A majority of San Francisco voters oppose the plan by Sups. London Breed and Ahsha Safai to reduce the level of affordable housing in San Francisco, a new poll shows.
The poll was released just as the supes are deciding on two competing plans to address the radical shortage of affordable housing in the city.
The two measures were discussed at length today at the Land Use and Transportation Committee, which decided to continue the vote for a week while the two sides try to seek a compromise.
I’m not sure there’s a lot of room for compromise here, but good luck with that.
The Yerba Buena Neighborhood Consortium, the advocacy arm of the TODCO housing group, commissioned the poll, which was conducted by David Binder and Associates.
The poll asked whether voters supported reducing the level of affordable housing set by Prop. C in 2016 from 25 percent to 18 percent. Only 42 percent supported that, and 51 percent opposed the idea.
More: When the two measures were put head to head, 53 percent supported the plan by Sups. Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim, which sets affordable housing levels at 24 percent, and only 33 supported the Breed-Safai proposal.
The politics of this are interesting. Breed and Safai have, in general, a 6-5 majority on the board for the more pro-development policies that they and the mayor support. But the poll suggests that some of their constituents – and the voters in swing districts like D8, where incumbent Jeff Sheehy will face challenger Rafael Mandelman next June – may not be so happy with their plan.
It would be lovely if the various sides could come together and decide on a plan that creates more affordable housing for all. But there are real differences here on what developers should be forced to pay.
And there comes a time when it’s important to put a measure up for a vote and force all of the supervisors to take a stand and tell us which side they are on.
Intersting pictorial headline: “Voters Didn’t Support Prop C to build 82% Market Rate Housing”. Why that sounds absolutely egregious!
But at the same time, did voters support Prop C to build 75% market rate housing?
And is Jane Kim a superhero for allowing 60% market rate housing at the Mission Rock location? Sounds like the battle cry from folks (like the poll-sponsor TODCO) who want nothing but 0% market rate housing. (Whether they’re for 0% any housing is almost an after-concern).
Who doesn’t want freebies? No one. Technically, though affordable housing is not a real freebie it seems like a freebie in many people’s minds. That’s how Erdogan stayed in power in Turkey btw. Promising freebies. And Maduro, Chavez & Castro. And look how THAT turned out.
What impresses me the most is that they were able to describe the two plans sufficiently in order for the person on the other end of the phone to make an informed decision. All of that stuff about AMI levels and density bonuses can get pretty wonky. And if you just asked “Do you want more or less affordable housing in San Francisco” then of course the answer will be more.
Has anyone seen the phone survey script? It must have been an incredible job.
Oh wouldn’t it be lovely???????
If Breed, Safai and Tang would actually listen to their constituents? Over the developers and speculators???