Delivering on Housing
Aaron Peskin has the best record on housing you’ve never heard of
Voted to approve over 100,000 units of new housing – more than any other candidate for Mayor. He works with developers and communities to build housing for all San Franciscans - making sure the impacts of development don't rest solely on taxpayers and that communities share in the benefits. His record in places like SoMa, Rincon Hill, the Eastern Neighborhoods, Mission Bay, and Bayview/Hunters Point Shipyard speaks to his ability to reach consensus and build a brighter future for all of us.
Built housing of every kind in his own district: dense affordable housing, market-rate housing, homeless navigation centers, and permanent supportive housing. Aaron’s commitment to building a broad range of housing in his district is yet another example of his belief that we can grow our neighborhoods without losing the things that make them special.
Never voted against an affordable housing project in his 24 years of public service and has led the creation of affordable homes for thousands of San Franciscans.
Strongest renters’ advocate running for Mayor and has a long record of strengthening tenants’ rights to organize, preventing evictions, helping tenants acquire their buildings to preserve affordable units, and reducing rents by prohibiting landlord passthroughs.
Area Plans
Aaron has been at the forefront of work creating new area plans, or rezonings that increase capacity for housing in specific neighborhoods. He has consistently worked with community stakeholders, not against them.
Area plans include the Planning Department’s estimate of new housing capacity created in Central SoMa, Eastern Neighborhoods, Market and Octavia, Rincon Hill, and the Transbay Redevelopment plans: a total of 24,360 market-rate homes and 7,583 affordable homes. Some highlights include:
Central SoMa Area Plan – In 2018, Aaron supported the rezoning of the largely industrial Central Soma area. This added 16 million square feet of office and housing. The zoning allowed for 5,600 units of market-rate housing and 2,700 units of affordable housing, securing affordability in over 30% of new units.
Eastern Neighborhood Plans – In 2008, Aaron supported the creation of the Mission Area Plan, the East SoMa Plan, the Showplace Square/Potrero Hill Plan, and the Waterfront Plan. Collectively, these four plans increased density in these areas and facilitated 8,250 units of market-rate housing and 1,750 units of affordable housing.
Market and Octavia Area Plan -- In one of the first national models of transit-oriented development, the Market and Octavia plan enabled dense infill development on land made available by the removal of the Central Freeway. It took 22 publicly-owned freeway parcels, half earmarked for affordable housing, and built walkable neighborhoods, which fit into and enhanced existing neighborhood commercial corridors.
Transbay Redevelopment Plan – In 2005, Aaron supported the redevelopment of land around the Salesforce Transit Center that had been part of the Central Freeway. That created the opportunity for 2,400 market-rate units and 1,400 units of affordable housing, along with a new downtown park.
Development Agreements
Aaron has voted for and supported many development agreements including Balboa Reservoir, Candlestick / Hunters Point Shipyard II, HOPE SF, India Basin, Mission Rock, Pier 70, Potrero Power Station, Trinity Plaza, and more. Combined, these agreements created capacity for more than 18,000 market-rate homes and more than 8,500 affordable homes. Some highlights include:
Candlestick / Hunter’s Point Shipyard proposed over 10,000 new units on the former naval shipyard, over 30% are affordable.
The Potrero Power Station in 2020 led to a total of 2,681 housing units, of which over 800 were affordable housing.
The Balboa Reservoir project in 2020 led to as many as 1,100 total housing units, half of which were affordable housing.
HOPE SF projects added 4,200 new housing units when they redeveloped four large public housing sites, replacing affordable units for all existing residents while adding thousands of market-rate units creating mixed-income communities
Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)
ADU Pioneer. Aaron Peskin authored one of the first laws enabling ADUs in the state in 2003, later authoring legislation to ensure the units were rent-controlled in his return to office.
Ending traditional single-family zoning. He co-authored the ADU law which passed in 2016. The 2016 ADU ordinance allowed 37,000 parcels in the city to add ADUs, ending traditional single-family zoning in San Francisco.
Other Housing Votes
In the course of his work as district Supervisor and Board President, Aaron Peskin voted in favor of legislation to facilitate tens of thousands of additional units through issuance of bonds, acceptance of grants, and acquisitions for affordable housing, often earmarking portions of bonds for innovative housing models, like teacher housing and women’s transitional housing.
Built housing of every kind in his own district
Affordable Housing. Aaron secured three 100% affordable housing projects with childcare facilities and one park in the area where the Embarcadero freeway had been. Aaron also negotiated a deal to either include affordable housing above the Station 13 firehouse at 530 Sansome, or pay out the affordable housing fees for affordable senior housing in Chinatown.
Housing for homeless youth. Secured the site and created the city’s first housing for homeless youth, the 75-bed TAY Navigation Center in Lower Polk.
Academy of Art Affordable Housing Settlement – In 2016, Aaron helped create a fund to provide critical financing for affordable housing in Nob Hill and Chinatown by persuading the City Attorney to sue the Academy of Art for breaking the law and illegally converting low-income housing for decades. The $37.6 million affordable housing fund was negotiated to be kept within the “zone of damage” where the illegal conversions happened.
Champion for Affordable Housing
Supporting Affordable Housing Bonds Without Raising Taxes
Aaron has been a strong and consistent advocate for measures that give the City the resources to create more affordable housing (affordable housing bonds):
Proposition A (March 2024) This past March, Aaron championed this $300 million Affordable Housing Bond that will provide funding for the construction, rehabilitation, acquisition, and maintenance of housing for working San Franciscans, and also earmarked $30 million for women survivors of domestic abuse and assault. San Franciscans overwhelmingly supported these ideas, as more than 70% voted for Proposition A.
Proposition A (November 2019) Aaron supported this $600 million Affordable Housing Bond, which was approved by over 70% of San Francisco’s voters. He then worked with other Supervisors to ensure, despite initial opposition from the Mayor, that $150 million was reserved for senior housing and $20 million was set aside for housing for educators.
Proposition C (November 2016) – Aaron crafted this initiative to repurpose $260 million of unspent seismic safety general obligation bond authority for the acquisition, rehab, and preservation of at-risk housing and make it permanently affordable in exchange for low-cost loans. The voters approved Proposition C by a margin of two to one.
Workforce Housing and Affordable Middle Income (WHAMI) financing (July 2024) – Aaron has crafted a housing financing program to unstick the approximately 70,000 units of entitled housing stuck in the pipeline without financing due to market slowdowns. The WHAMI program allows the Board of Supervisors to issue tax-exempt bonds to finance construction of middle income housing for teachers, healthcare workers, bus drivers and first responders we need living in the city they serve.
Advocating for Affordable Housing
Downtown Adaptive Reuse Ordinance – In 2023, Aaron partnered with the Mayor to facilitate the adaptive reuse of downtown office buildings to housing in order to begin to transition downtown into a vibrant mixed-use neighborhood. This includes legalizing artists live-work lofts in former office and PDR spaces, given that no existing tenants will be displaced by the conversions.
Community Opportunity to Purchase Act – Aaron co-sponsored a bill led by Supervisor Sandra Fewer that was a first-in-the-nation policy empowering community-based non-profits to have first access to bid on housing acquisitions. The bill was passed into law in 2020, and later amended by Aaron to include residential properties in danger of foreclosure.
Small Site Acquisition Program – Aaron has been a champion of the Small Site Acquisition program, pushing the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development to fully fund the program, as well as reform its administration and costing process. He led the creation of the city’s first Community Land Trust acquisition at 530 Columbus Avenue, and recently added another small-site acquisition on Filbert Street.
Strongest Renters’ Advocate Running for Mayor
Aaron is the only advocate for renters who is running for Mayor. Here is what is at stake.
Tenant Right to Organize Act – Aaron’s first-in-the-nation policy pioneered a new form of tenants’ rights modeled on union collective bargaining rights. Aaron’s 2022 law has inspired similar ordinances in Seattle, New York, Washington DC, Austin, and at the state level in California.
Caps on Corporate Rentals – In 2020, Aaron passed legislation to require intermediate-length occupancy (ILO) rentals, which are generally corporate, to be permitted and reported on in some buildings, but banned them in rent-controlled housing.
Operating & Maintenance Pass-through Elimination – In 2018, after Veritas tenants exposed unfairly high rent increases they were subjected to from frivolous operations and maintenance pass-throughs and other special fees, Aaron teamed up with then-Supervisor Sandra Fewer to eliminate these from banked rent increases.
737 Post Expiring Covenant – In 2017, Aaron secured lifetime leases for 54 tenants at 737 Post who were threatened with displacement when their building’s deed restrictions expired.
Requiring Sprinklers in Common Areas of SRO Buildings – In 2017, after a tragic fire revealed that SROs were not required to have fire sprinklers in common areas, Aaron passed a law requiring sprinklers in all SROs.
Regulating Short-Term Rentals – In 2016, Aaron sponsored legislation that regulated short-term rentals and required hosts to register and be permanent residents. This helped prevent further reduction of San Francisco’s housing stock.
Supporting Funding for Eviction Prevention and Tenant Right to Counsel – Aaron has routinely prioritized saving funding in the budget for emergency rent vouchers, project-based subsidies, tenant counseling, and legal representation for renters facing eviction.