Danny Sauter Requests Audit of Underused Public Properties for Housing or Sale

District 3 Supervisor Danny Sauter requested the city Budget and Legislative Analyst (BLA) conduct an expanded audit cataloging publicly owned properties that may be underutilized and evaluating them as candidates for housing development, alternative uses, or sale to generate revenue. The move is pitched as a response to long-standing vacancy, public-safety risks, and the twin pressures of a housing crisis and municipal budget shortfalls.

Sauter asked that the audit specifically include holdings controlled by the San Francisco Unified School District and the City College of San Francisco. Sauter said he wants a more expansive study than the BLA's 2012 evaluation of potential surplus property and that the new review should analyze potential sales and alternative uses in addition to housing prospects.

Sauter pointed to two emblematic properties in San Francisco that he said illustrate the audit's purpose. The historic former Newton J. Tharp Commercial School sits at the corner of Fell and Franklin streets on the border of Hayes Valley and Civic Center and is owned by the San Francisco Unified School District. The three-story, early 20th-century structure has long sat fenced off, with loose bricks, broken windows and other signs of disuse. Photographs of great jazz musicians in its window wells lend it some sense of vibrancy even as the building deteriorates.

Sauter also highlighted the City College Civic Center Campus at 750 Eddy St., a more than 100-year-old building that the district abruptly closed in January 2015 because of earthquake-safety concerns. The Board of Supervisors in 2015 unanimously passed a resolution urging the community-college district to repair and reopen the campus. Queries sent to the district’s media address did not get a response.

Sauter framed the request around public-safety and civic stewardship. “Vacant properties can become fire risks, magnets for crime, and create empty spaces in the midst of our neighborhoods,” Sauter said. “They also are missed opportunities for housing amidst a housing crisis, or revenue amidst a budget shortfall.” He added a call for transparency: “What we’ve seen is that these buildings often sit empty for years on end unless there is pressure and sunlight on their vacancy,” and “Our audit will bring this.”

If the BLA accepts the assignment, the audit could reshape the city’s inventory of surplus or underused property and set the stage for policy decisions on preservation, public use, affordable housing development, or asset sales. The Budget and Legislative Analyst's response, the scope and timeline of any audit, and formal positions from the San Francisco Unified School District and City College of San Francisco remain to be confirmed. For San Franciscans living near Hayes Valley and Civic Center, the review promises concrete implications for neighborhood safety, local services, and the availability of sites for new housing or revenue-generating sales; the coming weeks will determine whether the audit proceeds and what recommendations it produces.