Supervisors Unanimously Pass Resolution Calling on SF Housing Authority to Use Federal “Faircloth-to-RAD” Program to Create Up to 3,668 New Affordable Homes

On Eve of Vote, City Agencies Confirm They Will Conduct Feasibility Analysis to Identify Potential Sites and Initiate Applications This Year

This afternoon, the Board of Supervisors unanimously passed Supervisor Preston’s resolution calling for the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA) to fully leverage the “Faircloth-to-RAD” option provided by the US Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”) to create up to 3,668 new deeply affordable rental units with a permanent federal subsidy in San Francisco. Responding to the resolution, SFHA and the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development announced plans to complete a feasibility analysis to identify potential pilot projects to assess Faircloth to RAD opportunities for San Francisco, and to initiate applications this calendar year. 

“Our resolution sent a clear message to MOHCD and SFHA that we need to follow the lead of other big city Mayors and Public Housing Authorities and take advantage of this rare opportunity to fund thousands of new permanently affordable homes for low-income and working-class San Franciscans,” said Supervisor Preston. “We will continue to do everything possible to make sure the Administration fully utilizes this time-limited federal program.”

San Francisco has a critical shortage of affordable rental housing, particularly for low-income households. According to the City’s recently passed housing element, San Francisco must create over 46,000 affordable units during the eight-year cycle 2023-2031, but it has no current plan to achieve that goal in part due to a lack of funding.   

SFHA has the “Faircloth Authority” to create or designate up to 3,668 new deeply affordable rental units in the City which would be subsidized in perpetuity by HUD under a development option introduced by HUD in April 2021 commonly referred to as “Faircloth-to-RAD.” The opportunity was enhanced to offer significant rent augmentation for high cost cities like San Francisco last year, but that is set to expire September 30, 2024. 

“This resolution importantly urges the SFHA to leverage a new HUD tool which helps support public housing agencies across the country create more deeply affordable housing,” said Deborah Thrope, Deputy Director of the National Housing Law Project. “San Francisco, like other high-cost cities across our state, can and should seize this valuable and urgent opportunity to use "Faircloth-to-RAD" to ensure more affordable housing is available to the people who need it most.”

Nationally, more than 4,000 units have already been added to HUD’s “Faircloth-to-RAD” pipeline, including projects by the D.C. Housing Authority, Cambridge Housing Authority in Massachusetts, Philadelphia Housing Authority in Pennsylvania, Chicago Housing Authority in Illinois, and Galveston Texas Housing Authority. 

The Boston Housing Authority is already fully leveraging HUD’s limited-time, rent augmentation flexibility for Faircloth-to-RAD developments to grow their affordable housing units by roughly 3,000 units on city-owned land and in private developments over the next 10 years, Mayor Wu issued a Request For Quotes by developers and owners of new multifamily rental construction or multifamily properties requiring rehabilitation within the City of Boston who are interested in developing these deeply affordable, HUD-subsidized housing units. Similarly, the Housing Authority of the City of Los Angeles amended its 2024 Agency Plan “to use all of its Faircloth Limit authority” (1,965) through the Faircloth-to-RAD program.

Supervisor Preston’s Resolution specifically calls on the San Francisco Housing Authority to release a Request for Qualifications (RFQ), promptly identify potential sites, solicit interested developers, and initiate the Faircloth-to-RAD application process to create new deeply affordable housing units in San Francisco, and report back to the Board of Supervisors within 30 days. 

In response to the resolution, SFHA and MOHCD have now confirmed for the first time that they will complete a feasibility analysis to identify potential sites and initiate applications this calendar year.  

“It shouldn’t take a resolution from the Board of Supervisors, but I’m glad our resolution helped create some urgency on this,” said Supervisor Preston. “My goal is to make sure our City is leveraging every opportunity to create affordable housing.”

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