S.F. supervisors approve affordable housing laws

The San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Tuesday approved two pieces of legislation intended to keep lower- and middle-class residents in the city, each requiring a hard-won compromise between the board’s moderate and progressive wings.

The first law lays out several proof-of-residency requirements for landlords who evict their tenants, saying they want to occupy a dwelling themselves. The supervisors approved it unanimously on the first reading. It is expected to come back for final passage next week.

The second law requires developers of large properties to make a portion of their units — 18 percent for rentals and 20 percent for condominiums — affordable, dividing them up among low-, moderate- and middle-income families.

On Tuesday, the supervisors added two amendments to the law and passed them on first reading. One mandated that at least 25 percent of all new units have two or three bedrooms, and that 10 percent of those be three bedrooms. The other required that every belowmarket-rate studio set aside for a higher income tier be inhabited by at least two people.

The law would not apply to large parts of the Mission or Tenderloin, where property owners still have to rent or sell a quarter of their units at belowmarket-rate prices.

Months in the making, the law became a drawn-out piece of political theater at City Hall, as progressive Supervisors Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim haggled with their moderate counterparts, London Breed, Ahsha Safai and Katy Tang. The five supervisors rallied outside City Hall before Tuesday’s meeting to show that they had come together to support working families.

“Everything we fought for with this legislation was to expand the definition of ‘affordable’ to include working people,” Safai said after the meeting. He said the new law would help a wide range of struggling San Franciscans — from barristas and restaurant servers to firefighters with well-paying union jobs.

The board on Tuesday also approved a $120,000 settlement with an electrician who claimed he was sexually harassed by a fellow city employee while doing repairs at the Hall of Justice.

Plaintiff Bernard Sandoval said the city forced him to work alongside Geoffrey Graham for years, even though Sandoval complained several times about Graham’s inappropriate comments and about an alleged assault in 2014.