Scott Wiener, a state senator known for his work on housing policy in California, has emerged as the leading candidate to represent San Francisco’s 11th Congressional District. This development follows Nancy Pelosi’s announcement that she will not seek reelection and her daughter Christine Pelosi’s decision not to run for the seat.
Wiener has positioned housing as his main priority if elected to Congress. Since joining the state senate in 2016, he has played a significant role in increasing housing production requirements for cities and counties across California. He also helped strengthen state enforcement of these mandates and supported legislation reducing local control over zoning decisions. His recent bill, SB 79, which was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom, automatically upzoned land along major transit lines in several large counties.
David Garcia, policy director at Up For Growth—a Washington D.C.-based nonprofit focused on housing legislation—said that Wiener would face different challenges at the federal level. “The policies that have been pursued in California wouldn’t translate to Congress, and it’s unlikely that Congress would support the feds pre-empting local zoning laws,” Garcia told The Real Deal.
Historically, federal involvement in housing has centered on financing tools such as low-income housing tax credits and programs like the Community Reinvestment Act. Garcia noted that a pro-housing legislator could advocate for new tax credits aimed at specific types of construction but said such measures must be made easier to use.
Jon White, chief real estate officer of Abode—the Bay Area’s largest non-profit housing developer—emphasized the complexity of using federal financing due to regulatory requirements tied to environmental reviews, American-made materials, and prevailing wage rules. “Affordable housing projects will only turn to federal financing if the project depends on it, because it’s so hard to deal with,” White said. “Streamling would be really helpful.”
White also called for an expansion of project-based vouchers and solutions for rising insurance costs facing developers: “A lot of projects at Abode are under water because of insurance cost increases, and it’s going to take a national solution to figure out insurance.”
Some industry leaders question whether Wiener could have as much impact in Congress as he did at the state level. One CEO described him as “the most pro-housing legislator in California” but doubted whether he could drive transformational change federally: “It’s not going to be transformational, you can make more of a difference in housing at the state level than the federal level, that’s just a fact.”
White argued that Wiener’s expertise could be valuable nationally: “On the federal side, there’s not many people who understand affordable housing in Congress,” he said.
Recent years have seen increased attention on housing issues within Congress. A bipartisan YIMBY Caucus (Yes In My Backyard) has formed; last month saw Senate passage of the ROAD to Housing Act—a bill tying some federal funding allocations to local housing production levels.
Garcia suggested this represents meaningful progress: “There would have been a time that a new member would get to Congress and talk about housing and not be taken seriously… Now…he will find himself among many other members talking about housing supply. And I think he would come to Congress with the biggest track record for doing really big housing policy.”
