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Greenbelt Alliance In the News

July 5, 2002

Housing report knocks Measure A

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But the island isn't alone. Nearly three quarters of Bay Area communities aren't doing enough to plan for housing for all income groups, according to the "Housing Crisis Report Card," written by Greenbelt Alliance and Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California.

"Lower income sites need to be multi-family (to be) more affordable and more feasible for a nonprofit developer to attract grants or loans," said Shannon Dodge, the association's regional campaign coordinator.

"In the Housing Element the city claims that (Measure A) is not a constraint in meeting needs," she said. "We can't understand how that is not a constraint."

The city intends to respond to the report in the next few weeks, said Cynthia Eliason, planning manager.

"We believe there are a number of errors in the report we want to rectify," she said. A "glaring error" she mentioned was the chart which shows Alameda out of compliance in 2002.

"We're looking forward to changing the report card," said Gregg Fujita, president of Alameda Development Corp., the city's nonprofit affordable housing developer. "We have the capability of providing affordable home ownership that wasn't fully appreciated in the housing element and report card."

The report's mention that the city has been sued in the past for not meeting housing needs didn't play into its grade but did generate a more thorough examination, Dodge said.

"We looked more closely at cities that have been scofflaws in the past, cities we expect to make changes," she said.

Greenbelt is a Bay Area land conservation and urban planning nonprofit agency and the association advocates citizen action and government policy change about housing for low-income people. The two organizations studied the Housing Elements of 40 Bay Area cities and counties, the ones they believe are the largest and fastest-growing in the region.

Cities and counties document in their housing element how they are meeting their share of the regional housing need.

The report writers believe it's not feasible to build at Alameda Point -- where more than half the home sites are located -- before 2006, the end of the five-year element. Limitations on secondary units and high parking requirements also hinder housing development in Alameda, they say.

Alameda's housing allocation from the Association of Bay Area Governments, which is the foundation for the housing element, isn't excessive in proportion to its size, Dodge said. Alameda's total allocation is 2,162 units, with 1,319 of them selling or renting below market rate.

Dodge couldn't make specific suggestions for more acceptable housing sites in Alameda.

"I'm not personally familiar enough to say where there are better locations for housing," Dodge said.

"In general cities can meet more needs by zoning for apartments and townhouses and make better use of land. Old shopping centers can be more dynamic spaces with housing above."

Three "straightforward local government actions" could double the creation of affordable homes, according to the report. They are:

• creating housing choices by permitting apartments and condominiums to be built where they are now prohibited,
• dedicating local funds to housing through a jobs-housing linkage fee, housing trust funds and increasing the percentage of redevelopment tax increment earmarked for housing, and
• adopting inclusionary zoning that requires every development to include at least 15 percent affordable units.
  

Adopting these policies throughout the region would result in 23,000 affordable homes throughout the next decade, according to the report.

Berkeley is the only East Bay city to earn a place on the report's seven-city honor roll.

According to the report, a full-time worker must earn $27 hourly - more than $56,000 a year - to afford a two-bedroom apartment in the Bay Area, compared with $18 in the state and less than $14 nationally.

Ignoring the housing crisis has implications on sprawl, business, the economy, school performance, racial disparities and homelessness, the report says.

The report card also comes down hard on the lack of "teeth" in California's housing law, permitting city leaders to shirk their responsibilities. Housing element certification by the California Department of Housing and Community Development is too lax, the report says. Cities aren't required to address all factors that are needed to build affordable housing.

"The state of California has the power to enact housing element reform -- real rewards for cities that are creating their fair share of housing and real consequences for those refusing to act," the report states.

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Reach reporter Susan Fuller at 748-1659 or sfuller@cctimes.com.

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