June 29, 2026

City Council Approves Fund to Help Keep Existing Rental Homes Affordable

The San Diego Housing Commission will administer the new Affordable Housing Preservation Fund

SAN DIEGO—Advancing its strategy to keep existing rental homes affordable in the City of San Diego, the City Council today unanimously approved the creation of a new Affordable Housing Preservation Fund and the transfer of $8.5 million into that fund for affordable housing preservation activities.

“Homes with affordable rent are disappearing every day, but this fund is meant to slow that trend and keep rent low for thousands of individuals, families and seniors for decades to come,” said City Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee, Chair of the Council’s Land Use and Housing Committee (Committee). “Establishing this Affordable Housing Preservation Fund will help lock in low rent prices in our current affordable housing stock and give us new tools to keep these properties from vanishing from the market.”

“San Diegans deserve to know they have a future in their city and that requires protecting affordable housing in addition to building homes that working families can afford,” said Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, the Committee’s Vice Chair. “The Affordable Housing Preservation Fund is an important tool to help keep working families, seniors, and longtime residents rooted in the communities they call home and love. By preserving naturally occurring affordable housing and preventing displacement, we can make San Diego work for San Diegans and not just investors and speculators looking to profit from our housing crisis.”

“This ordinance fund will keep San Diegans from losing the affordable homes they live in,” said Councilmember Vivian Moreno, a member and past Chair of the Committee. “The reality is that there are not enough affordable homes available, and while we must continue building more, construction alone is not keeping pace with the need. This ordinance fund will be another tool the City can use to preserve affordable houses that were built with public subsidies.”

In its role as the Housing Authority of the City of San Diego (Housing Authority), the City Council authorized the San Diego Housing Commission (SDHC) to create and administer the fund.

“We need rental homes that are already affordable in our community to stay that way,” said SDHC President and CEO Lisa Jones. “The City Council’s actions today are crucial next steps to help preserve the affordability at rental homes citywide. We thank the Councilmembers for their commitment to affordable housing preservation as a vital strategy to address the shortage of affordable homes in our city.”

Proposals for the specific uses of the money in the new Affordable Housing Preservation Fund will be presented to the City Council or Housing Authority in the future for consideration. Potential uses for the funds include, but are not limited to, combining the funds with other funding sources to employ strategies to preserve naturally occurring affordable housing properties and establish requirements for those housing units to remain affordable long-term.

SDHC’s 2020 study “Preserving Affordable Housing in the City of San Diego” estimated that more than 13,000 existing affordable housing units in the city could lose their affordability by 2040. Of those, approximately 4,200 were deed-restricted units and may lose their affordability restrictions, and 9,250 were naturally occurring affordable housing units vulnerable to becoming market-rate units.

The study further estimated that 35 percent of new housing production would simply replace units that lost their affordability if no intervention occurred to preserve existing affordable housing in the City of San Diego.

Since 2020, the City Council has approved actions to implement a strategy for affordable housing preservation; established the Neighborhood Enhancement Fee, with the requirement that 50 percent of funds be spent on affordable housing preservation; allocated Neighborhood Enhancement Fee funds in the City’s Fiscal Year 2026 and Fiscal Year 2027 budgets for an affordable housing preservation fund; approved an Affordable Housing Preservation Ordinance; and, with today’s actions, authorized the creation of the Affordable Housing Preservation Fund.

Background

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), housing is considered affordable when a household pays no more than 30 percent of its pretax income on housing costs, including utilities.

“Affordable housing” generally refers to rental homes where restrictions are recorded on the deed to the property, requiring the rent for housing units to be affordable for a household with income up to a specified income level, such as 30 percent, 50 percent, 60 percent or 80 percent of San Diego’s Area Median Income (AMI). For these rental homes, the maximum amount for monthly rent is based on the AMI levels at the property instead of the individual household incomes. HUD updates AMI amounts each year.

Some rental homes have rents that are affordable for households with lower incomes even though there are no restrictions requiring the rents to be affordable. Those rental homes are known as naturally occurring affordable housing. Owners of naturally occurring affordable housing are not required to maintain lower rents.

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Media Contacts:   

Sara Kamiab, Office of Council President Pro Tem Kent Lee, skamiab@sandiego.gov 

Natalia Rosas-Machado, Office of Councilmember Vivian Moreno, nataliarosas@sandiego.gov

Ben Mendoza, Office of Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera, bmendoza@sandiego.gov 

Scott Marshall, San Diego Housing Commission, scottm@sdhc.org