San Francisco Mayor Announces Affordable Housing Plan

Emily Green reports: "Mayor Ed Lee detailed his goal on Tuesday to make San Francisco affordable again, fleshing out a plan to build or rehabilitate 10,000 units for low-income and working-class families by 2020."

Mayor Lee's housing plan has five "prongs," as Green describes them, including an expanded inclusionary housing program. "Lee will seek through legislation to relax current requirements so that developers could build affordable units for a broader range of incomes. For example, instead of building 10 units that would be required to rent at $1,000 a month, a developer could build 20 to rent at $1,500 a month," reports Green. In addition, "developers could add up to two stories to a building in exchange for increasing the number of units they rent or sell to low- and middle-income residents."

Another significant proposal would allow nonprofit developers to "take over federally funded public housing projects in exchange for upgrading them."

The article goes on to detail the major ideological rift that will play out over the course of the debate about Lee's proposals, but also in a pair of ballot initiatives that will go before voters in November.