Category: Update

by Mary Kate Bacalao : sfstandard – excerpt

Mary Kate Bacalao is the director of external affairs and policy at Compass Family Services, co-chair of the Homeless Emergency Service Providers Association, and co-chair of the Local Homeless Coordinating Board.

The Chronicle’s investigation of “unstable, underfunded and understaffed residential hotel rooms” is a sobering indictment of a housing system pushed to its absolute breaking point.

Single-room occupancy hotels, commonly called SROs, are a cornerstone of San Francisco’s supportive housing portfolio. The supportive housing model—which at its heart combines deeply affordable housing assistance with robust on-site services—went national in the 1990s, and in recent years state and local revenues like Project Homekey and 2018’s Proposition C have catalyzed significant expansions to deal with a growing crisis of unsheltered homelessness. The problem is not that supportive housing is a failed model, but that these program expansions are happening on top of a foundation that is crumbling from decades of underinvestment…(more)

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt (includes infograph)

Mayor’s Office has no clue where to find the money, and won’t even spend the existing Prop. I windfall right now. It’s ‘unbelievable’.

If San Francisco wants to meet its state-mandated affordable housing goals, the city will need to find roughly $19 billion of local money over the next eight years—and nobody at the Mayor’s Office or the City Planning Department has any idea where that kind of money will come from.

In fact, officials from those departments can’t even explain what the current funding gaps are, or have been in the past three years…

Preston asked if the Mayor’s Office of Housing or the Planning Department had requested that Breed spend the Prop. I money on housing. The clear answer: No.…(more)

Is this Mayor’s Office of Housing where the holdup lies? Must she wait to be asked by on of her departments to spend the funds?

When the SF Bank is established will the officers be empowered to write checks for projects approved by the Supervisors or will they have to wait for the Mayor or one of her departments to approve their financial decisions?

Monday, June 13, 7 PM
What it is like to live in a BMR in San Francisco.
We will introduce Supervisor Preston to his new Tenderloin constituents and others who live in BMR and mixed income projects under various government- supported programs to find out which are the most popular among the  residents. We hope discus  different programs for different neighborhoods and consider how residents can grade the building managers to strengthen the system that is supposed to support their needs.  (Information)
Monday, Jun 13, 2022 07:00 PM – Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/83818239821?pwd=NlJ6T1BoRVhjdENCTzA0V0lhVit3dz09
Meeting ID: 838 1823 9821
Passcode: 443720
Dial by your location
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 838 1823 9821
Passcode: 443720

By Rick Girling : 48hills – excerpt

Historic proposal that could transform municipal and nonprofit financing will present preliminary plans.

On Thursday/19 at 3pm, newly-hired public banking consultant HR&A Advisors will join the Reinvest in San Francisco Working Group in formulating a plan to establish San Francisco’s first public bank since the city was founded more than 200 years ago.

Last June, the Board of Supervisors took an important step towards setting up a public bank for the city by unanimously passing the Reinvest in San Francisco ordinance introduced by Supervisor Dean Preston. Another dramatic step came on April 15, 2022, with the first official meeting of the Working Group, composed of financial professionals and community representatives charged with preparing a business plan for the bank. After being approved by the Board of Supervisors, the plan will be submitted to the California Department of Financial Protection and Innovation in Sacramento…(more)

By Michael Barca : substandard – excerpt

San Francisco is entering uncharted territory to recoup more than $23 million that city officials say Recology shouldn’t have charged local ratepayers for trash pick-up.

Supervisor Aaron Peskin announced legislation Tuesday urging the city Controller’s Office to draft new rates that Recology can charge San Francisco customers for garbage collection.

According to Peskin, this marks the first time in nearly a century that the city—rather than Recology or its predecessors—plans to initiate rate-setting. The supervisor hopes to offset a billing increase due in July by directing the controller to kickstart the process now.

Peskin’s legislation comes a day after Controller Ben Rosenfield concluded that Recology netted $23.4 million in “excess profits” between 2018 and 2021—largely because the firm spent less on its workforcethan anticipated…(more)

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Speculators who use the Ellis Act to evict tenants saw their property values rise almost twice as fast as other landlords in the city, with the median haul from tossing long-term renters into the streets at $1.4 million.

That’s what a study, by the Board of Supes Budget and Legislative Analyst, makes clear—and it shows that these speculators can afford to pay far more money in relocation fees than the city currently charges.

The report was requested by Sup. Myrna Melgar, who has introduced legislation to raise the relocation fees, currently at $7,419 per tenant, to $10,000. That bill will be heard Monday/16 at the Land Use and Transportation Committee.

Melgar is seeking to raise the relocation fees to $10,000 per tenant, with a maximum of $30,000 for a unit.

The legislation would also make clear that if a landlord decides to re-rent any unit vacated by the Ellis Act they also have to rent the rest of the units, at the pre-Ellis price…(more)

by Joe Eskenazi : 48hills – excerpt

Multiple sources close to the process on Sunday told Mission Local that Mayor London Breed will today name SFPD Director of Strategic Communications Matt Dorsey as the next District 6 supervisor, replacing Matt Haney.

Let the record show that Dorsey — the former longtime spokesman for City Attorney Dennis Herrera — is an extremely smart and competent man, is a savvy political operator with longstanding relationships in this city, and possesses a deep knowledge of the dark arts of San Francisco politics. He is someone ready for a street fight — certainly on the moderate-friendly streets of the newly formed, Tenderloin-free District 6.

But, make no mistake: Tapping the cops’ spokesman for political office — a career communications pro and political operative, who also recently served as a lobbyist for a firm representing tech and business titans — is a hell of a thing…(more)

Joe was right about that. It appear there will be another battle for the new district so this position may be short lived. We shall soon find out who the priorities are of the residents of the newly contrived district 6.

By Mary McFadden : 48hills – excerpt

Emphasizing supply intentionally ignores what drives demand: tax subsidies for multi-billion-dollar corporations

Apple still gets huge tax breaks that promote the economic inequality behind the housing crisis. Wikimedia Commons image by Andrew Hitchcock.

Zelda Bronstein in her article, Supply Sophistry, is completely correct in her examination of the many flaws in the supply and demand argument as it pertains to housing. It is worth noting that supply and demand doesn’t really apply to anything.

The supply and demand mantra has infiltrated all our economic debates and permeates our housing discussions even as it leads further and further away from economic justice. This myth is propagated by those who profit from entrenching it into our assumptions. Nothing has ever been a direct supply-and-demand relationship because a host of conditions—slavery, labor devaluation, tariffs, taxes, global corporate conglomeration—make consumerism an indirect relationship…(more)

by David Sjostedt : sfstandard – excerpt

City officials are demobilizing a city-sanctioned tent village at Civic Center in preparation for the comeback of Pride festivities in June.

The encampment opened in May 2020 as a temporary solution for unhoused residents, many of whom were evicted from the city’s shared shelter spaces due to Covid outbreaks. The city is now in the process of moving tent dwellers to other shelter and shutting down the site in the coming weeks.

Denny Machuca-Grebe, spokesperson for the Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, said the city is in the process of rehousing the remaining 24 guests at the site into permanent supportive housing. Those who aren’t rehoused will be placed into one of the city’s shelters until an appropriate placement is found, Machuca-Grebe said… (more)

By Tim Redmond : 48hills – excerpt

Task Force members say Mayor’s Office was calling the shots on redistricting

Shortly before the Redistricting Task Force meeting Monday, approximately 150 protesters gathered outside City Hall, saying that the Task Force is under political influence and has ignored concerns aired by members of the public during prior meetings.

Their concerns reflect the very public statements of some Task Force members, who say the mapping process has been secretly driven by the Mayor’s Office…(more)

Don’t know how secret this is since the allegations are pasted on headlines around the city, but, what is interesting in this impromptu rush to tell, is that so far no one has denied the story. Or I missed the denials if there are any. Let us know if you see any.