The San Francisco Housing Action Coalition (SFHAC) and Bay Area Housing Advocacy Coalition (BayHAC) are working to solve the region’s affordability and displacement crisis by creating new housing opportunities for residents at all income levels. Our City, region and state needs more affordable housing, more moderate-income housing, and more market-rate housing.

The HAC believes that the City of San Francisco needs to build 5,000 every year for the next 20 years and all policy goals need to be intended on helping us hit that annual goal. To help our City meet its challenges, we’re working to improve San Francisco’s development process to incentivize more affordable housing, ensure that what is built is well-designed and well-located, support new development with transportation and infrastructure improvements, and minimize unnecessary delays to building it.

We also provide accurate, real-time information to the public, policy makers, and elected officials about San Francisco’s housing crisis and proposed legislation. The SFHAC does not work alone, and will push its members, community stakeholders and City government to design and implement the policies and practices that will most effectively address our housing affordability crisis.

Current Initiatives

More Equitable Citywide Development

Right now, 80 percent of new development is taking place on 20 percent of the land. San Francisco needs to do a better job of adding housing across all of its neighborhoods, particularly along transit corridors.

Transit and Infrastructure

We are fully aware that with new housing and residents comes a greater need for transit and infrastructure. SFHAC is looking into ways new residential development can better directly fund these necessary improvements.

Eastern Waterfront Use

Much of the City’s historic waterfront industrial uses are gone, leaving significant amounts of underutilized land. SFHAC believes this land can be transformed into vibrant neighborhoods that balance housing with jobs and transit.

Student Housing

SFHAC led the work in helping to pass two student housing ordinances. The two pieces of legislation were created to incentive the creation of new student housing, a product that is severely lacking in San Francisco.

Prop C: Housing Trust Fund

In 2012, the SFHAC supported and helped pass Prop C, the Housing Trust Fund. We were part of the working group that established Prop C’s terms as well as supported the political campaign for its passage.

Neighborhood Planning

We provided advocacy for adoption of the rezoning contained in five neighborhood plans: Eastern Neighborhoods, Market and Octavia, Balboa Park, Central Subway Corridor and the Transit Center District.

Inclusionary Housing Ordinance

In 2002, members of SFHAC got together with then-Supervisor Mark Leno to help draft and pass the City’s first inclusionary housing ordinance. It has since undergone a couple of revisions, but it is still one of our chief sources of funding to subsidize housing affordability.

Micro-Units

SFHAC worked with Supervisor Scott Wiener in 2011 to help pass legislation that allows building micro-units. It is unlikely that micro-units will ever be more than a niche product, but it is important we continue to look for innovative, more affordable products.

Local CEQA Reform

The SFHAC worked with Supervisor Scott Wiener to successfully pass some minor modifications to the City’s interpretation of CEQA, the California Environmental Quality Act. There is still much work to improve the city's process.

Policy and Advocacy

Who gets to live in San Francisco?