SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — Each evening in San Francisco, greater than 4,000 individuals sleep on the streets with none type of shelter. In the identical metropolis, hundreds of properties are vacant with out a single particular person sleeping inside.
“It’s devastating to appreciate that for each particular person sleeping on the streets tonight, there are 14 vacant properties in our metropolis,” county supervisor Dean Preston stated.
A brand new report launched Thursday by the town’s Funds and Legislative Analyst Workplace revealed {that a} staggering 61,473 properties had been vacant in San Francisco in 2021. The variety of vacant properties skyrocketed from 40,000 in 2019 to over 60,000 in 2021 — a 52 % enhance in simply two years, in response to the report.
That implies that an estimated 15 % of all properties in San Francisco are empty, by far the best fee amongst main cities within the nation, the report discovered.
“In a metropolis the place the price of housing is out of attain for many working individuals, and with hundreds of homeless individuals residing on our streets, it’s immoral and inhumane to have tens of hundreds of properties sitting empty,” stated Preston. “The dramatic enhance in simply two years exhibits the dire want for coverage intervention to show these empty items into locations the place individuals can stay.”
Along with having the best total residential emptiness fee, San Francisco additionally has the best share of items which can be vacant for seasonal, leisure or occasional use — greater than 10,000 properties – corresponding to trip properties.
Properties which can be “For Lease” however nonetheless stay vacant elevated by 142% in simply two years. “This information tells us that landlords are holding out on renting their items, ready for a market rebound to allow them to cost extra in hire,” Preston stated. “We have to incentivize them to get their items again available on the market and supply housing to San Franciscans in want.”
In the meantime, 7,754 individuals can’t afford hire. Town’s most up-to-date homeless census discovered 4,397 San Franciscans live on the streets and three,357 are sleeping in shelters.
The report famous coverage interventions that would assist scale back the variety of vacant items in San Francisco, corresponding to a tax on vacant items.
This November, San Francisco voters will determine whether or not to undertake an Empty Properties Tax. The proposed legislation will tax homeowners of buildings of three items or extra, the place a residential unit has been vacant for greater than six months in a given 12 months. The tax fee is greater for bigger items, and it will increase the longer a house is stored vacant.
The report’s authors wrote, “Whereas new housing provide is usually a major contributor to
affordability … giant numbers of vacant items in cities with present housing shortages can even impression affordability by additional proscribing provide. Some items could also be vacant as a consequence of proprietor preferences and actions which can be inconsistent with coverage targets of maximizing the Metropolis’s housing inventory for residents.”
