With a Backlog of Applications Pending, Advocates Slam Proposal to Cut $20M from Affordable Housing Program

SAN FRANCISCO — With more than $124m in pending applications, and $63.2m in current program funding, housing advocates blasted a proposal to slash $20m from one of the city’s most effective anti-displacement tools, the Small Sites acquisition program.

“Hundreds of San Franciscans will be denied a stable home if we cut funding from this oversubscribed program,” said Supervisor Dean Preston. “Even with existing funds, we have twice as many pending applications for the city to acquire properties for affordable housing as we can accommodate — it makes absolutely no sense to make massive cuts when we need to be investing in housing stability.”

San Francisco’s acquisition program allows the city to step in and purchase residential buildings, taking them off the private speculative market and converting them to permanently affordable housing, usually in the form of community land trusts. Since its 2014 launch through 2021, the program acquired 47 residential buildings (368 units).

Affordable housing nonprofits confirmed that applications for more than 300 homes have been submitted to the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development for city acquisition. Without any cuts to the program, the city would be in a position to acquire roughly half of the pending requests, preventing displacement and creating permanently affordable homes.

Residents at 320 14th Street in the Mission District, a 16-unit building of majority monolingual Spanish-speaking families, are advocating to have the city purchase their building, currently owned by Veritas Investments. The building is in default, and residents are seeking to negotiate toward sale to a land trust – but only if the city has funds for the purchase.

“This is my home of more than 30 years, and it has been horrible dealing with one corporate landlord after another,” said Francisco Galindo, residents at 320 14th Street. “We have been calling on the city to step in and purchase this building, so my neighbors and I can finally get the peace of mind of a stable home without the constant threat of displacement.”

In November 2021, with the backing of more than 40 community organizations, including housing justice advocates LGBTQ+ groups, and prominent labor organizations, the Board of Supervisors approved an historic $64 million investment in the preservation program, allowing for a significant expansion. This was the first major dedication of funds to the small sites acquisition program.

More than 100 homes across seven different buildings in San Francisco were preserved by this historic investment, according to a February 2023 letter from the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development. The sites include a SOMA property with six long-term families, an SRO with 64 homes badly in need of repair, a North Beach apartment building where tenants hav e lived for 30-plus years. Rather than spend the rest of the earmarked funds on similar acquisitions, the Mayor’s budget proposes to raid the funds, diverting $20 million, a situation exposed by Supervisor Preston at a recent budget hearing.

“The Small Sites program keeps our neighborhoods stable long term," said Saki Bailey, executive director of SF Community Land Trust, part of the Council of Community Housing Organizations. "We need the City to continue funding this work, partnering with SF Community Land Trust and other nonprofits that are rooted in our communities. We can't afford to lose the momentum of nearly a decade of tenants and nonprofits fighting to protect their homes from speculation."

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