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Supporters of a proposed San Francisco initiative that would speed up some housing development say they expect to qualify for the November ballot.

Called Affordable Homes Now, the measure seeks to cut several years off the approval timeline for qualifying housing projects that are 100% affordable, are for teachers or are mostly market-rate but have 15% more below-market rate units than the city would otherwise require under affordability mandates.

The measure is backed by Mayor London Breed, who tried and failed to get the Board of Supervisors to put it on the ballot first. It was her third attempt to streamline housing production through an amendment to the City Charter.

After a supervisors committee rejected Breeds proposal in January, in part because they said community stakeholders hadnt vetted it, supporters began circulating petitions instead. Theyll need 52,000 valid signatures to make the November ballot. The campaign says it has 48,000 confirmed signatures so far but is collecting 600 to 700 a day, so it expects to clear the threshold on Tuesday and submit the signatures on June 27.

The ballot measure is part of a broader fight between Breed and some supervisors over San Francisco residential development as the city continues to face an acute housing and homelessness crisis and looming state mandates over home building. The city is now detailing how it expects to meet its housing goals of accommodating 82,000 units between 2023 and 2031, a threefold increase over the current eight-year cycle.

Amid the pressure, Breed has accused supervisors of getting in the way of much-needed home construction. Some supervisors have backed a competing ballot measure to streamline some housing development. Even if that measure doesnt make it on the ballot, they may campaign against the Breed-backed streamlining push.

Breeds housing fights with progressive supervisors grabbed headlines when they rejected nearly 500 units at the site of a Nordstrom parking lot near Sixth and Market streets. That site is where Breed and supporters announced the signature milestone on Thursday.

Standing in front of the Stevenson Street parking lot surrounded by workers in bright vests and hard hats, Breed said her support for the measure came from what she saw as a native San Franciscan.

I watched as we saw this city grow and as we saw this city become way too expensive, Breed said. As it grew, there wasnt enough housing that grew with it.

Breed also drew a straight line between the citys uneven housing development and the recent redistricting controversy, in which the task force drawing new supervisor districts broke up the Tenderloin and SoMa. She said she would have liked to see the Tenderloin and SoMa remain in District Six. But she called the split a necessary result of housing growth being too concentrated on the east side of the city which made District Six far too populous.

Thats what you get. Thats what happens, Breed said. So we have 10 years to fix this. Ten years for the next redistricting process to see other parts of the city grow, too.

Progressive supervisors who have opposed the mayors housing policies generally argue that theyre trying to make sure San Francisco is building as much truly affordable housing as possible, rather than allowing too much market-rate development that could further gentrification in traditionally low-income areas.

Last month, Supervisor Connie Chan introduced her own ballot measure to streamline some housing development, with support from at least two of her colleagues. Chans measure includes stricter affordability requirements than the measure backed by Breed. At least six supervisors would have to vote to put it on the ballot, where it could compete with Affordable Homes Now.

Chan said in a statement that her measure would accelerate the process to build real affordable housing that San Francisco working families can afford.

This measure will be a safeguard against any deceitful attempts to mislead San Franciscans about market-rate housing as affordable, and further displace working people, Chan said.

Ron Rowlett of the Nor Cal Carpenters Union dismissed the potential competing measure as an attempt to tank the one his union and Breed are supporting.

Theyre not looking to build homes, he said of the rival ballot measure. It was more another political thing to try and confuse the voters and make sure that (Affordable Homes Now) doesnt pass.

In addition to Nor Cal Carpenters Union, the coalition backing Affordable Homes Now includes GrowSF, Habitat for Humanity, the Housing Action Coalition, SPUR and YIMBY Action.

J.D. Morris is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jd.morris@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @thejdmorris

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Mayor Breed-backed SF affordable housing measure expected to qualify for the ballot, sparking fight with progressives - San Francisco Chronicle