South San Francisco, CA August 4, 2023 Press Release (note – Editor’s comments below}
What Governor Newsom said: “These cities are showing the local leadership California needs to tackle our state’s housing crisis. They stand in stark contrast to the handful of locals who are failing their constituents and refusing to help California families struggling with runaway housing costs. We will continue to celebrate cities like Rohnert Park, Santa Cruz and **South San Francisco while holding bad actors accountable with executive action and in the courts when necessary.”
Why it’s important: It is vital for local governments to cut red tape and implement policies that increase much-needed housing in California. Accountability measures and incentives like the Prohousing Designation are critical to help meet the state’s goal of 2.5 million new homes over the next eight years, with at least one million serving the needs of lower-income Californians.
“We commend Rohnert Park, Santa Cruz and South San Francisco for their commitment to housing forward policies that will remove barriers to building and preserving affordable housing,” said Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency Secretary Lourdes Castro Ramírez. “We are proud to work with these cities to create housing near jobs, transit, and other amenities to build a strong housing market and provide homes to working Californians.”
“I’m thrilled that we now have 30 communities that have achieved the Prohousing designation,” said HCD Director Gustavo Velasquez. “The cities and counties are leading the way by reducing unnecessary barriers and red tape that discourage new housing production, instead they are signaling to developers that they are ready to support more housing production, faster.”
California is the leader in the Prohousing space. Last week the Biden-Harris Administration announced its own Pathways to Removing Obstacles to Housing program designed to provide funding to local jurisdictions to assist them in removing barriers to housing production and preservation.
###
**The City of South San Francisco’s Prohousing application demonstrates a commitment to expanding access and reducing the costs of new housing units. The city routinely approves exemptions for residential development, ranging from single-family units to large multi-family developments. The city has adopted a new Accessory Dwelling Units ordinance and removed its previous mandatory parking replacement policies so homeowners can easily add to their property. The city also offers pre-approved designs for green and all-electric detached Accessory Dwelling Units developed by the Housing Endowment and Regional Trust of San Mateo County (HEART).
Additional facts that impact CA housing and taxpayer money that are lesser known:
** California has spent a stunning $17.5 billion trying to combat homelessness over just four years. But, in the same time frame, from 2018 to 2022, the state’s homeless population actually grew. Half of all Americans living outside on the streets, federal data shows, live in California. More than 170,000 unhoused people now live here (people, not just statistics! Would you invite people to your house & not have room for 50% of them, even with your roommates kicking in? )
** San Mateo County has spent approximately $285 million to help built or preserve 4,100 units as affordable housing countywide. Another $30M was just approved this past week. Do the math.
** According to the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) report, benefits and services provided to the estimated 3.23 million illegal aliens in California cost local taxpayers $22.8 billion annually. Factoring in about 1.15 million U.S.-born children of illegal aliens adds more than another $8 billion in costs.Mar 8, 2023 PRN
** California’s 1.1 million undocumented workers make up 6% of its (Hard working!) labor force, according to UC Merced’s Community and Labor Center.
** In the midst of Newsom’s pandemic shutdowns in 2021, 76,000 California inmates received early release with little to no prospects for housing or employment.
**California continued to lose residents in 2022, but the state’s population decline is slowing as immigration ramps up again following the COVID-19 pandemic. The state is currently home to about 38.9 million people, down more than 138,400 year-over-year, according to the California Department of Finance Read more at: https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article274939166.html#storylink=cpy
** Forever renters, not future homeowners: 1/4 of homes today are being sold to the highest bidder, the investors like Blackrock Investors comprised 18% of purchases at the end of 2021. This was the highest level of investor presence since record-keeping on investor purchases began in 2000.
We can argue about issues all day long….
Gov Newsom plays to an international audience and calls out ‘bad guys’ in California who do not go along with the World Economic Forum ideologies he promotes.
….yet at the end of the day, our tax dollars are NOT solving the problems that our politicians are tasked to resolve.
Being a ‘good guy’ and not a ‘bad actor’, it is worth noting that ‘good actor’ Gov Newsom resides in a private gated 12,000-square-foot-mansion that boasts six-bedroom, ten bathrooms, on an 8.2-acre lot that includes a pool, hot tub, tennis court, and outdoor entertaining area, and of course, a spacious wine cellar, in Fair Oaks, 4 minutes from the Sacramento River. Not to worry, this home at 6740 Tobia Ave, valued at $ 4.4 million, has a separate guest quarter which somehow might be considered an ADU.
His predecessor, Jerry Brown, resides in Colusa County on 2,500 fenced private acres, off-grid.
SSF has the curse of geography that at 8 sq. Miles has the most land mass in the county. Residents used to enjoy views of the shoreline until big bro pharma, blocked it so more life science buildings went up —-over 200 at the Industrial City replacing the steel mills and slaughterhouses with plans of housing over the toxins at the Oyster Point old dump.
Oh, and by the way those dept. heads with big salaries in city government deciding for residents generally don’t live in SSF.
And the city council and planning comission, don’t represent local voters views of building fatigue shared by residents.
They used to call SSF the smelly city, now they call it the greedy city.
Who can afford to buy any homes at the inflated prices they are being sold? That is the problem and it does not seem more tax money or more units built have helped – $2800 for a one bedroom apartment in SSF and over a million to buy a home? Wages have not kept up
the statistics used by the editor are interesting. it does seem there is more news about unhoused people and more money going to help fix the problem. but you are right, the problem has only gotten worse all over.
Gov. Newsom awards South San Francisco with the “prohousing designation” for being “building friendly.” Did he ever talk with the residents of South San Francisco to know what the residents want with its rampant projects of tenement-like housing and total disregard to traffic, infrastructure and quality of life? Of course not. Like all politicians, including South San Francisco, they listen to the big money and not the people they are supposed to represent. All we are creating in South San Francisco are rent slaves, because the renters will pay rents, but never own their own condo or home. They will be riding the merry-go-round to nowhere while the developers and real estate financers get rich.
The cities Newsom says is against the rampant development are city councils who listen to their constituents.
Newsom’s hometown, San Francisco, has 61,473 vacant homes with 30% of downtown office and retail vacancies waiting to be razed and redeveloped. You’ll never see these developments in any affluent city or neighborhoods in Newsom’s San Francisco. But, this, and other affluent cities like Hillsborough, will not be forced to comply with these housing requirements because they have the money to pay the state fines for non-compliance, but more importantly, this is his base for his delusional run for the presidency when donations are needed for campaigning.
Where did you get your numbers for SF?
I can actually respond; you made me curious, so I checked online. She’s a little low on the office vacancy. It’s around 31.6% last I read (numerous web sites, NBC, CBRE (national real estate firm), SF and other national news sites – folks who care about and track such numbers). Home vacancies were around 61,000 in Oct 2022, so it probably climbed since then. She can update my sources. Hope that helps.
bjm,
thank you for your information.
-ED
I can also add in response to Cynthia, guest, and me(!) a posting I saw on NextDoor that provided link to an article that countered that 61K SF vacancy figure. Statistics are how you compile, sort…and, frankly, how granular you get to serve your purposes. It’s not a pro/con for more/less units, just provides another, deeper perspective on a sensitive issue. Doesn’t change how I feel about near-sighted-with-blinders development decisions made in SSF, but it does remind me of the call for “fair and balanced” reporting. Thanks to the gentleman who posted on ND.
https://thefrisc.com/its-high-time-to-slay-the-myth-of-all-those-vacant-san-francisco-homes-2efd50728d8
Maybe Mr. Newsom can clarify which South San Francisco he is heaping his praise on. Is it the South San Francisco that represents 66,000 residents or is it the South San Francisco as represented by a handful of city officials who have literally sold our city to the highest bidder? If the continued invasion of the biotech/life sciences industries wasn’t enough, now our treasonous city officials are welcoming low income, high density housing to benefit developers. As Lindenville illustrates, none of our neighborhoods are safe from the bulldozers?
We are being praised as a Prohousing Designation while other cities resist this label in an effort to protect their residents’ quality of life. Pay attention people, these housing projects are being forced on lesser affluent communities with easily manipulated city governments while wealthier communities remain spectators whose quality of life is not impacted. The Governor’s praise is merely cover for exploitation of our city.
South San Franciscans have nothing to be proud of as we have been relegated to a “dumping ground.” Once the “Armpit of the Peninsula,” always the “Armpit of the Peninsula.”
where is lindenville?
Hello Guest,
Lindenville is in the downtown area mostly – and sprawls to San Bruno border and up on Linden and Spruce Avenues and more….
There has been so much development in SSF it is hard to keep up on it all – Thank you for your question – we will now add info about this new development, map to be included.
-ED
https://shapessf.com/plan-lindenville/