Environmental Justice for Low-Income Communities in SF

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SOMCAN is launching a campaign to improve air quality in San Francisco. Low-income residents living close to freeways are disproportionately affected by air pollution from traffic congestion, which can lead to long-term health conditions like asthma, cardiovascular disease, and cancer.

SOMCAN is advocating for policy solutions that will provide cleaner air to all low-income residents within one mile of a freeway.

Our maps display single room occupancy (SRO) hotels in the City of San Francisco in relation to various environmental indicators, including particulate matter, pollution burden scores, and proximity to freeways. The data for these pollution indicators were drawn from three sources: SF Planning’s Environmental Justice Communities, SF Department of Public Health’s Air Pollutant Exposure Zone, and CalEnvironScreen 4.0

Our maps illustrate how SRO hotels are located in areas disproportionately burdened by air pollution when compared to other neighborhoods in San Francisco.

While SRO hotels do not account for all low-income housing in the city, we are using SRO hotels as an example because they house the most economically insecure and environmentally vulnerable populations in the city.

The SROs in this map are sourced from the Department of Building Inspection’s  Annual Unit Usage Report  (DBI AUUR, 2022). Per the  Residential Hotel Unit Conversion Ordinance (HCO) , all privately-owned SROs hotels in the city are required to file an AUUR, which monitors the usage (residential or tourist) and vacancy status of all units in that building. Non-profits are not required to report and therefore this map only includes non-profits who have voluntarily submitted a status report to the DBI.

The spatial distribution of all SROs are displayed in the slideshow below.

This article will discuss three main sources of pollution data in relation to SROs in San Francisco.

• Environmental Justice Communities - San Francisco Planning Department
• Air Pollutant Exposure Zone - San Francisco Department of Public Health
• CalEnviroScreen 4.0 Indicators - California Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment

SF Planning identified neighborhoods where residents are: predominantly low-income, exposed to environmental hazards like air pollution and waste sites, and most likely to develop or be impacted by long-term health conditions. Based on our map (below), nearly all SROs are located within areas that face a disproportionate amount of environmental health challenges.

Areas experiencing the highest environmental burden in the city are indicated in red and are identified as "Environmental Justice Communities" by SF Planning.

These Environmental Justice Communities include the Bayview Hunters Point, Chinatown, Excelsior, Japantown, Mission, Ocean View-Merced Heights-Ingleside, Outer Mission, Potrero Hill, SoMa, Tenderloin, Treasure Island, Visitacion Valley, and Western Addition.

"Residents living in or near air pollution sources, such as freeways or busy roadways, have poorer lung functions and are more susceptible to developing asthma and other respiratory problems" (SFDPH, SF Planning. 2012-2014). 

The  Air Pollutant Exposure Zone , represented in orange on the map, depicts all locations in the city where the estimated cumulative particulate matter (PM2.5) concentration is greater than 10 μg/m3. Meaning, the estimated cumulative excess risk of cancer from air pollutants resulting from lifetime (70 years) exposure is greater than 100 in a million. Additionally, the Air Pollutant Exposure Zone includes all locations within 500 feet of any freeway. This zone was defined through a collaborative effort between the Bay Area Quality Management District and the SF Department of Public Health.

Chinatown, the Tenderloin, the South of Market, and the Mission District, which contain the majority of SRO hotels in the city, are fully or partially within the Air Pollutant Exposure Zone.

Based on our map, 72 SROs are located within a 0.5 mile of a freeway (primarily in the South of Market and the Mission District), while 267 SROs are within 1 mile of a freeway.

Current Support for Residents in the Air Pollutant Exposure Zone: Article 38

San Francisco Health Code requires all new residential construction in the Air Pollution Exposure Zone to install  enhanced ventilation systems  to protect residents from the harmful effects of air pollution. This is enforced through the requirement of Enhanced Ventilation Proposals which reports the air pollution impacts of the project and types/locations of the enhanced ventilation filters. The filter system is chosen by the building engineer and designer. This application must be signed by a licensed mechanical engineer or one authorized by the Professional Engineers Act to design ventilations systems that meet Article 38 requirements. A proposal letter from the signatory is required, stating that the ventilation system design complies with not only Article 38 requirements, but all applicable air quality standards.

However, Article 38 does not retroactively apply to residential buildings that were constructed before 2008 (the year this legislation was passed). Since all SRO hotels in the city were constructed before 2008, this leaves SRO residents at risk of exposure to harmful airborne pollutants.*

*If an SRO hotel underwent significant renovation after 2008, then it is possible that enhanced ventilation was installed in this building.

Our last pollution data source is CalEnviroScreen. CalEnviroScreen is an environmental justice mapping tool used to identify areas most affected by multiple forms of pollution based on U.S. census tracts. The current 4.0 version of CalEnviroScreen was released in 2021, and measures environmental pollution, health burdens, and social stressors across California communities.

This article discusses four indicators, and two overall scores provided by CalEnviroScreen. Each section will differentiate the meaning of the data, where it is most prominent amongst the four largest SRO communities (Chinatown, Tenderloin, SOMA, and Mission), and why it matters to our campaign.

1. Particulate Matter
2. Rates of Asthma Percentile
3. Poverty Percentile
4. Housing Burden Percentile
5. Pollution Burden Score
6. CalEnviroScreen Score Percentile

Particulate matter refers to airborne particles that can irritate the lungs and the heart, resulting in the development of cardiovascular and other respiratory diseases. Based on our map, out of the four neighborhoods above, Chinatown is the area most exposed to particulate matter, though the Tenderloin and the South of Market are also significantly impacted.

Based on our map, the South of Market, the Mission District, and parts of the Tenderloin contain a large proportion of residents diagnosed with asthma. Not only can asthma increase an individual’s sensitivity to airborne pollutants, but asthma itself can be the result of long-term exposure to these pollutants.

The "poverty" indicator is the percent of the population with incomes less than  two times the federal poverty level  and is sourced from the US Census Bureau's American Community Survey.

The “housing burden” indicator depicts the percentage of households that are both low income (making less than 80% of the HUD Area Median Family Income) and severely burdened by housing costs (paying greater than 50% of their income to housing costs).

Based on our map, residents in the Tenderloin, Chinatown, and the South of Market experience a significant housing burden relative to the rest of the city. These results are correlated with poverty levels in the city, as these three neighborhoods also contain a large number of residents living two times below the federal poverty level. 

The CalEnviroScreen pollution burden score is calculated from the average percentiles of seven exposures indicators (ozone and PM2.5 concentrations, diesel PM emissions, drinking water contaminants, children’s lead risk from housing, pesticide use, toxic releases from facilities, and traffic density) and five environmental effects indicators (cleanup sites, impaired water bodies, groundwater threats, hazardous waste facilities and generators, and solid waste sites and facilities).

Out of the four neighborhoods described above, the South of Market has the highest pollution burden score.

CalEnviroScreen Scores represent the cumulative environmental impacts across California communities. They are the product of the overall pollution burden, an average of exposures and environmental effects, and population characteristics, an average of sensitive populations and socioeconomic factors.

A higher score indicates a greater pollution burden and socioeconomic factors relating to health, education, housing, poverty and employment.

The California Environmental Protection Agency uses these scores to identify “ Disadvantaged Communities ” which are prioritized for State-funded programs that aim to improve public health and reduce negative environmental impacts. However, criteria for “Disadvantaged Communities” only designates areas with a score percentile of 75 or higher.

As pointed out by  Brightline Defense , this criteria leaves out many disadvantaged neighborhoods in San Francisco, namely SOMA, the Tenderloin, Chinatown, and the Mission.

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District (BAAQMD) has expanded criteria for some of its programs to include areas with scores of 70 or higher, though this still excludes many communities.

To be eligible for inclusion in these State-funded programs, criteria must expand to include census tracts with scores of 50 or higher, or the overall score calculation must be modified to weigh other important factors. Brightline Defense has suggested using SF Planning’s “Environmental Justice Communities” (mentioned above) to better reflect equity needs in San Francisco.

The map below depicts the California Environmental Protection Agency's "Disadvantaged Communities" (in dark orange), compared to SF Planning's "Environmental Justice Communities" (in red).

Compared to the "Environmental Justice Communities" (on the right), the disparity in representation highlights how the California Environmental Protection Agency's criteria excludes a majority of the population that experiences a disproportionate amount of pollution, asthma, poverty, and housing burden.

SOMCAN is launching a campaign to improve air quality in San Francisco. Low-income residents living close to freeways are disproportionately affected by air pollution from traffic congestion, which can lead to long-term health conditions like asthma, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. SOMCAN is advocating for policy solutions that will provide cleaner air to all low-income residents within one mile of a freeway.

SOMCAN is advocating for an amendment of Article 38 of the Health Code. Currently, only residential buildings constructed after 2008 are required to have enhanced ventilation systems, leaving out SROs and many rent-controlled buildings that house low-income residents. Amending Article 38 would mandate that the City to improve air filtration systems in older buildings located in the Air Pollutant Exposure Zone. This strategy was included as a proposal in the City's  Heat and Air Quality Resilience Plan  (see p. 28, Strategy 4).

Article 38 should be amended to include the following:

• Mandate enhanced ventilation systems in all residential buildings within one mile of a freeway, regardless of their construction date

• Require retrofitting of older residential buildings with enhanced ventilation

• Require enhanced ventilation in all new affordable housing

• Ensure that costs of installing ventilation will not be passed on to tenants or non-profit housing providers

Importantly, we ask the City to secure state and federal funding to pay for the installation of enhanced ventilation systems in pre-2008 residential buildings.

Let’s work to improve air quality for everyone in the City! You can contact SOMCAN to get involved and make a difference in your community today!