Big news! We’ve added new housing program data - check them out under “Housing Programs” on each city page.
Housing programs are the strategies that cities and counties legally have at their disposal to produce more and preserve existing affordable housing, as well as protect existing residents from getting displaced from their homes and communities.
Local housing programs, as part of a housing element, have significant impacts on a city or county reaching its affordable housing goals. Each additional housing policy has a significant impact on the residents who are most in need of affordable housing. However, the number of programs that a jurisdiction includes in their housing element is not meant to imply how well a city or county is addressing local housing needs since the quality and impact of each will need to be determined as well.
Use the below data to explore this jurisdiction’s approaches to affirmatively furthering fair housing for the 6th element cycle, and review the actions, deliverables, and deadlines committed to for each program.
PROGRAM NUMBER | ACTIONS | DELIVERABLE | DELIVERABLE DATE |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1.1.1 | By March 2023, convene City leadership, staff, policymakers, affordable housing advocates, and industry experts to collaborate on an Affordable Housing Implementation and Funding Strategy that provides specific recommendations and responsible parties to achieve and sustain the substantial public funding from local, state, and federal sources, that would join with public-private partnerships, needed to achieve the RHNA targets of over 46,000 units affordable at low- and moderate-incomes. Assign appropriate City staff to include a budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2023-2024 and complete this effort by January 31, 2024 | Expand affordable housing funding by a minimum of 30% | |
| 1.2.1 | Build between 25% and 50% of the City’s new permanently affordable housing within Well-resourced Neighborhoods over the next two RHNA cycles, implementing the zoning strategies of Policy 20 | 25%-50% of permanently affordable housing on newly acquired sites in Well-Resourced Neighborhoods by 2031. | |
| 4.3.1 | Strategically acquire sites and identify targeted funding for land acquisition and banking for affordable housing throughout the city. This will include lots for consolidation that can accommodate permanently affordable housing of at least 50 to 100 units or more through publicly funded purchases, in balance with investment in affordable housing preservation and production and in strategic coordination with sites owned by religious, nonprofit, and public property owners. Prioritize sites of interest identified in coordination with American Indian, Black, and other communities of color. Consider sites that accommodate fewer than 50 units as additional affordable housing funding, financing, and operating approaches are secured. | Acquire and fund sites for minimum of 2,160 units over the 8-year plan, with 25-50% in Well Resourced Neighborhoods | |
| 1.5.3 | Increase housing that is affordable to extremely low and very low-income households in Well Resourced Neighborhoods, as well as in Priority Equity Geographies and Cultural Districts, through City-funded permanently affordable housing projects. | Apply 25-50% distribution of affordable units in Well-resourced Neighborhoods to the total ELI and VLI units produced, including 30% of units in affordable housing for formerly homeless. | |
| 7.1.2 | Increase staff allocation within Planning to engage with communities living in Well-resourced Neighborhoods to inform existing residents how locating new housing and permanently affordable | Complete rezoning program and launch a program to provide community education on affordable housing planning and development by January 31, 2026. | 2026 |
| 7.1.1 | Create a rezoning program to meet the New Housing Choices and requirements of San Francisco’s Regional Housing Affordability in Areas of Needs Allocation across income levels and Opportunity Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing laws, relying on a combination of strategies in Actions 7.3.2 and 7.2.1 above to accommodate the RHNA shortfall with a buffer (approximately 36,282 new units) primarily in Well-resourced Neighborhoods, in proximity to transit and commercial corridors. The rezoning program shall reasonably account for sites’ likelihood of development during the planning period using an analytical model and shall not add government constraints that reduce project financial feasibility as determined by an analysis prior to the rezoning enactment. Seek to implement a rezoning program that exceeds the identified RHNA shortfall plus 15% buffer (i.e., 36,282 units) to provide more capacity sooner and that would reduce the need and size of any subsequent rezoning triggered by Action 8.1.5. In addition, make any conforming amendments to relevant area plans in the city’s General Plan based on final rezoning actions. Complete this effort by January 31, 2026. As described in the Sites Inventory Rezoning Program, the rezoning will meet the requirements of Government Code Section 65583.2(h)-(i), including sites identified to meet the very low and low-income RHNA unmet need will be zoned to: permit owner-occupied and rental multifamily uses by-right for developments in which 20 percent or more of the units are affordable to lower-income households. By-right means local government review must not require a conditional use permit, planned unit development permit, or other discretionary review or approval that would constitute a “project” for purposes of CEQA; accommodate a minimum of 16 units per site; and require a minimum density of 20 units per acre. At least 50 percent of the lower-income rezoning need must be accommodated on sites designated for residential use only or on sites zoned for mixed uses that accommodate all of the very low- and low-income housing need, if those sites allow 100 percent residential use and require residential use to occupy 50 percent of the total floor area of a mixed-use project. | ||
| 8.4.2 | Establish local non-discretionary ministerial approval for housing applications in Well-resourced Neighborhoods outside of areas vulnerable to displacement that net two or more housing units, do not demolish existing rent-controlled units, and meet tenant protection, relocation, and replacement standards as recognized in the Housing Crisis Act of 2019, by Board of Supervisors or voter approval of a City Charter amendment Planning staff will use the Rent Board’s Housing Inventory data and seek input from tenants organizations | Make zoning changes and establish processes by January 31, 2026. Apply to at-minimum the approximately 36,282 units resulting from the rezoning program in Program 7.1. | 2026 |
| 8.4.4 | Establish a non-discretionary ministerial pathway for project applications that provide 20% affordable housing on site through mechanisms described in Actions 8.4.2 and 8.4.3, for RHNA Cycle 6 lower-income sites identified in the Housing Element Update 2022 Sites Inventory that have been reused from Cycles 4 and 5 by January 31, 2024, as required by per California Government Code §65583.2 (c). | Make zoning changes by January 31, 2024. Apply to the 331 reused sites with no pending projects. | 2024 |
| 8.6.3 | Make shelters, transitional housing, or crisis interventions (such as Safe Sleeping Sites) principally permitted in all zoning districts, regardless of the declaration of a shelter crisis | Make zoning changes by 2024 | 2024 |
| 1.5.4 | Reduce severe cost burdens and increase stability for extremely low- and very low-income renters through ongoing rental assistance for qualifying vulnerable households, including people harmed by past government discrimination, seniors, people with disabilities, transgender people, and families with children, particularly those living in SROs. | Expand Senior Operating Subsidy (SOS) by 40 units per year or 320 new units over the 8-year plan to reach a total of 363 households served. Expand the Local Operating Subsidy Program (LOSP) by 163 units per year or 1,304 new units over the 8- year plan to reach a total of 2,863 households served. | Per year |
| 6.1.4 | Continue to require multi-bedroom unit mixes. | Start tracking units by number of bedrooms in new housing developments by January 2024 | 2024 |
| 6.3.1 | Expand the Senior Operating SUbsidy program to allow extremely and very low-income seniors to be eligible for new senior Below Market Rate rental units | Increase number of senior households served eightfold over the 8-year plan | |
| 6.3.2 | Increase permanently affordable senior housing along transit corridors to improve mobility of aging adults and seniors, particularly for extremely and very low-income households including through expansion of Senior Operating Subsidies as referenced in Action 6.3.1. | Increase the number of permanent affordable housing units for seniors by 20% in Well-resourced Neighborhoods near transit corridors over the 8-year plan. | Over 8-year plan |
| 1.7.8 | Evaluate increasing neighborhood preference allocation for Below Market Rate units in Priority Equity Geographies to better serve American Indian, Black, and other communities of color, if possible, per the Federal Fair Housing regulations, as informed by Policy 5 and related actions. | Complete evaluation by 2026 and implement changes if found appropriate by 2027 | 2027 |
| 1.7.9 | Create or expand programs to provide housing counseling, financial literacy education, and housing readiness to low-income American Indian, Black and other people of color households who seek housing choices in Well-resourced Neighborhoods by 2024, and provide incentives and counseling to landlords in Well-resourced Neighborhoods to offer units to lowincome households. Consider similar incentives referenced in Action 8.4.16 | Target relevant programs for 30% increase in Black and American Indian people served by 2024. | 2024 |
| 3.1.1 | Identify and implement strategies by Spring 2023 to increase and accelerate placement in Permanent Supportive Housing through the Coordinated Entry System for racial and social groups who are overrepresented in the unhoused population, such as extremely and very-low income American Indian, Black, and Latino(a,e) people, transgender people, or people with prior involvement in the criminal justice system | Proportion of people placed in Permanent Supportive Housing through Coordinated Entry from racial and social groups overrepresented in the homeless population should be equal to or greater than their representation in the homeless population by the end of the 8-year plan | 2023, end of 8 year plan |
| 5.3.1 | Evaluate and identify common cases of discrimination and violation of fair housing law and groups who continuously face such discrimination, including transgender and LGBTQ+, or people with disabilities, and implement solutions to strengthen enforcement of fair housing law in those cases. | Conduct survey led by community-based organizations serving transgender, LGBTQ+ and people with disabilities by December 2024, develop solutions by December 2025, and implement solutions throughout the rest of the 8-year plan. | 2024; 2025; End of 8 year plan |
| 5.4.2 | Establish pilot and permanent programs that offer homeownership opportunities targeted to Black households harmed through redlining or urban renewal or other forms of systemic racism related to housing, including Black individuals and their descendants who hold Certificates of Preference from the urban renewal period, as referenced in Actions 5.4.8 and 5.4.9. Building on the Dream Keeper initiative, such programs should include silent second loans or grants for down payment assistance, as well as other financial assistance to reduce income eligibility as a barrier to access homeownership opportunities | Extend and expand budget allocation for Dream Keeper Initiative through 2031, including the Dream Keeper Down Payment Assistance Loan Program to serve at least 200 households, the Senior Home Repair Program to serve at least 120 households, and in Dream Keeper homebuyer education for up to 3,000 people over the 8-year plan. Increase participation of Black households in financial literacy education and housing readiness by 30% by 2025 | 8 year plan, 2025 |
| 5.4.8 | Expand the Certificates of Preference program as required per recent State Law, Assembly Bill 1584 (Health and Safety Code, SEC 13 – 16), to qualify eligible descendants of those displaced by redevelopment projects for priority in renting or buying affordable housing. Conduct comprehensive outreach and engagement to identify the descendants of households who have been displaced. Expanding this program should rely on strategies that ensure such units meet the preferences and needs of eligible households as informed by Action 5.4.9 | Finalize research of displaced households and develop a comprehensive outreach and engagement plan for descendants of displaced households by 2024. Implement the outreach and engagement plan for descendants of displaced households in 2025 and throughout the end of the 8- year plan. | 2024; 2025; End of eight year plan |
| 6.2.2 | Support and fund the implementation of San Francisco’s “Ending Trans Homelessness Plan,” as well as the ongoing housing placement for the transgender community, in recognition of the severe disparities in housing access and safety experienced by this group. | Reach functional zero transgender homelessness by 2027 | 2027 |