Aaron’s Platform
Real Solutions for Homelessness
There are 9 departments and 248 separate service providers addressing homelessness in San Francisco. In his first week as Mayor, Aaron will bring every department head into his office and ensure that they reform their approach. At the same time, he’ll end student homelessness, bring regional treatment facilities online, and prevent people from ending up on our streets at no cost to taxpayers.
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Even his harshest critics say Aaron is one of the most effective Supervisors ever. He will focus his detail-oriented, persistent management skills every single day to ensure we get the most for every dollar we spend. He will force departments to improve their coordination, untangle the web of overlapping bureaucracies and non-profit service departments, and bring order out of chaos.
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Our city has 2,300 homeless public school students. As mayor, Aaron will end student homelessness by quickly identifying sites and allocating existing funds for youth homelessness, getting our city’s young people off the streets and into housing.
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Aaron has pledged to build 2,000 shelter beds that connect homeless people with mental and behavioral health services. He opposes sweeps that simply move people from neighborhood to neighborhood without reducing homelessness.
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Aaron’s extensive experience in Bay Area regional government gives him the ability to lead regional solutions for the mental health care and drug treatment that is currently missing. He will identify and restore currently unused and underused state facilities, so we can quickly ramp up services we need to bring people off streets and sidewalks into care.
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A recent study showed that 75% of California’s homeless population was housed in their county before becoming homeless. Aaron is a proven advocate for renters and the only candidate for Mayor with a commitment to expand rent control and rent relief to prevent more low-income people from becoming homeless. San Francisco has housed thousands of formerly homeless individuals. To truly address homelessness, we need to stop people from losing their homes.
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Aaron led Prop A last March to build homes for 5,000 working San Franciscans. He is the only candidate for Mayor with a concrete plan to build affordable housing for 15,000 more San Franciscans – and it will be ready to implement on day one of his administration.
Public Safety for San Francisco’s Diverse Communities
Aaron has always believed that public safety is a progressive value. He has worked closely with law enforcement in his district to establish a form of community policing that doesn't just keep residents safe, but makes them feel safe.
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Aaron is the only candidate for Mayor who has pledged to establish the long-promised but never delivered community policing strategy that is proven to keep residents safe.
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Closing down open-air drug supermarkets and providing medical assistance to prevent drug overdoses will be a strong priority for Aaron as Mayor.
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We can only create robust public safety with a holistic approach that fully funds not just our police and sheriff departments but focuses on non-police approaches as well.
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Public safety is more than police officers, it’s also a fully-staffed network of 911 dispatchers, emergency medical technicians and crisis intervention workers. Aaron has a plan for streamlining hiring and training, and offering recruitment incentives that give city employees credit toward their accreditation requirements.
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Aaron salutes our police department for fully addressing deficiencies identified by the Department of Justice, but believes we must continue to provide strong civilian oversight and protect civil liberties while protecting public safety.
Aaron’s Housing Agenda
In the campaign for Mayor, Aaron has created and enabled more housing than any other candidate, created affordable housing, and is the strongest tenant advocate. He is the Mayor who will deliver the housing our city truly needs.
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Aaron’s concrete plan, ready to go the day he takes office, will build affordable housing for at least 15,000 working San Franciscans such as educators, health care workers, and first responders – at no cost to taxpayers.
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The Justice for Renters Act on the November ballot gives California the opportunity to provide protection against unfair evictions and unlimited rent hikes, which is currently not available to 40% of San Francisco renters. Aaron is the only candidate for Mayor who supports the measure and has committed to expanding rent control to currently non-rent-controlled apartments in San Francisco.
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Thousands of San Francisco seniors living on fixed incomes and adults with disabilities are rent-burdened. More tragically, they cannot afford the rent even in low-income, affordable housing. Many remain stuck in SROs with no place to go. Aaron is placing a measure on the November ballot to address this crisis.
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Aaron has voted to approve over 100,000 units of housing, more than any other candidate. He's never voted against an affordable housing project, and is the strongest renter's advocate in the race. Read more about Aaron's Housing Record
The Strongest Renters’ Advocate Running for Mayor
Aaron has a long record of strengthening tenants’ rights to organize, preventing evictions, and reducing rents by prohibiting landlord passthroughs. He is the only candidate pledged to expand rent control to 40% of units that don’t currently enjoy its protections if the state ban is overturned.
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Aaron’s first-in-the-nation policy pioneered a new form of tenants’ rights modeled on union collective bargaining rights. Aaron’s 2022 law has inspired similar ordinances in Seattle, New York, Washington DC, Austin and at the state level in California.
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In 2020, Aaron passed legislation to require intermediate-length rentals, which are generally corporate, to be permitted and reported on in some buildings, but and banned them in rent-controlled housing.
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In 2018, after Veritas tenants exposed unfairly high rent increases they were subjected to from frivolous operations and maintenance pass-throughs and other special fees, Aaron teamed up with then-Supervisor Sandra Fewer to eliminate these from banked rent increases.
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In 2016, Aaron sponsored legislation that regulated short-term rentals and required hosts to register and be permanent residents. This helped prevent further reduction of San Francisco’s housing stock.
Smarter on Schools
Aaron is a proud product of Bay Area public schools. He is endorsed by San Francisco public school and community college educators because he is committed to using the power of city government to keep our schools safe, financially strong, fully open, and thriving.
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Public education is the backbone of our city. If elected, Aaron will pioneer programs to end student violence, make sure our schools stay open, and hold SFUSD accountable.
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Our city has 2,300 homeless public school students. As mayor, Aaron will end student homelessness in San Francisco, restore crucial youth programs cut by the current administration, and fulfill our city's promise of opportunity for the next generation
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Aaron is endorsed by our public school teachers because he knows that our students and city can’t thrive without them. As mayor, he’ll lead the charge to build more dedicated teacher housing, boost recruitment and retention programs, and put more teachers in classrooms.
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Our city can and must do more to uplift and support working families and public school students. With programs that offer free tutoring and test prep, attendance resources, and assistance for asylum seekers, Aaron will make sure that families and children have the opportunities they need to get ahead.
Increased Street Safety + Public Transit
Aaron’s record on transportation speaks for itself. He’s secured billions in funding for public transit, connected Caltrain to the Transbay Terminal, and made dozens of dangerous intersections safer for pedestrians. If elected, he’ll make sure MUNI works for all of us, staff up our transit system with good-paying, union jobs, and work to make pedestrian deaths a thing of the past.
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Aaron worked hard to improve street conditions and walkability in District Three, making dozens of dangerous intersections safer. As mayor he will build on these successes, and work with communities to make sure pedestrians are always safe walking through our neighborhoods.
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Aaron has been one of our city’s strongest advocates for public transportation, securing billions of dollars for MUNI and other transit services. If elected, he will fully fund MUNI and make sure our transit system is fully staffed with good paying, union jobs.
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Aaron is committed to holding SFMTA accountable to our communities. He secured millions of dollars for small businesses impacted by the Central Subway construction, and increased service for critical lines like the 8 and 8x that serve middle and working class neighborhoods. As mayor, he’ll bring strong management and accountability to SFMTA to make sure transit works for, not against our communities.
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Aaron has advocated for smart, effective transit, but sitting Mayors have refused to implement these plans. Reducing traffic on our streets through dedicated bus and bike lanes, alongside smarter ticketing policies, will be a top priority in his administration.
Leading on Arts and Culture
Arts and culture are the soul of San Francisco, and have managed to shine through the pandemic as a beacon of hope for our city. Aaron has always been the artist’s candidate, and will fight hard to make sure artists and makers are protected from eviction, that their work is supported, and that all people - both in our city and around the world - can enjoy the cultural magic of San Francisco.
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San Francisco can't be an arts and culture hub if artists can't afford to live here. Aaron is the only candidate committed to protecting and expanding rent control, will build affordable housing for thousands of San Franciscans, and enforce storefront vacancy taxes to free up low-cost gallery space in our neighborhoods.
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Instead of boarded up windows and empty storefronts, we could have working painters, dance studios, craftspeople and other similar organizations in our neighborhoods. Aaron will make this happen with a program to pay up to 10% of the rent for arts and culture tenants who rent vacant storefronts. In exchange, these arts organizations will be required to offer courses or similar opportunities to young people in their community.
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Aaron has prioritized small businesses to drive vibrancy in San Francisco’s neighborhoods. As mayor, he'll expand these support programs like legacy protections to the nonprofits, installations and historic studios that have contributed so much to the fabric of our communities.
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Young people in San Francisco deserve the opportunity to contribute to and learn from our city’s rich creative history. In addition to expanding art education across the board, Aaron's plan to incentivize gallery spaces that provide free youth classes will help our city's young creatives thrive.