Jobs-Housing Linkage Fee Legislation Rally
A joint rally by various community groups in support of the Jobs-Housing Linkage Fee was held on the steps of the City Hall on Tuesday, October 22, 2019.
The Jobs-Housing Linkage Fee is a legislation from 1996 that is meant to fund housing construction to offset the demand for housing that new office employment creates. In other words, it is a way to make developers pay to offset the housing demand they have created by charging them a fee for new market-rate construction and use the funds to pay for affordable housing. Supervisor Matt Haney has introduced a legislation to raise the fee that still has to garner more support from the rest of the Supervisors who have not signed on to sponsor it.
Image Credit: Raymond Castillo
SOMCAN community services worker, Ramon Bonifacio, called on and urged all of the Supervisors who have not signed on as a sponsor to the legislation by delivering the following speech:
"Good afternoon everyone, my name is Ramon Bonifacio, I’m a SOMA resident and with SOMCAN (South of Market Community Action Network). First of, I would like to thank Sup. Haney for spearheading this overdue and very urgent legislation. I want to thank Supervisor Fewer, Yee, Ronen, Walton, Peskin and Mar for sponsoring this legislation. I call out to all of the Supervisors who has NOT signed on as sponsor, if you support Prop A, if you are for affordable housing, if you are about supporting workers and families … then you should also be signing onto the Jobs-Housing Linkage Fee legislation.
I graduated high school last year and like many families like mine … and young adults like myself … we worry about how are we going to be able to stay in this City we love. We are being priced out of the City! We cannot afford to live where we work, and often struggle to make ends meet.
In the past decade, the City only built one unit of housing for every 8.5 jobs created, and even less units of affordable housing. San Francisco has the worst jobs-to-housing balance in the Bay Area, and it’s putting pressure on everyone. Existing tenants are pushed out due to growing competition for affordable units, especially near the areas with concentrated office development like the South of Market where I grew up in.
This legislation generates over $500 million in the next decade, which would produce 1,000 new units for low-to-middle income workers, 715 units for people experiencing homelessness, and preserving 150 units at risk of losing affordability. It creates the first stream of funding for permanent supportive housing to address the 8,000 people experiencing homelessness in our City.
We need to prioritize the development of affordable housing, we need to preserve existing housing, the impacts of this luxury developments must be mitigated in the highest standard NOT what gives more benefit to developers.
Again, I call out to all of the Supervisors who has NOT signed on as sponsor, if you support Prop A, if you are for affordable housing, if you are about supporting workers and families … then you should also be signing onto the Jobs-Housing Linkage Fee legislation.
THANK YOU!"
Read more about the Jobs-Housing Linkage Fee Legislation and how this measure is moving forward here.