2024 Primary Election

Since arriving in Sacramento, Assemblymember Matt Haney has immediately gotten to work to champion housing. In addition to strong votes, he carried an important bill, AB 1114, to close loopholes abused by San Francisco to delay housing. Haney has also worked on office-to-housing conversions and prioritized limiting the cost burdens for renters, bringing his perspective as one of the few renters and chairing the California Legislative Renters’ Caucus.

One might assume that the Supervisor representing wealthy neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and the Marina would be a NIMBY against housing. However, we are excited to endorse Supervisor Catherine Stefani who far exceeds expectations. While she may not be the loudest pro-housing voice, Supervisor Stefani stands for the rule of law and consistent standards applied to housing. Although the San Francisco Board of Supervisors is majority anti-housing, Catherine Stefani has bravely voted for housing projects and against baseless appeals. She voted in support of headline housing projects like 469 Stevenson Street (the Nordstrom parking lot project) and 1151 Washington Street.

We expect Catherine Stefani to continue her pro-housing goals in the Assembly, a body that is much more supportive of housing. She explicitly supports more housing in her Assembly District. She also writes unambiguously in our questionnaire “we need to prioritize building all types of housing in exclusionary communities.” Further, she writes “I am also committed to ensuring that cities and counties across the state do their fair share in terms of building housing, and if they don’t, hold them accountable through closing loopholes within the Housing Accountability Act. “

We encourage Supervisor Stefani to sponsor legislation in the Assembly that aligns with her good-governance ethos, such as strengthening the Housing Accountability Act where it may conflict with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

Scott Wiener continues to be an exemplary leader on housing. He has passed numerous bills in the recent session, including SB423, extending and expanding upon one of the most productive affordable housing bills of the past decade, SB35, as well as SB4 (YIGBY), which will allow for affordable housing on religious properties, opening up tens of thousands of acres for new housing. We are also now seeing the dividends of his early work to strengthen state law and put teeth into the RHNA process by strengthening the Housing Element process, meaning jurisdictions all over California have to build the housing they say they will or face consequences from the state.

Proposition A is a $300 milllion housing bond that is going before the voters in March. This is an important tool to help fund 1,500 affordable homes in San Francisco over the next several years.

The funding will go to support working families in San Francisco. It will help the city take another to hitting our RHNA goals by creating more funding for much-needed affordable housing.

This is a unifying measure that brings San Franciscans together, and it's important that we come together as this requires 2/3rds to pass.

TL;DR: Vote Yes on Prop C, which will encourage up to 5 million square feet of office space, by the start of 2030, to be converted into housing, by exempting the post-conversion sale from the usual transfer tax of up to 6%. The full 5 million square feet would be equivalent to around 5,000 one and two-bedroom apartment homes.

Why support it: reducing fees on new homes encourage building them: some projects that would otherwise fail to pencil out financially might be built if Prop C passes. Specifically bringing housing to downtown SF, a jobs center, will help reduce car dependence and make the neighborhood more vibrant. Finally, the transfer tax is itself poorly structured, and this reduces its burden on our city.

Dig deeper: San Francisco’s Transfer Tax is a sales tax that applies to property sales, including both residential and commercial property, and including the initial sale upon construction of a new property. For example, a $1M condo is subject to a $7,500 tax, 0.75%, upon sale, and a $100M building pays a 6% rate, which would be $6M.

Wonky criticism of the non-marginal transfer tax structure

Unlike most taxes, the transfer tax is not assessed at the margin, a problem which was exacerbated by Dean Preston’s Prop I (2020), which changed the rate bump at $10M from 0.5% (2.25% to 2.75%) to 3.25% (2.25% to 5.5% at that $10M threshold). This means that a $10M property sale owes more than twice as much transfer tax as a $9,999,999 sale price, and that sale prices between $10M and $10.325M are economically irrational.

Emma has worked in San Francisco in a variety of capacities to bring more housing abundance to the City

Matt Dorsey has been a housing champion on the Board of Supervisors since his election in 2022. We are excited to see him bring that same vision to the local Democratic Party leadership

Parag is a YIMBY Action board member and serves as the Chief Program Officer at Mercy Housing, one of the largest and most impactful nonprofit affordable housing developers in the country. At Mercy, Parag leads the strategy and execution for building affordable housing in California.

A native San Franciscan and lifelong resident of the Sunset, Jade knows that building more housing will address the root cause of so many of San Francisco’s issues. She supports middle-density housing and striking an achievable balance between the housing needs of the city and her community.

Mike is a SF YIMBY lead and power volunteer. He has been a crucial member of the movement for years, and regularly advocates for building housing in San Francisco by supporting day-to-day chapter operations, campaigning actively for YIMBY-endorsed candidates and ballot measures, and joining movement-wide activities like YIMBY Lobby Day in Sacramento.

Dan believes we need to dramatically increase the supply of housing at all levels of affordability across all neighborhoods in San Francisco. He believes we should prioritize affordable housing, particularly for our most vulnerable communities, but also believes we just need more housing - period!

Lanier lives in District 2 and wants more 6-8 story buildings along both Lombard and Geary streets, and dense housing built ASAP at the former CPMC hospital on California street. She wants to continue to hold the Board of Supervisors accountable for their housing votes in order to ensure San Francisco meets its RHNA goals.

Sara wants to build more housing for all people and is ready to take on NIMBY elected officials! In her time as a YIMBY, she has supported a number of different housing development projects, including 3333 California, 1151 Washington, 2550 Irving, 730 Stanyan, 469 Stevenson, 3832 18th Street, and the adaptive reuse project at Sacramento and Webster.

Catherine has been a reliable YIMBY vote on the San Francisco Board of Supervisors as District 2 Supervisor for the past six years. Her votes have consistently demonstrated her record as a YIMBY.

Marjan has been a strong advocate for affordable housing and has supported policies that promote equitable access to housing for years. She’s also been a vocal supporter of mixed-income housing developments that foster diverse and inclusive neighborhoods to ensure everyone has a safe and affordable place to call home.

Brian co-leads the Richmond District hyperlocal YIMBY group, Grow the Richmond. He also champions housing development on San Francisco’s Westside, and campaigned to support 2550 Irving in the Sunset District, and participated in 2023 YIMBY Lobby Day in Sacramento.