CCHO and allies respond: "Policy and Practice Review" from the State of California's Department of Housing and Community Development

17 November 2023

Gustavo Velasquez, Director HCD

Tyrone Buckley, Assistant Deputy Director of Fair Housing, HCD

Re: "Policy and Practice Review" from the State of California's Department of Housing and Community Development

The San Francisco Anti Displacement Coalition (SFADC), the Race & Equity in all Planning Coalition - San Francisco (REP-SF), and the Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO) submit this letter to express our grave concerns regarding the "San Francisco Housing Policy and Practice Review" (PPR) released by the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) on October 25, 2023.

Together, our coalitions represent nearly 90 community-based organizations that have played critical roles for decades in innovating affordable housing, tenants rights, and anti-displacement policies in San Francisco. As coalitions deeply committed to moving forward solutions and investments to address fair housing, racial and social equity, affordability, and displacement, we are deeply concerned that HCD's PPR will further exacerbate our affordability crisis and move our City out of compliance with its obligations to Affirmatively Further Fair Housing.

In an attempt to facilitate housing development “at all income levels”, the PPR in fact seeks to fully deregulate expensive, market rate housing while undermining provisions of San Francisco's Housing Element designed to achieve our city's affordability, fair housing, and anti displacement goals. Moreover, the PPR contains numerous misleading and inaccurate assertions -- and then leans on these faulty assertions to justify hasty and extreme actions that threaten to further destabilize and displace our most vulnerable and historically marginalized communities.

Read entire letter here.