November 2026: Vote YES on Proposition C, the Housing Trust Fund Charter Amendment

What Is It?

Pursuant to the City’s Charter, San Francisco currently appropriates approximately $50 million per year to the Housing Trust Fund. The amount is adjusted each year by the percentage increase or decrease in the City’s discretionary general fund revenues. The funding is dedicated to creating, acquiring, or rehabilitating affordable housing; providing downpayment assistance; and providing assistance to tenants to avoid evictions.

Prop C would gradually increase funding for the Housing Trust Fund until it reaches $125 million per year in fiscal year 2034-35. The increase in funding each year would be the greater of either 1) 20 percent of the annual increase in revenue from the City’s property tax or 2) the annual percentage increase in the City’s discretionary general fund revenues. Prop C allows for temporarily freezing or reducing contributions when the City faces a budget deficit of more than $250 million or when it’s authorized to withdraw funds from the City’s Rainy Day Reserve.

Prop C is the result of discussions among Mayor Lurie, Supervisor Myrna Melgar, and a wide range of stakeholders about how to provide more funding for affordable housing in the context of the Board of Supervisors’ recent enactment of Mayor Lurie’s Family Zoning Plan. Part of the rationale for how Prop C would raise funding is that the higher density development that the Family Zoning Plan allows will result in increased property tax revenues for the City. Prop C would generally dedicate 20% of that increased revenue to the Housing Trust Fund.

Why Does SFLCV Support It?

San Francisco’s chronic shortage of affordable housing is not only an urgent social and economic problem, but also a serious climate and environmental problem. By virtue of its extensive public transit services, its walkability, its concentration of employment opportunities, and its mild climate, San Francisco is, from an environmental perspective, an ideal location for multifamily housing. San Francisco households drive less, use less energy, and use less water than households elsewhere in the Bay Area and California. The lack of affordable housing in San Francisco, however, forces many lower-income households to live in inland areas where residents must drive more, use more energy for heating and cooling, and use more water. Current sources of funding for affordable housing are entirely insufficient to address San Francisco’s shortage of affordable housing.

Prop C would provide significant and predictable additional funding for affordable housing while taking into account other important City priorities and the possibility of future budgetary crises. The increase in funding is tied to increases in revenue from the City’s property tax or from increases in discretionary general fund expenditures. Prop C is thus fiscally responsible in how it addresses the City’s affordable housing crisis. 

Please vote for Prop C.