Mercury News: Affordable and teacher housing would be permanently fast-tracked under San Francisco ballot initiative

The notoriously long process to build teacher housing and other subsidized homes could get shortened in San Francisco under a new ballot initiative launched this week. The local initiative would make the approval of such projects an “over the counter” process not subject to public hearings or environmental lawsuits, further simplifying what it takes to get the green light. Projects that meet the city’s zoning rules would simply be approved.Proponents say they hope the change will speed affordable housing development in a city where the average monthly rent for a two-bedroom apartment is $4,000.\“It is addressing the needs of the people in the city who do the day-to-day work that makes the city go,” said Todd David, executive director of the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition, a co-sponsor of the initiative along with the pro-development group YIMBY Action. “We have not built middle-income housing in San Francisco in the last 30 years.”