With Tenderloin residents out in force, he withdraws amendment giving developers a break on affordable-housing rules
By Tim Redmond
JULY 20, 2015 — Supervisor Scott Wiener today withdrew his amendment that would have allowed group housing developers to claim units selling for near their market rate to count as “affordable,” allowing the original legislation to move to the full board tomorrow.
The move came as dozens of Tenderloin residents and activists spoke against the amendment, saying that the neighborhood needs more housing for low-income and very-low-income people.
Wiener had proposed allowing group housing –which these days means micro-units aimed at single people – to meet the city’s affordable-housing requirements by offering apartments to people making 90 percent of the area median, which means around $64,000 a year.
That, Wiener noted, isn’t a lot of money in this city’s current housing market. There are, he said, a lot of people in that income range who are “hanging on by a thread.” A lot of teachers, lab techs, and social workers fall in that range, he noted.
Housing for people making between 90 and 120 percent of AMI is “part of the city’s affordable housing program,” he said.
But Sup. Jane Kim, who is one of the authors of the legislation, pointed out that “a lot of people in this room today are on fixed incomes” as low as $800 a month. “It’s hard to tell them that people making $64,000 a year are barely hanging on.”
When Wiener moved to withdraw his amendment, the Land Use and Transportation Committee voted unanimously to send the measure to the full board.
