Builder’s Remedy is a housing development streamlining tool that provides developers the option to file an application for a housing development project with at least 20 percent affordable housing that is not in conformance with a jurisdiction’s zoning or General Plan”…(more)

How they can further streamline a system that is as lean as the one they have now is quite a mystery. You can’t get too much more streamlined that to declare property options are allowable “by right.” There is not much more you can give developers than a free hand to develop without any oversight or public involvement.

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Why is everyone so set on meeting “RHNA” standards when the evidence is very clear that it will never happen?

In March, the Office of the State Auditor released a report on the implementation of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, the massive planning process that seeks to add 2.5 million housing units to the state over the next eight years.

Most of the major news media in the state ignored the audit, which was pretty scathing: It said, in essence that the Department of Housing and Community Development, which oversees RHNA, bungled the numbers, used projections that aren’t reliable, and left cities and counties hanging without accurate goals and timetables.

People who are typically on opposite sides of the housing debate cheered: Yimby law said that audit should that HCD’s projections were too low. The California Association of Local Electeds said the audit proved projections were too high.

Missing from much of the debate and discussion is a problem that a few critics have raised from the start: The RHNA goals are so far-fetched that cities and counties can’t possible meet them—and that’s not entirely, or even primarily, the fault of local government… (more)

How many times do we have to say it? Cities don’t build housing. For a deep div into Bill Barns tapes go to the Catalyst site where you may download it copies of all their Town Halls and register for more. catalystsca.org/

Given the lack of honesty and truth about the reasons for the loss of affordable housing, our Sacramento politicians are trying to shift the blame for their failures to “fix” the homeless problem to local governments. How likely is this to work when we have rolling blackouts and water shortages, epic wildfire, and have become a global joke?

By Mckenzie Locke, CP&DR News Briefs : : cp-dr – excerpt

Three Key Housing Bills to Reach Newsom’s Desk
Three bills considered game-changers by housing advocates have been approved by both houses of the legislature and are headed to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk. Lawmakers reached an agreement with labor leaders on AB 2011 and SB 6, two housing bills that would make commercial real estate available for residential construction…Meanwhile, AB 2097, which effectively eliminates parking requirements within a half-mile of major transit stops, also passed the senate…

HCD Calls for Review of San Francisco’s Downsizing of Proposed Residential Project
The Department of Housing and Community Development has, for a second time, notified San Francisco that it may have violated state housing law for a medium-density project. In the newest case, a proposed six-story project in the Mission District, state housing officials wrote to voice their concern about the city’s decision to downsize an affordable housing project. The Planning Commission and the developer agreed to reduce the height of the project by about 10 feet, down to five stories. The height reduction would not change the number of available units, but the state argues that limiting height is a conflict in the fight to increase density. The state wrote that, under the state density bonus law, the city cannot downzone projects that contain enough affordable housing to be eligible for density increases. Officials are requesting that the city communicate its justification…(more)

This is where we are expected to let go of all reason and walk through the looking glass. What is the purpose of increasing height in a building if not to satisfy the need for more units? What is the point in forcing extra stories on a building at considerable costs to the owner and discomfort to the neighbors, if the architects have been able to design the designated number of units without an additional story?

What is the purpose of up-zoning and density if not to build housing units? Adding floors is not the only way to add density. One may eliminate other uses and or use of the many options to reduce open space to extend the footprint of the building and reduce the building height. This project sounds with a reasonable solution was reached that all parties agreed to. The owner probably wanted to reduce the cost of the projects and may realize a greater profit due to those reduced cost. Reducing cost during an inflationary period makes sense and may have been the deciding factor.

What is HCD trying to do? Force the developer to spend more money?

By Joe Burn : sfstandard – excerpt

San Francisco Fire Department paramedics were left shaken after their ambulance was stolen by a man wielding a “stake from a tree” Monday morning, officials said.

The pair of Local 798 paramedics escaped unharmed after the incident at 6:50 a.m., which saw a male suspect break the windows of the ambulance at the 1700 block of Harrison Street, according to the police and fire departments…

The Mid-Market-based fire department union has now demanded that District Attorney Brooke Jenkins and Mayor London Breed take action…(more)

By Mike Ege : sfstandard – excerpt

District 6 Supervisor Matt Dorsey and main election challenger Honey Mahogany touted their records on housing—and exchanged occasional barbs—at an Aug. 22 forum sponsored by SF YIMBY, the housing advocacy group.

As in previous debates, Dorsey and Mahogany were largely aligned on policy questions, with both enthusiastically supporting housing reforms. But with SF YIMBY’s endorsement meetings fast approaching, the candidates also dragged out policy skeletons in the hopes of sowing doubts about their opponent’s pro-housing bona fides…

Bummed to report that the [DCCC]@SFDemocrats
went with the anti-housing measure. Here is the unofficial vote count…(more)
[DCCC]

See the list of DCCC Democrats who voted YES AHPA (anti-housing) as far as YIMBY is concerned. Has YIMBY logic gone too far into fantasy land for most Democrats? Note who votes yes on both. Ting, Mar, Haney. Guess they can’t get enough housing, or they may be confused? Haven’t read the bills? Anything that say housing is good?

from twitter:

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Mayor names an East Bay consultant who hasn’t been involved in local activism on land-use issues.

Mayor London Breed has nominated for a crucial Planning Commission seat an economic consultant who works in the East Bay and has, as far as I can tell, no record of engagement or activism on any local planning or land-use issue.

In fact, it’s surprising how little information is available about Derek Braun…

Braun, according to his resume and LinkedIn account and the resume he submitted to the Board of Supes, is a principal at Strategic Economics, a Berkeley outfit that does studies for local government. He has a master’s degree in planning from the University of Southern California…

On his resume, he lists two “affiliations:” The San Francisco Bicycle Coalition and SPUR. The coalition has more than 12,000 members, and he’s not on the board. SPUR also has a large membership, and he’s not on the board or any committees…

In fact, it’s very unusual for the mayor to nominate someone to such a powerful body who has no clear record in local politics, no way for the supes to judge what type of perspective he would bring to the panel…(more)

He doesn’t need to talk to the media or the supervisors because he meets all the requirements Breed needs by being affiliated with SF Bicycle Coalition and SPUR and his firm probably contracts with the city.

by Sarah Wright : sfstandard – excerpt

Late last month, as part of budget negotiations, Mayor London Breed agreed to spend $112 million on affordable housing, calling to use money from debt financing to pay for new housing projects and fund repairs to existing buildings.

It was part of a late-night budget deal that preserved most of the mayor’s priorities, but also added money originally requested by Supervisor Dean Preston as part of a “social housing” package, and in line with recommendations from the Housing Stability Fund Oversight Board. That board was formed to help figure out how to spend revenue coming from Proposition I, a real estate transfer tax that feeds into the city’s general fund.

So what does social housing actually mean? Let’s break it down.

What is social housing? Social housing, a type of public housing used in parts of Europe where government plays a larger role in providing social programs, aims to use private money to subsidize government-run housing where rents are capped for tenants based on their income level…It must be permanently affordable, and the average income across all tenants must not exceed 80% of the local median income…

How is it different from public housing? Public housing is state-run housing that caps housing costs to 30% of a resident’s income, and is only available to low-income renters who make less than 80% of the median income in the city. Social housing would institute a similar income-based rent cap but would not use income levels to restrict who can live there…

The major difference between the two concepts is where the subsidy for lower rents is coming from, Hyatt said. In public housing, it’s 100% from the government, while social housing would also use high-income rents or taxes to make up the rent gap for lower-income tenants.

by Kevin Truong : sfstandard – excerpt

In a statement, Mandelman said he would continue to work with his colleagues on housing initiatives, including a new version of his fourplex legislation that may return later this year. But he “strongly rejected” the notion that the state should dictate the city’s zoning.

“Relying on State laws like SB 9 to solve our housing crisis is a complete abdication of our obligations as local leaders, and sends the sad message to San Franciscans that City Hall simply cannot come together to get things done for the people who sent us here,” he said…(more)