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Tuesday, September 2, 2025

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OpinionLetters to the EditorLetters to the editor: What is the city getting by allowing housing...

Letters to the editor: What is the city getting by allowing housing demolitions?

Project by project, existing housing is destroyed for new high-priced units. Is this the way to solve the housing crisis?

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To the editor:

Thanks for writing about the demolition at 237 Sanchez Street.

I think it is important to look at what the city is getting by granting this CUA.

Yes, per the staff report, there will be two units of rent-controlled housing replacing the single-family house and the unauthorized second unit.

The new proposal for 237 Sanchez

But these two units are basically one bedroom with some extra space without proper egress for a second bedroom, with one unit in the basement and one unit on the ground level.

Looking at the web ads the two existing units being “replaced” in this demolition looked quite nice and livable.

On the other hand, the other three units will be market-rate (de-controlled?) on the upper three floors with multiple bedrooms including one four-bedroom unit.

These three new units will be probably be very pricey, in a city with a ton of high-end market rate housing units already built and in the pipeline.

There should also be real concern about another Demolition on Thursday’s Planning Commission Agenda of a pair of San Francisco Edwardian Flats, that also has a UDU at 28-30 Day Street.  Previous tenants took buyouts for all three dwellings after the building was purchased in 2022.  

The new building will have three units total, two of which are a bit larger than the existing units with one very large two-level unit in a very glitzy-looking building.

I think the city needs to think seriously about this project-by-project attrition of existing sound housing with approving demolitions like these and what is actually being gained to “solve the housing crisis.”

Georgia Schuttish

48 Hills welcomes comments in the form of letters to the editor, which you can submit here. We also invite you to join the conversation on our FacebookTwitter, and Instagram

Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond
Tim Redmond has been a political and investigative reporter in San Francisco for more than 30 years. He spent much of that time as executive editor of the Bay Guardian. He is the founder of 48hills.
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