In August 2005, Mayor Newsom held a press conference with the President of the Chamber of Commerce and CEO of the SF Association of Realtors to tout his Home 15/5 “five point plan” to stimulate housing production (See my story at http://quartz.he.net/~beyondch/news/index.php?itemid=346) Yesterday, the Mayor announced that the city is making dramatic progress in reaching his goal of building 15000 units in five years, claiming the city had approved 5076 new housing units by the end of 2005. But should San Francisco be thrilled that the city will see over 10,000 new units that do not qualify as affordable under any definition of that term? Polls show that San Franciscans want more affordable housing, not the primarily upscale units in the pipeline.
It is ironic that Mayor Newsom held a media event based on housing production at TNDC’s Curran House, an all too rare example of nonprofit affordable family housing. But I guess it makes a better backdrop then Rincon Hill, whose 55-story towers have allowed the Mayor to crow about producing over 5000 units last year.
I am sure the Mayor also liked the idea of holding the event in Supervisor Chris Daly’s district. Daly has repeatedly insisted that he is the one who made possible such large projects as the Rincon Towers and Trinity Plaza, and has felt that the Mayor was stealing credit for Daly’s own work product.
(It could be that the focus on affordable family housing led the Mayor to choose a site that reflected this theme, and it just happened to be in Daly’s district. But holding the event in Daly’s backyard was clearly too sweet an opportunity to pass up.)
The big question is why the Mayor thought it important to trumpet an increase in housing supply when the public’s concern has been limited to increasing housing that San Franciscans can afford. The luxury housing at Rincon will generate needed tax revenue, and provide community benefits, but there are likely few San Franciscans who are really excited that the project got built.
And even fewer who give the Mayor credit. Most likely believe that Rincon and the other upscale housing included in the Mayor’s total just happened to occur on Newsom’s watch, rather than because he made the projects happen.
The Mayor attributed the new construction gains to “comprehensive reforms” initiated by DBI Director Amy Lee and Planning Director Dean Macris. Lee has initiated positive reforms, but DBI has not been a factor in slowing housing development since before 1995.
The notion that Macris has expedited the planning process would be news to anyone who has got a development project pending at the Planning Department. Dean Macris did not create the backlog at Planning, but nor has he remedied it.
The one area of housing where Newsom does deserve full credit is his creating of well over 1000 permanent housing units for homeless single adults through the implementation of Care not Cash. But these units are not newly built and are not included in Home 15/5.
The Mayor’s media event was one day after Coleman Youth Advocates held a City Hall rally to push for more affordable family housing. The Mayor has conceded that he has fallen short in this area, and it is his success in fulfilling this need, rather than adding to his scoresheet by building luxury units, that will provide the true test of his housing performance over the next two years.
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