Subsidized Apartments in San Francisco
San Francisco is quite well known for its effective rent control and active tenant’s union, so developers and property owners are always on the look out for ways to avoid this. One way to do so is to convert older housing that would otherwise fall under the rent control laws into subsidized – or Section 8 – housing which is not included in the rent control regime. Therefore, quite a few owners of older properties have decided to convert their properties into Section 8 housing as opposed to putting it on the open market where there are more restrictions on the amount of rent that can be charged. Of course the Section 8 program comes with plenty of its own restrictions, but quite a few landlords find it preferable to the San Francisco city rent control and active tenant’s union. Despite this, there is still a major shortage of subsidized housing in San Francisco which has led to many problems.
As is always the case with Section 8 housing, though it is a federal program run from the top by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), on the ground level it is administered by the local public housing authority: the San Francisco Housing Authority (SFHA, www.sfha.org). This should probably be the first place that people looking for subsidized housing in San Francisco should go to see what is available. Due to the major shortage of public and subsidized housing in San Francisco, the SFHA has a prolonged application period as well as a lengthy waiting period to get into a subsidized unit even if the applicant qualifies. In fact, as of the time of this article (July 2010), the SFHA has completely closed the waiting list and is no longer accepting new applicants at all for Section 8 housing.
Further, the SFHA exercises its right to prioritize who gets precedence when a subsidized housing unit becomes available. This is quite common in major cities and San Francisco is no exception. The priorities adopted by the SFHA are divided into two groups: Local Preferences and Secondary Preferences. Local Preferences give primary priority to people that pay more than fifty percent of their income for rent, are currently living in substandard housing, and people that have been involuntarily dislocated through government action. Secondary preferences are for people that both live and work in San Francisco, military veterans, and people participating in particular “Welfare to Work” programs. The SFHA website provides further detail on what its preferences are and what can help improve your chances of getting subsidized housing in San Francisco.
Since Section 8 housing is currently at capacity and the SFHA is not even accepting new applicants for the time being, people in need of subsidized housing may want to explore some of the other options available. These include a number of federal programs, such as homes built through the HOME program or the using the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC). There are also some programs operated by local authorities such as the Mayors Office of Housing (MOH) and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency. Finally there are more specialized government programs that emphasize particular groups of people, such as the AIDS Housing Alliance, which helps people with HIV/AIDS with subsidized housing.
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