In Brown we trust, along with Scott Wiener; these are the only two politicians doing anything to address housing prices. In San Francisco, the Mayor's Office of

In Brown we trust, along with Scott Wiener; these are the only two politicians doing anything to address housing prices. In San Francisco, the Mayor's Office of Housing (SFMOH) has created a complicated program of silent second liens to enable 'low' and 'moderate' income residents purchase regular condos at below market rate. Units built strictly for income bands and subsidized, or 'affordable units', run into a problem of funding; it is either developers who elect not in include below market rate units (BMR) and pay into the fund or churches building their own structures such as Mercy Housing. But what about the land? I don't think that has to be the major cost, at least in San Francisco. There are a plenty of vacant lots owned by the city, and in a recent case the feds sold land for $1 to the city for pre-fab condos near the court house for 'formerly homeless'. Indeed, if you have an apartment, you are no longer homeless. And this is where we start talking about the real expense -- union labor. The pre-fab units clock in at under 250k each, but they are built over in Vacaville with non-union labor. Anything else needs highly paid craftsmen which goose a market rate unit over 700k+. If the lot needs to be abated for pollution, usually for former gas station sites, the price goes even higher plus delays. Want steel framing for going over 7 stories? The price goes up. Not that SF Planning's zoning will allow 7 stories, even near BART. The solution to affordable housing is to just build more housing -- just regular housing. Built it tall, 100 stories or more, and right on top major transportation lines like BART stations -- on all 4 street corners. We'll need to overcome labor costs and zoning before we can get there.