Mayor not budging: Use windfall on housing

Mayor London Breed reiterated her desire to use the city’s $181 million windfall on homelessness and housing initiatives Tuesday, despite differing proposals from other officials on how they would like to see the money spent.

“I want to be clear that housing and homelessness will be at the top of my agenda,” Breed said during her monthly appearance in front of the Board of Supervisors, in response to a question from Board President Malia Cohen on how she plans to use the money. “The voters sent a clear message in the last election that this is their top priority.”

Breed’s declaration comes a week after a group of supervisors proposed using the windfall for more than just homelessness and housing initiatives, but also energy independence and child care. Meanwhile, San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Vincent Matthews and the three incoming supervisors — Matt Haney, Gordon Mar and Shamann Walton — said a chunk of the money should go toward public education, too.

The influx of money came from excess revenue in the Educational Revenue Augmentation Fund, or ERAF, a state program that shifts a portion of local property taxes to public school systems in each county.

The city received a total of $414.7 million in excess ERAF funds for both the previous and current fiscal year. While more than half must go toward budget reserves and to certain city agencies — including about $54 million for child care, youth services and rainy day reserves— the mayor and Board of Supervisors have free rein on how to spend $181 million.

The windfall comes as the school district faces a legal challenge to a new parcel tax that would raise $50 million annually, most of it for a teacher pay raise. As school officials grapple with a lack of funds to cover the wage increases, they are eyeing the windfall as a potential solution.

In the past week, Matthews sent letters to both the mayor and Board of Supervisors, urging them to allocate $60 million of the excess revenue toward SFUSD for “critical education-related purposes, including educator salaries.”

The mayor’s comments Tuesday did not address the request from Matthews, nor the separate proposal from the supervisors. Rather, she doubled down on her desire to use the money to meet the goals of Proposition C, a November ballot measure she opposed that would raise $300 million in taxes from the city’s largest businesses to fund homeless services.

While the measure passed with 61 percent approval, it is facing possible legal challenges that could hold up the money for months, or even years.

“Although I had concerns with the underlying policy, I agree with the overall goal: We need to get people off the streets and housed,” Breed told the board. “With the onetime funding that was recently announced, we have an opportunity to take bold action while we wait for more funding to potentially become available.”

The Board of Supervisors cannot take up the allocation until next year, which means there will be three new supervisors who will also have a say on how the money is spent. And each of them — Haney, Walton and Mar — said they will push for extra funding for public education.

“As long as San Francisco schools are underfunded and our teachers are underpaid, we should be looking for ways to get more money into our schools, not divert resources away,” Haney previously told The Chronicle.

Also at Tuesday’s meeting, Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer introduced legislation to help limit the amount of retail vacancies around the city. Under the proposal, businesses would have to register their vacant storefronts and pay a $711 annual registration fee. Those who do not comply would have to pay a penalty that is four times the registration fee.

Fewer’s legislation removes language in the building code that says a commercial storefront is not considered vacant if the storefront is “actively being offered for sale, lease or rent.”

Supervisor Aaron Peskin also proposed legislation to increases fines for illegal demolitions. His proposal also would require a conditional use authorization for any home expansion that increases the square footage by more than 10 percent.

Additionally, Supervisor Hillary Ronen introduced legislation that would require all juveniles to have legal representation when they are interrogated by police and give their parents access to them while they are in custody.