By Senator Scott Wiener–
While there are two similar-sounding housing measures on San Francisco’s November 8 ballot—Prop D and Prop E—only one of them will make it faster and easier to build more affordable homes and that’s Prop D: Affordable Homes Now.
With housing affordability top of mind for residents, it’s essential that voters fully understand the major differences between these two measures. That’s not so easy to do, however, because some are spreading blatant misinformation about both.
I have the honor of serving as Chair of the Senate Housing Committee, and housing is my top priority in the Senate. I’m deep in housing policy and pay close attention to the details of whether a proposal will lead to more housing faster. When you lay out the facts, it’s abundantly clear that Prop D is the only measure that will lead to more affordable homes—while Prop E will do nothing to alleviate SF’s ever-worsening affordability crisis. Let’s look at three (of the many) reasons why that’s the case.
1. Prop D is the only measure backed by affordable housing leaders with a record of pro-housing progress.
Prop D was placed on the ballot with signatures from more than 80,000 residents who, like the overwhelming majority of San Francisco voters, strongly support building more affordable homes for lower and middle-income residents. It’s backed by a broad coalition of nonprofits led by Habitat for Humanity Greater San Francisco, Mission Housing, the Nor Cal Carpenters Union, and many others, along with myself, Mayor London Breed, and Supervisor Matt Dorsey.
Prop E, on the other hand, was put on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors, whose majority has routinely blocked, politicized, and delayed so many new housing projects—including affordable housing—that the state of California is now investigating our city and considering penalties against us. The Board of Supervisors has, similarly, voted consistently to kill pro-housing legislation that would have done the most to create thousands of new affordable homes for San Francisco residents who need them most.
2. Prop D is the only measure that fully expedites and de-politicizes 100% affordable housing projects.
For projects where 100% of the homes are affordable to low- and middle-income residents and where the projects comply with all existing planning/building codes and zoning rules, Prop Dstreamlines the permitting and funding and prevents these projects from being killed by meritless lawsuits brought by NIMBYs.
In contrast, Prop E does nothing to stop 100% affordable housing projects from being delayed to death by bad-faith lawsuits or killed by the Board of Supervisors. Leaving such projects vulnerable to getting killed by NIMBYs abusing the legal system is not streamlining, no matter how many times Prop E backers attempt to claim it is. The reality is that the Board of Supervisors majority crafted Prop E to make it look like the measure expedites housing while actually empowering the Board of Supervisors to keep killing new housing proposals.
3. Prop D is the only measure that will speed up the affordable housing project approval process.
San Francisco’s affordable housing shortage is due, in part, to its needlessly lengthy approval process that can take an average of 4–7 years to approve a single housing project—longer than any other city in California. These excessive delays further drive-up housing costs, making our city even more unaffordable for lower- and middle-income residents.
To expedite the approval process, Prop D requires affordable housing projects to be approved by the city within 3–6 months once an eligible application has been submitted and prevents the city from playing politics and thus delaying or rejecting eligible projects.
Prop E, by stark contrast, fails to provide any time frames for the City to deem project applications eligible for streamlining. What does that mean? No time frames means there is no accountability for anyone to speed up anything. Projects can be killed by running out the clock.
There are even more differences between Prop D and Prop E detailed by nonprofit think tank SPUR that document why Prop D is the only measure on the ballot that will create more affordable homes faster and why Prop E will do nothing to stop San Francisco’s housing affordability crisis from growing worse: https://tinyurl.com/4hxx55nn
With so much at stake for tens of thousands of San Francisco residents in dire need of affordable homes, the solution is clear: Vote Yes on Prop D for Affordable Homes Now: https://www.affordablehomesnow.org/
Scott Wiener represents San Francisco and northern San Mateo County in the California State Senate and previously served as a member of San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors. Senator Wiener serves as Chair of the Senate Housing Committee. https://tinyurl.com/5b6xh67e
Published on October 20, 2022
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