By Lisa Awbrey, HANC Board

While working San Franciscans struggle daily to afford necessities like rent, healthy food and healthcare, billionaires and corporations are enjoying record breaking profits.  Why then are some of our local electeds permitting Greystar Real Estate Partners, the nation‘s largest corporate landlord and property manager, to conduct business in San Francisco? Greystar has a decades-long history of defrauding tenants, of rent fixing and gouging and of violating federal and state housing laws. 

D5 Supervisor Bilal Mahmood recently announced that Greystar will build and manage construction of an eight-story multi-unit luxury building with ground floor retail, beginning on October 19, at 400 Divisadero, the former Touchless car wash site; only 20 units of the currently planned 203 units will be for permanent affordable housing. 

Some might remember during Mahmood’s 2024 campaign, GROWSF paid for and installed a billboard across from the site promising that then candidate Mahmood “would fix” the stalled project. Former D5 Supervisor Dean Preston had been working on a deal for the nonprofit Tenderloin Neighborhood Development Corporation/TNDC to buy the parcel outright and build fully subsidized homes. The choice was never housing versus no housing (as YIMBYs falsely stated). But rather, the challenge was to build an affordable project with increased levels of affordable homes using affordable housing funds (which then Mayor Breed and the city refused to do), versus building a multi storied tower to be constructed (and managed) by market rate developers. 

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By Calvin Welch, HANC Board

Every thinking San Franciscan knows that this November’s election is critical to countering the national catastrophe of Donald Trump. But far too few realize that the same ballot has crucially important housing measures which will impact our daily lives almost immediately, and, if passed, will defeat “Trumpism” at the local level.

The September 10^th HANC General Membership meeting will discuss four ballot state and local measures of critical importance on the November ballot: local propositions C, I, and J and State propositions 1. Former District 5 Supervisor Dean Preston will tell of his four year fight to get affordable housing funded with a transfer tax similar to current Proposition I and the lessons he learned in that fight. Quintin Mecke, Executive Director, Council of Community Housing Organizations (CCHO) will explain why Props C, I, J and State Prop, 1 are critical in determining who lives in San Francisco.  Scott Feeney, one of the three official proponents of the Prop I campaign, will present as well

Poll after poll, at both the state and national level has shown that “affordability” is the primary issue of concern to the vast majority of Americans. A key element of that concern is the affordability of housing. Nowhere is that truer than San Francisco.  While the national press repeatedly names “housing” as a component part (along with health care, food and gas) of the “affordability crisis” it never actually defines what an “affordable housing” program would contain other that repeating the mindless position of “we need to build more housing” as if building more overpriced housing will somehow magically make it affordable.

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Nominations for the HANC Board are open through the election at our November Meeting.  All current HANC members are eligible to serve and to nominate other members.  If you would like to serve, or would like to nominate someone, you can do so before the vote at the November meeting.  The term is from December, 2026 through November, 2027. 

Our Bylaws require that we solicit nominations from our membership in the September Voice and present a slate at our October and November meetings.  The offices open for election are:  President, Vice-President, Recording Secretary, Corresponding Secretary, Treasurer, Nominating Chair, Membership Chair, Housing and Land Use Chair, Recycling Chair, and three Members at Large.

Current Board members as well as members who are not serving on our Board are eligible for these positions.  Only members in good standing for at least three months are eligible to run for or hold a board position.

Pursuant to our Bylaws, “No person may serve for more than two terms in the same capacity,” except that the Treasurer, the Membership Chair, the Housing and Land Use Chair, and the Recycling Chair may serve for more than two terms.

At our July meeting, we discussed creating a Haight Ashbury Historic District.  Our impetus and urgency comes from the recent upzoning—one- and two-story buildings are now targets for demolition.  Creating landmarks and historic districts can slow down the demolitions.

Planning recently released Survey Findings for the Haight-Ashbury, A Haight-Ashbury Historic District was defined based on Planning’s Counterculture Context Statement, but it was limited to Haight Street and a small part of Stanyan, and only the period 1965-1975 was considered.  We believe there is a lot more history in the Haight-Ashbury, both in area and in time periods.  We showed a picture of a bread line on Clayton Street from 1906.

We listed other historic districts, some of which have been approved as historic districts, and some of which have been defined, but not yet approved.  We listed addresses from the Counterculture Context Statement, and addresses from a Haight Ashbury History Night event in April.  We had additional suggestions from our audience, and put together a list of current landmarks and other potential landmarks.

We concluded that in addition to the counterculture history, the Haight Ashbury is significant for its architecture, and for its other history, and we should organize and work diligently to create and expand a Haight-Ashbury Historic District.

A video of the meeting is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp5PZc22epI&t=2515s and slides from the meeting can be downloaded from our website at  https://www.hanc-sf.org/the-voice-and-docs/Meeting-Slides/July-2026-Meeting-Slides/.

The South of Market Community Action Network (SOMCAN) is conducting a survey about the housing needs of people living in San Francisco and have invited HANC members to fill out the survey. SOMCAN will use data from this survey to 1) advocate for the preservation and expansion of affordable housing in San Francisco, and 2) enable low-income people, immigrants, and people of color to live close to employment, transit, and essential services.

Anyone who lives in San Francisco and is at least 18 years old can take the survey! You can fill out the survey online here: linktr.ee/somcan

We have noticed numerous programs in the neighborhood that give away food. 

• The Haight Ashbury Food Program (Waller at Belvedere) distributes food on Saturdays from 11:30 am to 1:15 pm. 
• The St. Agnes Church Food Pantry (Masonic, between Oak and Page) distributes food bags or snack bags (for those who have nowhere to cook) Thursdays from 1:00 to 3:00 pm. 
• The Haight Street Affinity Group distributes food on Haight Street on Thursday nights. 
• The Homeless Youth Alliance provides meals at the former Free Clinic location (Clayton near Haight) Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 5:30 to 7:30 pm (or until the food runs out). 

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