Housing in San Francisco is a challenge, with its lack of affordability and availability.
Preliminary federal housing data shows the city’s progress in adding more housing is lagging behind other Bay Area cities.
San Francisco permitted 179 units through June while San Jose issued permits for more than 1,200 housing units. Santa Clara, Fremont and Oakland all permitted more as well.
“We do have space to build in San Francisco. There is room, there is certainly also room in Fremont and San Jose and other cities and it's difficult to build in those cities as well. San Francisco is the outlier because it is quite literally the most difficult place in the country to build housing due to its process,” said Corey Smith.
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
He’s executive director for the Housing Action Coalition.
“Why we’re really excited is that the Mayor London Breed has put forward a number of pieces of legislation that would cut red tape,” Smith said.
Cities are working to meet state mandated goals, and San Francisco’s are higher.
Board of Supervisors President Aaron Peskin sees it this way, “This is a very tough time to build. Financial markets are constrained, it's tough to get construction financing, having said that, San Francisco has passed a number of pieces of legislation to move the dial.”
Assemblymember Matt Haney tweeted about the housing permits issued so far this year, calling it an "atrocious, embarrassing start for San Francisco's eight-year commitment to build 80,000 new units."
He added that more state intervention will be needed and the bills he’s authoring or coauthoring to try to address the situation.
