Two San Francisco supervisors introduced separate pieces of legislation Tuesday aimed at preserving housing in the city.

Supervisor Hillary Ronen, D-District 9, proposed an ordinance that would ban new office space on the upper floors of some developments zoned as “urban mixed use” in eastern neighborhoods — generally portions of the Mission District, Potrero Hill and the Dogpatch. The UMU zoning designation, created more than a decade ago as redevelopment of the neighborhoods was just beginning, allows office space on upper floors.

Also on Tuesday, Supervisor Rafael Mandelman, D-District 8, introduced legislation seeking to close what he called a “loophole” in the city’s permit review process regarding the demolition...

A new San Francisco Flower Mart would beat out nearly 400 units of approved housing at an industrial site at the base of Potrero Hill, according to a new plan.

The developer of the San Francisco Flower Mart property in South of Market has a new scheme to relocate the flower vendors to 16th Street in Potrero, the latest twist in the saga of the city’s wholesale flower market whose current home is being redeveloped for tech office space.

On Monday, executives from Kilroy Realty Corp., the company developing the current home of the Flower Mart at Sixth and Brannan streets, announced that it had acquired a new home for the floral businesses. Kilroy paid $99 million for the property at 901 16th St. and 1200 17th St.

The property, previously ho...

Earning $40,000 a year in Omaha used to be enough to make rent comfortably. Not anymore.

Housing costs are slipping out of reach for the middle class in smaller and medium-size cities across the U.S., the latest sign that the affordability crisis that started on the coasts is moving inland, according to research released on Friday by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies.

From 2011 to 2018, the proportion of households making $30,000 to $45,000 a year that were “cost-burdened” -- paying more than 30% of their income on rent -- soared the most in metros including Nashville, Tennessee; Greenville, South Carolina; and McAllen, Texas.

Omaha came in ninth on the list, a worse showing than San Francisco or New Yo...

SAN FRANCISCO (BCN)

The San Francisco Police Officers Association is calling for federal intervention to prosecute a man shot by police last month after the San Francisco District Attorney's Office declined to file charges against him last week.

Jamaica Hampton, 24, had been charged with assault with a deadly weapon, assault upon a peace officer with force likely to cause great bodily injury, threatening an officer and vandalism.

As of Friday, prosecutors withdrew the charges pending further investigation.

The charges stemmed from a Dec. 7 burglary call, which resulted in an altercation between two police officers and Hampton near Mission and 23rd streets in the city's Mission District.

During the confrontation, the officers shot Hampton, w...

The new year brings new protections for renters in San Francisco, as well as brewing battles to keep more people securely in their homes.

Since the passage of the Rent Ordinance in 1979—the governing law that establishes what rights tenants have, how much landlords can raise your rent, and how and when you can be evicted—many San Francisco tenants have benefitted from some of the strongest rights in the state.

Yet despite these local laws, unfair state laws like the Ellis Act and Costa-Hawkins have allowed unscrupulous landlords to sidestep San Francisco protections. Thousands of tenants have been evicted or face the threat of eviction, and SF tenants face the highest rents in the nation, forcing many low-income residents and people of c...

Reported spike in evictions prompts local lawmaker to seek expansion of AB 1482

Although Sacramento passed “just cause” eviction protections for all California renters this year, some SF lawmakers say it’s not enough. A supervisor and city committee now want to push those safeguards even further, in response to an apparent spike in eviction attempts ahead of the new rules.

In October, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SF-based Assemblymember David Chiu’s AB 1482 into law. The bill capped rent hikes on countless California homes not protected by rent control, and it also included new rules about when and why landlords can oust tenants.

But the bill only applies to units built prior to the last 15 years. Supervisor Matt Haney and SF’s Rule...

SAN FRANCISCO – Fix global warming or cook dinner on a gas stove?

That’s the choice for people in 13 cities and one county in California that have enacted new zoning codes encouraging or requiring all-electric new construction.  

The codes, most of them passed since June, are meant to keep builders from running natural gas lines to new homes and apartments, with an eye toward creating fewer legacy gas hookups as the nation shifts to carbon-neutral energy sources.

For proponents, it's a change that must be made to fight climate change. For natural gas companies, it's a threat to their existence. And for some cooks who love to prepare food with flame, it's an unthinkable loss.

Natural ga...

Image from shuttershock 

The California State Senate approved the final version of Berkeley-based State Sen. Nancy Skinner’s “Housing Crisis Act of 2019” last week, a new law that “suspends local practices that are documented obstacles to housing production” such as housing moratoriums and certain fees.

Since the Assembly also passed the bill, dubbed SB 330, earlier in the week, that leaves it clear for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk and presumed signature.

“SB 330 is based on the premise that much of the housing we need has already been planned for by local communities,” a statement from Skinner’s office after the final votes reads.

“But that housing is not getting built. [...] In effect until 2025, the bill’s provisions require cities and...

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors quashed Mayor London Breed’s proposed charter amendment Thursday that aimed to streamline the approval of affordable housing projects. Breed needed the support of the majority of supervisors to get the plan on the November ballot. She didn’t get it.

Breed’s proposal sought to eliminate some bureaucratic steps in the process of approving affordable and teacher housing, such as the public’s ability to challenge proposed projects. The changes, she said, could have saved millions of dollars and between six and 18 months per project.

The measure — which would have amended the City Charter — would have also streamlined the approval process for middle-income housing for people who earn up to 140% of the ar...

Oregon just staked its claim as the state that’s most aggressively trying to address affordable housing.

The Beaver State passed what’s effectively a state-wide ban on single-family zoning on Sunday, the last day of a dramatic legislative session that saw Oregon Senate Republicans flee the state to avoid a vote on a cap-and-trade climate bill.

Political theatrics didn’t derail House Bill 2001, however. Three of the eight senate Republicans ultimately voted in favor of the bill, which passed the Senate 17 to 9 and sailed through Oregon’s House of Representatives. The bill is now waiting for the signature of Gov. Kate Brown, a Democrat.

The bill doesn’t directly ban single-family zoning, which limits a residential plot to only sin...