AD-17 Candidate Recommendation

When it comes to San Francisco’s Assembly District 17 special election, the devil is in the details. All four candidates in the race are very similarly positioned on key issues of racial equity and economic justice. All support policies like the Green New Deal and reforming Proposition 13. Where the candidates diverge is on the issue of housing, which is the issue on which we have based our recommendation.

In deciding which candidates to recommend to our TechEquity Action members and community we are evaluating:

• The candidate’s alignment with TechEquity Action’s housing and labor policy platforms, including demonstrated support and/or clear plans to protect workers, produce more housing, preserve existing affordable housing, and protect tenants
• The candidate’s alignment with TechEquity Action’s values including their ability to work in partnership with community organizations, their willingness to take divergent stances that hold true to their policy ideals, and are explicitly anti-racist and center the needs of marginalized groups
• The candidate’s effectiveness, demonstrating a strong track record of success in elected office and/or a clear, compelling, and concrete plan to win on issues

In the upcoming special election for Assembly District 17, our recommendation is to vote for Matt Haney on April 19th, 2022. 

Haney’s Board of Supervisors district (D6 – SoMa, Tenderloin, Downtown, Mission Bay, Treasure Island) developed more housing at all income levels compared to other districts. But this isn’t totally a feather in Haney’s cap; District 6 has long been one of the city’s most productive districts for developing housing—due to its zoning, more dense urban feel, and an electorate that has been more consistently supportive of new housing development—when compared to other neighborhoods.

It takes more than just these things to get housing approved and produced in a district, and Haney has shown a willingness to take on difficult fights at the Board of Supervisors to build the housing that’s necessary for San Francisco to be a truly inclusive city. He championed the recently denied 469 Stevenson Street Project in San Francisco (a project that other leading candidate David Campos has opposed) that would have added 495 new units of housing, including over 100 new affordable housing units. Haney has been vocal about the necessity to develop more housing at all income levels which is in alignment with our organization’s views on production, particularly of affordable units, being a vital part of solving the housing crisis.

However, Haney’s positioning isn’t blindly pro-development. A renter himself, Haney has a strong record on tenant protection policies. He boasts a pristine voting record in favor of protecting renters, including expanding just cause eviction protections and supporting the Embarcadero homelessness navigation center even in the face of huge constituent protests. We believe that protecting tenants is key to solving our housing crisis, and that balancing the need to produce additional housing and protecting existing tenants are complementary and equally necessary in addressing the affordability crisis. Matt Haney shares those values.

For this reason, we believe that Haney’s approach of supporting production with affordability components, robust tenant protections, and his ability to build coalitions will be an asset to our state Assembly.  We believe he will be an important ally in ensuring housing for all in California.