Richard Parks/The Bay Citizen

A study that found just 24 percent of city construction jobs go to San Francisco residents was released at the Chinese for Affirmative Action offices Monday

San Francisco is falling far short in a “good faith” commitment to deliver 50 percent of job hours on public infrastructure projects to city residents, according to a study released Monday.

The study, prepared by the advocacy groups Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Brightline Defense Project, calls for a city law to be re-worded to make the 50 percent goal a mandate. Leaders of the two organizations on Monday called for the change to be enacted within the next 90 days.

“The city’s current local hiring practice has failed,” said Joshua Arce, executive director of the Brightline Defense Project, at a press conference at the Chinese for Affirmative Action offices Monday.

Just 24 percent of the city’s public works jobs go to locals, according to the study, which takes into account 29 city infrastructure projects and more than 50 million work hours. Minorities tend to work in the lowest-paid trades and women and Asian Pacific Islanders are underrepresented.

Women get fewer than four percent of public works jobs, according to the study. Asian Pacific Islanders get four percent—even though San Francisco's city charter includes two separate provisions for local hiring, and people of Asian descent make up an estimated 30 percent of the local construction workforce.

“Oftentimes this promise gets broken,” said Vincent Pan, executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action.

The study outlines recommendations for “the maximization of job opportunities for San Francisco residents, especially for those from economically and otherwise disadvantaged communities,” including “green” provisions to reduce out-of-town commuting and fines for non-complying contracts.

San Francisco's capital plan calls for $27 billion in public works projects in the next 10 years. Local workers hope those jobs will come to their neighborhoods.

“I want to see where I fit in,” said Arieann Harrison, an out-of-work single mother of three. “We’re not getting the jobs so we won’t be able to afford so-called market rates.”

Harrison, a lifelong Bayview-Hunters Point resident, said construction jobs that should be given to her and her neighbors are going to out-of-town workers who do not pay taxes or spend their money locally. With the high cost of living in the city, longtime residents are being pushed out, she said.

“These construction jobs can make all the difference in the world for us,” said Bayview-Hunters Point resident Macio Lyons of the Economic Opportunity Council of San Francisco.

Lyons said even those local workers who are unionized are having a difficult time finding work.

Florence Kong, president of the Asian American Contractors Association in Bayview-Hunters Point, said her company is comprised of 90 percent local workers. She said she lost a bid for a major City College contract earlier this year to an out-of-state contractor who underbid her by less than $500.

Kong said a local-hiring mandate should include incentives to work with companies like hers that employ primarily San Francisco residents.

“If we don’t get jobs, they’re going to get laid off,” Kong said of her employees. “Sooner or later they will be pushed out of the city.”

Cities including Los Angeles, Richmond, and Cleveland, Ohio, have passed local hiring mandates similar to what the study proposes.

The study’s release on Monday coincided with a California Supreme Court ruling to uphold Proposition 209, a 1996 initiative that bars governments from giving preference to women and minorities.

In this video extra, longtime San Francisco advocate Espanola Jackson talks about bringing jobs to the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood: