Wednesday, April 19, 2017

San Francisco senator calls for more market-rate housing


Senator Scott Wiener says “market-rate” isn’t a bad word

by


State Senator Scott Wiener took to Medium over the weekend to pen a nearly 1,700-word essay on the merits of new market-rate housing construction in the Bay Area and California.

In piece titled “Market-Rate Housing Isn’t a Bad Word, and We Won’t Solve the Housing Crisis Without It,” Senator Wiener alleges that lawmakers and community groups show “skepticism and even hostility” toward any new construction that is not “exclusively or largely [focused] on publicly subsidized, income-based affordable housing,” creating a culture of anger toward those who want to sell new homes at market rates. 

To underscore the need for more housing, the senator breaks out some cold, hard numbers:
“According to California’s Legislative Analyst, the state needs to produce about 180,000 units of housing a year to keep up with [population] growth. In practice, we produce less than half that.”

California’s Legislative Analyst Office did in fact say that in a 2015 report, adding, “Seattle—a coastal metro with economic characteristics and average temperatures that are similar to California’s Bay Area metros—added new housing units at about twice the rate as San Francisco and San Jose over the last two decades.”

So okay, just build more affordable housing if that’s what people want. But Wiener says, pointedly, “We will never — and I truly mean never — produce enough of that housing to satisfy” all of our housing needs.


Posted by Steve Sinai
 

6 comments:

wake up Pacifica said...

Sorry the NOBY's will not allow any kind of housing to be built in Pacifica. It might impinge on their "I got mine screw every body else religion". They prefer instead to lecture and label the real estate industry as evil and raise taxes on people outside of their cult through "rent control".
Deirdre, Keener, Digre and their puppet masters are hypocrites and the true enemies of Pacifica.

Anonymous said...

WOW 10:57!!! You actually managed to complete your rant without putting at least some of the blame on President Trump. This is a first. You're loving him now, aren't you?

Anonymous said...

Deirdre and her gang are incompetent, unethical liars, JUST LIKE TRUMP!!!!
Happy now?

Sharon said...

I understand the NIMBY mindset and the desire to keep PACIFICA small. However, as will all things, moderation is the key. It's a balancing act and the pressure for housing is becoming so severe that's something's gotta give. When difficult issues, like the homelessness we see all around us, become so glaring that eventually a backlash will occur. Just like what we've seen on the national level with Trump's election, BREXIT and now France. So I hope our city council pays attention to this factor.

Defender of Oppressed Peoples (DOOP) said...

Frank Vella wrote to Tribune this morning saying there should be a recall of Keener, Digre and Martin. If
the Gray Davis recall is instructive, such a recall ballot questoin might coincide with a list of candidates to replace them. I think we could see some freaks come out for that night! As you may remember, there were over 90 candidates who wanted to succeed Davis.

I think a recall campaign might be successful in that none of the above recieved more than 50% of the votes, they all were elected in multi-candidate elections. This City has a history of recalling council people. We can learn from this history. If the recallers can pitch rent control as a threat to single family home owners more effectively than the social justice warriors, they really have a shot at it, IMHO.

Anonymous said...

Does NOBY mean?

Not on Brays Yard?