YIMBY Action

Some dissatisfaction that there isn't enough focus on homelessness. (It's a bit unfair to say something that talks about funding for Affordable Housing isn't also about homelessness. But it could have used more focus.)

CASA reps saying that they need another big CASA-like process for homelessness, especially concerning services. Some talk about how homelessness is also addressed with housing, especially supportive housing with wrap-around services.

Read the (quite well written, especially for a government document) CASA Compact for yourself! https://mtc.ca.gov/sites/default/files/CASA_Compact.pdf …

ABAG rep talks about how a local government may have acquired local land and didn't want to put land there, and instead wanted to have their "jobs more spread out." CASA rep says a lot but basically: "The purpose of this is to produce more housing in the Bay Area..."

Shoutout to the Governor's plan to have an inventory of excess government land assessed for suitability for housing. One of the biggest ways we can subsidize Affordable Housing or build public housing is by using government-owned land.

"The individual bills will be coming back before this board, and you will be able to take action." In other words, don't worry y'all, you'll have plenty of time to pick this apart and point out which things you hate.

Suburban rep concerned about traffic, asks "When are we going to credit for the Affordable Housing we're building?" Someone in the crowd mutters, "When you build it."

Other live tweeters:https://twitter.com/Bobakkabob37/status/1086100132452397056 …

Talk about how when housing production doesn't meet need at higher income, they go for housing that otherwise go to moderate income, pushing people out. Displacement pressure on moderate and lower income. "Eventually you get to a place where people don't have anywhere to go."

Talk about how housing does not necessarily pay for itself. This is a big problem with out tax structure: cities and towns have an incentive often to reject housing and instead push more jobs growth because it helps their bottom line. This perverse incentive must change.

First speaker is an older man from Marin and tells us he's a landlord. The room collectively holds their breath... and then he is AWESOME. "The median income in Marin is 138k and rising... We have a drought of workforce housing."

"To take no action tonight is to endorse the status quo. And the status quo is not acceptable." Tenant tells horrific story about living in an illegal unit that flooded regularly, and his landlord who knew he could do nothing.

"My family is from the Bay Area. But most of us don't live here anymore."

Woman who sits on the Berkeley Rent Board offers lots of critiques about how she believes there aren't enough tenant protections.

"This isn't perfect. ...but we are not going to spend many more years arguing about maps... because there are people living on our streets."

Tenants Together who had signed off on CASA previously, outlines their current opposition. Read more here: http://www.sfexaminer.com/casa-compact-needs-major-changes-protect-tenants/ …

"The lines that we've drawn between our cities are much less significant that the challenges we face together." - @aceckhouse

"This is the last best hope for the people commuting right now from Manteca ... because we for a generation have refused to build the housing we need for our workforce." - @MattRegan10 of @BayAreaCouncil

Livable California Founder: "This is a terrible process. ...We should be angry about the way we see democracy slipping through our fingers."

She does bring up a reason why many of these efforts have failed in the past. When you take leaders of stakeholders and put them in a room to work out a compromise, they often can. But when leaders come back out and try to get their base to agree to compromise, things fall apart.

"When I first moved in, there was one person living on our street in a van. ...then there were 8 vans, students and non-students who couldn't afford housing. ...the rest of the Bay Area needs to step up." - @alfred_twu speaking in support of CASA.

"I'm a lifelong Bay Area resident. ...make no mistake, the status quo means letting the rest of the Bay Area off the hook, worsening displacement, pushing people out further and further..." - @Bobakkabob37

Man tries to say that the problem isn't that the housing is too expensive in places like San Mateo, it's that the transit isn't good enough to get folks from the cheap places to the expensive places. Integration is not on his priority list.

"Any new development gets pushing into vulnerable communities. ...we don't have time to fiddle while Rome burns. ...we need more construction in wealthy communities... we need geographic equity..."

Next speaker, "Theft of Local Control is theft of local government. ...the CASA compact seeks to end single family zoning. ...making the region denser will only make it MORE expensive, not less."