DSA San Francisco

I was catching up with a friend at Y Combinator this weekend. This is the first year that even their entrepreneurs are unable to find housing in San Francisco. To fundamentally address our housing crisis, we must build housing at all levels - market rate, middle-income, and affordable. Otherwise those benefiting from a trillion dollars in IPOs will simply take what limited housing supply we have left, pricing out those who are already here. At the Board of Supervisors, we have a couple initiatives to address this right now. We are reducing inclusionary requirements from 15% onsite to 5% so more market rate projects can pencil out. We are doubling the housing trust fund to $125 million a year so we can finance more affordable housing. We also have pending legislation for transfer tax reform which will help to reduce the cost of construction by $32K a unit for all levels of housing. But due in part to poison pill counter measures by NIMBYs, that effort has been stalled. As the Chronicle editorial board says: "Ultimately, there is no magic wand for getting housing built in San Francisco. Just a lot of little unmagic wands, mostly involving boring but necessary policy interventions."