Committee directs MOHCD to analyze effects of veterans priority in affordable housing

The Land Use and Transportation Committee of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors on Nov. 29 voted to send to the full Board an ordinance directing the Mayor's Office of Housing and Community Development (MOHCD) to prepare a disparate-impact analysis on granting veterans priority in affordable housing preference categories.

Sponsor Supervisor Gordon Marr said the directive responds to veterans' housing needs in San Francisco, noting "there are approximately 24,000 veterans in our city" and citing the city's 2019 Point-in-Time count that identified about 600 chronically homeless veterans. Marr said the legislative proposal would give veterans who qualify for one of the four existing preference categories priority within that category, and that item 2 tasks MOHCD with analyzing any discriminatory effect under fair-housing laws and submitting that analysis to the Board by Feb. 28, 2022.

Deputy City Attorney Kristen Jensen told the committee the Fair Housing Act prohibits policies that have a disparate impact on members of a protected class and explained the purpose of the analysis: to make sure a veterans preference would not have an unintended disproportionate effect on other protected groups. "Even though we recognize that veterans are disproportionately impacted by a lot of the housing woes that we have, we want to make sure that by prioritizing veterans you are not then disproportionately impacting other groups that are also protected," Jensen said.

Public comment was strongly in favor. Dominic Green, a Marine Corps veteran, described losing housing after the pandemic, couch-surfing and sleeping in a car and urged support for programs that allow veterans to remain in or return to San Francisco. Courtney Ellington, executive director of the Veterans Success Center, and multiple commissioners and veteran-service organizations called for the analysis and said prioritizing veterans could help prevent homelessness and support reintegration.

The committee voted to recommend the ordinance to the full Board with a positive recommendation; roll call recorded three ayes (Supervisor Peskin, Supervisor Dean Preston and Chair Myrna Melgar). The ordinance itself directs MOHCD to complete and submit the analysis by Feb. 28, 2022, after which the sponsor may pursue implementing legislation.