An assumption about housing — in San Francisco and throughout the U.S. — is that creating and providing housing, except for the very poor, is the work of the private sector. This is not the case in most countries and San Francisco may be beginning to question this as well.
Mandelman’s proposal focuses on a different aspect of the housing problem by requiring The City to provide shelter to homeless people — a policy known as “right to shelter.” New York City and Washington, DC already have similar policies that in some cases are stronger than. Right to shelter may seem like a radical idea, as it would force The City to commit to housing the homeless. But the law would only require San Francisco to provide shelter, not housing.
Yet based on what we have seen in other cities, obliging San Francisco to provide shelter could also further empower homeless people and their advocates, because they would be able to sue The City if sufficient shelter is not provided. During the pandemic, New York City was sued because of inadequate WiFi in homeless shelters. The court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, supporting some homeless young people to continue their studies and expanding the notion of shelter.
Housing in San Francisco is hardly unregulated. Rent control, limits on what can be built and other policies influence the housing market. But these policies keep the private sector at the center of housing. Both Preston and Mandelman’s proposals call for both regulating the market and bringing The City into housing policy in a bigger way.
Mandelman’s solution asks nothing of property owners, but forces The City to do more to find shelter for approximately 8,000 homeless people. His proposal implicitly recognizes the failure of the market to create housing for homeless and compels The City to provide some support for those living on the streets.
The housing issue is unique because we refuse to build new cities or spread capital through the state. There’s a housing “shortage” because we don’t tax the rich and invest where there is not already housing. Instead we call redevelopment in existing cities “new housing.”