Key points:
- San Francisco’s housing crisis stalls progress despite approved plans for 20,000 new units.
- Developers cite high costs and low rents as major hurdles to new construction.
- “We have a deep need for more housing at all levels of affordability.” – Rachel Freeman, Los Angeles’ deputy mayor of business and economic development
- “All these new laws should help, but they take time.” – Darin Ranelletti, assistant director of housing and local planning at the Association of Bay Area Governments
San Francisco’s housing crisis is a case study in how dysfunction, high costs and political gridlock can combine to stall progress — even when the need is dire and the plans are already in place.
Approved plans for more than 20,000 new apartments and homes across the city have not broken ground, despite some receiving the green light more than a decade ago. Sites from South of Market to Bayview to Parkmerced remain silent, with no construction cranes in sight.
Developers say the math no longer works. Rents remain below 2019 levels, while inflation, high city fees, tariffs and skyrocketing material costs make San Francisco one of the most expensive places in the world to build…