Fernando Martí presented to the San Francisco Public Press and Shareable's Hack the Housing Crisis in June, 2014.

1. HACK THE HOUSING CRISIS:
NO FALSE SOLUTIONS

2. How we used to
“hack the housing crisis”
when I started in this work…

3. Based on local job growth, over the last seven
years, we have already built or entitled
212% of the need for “market-rate” housing,
28% of need for moderate-income units, and
58% of need for low-income units…

4. IDEOLOGY / WORLD-VIEW: “An ideology
is a conceptual framework to deal with
reality… I found a flaw in the model that
defines how the world works…”

5. The San Francisco we love…

6. Supply-and-demand doesn’t work
1. Supply is REGIONAL
2. Supply is CONSTRAINED by land
3. Demand is set by INCOME INEQUALITY
4. MONOPOLY situation means investors
can control supply to keep prices
artificially high

7. Supply-and-demand doesn’t work
1. Supply of affordable housing is provided
regionally, in the urban periphery, with
externalized environmental and social costs

8. Supply-and-demand doesn’t work
2. Supply is limited by SF’s physical constraints –
limited land, construction costs for tall buildings,
and environmental costs

9. Supply-and-demand doesn’t work
3. Demand is determined by SF’s extreme income
inequality and desirability for global cash
investment

10. Supply-and-demand doesn’t work
4. There does not exist a competitive market –
supply is determined by external investment,
which keeps prices artificially high

11. Micro-units:
Now developer
says of his
original quote of
“affordable by
design” rents:
“Those sound like
pre-war prices;”
A few blocks
away, a 278 s.f.
unit rents for
$2,195/mo.

12. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Link social innovation and creative design
solutions to a housing infrastructure:
1.Housing Balance
2.Ownership
3.Land
4.Financing

13. Do. Or do not. There is no “try.”

14. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
First, a balanced housing infrastructure:
1. Require AT MINIMUM 30% of all housing be
affordable to median income folks and below
2. This goal is achievable, and has been done
in the past

15. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Second, take existing housing out of the
speculative market:
1. Create an acquisition fund to secure
buildings as permanently affordable units
under the control of tenants
2. Require that tenant associations be offered a
right of first refusal to buy at fair market
value, with time to organize and secure
financing, when a building is put for sale

16. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Third, secure land:
1. Reserve surplus public sites (including MTA,
PUC, SFUSD, CalTrans, etc.) for affordable
housing: 100% affordable for ¼ to 1 acre
sites
2. Minimum 40% affordable for larger master
planned areas (achievable by combination
80/20 and affordable set-aside parcels)

17. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Third, secure land:
3. Use zoning incentives (density bonuses,
“affordable by design” code changes, and
other profit incentives) to make private land
more competitive for 20% and higher
inclusionary
4. Zone up (or down) for less expensive wood-
frame construction: 65’ heights, zero-
parking, modest 15,000-20,000 s.f. sites

18. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
Fourth, funding:
1. Raise new revenue for land-acquisition,
environmental remediation, and
development
2. Assemble private capital or pension fund
investments into a patient capital fund to
acquire buildings and sites

19. WHAT IS TO BE DONE?
1.Housing Balance
2.Ownership
3.Land
4.Financing

21. HACK THE HOUSING CRISIS:
NO FALSE SOLUTIONS