San Francisco Public Press: How Build Back Better Bill’s Failure Could Hurt SF’s Most Vulnerable

San Francisco could lose out on hundreds of millions of dollars for rental aid and affordable housing construction with the expected collapse of the Build Back Better social spending and infrastructure bill.

The White House touted the $1.75 trillion spending package as having the “single largest and most comprehensive investment in affordable housing in history,” with $150 billion in housing assistance for low-income tenants. Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat, derailed the bill by refusing to provide the key 50th vote, prompting some Democrats in early January to press for breaking up the package into separate bills that could end up leaving out housing assistance altogether. 

“It just feels like a tremendous missed opportunity to really address a real human need and make major investments in housing as infrastructure,” Michael Lane, state policy director at SPUR, the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban R

Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, emphasized the need to redress historically unjust housing policies and alleviate suffering from the coronavirus pandemic.

“The housing investments from the Build Back Better package are absolutely critical for our most vulnerable communities,” Fishman wrote in an email before Manchin announced his opposition to the bill. “Especially here, in the most expensive rental market in the nation, we must honor the foundational role of housing not just in COVID prevention, but also for recovery and rebuilding.”

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