Supervisor’s Proposal Seeks to Address 'Housing Death Spiral' in San Francisco

A vacant car wash at the corner of Oak and Divisadero streets has for years stood as a symbol of San Francisco’s struggle to build housing.

Now, a new bill introduced by Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who campaigned on turning the lot in the city’s Panhandle neighborhood into homes, could revise the city’s building permit timelines and prevent other housing projects from meeting a similar fate.

Mahmood said construction in the city often runs into a “housing death spiral,” where lengthy permit processes compound delays and add additional costs. The core problem, Mahmood said, is that every three years, San Francisco’s building code changes — and active or stalled housing projects must reapply to qualify for construction permits.

This was what supposedly caused the gridlock at the lot on 400