San Francisco YIMBY

San Francisco's housing policy is on the cusp of a dramatic revolution. After over a year of anticipation, Governor Newsom has published California's first-ever Housing Policy and Practice Review report, directed squarely at our beloved city by the bay. What can one document do? Simple: This report will obliterate local obstructionism in San Francisco, and SF YIMBY could not be more excited.

For decades, San Francisco has flouted state laws regulating housing projects. Last year, Mayor London Breed narrowly kept the Board of Supervisors in compliance with state law after the Board of Supervisors tried to subvert Senate Bill 9, the landmark duplex legalization bill. In another notable case, it took until 2016 for the city to abide by a 1979 state law promoting affordable housing, and this reversal only came by a court ruling. The city had to be sued in 2018 to force it to adhere to a California law regulating accessory dwelling units. And since 2002, the city's own website has advertised that “[t]he Planning Department is not operating in compliance with State time limits on development project applications.” San Francisco has shown time and time again that it thinks itself exempt from state housing law and will only respond to shows of force.

San Francisco's cavalier relationship with the law caused state officials to take notice. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) first announced the Housing Policy and Practice Review last August, coinciding with San Francisco's housing element update process. HCD expressed extreme skepticism towards the city's drafts, noting that San Francisco holds the dubious record of having the longest housing approval timelines in the state. To secure HCD certification, San Francisco's plan committed to implementing the priority recommendations outlined by the finalized Housing Policy and Practice Review by July 2024, despite lacking prior knowledge of its contents. San Francisco YIMBY played a vital role in advocating for pro-housing policies in the city's plan update and identifying issues with several of the drafts submitted to HCD. Ultimately, HCD approved the new plan on February 1, 2023, setting up today's publication of the report.