Daly, Chris

Over the past 6 years, Supervisor Chris Daly has taken the lead at City Hall on affordable housing, tenants rights, homelessness, public health, the environment, and senior and kids issues. As Supervisor he has continued his passionate fight for economic, social, and environmental justice in San Francisco. Chris Daly is serving his third term as a San Francisco Supervisor representing District 6, which includes the dynamic neighborhoods of South of Market, Tenderloin, North Mission, South Beach & Treasure Island. In his first bid for public office in 2000, he earned a first place finish and a spot in the runoff with one-third of the general election vote in a field of 17 candidates and was elected Supervisor in a runoff with 81% of the vote. At 28, Chris Daly was the youngest person ever elected to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors. In 2002, Supervisor Daly won reelection with a majority of votes against 8 opponents. In 2006, Daly was once again reelected despite an expensive and possibly illegal campaign against him waged by downtown special interests. Supervisor Daly continues to serve as Chair of the San Francisco Board of Supervisor's Budget and Finance Committee. He is past Chair of the Board's Budget and Finance Committee, Finance Committee, Budget Committee, and Health and Human Services Committee. Chris Daly has been called one of the most effective members of the Board by friends and foes alike. He is a member of the San Francisco County Transportation Authority and, as the Chair in 2003, led the effort to reauthorize the half-cent sales tax for transportation projects. Chris also serves on the Transbay Joint Powers Authority where he has been a force for developing a new multi-modal transit center with a rail extension to downtown San Francisco. Chris served for 4 years as the Board’s representative on the First Five Commission, allocating funds for early childhood development programs and also served on San Francisco’s Health Service Board. Chris currently sits on the City’s Committee on Information Technology (COIT). In regional government, Supervisor Daly represents San Francisco on the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, fighting for cleaner air in Northern California. He serves as the Air District's Budget and Finance Committee Chair. He’s also a member of the Joint Policy Committee and the Association of Bay Area Governments and its Regional Planning Committee, where he is focused on promoting a regional land use policy that favors smart growth with affordable housing and good public transit. Chris Daly moved to San Francisco in 1993 as National Coordinator of Empty the Shelters, a non-profit organization of youth and students working to end homelessness. In 1995, he co-founded the Mission Agenda, a local nonprofit organization working with low-income people living in single-room occupancy hotel residents. When fires swept through hotels in the Mission and Tenderloin, he worked with SRO residents to draw attention to their plight and to force the City government to respond to the needs of SRO residents. Chris Daly is also a leader for tenant rights in the fight against displacement. He has served on the steering committee of the San Francisco Tenants Union and helped organize proactive response to evictions facing long-time residents, nonprofits, artists and small businesses. He is a co-founder of the Mission Anti-Displacement Coalition, which works to enact sound planning and development policies to preserve the cultural character of San Francisco's Mission district. As a tenant of the historic Redstone Building on, he helped call attention to the displacement of nonprofits and small businesses. For his work in the 90’s the San Francisco Bay Guardian said that Supervisor Daly "can legitimately claim to represent the people who are suffering the worst effects of gentrification." His high school valedictorian, Supervisor Daly studied the history of social movements at Duke University, where he worked with Habitat for Humanity to build low-income housing, and organized students to force the college to invest millions in affordable housing construction and to save union jobs from privatization. He has been an adjunct faculty member at New College of California. In 1989, Chris Daly received the Young Americans' Medal for Service, awarded by the United States Congress and presented by the President. He is also a Maryland 4-H All Star. Chris lives on Stevenson Street with his wife, Sarah, and son, Jack. When not working, Chris enjoys spending time with his family and playing and watching basketball. Sustainable San Francisco: Present and Future Supervisors Daly and Mirkarimi are helping lead the way towards a more ecologically healthy and socially just San Francisco. From the nation’s first city law banning plastic bags and a movement for public power to the enactment of transgender rights and developing smart growth policies that promote affordable housing and good public transit systems, you’ll hear how San Francisco is carving a visionary path towards a just and sustainable future.