Supes pass key affordable housing bill with a veto-proof majority
November 30, 2021
By Tim Redmond, 48 Hills
The Board of Supes, by a veto-proof majority, approved a measure today to allocate $64 million to fund social housing.
Only Sups. Catherine Stefani, Myrna Melgar, and Ahsha Safai dissented.
The vote does more than set aside money to take vulnerable properties off the speculative market. It sends a clear message to the Mayor’s Office that the supervisors are close to unanimous in their position that money from Proposition I should be allocated to housing.
Preston won a major victory with a social housing bill.
The measure charges higher taxes on properties sold for more than $10 million, and supporters promised that the money—now more than $100 million a year—would be spent on rent relief and social housing.
But Mayor London Breed so far has refused to put that money into housing, diverting it instead to other General Fund purposes.
Sup. Rafael Mandelman, considered a swing vote, made the point: “We have to agree as a government to us this money in the way that was the intent of the voters.”
