View the San Francisco for Thursday, April 24, 2025
Supervisor Joel Engardio is championing a measure that would allow property owners who have built added dwellings on their properties — sometimes referred to as ADUs or granny flats — to convert the homes into condominiums and sell off the subdivided units individually.
Engardio, who represents the largely suburban Sunset District, said the measure would give longtime homeowners a way to cash in on their investments into ADU construction projects, providing “an option to maximize the value of the property and create generational wealth.” In turn, he said, the change will also help to encourage the production of more ADUs in San Francisco, which are considered to be relatively low-cost However, the proposal, which is currently under consideration by the Board of Supervisors, is already facing skepticism from tenant advocates who warn that allowing such condo conversions could underminein many of The City’s smaller residential buildings. So far, the advocates say they remain unconvinced by proposed amendments that seek to plug the loopholes. ADUs include a wide variety of small dwellings, everything from newly constructed structures in the backyards of homes to converted garages. In San Francisco, where space is always scarce, ADUs are sometimes created by simply remodeling portions of existing houses.across all of its residential neighborhoods in 2016. But The City does not currently allow property owners to sell ADUs separately from the rest of their lots. Engardio’s proposal would take advantage of a 2023 state law authored by former San Francisco Assemblymember Phil Ting that gives cities the option toThe law would only apply to lots with four or fewer units. In laying out the measure during Monday’s meeting of the Land Use and Transportation Committee, Engardio framed his proposal as a way to help out middle-income San Francisco homeowners who are often house-rich but cash-poor. “By allowing ADU condos, homeowners can secure additional financing to build these new units,” he said. “After these units are built, any increase in net assessed property value can be tied to the new ADU.”For homebuilding advocates, the bite-sized-homes offer an appealing way to boost the supply of relatively affordable housing in San Francisco without the“One of San Francisco’s biggest challenges is the lack of entry-level home-ownership options,” said Brianna Morales of the Housing Action Coalition during a February meeting of the Planning Commission. In contrast, she said, ADUs offer “flexibility in certain parts of San Francisco to allow families to live together in close proximity without obstructing their privacy.”Rent control typically does not apply to single-family homes, so when an ADU is converted into a condo and sold to a new owner, it can lose its rent-controlled status, according to a staff report. In addition, the report also outlined a potential loophole that condo conversions might open up — one that landlords could use to Since that February meeting, Engardio has added amendments to his proposed legislation that he says would prevent such scenarios. Nevertheless, the tenant advocates said that it remains unclear whether their concerns have been fully addressed.San Franciscans take part in a nationwide protest rally against U.S. President Donald Trump and his adviser Elon Musk in front of City Hall on April 5.If San Francisco leaders’ reaction to Donald Trump’s first term as U.S. president was akin to a five-alarm fire, they’ve met his second with more of a slow burn. San Franciscans are increasingly expressing their frustrations as the president carries out his agenda — but the response so far from elected officials has been more measured. “As I say frequently, the most important thing a city like San Francisco can do for the progressive cause is show that a blue city can be run effectively,” said Board of Supervisors President Rafael Mandelman. “Also, the actions of the federal administration are impacting our people, and are causing fear and anxiety and are potentially threatening our programs and services, and it’s going to be untenable to not stand up for our values.” The ire in San Francisco puts local elected leaders in the position of having to balance the immediate needs of a city facing profound economic and social challenges with standing out-and-proud in opposition to a man against whom more thanNationwide “Hands Off!” protest rally against U.S. President Donald Trump and Elon Musk in front of City Hall at Civic Center Plaza in San Francisco on Saturday, April 5, 2025. Political consultant Eric Jaye said elected officials are recalibrating their initial response to the second Trump administration as their constituents wake up to depleted retirement accounts and immigrants being deported without due process. “Will that be a return to the full, all-restance-all-the-time of the first Trump administration?” Jaye said. “I doubt it.”Early in Trump’s term, “people were like ‘OK, this is a new presidency,’” and thought something might be different, said Musa Tariq, policy coordinator at the San Francisco Bay Area Chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. “It’s been different in such a bad way,” Tariq said. “People are like ‘wait a minute, he’s coming after our most basic constitutional rights.’” Political strategist Jim Ross noted that Gov. Gavin Newsom did not immediately antagonize Trump, but recently announced that California would sue to “Because it impacted so many people in business and perceived as more moderate, I think it has given a lot of politicians some cover to go after Trump,” Ross said of Trump’s economic moves.with the Department of Homeland Security prompted a rally by city officials on the steps of San Francisco City Hall last week. The IRS stated that the information would only be shared in cases in which a person is subject to a deportation order or is under federal criminal investigation, butThe avalanche of activity from the Trump administration shows no signs of abating, and outrage among San Francisco liberals is likely to accumulate. At the same time, San Francisco elected officials are tasked with righting a number of problems in The City.is contemplating cuts to service in order to close a major budget deficit; The City, as a whole, must rectify a two-year budget deficit of about $800 million this summer. Mayor Daniel Lurie speaks at the 119th commemoration of the 1906 earthquake at Lotta’s Fountain in San Francisco on Friday, April 18, 2025. Lurie has thus far been reserved and cautious in his approach to the Trump administration. Generally, he has described his administration as “monitoring” developments in federal policy under Trump and their potential implications for San Francisco. When it comes to attacks on people such as immigrants and LGBTQ+ residents, he has promised since his election victory that “we got your back,” and heBut he’s clearly careful to not call Trump out by name and draw the president’s attention to San Francisco. Journalists have given Lurie countless opportunities to directly criticize Trump, but he has declined to do so. In a one-on-one interview with The Examiner earlier this month, Lurie said that his focus must remain on The City. In the previous Trump term, politicians might have been judged and rewarded for how vocally they opposed Trump, Jaye said, but it’s a new era, and voters are also focused on homelessness, public safety and economic stability. “He’s doing a good job of balancing the needs to protect San Francisco values with the full-time job he has with running the city,” Jaye said. Other city officials may choose to attack Trump, but “it’s less likely to have an impact if it’s not coming from the mayor’s office,” Ross said. “If you don’t have the mayor speaking out on things; they’re the spokesperson for The City in national media’s mind,” Ross said. San Franciscans’ ire toward the Trump administration puts local elected officials in the position of having to balance The City’s immediate needs with standing against the president.The City’s fiscal health relies heavily on federal funding, which Trump is expected to winnow down as his administration curtails federal spending in a. Lurie doesn’t want Trump to come after San Francisco, Ross said — he wants to govern and solve San Francisco’s problems. “To do that, you need at least some help and support from the federal government,” Ross said, although it’s increasingly becoming clear that such help is “going to be very limited anyway.” Aside from symbolic actions such as the demonstration over taxpayer data, much of San Francisco’s Trump resistance has been left to City Attorney David Chiu, who has already led or signed on to several lawsuits against Trump’s policies and Mandelman credited Chiu with leading the legal battle against Trump’s administration, and acknowledged there is relatively little city legislators can do to stand in the way of a federal administration. “That doesn’t mean that San Franciscans are not going to want us to speak up about things,” Mandelman said.Sam Moss, executive director of Mission Housing Development Corporation, “All of us saved for rainy days. We are living through the rainy day right now.”Leaders of San Francisco affordable housing nonprofits say a barrage of disruptive federal measures have cast their operations into disarray just three months into Donald Trump’s second presidency. Among those actions, the leaders said they have been alarmed by an unexplained halt to certain federal grants that support homelessness programs. They also point to a bevy of directives from federal housing authorities targeted at programs that support undocumented immigrants r various efforts towards diversity. “It’s just hard to predict at this juncture what will or won’t happen,” said Malcolm Yeung, executive director of the Chinatown Community Development Center. However, one prediction he does feel comfortable making is “that building housing and operating housing is going to get a lot more challenging.” Yeung anticipated major disruptions even before the new administration began. Several weeks prior to Trump’s inauguration, Yeung told The Examiner that he was. Nevertheless, he said in a recent interview that the flurry of federal actions that have taken place since Trump took office has reached a pace that he “couldn’t have even predicted.” Amid all the churn, local nonprofits have been left to anxiously await news about the fate of various federal funding streams they rely upon to provide housing support and services to low-income residents. Recent reporting suggests much deeper cuts could still be coming. But even if they never materialize, local builders say the cloud of financial uncertainty that has descended on the affordable-housing sector has already complicated their work dramatically, making it more difficult to plan out projects and even to secure bank loans. Sam Moss, who leads the Mission Housing Development Corporation, said that housing nonprofits such as his own were already getting squeezed financially by high construction costs. Now, with these federal actions causing yet more disruptions to their operating model, he said, “I think it’s fair to assume that some new affordable-housing developments will be delayed” by a year or more. Such delays could deal a significant blow to San Francisco’s housing goals. Under a state mandate, The City has until 2031 toHomes are shown in San Francisco, April 26, 2023. The City must plan for 82,000 additional units of housing by 2031 as part of state-mandated goals.In addition, advocates warn that any shock to rental-support programs would likely result in many more people falling into homelessness, potentially marking a major setback forFederal funding plays a crucial role in San Francisco’s housing-support programs. For the 12-month fiscal year that spanned 2022 and 2023, San Francisco received aboutfrom the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, according to a report from the California Housing Partnership nonprofit group. And the San Francisco Housing Authority — which administers housing-voucher programs that help support over 30,000 low-income residents — said that about 96% of its funding comes from the federal government. So far, the bulk of this federal funding has continued to flow smoothly, according to housing nonprofit leaders. But there has been at least one major exception. Last month, officials with the San Francisco Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing sent emails to a number of local nonprofits informing them that The City had not yet received grant payments from a HUD-backed funding program that supports a wide array of homelessness-prevention initiatives in cities throughout the country. Under the program, known as Continuum of Care, HUD had already awarded about $56 million to San Francisco for the coming year to help In one email reviewed by The Examiner, an HSH official informed the nonprofit grant recipients that, for the time being, The City would cover three-fourths of the awarded grant funds. It remains unclear why that funding has not yet arrived or if it ever will. HUD did not respond to a request for comment. HSH responded with a brief statement that did not address questions related to the funding delay. The City’s decision to backfill most of the payment has provided an important lifeline for housing nonprofits, said Moss. Nevertheless, these organizations had banked on receiving the full grant, he added, and if it never comes through, “it would hurt.” Meanwhile, other sources of federal funding for affordable housing have also been thrown into question, amid the Trump administration’s crackdown on programs deemed to be overly supportive of “diversity, equity and inclusion” or of undocumented immigrants. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner speaks as President Donald Trump looks on during a reception in the East Room of the White House, Feb. 20, 2025.While courts have blocked many of the president’s executive orders intended to halt funding for such programs, Trump’s new appointee to lead HUD, Scott Turner, has made it clear that his agency’s funding priorities will largely fall in line with the standards set out by those directives.Federal law already bars undocumented immigrants from receiving housing support from the federal government. It’s not entirely clear what such a policy might mean for San Francisco, which, since 1989, has instituted some form of sanctuary policies that block local law enforcement from supporting federal immigration officials. In February, The City sued the Trump administration over earlier attempts to cut federal support to sanctuary cities Even before Turner’s letter on sanctuary policies, HUD had already given other hints that its approach to funding would be shifting under the new administration. Those include the issuance last month of a grant agreement sent to San Francisco — first reported by The San Francisco Standard — which states that HUD would no longer offer funding to programs that support “gender ideology” or “elective abortions.” Asked for comment, a spokesperson for San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu issued a brief statement that his office is “reviewing communications from the federal government and working with our clients to assess options to protect the City’s funding.”Local builders say that the financial uncertainty imposed on the affordable-housing sector by recent changes to federal policies has already complicated their work dramatically.that could result in significant reductions to the Section 8 housing voucher program, which supports millions of low-income families throughout the country. In addition, HUD announced last month it would wind down several years ahead of schedule the emergency housing-voucher program it launched during the COVID-19 pandemic. Advocates say once those payments end, hundreds of San Francisco residents who still rely on the housing support will be placed in a tough spot. It remains to be seen what funding cuts actually take place, but if significant funding rollbacks for affordable projects do occur, it’s not clear where The City could turn to fill in the gap they would leave behind given the And if last year’s elections are any indication, affordable-housing advocates can’t necessarily rely on local voters to bail the system out either. While The City approved a $300 million bond toin March 2024, an even larger regional measure was pulled later in the year from the November ballot after its As for state funding, legislation to pass a $10 billion affordable-housing bond is currently working its way through both houses of the California State Legislature. Last month, San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors passed aHowever, during a community town hall held last month in the Tenderloin, a member of the audience pressed the mayor to provide his plan to secure backup funding if federal support falls through. Lurie responded that he will be keeping his focus on local matters, like balancing the budget, and boosting The City’s economy. “We can control only what we can control,” he said, “and I cannot control what’s coming out of DC right now.” Moss said it remains a “terrifying” moment that is “emotionally, physically mentally draining” for both himself and his staff. Nevertheless, he said that San Francisco’s affordable-housing sector and its constellation of nonprofit homebuilders remain among the most developed in the country.Click and hold your mouse button on the page to select the area you wish to save or print. You can click and drag the clipping box to move it or click and drag in the bottom right corner to resize it. When you're happy with your selection, click the checkmark icon next to the clipping area to continue.This is the name that will be displayed next to your photo for comments, blog posts, and more. Choose wisely!Create a password that only you will remember. If you forget it, you'll be able to recover it using your email address.Forgot Password An email message containing instructions on how to reset your password has been sent to the email address listed on your account.
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