Lee says he’ll stick to what’s working
Mayor defends efforts in city’s housing crisis
While Mayor Ed Lee said Wednesday that his priorities for his second term in office will be alleviating homelessness and building housing, he defended the economic policies critics say directly contributed to the city’s worsening problems of homelessness and housing affordability.
Lee’s comments, at a meeting with The Chronicle’s editorial board, came six weeks before the Nov. 4 election. The former city administrator came into office in January 2011 to serve out the remainder of then-Mayor Gavin Newsom’s term after Newsom resigned to become lieutenant governor. Lee reneged on a promise that he would not run for the seat after being appointed. He won a four-year term and now appears headed to an easy reelection.
When Lee became mayor, the city was in a deep recession and unemployment neared 10 percent. Now, even though the unemployment rate has fallen to 3.6 percent, the affordable-
housing crisis and homelessness problem threaten to turn the city into a place dominated by the wealthiest.
Lee defended his legacy and his efforts to improve the local economy. “I can’t help anybody be successful unless we have an economically strong city,” he said.
The city is booming. Some 80 technology companies have moved into San Francisco, Lee said, and the city budget will reach nearly $9 billion in two years’ time. But the influx of money and tech companies has come at a cost, with thousands of wealthy young people flooding the city. The combination of new residents and money has driven up housing prices and contributed to the displacement of many longtime residents.
“I know we have a crisis,” Lee said, adding that “literally every conversation” he has touches on the subject.
The mayor’s effort to make a dent in the crisis hinges on his plan to build or rehabilitate 30,000 new units by 2020. Roughly half the units will be constructed by private developers at market-rate prices. Another 7,000 will come from rehabilitating public housing, and the balance will be from creation of new affordable housing.
Critics of the mayor say the goal is too small and too focused on market-rate housing, and will not solve the housing problem.
Lee said a third of new housing construction will be permanently affordable to low-income residents and up to 50 percent affordable to middle-income residents like teachers.
Yet Lee balked at Supervisor Jane Kim’s proposed 2014 ballot measure to make the 33 percent requirement binding. That measure instead became a policy statement, Proposition K.
“It’s not economically feasible for every project to adhere to that number,” the mayor said, defending his opposition to Kim’s binding proposal. “I have to balance out a sentimental numerical goal to a practical, realistic invitation to be innovative in the city.”
Rather than a one-size-fits-all limit that might not be financially feasible for an individual project, the mayor said, the city should look at the overall goal, making some development projects 40 percent affordable housing and other projects 20 percent.
That sentiment echoed a theme of Lee’s administration: flexibility and innovation. The question is whether the mayor’s initiatives are bold enough to tackle the problems.
On the homelessness problem, for example, Lee championed the creation of the 75-bed Navigation Center, on Mission Street near 16th Street, and said it should be a model for addressing the crisis.
Unlike standard homeless shelters, which often provide individuals with little more than a cot for the night, the center lets people bring their companions, pets and possessions, and provides them with services and training designed to help them create a new life off the streets.
While the center has received near-universal praise, it would take dozens of navigation centers to house the 6,686 people in San Francisco who are without a place to live. So far, San Francisco has announced it will invest $3 million to create at least one more navigation center.
In contrast, Los Angeles city officials have declared a state of emergency on the issue of homelessness and said they would spend $100 million to address the city’s homeless problem. Lee rejected the idea that San Francisco should do the same.
“Bold announcements are not going to cut it if you can’t back it up,” he said, adding that “$100 million could be $100 billion” if it won’t bring about sustained changes.
Lee was most passionate defending one of his first policies: tax breaks to attract businesses to the Mid-Market neighborhood that is now home to Twitter and other high-tech companies. The city gave up more than $4 million in revenue last year from that tax break, looking to improve a part of the city that then had dozens of vacant storefronts.
“I am never going to be apologetic for the tax break we have for Mid-Market,” Lee said, lending a rare note of fervor to his voice.