Press Release

Senator Wiener Praises San Francisco’s Housing Progress As State Housing Agency Declares the City On Track To Comply with State Housing Law

SACRAMENTO – Today the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) declared that under Mayor London Breed’s leadership, San Francisco is back on track and ahead of schedule to comply with state housing law after implementing a host of new changes to cut red tape. The update follows last fall’s unprecedented state review of San Francisco’s housing policies, which found that San Francisco flagrantly violated state law with 18 housing policies and practices. 

Senator Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco) issued the following statement in response to the positive news:

“San Francisco has made more local progress to address the housing crisis in the past year than the city did in the previous 50. This report makes clear that our tremendous legislative wins of the past year put us ahead of schedule to finally remove unnecessary barriers to building the housing we desperately need.

“This progress comes thanks to courageous leadership at every level: state leadership from Governor Newsom and HCD, and the Legislature; local government leadership from Mayor Breed, Supervisor Melgar, Planning Director Hillis and the Board of Supervisors; and most importantly, from grassroots leaders like San Francisco YIMBY, YIMBY Action, and their partners at HAC and SPUR. 

“Much work remains to build the homes we need to address our severe housing shortage. San Francisco must complete all the remaining actions laid out in the state Policy & Practice Review, which we are on track to do. The City must also complete its rezoning in line with the pro-housing standards set by state law. But this gold star progress report from HCD is tremendously encouraging, and our City is finally gaining momentum in our long journey to contain the cost of housing.”

HCD highlighted the following steps San Francisco has taken to come back into compliance:

  • Approving the Constraints Reduction Ordinance through the Board of Supervisors
  • Prohibiting subjectivity in planning approval
  • Reforming CEQA processes to give a clear determination within 30 days of a complete application
  • Increasing objectivity and transparency in the construction permitting process
  • Restructuring processes so that developments that already received planning approval cannot be subject to subsequent building permit appeals
  • Reducing procedural hurdles for code-compliant projects
  • Removing hearing requirements for most State Density Bonus Law requests

These steps place San Francisco ahead of HCD’s timeline to come into full compliance with state housing law by this fall, with all actions laid out in the policy and practice review to be complete by 2026.

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