Issues
Housing
The national foreclosure epidemic has affected California homeowners particularly hard – there were almost 236,000 California homes that went into foreclosure in 2008, an increase of 180% from 2007. While the rate of foreclosures forced home prices down 20% in 2008 – home prices are still 50% higher than they were just five years ago. With a rapidly expanding population and the possibility of a sustained economic downturn, addressing California’s housing needs must be a foremost priority for our state government.
As California grows, our housing market must keep pace. In the short-term, our great challenge is to keep California homeowners in their homes. But the long-term challenge is to create a housing market that offers California buyers and renters affordable housing options to match the ever-increasing demand.
When it comes to housing, San Francisco serves as a microcosm for the entire state with an aging housing stock that is becoming less affordable to the average Californian. To address this, Mayor Gavin Newsom has instituted key reforms to keep more San Franciscans in their homes and expand affordable housing options that are scalable to the state level.
Homeownership Assistance: In 2005, Mayor Newsom secured funding for homeownership assistance programs for low and moderate-income households. These funds helped San Francisco offer new homeowners mortgage credit certificates, down payment and second loan assistance, and new loan programs to rehabilitate homes with health or safety hazards. Mayor Newsom also established the Teacher Next Door and Police in the Community programs to provide financial incentives for San Francisco teachers and police officers to purchase their first homes in San Francisco.
Foreclosure Prevention: Together with local leaders, in 2007 Mayor Newsom called on major financial institutions to sign an agreement outlining specific measures aimed at decreasing foreclosures and mortgage defaults in San Francisco. Mayor Newsom partnered with local leaders to work directly with community-based organizations to devise solutions to the foreclosure problem and crafted the Don't Borrow Trouble Initiative, a comprehensive selection of services for homeownership preservation. In 2008, San Francisco had the second lowest foreclosure rate of nine Bay Area counties.
Public Housing Improvement: Mayor Newsom created the HOPE SF initiative to transform San Francisco’s most distressed public housing sites into vibrant community centers. HOPE SF will ultimately reshape 40% of San Francisco’s public housing into sustainable and mixed-income communities. Mayor Newsom has already helped secure $95 million in local funds to rebuild approximately 800 public housing units and is expecting nearly $18 million in additional federal stimulus grants to improve and expand San Francisco's public housing stock.
Housing Development and Expansion: HOME 15/5 is an initiative introduced by Mayor Newsom to streamline bureaucratic and planning processes to help create 15,000 new housing units in San Francisco. Between 2000 and 2005, before HOME 15/5 was initiated, 1,896 new units were built in San Francisco. By comparison, in 2006, with the establishment of HOME 15/5, 3,737 housing units were permitted. There are currently more than 40,000 homes under construction in San Francisco, on pace for the fastest rate of housing development in almost a century.
Homeownership San Francisco: Homeownership SF, a nonprofit organization launched by Mayor Newsom and other local leaders, is helping educate low and moderate-income residents about home buying. Under the program, community residents are educated on financial literacy, property taxes and how to maintain payments on their mortgages. To fight the foreclosure crisis, Homeownership SF has allied with local financial institutions to decrease home loan default rates.
Seismic Upgrades to Housing: Mayor Newsom introduced legislation in 2008 to make it easier and more affordable to perform seismic retrofits to San Francisco buildings and housing and to increase public awareness of the importance of seismic upgrades. In 2009, a city-sponsored report recommended mandatory seismic retrofits to about 2,800 large, wood-frame buildings within ten years to prevent major damage in the case of an earthquake.
Join Our Policy Team: Gavin Newsom believes that the best plan is a better idea. If you would like to share your ideas and insights on how to reshape California's Housing policy, please email us at issues@gavinnewsom.com.
