SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie is trying to build more homes for people like Liam Murphy: a fifth-generation city boy who was repeatedly outbid for small two-bedroom homes that eventually sold for $1.6 million.
Murphy, 39, now lives about an hour’s drive from his job as a firefighter in San Francisco. He says it’s too tardy for his family to move back, but he hopes others can stay in a city where the average monthly rent for a one-bedroom apartment is $3,500.
“That would make for a better city overall,” Murphy said, “and the reason for that is because city kids just grow up with more exposure. They’re exposed to all of San Francisco’s cultures, which makes them more well-rounded people.”
Small, colorful San Francisco – just seven miles square – embraces the image of a city that welcomes all. But because it is unable to build more housing, it is one of the hardest places in the world to find a home, endangering the diversity it is so proud of.
The mayor is hurled with insults
Lurie hopes to change that with plans to allow denser, taller buildings in much of the city, including the western Sunset neighborhood, with its single-family homes, and the tourist-friendly Haight-Ashbury, dotted with classic Victorian and Edwardian homes.
The issue has rocked the city, and San Francisco’s supervisors, who side with Lurie, are facing removal. At a recent housing rally, the mayor, who received a uncommon reprieve from President Donald Trump’s threats to send in federal forces, struggled to be heard despite incensed shouts of “Shame!” and “liar.”
Protesters demanded the city invest in 100% below-market housing and accused him of being a gentrifier and a Republican.
“I firmly believe that the best interests of the Franciscans are at heart here. Will some people be afraid? Absolutely. I understand. Change is scary,” said Lurie, a centrist Democrat. “But the status quo isn’t working. There’s an affordability crisis right now.”
Democrats against Democrats
The city’s estimated 830,000 residents care about both land apply and justice. Housing projects have died as pressure to create more affordable housing units made potential developments unviable. Residents also want a breathtaking view.
But San Francisco is under pressure from the state to adopt a recent zoning plan that calls for 36,000 more homes by 2031 — otherwise the state will decide what gets built where — and the mayor likely has the votes to pass his “family zoning plan.”
Proponents say it’s a question of supply and demand and that more apartments would lower the overall cost of housing.
Critics say such trickle-down economics won’t work in a city like San Francisco, which is so in demand around the world that some foreign investors are buying property sight unseen. They say developers will only build luxury housing that is too exorbitant for most workers, while displacing tenants and destroying the character of entire neighborhoods.
“There’s a herd of elephants in the room that no one wants to address,” said Eric Jaye, a Democratic political consultant who opposes the plan.
A city “for people who didn’t love cities”
Much of the housing support came from Democrats, including the city’s former mayor, Gov. Gavin Newsom, who signed a proposal from San Francisco state Sen. Scott Wiener to build more homes near transit.
The city has made enormous progress in recent years, and entire districts of high-rise condominiums have emerged around the city center, says Rafael Mandelman, president of the supervisory board. But he acknowledges that people come to San Francisco for its more intimate neighborhoods and access to green spaces.
“San Francisco has historically been the city for people who didn’t love cities,” Mandelman said.
Katherine Roberts, 72, initially welcomed the construction of an affordable housing convoluted near the three-story Edwardian home she planned to buy in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood two decades ago.
But with 160 residential units and eight stories high, the massive building has destroyed their peace of mind and dominates their view.
“I look outside and it’s like I live in East Germany. How can you build something so inappropriate in a historic district like Haight-Ashbury?” Roberts said. “What about all the people who already live here? What should we do?”
The proposal calls for tighter homes
The recent development plan largely allows more living space to be accommodated in the area of a single-family home – such as a semi-detached house with a studio – without exceeding the city’s height limit of around four floors for such properties. At least 15% of recent apartments must be below market price.
Buildings in neighborhood commercial corridors could double in size to eight stories. On busier major thoroughfares, high-rises of 10 stories or more could be seen, and in some places, on Van Ness Avenue, heights could reach 650 feet (200 meters), rivaling some downtown skyscrapers.
Passing Lurie’s proposal won’t necessarily lead to more homes in a city with high labor and construction costs and “notoriously complex and cumbersome” permitting processes, the state said in a scathing 2023 review.
And so city dwellers make do with crowded – and sometimes unpleasant – living situations.
Laura Foote, executive director of Yes in my Backyard YIMBY Action, ended up living in a one-bedroom apartment with the man who is now her husband — and the woman he was divorcing — for about six months until his ex could find another rental.
“We didn’t kill each other,” Foote said, “but it took longer than it would have in a well-functioning real estate market.”
The mayor’s plan is likely to be implemented
The supervisory authorities are still negotiating changes to the development plan, which could be voted on in the committee on Monday for review by the full board. Some regulators want to exempt historic properties or any buildings currently used as residential buildings from the tax. The mayor agreed to exempt buildings with at least three rent-controlled units.
The compromise was a huge relief for Phyllis Nabhan, 78, who lives in the Richmond neighborhood between the Golden Gate Bridge and Golden Gate Park. She fears she will become homeless if a developer buys the property she has called home for 47 years, with rent starting at just $350 a month.
But Nabhan still rejects the proposal. She says it would ruin the “cozy and wonderful” atmosphere of her neighborhood and blames the state for forcing the city to change.
“I think this mayor is trying,” she said. “It’s a terrible job, I wouldn’t want to be mayor.”
