SF Requires Zoning Changes to Meet Family NeedsRandy Shawbyline‚ May. 14‚ 2007A high-profile campaign by Coleman Advocates for Children and Youth has made San Francisco’s lack of affordable family housing a front-burner issue. The Board of Supervisors recently allocated between $10-20 million for family housing, and Coleman and other groups are pushing for 3000 affordable family units to be constructed by 2011. But absent major zoning changes, San Francisco will have few places to build such housing. That’s because neighborhoods like the Excelsior and Outer Mission that include the most housing opportunity sites strictly limit the number of units that can be built in a project. This makes building family-size two to three bedroom apartments financially unfeasible, and explains why San Francisco has constructed so little of such housing. |