Supervisor Preston, Housing Advocates and Labor Leaders Announce Social Housing Budget Package

SAN FRANCISCO — Supervisor Preston and housing justice advocates announced a plan today to fund social housing based on Prop I revenue, combining long-term debt financing and a request in this year’s city budget.

“We raised funds for social housing, convened a group of housing experts to tell us how to spend it, and now we’re making good on the promise,” said Supervisor Preston. “This social housing package is an investment in the city’s future, and it helps get us back on track to ensure working people have a place in San Francisco.”

Since the passage of Prop I in 2020, the transfer tax increase has raised more than $220 million, and it is projected to bring in $170 million annually over the next five years. An advisory body set up to give spending recommendations, known as the Housing Stability Fund Oversight Board, unanimously approved expenditure guidelines in March 2022, including funding for land acquisition, teacher housing, and life-safety repairs at public housing.

“We urgently need this investment in affordable housing to prevent more working people, seniors, and communities from being priced out of this city,” said Molly Goldberg, director of the SF Anti Displacement Coalition. “The city must honor the clear intention of voters to fund these new housing initiatives through Proposition I’s tax on big real estate.”

Despite the severe underfunding for affordable housing, Mayor Breed’s FY22-24 budget does not fund the HSFOB’s recommendations or meaningfully address the affordable housing funding shortfall. The Mayor’s budget follows a hearing that revealed that the City lacks any plan to meet affordable housing goals.

In response, Supervisor Preston and advocates are proposing a Prop I budget package, consisting of Certificates of Participation, a long-term debt financing tool, and a budget request for the current fiscal year.

The budget package breaks down as follows:

• Certificates of Participation - $100 million

  • Acquisition of land for 100% affordable social housing developments

  • Construction of permanently affordable, social housing

  • Repairs and life-safety upgrades for existing public housing and housing cooperatives

• Budget Ask - $35 million

  • Construction of shovel-ready 100% Educator Housing ($12m)

  • Urgent Repairs at SROs for elevator installation and upgrades ($10m)

  • Capacity Building of underserved neighborhoods and populations to develop or participate in housing cooperative, land trusts, and other innovate social housing models ($9m)

  • Rental Subsidies for extremely low income seniors and people with disabilities ($4m)

“Workers are essential to San Francisco’s survival, but we know that the people who serve our city can’t afford to live here,” said Kung Feng, Executive Director at Jobs with Justice San Francisco. “We’re calling on our elected leaders to step up for our essential workers, come together around this vision and deliver on the promise of social housing.”

Certificates of Participation (COPs) are a commonly-used long-term debt financing tool used to finance the acquisition, preservation, and/or construction of affordable housing. In the past five years, the City has authorized more than $1 billion in COP financing.

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