While the City’s inclusionary laws currently require projects with 25 units or more to set aside 15% of the total for below market-rate (BMR) rentals, developers have been able to circumvent those requirements due to host of State-sponsored loopholes. The Safeway site on Mission Street in the Bernal flats is projected to net 370 units – with only 13.7% of the rentals being affordable. (This is a particularly disturbing loss for a neighborhood whose area median income is $150,000 a year and where displacement has put Latinos in the minority population. Clearly the neighborhood needs guaranteed affordable housing!)

This month, the SF Board of Supervisors will vote to adopt a billionaire-supported plan to redevelop two-thirds of San Francisco. The Mayor and several Supervisors have framed this proposal as a “gun to the head” and the only way to prevent a “State takeover” where developers don’t have to offer any concessions to the City or submit to value recapture. 

The reality is that those two options are not that dissimilar, especially when framed as a way to appease development interests looking to take advantage of the next tech boom market. It is a false choice. There is a third way, a plan that uses upzoning as a tool to build the affordable housing we need faster — without displacing residents.