On shaky ground : how environmental hazards impact affordable housing development in San Francisco

Abstract

Recent academic literature shows that disaster events disproportionately impact low-income minority populations and renters, that these events further exacerbate income inequality, and that most high housing cost states like California do not include disaster-related mitigation measures in their State affordable housing funding application programs. In the absence of State direction in the siting and design of new subsidized affordable housing units in relation to environmental hazards such as earthquakes and flooding, how do city staff and developers consider the potential environmental hazard risks during the development of new subsidized affordable housing in a high-housing cost city like San Francisco? By utilizing a mixed methods approach involving semi-structured interviews, coding key terms found in city requests for proposals (RFPs) to develop affordable housing on publicly-owned land, and geospatial analysis of planned new subsidized affordable housing units in relation to environmental hazards, this thesis asks the questions: if, when, and how do environmental hazard risks shape the affordable housing development process in San Francisco.