Mayor Edwin M. Lee today announced a Mayoral Executive Directive ordering all City departments that have the legal authority over the permitting or mapping of new or existing housing to prioritize in their administrative work plans the construction and development of all net new housing including permanently affordable housing. Mayor Lee ordered City departments to prioritize 100 percent permanently affordable developments and then prioritize thereafter residential developments based on the proportion of permanently affordable units produced onsite or offsite through the City’s inclusionary housing program as defined by Section 415 of the San Francisco Planning Code .

“Our City’s growing economy requires a diverse supply of new housing stock, and San Francisco needs to remain focused on protecting our existing rental housing,” said Mayor Lee. “Through the Housing Trust Fund, we created a permanent source of revenue to fund affordable housing production and with our City departments, we are going to build more housing in San Francisco more effectively so our City remains an affordable place to live for people at all levels of the economic spectrum and keep families in our vibrant City.”

Mayor Lee has formed a Working Group of the City’s Departments Heads, which will have three primary tasks:
•    Make recommendations to the Mayor for City polices and administrative actions to preserve and promote rental housing in San Francisco;
•    Require the Planning Commission to consider Discretionary Review hearings when a loss of housing is proposed; and
•    Create an advisory body to City departments with permitting authority to create a clearinghouse for code compliance checks for buildings that are being withdrawn from the rental market under Residential Rent Stabilization and Arbitration Ordinance or a Notice of Intent to Withdraw units from the residential market.

The Working Group of Departments Heads will include the Director of Department of Building Inspection, Director of the Planning Department, Chief of the Fire Department, Director of the Rent Board and Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing.

This Working Group will submit recommendations by February 1st that demonstrate how their Departments plan to operationalize this Directive, including recommending any specific administrative changes to increase housing production and protect existing rental stock.

Executive Directive 13-01: Housing Production & Preservation of Rental Stock