Understanding Housing Production in San Francisco

1
Understanding Housing Production in San Francisco

• Chad Major
• Stuart Brady
• Andrew Abou Jaoude

Sponsors SF Planning Department Scott
Edmondson Urban Studies Senior Seminar Professor
Pamuk
2
Desperate Housing Shortage

• ABAGs fair share housing projection for San
  Francisco 30,000 units by 2020 and 20,000 by
  2006 or about 2,717 units annually
• 1990 - 2000 saw an annual production of only
  1,130 units
• Shortage of 1,587 Homes per year
• Affordable vs. Market rate housing
• Since 1990, Only 28 of units produced were
  affordable

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Our Goals

• Find the biggest limitations to further
  residential production
• Determine which limiting factors of production
  might be open to change
• Gain general incite into the perspective of
  residential builders and developers
• Learn about conducting a real world research
  project

4
Methodology

• Background research
• Choosing a survey format
• Creating a survey instrument
• Formulating a list of developers
• Conducting the survey
• Preliminary Analysis Recommendations

5
Background Research

• The February 2003 draft of Housing Element of the
  SF General Plan
• San Francisco Planning Department 2000 Housing
  Inventory
• Policy papers from SPUR (SF Planning and Urban
  Research) and HAC (Housing Action Coalition)
• Speaking with people in the SF Planning
  Department and the Housing Action Coalition

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Survey Type

• A phone survey enabled us to contact many
  different developers in a short time allowing for
  a reasonable response rate
• Limited time and resources would not permit for
• Face-to-face surveys
• Mail surveys
• Focus Groups
• Currently there is little existing research
  documenting developer perspectives in San
  Francisco

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Creating a Survey Instrument

• Determining questions and categories
• Organizational questions
• Building and Land Costs
• Financing
• Planning Regulation
• Community Input

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Creating a Survey Instrument

• Specific formatting for a phone survey
• Layout
• Different fonts
• Coding
• Contact/Cover sheet
• Approval

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Formulating a List

• Qualifications
• San Francisco Residential developers and builders
• One unit/single family to multi unit high-density
  developers
• Adequate contact information
• Free and prompt access to list

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Possible List Sources

• San Francisco Planning Department
• San Francisco Mayors Office of Housing
• Office of the County Clerk Tax Collectors
  Office
• Residential Builders Association (RBASF)
• Habitat For Humanity

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Drawbacks of Potential List Sources

• Planning Department
• Many of the contacts are builders
  representatives, not builders themselves
• Mayors Office of Housing
• Very limited list of developers
• County Clerk/Tax Collectors
• Service required fees and waiting time for list
• Residential Builders Association
• Confidential list of members (not all developers)
• Habitat For Humanity
• Limited to large developers

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Final List

• Chosen sources
• SF Planning Department (6,800 entries)
• Habitat For Humanity (100 entries)
• Filtering the List
• Selected entries with adequate contact
  information
• Eliminated all duplicate contacts
• Separated the list into categories by number of
  units per project

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Conducting the Survey
Contact And Cover Sheet

• Preliminary Calls
• Validating contact information
• Redirecting to appropriate contact
• Interviewing or arranging time for future
  interview
• Follow up Calls
• Interviewing or arranging time for future
  interview

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Preliminary Analysis

• Preliminary Analysis
• Created a SPSS file for data analysis
• Continuous data entry of survey results
• Classifying Coding of open-ended questions
• Analyzing Results into graphs tables for the
  final written report

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Preliminary Recommendation

• Secondary Survey should be conducted within the
  planning department to understand the interior
  perspective and solutions on delays and hold-ups
  of the process

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Thank You!