Findings. | |
Definitions. | |
Establishment of the Program. | |
Eligibility. | |
Program Implementation and Management; Regulations. | |
Loan Terms. | |
Administration of Loans. | |
Severability. | |
(a) The economic and social disparities associated with homeownership access and housing instability in San Francisco are well-established and well-documented, as reflected in the Planning Department’s General Plan demographic data on persons experiencing homelessness, rent burdens, evictions, and exposure to environmental pollutants, and low homeownership rates.
(b) The history of disparate access to homeownership in San Francisco generally mirrors that of the United States. Discriminatory practices of limiting access to wealth accumulation through home purchasing have greatly contributed to wealth gaps. These practices were sustained primarily through residential redlining and restrictive covenants.
(c) Residential redlining refers to the discriminatory real estate practices of public and private institutions that identified non-white communities as financially high-risk areas of investment, leading to the withholding of financial services necessary to acquire real estate in communities of color. Racially restrictive covenants were included in property deeds to restrict the racial composition of potential homebuyers. These practices were pervasive and longstanding in San Francisco as well as other areas of the country.
(d) The Planning Department’s 2023 General Plan, in Objective 2.B, identifies access to homeownership for communities that have been harmed through targeted economic disruption, displacement, and manufactured barriers to accumulating intergenerational wealth.
(e) This ordinance intends to provide down payment assistance to communities that have been harmed through targeted economic disruption, displacement, and manufactured barriers to accumulating intergenerational wealth so that San Francisco can address multigenerational inequities in access to homeownership and to narrow and ultimately close homeownership wealth gaps.
(Added by Ord. 56-24, File No. 230864, App. 3/22/2024, Eff. 4/22/2024, Oper. 5/22/2024)
For purposes of this Chapter 110, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
“Borrower” means a recipient of a Loan.
“Eligible Person” means a person who HRC has determined in accordance with Administrative Code Section 110.4 to be a low-, moderate-, or middle-income first-time homebuyer who would not be able to purchase a primary residence in San Francisco without loan assistance from the City.
“Fund” means the Forgivable Loan for First-Time Homebuyers Fund administered by HRC under Administrative Code Chapter 10, Article XIII, Section 10.100-13.
“Household” means all persons occupying a housing unit. The occupants may be a family living together; two or more families living together; or any other group of related or unrelated persons living together.
“HRC” means the Human Rights Commission.
“HRC Director” means the Director of the Human Rights Commission, or the HRC Director’s designee.
“Loan” means a loan of funds made under the Program, including the modification, refinancing, or restructuring of such loan.
“MOHCD” means the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, or any successor agency.
“MOHCD Director” means the Director of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development, or the MOHCD Director’s designee.
“Primary Residence” means a residential dwelling where Household members on the Loan and title live at least 10 out of 12 months of each calendar year for the entire term of the loan.
“Program” means the Forgivable Loan for First-Time Homebuyers Program established in Administrative Code Section 110.3.
“Program Regulations” means policies, procedures, rules, guidelines, manuals, or forms published by HRC, in consultation with MOHCD, to implement the Program as described in Administrative Code Section 110.5(b).
“Property” means an owner-occupied, single-family residential property in San Francisco financed by a Loan made under the Program and used to secure a Loan and obligations under the Program.
“SFHA” means the Housing Authority of the City and County of San Francisco.
(Added by Ord. 56-24, File No. 230864, App. 3/22/2024, Eff. 4/22/2024, Oper. 5/22/2024)
There is hereby created the Forgivable Loan for First-Time Homebuyers Program. The purpose of the Program is to widen the path to homeownership for communities that have been harmed through targeted economic disruption, displacement, and manufactured barriers to accumulating intergenerational wealth. Subject to the budgetary and fiscal provisions of the Charter, the Program shall provide down payment assistance, in the form of a forgivable loan, to qualified first-time homebuyers, to purchase a market-rate Primary Residence in San Francisco.
(Added by Ord. 56-24, File No. 230864, App. 3/22/2024, Eff. 4/22/2024, Oper. 5/22/2024)
(a) Income Eligibility. A Borrower’s maximum household income may not exceed 200% of the area median income for the San Francisco metropolitan area as published annually by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), adjusted for Household size.
(b) Selection Priorities. Eligible Persons who meet one of the following criteria shall have priority for a Loan under the Program.
(1) Eligible Persons holding a Certificate of Preference (COP): To qualify for this priority, the Eligible Person: (A) must hold a ‘Residential Certificate of Preference’ as defined in the Certificate of Preference (COP) Program rules and was displaced in Western Addition, South of Market (SOMA), or Bayview Hunters Point by the former San Francisco Redevelopment Agency, or (B) must be a descendant of a Household that held a ‘Residential Certificate of Preference’ as defined in the Certificate of Preference (COP) Program rules and was displaced in Western Addition, South of Market (SOMA), or Bayview Hunters Point by the former San Francisco Redevelopment Agency.
(2) Tenants enrolled in the SFHA’s Section 8 Voucher Program: To qualify for this priority, the Eligible Person must be a current or former recipient of the Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher Program of the SFHA.
(3) Families with a Right to Return (regular and expanded): To qualify for this priority, the Eligible Person must be a current or former public housing resident relocated by the SFHA due to the Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) program or a current or former member of HOPE SF sites, as defined in Chapter 39, Section 39.4(b) of the Administrative Code.
(A) Acceptable documentation to verify residence in public housing under this priority includes, but is not limited to, any one of the following:
(i) Letter from SFHA verifying residency;
(ii) SFHA Lease;
(iii) San Francisco City identification under Section 95.2 of the Administrative Code, or other government-issued identification, including but not limited to a driver’s license;
(iv) Telephone bill (landline only);
(v) Cable or internet bill;
(vi) Paystub (if containing home address);
(vii) Public benefits records, including but not limited to Social Security Income/State Supplementary Payment (SSI/SSP), General Assistance (GA), Unemployment Insurance, CalFresh);1
(viii) School records;
(B) All documents must list the Eligible Person’s name and a home address within Alice Griffith, Hunters View, Potrero Terrace and Annex, or Sunnydale-Velasco public housing sites.
(4) Rent burdened households: To qualify for this priority, the Eligible Person must be a member of a household paying more than 50% of the household’s income in rent.
(5) Seniors: To qualify for this priority, the Eligible Person must be a person 55 years old or older and a current or former resident of Western Addition, South of Market (SOMA) or Bayview Hunters Point. Acceptable documentation to verify current or former residence in Western Addition, SOMA or Bayview Hunters Point shall include any one of the documents listed in subsection (b)(3)(A). All documents must list the Eligible Person’s name and a home address within Western Addition, SOMA, or Bayview Hunters Point.
(c) In determining eligibility under subsections (a) and (b), HRC may require applicants to provide information and/or documentation that it deems relevant to the determination.
(d) All five selection priorities listed in subsection (b) shall be treated as equal in relation to each other. HRC shall create a system that establishes relative priorities that either treats each priority as equal and/or gives relative priority to Borrowers who meet more than one priority criteria listed in subsection (b). HRC shall publish such system in the Program Regulations.
(Added by Ord. 56-24, File No. 230864, App. 3/22/2024, Eff. 4/22/2024, Oper. 5/22/2024)
CODIFICATION NOTE
1. So in Ord. 56-24.
(a) Program Management. The HRC Director shall be responsible for implementation of this Chapter 110 and for the operation and management of the Program, and shall consult with MOHCD regarding those responsibilities. The HRC Director may delegate to MOHCD functions and responsibilities set forth in this Chapter 110, including but not limited to, the establishment of Program Regulations described in subsection (b), the administration of loans described in Section 110.7, and annual reporting described in the Administrative Code Chapter 10, Article XIII, Section 10.100-13(d), and MOHCD may agree to assume such functions and responsibilities. Any delegation pursuant to this subsection (a) shall be memorialized in a memorandum of understanding between the HRC Director and the MOHCD Director. The memorandum of understanding shall identify the scope and extent of the delegation and shall state the degree to which, if at all, MOHCD shall consult with HRC as to matters that have been delegated to MOHCD.
(b) Program Regulations. The HRC Director, in consultation with MOHCD, shall establish from time to time Program Regulations for the administration of the Program, consistent with applicable law and this Chapter 110. The HRC Director shall publish all Program Regulations on HRC’s website and in such additional places, if any, as the HRC Director deems appropriate, and shall provide copies or electronic links on request. By way of illustration but not limitation, the Program Regulations may address Program and Fund administration, eligibility requirements, application processes, approval of lenders, compliance with applicable laws and regulations, requirements for loan forgiveness, appraisal of Properties, affordability restrictions, eligible uses of Funds, underwriting criteria, security of loans, transaction processing, documentation and record keeping of loans and repayment thereof, enforcement, procedures for loan agreement violations, and termination of loans.
(Added by Ord. 56-24, File No. 230864, App. 3/22/2024, Eff. 4/22/2024, Oper. 5/22/2024)
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