San Francisco mayor vows to address housing, homelessness challenges in second term

San Francisco Mayor London Breed on Wednesday pledged to address the city's "acute" housing and homelessness challenges by building 50,000 new homes for those in need in the next decade. In an inauguration speech that marked her first full four-year term as San Francisco mayor following her November re-election, Breed said she is committed to working toward the goal of building more affordable housing and fighting homelessness while she is in office.

"Our housing problems ... are the result of decades of almost intentional under-building, and the decision decades ago to down-zone almost three-quarters of the city and ban apartments," she said.

She said that San Francisco does not have a housing crisis because "crises are unpredictable." Instead, she said, the city is facing "a housing shortage" in connection with policy decision.

"Over the next decade, in addition to our work preserving thousands of permanently affordable homes, we need to build at least 50,000 new homes, at least 17,000 of which should be affordable," said Breed.

During the first two years when Breed served the remaining term of her predecessor Ed Lee, who died suddenly in December 2017, she has set a goal of adding 1,000 new shelter beds for the homeless in the city by the end of 2020.

"Homelessness isn't just a problem, it's a symptom. The symptom of unaffordable housing, of income inequality, of institutional racism, of addiction, untreated illness, and decades of dis-investment," she told about 700 people who witnessed her swearing-in at City Hall in downtown San Francisco.

She said she will work hard to fight homelessness, which is a "national epidemic" caused by low income, rising costs of living, and skyrocketing housing costs, along with the existence of extensive drug use.

"These are the problems. And if we're going to fight homelessness, we've got to fight them all," she added.

Following the death of Lee in 2017, Breed became the first African American woman to be elected into the mayoral office. She won her re-election in November 2019, with more than 70 percent of the vote.