A landmark housing affordability plan has been removed from the California ballot in November, leading to frustration and disappointment for many in the Bay Area – where housing affordability is one of the major issues residents are facing.
Bay Area Plan Ditched for November
The Bay Area, one of the most expensive property markets in the US, has been stuck in an affordable housing crisis for decades. Now, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) has chosen to ditch a $20-billion affordable housing proposal that was headed to the November ballot.
The Affordable Housing Bond
The Affordable Housing Bond was a landmark measure, the largest of its kind, intended to fund 90,000 new housing units in nine counties across the Bay Area.
Annual Property Tax
An additional annual property tax, which amounted to approximately $19 per $100,000 of appraisal value on average, would have been applied to fund the measure.
Approved in June
The housing plan was added to the ballot in June, allowing state residents to vote on the measure in the November General Election.
Was It Viable?
While the housing plan was supported by elected officials and housing advocates across the affected Bay Area counties, the board began to express concerns about the viability of the bond measure.
Withdrawn After BAHFA Meeting
The BAHFA held a meeting and unanimously voted to withdraw the measure from the November ballot, with a two-year pause on the effort so they could gain more certainty around its success before proposing it for a second time.
Joint Statement on the Decision
BAHFA Chair Alfredo Pedroza and Belia Ramos, president of the Association of Bay Area Governments’ Executive Board, issued a joint statement on the decision.
Not a Decision Taken Lightly
“The BAHFA Board’s decision to withdraw the affordable housing bond measure from this November’s ballot is not one that was taken lightly,” the statement began. “The Bay Area’s housing affordability crisis has been decades in the making and is far too big for any one city or county to solve on its own.
“The Wise Choice?”
“Recent developments have led the board to conclude that the wise choice is to look ahead to another election season for a regional housing measure when there is more certainty and the voters have weighed in affirmatively on Proposition 5,” it explained.
Inflation and Taxes Are the Priority
June polling from the BAHFA suggested that Golden State voters were too concerned with high inflation and taxes to rally around the Housing Bond proposal in November.
Unlikely to Pass
While the bond needed a two-thirds majority of the vote to pass, the same polling showed that only around 54% of voters were likely to support it.
Proposition 5
The BAHFA initially added the bond to the ballot in hopes that California voters would also pass the aforementioned Proposition 5, which would allow general bonds to be passed with just 55% of the vote instead of a two-thirds majority.
Lawsuit Filed Over Ballot Question
The bond effort also faced legal disputes previous to the announcement, including a lawsuit filed over the ballot questions supplied by the BAHFA, which had some discrepancies in the information concerning how much the bond would cost taxpayers each year.
A “Mathematical Error”
The BAHFA then recalculated the amount and updated the ballot question with a higher number, citing a “mathematical error.”
Painting an Unreliable Picture
Former San Jose Councilmember Johnny Khamis, one of the 13 Bay Area residents who filed the lawsuit, told the San Jose Spotlight that these issues had combined to present an unreliable picture of both the bond plan and the finance authority.
“It Doesn’t Build Trust”
“Not only are they brand new, but they either don’t know how to do math, or they’re trying to deliberately mislead the population,” Khamis said. “One way or another, it doesn’t build trust, so why should we trust them?”
Frustration and Disappointment
Public officials and housing advocates have expressed frustration and disappointment over the withdrawal, but also hope that the decision will lead to more decisive success in the future.
“A Huge Disappointment”
“It is a huge disappointment,” Sheng Tao, the Mayor of Oakland and a BAHFA member, told CBS News.”But, again, let’s take this energy and go fight for Prop 5.”
The “Best Path Forward”
Ali Sapirman, a representative for the Housing Action Coalition, is also facing the decision with optimism. “Although it’s disappointing to see the delay, we see this as the best path forward in getting that financing that affordable housing desperately needs,” she told Spotlight.
A Show of Support
A number of housing advocates congregated at the BAHFA meeting on Wednesday to show support for keeping the bond on the ballot.
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