The Empty Home Tax Is a Win-Win for San Diegans

The availability of housing is a major problem in the city of San Diego — and it affects working families who are struggling to build a future in the city that raised them and where they call home. For us, this is personal. Like many San Diegans, the cost of renting is a big chunk of each paycheck. It is difficult to think about growing a family, cultivating a career, and one day retiring in the city we love. 

Part of the reason there are not enough affordable homes for San Diegans is that big corporations and wealthy investors are snatching up properties and leaving them vacant to avoid landlord-tenant regulations or to turn a profit on them later.

When property owners who can afford to, buy up second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth homes and keep them vacant, they tighten the housing market and make it more expensive to rent or buy. They also negatively affect the sense of community and quality of life in San Diego neighborhoods.

The trend of holding homes vacant is not just happening in San Diego. Across the country, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, the number of vacant homes is greater than the number of homes available for sale or rent.

Councilmember Sean Elo-Rivera has proposed a common sense ballot measure that would increase access to housing by taxing big corporations and wealthy investors who are hoarding homes and keeping them off the market. It’s an easy win for the city of San Diego.

In the city, there are over 5,100 empty homes, according to city data. That number is far greater than the 2,800 available homes for sale and close to the 5,600 homes available for rent on local realtor listings. If the 5000-plus vacant homes in the city went up for sale, that would nearly triple the chances for San Diegans to own a home. If they were instead put on the market for rent, it would nearly double the availability of homes for hard working San Diegans to live in. Incentivizing owners of empty homes to sell or rent them would significantly increase supply and potentially drive down costs.

Elo-Rivera’s “Homes for San Diegans” proposal would help to correct this imbalance now.

The annual tax would start at $8,000 per empty extra home that is not occupied by the owner as their primary residence, is not an ADU on the property where they live and is not a rental. Corporations would be charged an additional $4,000 per vacant home. The measure would also include exemptions for disasters, military service, death of the owner, financial hardship, and owners who are in long-term care. 

This is a sensible and narrowly tailored tax that will affect less than one percent of property owners — those that can afford to buy extra homes and keep them vacant. The purpose of the tax is to encourage vacant homeowners to either put homes on the market for San Diegans like you and me to rent or buy, increasing the supply and lowering the costs, or pay a tax to generate revenue that offsets the impact of keeping homes vacant. The choice is theirs. Either way, San Diegans win.

The proposal puts more housing in reach for San Diegans and generates tens of millions of dollars that could be used to pay for more affordable housing and infrastructure as well as emergency response, neighborhood parks, and community libraries that help all San Diegans thrive. San Diegans will be able to decide how revenue is spent through public input, transparent oversight, and an independent audits.

The independent audit provision ensures transparency and accountability. If voters approve the empty homes tax, the city would be required to conduct regular independent financial audits to verify how much revenue is collected and how it is spent. Those findings would be made public so residents can see exactly where the money is going. If we are asking voters to approve a new revenue measure, they deserve full transparency and independent oversight.

For these reasons, the proposal is supported by our organizations — Alliance San Diego and the San Diego Housing Federation — as well as community-based organizations, fair housing organizations, labor unions, civil rights groups, and everyday San Diegans who are struggling to get ahead and keep a roof over their heads.

We urge the full City Council to advance the proposal to the voters in the upcoming election. Every San Diego family deserves a chance to keep calling San Diego home.

Itzel Maganda Chavez is civic engagement director of Alliance San Diego. Stephen Russell is president and CEO of the San Diego Housing Federation.

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