San Francisco has become the reference point for high priced housing in a dense city. Everyone wants to avoid the housing scarcity problems San Francisco faces. I’ve even described the San Francisco Death Spiral, what happens when people crow about high housing prices and officials respond with more rules and taxes which leads to higher costs and higher prices. Rinse and repeat.

But there is some hope for the City to the South: the San Francisco Housing Action Coalition.

Now I won’t say agree philosophically with SFHAC on everything; I’m not completely familiar with their views on every aspect of housing economics and the organization functions in a different context than we do. But they are trying to build the case for more supply and lowered costs through deregulation; something bedrock for Smart Growth Seattle. Here’s part of SFHAC’s mission:

SFHAC brings together San Francisco’s housing community to develop and support policies that will increase the production of new homes. Join our Regulatory Committee and bring new housing to San Francisco.

Sounds very deft to me. You don’t see “supply” there but very good language addressing the basic principle: more housing helps lower prices.

Here’s something from a recent blog post on the SFHAC blog on efforts to improve affordability in the SOMA neighborhood:

Add flexibility and streamlining to process and environmental review. The SFHAC has spoken about this for many years. There is a significant economic cost for the long time it takes to get residential development through planning and entitlements to the market

Amen. I see SFHAC as a visitor from what might be our future if we don’t change course soon.