As deadlines loom for California jurisdictions that haven’t sent in required plans to build more housing, San Francisco’s plan to create roughly 82,000 more units just was approved.
The city was found to be in compliance with the RHNA (Regional Housing Needs Allocation) of the state’s Housing Element Law, but there are many challenges yet to be resolved to make it a reality, Louis Mirante, vice president of public policy with the Bay Area Council, told the Northern California Record.
One is the feasibility of market rate housing in San Francisco.
“San Francisco’s housing element admits that there actually are very, very few places in San Francisco where market rate housing development is feasible, meaning that even though rent and home sale values are incredibly high in that city, it's not clear that the profit can overcome the cost to develop,” Mirante said. “It has a very long entitlement process – about five years – the longest in the state. And it has an incredible structure of fees that can amount to $100,000 to $200,000 per home.”
Reforming the delays and fees is essential to housing sustainability, Mirante said.
“The state noticed that San Francisco’s permitting processes took very long, and it's instituted something called the Policy and Practice Review,” Mirante said. “I think this is a situation where Governor Newsom has really seen how the sausage is made in San Francisco, and now he’s really invested in making sure this gets done.”
San Francisco is only one of a small number of cities to submit a substantially compliant Housing Element to the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD), Mirante said. It’s estimated that roughly half of the 110 Bay Area jurisdictions haven’t done so.
“Meaning that the Builder's Remedy applies in those cities,” Mirante said.
With next steps likely involving more vigorous oversight by the state, it’s not clear if cities that aren’t in compliance will lose out on state funding and be subject to Builder’s Remedy, which allows developers to propose building lower- and moderate-income projects beyond a city’s zoning standards.
Attorney Gen. Rob Bonta recently notified Huntington Beach that it couldn’t pursue exemption from Builder’s Remedy.
“I urge cities to take seriously their obligations under state housing laws. If you don't, we will hold you accountable,” Bonta said in a news release.
HCD said in recent a Tweet that a new portal is available for technical assistance.
And the state’s Housing Accountability Unit will also be upping enforcement, Mirante said.
“The Governor has been clear since he was running for that office, that he is laser-focused on solving California's housing problems. If you ask voters, housing and homelessness have remained as their top one or two issues – out of maybe three or four that circulate in that position – for the better part of a decade,” Mirante said. “I think the Governor is really smart politically, to be responding to those problems. I think he is genuinely sympathetic, coming from a city that is so expensive, about the problems people face when they cannot afford their homes. I think the rising homelessness in California and people's perception of that as a really important issue to address also motivates this administration to do the utmost in solving that.”
“A big part of solving homelessness obviously is having enough homes, especially affordable homes, and the Housing Element tool is a really important one,” Mirante said. “The housing crisis today is much worse than it was 10 years ago; people are really feeling that, and accountability is the name of the game going forward.”