This November, Bay Area voters will decide on an unprecedented $20 billion bond measure to help build or preserve potentially 90,000 affordable homes across the nine-county region.
On Wednesday, the Bay Area Housing Financing Authority board, a regional body made up of local elected officials, unanimously agreed to put the measure on the ballot.
“This is one of the most significant votes I’ve ever taken in my career, and that’s saying a lot,” said San Francisco Supervisor Hillary Ronen. “Housing should be a human right.”
Across the Bay Area, some 1.4 million residents — 23% of all local renters — spend more than half their income on rent, classifying them as “severely rent-burdened,” according to regional officials. Meanwhile, an estimated 37,000 people in the region are homeless on any given night — more than the entire population of Menlo Park.
Ahead of Wednesday’s vote, housing advocates and nonprofit developers urged board members to send the bond measure to voters. They argued a massive new investment in affordable housing is needed to balance the region’s staggering inequality and help move its most vulnerable residents off the street.
Opponents at the public meeting said the bonds would be paid for by a painful tax increase that would inevitably lead to wasteful public spending without genuine accountability. Some also raised concerns about what the region’s continued push to build more affordable housing could mean for public services, congestion and homeowners’ property values.
“I’m mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore!” said longtime San Mateo County resident Tom Weismiller, quoting fictional news anchorman Howard Beale from the 1976 film Network.
The bonds would be repaid by a new property tax on homes and businesses. The financing authority estimates the average annual tax would be $19 per $100,000 of assessed property value, or about $190 a year for a home valued at $1 million. The tax is expected to last through 2078.
The total cost of the bonds with interest is estimated at around $48 billion.
As it stands now, the bond measure would need a two-thirds majority of all Bay Area voters to pass. However, if voters approve a separate measure on the same November ballot to make it easier to pass certain tax increases, officials said the bond measure would need only 55% approval.
Still, despite widespread agreement that the Bay Area needs to build more affordable housing, the bond measure’s passage is far from guaranteed, as voters continue to feel the sting of inflation and grow more skeptical that public officials can solve the region’s most pressing challenges.
According to a recent poll commissioned by the finance authority, 54% of voters would support the bond measure, below the threshold needed to pass. At the same time, 68% said local taxes are already high enough and would vote against any tax increase, though pollsters explained some of those voters also expressed support for the bond measure.
“Voters right now are very pessimistic,” said Ruth Bernstein, chief executive of EMC research. “They’re not feeling super confident in …read more
Source:: The Mercury News – Entertainment
