San Francisco’s biggest public sector union endorses Proposition I to build housing affordable to all

(San Francisco, Calif.)— Today the Yes on Prop I campaign announced that the Service Employees International Union local 1021 has endorsed Proposition I, which dedicates an existing tax on luxury real estate sales to affordable housing development and renter assistance. SEIU 1021’s 16,000 San Francisco public, education and health care workers join a growing slate of endorsers that include the United Educators of San Francisco, affordable housing developers, local elected officials and a broad coalition of community organizations which have joined the push to uphold the promises made to voters in 2020 to use the transfer tax to fund affordable housing. 

“We supported Prop I in 2020 to fund affordable housing, and we are proud to support Prop I in 2026 to guarantee it is finally spent the way we and the voters intended,” said Kristin Hardy, San Francisco Regional Vice President, SEIU-1021. “Our members and our community need affordable housing in order to continue living in the city we serve.”  

This year’s Proposition I provides an update to 2020’s Prop I, which increased the transfer tax on real estate transactions in excess of $10 million. At the time of its passage, these revenues were intended (by a unanimous resolution of the Board of Supervisors) to be used for affordable housing development, and this was how it was presented to voters. The legal considerations that kept these funds from being restricted to that purpose have since been clarified by a California Court of Appeals decision and they can now be dedicated to the purpose voters intended.

“The cost of housing in San Francisco is a five-alarm emergency for the working class and we need real solutions like Proposition I to address the issue at a scale that moves the needle,” said Tuesday Rose Thornton, Eviction Defense Attorney and Yes on I Proponent. “This November, voters finally have a chance to ensure the city is affordable for all San Franciscans.”  

Earlier this year, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie and Supervisor Bilal Mahmood proposed repealing the tax increase entirely, returning its revenues to the coffers of the corporate landlords, private equity firms, and high-wealth individuals who trade properties in deals over $10 million. That plan was quietly shelved, though the Mayor and his allies on the Board of Supervisors have vowed to cut the tax next year. Now the Mayor is calling a dedication of the same money toward housing production “a $120 million hole in the City budget.” Working class San Franciscans like those represented by SEIU are not deceived. 

Together with the Mayor’s own Prop C, which commits the City to increasing contributions to its Affordable Housing Trust, and Supervisor Mahmood’s Prop J, which closes a loophole that exempts foreclosed properties from the transfer tax, Prop I gives San Francisco voters a real opportunity to reverse the housing crisis which has afflicted working people in the city for far too long. 

###

About the Yes on I campaign

The Yes on I campaign is a grassroots coalition of San Francisco affordable housing advocates and community organizers, mobilizing to make the city more affordable for everyone, not just the wealthy. Find out more at www.fairhousingsf.com.