San Francisco’s housing crisis persists

The city of San Francisco is losing rent-controlled apartments almost at the same rate as it is adding new affordable units, a study reported by the San Francisco Chronicle revealed.

According to the San Francisco's Housing Balance Report, nearly 5,500 apartments were removed from the so-called protected status in the city in ten years between 2004 and 2014. The report also showed that the city added roughly 6,600 affordable units during the same period of time.

It means more than 8 affordable units were taken off the market for every 10 affordable units that the city built during the ten years. The figures proved that residents' concerns about the loss of low- &-middle-income housing in the city are right.

The problem of affordable housing is particularly acute in San Francisco neighborhoods like the Sunset and the Mission that have not been building adequate number of houses for low-income people.

Supervisor Katy Tang, who represents Sunset neighborhood, has called for increased density along the neighborhood's main transit arteries, such as Irving, Judah, Taraval and Noriega, to alleviate the issue. Supervisor Jane Kim said the loss of rent-controlled housing units is having a bigger impact than she could think.

The loss of rent-controlled apartments and addition of new affordable units come as the San Francisco's housing market is booming and rents in some neighborhoods are topping $3,000 a month for a single-bedroom apartment.