San Francisco’s lack of progress on housing is leading to a gradual state takeover of our Planning Department and intensifying the affordability crisis. If San Francisco doesn’t show significant progress in building 82,000 new units of housing by 2031, we face losing even more local control and will become ineligible for key state housing funds. 

Meanwhile, the Mayor’s pro-housing rhetoric doesn’t match the results coming out of her departments. When I’m mayor, I will clearly direct the Planning Department to prioritize building housing and I will fix the broken permitting system at the Department of Building Inspection (DBI) that’s a breeding ground for corruption. 

This broken system has slowed the construction of 70,000 units that have already gone through planning and neighborhood approval. Getting these units built starts with reforming a system that takes another 605 days to issue a building permit, even after a project has to wait an average of 523 days to get its initial planning approvals. 

As the only person in this race who’s actually built housing in this city, I can tell you that it does not have to be this way.

As CEO of Tipping Point, I led the construction of 145 units of affordable housing at 833 Bryant Street. I held everyone on the project accountable to our goals, including myself. That’s what’s missing at City Hall. 

833 Bryant was one of the first projects in the state to use Scott Wiener’s SB 35 legislation streamlining 100% affordable housing. Ultimately, we finished on time and under budget with good-paying union labor. Check out the case study from UC Berkeley that did a deep dive into our success. 

I will bring the same attitude, ability, and accountability to City Hall. 

Hold City Departments Accountable on Housing

We must speed up the permit approval process to save time and money building new housing. To do this, I will: 

• Enforce a permit “shot clock” that sets maximum review times, complies with the Permit Streamlining Act, and sets key performance indicators (KPIs) to identify where the bottlenecks are. 
• Direct Planning Department staff to simplify impact fee categories and eliminate subjective design guidelines and standards. 
• Consult with Planning staff to identify and simplify areas of the planning code that most cause confusion and delays. 
• Allow for more flexible staffing for plan check and review processes that can be throttled up and down as demand varies. 
• Require city departments to conduct a Project Review meeting prior to application submission and start the shot clock. This will streamline the Department of Building Inspections’ permitting for projects that qualify for SB 423. 
• Create a transparent, user-friendly online approvals tracker to show where permits and entitlements are in the process, whose desk they’re on and their contact info.
• Publish all requirements and interpretations of relevant municipal codes that will be applied to post-entitlement permits and ensure staff apply them consistently to reduce subjectivity that results in delays, frustration, and cost. 

Plan for More Units

Under my administration, we will show the state that San Francisco is serious about finding a way forward on zoning. City Hall is already behind. To catch up, I will:  

• Follow through on the promises made to the state in our housing element by rezoning for enough new housing for the market to actually create enough new units by 2031, in addition to units already in the pipeline. This can’t just be an exercise on paper. I will work with developers after rezoning and entitlement to help get their projects built. 
• Allow for more citywide mid-rise 6-8 story base zoning along main corridors, near transit, and corner lots that foster walkable, inclusive neighborhoods, advance our climate goals, and prevent a state takeover. 
• Work with neighborhoods, labor, developers, and housing advocates to build consensus around large key projects. 
• Direct Planning staff to use an analytical model to test the probability that rezoned parcels are developed to check our progress, since the odds of any one parcel being developed are quite low. 
• Create a Deputy Chief of Staff for Housing Production position. This person will coordinate and hold departments accountable both pre-entitlement and post-entitlement to deliver projects while working with neighborhood leaders. 

Make Projects Financially Viable

Zoning and reform alone are not enough to prevent a state takeover. We need to actually build. But between some of the world’s most expensive construction costs, high interest rates, and policy constraints on housing, the economics of new housing don’t work right now. Housing is critical infrastructure, and as mayor I will lead the charge to get San Francisco building. To do this, I will: 

• Require economic feasibility impact analysis of major local housing policies and regulations, both proposed and existing.
• Work with the state to create property tax exemptions for key projects, especially those for middle-income residents. 
• Lower fees, inclusionary requirements, and exempt multi-family projects from transfer taxes until we are on track to meet our housing goals. 
• Work with large approved projects languishing in the pipeline to make them economically feasible.  
• Lead the effort to pass a regional affordable housing bond, which would bring billions of affordable housing dollars to San Francisco and the region. 
• Explore creating a combined public financing entity such as a Joint Powers Authority with the ability to acquire land and housing, to issue bonds, or partner with the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority to build or rehabilitate middle-income workforce housing.
• Encourage the use of the state density bonus for middle-income housing in appropriate locations and projects for teachers, nurses, police officers, and firefighters. This will allow us to recruit, retain, and support public servants while helping more first responders live locally.