'Affordable housing is a right': Mayor Breed proposes plan for teachers

SAN FRANCISCO (KTVU) - San Francisco's mayor wants to create more affordable housing and housing for teachers by streamlining the permitting process and rezoning city owned properties.

On the steps of City Hall Mayor London Breed proposed her ambitious plan to create more teacher and affordable housing.

The mayor is proposing a three-fold plan including a $500 million bond set to go on the November ballot.

Mayor today proposed a plan to amend the city charter to streamline the bureaucratic process by exempting some housing projects from reviews and appeals. 

"We are going to continue to push the envelope, to get rid of the layers of bureaucracy to make it easier to build housing," said Mayor Breed.

Amending the city charter would require 6 votes from the board of supervisors. So far 2 supervisors Vallie Brown and Asha Safai have already come out in support of the idea.

The mayor also announced she's also planning on pitching a separate ballot initiative to rezone all city property except for parks to allow affordable housing to be quickly built on city owned lots.

Properties such as the old Francis Scott Key School in the city's Sunset District.

Mayor Ed Lee in 2017 proposed a $44 million project to convert the closed building and playground into 150 units of affordable housing for teachers.

Since then the project has been bogged down going through the administrative process and Mayor Breed says that's exactly why the new zoning legislation is needed. "This property was not necessarily zoned for teacher housing," said Mayor Breed. "Adding, in addition to the years of process, adding another two years on top of the bureaucracy that’s making it difficult to get this property built now when we know we need it the most."

Sam Moss from Mission Housing Development Corporation says he backs the Mayor’s proposal.

For too long, he says, the eastern side of the city has increased in density. Now it's time to build multi residential buildings throughout San Francisco to help ease the housing crisis. "I mean look, we redlined our neighborhoods so that apartment buildings are only legal on the East side of the city, and that is unacceptable," said Moss.

The mayor says her plans to speed up housing development are key to keeping working and middle class residents and families in San Francisco.