TAX ON VACANT APARTMENTS
A report published last week by the Board of Supervisors Budget and Legislative Analyst showed that one of every ten residential units in San Francisco—more than 40,000 homes—is vacant. With more than 8,000 unhoused persons in the city, this means that there are more than four times more empty homes than homeless people in San Francisco.
District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston and community leaders announced they will seek to place an Empty Home Tax on the November ballot. Preston said he estimates the measure will make 5,000 homes available in the first two years.
Since 2015, the number of empty homes in San Francisco has increased by 20 percent, and the city’s homeless population has grown about as much in that time. The report published last week by the BLA indicates that a significant number of the currently empty units in the city were built within the last ten years, and up to 22 percent of these have never been occupied. This, Preston said, indicates that the active development happening in the city by real estate giants is not helping to alleviate the housing crisis, but rather contributing to it.
The measure proposal would not target all homeowners; it would apply only to buildings with three or more units, and it includes a range of exemptions for good-faith vacancies.
The Empty Home Tax is modeled after a successful residential vacancy tax passed in Vancouver B.C. in 2016. Half of the funds collected would be distributed in rental subsidies for seniors and low-income families as an effort to prevent homelessness in the first place. The other half would be directed to a new program for the city to acquire buildings for affordable housing.
