Up to two people will be allowed to live in the micro-apartments, which legislation sponsor Supervisor Scott Wiener said would help those who want to live alone but can’t afford most of the studio apartments on the market.

“To confront San Francisco’s rising housing affordability crisis, we must be creative and flexible,” Wiener said in a statement. “Allowing the construction of these units is one tool to alleviate the pressure that is making vacancies scarce and driving rental prices out of the reach of many who wish to live here.”

But for the legislation to pass, Wiener had to agree to cap the number of micro-apartments at 375. Under the legislation, the City Planning Department will analyze the effects of the new units once 325 of them are built.

“Family-sized housing is important and its development should be encouraged,” Wiener said. “But many – including seniors, students and transition age youth – do not need as much space or cannot afford it. These units will be a viable alternative for those who don’t want to live with roommates.”

The SoMa neighborhood and other densely populated city locations would be the likely location for the new units, which include a living room, kitchen and bathroom. Supervisor Jane Kim, who represents SoMa, said that neighborhood’s population could increase by 32 percent as a result of unlimited micro-apartments.

The cap seemed to satisfy skeptics who say that micro-units are not the solution to the city’s housing problem. Supervisor David Campos, who supported the measure, said he visited one of the proposed units and was struck by how expensive rent would be for such a small space.

Concern about rents

The micro-units are estimated to go for $1,300 to $1,500 a month. The average studio apartment in San Francisco rents at $2,075 a month, according to real estate service RealFacts.

“It’s not a lot of space for $1,500,” Campos said, adding that he was concerned it could raise rents across the city. “If 220 square feet is going to rent for $1,500, what does that do for the rest of the places in San Francisco?”

Supervisor John Avalos was the lone vote against the proposal, arguing that the city should be more focused on keeping families from moving.

“This doesn’t make a lot of sense for the San Francisco I know,” he said.

Mayor Ed Lee, who still must sign the measure, told reporters after his monthly question-time session before the board that he hadn’t taken a position on micro-apartments yet.

“I’m always concerned whenever people are changing the standards, but I do think there might be good policy reasons,” he said.

When the Planning Commission reluctantly approved a cap on the number of units last week, some commissioners worried that limitations would confuse developers. But tenant and affordable housing advocates said the cap was crucial to their support.

“We still have concerns, but this way, the impact would be softened if those problems came to fruition,” said Sara Shortt, executive director of the Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco.

Looking at tenants

Ted Gullickson, director of the San Francisco Tenants Union, said he hoped the Planning Department study conducted before the cap is reached would shed light on who is moving into the units.

“If they become urban crash pads for high-tech employees, then we fear they could have a gentrifying effect on the neighborhoods as they get built,” he said. “We do have a strong need for family-size housing as well as affordable housing, and we have limited development sites in San Francisco.”

Neal J. Riley is a San Francisco staff writer. E-mail: nriley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @realdealneal

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/bayarea/article/S-F-supervisors-back-micro-apartments-4055493.php

“We started combing Craigslist, and when we filtered by the neighborhoods we want and our maximum price of $2,000 for a two-bedroom, there is almost nothing,” Austin said. “It was just shocking to me.”

They broadened their search to the East Bay. Even there, “You show up at an open house and it’s really intimidating,” he said. “There are 20 other couples already ready to apply.”

They decided to “get creative and get off the Craigslist merry-go-round,” he said, posting their search on Facebook and placing their own Craigslist “apartment wanted” ad. A Facebook friend shared a tip on an Oakland apartment that may work out for them.

Their story is typical of San Francisco’s overheated rental market, where well-compensated tech workers are flocking to desirable neighborhoods, driving up prices and locking out those who aren’t big earners. The chichi areas, which also are closest to convenient transit, are hardest to break into. And the competition is spilling over into the East Bay.

“The Bay Area is growing in an extraordinary, unprecedented way,” said Sarah Bridge, owner of Novato’s RealFacts, which tracks apartment prices nationwide at buildings with 50 or more units.

“It has to do with job growth,” she said. “It’s a gold-rush mentality where the best and the brightest come to the Bay Area. The trend is for Gen Y folks, which is mostly what employers are hiring, and that particular generation has a preference for the urban core.”

San Francisco rents rose 15.8 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with the same time last year, to an average of $2,663 for all size units, according to RealFacts. Studio apartments average $2,075, up 16.5 percent in a year. The steepest rise came in one-bedroom, one-bathroom apartments, which are now $2,611 – up 19.9 percent in the past year and up 30 percent from just two years ago.

Growth was also strong in San Mateo County, where units of all sizes average $2,003, a 15.6 percent annual increase, RealFacts said. In Santa Clara County, the $1,857 average rent is a 12.5 percent annual increase. For Alameda County, the $1,519 average rent is up 7 percent – still a big increase compared with other areas of the country.

“When you see markets like Oakland with rental growth, it’s because it has proximity to San Francisco rather than in and of itself doing anything,” Bridge said.

San Francisco is the most expensive metropolitan area in the country for renters, according to a recent report from the National Low Income Housing Coalition, which compared rents to wages. The going rate for a two-bedroom apartment in the counties of San Francisco, Marin and San Mateo requires a $76,200 annual income, the report said. By contrast, the New York metropolitan area, which includes eight counties, requires a $56,950 annual salary.

Even well-paid workers can find it hard to navigate San Francisco’s blood-sport rental market.

That’s spurred the creation of services targeting them. Real estate agent Wendy Willbanks last year decided to become a scout, or “rental concierge,” for apartment hunters, calling her business She Moves You (shemovesyou.com).

“I swoop in and beat the competition,” Willbanks said. “It’s a fast track to jumping them ahead of the long lines of other applicants (and) landing a rental property in San Francisco without wasting time.”

After nailing down her clients’ wish lists, Willbanks sifts through listings and attends open houses, armed with her clients’ credit reports and renter profiles. She photographs and videos the spaces. Some clients, such as people moving from elsewhere in the country, decide on apartments based purely on her scouting.

Article source: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2012/05/09/BU551OD1PL.DTL&tsp=1