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"content": "\u003cp>[dropcap]K[/dropcap]avon Ward lived in Manhattan Beach, a surfside city about 15 miles southwest of Los Angeles, for more than two years before she learned about the city’s racist history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, not long after George Floyd was murdered by police, Ward, a poet and activist, began learning about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bruces-beach\">Bruce’s Beach\u003c/a>, the beachfront real estate owned by a Black family before it was seized by the city of Manhattan Beach. The land was eventually turned into a park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember just looking out down the hill — I was at the top of the park — and seeing all of these white people and I’m thinking to myself, ‘How is it fair that all of these white people get to live here in front of what God created for everyone, after these Black people were run out?,’” Ward told me in a 2022 interview. “They take from us. They take our lives; they take our land; they take everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ward founded \u003ca href=\"https://justiceforbrucesbeach.com/\">Justice for Bruce’s Beach\u003c/a> to secure restitution for the descendants of the Bruces. She wanted reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not so much about it being land, it was more about it being justice served,” said Ward, who also launched \u003ca href=\"https://whereismyland.org/\">Where Is My Land\u003c/a>, a national organization focused on using research, advocacy and technology to help families from across the country get remuneration for land loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re not familiar with Bruce’s Beach, here’s an unsanitized version: In 1912, Willa and Charles Bruce purchased a lot along the Strand, Manhattan Beach’s oceanfront neighborhood, for $1,225. The couple, part of the Great Migration of Black people who fled racial terror in the south, created a resort that served as a vacation destination for Black people living in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resort became known as Bruce’s Beach. In America, segregative policies restricted Black people from accessing public beaches and swimming pools, but at Bruce’s Beach Black people could relax in the sun without being harassed for, well, being Black. In 1920, the Bruces purchased another lot. Other Black families did the same, creating a thriving Black community in Manhattan Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1924, the community was swept away by eminent domain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Kavon Ward, poet, activist and founder of Justice for Bruce's Beach\"]‘In the beginning of the 20th century, Black people owned 15 million acres of land. By the beginning of the 21st century, 90% of the land was gone. It was taken.’[/pullquote]In America, Black prosperity — especially economic prosperity — has always been met with oppressive hostility. Sometimes it comes in the form of a lynch mob of rabid racists, like the one in 1921 that presided over a two-day massacre that destroyed the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as “Black Wall Street.” Sometimes, like in the case of Bruce’s Beach, it comes in the form of eminent domain, a law that gives the government the right to expropriate private property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just a sanitized way of saying that Bruce’s Beach was stolen by the city of Manhattan Beach. This racially motivated process has been used in cities and states across the country. If you’ve driven on our nation’s highways, you should know much of the system \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11943263/americas-highway-system-is-a-monument-to-environmental-racism-and-a-history-of-inequity\">is a monument to racism because significant portions were built on land that was taken from Black people\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=news_11943263]The theft of land, displacement and erasure has tormented Black people since emancipation. After the disbursement of land to the formerly enslaved was revoked following President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the call for reparations has had a steady drumbeat. But since the California Reparations Task Force delivered its landmark \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/report\">1,200-page report\u003c/a> in June, the drumbeat has never been louder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report has 115 recommendations for reparative measures, including restitution for racially motivated takings of homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uss6JN2Ep60\">fourth episode of our video series on reparations\u003c/a>, we explore the stories of thriving Black communities — Bruce’s Beach, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925020/promised-land-a-historically-black-california-town-honors-its-proud-painful-past-and-fights-for-its-future\">the town of Allensworth\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954111/longtime-fillmore-resident-hopes-to-restore-commerce-with-black-led-marketplace\">San Francisco’s Fillmore District\u003c/a> — that were ravaged by racist policymaking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uss6JN2Ep60\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In the beginning of the 20th century, Black people owned 15 million acres of land,” Ward says at the beginning of the video. “By the beginning of the 21st century, 90% of the land was gone. It was taken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Millions of acres of Black-owned land was just simply taken. Please remember that the next time a friend, neighbor, colleague or presidential candidate insinuates that Black people aren’t worthy of reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“African Americans in the history of the United States, and within the state of California, have been this kind of available category of persons who can be removed, who can be exploited when it suits the state,” Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, a member of California’s Reparations Task Force, says in the video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The denial of Black prosperity is a deliberate feature of the American experiment. In 1862, the federal government passed the Homestead Act, which gave American citizens and soon-to-be citizens the right to claim 160 acres of land as America expanded west. More than 160 million acres were claimed by almost 2 million homesteaders. Enslaved and free Black people were, of course, excluded from the wealth-generating bonanza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than 100 years later, the federal government enacted the G.I. Bill, a program to assist World War II veterans through low-interest mortgages and loans. Black people were once again excluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Between 1935 and the late 1940s, the government issued about $120 billion in low-interest housing assistance loans. Ninety-eight percent of those loans went to white people,” Donald K. Tamaki, a member of California’s Reparations Task Force, told Manjula Varghese, my colleague, who is the lead producer of the video series. “This was the transfer of wealth to help build today’s middle class.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Reparations in California\" link1=\"https://www.kqed.org/reparations,Explore why California launched the first-in-the-nation task force to study reparations for Black people\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/2022/02/RiCLandingPageGraphic-1020x574.png\"]In this country, homeownership is the largest source of wealth for families. More than 1 million Black people were displaced, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates, when America erected the highway system. Private property was seized by eminent domain, and hundreds of neighborhoods across the country were demolished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, the redevelopment of the Fillmore, a neighborhood once known as the “Harlem of the West” because of the large number of Black businesses and entertainment venues in the area, was one of the largest projects of urban renewal on the West Coast. The decade-long project would end up displacing more than 13,000 residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to restitution for racially motivated takings of homes, the state task force recommended providing a right to return for displaced Black people and subsidizing the purchase of new homes through down payment and loan assistance programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bruces, who left Manhattan Beach in 1927, were paid about $15,000 at the time for their land, an insufficient sum for running people out of town. It took decades for the city, which, \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/manhattanbeachcitycalifornia/PST045222\">according to 2022 Census data is 71% white and less than 1% Black\u003c/a>, to turn Bruce’s Beach into a park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Zillow, the real estate tracking website, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/home-values/19177/manhattan-beach-ca/\">average home price in Manhattan Beach at the end of June was roughly $3 million\u003c/a>. Homes along the Strand where Bruce’s Beach was located \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/manhattan-beach-ca/manhattan-beach-strand_att/\">cost almost $5 million more\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June 2022, ownership of the park property was transferred back to the descendants of the Bruces by Los Angeles County. The descendants then sold the land back to the county for $20 million —atonement for almost a century of harm.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "From Bruce's Beach to the highway system, eminent domain has been used to dispossess Black Californians of their property. The call for reparations has never been louder.",
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"title": "How Black Californians Had Their Land Stolen | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__dropcapShortcode__dropcap\">K\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>avon Ward lived in Manhattan Beach, a surfside city about 15 miles southwest of Los Angeles, for more than two years before she learned about the city’s racist history.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, not long after George Floyd was murdered by police, Ward, a poet and activist, began learning about \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/bruces-beach\">Bruce’s Beach\u003c/a>, the beachfront real estate owned by a Black family before it was seized by the city of Manhattan Beach. The land was eventually turned into a park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I remember just looking out down the hill — I was at the top of the park — and seeing all of these white people and I’m thinking to myself, ‘How is it fair that all of these white people get to live here in front of what God created for everyone, after these Black people were run out?,’” Ward told me in a 2022 interview. “They take from us. They take our lives; they take our land; they take everything.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ward founded \u003ca href=\"https://justiceforbrucesbeach.com/\">Justice for Bruce’s Beach\u003c/a> to secure restitution for the descendants of the Bruces. She wanted reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was not so much about it being land, it was more about it being justice served,” said Ward, who also launched \u003ca href=\"https://whereismyland.org/\">Where Is My Land\u003c/a>, a national organization focused on using research, advocacy and technology to help families from across the country get remuneration for land loss.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re not familiar with Bruce’s Beach, here’s an unsanitized version: In 1912, Willa and Charles Bruce purchased a lot along the Strand, Manhattan Beach’s oceanfront neighborhood, for $1,225. The couple, part of the Great Migration of Black people who fled racial terror in the south, created a resort that served as a vacation destination for Black people living in California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The resort became known as Bruce’s Beach. In America, segregative policies restricted Black people from accessing public beaches and swimming pools, but at Bruce’s Beach Black people could relax in the sun without being harassed for, well, being Black. In 1920, the Bruces purchased another lot. Other Black families did the same, creating a thriving Black community in Manhattan Beach.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By 1924, the community was swept away by eminent domain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘In the beginning of the 20th century, Black people owned 15 million acres of land. By the beginning of the 21st century, 90% of the land was gone. It was taken.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In America, Black prosperity — especially economic prosperity — has always been met with oppressive hostility. Sometimes it comes in the form of a lynch mob of rabid racists, like the one in 1921 that presided over a two-day massacre that destroyed the Black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma, known as “Black Wall Street.” Sometimes, like in the case of Bruce’s Beach, it comes in the form of eminent domain, a law that gives the government the right to expropriate private property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s just a sanitized way of saying that Bruce’s Beach was stolen by the city of Manhattan Beach. This racially motivated process has been used in cities and states across the country. If you’ve driven on our nation’s highways, you should know much of the system \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11943263/americas-highway-system-is-a-monument-to-environmental-racism-and-a-history-of-inequity\">is a monument to racism because significant portions were built on land that was taken from Black people\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The theft of land, displacement and erasure has tormented Black people since emancipation. After the disbursement of land to the formerly enslaved was revoked following President Abraham Lincoln’s assassination, the call for reparations has had a steady drumbeat. But since the California Reparations Task Force delivered its landmark \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/ab3121/report\">1,200-page report\u003c/a> in June, the drumbeat has never been louder.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The report has 115 recommendations for reparative measures, including restitution for racially motivated takings of homes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uss6JN2Ep60\">fourth episode of our video series on reparations\u003c/a>, we explore the stories of thriving Black communities — Bruce’s Beach, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11925020/promised-land-a-historically-black-california-town-honors-its-proud-painful-past-and-fights-for-its-future\">the town of Allensworth\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954111/longtime-fillmore-resident-hopes-to-restore-commerce-with-black-led-marketplace\">San Francisco’s Fillmore District\u003c/a> — that were ravaged by racist policymaking.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/Uss6JN2Ep60'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/Uss6JN2Ep60'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>“In the beginning of the 20th century, Black people owned 15 million acres of land,” Ward says at the beginning of the video. “By the beginning of the 21st century, 90% of the land was gone. It was taken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Millions of acres of Black-owned land was just simply taken. Please remember that the next time a friend, neighbor, colleague or presidential candidate insinuates that Black people aren’t worthy of reparations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“African Americans in the history of the United States, and within the state of California, have been this kind of available category of persons who can be removed, who can be exploited when it suits the state,” Dr. Jovan Scott Lewis, a member of California’s Reparations Task Force, says in the video.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The denial of Black prosperity is a deliberate feature of the American experiment. In 1862, the federal government passed the Homestead Act, which gave American citizens and soon-to-be citizens the right to claim 160 acres of land as America expanded west. More than 160 million acres were claimed by almost 2 million homesteaders. Enslaved and free Black people were, of course, excluded from the wealth-generating bonanza.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Less than 100 years later, the federal government enacted the G.I. Bill, a program to assist World War II veterans through low-interest mortgages and loans. Black people were once again excluded.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Between 1935 and the late 1940s, the government issued about $120 billion in low-interest housing assistance loans. Ninety-eight percent of those loans went to white people,” Donald K. Tamaki, a member of California’s Reparations Task Force, told Manjula Varghese, my colleague, who is the lead producer of the video series. “This was the transfer of wealth to help build today’s middle class.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In this country, homeownership is the largest source of wealth for families. More than 1 million Black people were displaced, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation estimates, when America erected the highway system. Private property was seized by eminent domain, and hundreds of neighborhoods across the country were demolished.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, the redevelopment of the Fillmore, a neighborhood once known as the “Harlem of the West” because of the large number of Black businesses and entertainment venues in the area, was one of the largest projects of urban renewal on the West Coast. The decade-long project would end up displacing more than 13,000 residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to restitution for racially motivated takings of homes, the state task force recommended providing a right to return for displaced Black people and subsidizing the purchase of new homes through down payment and loan assistance programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Bruces, who left Manhattan Beach in 1927, were paid about $15,000 at the time for their land, an insufficient sum for running people out of town. It took decades for the city, which, \u003ca href=\"https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/manhattanbeachcitycalifornia/PST045222\">according to 2022 Census data is 71% white and less than 1% Black\u003c/a>, to turn Bruce’s Beach into a park.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to Zillow, the real estate tracking website, the \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/home-values/19177/manhattan-beach-ca/\">average home price in Manhattan Beach at the end of June was roughly $3 million\u003c/a>. Homes along the Strand where Bruce’s Beach was located \u003ca href=\"https://www.zillow.com/manhattan-beach-ca/manhattan-beach-strand_att/\">cost almost $5 million more\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In June 2022, ownership of the park property was transferred back to the descendants of the Bruces by Los Angeles County. The descendants then sold the land back to the county for $20 million —atonement for almost a century of harm.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"slug": "could-this-new-tool-help-you-find-affordable-housing-listings-in-the-bay-area",
"title": "New Tool Simplifies Affordable Housing Search in the Bay Area",
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"content": "\u003cp>A new online tool offers Bay Area residents a way to find and apply for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">affordable housing\u003c/a> listings in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/\">The Doorway Housing Portal\u003c/a>, as it’s called, was launched in early July by the \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/about-mtc/authorities/bay-area-housing-finance-authority-bahfa\">Bay Area Housing Finance Authority \u003c/a>(BAHFA), and draws together “affordable” apartment listings submitted by local cities, counties and private housing providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing advocates have for years been pushing for a tool like this that covers the entire state, says Damion Scott, a community organizer with the \u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/\">East Bay Housing Organizations \u003c/a>(EBHO), a nonprofit aimed at increasing access to affordable housing for lower-income communities. But even having this type of tool available for just the Bay Area makes Scott and his colleagues “really excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott says that based on his personal experience working with folks seeking affordable housing in the East Bay, “having a portal — having somewhere where they can find affordable housing not just from one developer, or just from one city or one county, but really a regional portal — would really be able to help them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the new Doorway tool provides a single platform to access affordable housing listings, there are certain things to know about how it works — and who still \u003cem>won’t \u003c/em>be able to use it to find affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#affordablehousing\">What makes a unit “affordable”?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#affordablehousingincome\">I can’t see listings that match my income. Am I doing it wrong?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#affordablehousinghelp\">Where can I find other affordable housing resources if this tool doesn’t work for my family?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what to know about the Doorway Housing Portal, how to fill out an application to live in an affordable housing unit or how to join a waitlist for a property and your options for finding affordable housing if this new online tool doesn’t end up working for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How does the Doorway Housing Portal work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>BAHFA, the organization behind the tool, says these listings are “verified opportunities for active housing vacancies and waitlists.” The site is currently available in five languages: English, traditional Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog. You can use it on a desktop computer or your mobile phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/listings\">see all current listings on the Doorway Housing Portal\u003c/a> by clicking the “View Listings” tab on the homepage. You can also \u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/\">search for affordable housing listings on the homepage\u003c/a> by inputting the number of bedrooms you’re seeking, your maximum desired monthly rent and the Bay Area counties you’re searching within. Either option will return a page of search results that includes a map you can use to explore more listings.[aside label='More Guides from KQED' tag='audience-news']When you click on a listing, you’ll see further information about that property, including how to apply, the leasing agent’s contact details, and eligibility criteria. These criteria will include the minimum and maximum income required for a household applying for the listing, deposit information, who gets preference for that unit, and what kinds of rental assistance programs (like Section 8 vouchers) will be considered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wondering why the tool doesn’t show listings for affordable housing in San Francisco? That’s because the city already has its own version of an affordable housing portal, called \u003ca href=\"https://housing.sfgov.org/\">DAHLIA: San Francisco Housing Portal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Doorway spokesperson said that the BAHFA doesn’t have a specific timeline for integrating DAHLIA, which would “remain a standalone portal for now.” So for now, if you want to see affordable housing listings for San Francisco, use the city’s own DAHLIA tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"affordablehousing\">\u003c/a>How does the Doorway Housing Portal define ‘affordable housing’?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You’ll notice that each housing listing on Doorway has a minimum-income requirement — that is, the amount of money that your household needs to be making in total, per year, before taxes (your gross income) to be eligible to apply for that home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is because “affordable” in this context doesn’t necessarily mean low-cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Instead, it means that the cost of rent and utilities for that property would be no more than 30% of a household’s income. (For homeowners, that’s the total cost of mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, utilities and other housing-related costs — which has to be 30% or less of a household’s income to be considered affordable.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/help/questions\">These income limits are set for these listings by property managers\u003c/a>, says BAHFA, “to ensure that you are not cost-burdened by the rent.” Your household is defined as “everyone who will live with you in the new unit,” which means it doesn’t just have to be your family — it can include friends, or roommates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But of course, every person and every household has a different income level, meaning that a listing that’s deemed “affordable” for one household won’t be labeled affordable for another household whose income is lower — and many of these “affordable” listings still won’t be considered affordable at all to people with lower incomes, or no income at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Doorway Housing Portal notes that you may also see affordable housing referred to as “low-income housing” or “restricted-income housing.” It’s also sometimes called “subsidized housing” (also known as regulated housing or deed-restricted housing), or “naturally occurring affordable housing” (so-called because the government doesn’t subsidize prices, or set rules on prices). \u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/looking-for-housing/\">Read more about the different kinds of affordable housing with this guide from EBHO.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945872\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11945872 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg\" alt=\"A person with medium-toned skin sits at a wooden table writing on a notepad, surrounded by books. They are wearing a gray t-shirt and have tattooed forearms. We can't see their face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some affordable housing listings on the Doorway Housing Portal will allow you to apply online, but some might require an in-person paper application. \u003ccite>(cottonbro studio/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Does the Doorway Housing Portal include Section 8 housing? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Doorway currently includes information about federal Section 8 programs for lower-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, which you can find under the “Rental Assistance” header in each individual housing listing — for example, whether certain housing vouchers are considered for that property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, you can’t \u003cem>directly \u003c/em>access Section 8 programs on Doorway itself — yet. That’s because Section 8 offerings “aren’t fully integrated” into the tool right now, said the spokesperson for the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the future, BAHFA is “exploring listing open Section 8 waitlists as a starting point,” said the spokesperson — meaning that you may see more Section 8 offerings on the Doorway Housing Portal in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"affordablehousingincome\">\u003c/a>I’m not seeing many listings on the site that match my income level. Am I doing it wrong?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not necessarily. Because of how “affordable” is defined in this context — i.e., the rent is no more than 30% of your household income — there just might not \u003cem>be \u003c/em>any listings that are classed as affordable for your own household’s income on Doorway, at least right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t be immediately discouraged. The Doorway Housing Portal is a new tool and is still growing. EBHO’s Sophia DeWitt cautions that because of this, it doesn’t yet “represent the full universe of available affordable homes in the Bay Area right now” since not all housing providers have yet added their listings — and that both cities and individual housing providers “need to continue to be encouraged to do so.” In the meantime, you can\u003ca href=\"https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/CAMTC/signup/36832\"> sign up to get email alerts when new affordable housing listings are posted\u003c/a> to the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED, DeWitt noted that Alameda and Santa Clara counties are at present “further along in this process” of submitting affordable housing listings to the site than many other counties. So you might see more listings within those counties right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>I found a listing on the site I’m interested in. What now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Each listing will have details on how to apply for that property, but be aware that you might have to join a waitlist. If a listing says you can apply online, you may be redirected to the website of a property management company, where you can complete your application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BAHFA advises that you don’t fill out multiple applications for a single listing, even if it’s from different members of your household, as “more than one application from any person in your household can completely disqualify all of the household members from that listing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You won’t need any supporting documentation for your initial application unless you choose to enter a lottery for that property. BAHFA says that “housing lottery preferences give certain applicants priority in the placement process,” but that this will require you to provide evidence that you fit the preference criteria. BAHFA also notes that you can “maximize your chances for these by applying for housing that is near where you live or work,” but that you should be sure to note any lottery dates marked on the listing so you don’t miss out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/help/questions\">Read more about the application process on the Doorway Housing Portal website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"affordablehousinghelp\">\u003c/a>I can’t actually afford any of the ‘affordable’ listings on the site. What do I do now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If your household income doesn’t match the minimum amount required on the listing that you’re interested in on the site, you have options:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Call 211 for a referral (311 in San Francisco) for a housing counselor or other social services counselor who can give you advice on affordable housing options.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Look at the \u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/help/housing-help\">Housing Help resources\u003c/a> on the Doorway Housing Portal, which include county-specific resources and where to find more urgent help if you’re at risk of becoming unhoused.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consider applying for the \u003ca href=\"https://covia.org/programs/home-match/\">Front Porch (formerly Covia) Home Match program\u003c/a>, which provides home-sharing opportunities locally by matching people who have available rooms with those looking for housing.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Browse \u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/looking-for-housing/\">EBHO’s Looking for Housing?\u003c/a> resources online, which include links and advice for applying for housing through your local housing authority.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How much does a tool like this really do to help increase access to affordable housing? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Having these listings available in one place online, and presented clearly as “a one-stop portal,” is a big help to folks seeking affordable housing, says Scott, the EBHO community organizer, and it reduces a lot of the physical and technological barriers people often face in this quest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have had residents who shared their stories that say when they were homeless, finding a house was a full-time job,” Scott said. “They had literally spent as much time as you and I would spend on our 40-hour-a-week, or more, work week — they spent that on looking for housing.” The tool, he said, will “help relieve people’s time” in this regard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Scott says that while widening access to affordable housing is a very positive step, increasing that access \u003cem>without \u003c/em>also increasing the supply of affordable housing means that residents are now met with “really long” wait lists for each listing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is there just is not enough affordable housing in the Bay Area, and in the state,” said Scott. And local and state officials need to be “doing more to ensure that affordable housing is being funded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "An explainer on the uses — and limitations — of the new Doorway Housing Portal, a new searchable database of 'affordable' apartment listings throughout the Bay Area. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A new online tool offers Bay Area residents a way to find and apply for \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/housing\">affordable housing\u003c/a> listings in the region.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/\">The Doorway Housing Portal\u003c/a>, as it’s called, was launched in early July by the \u003ca href=\"https://mtc.ca.gov/about-mtc/authorities/bay-area-housing-finance-authority-bahfa\">Bay Area Housing Finance Authority \u003c/a>(BAHFA), and draws together “affordable” apartment listings submitted by local cities, counties and private housing providers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Housing advocates have for years been pushing for a tool like this that covers the entire state, says Damion Scott, a community organizer with the \u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/\">East Bay Housing Organizations \u003c/a>(EBHO), a nonprofit aimed at increasing access to affordable housing for lower-income communities. But even having this type of tool available for just the Bay Area makes Scott and his colleagues “really excited.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scott says that based on his personal experience working with folks seeking affordable housing in the East Bay, “having a portal — having somewhere where they can find affordable housing not just from one developer, or just from one city or one county, but really a regional portal — would really be able to help them.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But while the new Doorway tool provides a single platform to access affordable housing listings, there are certain things to know about how it works — and who still \u003cem>won’t \u003c/em>be able to use it to find affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#affordablehousing\">What makes a unit “affordable”?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#affordablehousingincome\">I can’t see listings that match my income. Am I doing it wrong?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#affordablehousinghelp\">Where can I find other affordable housing resources if this tool doesn’t work for my family?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Keep reading for what to know about the Doorway Housing Portal, how to fill out an application to live in an affordable housing unit or how to join a waitlist for a property and your options for finding affordable housing if this new online tool doesn’t end up working for you.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How does the Doorway Housing Portal work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>BAHFA, the organization behind the tool, says these listings are “verified opportunities for active housing vacancies and waitlists.” The site is currently available in five languages: English, traditional Chinese, Spanish, Vietnamese and Tagalog. You can use it on a desktop computer or your mobile phone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can \u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/listings\">see all current listings on the Doorway Housing Portal\u003c/a> by clicking the “View Listings” tab on the homepage. You can also \u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/\">search for affordable housing listings on the homepage\u003c/a> by inputting the number of bedrooms you’re seeking, your maximum desired monthly rent and the Bay Area counties you’re searching within. Either option will return a page of search results that includes a map you can use to explore more listings.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>When you click on a listing, you’ll see further information about that property, including how to apply, the leasing agent’s contact details, and eligibility criteria. These criteria will include the minimum and maximum income required for a household applying for the listing, deposit information, who gets preference for that unit, and what kinds of rental assistance programs (like Section 8 vouchers) will be considered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wondering why the tool doesn’t show listings for affordable housing in San Francisco? That’s because the city already has its own version of an affordable housing portal, called \u003ca href=\"https://housing.sfgov.org/\">DAHLIA: San Francisco Housing Portal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A Doorway spokesperson said that the BAHFA doesn’t have a specific timeline for integrating DAHLIA, which would “remain a standalone portal for now.” So for now, if you want to see affordable housing listings for San Francisco, use the city’s own DAHLIA tool.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"affordablehousing\">\u003c/a>How does the Doorway Housing Portal define ‘affordable housing’?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>You’ll notice that each housing listing on Doorway has a minimum-income requirement — that is, the amount of money that your household needs to be making in total, per year, before taxes (your gross income) to be eligible to apply for that home.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is because “affordable” in this context doesn’t necessarily mean low-cost.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Instead, it means that the cost of rent and utilities for that property would be no more than 30% of a household’s income. (For homeowners, that’s the total cost of mortgage payments, taxes, insurance, utilities and other housing-related costs — which has to be 30% or less of a household’s income to be considered affordable.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/help/questions\">These income limits are set for these listings by property managers\u003c/a>, says BAHFA, “to ensure that you are not cost-burdened by the rent.” Your household is defined as “everyone who will live with you in the new unit,” which means it doesn’t just have to be your family — it can include friends, or roommates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But of course, every person and every household has a different income level, meaning that a listing that’s deemed “affordable” for one household won’t be labeled affordable for another household whose income is lower — and many of these “affordable” listings still won’t be considered affordable at all to people with lower incomes, or no income at all.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Doorway Housing Portal notes that you may also see affordable housing referred to as “low-income housing” or “restricted-income housing.” It’s also sometimes called “subsidized housing” (also known as regulated housing or deed-restricted housing), or “naturally occurring affordable housing” (so-called because the government doesn’t subsidize prices, or set rules on prices). \u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/looking-for-housing/\">Read more about the different kinds of affordable housing with this guide from EBHO.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11945872\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11945872 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg\" alt=\"A person with medium-toned skin sits at a wooden table writing on a notepad, surrounded by books. They are wearing a gray t-shirt and have tattooed forearms. We can't see their face.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1280\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/04/pexels-cottonbro-studio-4778412-1536x1024.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Some affordable housing listings on the Doorway Housing Portal will allow you to apply online, but some might require an in-person paper application. \u003ccite>(cottonbro studio/Pexels)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Does the Doorway Housing Portal include Section 8 housing? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Doorway currently includes information about federal Section 8 programs for lower-income families, seniors, and people with disabilities, which you can find under the “Rental Assistance” header in each individual housing listing — for example, whether certain housing vouchers are considered for that property.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, you can’t \u003cem>directly \u003c/em>access Section 8 programs on Doorway itself — yet. That’s because Section 8 offerings “aren’t fully integrated” into the tool right now, said the spokesperson for the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for the future, BAHFA is “exploring listing open Section 8 waitlists as a starting point,” said the spokesperson — meaning that you may see more Section 8 offerings on the Doorway Housing Portal in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"affordablehousingincome\">\u003c/a>I’m not seeing many listings on the site that match my income level. Am I doing it wrong?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Not necessarily. Because of how “affordable” is defined in this context — i.e., the rent is no more than 30% of your household income — there just might not \u003cem>be \u003c/em>any listings that are classed as affordable for your own household’s income on Doorway, at least right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Don’t be immediately discouraged. The Doorway Housing Portal is a new tool and is still growing. EBHO’s Sophia DeWitt cautions that because of this, it doesn’t yet “represent the full universe of available affordable homes in the Bay Area right now” since not all housing providers have yet added their listings — and that both cities and individual housing providers “need to continue to be encouraged to do so.” In the meantime, you can\u003ca href=\"https://public.govdelivery.com/accounts/CAMTC/signup/36832\"> sign up to get email alerts when new affordable housing listings are posted\u003c/a> to the site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an email to KQED, DeWitt noted that Alameda and Santa Clara counties are at present “further along in this process” of submitting affordable housing listings to the site than many other counties. So you might see more listings within those counties right now.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>I found a listing on the site I’m interested in. What now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Each listing will have details on how to apply for that property, but be aware that you might have to join a waitlist. If a listing says you can apply online, you may be redirected to the website of a property management company, where you can complete your application.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>BAHFA advises that you don’t fill out multiple applications for a single listing, even if it’s from different members of your household, as “more than one application from any person in your household can completely disqualify all of the household members from that listing.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You won’t need any supporting documentation for your initial application unless you choose to enter a lottery for that property. BAHFA says that “housing lottery preferences give certain applicants priority in the placement process,” but that this will require you to provide evidence that you fit the preference criteria. BAHFA also notes that you can “maximize your chances for these by applying for housing that is near where you live or work,” but that you should be sure to note any lottery dates marked on the listing so you don’t miss out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/help/questions\">Read more about the application process on the Doorway Housing Portal website\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"affordablehousinghelp\">\u003c/a>I can’t actually afford any of the ‘affordable’ listings on the site. What do I do now?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If your household income doesn’t match the minimum amount required on the listing that you’re interested in on the site, you have options:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Call 211 for a referral (311 in San Francisco) for a housing counselor or other social services counselor who can give you advice on affordable housing options.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Look at the \u003ca href=\"https://housingbayarea.mtc.ca.gov/help/housing-help\">Housing Help resources\u003c/a> on the Doorway Housing Portal, which include county-specific resources and where to find more urgent help if you’re at risk of becoming unhoused.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Consider applying for the \u003ca href=\"https://covia.org/programs/home-match/\">Front Porch (formerly Covia) Home Match program\u003c/a>, which provides home-sharing opportunities locally by matching people who have available rooms with those looking for housing.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Browse \u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/looking-for-housing/\">EBHO’s Looking for Housing?\u003c/a> resources online, which include links and advice for applying for housing through your local housing authority.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>How much does a tool like this really do to help increase access to affordable housing? \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Having these listings available in one place online, and presented clearly as “a one-stop portal,” is a big help to folks seeking affordable housing, says Scott, the EBHO community organizer, and it reduces a lot of the physical and technological barriers people often face in this quest.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have had residents who shared their stories that say when they were homeless, finding a house was a full-time job,” Scott said. “They had literally spent as much time as you and I would spend on our 40-hour-a-week, or more, work week — they spent that on looking for housing.” The tool, he said, will “help relieve people’s time” in this regard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Scott says that while widening access to affordable housing is a very positive step, increasing that access \u003cem>without \u003c/em>also increasing the supply of affordable housing means that residents are now met with “really long” wait lists for each listing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reality is there just is not enough affordable housing in the Bay Area, and in the state,” said Scott. And local and state officials need to be “doing more to ensure that affordable housing is being funded.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954314/3-big-takeaways-from-californias-311-billion-budget-deal\">major proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> to overhaul the state’s behavioral and mental health system is likely to take nearly $720 million away from services provided by county governments annually, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4782\">new analysis\u003c/a> from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although that money would be reallocated within the system, in part to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/06/mental-health-funding-2/\">house homeless individuals with severe mental illness\u003c/a> and addiction disorders, the report authors note that Newsom and key legislators supporting the proposal have neither provided a complete justification for the changes nor have they published an analysis on how the changes may “negatively impact current services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Consequently, as the Legislature considers the proposal, we recommend asking the administration certain questions to assess whether the proposal is warranted,” the report states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom wants the Legislature to put his proposal before voters next year in tandem with a $4.68 billion bond measure to add psychiatric treatment beds. It would change how the state allocates money under the Mental Health Services Act, which levies a 1% tax on income above $1 million to fund behavioral health services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homelessness has become one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/\">high-profile challenges plaguing California\u003c/a>, increasing 32% in the past four years. Newsom, who promised to reduce homelessness, announced his intent during his \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/03/gavin-newsom-legacy-tour/\">State of the State tour\u003c/a> to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money to help address homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since that time, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/04/mental-health-funding/\">local behavioral health providers and county officials\u003c/a> have criticized the proposal because of its potential to cut services and pit mental health programs against homeless services. The state has spent more than $20 billion on \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/\">housing and homelessness since 2018\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters, meanwhile, say reprioritizing how the money is spent is long overdue in light of the growing needs of the state’s homeless population as well as the addition of new funding sources for mental health programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Brandon Richards said “upsetting the status quo” was necessary in light of California’s changing health care needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mental health needs among California homeless\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A recent study from UC San Francisco found that two-thirds of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/california-homeless-growth-report/\">homeless individuals experience mental health conditions\u003c/a>, although income loss is the driving force behind the state’s homelessness crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s more upsetting is watching people continue to suffer on the streets with ineffective interventions and inability to access much-needed treatment,” Richards said. “A California behavioral health system of care that is more focused, more transparent, and more accountable for results is what all Californians deserve and what this historic reform aims to achieve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly one-third of the county mental health infrastructure in the state is supported by the Mental Health Services Act, which was approved by voters in 2004 as a ballot initiative. Substantial changes to the act, like the ones Newsom proposed, require voter approval. Last year the tax generated about $3.8 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Brandon Richards, deputy communications director, Gov. Gavin Newsom\"]‘What’s more upsetting, is watching people continue to suffer on the streets with ineffective interventions and inability to access much-needed treatment.’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of Newsom’s proposal say the new analysis bolsters their argument that the changes will result in significant cuts to current programs, particularly those that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/06/mental-health-funding-2/\">support children\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office has so far “danced around” how much money would be cut, said Adrienne Shilton, a lobbyist for the California Alliance of Children and Family Services, which represents behavioral health providers in every county. The report is the first to quantify how the proposal would impact programs statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing in real dollars what the impact would be,” Shilton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The analysis estimates spending on current programs would be reduced from $1.34 billion to $621 million under the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Housing money in Gavin Newsom’s plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The report identified several key changes and unanswered questions for the Legislature to consider in \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Series/3\">Newsom’s plan\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Reduced flexibility: \u003c/strong>Counties would have less flexibility to determine how money is spent. Based on current expenditures, counties would be required to increase spending on housing by $493 million and on “full-service partnerships” by $121 million. “Full-service partnerships” include intensive wraparound services like case management, housing and employment support as well as clinical care.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Program cuts likely: \u003c/strong>To meet spending targets and caps, counties would likely need to reduce spending on current programs including “outpatient services, crisis response, prevention services, and outreach.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Less independent oversight: \u003c/strong>The proposed restructuring moves much of the program implementation and oversight authority to the Department of Health Care Services. The change “significantly limits” the independent oversight of the current Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.[aside label='More on Mental Health Care' tag='mental-health']Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who helped author the original law and has been a key supporter of the changes, said the law was always meant to prioritize “the plight of people living with serious mental illness on our streets.”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It’s appropriate, in fact, it’s necessary to set priority status,” Steinberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steinberg and Newsom’s office also contend that the state has invested heavily in the mental health safety net in other ways, including changes to the Medi-Cal system and a $4.4 billion one-time infusion into the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2022/03/california-children-mental-health-crisis/\">Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s no longer a funding source that stands alone,” Steinberg said. “[Now], the opportunity is to weave all these pieces together so that everyone has access to care, and nobody is left out or left behind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, advocates say it is premature to assume those investments have had a positive impact and that many have not yet been implemented. In an opposition letter, Lishaun Francis, senior director for behavioral health at Children Now said the state “has yet to demonstrate that it has delivered” on its promises and that the proposal deprioritizes children and youth.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg\"]‘The opportunity is to weave all these pieces together so that everyone has access to care — and nobody is left out or left behind.’[/pullquote]Advocates also say those funding sources, particularly Medi-Cal, won’t reimburse for the non-clinical programs like classroom interventions and family resource centers that have historically been supported by the Mental Health Services Act. Medi-Cal is the state’s health insurance program for extremely low-income Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families need flexibility,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, chief executive officer of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services. “We need community-designed practices, and we haven’t been successful in doing that with just Medi-Cal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11954314/3-big-takeaways-from-californias-311-billion-budget-deal\">major proposal from Gov. Gavin Newsom\u003c/a> to overhaul the state’s behavioral and mental health system is likely to take nearly $720 million away from services provided by county governments annually, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Report/4782\">new analysis\u003c/a> from the Legislative Analyst’s Office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although that money would be reallocated within the system, in part to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/06/mental-health-funding-2/\">house homeless individuals with severe mental illness\u003c/a> and addiction disorders, the report authors note that Newsom and key legislators supporting the proposal have neither provided a complete justification for the changes nor have they published an analysis on how the changes may “negatively impact current services.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Consequently, as the Legislature considers the proposal, we recommend asking the administration certain questions to assess whether the proposal is warranted,” the report states.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom wants the Legislature to put his proposal before voters next year in tandem with a $4.68 billion bond measure to add psychiatric treatment beds. It would change how the state allocates money under the Mental Health Services Act, which levies a 1% tax on income above $1 million to fund behavioral health services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Homelessness has become one of the most \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/\">high-profile challenges plaguing California\u003c/a>, increasing 32% in the past four years. Newsom, who promised to reduce homelessness, announced his intent during his \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2023/03/gavin-newsom-legacy-tour/\">State of the State tour\u003c/a> to divert nearly one-third of the state’s Mental Health Services Act money to help address homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since that time, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2023/04/mental-health-funding/\">local behavioral health providers and county officials\u003c/a> have criticized the proposal because of its potential to cut services and pit mental health programs against homeless services. The state has spent more than $20 billion on \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/\">housing and homelessness since 2018\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Supporters, meanwhile, say reprioritizing how the money is spent is long overdue in light of the growing needs of the state’s homeless population as well as the addition of new funding sources for mental health programs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement, Newsom’s Deputy Communications Director Brandon Richards said “upsetting the status quo” was necessary in light of California’s changing health care needs.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Mental health needs among California homeless\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>A recent study from UC San Francisco found that two-thirds of \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/california-homeless-growth-report/\">homeless individuals experience mental health conditions\u003c/a>, although income loss is the driving force behind the state’s homelessness crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What’s more upsetting is watching people continue to suffer on the streets with ineffective interventions and inability to access much-needed treatment,” Richards said. “A California behavioral health system of care that is more focused, more transparent, and more accountable for results is what all Californians deserve and what this historic reform aims to achieve.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Roughly one-third of the county mental health infrastructure in the state is supported by the Mental Health Services Act, which was approved by voters in 2004 as a ballot initiative. Substantial changes to the act, like the ones Newsom proposed, require voter approval. Last year the tax generated about $3.8 billion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Critics of Newsom’s proposal say the new analysis bolsters their argument that the changes will result in significant cuts to current programs, particularly those that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/mental-health/2023/06/mental-health-funding-2/\">support children\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsom’s office has so far “danced around” how much money would be cut, said Adrienne Shilton, a lobbyist for the California Alliance of Children and Family Services, which represents behavioral health providers in every county. The report is the first to quantify how the proposal would impact programs statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing in real dollars what the impact would be,” Shilton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The analysis estimates spending on current programs would be reduced from $1.34 billion to $621 million under the plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Housing money in Gavin Newsom’s plan\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The report identified several key changes and unanswered questions for the Legislature to consider in \u003ca href=\"https://lao.ca.gov/Publications/Series/3\">Newsom’s plan\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Reduced flexibility: \u003c/strong>Counties would have less flexibility to determine how money is spent. Based on current expenditures, counties would be required to increase spending on housing by $493 million and on “full-service partnerships” by $121 million. “Full-service partnerships” include intensive wraparound services like case management, housing and employment support as well as clinical care.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Program cuts likely: \u003c/strong>To meet spending targets and caps, counties would likely need to reduce spending on current programs including “outpatient services, crisis response, prevention services, and outreach.”\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Less independent oversight: \u003c/strong>The proposed restructuring moves much of the program implementation and oversight authority to the Department of Health Care Services. The change “significantly limits” the independent oversight of the current Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, who helped author the original law and has been a key supporter of the changes, said the law was always meant to prioritize “the plight of people living with serious mental illness on our streets.”\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It’s appropriate, in fact, it’s necessary to set priority status,” Steinberg said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steinberg and Newsom’s office also contend that the state has invested heavily in the mental health safety net in other ways, including changes to the Medi-Cal system and a $4.4 billion one-time infusion into the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/health/2022/03/california-children-mental-health-crisis/\">Children and Youth Behavioral Health Initiative\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s no longer a funding source that stands alone,” Steinberg said. “[Now], the opportunity is to weave all these pieces together so that everyone has access to care, and nobody is left out or left behind.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Still, advocates say it is premature to assume those investments have had a positive impact and that many have not yet been implemented. In an opposition letter, Lishaun Francis, senior director for behavioral health at Children Now said the state “has yet to demonstrate that it has delivered” on its promises and that the proposal deprioritizes children and youth.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Advocates also say those funding sources, particularly Medi-Cal, won’t reimburse for the non-clinical programs like classroom interventions and family resource centers that have historically been supported by the Mental Health Services Act. Medi-Cal is the state’s health insurance program for extremely low-income Californians.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Families need flexibility,” said Christine Stoner-Mertz, chief executive officer of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services. “We need community-designed practices, and we haven’t been successful in doing that with just Medi-Cal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Oakland Eviction Moratorium Ends: What You Need to Know",
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"content": "\u003cp>After months of debate, Oakland’s eviction moratorium expired on Saturday, July 15. The move comes after Alameda County ended its public health emergency and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11947933/alameda-countys-eviction-moratorium-ends-saturday-whats-next-for-renters-and-landlords\">its own eviction moratorium back in April\u003c/a>. Oakland had been one of the last remaining cities in the country with this type of protection for tenants, along with San Francisco and Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rest of Alameda County, \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/05/24/evictions-cases-are-rising-fast-after-end-of-alameda-county-moratorium/\">evictions spiked after the county’s moratorium was lifted, rising to above pre-pandemic highs\u003c/a>. With the majority of Oakland residents renting their homes, and the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.housinginitiative.org/uploads/1/3/2/9/132946414/hip_oakland_market_study_9-29-20_small.pdf\">having a higher percentage of renters compared to the county as a whole (PDF)\u003c/a>, many advocates fear that this change will lead to an even greater wave of evictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#impacts\">\u003cstrong>What does the end of Oakland’s eviction moratorium mean for renters?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#evictions\">\u003cstrong>What can Oakland renters be evicted for starting July 15?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#backrent\">\u003cstrong>Do Oakland renters now have to pay back rent?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#advice\">\u003cstrong>Where can Oakland renters find legal advice and resources?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#landlords\">\u003cstrong>What should Oakland landlords know?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Evictions on the horizon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“We’re all terrified to see [the moratorium] sunset,” said Anne Tamiko Omura, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.evictiondefensecenteroakland.org/\">Eviction Defense Center (EDC)\u003c/a>. “We’ve already seen the effects of the Alameda County moratorium sunsetting and the massive amounts of evictions that are being filed. So we can only imagine what’s waiting for us in Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, Tamiko Omura said, there were less than 4,000 evictions — but she expects that after the moratorium lifts, evictions will now surpass that number in less than three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a renter, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can be immediately evicted, as various tenant protections still remain in place and some were recently added by the Oakland City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">\u003cstrong>Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acceaction.org/renterhelp\">Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)\u003c/a>, said her organization is “expecting to see a lot of evictions filed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simon-Weisberg’s key message? “We’re working really hard to get the message out that you can’t be evicted for the rent that people may have accrued during the pandemic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what do you need to know about Oakland’s eviction moratorium expiring? If you’re an Oakland renter — or a landlord in the city — how will the end of the moratorium affect you? Keep reading for details on who can be evicted in Oakland and what renter protections continue to exist after July 15.\u003cbr>\n[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"impacts\">\u003c/a>What does the end of the moratorium mean for renters?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In March 2020, the Oakland City Council adopted an eviction moratorium in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — which ensured that renters could not be evicted over unpaid rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, there were actually \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/important-covid-19-information\">three renter protections Oakland put into place in 2020\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>All evictions were prohibited — unless they were on health or safety grounds, or under a state law that allows landlords to evict tenants if they’re permanently taking their units off the rental market (e.g., moving themselves or a family member into the unit).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>All late fees for nonpayment of rent were prohibited.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>All rent increases were prohibited unless they were established inflation adjustments or approved through a petition under \u003ca href=\"https://apps.oaklandca.gov/rappetitions/Petitions.aspx\">Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>So, what’s changing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting July 15, \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2023/oakland-eviction-moratorium-phase-out\">landlords will be able to evict for nonpayment of rent moving forward\u003c/a>. Landlords will also be able to once again charge late fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, \u003cstrong>the moratorium on\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>rent increases is not ending on July 15\u003c/strong>. That will remain in place until July 1, 2024, one year away. Until that date, all rent increases will remain prohibited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2023/oakland-eviction-moratorium-phase-out\">See the details of what will change for Oakland renters and landlords starting July 1 on the city of Oakland’s website.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"evictions\">\u003c/a>What can Oakland renters now be evicted for, starting July 15?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Starting July 15, landlords in Oakland can now evict renters or terminate tenancies for any just cause, including not paying rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because for most tenants rent is due on the first day of the month, this means that most Oakland renters will have to start paying their rent on or after August 1. And if they don’t, their landlord can start eviction proceedings. If you are someone who pays rent on the first of the month, be aware that \u003cstrong>your landlord could technically ask you on July 15 to pay half of your July rent\u003c/strong>.[aside label='More Guides from KQED' tag='audience-news']Oakland landlords can also resume charging their tenants late fees for late rent payments moving forward — but this does not include late payments during the moratorium period. So housing advocates stress that renters should start paying their landlord again as soon as their rent is due.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tenants can also now be evicted for having violated their lease in other ways during the eviction moratorium. To this end, the Oakland City Council did approve a “just cause” ordinance, which says that the landlord must show that the lease violation is based on a reasonable term that the tenant accepted in writing and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/06/07/oakland-city-council-eviction-lease/\">it has to be a violation that causes substantial injury to the landlord\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, city officials told KQED that a landlord cannot proceed with an eviction if the unit in question has not been registered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/rent-registration-in-oakland-information-and-faqs\">the city’s rent registry\u003c/a> — something the city now requires for all rental units covered by rent control or “just cause” protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#advice\">\u003cstrong>Jump to more resources available to renters in Oakland.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"backrent\">\u003c/a>Do Oakland renters have to pay back rent now that the eviction moratorium has expired?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Landlords in Oakland can demand back rent starting July 15, and can take tenants to small claims court. They can also ultimately pursue evictions for the back rent that was missed during the moratorium period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this development regarding back rent comes with two big caveats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, \u003cstrong>tenants cannot be evicted for any back rent owed between March 9, 2020, and July 14, 2021\u003c/strong>, if they can show that the missed payment was due to financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, \u003cstrong>tenants cannot be evicted for owing less than one month of fair market rent during that period\u003c/strong>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How do you show that your financial hardship or loss \u003cem>was\u003c/em> caused by the pandemic? Alameda County Housing Secure advises that “you should submit \u003ca href=\"https://www.ac-housingsecure.org/ac-eviction-moratorium-guide\">proof of your COVID-related loss of income or increase in expenses to your landlord\u003c/a> in the form of pay stubs, bank statements, a letter from your employer, child care bills or medical bills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland is also encouraging \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Info-Sheet_Tenant-Repayment-Negotiation_EN_10.11.22_FINAL.pdf\">tenants and landlords to enter into repayment negotiations (PDF)\u003c/a>. Legally, repayment plans cannot come with late fees and cannot be conditioned on changes to the lease.[pullquote size='medium' align='right']Tenants cannot be evicted for rent owed between March 9, 2020, and July 14, 2021, as long as they can prove it was due to a COVID-19 related hardship.[/pullquote]Simon-Weisberg, from ACCE, says that many tenants are being pressured by landlords who say they’ll forgive the debt if the tenant agrees to move out. And while that might sound like a good deal for those who may not have the budget to pay back the debt, she argues it’s more stressful to end up with nowhere to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that people aren’t quite sure what to do with the debt that they owe,” said Simon-Weisberg. “So we really want to encourage folks to hang tight. And I think we’ll be going into a period of trying to really help people figure out what to do about the debt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955781\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11955781\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/GettyImages-861724936-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A street in Oakland's Chinatown during the morning. Cars are parked along the street, in front of apartment buildings with shops on the ground level.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Oakland is encouraging tenants who owe back rent to enter into repayment negotiations with their landlords. Legally, repayment plans cannot come with late fees and cannot be conditioned on changes to the lease. \u003ccite>(Nicolo Sertorio/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"advice\">\u003c/a>Resources for Oakland renters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tamiko Omura, from the EDC, said that her group is advising renters “to do the best they can to pay their rent for the month of July and to contact a legal service provider if they get any paperwork as soon as possible.” Often, if you receive an eviction notice or summons, you have to respond within three days or face losing the opportunity to make your case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the debate over the eviction moratorium, Oakland City Council members said \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/housing-resources-erap-emergency-rental-assistance\">the city’s rental assistance program administered $60 million in assistance, but that these funds have not been fully utilized\u003c/a>. However, applications are now closed — though the program is administered through the following local nonprofits, many of which also offer legal assistance:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareacs.org/\">Bay Area Community Services\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.self-sufficiency.org/\">Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cceb.org/\">Catholic Charities East Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centrolegal.org/?lang=es\">Centro Legal de la Raza\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://ebaldc.org/\">East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.evictiondefensecenteroakland.org/\">Eviction Defense Center\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://safepassages.org/\">Safe Passages\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“Oakland has done everything it can to try to get more money. It’s not enough,” said Tamiko Omura. “The state coverage was not enough. The money we have left is not enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which other Bay Area cities still have their own eviction moratoriums?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These Bay Area cities still have their own, separate eviction moratoriums, which are ongoing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/news/local-eviction-protections-non-payment-rent-during-covid-19-extended-through-august-29-2023#:~:text=Specifically%2C%20no%20tenant%20may%20be,19%20Proclamation%20of%20Local%20Emergency.\">\u003cstrong>San Francisco eviction moratorium:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> After the city’s public health emergency ended on June 30, the rental eviction moratorium was extended to August 29, and will expire August 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/rights-responsibilities/covid-19-information-tenants-landlords\">\u003cstrong>Berkeley eviction moratorium:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The city of Berkeley’s eviction moratorium is expiring in stages. Starting May 1, some evictions were allowed for health and safety, owner move-ins or nonpayment of rent where the tenant had not provided documentation establishing a reason for not paying. After September 1, the moratorium will fully expire.[aside postID=\"news_11952870\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS41773_007_KQED_HousingSanFrancisco_02102020_2898-qut-1020x680.jpg\"]\u003ca href=\"https://www.sanleandro.org/1199/Eviction-Moratorium\">\u003cstrong>San Leandro eviction moratorium:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The eviction moratorium in San Leandro will end July 31. Tenants will have to pay past due rent within 180 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, the Contra Costa cities of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/4082/COVID-19-Rental-Related-Information?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444\">Richmond\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> and \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/covid19-policy/#:~:text=Residents%20of%20Alameda%20County%20are,ended%20on%20April%2029%2C%202023.\">El Cerrito\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> have some extra tenant protections related to missed rent during the pandemic — though neither city still has an eviction moratorium in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"landlords\">\u003c/a>What should landlords in Oakland know?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Landlords should be aware that if their property is under rent control, they are now required \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/rent-registration-in-oakland-information-and-faqs\">to register their units in the city’s rent registry\u003c/a>. The deadline to register was July 5, 2022. City officials told KQED that if a landlord has not registered a unit, they currently cannot proceed with an eviction for the tenants living in that unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not that we are asking them to register their eviction, even though they are to provide the city with a copy,” said Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program Manager Victor Ramirez. “The registration is not for them to register an eviction lawsuit. It is for them to provide information about the tenancy that they currently have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another challenge landlords are facing is the sheer size of outstanding rent owed throughout the city. When Alameda County’s eviction moratorium expired back in April, Michelle Starratt, housing director for Alameda County, said there was between $125 million and $300 million in outstanding rent owed throughout the county — even with the federal and state assistance that had paid some of the back rent.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Michelle Starratt, housing director, Alameda County\"]‘At this point, the best recourse for landlords is to go to small claims court to obtain the back rent owed from those tenants.’[/pullquote]In an Alameda County survey of landlords from fall 2022 and spring 2023, landlords reported that 50% of the rent that was owed was actually owed by tenants who were considered over-income — as in, their income was higher than 80% of the area’s median income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At this point, the best recourse for landlords is to go to small claims court to obtain the back rent owed from those tenants,” Starratt said at the time. Alameda County also deployed about $5 million in emergency foreclosure prevention money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the Oakland City Council meetings, a number of smaller Oakland landlords spoke out about the financial stress they had been struggling with as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state of California additionally \u003ca href=\"https://camortgagerelief.org/\">runs a mortgage relief program\u003c/a>, which earlier this year \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/02/california-mortgage-relief-expansion/\">expanded who qualified\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really don’t want landlords to lose their properties, so we’re trying to get some of these resources into the community,” Starratt said. “But nearly $5 million in funding is just a drop in the bucket if we have over $300 million worth of outstanding rent and half of that is for over-income tenants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The over-income tenants need to help us by paying their rent,” said Starratt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Rachel Vasquez, Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman and Alexander Gonzalez contributed to this reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "Oakland's eviction moratorium ended on July 15, 2023 and tenants are now required to pay rent. Tenants who don't pay their rent can now be evicted by their landlord but there are still some protections left.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>After months of debate, Oakland’s eviction moratorium expired on Saturday, July 15. The move comes after Alameda County ended its public health emergency and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11947933/alameda-countys-eviction-moratorium-ends-saturday-whats-next-for-renters-and-landlords\">its own eviction moratorium back in April\u003c/a>. Oakland had been one of the last remaining cities in the country with this type of protection for tenants, along with San Francisco and Berkeley.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the rest of Alameda County, \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/05/24/evictions-cases-are-rising-fast-after-end-of-alameda-county-moratorium/\">evictions spiked after the county’s moratorium was lifted, rising to above pre-pandemic highs\u003c/a>. With the majority of Oakland residents renting their homes, and the city \u003ca href=\"https://www.housinginitiative.org/uploads/1/3/2/9/132946414/hip_oakland_market_study_9-29-20_small.pdf\">having a higher percentage of renters compared to the county as a whole (PDF)\u003c/a>, many advocates fear that this change will lead to an even greater wave of evictions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Jump straight to:\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#impacts\">\u003cstrong>What does the end of Oakland’s eviction moratorium mean for renters?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#evictions\">\u003cstrong>What can Oakland renters be evicted for starting July 15?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#backrent\">\u003cstrong>Do Oakland renters now have to pay back rent?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#advice\">\u003cstrong>Where can Oakland renters find legal advice and resources?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#landlords\">\u003cstrong>What should Oakland landlords know?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003ch2>Evictions on the horizon\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>“We’re all terrified to see [the moratorium] sunset,” said Anne Tamiko Omura, executive director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.evictiondefensecenteroakland.org/\">Eviction Defense Center (EDC)\u003c/a>. “We’ve already seen the effects of the Alameda County moratorium sunsetting and the massive amounts of evictions that are being filed. So we can only imagine what’s waiting for us in Oakland.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2019, Tamiko Omura said, there were less than 4,000 evictions — but she expects that after the moratorium lifts, evictions will now surpass that number in less than three months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you’re a renter, this doesn’t necessarily mean you can be immediately evicted, as various tenant protections still remain in place and some were recently added by the Oakland City Council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">\u003cstrong>Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Leah Simon-Weisberg, legal director of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acceaction.org/renterhelp\">Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE)\u003c/a>, said her organization is “expecting to see a lot of evictions filed.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Simon-Weisberg’s key message? “We’re working really hard to get the message out that you can’t be evicted for the rent that people may have accrued during the pandemic,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what do you need to know about Oakland’s eviction moratorium expiring? If you’re an Oakland renter — or a landlord in the city — how will the end of the moratorium affect you? Keep reading for details on who can be evicted in Oakland and what renter protections continue to exist after July 15.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"impacts\">\u003c/a>What does the end of the moratorium mean for renters?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In March 2020, the Oakland City Council adopted an eviction moratorium in response to the COVID-19 pandemic — which ensured that renters could not be evicted over unpaid rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In fact, there were actually \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/services/important-covid-19-information\">three renter protections Oakland put into place in 2020\u003c/a>:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>All evictions were prohibited — unless they were on health or safety grounds, or under a state law that allows landlords to evict tenants if they’re permanently taking their units off the rental market (e.g., moving themselves or a family member into the unit).\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>All late fees for nonpayment of rent were prohibited.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>All rent increases were prohibited unless they were established inflation adjustments or approved through a petition under \u003ca href=\"https://apps.oaklandca.gov/rappetitions/Petitions.aspx\">Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program\u003c/a>.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>So, what’s changing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Starting July 15, \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2023/oakland-eviction-moratorium-phase-out\">landlords will be able to evict for nonpayment of rent moving forward\u003c/a>. Landlords will also be able to once again charge late fees.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, \u003cstrong>the moratorium on\u003c/strong> \u003cstrong>rent increases is not ending on July 15\u003c/strong>. That will remain in place until July 1, 2024, one year away. Until that date, all rent increases will remain prohibited.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/news/2023/oakland-eviction-moratorium-phase-out\">See the details of what will change for Oakland renters and landlords starting July 1 on the city of Oakland’s website.\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"evictions\">\u003c/a>What can Oakland renters now be evicted for, starting July 15?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Starting July 15, landlords in Oakland can now evict renters or terminate tenancies for any just cause, including not paying rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because for most tenants rent is due on the first day of the month, this means that most Oakland renters will have to start paying their rent on or after August 1. And if they don’t, their landlord can start eviction proceedings. If you are someone who pays rent on the first of the month, be aware that \u003cstrong>your landlord could technically ask you on July 15 to pay half of your July rent\u003c/strong>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Oakland landlords can also resume charging their tenants late fees for late rent payments moving forward — but this does not include late payments during the moratorium period. So housing advocates stress that renters should start paying their landlord again as soon as their rent is due.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tenants can also now be evicted for having violated their lease in other ways during the eviction moratorium. To this end, the Oakland City Council did approve a “just cause” ordinance, which says that the landlord must show that the lease violation is based on a reasonable term that the tenant accepted in writing and \u003ca href=\"https://oaklandside.org/2023/06/07/oakland-city-council-eviction-lease/\">it has to be a violation that causes substantial injury to the landlord\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, city officials told KQED that a landlord cannot proceed with an eviction if the unit in question has not been registered with \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/rent-registration-in-oakland-information-and-faqs\">the city’s rent registry\u003c/a> — something the city now requires for all rental units covered by rent control or “just cause” protections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"#advice\">\u003cstrong>Jump to more resources available to renters in Oakland.\u003c/strong>\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"backrent\">\u003c/a>Do Oakland renters have to pay back rent now that the eviction moratorium has expired?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Landlords in Oakland can demand back rent starting July 15, and can take tenants to small claims court. They can also ultimately pursue evictions for the back rent that was missed during the moratorium period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, this development regarding back rent comes with two big caveats.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>First, \u003cstrong>tenants cannot be evicted for any back rent owed between March 9, 2020, and July 14, 2021\u003c/strong>, if they can show that the missed payment was due to financial hardship caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, \u003cstrong>tenants cannot be evicted for owing less than one month of fair market rent during that period\u003c/strong>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How do you show that your financial hardship or loss \u003cem>was\u003c/em> caused by the pandemic? Alameda County Housing Secure advises that “you should submit \u003ca href=\"https://www.ac-housingsecure.org/ac-eviction-moratorium-guide\">proof of your COVID-related loss of income or increase in expenses to your landlord\u003c/a> in the form of pay stubs, bank statements, a letter from your employer, child care bills or medical bills.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The city of Oakland is also encouraging \u003ca href=\"https://cao-94612.s3.amazonaws.com/documents/Info-Sheet_Tenant-Repayment-Negotiation_EN_10.11.22_FINAL.pdf\">tenants and landlords to enter into repayment negotiations (PDF)\u003c/a>. Legally, repayment plans cannot come with late fees and cannot be conditioned on changes to the lease.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Simon-Weisberg, from ACCE, says that many tenants are being pressured by landlords who say they’ll forgive the debt if the tenant agrees to move out. And while that might sound like a good deal for those who may not have the budget to pay back the debt, she argues it’s more stressful to end up with nowhere to live.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that people aren’t quite sure what to do with the debt that they owe,” said Simon-Weisberg. “So we really want to encourage folks to hang tight. And I think we’ll be going into a period of trying to really help people figure out what to do about the debt.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955781\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11955781\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/GettyImages-861724936-scaled.jpg\" alt=\"A street in Oakland's Chinatown during the morning. Cars are parked along the street, in front of apartment buildings with shops on the ground level.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1708\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The city of Oakland is encouraging tenants who owe back rent to enter into repayment negotiations with their landlords. Legally, repayment plans cannot come with late fees and cannot be conditioned on changes to the lease. \u003ccite>(Nicolo Sertorio/Getty Images)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"advice\">\u003c/a>Resources for Oakland renters\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Tamiko Omura, from the EDC, said that her group is advising renters “to do the best they can to pay their rent for the month of July and to contact a legal service provider if they get any paperwork as soon as possible.” Often, if you receive an eviction notice or summons, you have to respond within three days or face losing the opportunity to make your case.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the debate over the eviction moratorium, Oakland City Council members said \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/housing-resources-erap-emergency-rental-assistance\">the city’s rental assistance program administered $60 million in assistance, but that these funds have not been fully utilized\u003c/a>. However, applications are now closed — though the program is administered through the following local nonprofits, many of which also offer legal assistance:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bayareacs.org/\">Bay Area Community Services\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.self-sufficiency.org/\">Building Opportunities for Self-Sufficiency\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.cceb.org/\">Catholic Charities East Bay\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.centrolegal.org/?lang=es\">Centro Legal de la Raza\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://ebaldc.org/\">East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://www.evictiondefensecenteroakland.org/\">Eviction Defense Center\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"https://safepassages.org/\">Safe Passages\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“Oakland has done everything it can to try to get more money. It’s not enough,” said Tamiko Omura. “The state coverage was not enough. The money we have left is not enough.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Which other Bay Area cities still have their own eviction moratoriums?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>These Bay Area cities still have their own, separate eviction moratoriums, which are ongoing:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://sf.gov/news/local-eviction-protections-non-payment-rent-during-covid-19-extended-through-august-29-2023#:~:text=Specifically%2C%20no%20tenant%20may%20be,19%20Proclamation%20of%20Local%20Emergency.\">\u003cstrong>San Francisco eviction moratorium:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> After the city’s public health emergency ended on June 30, the rental eviction moratorium was extended to August 29, and will expire August 30.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://rentboard.berkeleyca.gov/rights-responsibilities/covid-19-information-tenants-landlords\">\u003cstrong>Berkeley eviction moratorium:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The city of Berkeley’s eviction moratorium is expiring in stages. Starting May 1, some evictions were allowed for health and safety, owner move-ins or nonpayment of rent where the tenant had not provided documentation establishing a reason for not paying. After September 1, the moratorium will fully expire.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sanleandro.org/1199/Eviction-Moratorium\">\u003cstrong>San Leandro eviction moratorium:\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> The eviction moratorium in San Leandro will end July 31. Tenants will have to pay past due rent within 180 days.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Additionally, the Contra Costa cities of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.ci.richmond.ca.us/4082/COVID-19-Rental-Related-Information?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=44444444-4444-4444-4444-444444444444\">Richmond\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> and \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://ebho.org/covid19-policy/#:~:text=Residents%20of%20Alameda%20County%20are,ended%20on%20April%2029%2C%202023.\">El Cerrito\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> have some extra tenant protections related to missed rent during the pandemic — though neither city still has an eviction moratorium in place.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"landlords\">\u003c/a>What should landlords in Oakland know?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Landlords should be aware that if their property is under rent control, they are now required \u003ca href=\"https://www.oaklandca.gov/resources/rent-registration-in-oakland-information-and-faqs\">to register their units in the city’s rent registry\u003c/a>. The deadline to register was July 5, 2022. City officials told KQED that if a landlord has not registered a unit, they currently cannot proceed with an eviction for the tenants living in that unit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It is not that we are asking them to register their eviction, even though they are to provide the city with a copy,” said Oakland’s Rent Adjustment Program Manager Victor Ramirez. “The registration is not for them to register an eviction lawsuit. It is for them to provide information about the tenancy that they currently have.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Another challenge landlords are facing is the sheer size of outstanding rent owed throughout the city. When Alameda County’s eviction moratorium expired back in April, Michelle Starratt, housing director for Alameda County, said there was between $125 million and $300 million in outstanding rent owed throughout the county — even with the federal and state assistance that had paid some of the back rent.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>In an Alameda County survey of landlords from fall 2022 and spring 2023, landlords reported that 50% of the rent that was owed was actually owed by tenants who were considered over-income — as in, their income was higher than 80% of the area’s median income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“At this point, the best recourse for landlords is to go to small claims court to obtain the back rent owed from those tenants,” Starratt said at the time. Alameda County also deployed about $5 million in emergency foreclosure prevention money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the Oakland City Council meetings, a number of smaller Oakland landlords spoke out about the financial stress they had been struggling with as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The state of California additionally \u003ca href=\"https://camortgagerelief.org/\">runs a mortgage relief program\u003c/a>, which earlier this year \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/02/california-mortgage-relief-expansion/\">expanded who qualified\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We really don’t want landlords to lose their properties, so we’re trying to get some of these resources into the community,” Starratt said. “But nearly $5 million in funding is just a drop in the bucket if we have over $300 million worth of outstanding rent and half of that is for over-income tenants.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The over-income tenants need to help us by paying their rent,” said Starratt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED’s Rachel Vasquez, Azul Dahlstrom-Eckman and Alexander Gonzalez contributed to this reporting.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q7BNr6kOVbzQpP46ZuANDKQEgjwIpge7/view?usp=drive_link\">Read a transcript of this episode. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you watch national TV news — or eavesdrop at your local coffee shop — you may have heard something like this: San Francisco’s offices are lying vacant, homelessness is rampant, and the city is floundering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Judith Gottlieb, a retired nurse in Oakland, has been hearing some of those stories. And the idea of people sleeping on the street breaks her heart. One day, she got an idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I heard about all these empty office buildings in San Francisco, and I was thinking, couldn’t we just move [people] in there really quickly?” Gottlieb asked Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Office vacancy is hovering around 30% in downtown San Francisco, and recently there’s been a lot of talk about converting all these empty offices to living space as a way to create much-needed housing and revive downtown at the same time. [baycuriouspodcastinfo]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The unhoused need dignity. They need a roof over their head,” said Gottlieb. “Anything we can do is better than just waiting around.”\u003cbr>\nBay Curious looked into the economics of converting office space to housing in the city, and explored whether this is a good option for getting people off the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How difficult is conversion?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Offices have been converted to housing before in San Francisco, but only a handful of times, according to the San Francisco Planning Commission. But as far as the agency knows, it hasn’t been done for people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A prime example of a market-rate conversion is 100 Van Ness, a 28-story, glass-covered tower just steps from Market Street and City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This tower first belonged to the California State Automobile Association and was built in the 1970s. Back then, it was a beige tower of concrete with small rectangular windows. Now its exterior is almost all glass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-scaled.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11955562 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"A white man wearing a suit smiles at the camera in the foreground. He's standing on the rooftop of a skyscraper. Behind him is a view of the San Francisco city skyline.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Strachan Forgan stands on the rooftop of 100 Van Ness. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We essentially took off the entire façade of the building and replaced it with this floor-to-ceiling glass,” said Strachan Forgan, a principal at SCB, the architectural firm that helped create the residential units in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a recent tour of 100 Van Ness, Forgan explained the complete transformation of the interior of the building. The once sprawling open floors of office space have been carved up into hundreds of luxury apartments. Only four of the original eight elevators remain, because residential settings have less need for elevators, according to Forgan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The converted apartments — ranging from $3,159 for a tiny studio to more than $6,000 for a roomy two-bedroom — are not without design quirks. Some are attractive, others less so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things residents may enjoy are the elevated ceilings — slightly higher than in your standard apartment. Developers also removed the heating and cooling machinery, which is typically kept on office building roofs, to make open leisure space instead, complete with chairs and 360-degree views of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has pretty spectacular views in every direction,” said Forgan, with a backdrop of the Marin Headlands, and the many hills of San Francisco, behind him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the downside, some apartments at Van Ness have fewer surface area for windows, so bedrooms use “borrowed light” from living spaces. Because the apartments are carved out of a vast open office floor, many of the apartments are long and deep, stretching from the window to the center elevators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, many apartments at 100 Van Ness have long, tunnel-like hallways with windows at the end. In one of the building’s one-bedroom units, a windowless bedroom in the middle of the layout has a semi-transparent wall to let in light from the living room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954821\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11954821 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large empty room with a glass sliding door and glass panels in one wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sliding door and light panels allow light through to an interior bedroom in a converted apartment at 100 Van Ness in San Francisco on June 30, 2023. Built in 1974, the building was converted from office space to residential apartment units in 2012. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When 100 Van Ness first opened to residents, units with windowless bedrooms were initially offered with significant discounts, but developers soon found that wasn’t necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Actually, the residents really like it because it’s very quiet,” said Forgan. “You’re away from the hustle and bustle. It can be a little darker, so if you’re sleeping there, it’s fine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>It comes down to money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Forgan’s firm wants to stay in this business of designing conversions of offices to housing. They see the value to downtown San Francisco, and the environment. Reusing an existing building has a smaller carbon footprint than knocking it down and starting from scratch.\u003cbr>\nSo why is this project one of only a handful of office-to-residential conversions in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps not surprisingly, it has largely to do with the high cost of housing development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a very basic level, there’s the cost of new plumbing and electrical. You need pipes for new kitchens and bathrooms. Then, a lot of these buildings need a seismic upgrade. Forgan says the kind of housing that would recoup costs of a conversion would be at the higher end of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve got to buy the building and do everything to convert it. And by the time you add up those costs, the only thing that pencils [out] is more of a luxury product, especially with a building like this that has great views and a good location,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954820\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11954820 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People pass a sign on a city sidewalk advertising luxury apartments.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People pass by the entrance to the 100 Van Ness building in San Francisco on June 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Housing developers like the Emerald Fund, which backed 100 Van Ness, say they’re interested in doing more office-to-housing conversions. The raw construction costs of converting offices could actually be done more cheaply than building a brand-new apartment tower, says Marc Babsin, president of the fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Babsin says they’ve looked at four office buildings to convert recently, but so far, no new project has made sense cost-wise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to look. We think this is a great idea from a public policy perspective. We do need to save our downtowns and this is a great way to do that, to bring people onto the street,” said Babsin. “It’s a great way to produce housing that is currently not being produced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public policy experts at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) agree that the hefty costs of development can make such a project a nonstarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sujata Srivastava, San Francisco director at SPUR, explained a few of the financial burdens that give housing developers pause:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>City fees that support public projects like child care programs and transportation, which can add up to millions of dollars.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Transfer and property taxes.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Reduced revenue potential, because San Francisco requires a certain number of units be affordable to lower-income tenants.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Construction costs, which are very expensive right now.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t really make any financial sense to do conversions under the current costs that we have in San Francisco,” said Srivastava, adding that housing development is even less likely because rents are also down since before the pandemic. “The math just doesn’t really work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent SPUR report suggests city lawmakers need to make major changes if they want to jump-start these conversions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco politicians have already made some changes, and are working on more. The Mayor’s Office and supervisors have relaxed rules about open space, sunlight and apartment sizes for some conversions. Elected city officials have proposed reducing affordable housing requirements and impact fees on all new housing developments, but not as low as developers want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all part of the city’s effort to jump-start more activity downtown and build more housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A solution for homelessness?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since the pandemic emptied out office space in the Financial District, downtown streets look vacant; pedestrians experience windy sidewalks, empty restaurants and sparse foot traffic. Graham Luth was sitting on the sidewalk on 2nd Street near Montgomery Street one recent Friday morning, trying to get money to go to Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got evicted, sort of,” said Luth about being temporarily without a home. “I got a job offer but I’m short on bus money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about this idea of sheltering people in empty office space downtown, Luth looked up at the tall buildings around him, and said, if no one’s using them, why not?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a fantastic idea because there is a lot of space that is just … sitting there,” said Luth. “So I guess just being able to figure out who owns the spaces and if … they’re not gaining or losing, that the space can be used for a matter that would help support the whole community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the city of San Francisco may have already found a different way to shelter people without housing: buying underused hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that happened during the pandemic that … really kind of changed the landscape around solving homelessness was this idea of using hotels,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, San Francisco and their partner organizations bought eight hotels and apartment buildings to provide permanent supportive housing to people who were formerly on the streets. It has created almost 1,000 new housing units for people without shelter. The city is in the process of acquiring two more buildings. [emailsignup newslettername=\"baycurious\" align=\"right\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result of San Francisco’s efforts, the unsheltered unhoused population has gone down 15% since 2020. That’s as homelessness in general has gone up around the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks are getting housed,” said Friedenbach. “That has been really incredible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco used state COVID-19 money through Project Homekey and a local tax on large corporations, known to San Francisco voters as Proposition C, to purchase and operate the buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had unprecedented success during COVID,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, about their recent efforts to house unsheltered people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The success is due to the enormous resources that were made available to them through Project Homekey and local tax dollars, said McSpadden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really showed what can happen when you can marshal resources,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friedenbach says making housing out of hotel rooms is easier and cheaper because it already has living space infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the tourist hotels have larger rooms. You can turn them into studio apartments and have small kitchens,” Friedenbach said. “There’s all these design things you can do that are really cool and you’ve already got the pipes, the electricity, the water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With nationally owned hotels like the Hilton and Parc 55 abandoning their Union Square buildings, and the city’s recent track record of housing people in hotels, repurposing these newly abandoned buildings doesn’t seem like a wild idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Judith Gottlieb’s question, it seems that vacant hotels may be a better option for housing unsheltered people. But those vacant offices in the city’s core could one day be high-end housing, especially if lawmakers take more steps to make conversions cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[baycuriousquestion]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://drive.google.com/file/d/1q7BNr6kOVbzQpP46ZuANDKQEgjwIpge7/view?usp=drive_link\">Read a transcript of this episode. \u003c/a>\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you watch national TV news — or eavesdrop at your local coffee shop — you may have heard something like this: San Francisco’s offices are lying vacant, homelessness is rampant, and the city is floundering.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Bay Curious listener Judith Gottlieb, a retired nurse in Oakland, has been hearing some of those stories. And the idea of people sleeping on the street breaks her heart. One day, she got an idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I heard about all these empty office buildings in San Francisco, and I was thinking, couldn’t we just move [people] in there really quickly?” Gottlieb asked Bay Curious.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Office vacancy is hovering around 30% in downtown San Francisco, and recently there’s been a lot of talk about converting all these empty offices to living space as a way to create much-needed housing and revive downtown at the same time. \u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003caside class=\"alignleft utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__bayCuriousPodcastShortcode__bayCurious\">\u003cimg src=https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/bayCuriousLogo.png alt=\"Bay Curious Podcast\" loading=\"lazy\" />\n \u003ca href=\"/news/series/baycurious\">Bay Curious\u003c/a> is a podcast that answers your questions about the Bay Area.\n Subscribe on \u003ca href=\"https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/bay-curious/id1172473406\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Apple Podcasts\u003c/a>,\n \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/podcasts/500557090/bay-curious\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NPR One\u003c/a> or your favorite podcast platform.\u003c/aside>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The unhoused need dignity. They need a roof over their head,” said Gottlieb. “Anything we can do is better than just waiting around.”\u003cbr>\nBay Curious looked into the economics of converting office space to housing in the city, and explored whether this is a good option for getting people off the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>How difficult is conversion?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Offices have been converted to housing before in San Francisco, but only a handful of times, according to the San Francisco Planning Commission. But as far as the agency knows, it hasn’t been done for people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A prime example of a market-rate conversion is 100 Van Ness, a 28-story, glass-covered tower just steps from Market Street and City Hall.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This tower first belonged to the California State Automobile Association and was built in the 1970s. Back then, it was a beige tower of concrete with small rectangular windows. Now its exterior is almost all glass.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955562\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-scaled.jpeg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11955562 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-scaled.jpeg\" alt=\"A white man wearing a suit smiles at the camera in the foreground. He's standing on the rooftop of a skyscraper. Behind him is a view of the San Francisco city skyline.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"1920\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-scaled.jpeg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-800x600.jpeg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-1020x765.jpeg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-160x120.jpeg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-1536x1152.jpeg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-2048x1536.jpeg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/IMG_6909-1920x1440.jpeg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Strachan Forgan stands on the rooftop of 100 Van Ness. \u003ccite>(Pauline Bartolone/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“We essentially took off the entire façade of the building and replaced it with this floor-to-ceiling glass,” said Strachan Forgan, a principal at SCB, the architectural firm that helped create the residential units in 2015.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During a recent tour of 100 Van Ness, Forgan explained the complete transformation of the interior of the building. The once sprawling open floors of office space have been carved up into hundreds of luxury apartments. Only four of the original eight elevators remain, because residential settings have less need for elevators, according to Forgan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The converted apartments — ranging from $3,159 for a tiny studio to more than $6,000 for a roomy two-bedroom — are not without design quirks. Some are attractive, others less so.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Things residents may enjoy are the elevated ceilings — slightly higher than in your standard apartment. Developers also removed the heating and cooling machinery, which is typically kept on office building roofs, to make open leisure space instead, complete with chairs and 360-degree views of the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has pretty spectacular views in every direction,” said Forgan, with a backdrop of the Marin Headlands, and the many hills of San Francisco, behind him.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the downside, some apartments at Van Ness have fewer surface area for windows, so bedrooms use “borrowed light” from living spaces. Because the apartments are carved out of a vast open office floor, many of the apartments are long and deep, stretching from the window to the center elevators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result, many apartments at 100 Van Ness have long, tunnel-like hallways with windows at the end. In one of the building’s one-bedroom units, a windowless bedroom in the middle of the layout has a semi-transparent wall to let in light from the living room.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954821\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11954821 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"A large empty room with a glass sliding door and glass panels in one wall.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-14-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A sliding door and light panels allow light through to an interior bedroom in a converted apartment at 100 Van Ness in San Francisco on June 30, 2023. Built in 1974, the building was converted from office space to residential apartment units in 2012. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>When 100 Van Ness first opened to residents, units with windowless bedrooms were initially offered with significant discounts, but developers soon found that wasn’t necessary.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Actually, the residents really like it because it’s very quiet,” said Forgan. “You’re away from the hustle and bustle. It can be a little darker, so if you’re sleeping there, it’s fine.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>It comes down to money\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Forgan’s firm wants to stay in this business of designing conversions of offices to housing. They see the value to downtown San Francisco, and the environment. Reusing an existing building has a smaller carbon footprint than knocking it down and starting from scratch.\u003cbr>\nSo why is this project one of only a handful of office-to-residential conversions in San Francisco?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Perhaps not surprisingly, it has largely to do with the high cost of housing development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On a very basic level, there’s the cost of new plumbing and electrical. You need pipes for new kitchens and bathrooms. Then, a lot of these buildings need a seismic upgrade. Forgan says the kind of housing that would recoup costs of a conversion would be at the higher end of the market.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’ve got to buy the building and do everything to convert it. And by the time you add up those costs, the only thing that pencils [out] is more of a luxury product, especially with a building like this that has great views and a good location,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954820\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2000px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-11954820 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"People pass a sign on a city sidewalk advertising luxury apartments.\" width=\"2000\" height=\"1333\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED.jpg 2000w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230630-100-VAN-NESS-MHN-10-KQED-1920x1280.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 2000px) 100vw, 2000px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">People pass by the entrance to the 100 Van Ness building in San Francisco on June 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Martin do Nascimento/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Housing developers like the Emerald Fund, which backed 100 Van Ness, say they’re interested in doing more office-to-housing conversions. The raw construction costs of converting offices could actually be done more cheaply than building a brand-new apartment tower, says Marc Babsin, president of the fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Babsin says they’ve looked at four office buildings to convert recently, but so far, no new project has made sense cost-wise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We continue to look. We think this is a great idea from a public policy perspective. We do need to save our downtowns and this is a great way to do that, to bring people onto the street,” said Babsin. “It’s a great way to produce housing that is currently not being produced.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Public policy experts at the San Francisco Bay Area Planning and Urban Research Association (SPUR) agree that the hefty costs of development can make such a project a nonstarter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sujata Srivastava, San Francisco director at SPUR, explained a few of the financial burdens that give housing developers pause:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>City fees that support public projects like child care programs and transportation, which can add up to millions of dollars.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Transfer and property taxes.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Reduced revenue potential, because San Francisco requires a certain number of units be affordable to lower-income tenants.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Construction costs, which are very expensive right now.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“It doesn’t really make any financial sense to do conversions under the current costs that we have in San Francisco,” said Srivastava, adding that housing development is even less likely because rents are also down since before the pandemic. “The math just doesn’t really work.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent SPUR report suggests city lawmakers need to make major changes if they want to jump-start these conversions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco politicians have already made some changes, and are working on more. The Mayor’s Office and supervisors have relaxed rules about open space, sunlight and apartment sizes for some conversions. Elected city officials have proposed reducing affordable housing requirements and impact fees on all new housing developments, but not as low as developers want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s all part of the city’s effort to jump-start more activity downtown and build more housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>A solution for homelessness?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Since the pandemic emptied out office space in the Financial District, downtown streets look vacant; pedestrians experience windy sidewalks, empty restaurants and sparse foot traffic. Graham Luth was sitting on the sidewalk on 2nd Street near Montgomery Street one recent Friday morning, trying to get money to go to Colorado.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I got evicted, sort of,” said Luth about being temporarily without a home. “I got a job offer but I’m short on bus money.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When asked about this idea of sheltering people in empty office space downtown, Luth looked up at the tall buildings around him, and said, if no one’s using them, why not?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s a fantastic idea because there is a lot of space that is just … sitting there,” said Luth. “So I guess just being able to figure out who owns the spaces and if … they’re not gaining or losing, that the space can be used for a matter that would help support the whole community.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>However, the city of San Francisco may have already found a different way to shelter people without housing: buying underused hotels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the things that happened during the pandemic that … really kind of changed the landscape around solving homelessness was this idea of using hotels,” said Jennifer Friedenbach, executive director of the Coalition on Homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During the pandemic, San Francisco and their partner organizations bought eight hotels and apartment buildings to provide permanent supportive housing to people who were formerly on the streets. It has created almost 1,000 new housing units for people without shelter. The city is in the process of acquiring two more buildings. \u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a result of San Francisco’s efforts, the unsheltered unhoused population has gone down 15% since 2020. That’s as homelessness in general has gone up around the state, according to the Public Policy Institute of California.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Folks are getting housed,” said Friedenbach. “That has been really incredible.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco used state COVID-19 money through Project Homekey and a local tax on large corporations, known to San Francisco voters as Proposition C, to purchase and operate the buildings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We had unprecedented success during COVID,” said Shireen McSpadden, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Homelessness and Supportive Housing, about their recent efforts to house unsheltered people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The success is due to the enormous resources that were made available to them through Project Homekey and local tax dollars, said McSpadden.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It really showed what can happen when you can marshal resources,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Friedenbach says making housing out of hotel rooms is easier and cheaper because it already has living space infrastructure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“A lot of the tourist hotels have larger rooms. You can turn them into studio apartments and have small kitchens,” Friedenbach said. “There’s all these design things you can do that are really cool and you’ve already got the pipes, the electricity, the water.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With nationally owned hotels like the Hilton and Parc 55 abandoning their Union Square buildings, and the city’s recent track record of housing people in hotels, repurposing these newly abandoned buildings doesn’t seem like a wild idea.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As for Judith Gottlieb’s question, it seems that vacant hotels may be a better option for housing unsheltered people. But those vacant offices in the city’s core could one day be high-end housing, especially if lawmakers take more steps to make conversions cheaper.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>California lawmakers have been busy over the last decade trying to make it easier to build homes across a housing-strapped state. But there’s an 840-mile-long exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an undulating band that generally runs 1,000 yards from the shoreline, the 12 members of the California Coastal Commission have the final say over what gets built, where and how.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voters empowered the commission to protect the state’s iconic beaches in 1972, responding to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green\">crisis of despoiled seas\u003c/a> and the prospect of the Miami-fication of the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But five decades later, the state faces a different crisis as millions of Californians struggle to find an affordable place to call home. Now, a growing number of legislators and housing advocates are trying to wrest away some of the commission’s power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legislation by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener would \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-housing-law-union-dispute-2/\">fast-track apartment development\u003c/a> in parts of the state that haven’t met their state-set housing goals, exempting them from lengthy public hearings and environmental legal challenges. The coast is no exception, effectively cutting the Coastal Commission out of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commission members, staff and environmental advocates say the bill may be the most direct assault yet at the agency’s voter-backed mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you start exempting classes of development from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.coastal.ca.gov/coastact.pdf\">Coastal Act (PDF)\u003c/a> there will be no shutting that barn door,” said Sarah Christie, a lobbyist for the commission. “You’re going to lose some of the best things about California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as rising seas threaten to bring down bluffs and flood beachfront neighborhoods, coastal advocates argue that carefully considered development is more important than ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener and his allies reject the argument that the commission is the only thing standing in the way of a development free-for-all, since current zoning rules and environmental protection laws would still apply. Ending what has become the regular practice of exempting the coast from California’s most aggressive pro-housing development laws is also fair, they argue. California’s beachfront happens to be home to some of the state’s richest residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The coastal zone is much whiter and wealthier than the rest of the state,” Wiener noted at a recent Assembly committee hearing. “The idea we would be applying state housing law inland … while we literally \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FromBenC/status/1674113439395090432\">exempt whiter, wealthier coastal communities is offensive to me\u003c/a>.”[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"State Sen. Scott Wiener (D-San Francisco)\"]‘The idea we would be applying state housing law inland … while we literally exempt whiter, wealthier coastal communities is offensive to me.’[/pullquote]Wiener said he plans to introduce tweaks to the bill before its next hearing on July 10 in an effort to “compromise” with the commission. But the two sides remain far apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tension between the state’s aggressive housing goals and its longstanding commitment to coastal preservation is particularly acute in Southern California, where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-07/housing-building-density-zoning-coastal-inland-empire-southern-california-scag\">latest round of state housing goals\u003c/a> shifted the bulk of the region’s planned growth from inland communities — the traditional, sprawling outlets for pent-up housing demand — to coastal ones. That includes cities like Santa Monica, Malibu, Los Angeles, Encinitas and San Diego, all of which fall at least in part, if not entirely, within the coastal zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you have the Coastal Commission, with their ‘less is more’ mindset saying, ‘no, you can’t build here’ … how are cities even supposed to attempt to achieve meeting that (housing) goal?” said Elizabeth Hansburg, executive director of People For Housing, a pro-housing advocacy group in Orange County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christopher Pederson, who served as chief counsel for the commission before retiring in 2018, said it’s possible for the state to build up the coast while maintaining “really strong protections” in undeveloped coastal land and for delicate ecosystems. In fact, he said, if the alternative to building in dense coastal cities is encouraging car-oriented sprawl in the exurbs, the two goals may necessarily go hand in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From an environmental perspective, from a climate policy perspective, from a housing perspective and from a transportation perspective, I think it makes a lot of sense to encourage more multifamily housing in the coastal zone,” said Pederson.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Will the Coastal Commission hold the line?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time the Legislature has taken a crack at the Coastal Commission’s authority. It’s not even the first time this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat, introduced a bill in February that would encourage developers to set aside units for lower income residents by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1287\">allowing them to build higher and denser projects\u003c/a>. The bill builds on past “density bonus” policies that have made their way through the Legislature. But unlike its predecessors — and unlike some of the most significant housing bills in recent years, including one that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2022/04/duplex-housing-resistance/\">allows the construction of duplexes in areas zoned for single-family homes\u003c/a> across the state — Alvarez’s bill explicitly went out of its way to include the coastal zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in April, the bill reached the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and a coastal exception was added back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chair Luz Rivas of Arleta, and other Democrats including Gail Pellerin of Santa Cruz and Dawn Addis of San Luis Obispo, made clear at the hearing that overriding the commission was a no-go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez accepted the change rather than see his bill die. But he was visibly frustrated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I heard a statement that coastal access is important and that people should have the opportunity to visit the coast,” he said, referring to one of the commission’s key mandates to keep California beaches open to the public. “People should also have the opportunity to live on the coast, not just visit the coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The ocean is coming’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>So far Wiener’s bill has not met the same fate, though it goes before the same committee later this month. His bill also, arguably, represents a bigger challenge to the commission’s authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://cahcd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=29fd695819064f38afee6c9880c30ae3\">most of the state’s cities and counties\u003c/a>, proposed multiplexes and apartment projects are allowed to skirt lengthy public approval processes. Instead they get automatic approval as long as they check the right boxes — among them, offering a certain share of units at below-market rents or prices and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-housing-development/\">abiding by stricter labor standards\u003c/a>.[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11952870,news_11943154,news_11929505\"]But the Coastal Commission doesn’t \u003cem>do\u003c/em> box checking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along much of the coast, the commission has to approve city growth and zoning plans. In neighborhoods especially close to the water, foes of proposed developments can appeal directly to the commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in cities that haven’t come up with their own coastal protection plans, which \u003ca href=\"https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/assets/rflg/LCPStatusSummaryChart_October%202020.pdf\">includes about a quarter of coastal cities (PDF)\u003c/a> including Los Angeles, the Coastal Commission enforces the law alone, armed only with the Coastal Act. And the act itself is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PRC&division=20.&title=&part=&chapter=3.&article=1.\">fairly light on specifics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s for good reason, said Christie, the commission lobbyist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ensuring that a proposed development is built “far enough away from an eroding bluff that it’s not going to fall into the ocean in 20 years, there is no objective standard that can speak to that complexity,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change and rising sea levels add yet another level of complexity and another reason not to rush development, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing that California should be doing is concentrating more new development in these hazardous flood-prone areas,” she said. “It’s going to be a managed retreat or an unmanaged retreat because the ocean is coming and nature bats last.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That view is shared by all 12 members of the commission, who are appointed by the governor or the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take a lot of time and effort in evaluating each and every project that comes before us,” said Commissioner Dayna Bochco during a June 7 hearing. “You can’t just make a mathematical formula as to what works in any given project on the coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2023/06/caste-discrimination-bill/#wm-story-2\">voted unanimously to oppose Wiener’s bill\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Must fit plans for California coast\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bill does include its own set of checks on which projects get the red-carpet treatment and which get closer review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to receive the fast-tracked approval process, the land in question already has to be zoned by local governments for housing. A proposed building has to have pre-existing “urban” development on at least three of its four sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to estimates put together by California YIMBY, a pro-housing development organization that supports the bill, of the nearly 1.5 million acres within the coastal zone, the bill would allow for streamlined development on just 277,160 acres. The vast majority of the land — wetlands, floodplains, beaches and river channels — either are explicitly exempted from the bill or aren’t zoned for housing by locals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955110\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11955110\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A white man in a suit and tie speaks into a handheld microphone in front of a building.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during a protest in front of San Francisco City Hall on Feb. 24, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Approximately 85% of the Coastal Zone is already excluded from the bill. The remaining 15% are existing urbanized, developed communities,” Wiener said in a written statement. He added that the state “can’t afford to continue excluding these areas if we are to meet our climate goals — the lack of housing in coastal zones these exclusions produce already means coastal workers have to drive 10% more on average than their inland counterparts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener and his allies also reject the idea that proper planning for rising oceans requires detailed, site-by-site analysis. The senator’s office pointed to voluntary planning guidelines produced by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayadapt.org/\">San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://oneshoreline.org/\">San Mateo County Flood Control District\u003c/a>. The San Mateo County planning document builds on \u003ca href=\"https://webapps.usgs.gov/infrm/estbfe/\">nationwide flood risk mapping\u003c/a> from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though his office has yet to provide details, Wiener said his proposed compromise language to the Coastal Commission includes preserving the current discretionary review process for the most at-risk slivers of the coast and adding specific “objective development standards” around rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that anyone can say with certainty how much shore the sea is likely to swallow across the entire coast in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody admits that it’s not a hard science, it’s probabilities,” said Joseph Smith, a land-use consultant for \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiacoastalworks.com/\">California Coastal Works\u003c/a> who advises developers and governments navigating the Coastal Act. “But if it is absolutely important to get housing into the coastal zone, then yes, you could pick a number.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building a California coast for all\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The commission and its defenders say pro-housing advocates and legislators are picking on the wrong enemy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first decade of its life, the Coastal Commission was empowered to make the construction of affordable housing a condition of its approval of residential projects. In 1981, the Legislature took that power away over the commission’s objections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Revoking that power will “make sure that the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GroteCoastalCommissionTestimony.pdf\">ability to live near the coast is reserved for the wealthy\u003c/a>,” then-Chairman Lenard Grote warned at a legislative hearing at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Susan Jordan, founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lopez-kitchen-20160809-snap-story.html\">nonprofit California Coastal Protection Network\u003c/a>, is a familiar face at the state’s public hearings, where she regularly challenges oceanside projects for violations of the Coastal Act. A recent win: the Poseidon Water \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/05/california-desalination-plant-coastal-commission/\">desalination project in Huntington Beach\u003c/a>, which the Coastal Commission rejected last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Legislature ‘broke’ it and now it needs to ‘fix’ it,” Jordan said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission’s supporters regularly stress that it has never rejected a proposed affordable housing project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for many developers — including those who build deed-restricted units for lower-income residents — the possibility of years of delay with no certain outcome has created a “chilling effect,” said Jeannette Temple, a San Diego land use consultant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re an affordable housing developer, you’re already operating on the margins, so most of the time my clients, and people my clients know, don’t even look in the coastal zone,” she said. “In my opinion it’s just another kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/19/498536077/interactive-redlining-map-zooms-in-on-americas-history-of-discrimination\">redlining\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"headline": "Why California's Affordable Housing Crisis Threatens Its Powerful Coastal Commission",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California lawmakers have been busy over the last decade trying to make it easier to build homes across a housing-strapped state. But there’s an 840-mile-long exception.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In an undulating band that generally runs 1,000 yards from the shoreline, the 12 members of the California Coastal Commission have the final say over what gets built, where and how.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Voters empowered the commission to protect the state’s iconic beaches in 1972, responding to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/01/28/688219307/how-californias-worst-oil-spill-turned-beaches-black-and-the-nation-green\">crisis of despoiled seas\u003c/a> and the prospect of the Miami-fication of the California coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But five decades later, the state faces a different crisis as millions of Californians struggle to find an affordable place to call home. Now, a growing number of legislators and housing advocates are trying to wrest away some of the commission’s power.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legislation by San Francisco Democratic Sen. Scott Wiener would \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-housing-law-union-dispute-2/\">fast-track apartment development\u003c/a> in parts of the state that haven’t met their state-set housing goals, exempting them from lengthy public hearings and environmental legal challenges. The coast is no exception, effectively cutting the Coastal Commission out of the process.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Commission members, staff and environmental advocates say the bill may be the most direct assault yet at the agency’s voter-backed mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Once you start exempting classes of development from the \u003ca href=\"https://www.coastal.ca.gov/coastact.pdf\">Coastal Act (PDF)\u003c/a> there will be no shutting that barn door,” said Sarah Christie, a lobbyist for the commission. “You’re going to lose some of the best things about California.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And as rising seas threaten to bring down bluffs and flood beachfront neighborhoods, coastal advocates argue that carefully considered development is more important than ever.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener and his allies reject the argument that the commission is the only thing standing in the way of a development free-for-all, since current zoning rules and environmental protection laws would still apply. Ending what has become the regular practice of exempting the coast from California’s most aggressive pro-housing development laws is also fair, they argue. California’s beachfront happens to be home to some of the state’s richest residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The coastal zone is much whiter and wealthier than the rest of the state,” Wiener noted at a recent Assembly committee hearing. “The idea we would be applying state housing law inland … while we literally \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/FromBenC/status/1674113439395090432\">exempt whiter, wealthier coastal communities is offensive to me\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The idea we would be applying state housing law inland … while we literally exempt whiter, wealthier coastal communities is offensive to me.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Wiener said he plans to introduce tweaks to the bill before its next hearing on July 10 in an effort to “compromise” with the commission. But the two sides remain far apart.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The tension between the state’s aggressive housing goals and its longstanding commitment to coastal preservation is particularly acute in Southern California, where the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-07/housing-building-density-zoning-coastal-inland-empire-southern-california-scag\">latest round of state housing goals\u003c/a> shifted the bulk of the region’s planned growth from inland communities — the traditional, sprawling outlets for pent-up housing demand — to coastal ones. That includes cities like Santa Monica, Malibu, Los Angeles, Encinitas and San Diego, all of which fall at least in part, if not entirely, within the coastal zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you have the Coastal Commission, with their ‘less is more’ mindset saying, ‘no, you can’t build here’ … how are cities even supposed to attempt to achieve meeting that (housing) goal?” said Elizabeth Hansburg, executive director of People For Housing, a pro-housing advocacy group in Orange County.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christopher Pederson, who served as chief counsel for the commission before retiring in 2018, said it’s possible for the state to build up the coast while maintaining “really strong protections” in undeveloped coastal land and for delicate ecosystems. In fact, he said, if the alternative to building in dense coastal cities is encouraging car-oriented sprawl in the exurbs, the two goals may necessarily go hand in hand.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“From an environmental perspective, from a climate policy perspective, from a housing perspective and from a transportation perspective, I think it makes a lot of sense to encourage more multifamily housing in the coastal zone,” said Pederson.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Will the Coastal Commission hold the line?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>This isn’t the first time the Legislature has taken a crack at the Coastal Commission’s authority. It’s not even the first time this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Diego Assemblymember David Alvarez, a Democrat, introduced a bill in February that would encourage developers to set aside units for lower income residents by \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240AB1287\">allowing them to build higher and denser projects\u003c/a>. The bill builds on past “density bonus” policies that have made their way through the Legislature. But unlike its predecessors — and unlike some of the most significant housing bills in recent years, including one that \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2022/04/duplex-housing-resistance/\">allows the construction of duplexes in areas zoned for single-family homes\u003c/a> across the state — Alvarez’s bill explicitly went out of its way to include the coastal zone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, in April, the bill reached the Assembly Natural Resources Committee and a coastal exception was added back in.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Chair Luz Rivas of Arleta, and other Democrats including Gail Pellerin of Santa Cruz and Dawn Addis of San Luis Obispo, made clear at the hearing that overriding the commission was a no-go.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alvarez accepted the change rather than see his bill die. But he was visibly frustrated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I heard a statement that coastal access is important and that people should have the opportunity to visit the coast,” he said, referring to one of the commission’s key mandates to keep California beaches open to the public. “People should also have the opportunity to live on the coast, not just visit the coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>‘The ocean is coming’\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>So far Wiener’s bill has not met the same fate, though it goes before the same committee later this month. His bill also, arguably, represents a bigger challenge to the commission’s authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In \u003ca href=\"https://cahcd.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=29fd695819064f38afee6c9880c30ae3\">most of the state’s cities and counties\u003c/a>, proposed multiplexes and apartment projects are allowed to skirt lengthy public approval processes. Instead they get automatic approval as long as they check the right boxes — among them, offering a certain share of units at below-market rents or prices and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-housing-development/\">abiding by stricter labor standards\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But the Coastal Commission doesn’t \u003cem>do\u003c/em> box checking.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Along much of the coast, the commission has to approve city growth and zoning plans. In neighborhoods especially close to the water, foes of proposed developments can appeal directly to the commission.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in cities that haven’t come up with their own coastal protection plans, which \u003ca href=\"https://documents.coastal.ca.gov/assets/rflg/LCPStatusSummaryChart_October%202020.pdf\">includes about a quarter of coastal cities (PDF)\u003c/a> including Los Angeles, the Coastal Commission enforces the law alone, armed only with the Coastal Act. And the act itself is \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displayText.xhtml?lawCode=PRC&division=20.&title=&part=&chapter=3.&article=1.\">fairly light on specifics\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s for good reason, said Christie, the commission lobbyist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ensuring that a proposed development is built “far enough away from an eroding bluff that it’s not going to fall into the ocean in 20 years, there is no objective standard that can speak to that complexity,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Climate change and rising sea levels add yet another level of complexity and another reason not to rush development, she added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The last thing that California should be doing is concentrating more new development in these hazardous flood-prone areas,” she said. “It’s going to be a managed retreat or an unmanaged retreat because the ocean is coming and nature bats last.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That view is shared by all 12 members of the commission, who are appointed by the governor or the Legislature.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We take a lot of time and effort in evaluating each and every project that comes before us,” said Commissioner Dayna Bochco during a June 7 hearing. “You can’t just make a mathematical formula as to what works in any given project on the coast.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/newsletters/whatmatters/2023/06/caste-discrimination-bill/#wm-story-2\">voted unanimously to oppose Wiener’s bill\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Must fit plans for California coast\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The bill does include its own set of checks on which projects get the red-carpet treatment and which get closer review.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In order to receive the fast-tracked approval process, the land in question already has to be zoned by local governments for housing. A proposed building has to have pre-existing “urban” development on at least three of its four sides.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>According to estimates put together by California YIMBY, a pro-housing development organization that supports the bill, of the nearly 1.5 million acres within the coastal zone, the bill would allow for streamlined development on just 277,160 acres. The vast majority of the land — wetlands, floodplains, beaches and river channels — either are explicitly exempted from the bill or aren’t zoned for housing by locals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11955110\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11955110\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A white man in a suit and tie speaks into a handheld microphone in front of a building.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/07/RS53926_032_KQED_UkraineRally_02242022-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">State Sen. Scott Wiener speaks during a protest in front of San Francisco City Hall on Feb. 24, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Approximately 85% of the Coastal Zone is already excluded from the bill. The remaining 15% are existing urbanized, developed communities,” Wiener said in a written statement. He added that the state “can’t afford to continue excluding these areas if we are to meet our climate goals — the lack of housing in coastal zones these exclusions produce already means coastal workers have to drive 10% more on average than their inland counterparts.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wiener and his allies also reject the idea that proper planning for rising oceans requires detailed, site-by-site analysis. The senator’s office pointed to voluntary planning guidelines produced by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.bayadapt.org/\">San Francisco Bay Conservation and Development Commission\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://oneshoreline.org/\">San Mateo County Flood Control District\u003c/a>. The San Mateo County planning document builds on \u003ca href=\"https://webapps.usgs.gov/infrm/estbfe/\">nationwide flood risk mapping\u003c/a> from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though his office has yet to provide details, Wiener said his proposed compromise language to the Coastal Commission includes preserving the current discretionary review process for the most at-risk slivers of the coast and adding specific “objective development standards” around rising sea levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not that anyone can say with certainty how much shore the sea is likely to swallow across the entire coast in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Everybody admits that it’s not a hard science, it’s probabilities,” said Joseph Smith, a land-use consultant for \u003ca href=\"https://www.californiacoastalworks.com/\">California Coastal Works\u003c/a> who advises developers and governments navigating the Coastal Act. “But if it is absolutely important to get housing into the coastal zone, then yes, you could pick a number.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Building a California coast for all\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The commission and its defenders say pro-housing advocates and legislators are picking on the wrong enemy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first decade of its life, the Coastal Commission was empowered to make the construction of affordable housing a condition of its approval of residential projects. In 1981, the Legislature took that power away over the commission’s objections.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Revoking that power will “make sure that the \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/GroteCoastalCommissionTestimony.pdf\">ability to live near the coast is reserved for the wealthy\u003c/a>,” then-Chairman Lenard Grote warned at a legislative hearing at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Susan Jordan, founder of the \u003ca href=\"https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-ln-lopez-kitchen-20160809-snap-story.html\">nonprofit California Coastal Protection Network\u003c/a>, is a familiar face at the state’s public hearings, where she regularly challenges oceanside projects for violations of the Coastal Act. A recent win: the Poseidon Water \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/05/california-desalination-plant-coastal-commission/\">desalination project in Huntington Beach\u003c/a>, which the Coastal Commission rejected last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Legislature ‘broke’ it and now it needs to ‘fix’ it,” Jordan said in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The commission’s supporters regularly stress that it has never rejected a proposed affordable housing project.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for many developers — including those who build deed-restricted units for lower-income residents — the possibility of years of delay with no certain outcome has created a “chilling effect,” said Jeannette Temple, a San Diego land use consultant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If you’re an affordable housing developer, you’re already operating on the margins, so most of the time my clients, and people my clients know, don’t even look in the coastal zone,” she said. “In my opinion it’s just another kind of \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/19/498536077/interactive-redlining-map-zooms-in-on-americas-history-of-discrimination\">redlining\u003c/a>.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Your Renters' Rights: What California Tenants Need to Know",
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"content": "\u003cp>Renters headed about \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/02/as-national-eviction-ban-expires-a-look-at-who-rents-and-who-owns-in-the-u-s/\">36% of the nation’s 122.8 million households in 2019\u003c/a>. If you’re one of them, whether you’re renting a single-family house in a small town or a studio apartment in an urban 300-unit high-rise, you might feel like you’re at a disadvantage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general in our country, we’re very oriented toward property ownership,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.pdx.edu/profile/lisa-bates\">Lisa Bates\u003c/a>, a professor at the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University in Oregon. “Renters face an uphill battle in policy and in law because they’re always considered subordinate in terms of their rights in the space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not owning your home shouldn’t mean you experience unstable living conditions, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No tenant is alone,” says Nina Rosenblatt, the know your rights training coordinator for the California-based tenants’ rights coalition, Tenants Together. “All tenants in all states have some extent of rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is true regardless of disability, family status, immigration status or age but regulations and resources vary depending on which state — \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/smallarea/index.html\">and even zip code\u003c/a> — you live in, so it’s important to understand your specific rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To start, here are some tips to help you become a more empowered renter regardless of where you live:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Learn to read your lease agreement\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There is \u003ca href=\"https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-rights-book/chapter2-4.html\">no standard rental agreement\u003c/a>. So it’s critical to look at the unique contours of your lease and note any additions or omissions that might affect your standard of living or that might be outside local laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look closely at any fees on top of monthly rent. If there’s a late rent fee, Rosenblatt says that number should be \u003ca href=\"https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-rights-book/chapter3-6.html\">no more than about 5% of your monthly rent\u003c/a>. And if a lease doesn’t specifically list a fee, know your landlord can’t tack on an arbitrary fee after the lease has been signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Rosenblatt says she’s also seen things like expensive application fees and move-in fees charged to new tenants for things like fresh paint, key fobs or the use of a freight elevator. So make sure any additional costs seem reasonable and affordable to you. If you feel something might be off, try and look at other local rental applications and lease agreements, or ask friends and family about their experiences renting in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, look out for vague timelines and overly broad language. “Most states have a law which specifies that the landlord is responsible for making any appropriate and necessary repairs,” says Rosenblatt. So watch out for phrases like “the tenant is responsible for all damages and repairs” or “this lease can be amended at any time during the year of tenancy.” Phrases like these could be a landlord’s attempt to transfer responsibility to a tenant unfairly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you realize after signing your lease that some language or a clause seems fishy, \u003ca href=\"https://law.shu.edu/faculty/full-time/paula-franzese.cfm\">Paula Franzese\u003c/a>, legal scholar and professor of property law at the Seton Hall University School of Law, says fear not. Any clause deemed “unconscionable” or “oppressive” would be unenforceable if you sought legal action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keep your receipts\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When it comes to a healthy relationship with your landlord, thorough documentation and ongoing communication are key — starting as soon as you move into a new place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosenblatt says, “Keep in mind the conditions of the unit and have documentation of what it looks like, especially in its initial condition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Off-kilter ceiling fan, missing blinds or stains on the carpet?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label='More Guides from KQED' tag='audience-news']Take a picture or video, says Rosenblatt. Don’t get your deposit dinged for issues that came before you. Make sure to send documentation to the landlord with a date and timestamp included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opt for email or text messages when contacting your landlord. “It is really important that all communication is written,” says Rosenblatt. If you talk over the phone, make sure there are “follow-up emails summarizing what was spoken about.” She says to include a timeline in the email of when a repair will be fixed by, for example, so there’s documentation of that agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you have a persistent problem and receive inconsistent communication from your landlord — document that, too. “It’s important to keep records of the number of phone calls made,” says Franzese.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Learn some powerful words to resolve conflicts with landlords\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oftentimes, says Lisa Bates, the key to quickly resolving a rental dispute requires knowing what she calls “magic words” — phrases, often legal, that signal to a landlord you’re aware of your rights and can exercise them if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example: if your landlord is unresponsive to a repair request for something like mold or pests, the magic words might be city inspection or code enforcement.[aside postID=\"news_11938251\" hero=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/01/RS62026_GettyImages-1455813510-qut-1536x1024.jpg\"]Rosenblatt says you could try saying something like: “I want to work collaboratively with you on finding a solution. But if not, I’d like to request a city inspection, or I plan on going to code enforcement and getting them to come in and check out these conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This sort of language will often encourage landlords to take action because going through a city or county can be more time intensive and costly than just addressing the issue themselves, says Rosenblatt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>If you have a problem, don’t go it alone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Get to know your neighbors. Our experts say seeking out community and working towards joint solutions is a critical tool for renters who want to make a difference in their housing situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially if you live in a building with a lot of other units — the problems you’re dealing with likely affect more than just you. “If you have roaches, somebody else has roaches,” says Bates.[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Nina Rosenblatt, Tenants Together\"]‘It’s really important to not make decisions based on fear or panic … instead, [make] decisions based on tenant’s rights knowledge.’[/pullquote]Connecting with fellow tenants can give you context for your issues, help you prepare if something like a rent increase is coming down the pipeline and give you strength in numbers when requesting action from a property owner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, if your building doesn’t already have one, \u003ca href=\"https://www.tenantstogether.org/resources/form-tenants-union\">find or form a local tenant union\u003c/a>. These organizations can provide writing templates, legal advice and other collective action options to help with difficult landlords.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what’s more, they can help you act from a place of empowerment instead of intimidation. “It’s really important to not make decisions based on fear or panic,” says Rosenblatt. “Instead, [make] decisions based on tenant’s rights knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[hearken id=\"10483\" src=\"https://modules.wearehearken.com/kqed/embed/10483.js\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "From understanding your lease agreement to resolving conflicts with your landlord, tenants always have rights. Learn what yours are.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Renters headed about \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2021/08/02/as-national-eviction-ban-expires-a-look-at-who-rents-and-who-owns-in-the-u-s/\">36% of the nation’s 122.8 million households in 2019\u003c/a>. If you’re one of them, whether you’re renting a single-family house in a small town or a studio apartment in an urban 300-unit high-rise, you might feel like you’re at a disadvantage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In general in our country, we’re very oriented toward property ownership,” says \u003ca href=\"https://www.pdx.edu/profile/lisa-bates\">Lisa Bates\u003c/a>, a professor at the Toulan School of Urban Studies and Planning at Portland State University in Oregon. “Renters face an uphill battle in policy and in law because they’re always considered subordinate in terms of their rights in the space.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But not owning your home shouldn’t mean you experience unstable living conditions, she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No tenant is alone,” says Nina Rosenblatt, the know your rights training coordinator for the California-based tenants’ rights coalition, Tenants Together. “All tenants in all states have some extent of rights.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This is true regardless of disability, family status, immigration status or age but regulations and resources vary depending on which state — \u003ca href=\"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr/smallarea/index.html\">and even zip code\u003c/a> — you live in, so it’s important to understand your specific rights.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To start, here are some tips to help you become a more empowered renter regardless of where you live:\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Learn to read your lease agreement\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>There is \u003ca href=\"https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-rights-book/chapter2-4.html\">no standard rental agreement\u003c/a>. So it’s critical to look at the unique contours of your lease and note any additions or omissions that might affect your standard of living or that might be outside local laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Look closely at any fees on top of monthly rent. If there’s a late rent fee, Rosenblatt says that number should be \u003ca href=\"https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/free-books/renters-rights-book/chapter3-6.html\">no more than about 5% of your monthly rent\u003c/a>. And if a lease doesn’t specifically list a fee, know your landlord can’t tack on an arbitrary fee after the lease has been signed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"#tellus\">Tell us: What else do you need information about right now?\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>Rosenblatt says she’s also seen things like expensive application fees and move-in fees charged to new tenants for things like fresh paint, key fobs or the use of a freight elevator. So make sure any additional costs seem reasonable and affordable to you. If you feel something might be off, try and look at other local rental applications and lease agreements, or ask friends and family about their experiences renting in the area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also, look out for vague timelines and overly broad language. “Most states have a law which specifies that the landlord is responsible for making any appropriate and necessary repairs,” says Rosenblatt. So watch out for phrases like “the tenant is responsible for all damages and repairs” or “this lease can be amended at any time during the year of tenancy.” Phrases like these could be a landlord’s attempt to transfer responsibility to a tenant unfairly.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you realize after signing your lease that some language or a clause seems fishy, \u003ca href=\"https://law.shu.edu/faculty/full-time/paula-franzese.cfm\">Paula Franzese\u003c/a>, legal scholar and professor of property law at the Seton Hall University School of Law, says fear not. Any clause deemed “unconscionable” or “oppressive” would be unenforceable if you sought legal action.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Keep your receipts\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When it comes to a healthy relationship with your landlord, thorough documentation and ongoing communication are key — starting as soon as you move into a new place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rosenblatt says, “Keep in mind the conditions of the unit and have documentation of what it looks like, especially in its initial condition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Off-kilter ceiling fan, missing blinds or stains on the carpet?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Take a picture or video, says Rosenblatt. Don’t get your deposit dinged for issues that came before you. Make sure to send documentation to the landlord with a date and timestamp included.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opt for email or text messages when contacting your landlord. “It is really important that all communication is written,” says Rosenblatt. If you talk over the phone, make sure there are “follow-up emails summarizing what was spoken about.” She says to include a timeline in the email of when a repair will be fixed by, for example, so there’s documentation of that agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And if you have a persistent problem and receive inconsistent communication from your landlord — document that, too. “It’s important to keep records of the number of phone calls made,” says Franzese.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Learn some powerful words to resolve conflicts with landlords\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Oftentimes, says Lisa Bates, the key to quickly resolving a rental dispute requires knowing what she calls “magic words” — phrases, often legal, that signal to a landlord you’re aware of your rights and can exercise them if needed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example: if your landlord is unresponsive to a repair request for something like mold or pests, the magic words might be city inspection or code enforcement.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Rosenblatt says you could try saying something like: “I want to work collaboratively with you on finding a solution. But if not, I’d like to request a city inspection, or I plan on going to code enforcement and getting them to come in and check out these conditions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This sort of language will often encourage landlords to take action because going through a city or county can be more time intensive and costly than just addressing the issue themselves, says Rosenblatt.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>If you have a problem, don’t go it alone\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Get to know your neighbors. Our experts say seeking out community and working towards joint solutions is a critical tool for renters who want to make a difference in their housing situation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Especially if you live in a building with a lot of other units — the problems you’re dealing with likely affect more than just you. “If you have roaches, somebody else has roaches,” says Bates.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Connecting with fellow tenants can give you context for your issues, help you prepare if something like a rent increase is coming down the pipeline and give you strength in numbers when requesting action from a property owner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Then, if your building doesn’t already have one, \u003ca href=\"https://www.tenantstogether.org/resources/form-tenants-union\">find or form a local tenant union\u003c/a>. These organizations can provide writing templates, legal advice and other collective action options to help with difficult landlords.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And what’s more, they can help you act from a place of empowerment instead of intimidation. “It’s really important to not make decisions based on fear or panic,” says Rosenblatt. “Instead, [make] decisions based on tenant’s rights knowledge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003ca id=\"tellus\">\u003c/a>Tell us: What else do you need information about?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>At KQED News, we know that it can sometimes be hard to track down the answers to navigate life in the Bay Area in 2023. We’ve published \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/tag/coronavirus-resources-and-explainers\">clear, practical explainers and guides about COVID\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11936674/how-to-prepare-for-this-weeks-atmospheric-river-storm-sandbags-emergency-kits-and-more\">how to cope with intense winter weather\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11821950/how-to-safely-attend-a-protest-in-the-bay-area\">how to exercise your right to protest safely\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So tell us: What do you need to know more about? Tell us, and you could see your question answered online or on social media. What you submit will make our reporting stronger, and help us decide what to cover here on our site, and on KQED Public Radio, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>LaVoy Darden is looking for someone. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Making the rounds through Houston’s homeless encampments as an outreach specialist for a local nonprofit group, he offers snacks, builds trust, and puts people on a waitlist for affordable housing. On good days he gets to tell them they’re moving into a home. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>But first, he has to find them. Today it’s a scorching 93 degrees, and there aren’t as many people out and about as usual. He spends hours combing the streets of Houston in his van — stopping along the way to update other clients on their housing searches — before he spots her.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>He leans out the driver’s-side window and yells. “Hey! You move in Monday!” \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sending someone from the street into permanent housing is the ultimate goal for Darden and legions of other outreach workers like him all over America. But it seems to happen more often in Houston, where the unhoused population shrank by more than half over the past decade. Compare that to California’s major cities, where the population surged by double-digits, and in some cases triple-digits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just Houston. Texas as a whole last year recorded a 28% drop in homelessness since 2012, while California’s unhoused population grew by 43% over the same period. In Texas, 81 people are unhoused for every 100,000 residents. In California, the rate is more than five times worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954467\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01.jpg\" alt=\"A man with long dreadlocks and a tan hat sits inside his vehicle as he writes on a piece of paper that's attached to a clipboard. A parking lot of cars is seen in the background, along with trees. The key is in the vehicle's ignition.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaVoy Darden with Search Homeless Services drives through his service area looking for clients in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And that’s despite the fact that Texas spends far fewer state dollars on homelessness. Last year, not counting federal money, Texas put $19.7 million into its three main homelessness programs — equal to about $806 per unhoused person. California, on the other hand, poured $1.85 billion into its three main programs — or $10,786 for every unhoused person.[aside postID=news_11949978 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/001_KQED_WoodStreet_JessicaFountaine_01052023-1020x680.jpg']How do residents view homelessness in each state? The difference is stark: Homelessness is \u003ca href=\"https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3868\">the No. 1 issue on California voters’ minds\u003c/a>, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. In a 2020 poll of Texas residents, \u003ca href=\"https://www.texaslyceum.org/assets/docs/Poll/2020/2020%20Lyceum%20Day%201%20Executive_Summary.pdf\">it didn’t even crack the top 10 (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/california-homeless-texas-comparison/\">Texas doing so much better\u003c/a> on homelessness? Right-leaning observers are quick to blame the discrepancy on California’s too-progressive policies. Liberals may distrust the statistics coming out of Texas. But the reality is more nuanced — as California leaders are realizing, while their cities and nonprofits send delegation after delegation to Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With homelessness causing major tension in many California cities, and local and state efforts to get people off the streets continuing to fall short, Golden State leaders are desperate for new solutions. So desperate, that they’re going to a state whose deep-red policies California Democrats are better known for scorning than emulating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bRrVN/1/\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José’s homelessness response team visited Houston earlier this year. City and county representatives from the Los Angeles area went last fall. They came away jealous of some of the advantages Houston has over California cities — such as the lower housing costs that make it easier for the Texas metropolis to find or build homes for people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Californians also were impressed by the way the city coordinates with the county and other local organizations, prioritizes funding for permanent housing instead of temporary shelters and finds places for people before clearing encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What those folks are doing — really focusing on housing folks — is working,” said Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow for the National Alliance to End Homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, two city council members from the East Bay city of Richmond headed to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/austin-tiny-homes-california/\">Austin to tour a 51-acre tiny home community\u003c/a> that provides permanent housing for 350-and-counting unhoused residents. Elected officials from Sacramento trekked to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/texas-homeless-shelter/\">San Antonio to see a 1,600-person shelter\u003c/a> that offers everything from dental care to counseling — serving nearly the city’s entire unhoused population in one place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954518\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Tiny homes used as residences at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023. Right: An employee plants sunflowers at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-2048x678.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Tiny homes used as residences at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023. Right: An employee plants sunflowers at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many experts agree California can learn something from these homeless solutions. But unless the Golden State fixes its housing affordability crisis decades in the making, copying the Lone Star State will get us only so far, said Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Elected officials in California are desperate for quick-fix solutions,” he said. “They want a silver bullet to be able to solve homelessness for them. And so when they see results like what’s happening in Houston … they say, ‘that’s great, we want that.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California Democrats often at odds with Texas GOP\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Texas may seem like an unlikely place for California to find inspiration on anything — especially social services. After all, the Republican-led state is completely out of sync with California’s liberal majorities on everything from guns to abortion to LGBTQ rights — feeding an ongoing public feud between Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Texas counterpart, Gov. Greg Abbott.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the animosity, the California Legislature and some Golden State cities don’t even allow publicly funded travel to Texas. Some Californians who have made the trip have had to seek exemptions by arguing the travel is in their jurisdiction’s best interest.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"California Gov. Gavin Newsom\"]‘I don’t want to see any more people die in the streets and call that compassion.’[/pullquote]“When best practices are happening somewhere, don’t worry about what state they’re in,” said state \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/dave-cortese-1956/\">Sen. Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a Silicon Valley Democrat. “I have no problem looking them right in the eye and saying, ‘I don’t like where you’re going in terms of reproductive rights. I don’t like where you’re going in terms of your stubbornness on mass shootings and gun safety. But I do like what you’re doing on the housing front and I’d like to replicate some of that.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attitudes toward homelessness also differ widely between the two states. Earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-their-government-february-2023/\">70% of Californians said homelessness is a “big problem”\u003c/a> in their part of the state, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californians-see-a-rise-in-homelessness-in-their-communities/\">up from 63% in 2019\u003c/a>. By contrast, just \u003ca href=\"https://www.texaslyceum.org/assets/docs/Poll/2020/2020%20Lyceum%20Day%201%20Executive_Summary.pdf\">3% of Texans polled in 2020 said homelessness was the most important issue facing their state (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to the nonprofit Texas Lyceum.[aside postID=news_11926519 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2022/09/RS57341_027_KQED_WoodStreetEncampment_07192022-qut-1-1020x680.jpg']The three Texas cities getting the most attention from California — Houston, Austin and San Antonio — are blue islands in a red state. Houston, a bustling metropolis of 2.3 million people, is Texas’ largest city. Austin, the state’s capital and a mecca for artists, students and foodies, is famously quirky — and urges everyone to “keep Austin weird.” San Antonio lures tourists with the historic Alamo mission and picturesque, restaurant-lined river walk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cortese, who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/\">recently called for an audit of California’s homelessness spending\u003c/a>, tried to bring a version of the Austin tiny home village to Santa Clara County while serving as a county supervisor several years ago, but the idea never got off the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and others in California argue what the Golden State is doing so far isn’t working, even though Newsom poured nearly $21 billion into housing and homelessness since he took office and vowed the issue is a top priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to see any more people die in the streets and call that compassion,” \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2022/01/california-homelessness-camps-newsom/\">Newsom said last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954471\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05.jpg\" alt=\"A man is seen outside of his makeshift tent, with a shopping cart full of his belongings, warming his hands by a small fire. It's nighttime. A "No Parking Anytime" sign in the background.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muhammad, who declined to provide his last name, warms his hand at a fire near his tent in Sacramento. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His administration is well aware of the buzz around the Texas programs. Hafsa Kaka, the governor’s new senior adviser on homelessness, said Newsom’s policies compare well against the Texas sites.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Hafsa Kaka, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s senior adviser on homelessness\"]‘California continues to make unprecedented investments into housing and homelessness which includes shelter and wrap-around supportive services, cleaning up encampments, and creating more housing.’[/pullquote]Houston, Austin and San Antonio employ the same “housing first” approach that California has used for years, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While Austin built 350 small homes, we are putting 1,200 across the state, including 500 in Los Angeles,” she said in an emailed statement sent on behalf of Newsom’s office. “California continues to make unprecedented investments into housing and homelessness which includes shelter and wrap-around supportive services, cleaning up encampments, and creating more housing. The state has invested more to increase housing supply than ever before in our history while holding local governments accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the difference in outcomes in Texas versus California is unmistakable. The Houston area’s unhoused population dropped 57% between 2012 and last year, dipping to 3,124, according to the federally mandated point-in-time count. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html\">A New York Times article\u003c/a> published last year highlighted the “remarkable progress,” catapulting the city that was already known in wonky homeless policy circles into the national limelight — and catching California’s attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles County’s unhoused population increased 106% over the same period. Sacramento County’s jumped a whopping 230%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2vIpF/10/\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts agree the point-in-time counts supplying those numbers — which generally rely on volunteers and outreach workers tallying every unhoused person they see over one night — miss portions of the unhoused community. But the counts can be a useful tool to measure the change in a city’s unhoused population.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cheaper rent, more housing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One reason more people find housing in Texas: costs. The median rent for a one-bedroom home in the state was $1,233 in early June, according to Zillow. In California, it was $2,200 — making it harder for people to get and stay housed here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land and construction costs are cheaper in Texas, too, and the Lone Star State has fewer regulations that restrict construction. The city of Houston, for example, has no zoning — coupled with a strong mayor who can push projects through — making it easier to build and harder to block housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11954580\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-800x622.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"622\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-800x622.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-1020x793.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-160x124.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-1536x1194.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM.png 1610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://socds.huduser.gov/permits/output_annual.odb\">Texas permitted more than twice as many\u003c/a> new homes \u003ca href=\"https://socds.huduser.gov/permits/output_annual.odb\">as California\u003c/a>, even though California has about 9 million more residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means even when a California city is doing everything right, it’s still not going to be as successful as its Texas counterpart in reducing homelessness, said Jennifer Loving, CEO of nonprofit Destination: Home in Santa Clara County, who visited Houston in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do all the same stuff,” she said. “And the major difference is how much housing they have, how quickly it’s getting built.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://e.infogram.com/4cd4fb85-56dc-4fd9-bc53-a1a394daf2c8?parent_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fhousing%2F2023%2F06%2Fcalifornia-houston-homeless-solutions%2F&src=embed#async_embed\" width=\"800\" height=\"700\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite its lower housing costs and dramatic drop in homelessness, Houston hasn’t managed to get everyone off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>As Darden, the outreach worker, continues his rounds, he ends up under the Highway Spur 527 overpass, where seven tents are arranged on a dirt lot amid a few dining room chairs and other scattered furniture. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Several of the people Darden speaks to at the camp already are housed or in the process of getting housing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954519\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954519\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Allison Hillman, left, and LaVoy Darden, right, with Search Homeless Services speak with a client about potential future housing in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. Right: A homeless encampment under Interstate Highway 69 in downtown Houston on May 5, 2023.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-2048x678.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Allison Hillman, left, and LaVoy Darden, right, with Search Homeless Services speak with a client about potential future housing in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. Right: A homeless encampment under Interstate Highway 69 in downtown Houston on May 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>One of them is 71-year-old Albert Mack, who has been homeless in Houston off-and-on for 15 years, alternating time on the street with housing placements that didn’t pan out. He left his last apartment because the neighborhood was too dangerous, he said. Now, he’s once again on his way to living indoors — he’s just waiting for a copy of his birth certificate from his home state of Alabama. He’s excited. This time, Mack said, he’s going to stay housed.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“I can take me a shower every day,” he said. “I can be inside. I don’t have to worry about nobody bothering me.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More permanent housing, and collaboration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When people like Mack get housed, it’s not only because rent is cheaper. Texas cities are doing other things differently than California, and Houston is a good example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas’ largest city pours its homeless funding — including COVID emergency dollars — into long-term housing instead of shelters that offer a temporary fix. Most of that housing is in privately-owned apartments, where vouchers help formerly homeless people pay the rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, on the other hand, divides its resources between temporary and permanent homeless solutions. The state funneled COVID funds into short-term hotels that as of last year had given 50,000 people — almost 30% of the state’s unhoused population — brief respites from the street. Newsom’s administration later used COVID and general funds to turn nearly 13,000 hotel rooms, apartments and other units into longer-term homeless housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://e.infogram.com/d528338b-0ce5-422e-b71e-2db4f5079124?parent_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fhousing%2F2023%2F06%2Fcalifornia-houston-homeless-solutions%2F&src=embed#async_embed\" width=\"800\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in Texas’ largest city, government agencies have a reputation for working together. Houston collaborates with Harris County and local nonprofits on a shared plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles County, by contrast, four different local government groups apply separately for limited homelessness funding from the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that what we haven’t done is come together with a single plan,” said Cheri Todoroff, executive director of Los Angeles County’s Homeless Initiative, who went to Houston in September. “And that’s really what we were looking to learn from Houston.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LA County is working on creating a collaborative leadership commission, mirroring Houston’s, that would include elected officials, businesses, nonprofits and other leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Strict homeless enforcement in Texas\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Other parts of Texas’ approach to homelessness are more punitive than practices favored by California cities and state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The red state passed a law \u003ca href=\"https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/20/texas-homeless-camps-ban-legislature/\">banning encampments throughout Texas\u003c/a> in 2021, obligating cities to clear camps and empowering law enforcement to cite and fine campers. California Republicans \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-homeless-city-laws/\">proposed two similar bills this year\u003c/a>, but got no traction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Individual cities in Texas also have their own local camping bans. In Austin, for example, police sometimes force unhoused residents to move out of encampments, even if they have nowhere else to go, and cite them if they don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954474\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08.jpg\" alt=\"City workers in yellow and orange reflective vests work out in the hot Houston heat cleaning up an encampment. A man is pictured using a push-broom in the background.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Temporary Workers, contracted by the Texas Department of Transportation, remove trash and personal belongings from a homeless encampment under US Route 290 at Westgate Boulevard in Austin, Texas on Nov. 4, 2019. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Texas Gov. Abbott cultivates a hard-line stance against homelessness — leading a charge to clear encampments on state property, publicly attacking Austin’s Democratic leaders for being too soft on homelessness and pushing for the state’s camping ban. “No one has a right to urinate & defecate wherever they want,” he tweeted before the camping ban passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeming to take a page out of Texas’ book, California cities also are growing increasingly punitive. For instance, San Diego recently \u003ca href=\"https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/06/14/san-diego-city-council-approves-crack-down-on-homeless-camps/\">approved a controversial encampment ban\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-homeless-city-laws/\">other cities have taken similar steps\u003c/a>. But a major difference: Due to the \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/15-35845/15-35845-2018-09-04.html\">2018 federal court ruling Martin v. Boise\u003c/a>, California cities cannot clear camps or unilaterally ban encampments unless they have shelter beds to offer. Texas, in a different federal district, is not subject to that ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other aspects of Houston’s approach also might not translate well in California. Because Houston prioritizes long-term housing — the city and its county partners have moved more than 28,000 people into permanent housing since 2012 — it neglects the type of short-term shelters that quickly get someone off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five days a week, 60-year-old Rachel Gonzales goes to The Beacon day center to eat breakfast and lunch, shower and do her laundry. At night, when the center is closed, she heads across the street to sleep on the sidewalk — without even a tent to protect her from the elements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beacon staff are trained to connect clients to permanent housing, and last year, about two-thirds of those who signed up gained a place to live. But the process can take months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales has been waiting since November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s gonna be anytime soon,” she said. “You gotta think day by day. You can’t think about tomorrow, because if you think about tomorrow, think about a week from now, you’ll actually go crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Encampments still visible in Houston\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Houston’s lack of shelter beds and long wait times for housing allowed homeless encampments to proliferate, frustrating local residents — as they have in California. In 2018, the city began a push to “decommission” homeless camps. Now, former homeless camps dot the landscape — grassy strips by the side of the road or patches of dirt under overpasses that used to hold dozens of tents, but now are empty and circled by chain-link fences.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Terry Hardison, Houston navigation center resident\"]‘They make you realize you somebody again.’[/pullquote]How homeless camps are removed is one of the most contentious issues of the homelessness debate in California. Though the Boise ruling prevents cities in the Golden State from clearing camps without offering the occupants shelter, activists say many people aren’t given options that work for them. Some people may not be willing to give up a beloved pet in exchange for a bed in an animal-free shelter, for example, while others may have mental health conditions that make it hard to sleep in a crowded room. As a result, they instead scatter throughout the streets, losing contact with their caseworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Houston, when it’s time to clear a camp, outreach workers spend a month or more getting to know the occupants and figuring out what they need. Anyone they can’t immediately house generally is offered a spot in the city’s 100-bed navigation center, which opened in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The navigation center is a big step up from traditional shelters where dozens of people sleep together, occupants have to leave early each morning, and residents often see no discernible path to long-term housing. At the navigation center, people sleep four to a room, can bring pets, and during the day can relax in a comfy living room with TVs, a pool table and snacks. Entire encampments move into the center at once, allowing people to maintain close friendships forged on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They make you realize you somebody again,” said 51-year-old Terry Hardison, who has been unhoused off and on since 1999. He was living under a bridge before coming to the navigation center. On a recent Saturday afternoon, he sat on the couch in the center’s common room, watching “G.I. Joe” on the TV with friends.[aside label='More on California’s Unhoused Community' tag='wood-street']But with only 100 beds, the navigation center can’t come close to accommodating everyone. People Darden meets on the street constantly ask how they can get in. He has to tell them the hard truth: Most often, they can’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those lucky enough to get a spot, there’s one big way the navigation center differs from a regular shelter: It gets people into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the 57 occupants who moved through the navigation center since it opened, as of early May, 91% went into permanent housing — and it generally takes just 30 days. Navigation center clients are bumped up to the top of Houston’s housing waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California also has navigation centers, but they haven’t been nearly as successful because there’s often no direct path from there into long-term housing. San Francisco’s largest center, for example, reported just 8% of the people who left its program ended up in permanent housing last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954475\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09.jpg\" alt='A man with calm expression and a friendly smile poses for a portrait. He has a T-shirt on that reads, \"Search.\"' width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaVoy Darden with Search Homeless Services in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For other people, housing success stories play out outside the walls of the navigation center. Back in Darden’s outreach van, he’s making someone’s day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The woman on the side of the road hears Darden yell, telling her she’s moving into her new apartment Monday. She’d been referred for a placement before and never followed through. But this time, after one of her friends recently died on the street, Darden believes she’s ready to end her homelessness.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The woman stops what she’s doing and breaks into a happy dance. The dream of a permanent place to call home — something that seems so impossible for so many people living in tents and cars from Texas to California — is finally hers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Darden grins. “Whew, I feel a lot better now,” he says, steering the outreach van back toward his office.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“It feels great. Just to see the look on their face.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"title": "What California Can Learn From Texas' Shrinking Unhoused Population | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>LaVoy Darden is looking for someone. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Making the rounds through Houston’s homeless encampments as an outreach specialist for a local nonprofit group, he offers snacks, builds trust, and puts people on a waitlist for affordable housing. On good days he gets to tell them they’re moving into a home. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>But first, he has to find them. Today it’s a scorching 93 degrees, and there aren’t as many people out and about as usual. He spends hours combing the streets of Houston in his van — stopping along the way to update other clients on their housing searches — before he spots her.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>He leans out the driver’s-side window and yells. “Hey! You move in Monday!” \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sending someone from the street into permanent housing is the ultimate goal for Darden and legions of other outreach workers like him all over America. But it seems to happen more often in Houston, where the unhoused population shrank by more than half over the past decade. Compare that to California’s major cities, where the population surged by double-digits, and in some cases triple-digits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not just Houston. Texas as a whole last year recorded a 28% drop in homelessness since 2012, while California’s unhoused population grew by 43% over the same period. In Texas, 81 people are unhoused for every 100,000 residents. In California, the rate is more than five times worse.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954467\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954467\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01.jpg\" alt=\"A man with long dreadlocks and a tan hat sits inside his vehicle as he writes on a piece of paper that's attached to a clipboard. A parking lot of cars is seen in the background, along with trees. The key is in the vehicle's ignition.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas01-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaVoy Darden with Search Homeless Services drives through his service area looking for clients in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>And that’s despite the fact that Texas spends far fewer state dollars on homelessness. Last year, not counting federal money, Texas put $19.7 million into its three main homelessness programs — equal to about $806 per unhoused person. California, on the other hand, poured $1.85 billion into its three main programs — or $10,786 for every unhoused person.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>How do residents view homelessness in each state? The difference is stark: Homelessness is \u003ca href=\"https://poll.qu.edu/poll-release?releaseid=3868\">the No. 1 issue on California voters’ minds\u003c/a>, according to a recent Quinnipiac University poll. In a 2020 poll of Texas residents, \u003ca href=\"https://www.texaslyceum.org/assets/docs/Poll/2020/2020%20Lyceum%20Day%201%20Executive_Summary.pdf\">it didn’t even crack the top 10 (PDF)\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why is \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/california-homeless-texas-comparison/\">Texas doing so much better\u003c/a> on homelessness? Right-leaning observers are quick to blame the discrepancy on California’s too-progressive policies. Liberals may distrust the statistics coming out of Texas. But the reality is more nuanced — as California leaders are realizing, while their cities and nonprofits send delegation after delegation to Texas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With homelessness causing major tension in many California cities, and local and state efforts to get people off the streets continuing to fall short, Golden State leaders are desperate for new solutions. So desperate, that they’re going to a state whose deep-red policies California Democrats are better known for scorning than emulating.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/bRrVN/1/\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José’s homelessness response team visited Houston earlier this year. City and county representatives from the Los Angeles area went last fall. They came away jealous of some of the advantages Houston has over California cities — such as the lower housing costs that make it easier for the Texas metropolis to find or build homes for people.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the Californians also were impressed by the way the city coordinates with the county and other local organizations, prioritizes funding for permanent housing instead of temporary shelters and finds places for people before clearing encampments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What those folks are doing — really focusing on housing folks — is working,” said Alex Visotzky, senior California policy fellow for the National Alliance to End Homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In April, two city council members from the East Bay city of Richmond headed to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/austin-tiny-homes-california/\">Austin to tour a 51-acre tiny home community\u003c/a> that provides permanent housing for 350-and-counting unhoused residents. Elected officials from Sacramento trekked to \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/06/texas-homeless-shelter/\">San Antonio to see a 1,600-person shelter\u003c/a> that offers everything from dental care to counseling — serving nearly the city’s entire unhoused population in one place.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954518\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954518\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Tiny homes used as residences at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023. Right: An employee plants sunflowers at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-2048x678.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-1-JV-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Tiny homes used as residences at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023. Right: An employee plants sunflowers at Community First! Village in Austin, Texas on May 12, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Many experts agree California can learn something from these homeless solutions. But unless the Golden State fixes its housing affordability crisis decades in the making, copying the Lone Star State will get us only so far, said Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Elected officials in California are desperate for quick-fix solutions,” he said. “They want a silver bullet to be able to solve homelessness for them. And so when they see results like what’s happening in Houston … they say, ‘that’s great, we want that.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California Democrats often at odds with Texas GOP\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Texas may seem like an unlikely place for California to find inspiration on anything — especially social services. After all, the Republican-led state is completely out of sync with California’s liberal majorities on everything from guns to abortion to LGBTQ rights — feeding an ongoing public feud between Gov. Gavin Newsom and his Texas counterpart, Gov. Greg Abbott.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Adding to the animosity, the California Legislature and some Golden State cities don’t even allow publicly funded travel to Texas. Some Californians who have made the trip have had to seek exemptions by arguing the travel is in their jurisdiction’s best interest.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘I don’t want to see any more people die in the streets and call that compassion.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“When best practices are happening somewhere, don’t worry about what state they’re in,” said state \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/dave-cortese-1956/\">Sen. Dave Cortese\u003c/a>, a Silicon Valley Democrat. “I have no problem looking them right in the eye and saying, ‘I don’t like where you’re going in terms of reproductive rights. I don’t like where you’re going in terms of your stubbornness on mass shootings and gun safety. But I do like what you’re doing on the housing front and I’d like to replicate some of that.’”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Attitudes toward homelessness also differ widely between the two states. Earlier this year, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/ppic-statewide-survey-californians-and-their-government-february-2023/\">70% of Californians said homelessness is a “big problem”\u003c/a> in their part of the state, according to a Public Policy Institute of California poll. That’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/californians-see-a-rise-in-homelessness-in-their-communities/\">up from 63% in 2019\u003c/a>. By contrast, just \u003ca href=\"https://www.texaslyceum.org/assets/docs/Poll/2020/2020%20Lyceum%20Day%201%20Executive_Summary.pdf\">3% of Texans polled in 2020 said homelessness was the most important issue facing their state (PDF)\u003c/a>, according to the nonprofit Texas Lyceum.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>The three Texas cities getting the most attention from California — Houston, Austin and San Antonio — are blue islands in a red state. Houston, a bustling metropolis of 2.3 million people, is Texas’ largest city. Austin, the state’s capital and a mecca for artists, students and foodies, is famously quirky — and urges everyone to “keep Austin weird.” San Antonio lures tourists with the historic Alamo mission and picturesque, restaurant-lined river walk.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cortese, who \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/homelessness/2023/04/california-homeless-spending-audit/\">recently called for an audit of California’s homelessness spending\u003c/a>, tried to bring a version of the Austin tiny home village to Santa Clara County while serving as a county supervisor several years ago, but the idea never got off the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He and others in California argue what the Golden State is doing so far isn’t working, even though Newsom poured nearly $21 billion into housing and homelessness since he took office and vowed the issue is a top priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t want to see any more people die in the streets and call that compassion,” \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/politics/2022/01/california-homelessness-camps-newsom/\">Newsom said last year\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954471\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954471\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05.jpg\" alt=\"A man is seen outside of his makeshift tent, with a shopping cart full of his belongings, warming his hands by a small fire. It's nighttime. A "No Parking Anytime" sign in the background.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas05-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Muhammad, who declined to provide his last name, warms his hand at a fire near his tent in Sacramento. \u003ccite>(Miguel Gutierrez Jr./CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>His administration is well aware of the buzz around the Texas programs. Hafsa Kaka, the governor’s new senior adviser on homelessness, said Newsom’s policies compare well against the Texas sites.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘California continues to make unprecedented investments into housing and homelessness which includes shelter and wrap-around supportive services, cleaning up encampments, and creating more housing.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Houston, Austin and San Antonio employ the same “housing first” approach that California has used for years, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“While Austin built 350 small homes, we are putting 1,200 across the state, including 500 in Los Angeles,” she said in an emailed statement sent on behalf of Newsom’s office. “California continues to make unprecedented investments into housing and homelessness which includes shelter and wrap-around supportive services, cleaning up encampments, and creating more housing. The state has invested more to increase housing supply than ever before in our history while holding local governments accountable.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the difference in outcomes in Texas versus California is unmistakable. The Houston area’s unhoused population dropped 57% between 2012 and last year, dipping to 3,124, according to the federally mandated point-in-time count. \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2022/06/14/headway/houston-homeless-people.html\">A New York Times article\u003c/a> published last year highlighted the “remarkable progress,” catapulting the city that was already known in wonky homeless policy circles into the national limelight — and catching California’s attention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Los Angeles County’s unhoused population increased 106% over the same period. Sacramento County’s jumped a whopping 230%.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/2vIpF/10/\" width=\"800\" height=\"800\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Experts agree the point-in-time counts supplying those numbers — which generally rely on volunteers and outreach workers tallying every unhoused person they see over one night — miss portions of the unhoused community. But the counts can be a useful tool to measure the change in a city’s unhoused population.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Cheaper rent, more housing\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>One reason more people find housing in Texas: costs. The median rent for a one-bedroom home in the state was $1,233 in early June, according to Zillow. In California, it was $2,200 — making it harder for people to get and stay housed here.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Land and construction costs are cheaper in Texas, too, and the Lone Star State has fewer regulations that restrict construction. The city of Houston, for example, has no zoning — coupled with a strong mayor who can push projects through — making it easier to build and harder to block housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM.png\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-11954580\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-800x622.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"622\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-800x622.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-1020x793.png 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-160x124.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM-1536x1194.png 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/Screenshot-2023-06-29-at-11.58.06-AM.png 1610w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, \u003ca href=\"https://socds.huduser.gov/permits/output_annual.odb\">Texas permitted more than twice as many\u003c/a> new homes \u003ca href=\"https://socds.huduser.gov/permits/output_annual.odb\">as California\u003c/a>, even though California has about 9 million more residents.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That means even when a California city is doing everything right, it’s still not going to be as successful as its Texas counterpart in reducing homelessness, said Jennifer Loving, CEO of nonprofit Destination: Home in Santa Clara County, who visited Houston in March.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We do all the same stuff,” she said. “And the major difference is how much housing they have, how quickly it’s getting built.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://e.infogram.com/4cd4fb85-56dc-4fd9-bc53-a1a394daf2c8?parent_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fhousing%2F2023%2F06%2Fcalifornia-houston-homeless-solutions%2F&src=embed#async_embed\" width=\"800\" height=\"700\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But despite its lower housing costs and dramatic drop in homelessness, Houston hasn’t managed to get everyone off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>As Darden, the outreach worker, continues his rounds, he ends up under the Highway Spur 527 overpass, where seven tents are arranged on a dirt lot amid a few dining room chairs and other scattered furniture. \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Several of the people Darden speaks to at the camp already are housed or in the process of getting housing.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954519\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 2560px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954519\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED.jpg\" alt=\"Left: Allison Hillman, left, and LaVoy Darden, right, with Search Homeless Services speak with a client about potential future housing in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. Right: A homeless encampment under Interstate Highway 69 in downtown Houston on May 5, 2023.\" width=\"2560\" height=\"847\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED.jpg 2560w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-800x265.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-1020x337.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-160x53.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-1536x508.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-2048x678.jpg 2048w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/230629-CM-TEXAS-COMBO-2-JV-KQED-1920x635.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 2560px) 100vw, 2560px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Left: Allison Hillman, left, and LaVoy Darden, right, with Search Homeless Services speak with a client about potential future housing in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. Right: A homeless encampment under Interstate Highway 69 in downtown Houston on May 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>One of them is 71-year-old Albert Mack, who has been homeless in Houston off-and-on for 15 years, alternating time on the street with housing placements that didn’t pan out. He left his last apartment because the neighborhood was too dangerous, he said. Now, he’s once again on his way to living indoors — he’s just waiting for a copy of his birth certificate from his home state of Alabama. He’s excited. This time, Mack said, he’s going to stay housed.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“I can take me a shower every day,” he said. “I can be inside. I don’t have to worry about nobody bothering me.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>More permanent housing, and collaboration\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>When people like Mack get housed, it’s not only because rent is cheaper. Texas cities are doing other things differently than California, and Houston is a good example.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Texas’ largest city pours its homeless funding — including COVID emergency dollars — into long-term housing instead of shelters that offer a temporary fix. Most of that housing is in privately-owned apartments, where vouchers help formerly homeless people pay the rent.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California, on the other hand, divides its resources between temporary and permanent homeless solutions. The state funneled COVID funds into short-term hotels that as of last year had given 50,000 people — almost 30% of the state’s unhoused population — brief respites from the street. Newsom’s administration later used COVID and general funds to turn nearly 13,000 hotel rooms, apartments and other units into longer-term homeless housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https://e.infogram.com/d528338b-0ce5-422e-b71e-2db4f5079124?parent_url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalmatters.org%2Fhousing%2F2023%2F06%2Fcalifornia-houston-homeless-solutions%2F&src=embed#async_embed\" width=\"800\" height=\"850\" scrolling=\"yes\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And in Texas’ largest city, government agencies have a reputation for working together. Houston collaborates with Harris County and local nonprofits on a shared plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles County, by contrast, four different local government groups apply separately for limited homelessness funding from the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that what we haven’t done is come together with a single plan,” said Cheri Todoroff, executive director of Los Angeles County’s Homeless Initiative, who went to Houston in September. “And that’s really what we were looking to learn from Houston.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>LA County is working on creating a collaborative leadership commission, mirroring Houston’s, that would include elected officials, businesses, nonprofits and other leaders.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Strict homeless enforcement in Texas\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Other parts of Texas’ approach to homelessness are more punitive than practices favored by California cities and state officials.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The red state passed a law \u003ca href=\"https://www.texastribune.org/2021/05/20/texas-homeless-camps-ban-legislature/\">banning encampments throughout Texas\u003c/a> in 2021, obligating cities to clear camps and empowering law enforcement to cite and fine campers. California Republicans \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-homeless-city-laws/\">proposed two similar bills this year\u003c/a>, but got no traction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Individual cities in Texas also have their own local camping bans. In Austin, for example, police sometimes force unhoused residents to move out of encampments, even if they have nowhere else to go, and cite them if they don’t comply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954474\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954474\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08.jpg\" alt=\"City workers in yellow and orange reflective vests work out in the hot Houston heat cleaning up an encampment. A man is pictured using a push-broom in the background.\" width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas08-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Temporary Workers, contracted by the Texas Department of Transportation, remove trash and personal belongings from a homeless encampment under US Route 290 at Westgate Boulevard in Austin, Texas on Nov. 4, 2019. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Texas Gov. Abbott cultivates a hard-line stance against homelessness — leading a charge to clear encampments on state property, publicly attacking Austin’s Democratic leaders for being too soft on homelessness and pushing for the state’s camping ban. “No one has a right to urinate & defecate wherever they want,” he tweeted before the camping ban passed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Seeming to take a page out of Texas’ book, California cities also are growing increasingly punitive. For instance, San Diego recently \u003ca href=\"https://voiceofsandiego.org/2023/06/14/san-diego-city-council-approves-crack-down-on-homeless-camps/\">approved a controversial encampment ban\u003c/a>, and \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/04/california-homeless-city-laws/\">other cities have taken similar steps\u003c/a>. But a major difference: Due to the \u003ca href=\"https://law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/ca9/15-35845/15-35845-2018-09-04.html\">2018 federal court ruling Martin v. Boise\u003c/a>, California cities cannot clear camps or unilaterally ban encampments unless they have shelter beds to offer. Texas, in a different federal district, is not subject to that ruling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other aspects of Houston’s approach also might not translate well in California. Because Houston prioritizes long-term housing — the city and its county partners have moved more than 28,000 people into permanent housing since 2012 — it neglects the type of short-term shelters that quickly get someone off the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Five days a week, 60-year-old Rachel Gonzales goes to The Beacon day center to eat breakfast and lunch, shower and do her laundry. At night, when the center is closed, she heads across the street to sleep on the sidewalk — without even a tent to protect her from the elements.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Beacon staff are trained to connect clients to permanent housing, and last year, about two-thirds of those who signed up gained a place to live. But the process can take months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gonzales has been waiting since November.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t think it’s gonna be anytime soon,” she said. “You gotta think day by day. You can’t think about tomorrow, because if you think about tomorrow, think about a week from now, you’ll actually go crazy.”\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>Encampments still visible in Houston\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Houston’s lack of shelter beds and long wait times for housing allowed homeless encampments to proliferate, frustrating local residents — as they have in California. In 2018, the city began a push to “decommission” homeless camps. Now, former homeless camps dot the landscape — grassy strips by the side of the road or patches of dirt under overpasses that used to hold dozens of tents, but now are empty and circled by chain-link fences.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>How homeless camps are removed is one of the most contentious issues of the homelessness debate in California. Though the Boise ruling prevents cities in the Golden State from clearing camps without offering the occupants shelter, activists say many people aren’t given options that work for them. Some people may not be willing to give up a beloved pet in exchange for a bed in an animal-free shelter, for example, while others may have mental health conditions that make it hard to sleep in a crowded room. As a result, they instead scatter throughout the streets, losing contact with their caseworkers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Houston, when it’s time to clear a camp, outreach workers spend a month or more getting to know the occupants and figuring out what they need. Anyone they can’t immediately house generally is offered a spot in the city’s 100-bed navigation center, which opened in January.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The navigation center is a big step up from traditional shelters where dozens of people sleep together, occupants have to leave early each morning, and residents often see no discernible path to long-term housing. At the navigation center, people sleep four to a room, can bring pets, and during the day can relax in a comfy living room with TVs, a pool table and snacks. Entire encampments move into the center at once, allowing people to maintain close friendships forged on the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They make you realize you somebody again,” said 51-year-old Terry Hardison, who has been unhoused off and on since 1999. He was living under a bridge before coming to the navigation center. On a recent Saturday afternoon, he sat on the couch in the center’s common room, watching “G.I. Joe” on the TV with friends.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But with only 100 beds, the navigation center can’t come close to accommodating everyone. People Darden meets on the street constantly ask how they can get in. He has to tell them the hard truth: Most often, they can’t.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For those lucky enough to get a spot, there’s one big way the navigation center differs from a regular shelter: It gets people into permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the 57 occupants who moved through the navigation center since it opened, as of early May, 91% went into permanent housing — and it generally takes just 30 days. Navigation center clients are bumped up to the top of Houston’s housing waitlist.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California also has navigation centers, but they haven’t been nearly as successful because there’s often no direct path from there into long-term housing. San Francisco’s largest center, for example, reported just 8% of the people who left its program ended up in permanent housing last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11954475\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1200px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11954475\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09.jpg\" alt='A man with calm expression and a friendly smile poses for a portrait. He has a T-shirt on that reads, \"Search.\"' width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09.jpg 1200w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/CalMattersTexas09-160x107.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1200px) 100vw, 1200px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">LaVoy Darden with Search Homeless Services in Houston, Texas on May 5, 2023. \u003ccite>(Jordan Vonderhaar/CalMatters)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>For other people, housing success stories play out outside the walls of the navigation center. Back in Darden’s outreach van, he’s making someone’s day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The woman on the side of the road hears Darden yell, telling her she’s moving into her new apartment Monday. She’d been referred for a placement before and never followed through. But this time, after one of her friends recently died on the street, Darden believes she’s ready to end her homelessness.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The woman stops what she’s doing and breaks into a happy dance. The dream of a permanent place to call home — something that seems so impossible for so many people living in tents and cars from Texas to California — is finally hers.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Darden grins. “Whew, I feel a lot better now,” he says, steering the outreach van back toward his office.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>“It feels great. Just to see the look on their face.”\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Lack of Affordable Housing Is Driving Older Californians Into Homelessness",
"headTitle": "Lack of Affordable Housing Is Driving Older Californians Into Homelessness | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>With modern home prices out of reach for many California residents on fixed incomes, older adults have become the fastest-growing segment of the unhoused population across the state, according to \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/CASPEH\">new research released Tuesday from UCSF\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California makes up 30% of the nation’s unhoused population and is home to half of all the country’s unsheltered population, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/CASPEH\">landmark study\u003c/a>, which looks at how people in the Golden State become unhoused, experience homelessness, and exit homelessness. Nearly half of all unhoused adults in the study were age 50 or older, and Black and Native American residents were “dramatically overrepresented,” the study shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The results of the study confirm that far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and principal investigator of the landmark study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The year-long study included responses from a sample of nearly 3,200 unhoused participants who together are representative of all adults experiencing homelessness statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote align=\"right\" size=\"medium\" citation=\"Dr. Margot Kushel, director, UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative\"]‘There aren’t as many unions, pensions, and housing costs have skyrocketed. The disconnect between what people make and what it costs to live is widening and widening.’[/pullquote]Contrary to beliefs that people migrate to California for homelessness services, the report found that the vast majority — 90% — of people who are unhoused in California are from California. And 75% of survey respondents were living in the same California county where they lost their housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomiquia Moss, founder and CEO of All Home, a regional homelessness policy organization, said those statistics mirror what she has encountered here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t see a lot of those migration patterns even across the region. Rising housing costs and stagnant incomes in places where that is exacerbated is where we see significant increases in homelessness,” Moss told KQED. “We saw this in Oakland between 2017 and 2019, when housing costs rose exponentially, incomes dropped or were flat for folks, and homelessness rose 41% during that time period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most respondents, high housing prices were just unsustainable. About 21% of leaseholders cited loss of income as the main reason they lost their housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of those who held a lease just prior to becoming unhoused reported they were given just 10 days’ notice before they lost their housing, and non-leaseholders had often been given just one day’s notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As structural factors get less forgiving, you need fewer individual factors to become homeless. And the structural factors have gotten worse,” Kushel said. “There aren’t as many unions, pensions, and housing costs have skyrocketed. The disconnect between what people make and what it costs to live is widening and widening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside label=\"Related Stories\" postID=\"news_11952984,news_11953006,news_11952870\"]Nearly all participants in the study expressed interest in obtaining housing. However, 89% of all respondents said they can’t afford housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings are familiar for Patricia Wall, executive director of the Homeless Action Center, an organization that helps people including those experiencing homelessness sign up for programs like supplemental security income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have watched the population of homeless people age. Over the last 10 years particularly, we are seeing more and more clients over the age of 50,” Wall told KQED. “There isn’t the kind of safety net we like to imagine that there is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wall, who has worked closely with the unhoused population for nearly three decades, said she sees over and over again older clients get priced out of their homes and become unhoused when they don’t have a strong enough safety net.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even some of the options that do exist for people with low or fixed incomes, such as housing vouchers and units in subsidized buildings, have grown incredibly hard to access due to increasing demand and stagnant supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What used to be a resource for seniors has become like winning the lottery,” said Wall. “It takes years to get housing. If you are on top of your game and apply immediately when you see the opening, then your name gets on a list and you’re on there for maybe five years. There just aren’t enough physical units and subsidies available to make the kind of progress we need to make to reduce the number of unsheltered homeless. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of Wall’s clients are on SSI benefits either because they are too old to work or have a disability that prevents them from working. But the state has not kept pace with population growth in terms of building new affordable housing units, or units that can be made affordable through housing vouchers, leaving many people who could qualify to become unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There aren’t enough units for affordable housing,” Wall said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to highlighting barriers to exiting homelessness, the study also provides six recommendations for government and policymakers. They include increasing access to affordable units to extremely low-income households, either by building or expanding rental subsidies like housing vouchers and making it so more housing units can accept those vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also recommended is targeted homelessness prevention, such as financial assistance and legal support, and increased street-level outreach to people who are unsheltered. It also advocates for more robust services for mental health and substance use challenges for people while they are experiencing homelessness and in supportive housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opportunities to increase household income such as employment training and support signing up for benefits also were recommended. And researchers called for racial equity to guide these recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several components of the study offer hope as well. At least 86% of respondents said that just $300–$500 could be enough to get them into housing, and 90% believed a housing voucher or a similar option could have prevented their homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no question that the current situation is untenable. The question is, how do you allocate scarce resources?” Kushel said. “It was very hard to find anyone who didn’t want housing. When we asked what gets in the way of that, they said, ‘I can’t afford it.’ Period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "'Far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing,' said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.",
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"description": "'Far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing,' said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>With modern home prices out of reach for many California residents on fixed incomes, older adults have become the fastest-growing segment of the unhoused population across the state, according to \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/CASPEH\">new research released Tuesday from UCSF\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California makes up 30% of the nation’s unhoused population and is home to half of all the country’s unsheltered population, according to the \u003ca href=\"https://homelessness.ucsf.edu/CASPEH\">landmark study\u003c/a>, which looks at how people in the Golden State become unhoused, experience homelessness, and exit homelessness. Nearly half of all unhoused adults in the study were age 50 or older, and Black and Native American residents were “dramatically overrepresented,” the study shows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The results of the study confirm that far too many Californians experience homelessness because they cannot afford housing,” said Dr. Margot Kushel, director of the UCSF Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative and principal investigator of the landmark study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The year-long study included responses from a sample of nearly 3,200 unhoused participants who together are representative of all adults experiencing homelessness statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘There aren’t as many unions, pensions, and housing costs have skyrocketed. The disconnect between what people make and what it costs to live is widening and widening.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Contrary to beliefs that people migrate to California for homelessness services, the report found that the vast majority — 90% — of people who are unhoused in California are from California. And 75% of survey respondents were living in the same California county where they lost their housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomiquia Moss, founder and CEO of All Home, a regional homelessness policy organization, said those statistics mirror what she has encountered here in the Bay Area.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We don’t see a lot of those migration patterns even across the region. Rising housing costs and stagnant incomes in places where that is exacerbated is where we see significant increases in homelessness,” Moss told KQED. “We saw this in Oakland between 2017 and 2019, when housing costs rose exponentially, incomes dropped or were flat for folks, and homelessness rose 41% during that time period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For most respondents, high housing prices were just unsustainable. About 21% of leaseholders cited loss of income as the main reason they lost their housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of those who held a lease just prior to becoming unhoused reported they were given just 10 days’ notice before they lost their housing, and non-leaseholders had often been given just one day’s notice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As structural factors get less forgiving, you need fewer individual factors to become homeless. And the structural factors have gotten worse,” Kushel said. “There aren’t as many unions, pensions, and housing costs have skyrocketed. The disconnect between what people make and what it costs to live is widening and widening.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Nearly all participants in the study expressed interest in obtaining housing. However, 89% of all respondents said they can’t afford housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The findings are familiar for Patricia Wall, executive director of the Homeless Action Center, an organization that helps people including those experiencing homelessness sign up for programs like supplemental security income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have watched the population of homeless people age. Over the last 10 years particularly, we are seeing more and more clients over the age of 50,” Wall told KQED. “There isn’t the kind of safety net we like to imagine that there is.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Wall, who has worked closely with the unhoused population for nearly three decades, said she sees over and over again older clients get priced out of their homes and become unhoused when they don’t have a strong enough safety net.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But even some of the options that do exist for people with low or fixed incomes, such as housing vouchers and units in subsidized buildings, have grown incredibly hard to access due to increasing demand and stagnant supply.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What used to be a resource for seniors has become like winning the lottery,” said Wall. “It takes years to get housing. If you are on top of your game and apply immediately when you see the opening, then your name gets on a list and you’re on there for maybe five years. There just aren’t enough physical units and subsidies available to make the kind of progress we need to make to reduce the number of unsheltered homeless. ”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many of Wall’s clients are on SSI benefits either because they are too old to work or have a disability that prevents them from working. But the state has not kept pace with population growth in terms of building new affordable housing units, or units that can be made affordable through housing vouchers, leaving many people who could qualify to become unhoused.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There aren’t enough units for affordable housing,” Wall said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to highlighting barriers to exiting homelessness, the study also provides six recommendations for government and policymakers. They include increasing access to affordable units to extremely low-income households, either by building or expanding rental subsidies like housing vouchers and making it so more housing units can accept those vouchers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also recommended is targeted homelessness prevention, such as financial assistance and legal support, and increased street-level outreach to people who are unsheltered. It also advocates for more robust services for mental health and substance use challenges for people while they are experiencing homelessness and in supportive housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Opportunities to increase household income such as employment training and support signing up for benefits also were recommended. And researchers called for racial equity to guide these recommendations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Several components of the study offer hope as well. At least 86% of respondents said that just $300–$500 could be enough to get them into housing, and 90% believed a housing voucher or a similar option could have prevented their homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“There’s no question that the current situation is untenable. The question is, how do you allocate scarce resources?” Kushel said. “It was very hard to find anyone who didn’t want housing. When we asked what gets in the way of that, they said, ‘I can’t afford it.’ Period.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"slug": "sf-san-jose-mayors-push-to-fund-shelters-as-pressure-builds-on-encampments",
"title": "SF, San José Mayors Push to Fund Shelters as Pressure Builds on Encampments",
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"headTitle": "SF, San José Mayors Push to Fund Shelters as Pressure Builds on Encampments | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cp>A growing number of California mayors are pushing for a realignment of homelessness spending \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">toward shelters and temporary housing\u003c/a> in the face of political pressure to clear encampments and deliver visible reductions of people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that shift has a trade-off: In a world of limited and often dwindling local dollars, more money for short-term solutions means less funding for permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This dynamic has led to pitched budget battles this month in the Bay Area’s two largest cities, with Mayors London Breed in San Francisco and Matt Mahan in San José pushing for more voter-approved homelessness dollars to go toward temporary housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[ad fullwidth]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayors are grappling with the legal reality that making housing available is a prerequisite for clearing tents — and they are bolstered by advancements in the quality of temporary shelters they can offer residents living on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We certainly need housing at all levels of affordability that will require public subsidy — not disagreeing with any of that,” said Mahan, who was dealt a setback this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">when his homelessness spending plan was voted down\u003c/a> by the city council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"San Francisco Mayor London Breed\"]‘The goal is to shift it towards what the needs are. And so that includes housing, it includes shelter because we need to immediately get people into a place to help decide where they belong.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But as long as we have thousands of people living and literally dying on our streets, I think we have to lean into the faster-to-deploy, more cost-effective solutions for getting people into a safe, managed environment with the privacy and stability that they need to take advantage of supportive services,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pressures driving this pivot are familiar to mayors across the state and the nation. Thousands of unsheltered residents are suffering and dying on city sidewalks, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/\">homelessness in California has risen since the pandemic at a higher rate than elsewhere in the country\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Breed, the shift is a political response to worsening street conditions. In her budget reveal at the end of May, she proposed a controversial move to help fund temporary shelters for unhoused adults by reallocating funding meant to build housing for families and young adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to shift it towards what the needs are. And so that includes housing, it includes shelter because we need to immediately get people into a place to help decide where they belong,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11953071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11953071\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with brown hair and a light blue dress stands with her hands folded in front of her. She is looking toward the left. She is standing in front of San Francisco's City Hall building listening to a speech.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor London Breed at San Francisco City Hall on Dec. 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass defeated a more pro-shelter opponent in last year’s mayoral election. But she has turned to temporary units and hotels as a way to ameliorate street homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, city officials are scrambling to implement a voter-approved measure requiring a certain level of shelter capacity. And hours after San José’s vote, the city council in San Diego approved \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2023-06-13/study-shows-san-diego-falls-far-short-of-shelter-beds-needed-to-house-homeless-people\">an encampment ban that will necessitate an expansion of shelter beds\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing interest in the quick-build, particularly, because I think to really address the dangerous encampments, to try to do it as quickly as possible, you need this kind of mid-term or interim approach,” said Michael Lane, state policy director at SPUR, a Bay Area think tank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that’s why you’re seeing some of these fights at the local level, because that is a relatively new development over the past few years to really say, yes, we need all of this,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lane shares in the consensus that cities need investments in permanent as well as temporary housing. But debates in San José and San Francisco have centered on limited pools of tax dollars dedicated to reducing homelessness.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside postID=news_11952870 hero='https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2021/02/RS41773_007_KQED_HousingSanFrancisco_02102020_2898-qut-1020x680.jpg']\u003c/span>In that context, a dollar spent paying for an affordable apartment complex can’t be used for a shelter bed. And then, there’s the politics: Both Mahan and Breed are up for reelection next year and face “tremendous pressure” to ensure their city streets are clear of homelessness, Lane said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, Mahan’s homelessness spending plan ran into heavy opposition from members of the city council, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">instead opted to approve a more modest reallocation toward temporary beds\u003c/a>. Nevertheless, Mahan said that conversations with fellow mayors have led him to believe a broader “rebalancing” of homelessness spending priorities is underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe this is a trend across the state,” he said. “I suspect that we will see federal, state and county sources shift toward the solutions that are faster and more cost-effective and help us scale solutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also informing the mayors’ moves: the changing nature of shelter beds and the length of time people can stay in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José has opened six interim housing sites that bear little resemblance to traditional congregate shelters. Instead of a cot in a large room, residents of the city’s emergency interim housing units can stay for months — and sometimes longer — in a prefabricated apartment, often with a private bathroom and on-site supportive services. When Breed announced her homelessness funding plan in May, she did so at the site of a tiny-home village on Gough Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>San Francisco mayor looks to redirect money for youth\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, the permanent housing funds that Breed wants to tap come from a hard-fought pot of money intended for youth and families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2018 ballot measure known as Proposition C, the Our City, Our Home tax, got just under a two-thirds majority vote to pass, opening it up to legal challenge — even after the effort got major financial backing from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The measure eventually won out, and it taxes businesses making more than $50 million to raise an expected $300 million annually, half of which was earmarked for permanent housing by voter mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Facing a $780 million budget shortfall over the next two years, however, Breed’s new budget proposes the city reallocate roughly $60 million of Proposition C funding over the next two years — money that was intended to build permanent homes for young people age 18–24 who are experiencing homelessness, or families with children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, that funding may pay for the expansion of hours at two city homeless shelters, add 350 slots for temporary rental assistance and 75 units of supportive housing for adults, maintain the operation of a program helping people who live in oversize RVs to repair their vehicles, and to help fund a Bayview small-cabin shelter site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherilyn Adams, executive director of Larkin Street Youth Services, a service provider focused on unhoused youth, said the city already under-spends on young people as well as “transitional age youth,” who are between 18 and 25.[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Sherilyn Adams, executive director, Larkin Street Youth Services\"]‘The reason there are people living outside is because we have insufficient housing stock for young people. That only gets worse if we don’t bring on any new interventions.’[/pullquote]There were roughly 1,100 people under 25 years old living on San Francisco’s streets during the last point-in-time count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason there are people living outside is because we have insufficient housing stock for young people. That only gets worse if we don’t bring on any new interventions” like building more housing, Adams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893348/s-f-mayor-london-breed-on-how-to-prevent-an-economic-doom-loop-and-her-new-budget\">KQED’s Forum in early June\u003c/a>, Breed defended her budget reallocation, saying there aren’t any sites in San Francisco that have been identified yet to build housing for transitional-age youth. But Adams said that’s an easily fixable problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not having a building identified for transition-aged youth, so that they could allocate or use the existing Prop. C funds, does not mean that there’s not young people sleeping outside. It means you didn’t find a building. Unallocated is not the same as unneeded,” Adams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Legal and national pressures on mayors \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Part of the push for California mayors to favor shelters over permanent housing is the result of legal constraints. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/23748522/tent-encampments-martin-boise-homelessness-housing\">2018 Martin v. City of Boise federal appeals court decision\u003c/a> bars locales from clearing out tent encampments if they don’t have enough shelter to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco doesn’t have enough shelter placements for the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city, which in December prompted U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu to place an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11950967/advocates-for-unhoused-san-franciscans-say-encampment-sweeps-continue-despite-court-order-call-on-judge-to-rein-city-in\">injunction against encampment sweeps\u003c/a>.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Eric Tars, legal director, National Homelessness Law Center\"]‘When you have that increased street homelessness, in particular, you get this pressure for increased short-term, quick-fix kind of solutions. People want folks out of sight, out of mind.’[/pullquote]\u003c/span>Building more temporary shelters, then, is a pathway to gain the legal go-ahead to conduct more encampment sweeps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while California is home to 30% of the U.S. unhoused population, the shift in funding allocation to favor temporary shelter is a national one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center, said in addition to the push being seen in Democratic California cities, many red states are contemplating the adoption of model legislation to put more funding toward short-term housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have that increased street homelessness, in particular, you get this pressure for increased short-term, quick-fix kind of solutions. People want folks out of sight, out of mind. And so our elected officials are under pressure to kind of get those quick results,” Tars said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he doesn’t think shelters are unnecessary — far from it — he does think the budget reallocations are shortsighted, and will actually increase homelessness rates in the long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Budget challenges ahead sharpen the debate\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Advocates involved in homelessness policy expect the tug-of-war between permanent and temporary housing to intensify — infusing future debates over shrinking local budgets and any attempts to bolster city coffers with new tax or bond money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, long-term budget projections are far from rosy. The Mayor’s Office confirmed its budget proposal still has structural deficits that will remain in future years and has large amounts of deficits plugged by one-time funding sources. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to debate the budget with the mayor throughout June and put forward a compromise budget proposal by July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11953073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11953073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut.jpg\" alt='A man with a beard wearing a suit and tie stands behind a podium labeled, \"San José Capital of Silicon Valley.\" He is surrounded by people holding various signs. Some read, \"Protect our Democracy.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1182\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-800x493.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-1020x628.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-1536x946.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan said that conversations with fellow mayors have led him to believe a broader ‘rebalancing’ of homelessness spending priorities is underway. ‘I believe this is a trend across the state,’ he said. ‘I suspect that we will see federal, state and county sources shift toward the solutions that are faster and more cost-effective and help us scale solutions.’ \u003ccite>(Guy Marzorati/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The debate over homelessness spending in San José hinged on money created by Measure E, a voter-approved tax on expensive home sales in the city. Mahan proposed spending $40 million in Measure E funds on short-term solutions such as prefabricated homes and parking lots for RV dwellers. When that plan was voted down, he joined a council majority to support putting $29 million toward those interim programs — leaving the largest share of city homelessness dollars for permanent housing.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">[aside label='More Stories on the Unhoused Community' tag='unhoused']\u003c/span>David Low, director of policy and communications for the nonprofit Destination: Home, said those funds are vital for the half-dozen permanent affordable housing projects awaiting Measure E funding next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have affordable housing projects ready to go, and without that funding, we will see further delays, increased costs, at a time we can afford neither, or the very serious risk that some of these projects will all fall apart together,” said Low, a former senior adviser to San José’s previous mayor, Sam Liccardo. “So it’s that real-world trade-off and that real-world opportunity we have to build more affordable housing that we don’t want to lose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those trade-offs are likely to dominate future budget discussions across the region and state, particularly as cities grapple with diminished general fund resources, said Lane, with SPUR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The push and pull between permanent and temporary housing will animate discussions about state housing aid from the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom. And the fight could be a key factor in determining the shape of a regional housing bond that could go before Bay Area voters next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To show that we actually have a way that we can move people from off the streets ultimately into permanent affordable housing … interim and mid-term types of solutions have to be a key part of that,” Lane said. “And I think that the voters will expect to see that as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomiquia Moss, CEO of the nonprofit All Home, sees the injection of new revenue as an opportunity to break the growing homelessness policy binary. Her organization works with elected officials, businesses and nonprofits across the Bay Area to promote regional strategies to reduce homelessness. At the core is a belief in concurrent investments in both temporary and permanent housing, in addition to aid for renters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tax and bond measures are no easy lift, particularly across a nine-county region. But Moss, who previously worked for Mayors Ed Lee in San Francisco and Libby Schaaf in Oakland, said such an initiative could unlock that full portfolio of solutions — and unite the factions of homelessness spending around a single cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That, to me, is where you are growing the pie,” Moss added. “You are not robbing Peter to pay Paul. You are increasing resources for the entire region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "San José Mayor Matt Mahan and San Francisco’s London Breed are pushing to divert money from permanent affordable housing plans to temporary ones to aid the unhoused.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A growing number of California mayors are pushing for a realignment of homelessness spending \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">toward shelters and temporary housing\u003c/a> in the face of political pressure to clear encampments and deliver visible reductions of people experiencing homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But that shift has a trade-off: In a world of limited and often dwindling local dollars, more money for short-term solutions means less funding for permanent housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This dynamic has led to pitched budget battles this month in the Bay Area’s two largest cities, with Mayors London Breed in San Francisco and Matt Mahan in San José pushing for more voter-approved homelessness dollars to go toward temporary housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The mayors are grappling with the legal reality that making housing available is a prerequisite for clearing tents — and they are bolstered by advancements in the quality of temporary shelters they can offer residents living on the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We certainly need housing at all levels of affordability that will require public subsidy — not disagreeing with any of that,” said Mahan, who was dealt a setback this week \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">when his homelessness spending plan was voted down\u003c/a> by the city council.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The goal is to shift it towards what the needs are. And so that includes housing, it includes shelter because we need to immediately get people into a place to help decide where they belong.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“But as long as we have thousands of people living and literally dying on our streets, I think we have to lean into the faster-to-deploy, more cost-effective solutions for getting people into a safe, managed environment with the privacy and stability that they need to take advantage of supportive services,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The pressures driving this pivot are familiar to mayors across the state and the nation. Thousands of unsheltered residents are suffering and dying on city sidewalks, and \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/blog/homeless-populations-are-rising-around-california/\">homelessness in California has risen since the pandemic at a higher rate than elsewhere in the country\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For Breed, the shift is a political response to worsening street conditions. In her budget reveal at the end of May, she proposed a controversial move to help fund temporary shelters for unhoused adults by reallocating funding meant to build housing for families and young adults.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The goal is to shift it towards what the needs are. And so that includes housing, it includes shelter because we need to immediately get people into a place to help decide where they belong,” Breed said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11953071\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11953071\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut.jpg\" alt=\"A woman with brown hair and a light blue dress stands with her hands folded in front of her. She is looking toward the left. She is standing in front of San Francisco's City Hall building listening to a speech.\" width=\"1920\" height=\"1278\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-1020x679.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS52736_023_SanFrancisco_OmicronPressConference_12012021-qut-1536x1022.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mayor London Breed at San Francisco City Hall on Dec. 1, 2021. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In Los Angeles, Mayor Karen Bass defeated a more pro-shelter opponent in last year’s mayoral election. But she has turned to temporary units and hotels as a way to ameliorate street homelessness.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In Sacramento, city officials are scrambling to implement a voter-approved measure requiring a certain level of shelter capacity. And hours after San José’s vote, the city council in San Diego approved \u003ca href=\"https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/homelessness/story/2023-06-13/study-shows-san-diego-falls-far-short-of-shelter-beds-needed-to-house-homeless-people\">an encampment ban that will necessitate an expansion of shelter beds\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We are seeing interest in the quick-build, particularly, because I think to really address the dangerous encampments, to try to do it as quickly as possible, you need this kind of mid-term or interim approach,” said Michael Lane, state policy director at SPUR, a Bay Area think tank.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think that’s why you’re seeing some of these fights at the local level, because that is a relatively new development over the past few years to really say, yes, we need all of this,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lane shares in the consensus that cities need investments in permanent as well as temporary housing. But debates in San José and San Francisco have centered on limited pools of tax dollars dedicated to reducing homelessness.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>In that context, a dollar spent paying for an affordable apartment complex can’t be used for a shelter bed. And then, there’s the politics: Both Mahan and Breed are up for reelection next year and face “tremendous pressure” to ensure their city streets are clear of homelessness, Lane said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Tuesday, Mahan’s homelessness spending plan ran into heavy opposition from members of the city council, who \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11952913/san-jose-council-approves-modest-shift-toward-temporary-homeless-housing\">instead opted to approve a more modest reallocation toward temporary beds\u003c/a>. Nevertheless, Mahan said that conversations with fellow mayors have led him to believe a broader “rebalancing” of homelessness spending priorities is underway.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I believe this is a trend across the state,” he said. “I suspect that we will see federal, state and county sources shift toward the solutions that are faster and more cost-effective and help us scale solutions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Also informing the mayors’ moves: the changing nature of shelter beds and the length of time people can stay in them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José has opened six interim housing sites that bear little resemblance to traditional congregate shelters. Instead of a cot in a large room, residents of the city’s emergency interim housing units can stay for months — and sometimes longer — in a prefabricated apartment, often with a private bathroom and on-site supportive services. When Breed announced her homelessness funding plan in May, she did so at the site of a tiny-home village on Gough Street.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>San Francisco mayor looks to redirect money for youth\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, the permanent housing funds that Breed wants to tap come from a hard-fought pot of money intended for youth and families.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2018 ballot measure known as Proposition C, the Our City, Our Home tax, got just under a two-thirds majority vote to pass, opening it up to legal challenge — even after the effort got major financial backing from Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff. The measure eventually won out, and it taxes businesses making more than $50 million to raise an expected $300 million annually, half of which was earmarked for permanent housing by voter mandate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Facing a $780 million budget shortfall over the next two years, however, Breed’s new budget proposes the city reallocate roughly $60 million of Proposition C funding over the next two years — money that was intended to build permanent homes for young people age 18–24 who are experiencing homelessness, or families with children.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, that funding may pay for the expansion of hours at two city homeless shelters, add 350 slots for temporary rental assistance and 75 units of supportive housing for adults, maintain the operation of a program helping people who live in oversize RVs to repair their vehicles, and to help fund a Bayview small-cabin shelter site.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Sherilyn Adams, executive director of Larkin Street Youth Services, a service provider focused on unhoused youth, said the city already under-spends on young people as well as “transitional age youth,” who are between 18 and 25.\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘The reason there are people living outside is because we have insufficient housing stock for young people. That only gets worse if we don’t bring on any new interventions.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>There were roughly 1,100 people under 25 years old living on San Francisco’s streets during the last point-in-time count.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The reason there are people living outside is because we have insufficient housing stock for young people. That only gets worse if we don’t bring on any new interventions” like building more housing, Adams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/forum/2010101893348/s-f-mayor-london-breed-on-how-to-prevent-an-economic-doom-loop-and-her-new-budget\">KQED’s Forum in early June\u003c/a>, Breed defended her budget reallocation, saying there aren’t any sites in San Francisco that have been identified yet to build housing for transitional-age youth. But Adams said that’s an easily fixable problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Not having a building identified for transition-aged youth, so that they could allocate or use the existing Prop. C funds, does not mean that there’s not young people sleeping outside. It means you didn’t find a building. Unallocated is not the same as unneeded,” Adams said.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Legal and national pressures on mayors \u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Part of the push for California mayors to favor shelters over permanent housing is the result of legal constraints. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.vox.com/23748522/tent-encampments-martin-boise-homelessness-housing\">2018 Martin v. City of Boise federal appeals court decision\u003c/a> bars locales from clearing out tent encampments if they don’t have enough shelter to offer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco doesn’t have enough shelter placements for the number of people experiencing homelessness in the city, which in December prompted U.S. Magistrate Judge Donna M. Ryu to place an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11950967/advocates-for-unhoused-san-franciscans-say-encampment-sweeps-continue-despite-court-order-call-on-judge-to-rein-city-in\">injunction against encampment sweeps\u003c/a>.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘When you have that increased street homelessness, in particular, you get this pressure for increased short-term, quick-fix kind of solutions. People want folks out of sight, out of mind.’",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>Building more temporary shelters, then, is a pathway to gain the legal go-ahead to conduct more encampment sweeps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So while California is home to 30% of the U.S. unhoused population, the shift in funding allocation to favor temporary shelter is a national one.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eric Tars, legal director of the National Homelessness Law Center, said in addition to the push being seen in Democratic California cities, many red states are contemplating the adoption of model legislation to put more funding toward short-term housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you have that increased street homelessness, in particular, you get this pressure for increased short-term, quick-fix kind of solutions. People want folks out of sight, out of mind. And so our elected officials are under pressure to kind of get those quick results,” Tars said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he doesn’t think shelters are unnecessary — far from it — he does think the budget reallocations are shortsighted, and will actually increase homelessness rates in the long term.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>\u003cstrong>Budget challenges ahead sharpen the debate\u003c/strong>\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Advocates involved in homelessness policy expect the tug-of-war between permanent and temporary housing to intensify — infusing future debates over shrinking local budgets and any attempts to bolster city coffers with new tax or bond money.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, long-term budget projections are far from rosy. The Mayor’s Office confirmed its budget proposal still has structural deficits that will remain in future years and has large amounts of deficits plugged by one-time funding sources. The San Francisco Board of Supervisors is expected to debate the budget with the mayor throughout June and put forward a compromise budget proposal by July.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11953073\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 1920px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11953073\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut.jpg\" alt='A man with a beard wearing a suit and tie stands behind a podium labeled, \"San José Capital of Silicon Valley.\" He is surrounded by people holding various signs. Some read, \"Protect our Democracy.\"' width=\"1920\" height=\"1182\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-800x493.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-1020x628.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-160x99.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS61499_IMG_4613-qut-1536x946.jpg 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1920px) 100vw, 1920px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan said that conversations with fellow mayors have led him to believe a broader ‘rebalancing’ of homelessness spending priorities is underway. ‘I believe this is a trend across the state,’ he said. ‘I suspect that we will see federal, state and county sources shift toward the solutions that are faster and more cost-effective and help us scale solutions.’ \u003ccite>(Guy Marzorati/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>The debate over homelessness spending in San José hinged on money created by Measure E, a voter-approved tax on expensive home sales in the city. Mahan proposed spending $40 million in Measure E funds on short-term solutions such as prefabricated homes and parking lots for RV dwellers. When that plan was voted down, he joined a council majority to support putting $29 million toward those interim programs — leaving the largest share of city homelessness dollars for permanent housing.\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/span>David Low, director of policy and communications for the nonprofit Destination: Home, said those funds are vital for the half-dozen permanent affordable housing projects awaiting Measure E funding next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We have affordable housing projects ready to go, and without that funding, we will see further delays, increased costs, at a time we can afford neither, or the very serious risk that some of these projects will all fall apart together,” said Low, a former senior adviser to San José’s previous mayor, Sam Liccardo. “So it’s that real-world trade-off and that real-world opportunity we have to build more affordable housing that we don’t want to lose.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Those trade-offs are likely to dominate future budget discussions across the region and state, particularly as cities grapple with diminished general fund resources, said Lane, with SPUR.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The push and pull between permanent and temporary housing will animate discussions about state housing aid from the Legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom. And the fight could be a key factor in determining the shape of a regional housing bond that could go before Bay Area voters next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“To show that we actually have a way that we can move people from off the streets ultimately into permanent affordable housing … interim and mid-term types of solutions have to be a key part of that,” Lane said. “And I think that the voters will expect to see that as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tomiquia Moss, CEO of the nonprofit All Home, sees the injection of new revenue as an opportunity to break the growing homelessness policy binary. Her organization works with elected officials, businesses and nonprofits across the Bay Area to promote regional strategies to reduce homelessness. At the core is a belief in concurrent investments in both temporary and permanent housing, in addition to aid for renters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tax and bond measures are no easy lift, particularly across a nine-county region. But Moss, who previously worked for Mayors Ed Lee in San Francisco and Libby Schaaf in Oakland, said such an initiative could unlock that full portfolio of solutions — and unite the factions of homelessness spending around a single cause.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That, to me, is where you are growing the pie,” Moss added. “You are not robbing Peter to pay Paul. You are increasing resources for the entire region.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>San José’s city council approved a budget Tuesday that aims to reduce street homelessness by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942734/emergency-calls-complaints-are-down-near-san-joses-temporary-housing-sites-so-why-are-they-still-so-politically-risky\">shifting millions of dollars from permanent to temporary housing\u003c/a> — though the council rejected a larger pivot toward shelter funding advocated by Mayor Matt Mahan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final vote on the city’s $5.2 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949797/in-controversial-plan-san-jose-mayor-seeks-to-use-homelessness-dollars-to-build-more-temporary-shelters-instead-of-permanent-housing\">came after weeks of debate over homelessness spending\u003c/a>. Mahan, who campaigned on a promise of reducing encampments, used this budget to argue that more prefabricated housing was needed to move the city’s 4,411 unsheltered residents off the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many of his colleagues on the council feared that pulling money away from the construction of permanent housing would lead to affordable apartment projects dying on the vine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Dontae Lartigue, founder and CEO, Razing the Bar\"]‘The problem is we’re not investing in the people that call San José their home, that were born here in this city and they can’t afford to live here.’[/pullquote]At the heart of the debate was how to spend $87 million in dedicated homelessness dollars left over from the current and previous fiscal years. Those funds were created through the passage of Measure E, an initiative passed by voters in 2020 that levies a tax on home sales of $2 million or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The compromise reached after hours of negotiation on the council dais will put one-quarter of the unspent homelessness dollars, roughly $22 million, toward developing and operating temporary housing and shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We still have the full commitment to the low-income affordable housing that I think the voters wanted us to have,” said Councilmember David Cohen, who brokered the final deal, in an interview after the vote. “But it’s clear also that the residents in San José want swift and meaningful action for people who are unsheltered on the streets, and supporting interim housing is going to help us get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, the spending approved Tuesday allocates $93.2 million to build permanent affordable housing across a variety of income levels, $29.1 million for temporary housing and $7.4 million on aid and assistance for renters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan’s plan, which would have put $33 million in unspent Measure E funds toward short-term housing, was voted down by the council. While the mayor was able to find consensus around the idea that unhoused residents need faster, cheaper exit ramps out of encampments and creek beds, he couldn’t build a coalition to support anything more than a modest redirection of funds toward temporary units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11952937\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11952937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with a maroon sweater smiles as he looks past the camera. He has salt and pepper hair and is standing outdoors with trees behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan in San José on Nov. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Certainly disappointed it wasn’t more and I think we’ll be back to this conversation next year,” Mahan said. “But I think it’s certainly a move in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11949797,news_11942734\" label=\"Related Posts\"]Fierce pushback from the council and housing advocates has forced Mahan to pare back his proposals throughout the spring. Earlier this month, the mayor jettisoned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949797/in-controversial-plan-san-jose-mayor-seeks-to-use-homelessness-dollars-to-build-more-temporary-shelters-instead-of-permanent-housing\">a plan that would have eliminated future Measure E funding\u003c/a> for permanent housing. Tuesday’s agreement distributes homelessness dollars in the upcoming 2023–24 fiscal year under the existing formula, putting roughly three-quarters of the $50 million in expected revenue toward constructing affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who represents East San José, said the mayor’s shelter strategy was being driven by short-term politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should not be considering quick wins that lack the investment necessary to impact lasting change,” Ortiz said. “It’s not the city council’s job to complete campaign promises or to help officials get reelected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949856\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11949856\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A bunk bed with black frame and mattresses covered in navy sheets is inside a small shipping container that was converted into temporary housing. A yellow door and a sink are seen just behind the bunk bed.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of a family home at Evans Lane, an interim housing facility located on city-owned land in San José, on Jan. 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s vote doesn’t answer the longer-term question of how to pay for all the homeless housing San José leaders are hoping to build. The city currently operates six interim housing sites with 628 beds, and is planning for many more. An analysis from San José’s budget director found that costs for temporary housing will begin to outpace dedicated funding by the end of the decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the long haul, we’re going to have to dip into the general fund, unless we have a good economy and money keeps on coming in or we find alternative sources of funding,” said Councilmember Rosemary Kamei.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thus far, the slowing economy has had less impact on San José’s budget compared to the Bay Area’s other large cities. San José is entering the new fiscal year with a modest projected surplus of $35 million. Most of that windfall — $18.8 million — will be socked away for the next fiscal year, when city analysts project a deficit of that amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan has had no problem getting approval for his other top spending priority: hiring more officers in the San José Police Department, in hopes of lowering response times to 911 calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His request has created 31 new positions, including 17 officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant with a projected start date of February 2025. Six new community service officers, who typically respond to lower-priority calls such as petty theft and vandalism, will be assigned to downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents who turned out to Tuesday’s meeting largely focused their comments on homelessness spending. That followed more than five hours of public comment on Measure E plans on Monday evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dontae Lartigue, who runs Razing the Bar, a nonprofit providing mentoring for transitional-age youth, told the council that he’s benefited from living in subsidized housing for the last 11 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is we’re not investing in the people that call San José their home, that were born here in this city and they can’t afford to live here,” Lartigue said. “If we stop investing in permanent supportive housing and try to divert funds into interim housing, we’re going to run into big problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José resident Jenice Condie urged the council to get behind Mahan’s reallocation and give him an opportunity to realize a top campaign promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it doesn’t work, we can always vote him out next time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>San José’s city council approved a budget Tuesday that aims to reduce street homelessness by \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11942734/emergency-calls-complaints-are-down-near-san-joses-temporary-housing-sites-so-why-are-they-still-so-politically-risky\">shifting millions of dollars from permanent to temporary housing\u003c/a> — though the council rejected a larger pivot toward shelter funding advocated by Mayor Matt Mahan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The final vote on the city’s $5.2 billion spending plan for the fiscal year beginning July 1 \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949797/in-controversial-plan-san-jose-mayor-seeks-to-use-homelessness-dollars-to-build-more-temporary-shelters-instead-of-permanent-housing\">came after weeks of debate over homelessness spending\u003c/a>. Mahan, who campaigned on a promise of reducing encampments, used this budget to argue that more prefabricated housing was needed to move the city’s 4,411 unsheltered residents off the streets.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But many of his colleagues on the council feared that pulling money away from the construction of permanent housing would lead to affordable apartment projects dying on the vine.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>At the heart of the debate was how to spend $87 million in dedicated homelessness dollars left over from the current and previous fiscal years. Those funds were created through the passage of Measure E, an initiative passed by voters in 2020 that levies a tax on home sales of $2 million or more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The compromise reached after hours of negotiation on the council dais will put one-quarter of the unspent homelessness dollars, roughly $22 million, toward developing and operating temporary housing and shelter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We still have the full commitment to the low-income affordable housing that I think the voters wanted us to have,” said Councilmember David Cohen, who brokered the final deal, in an interview after the vote. “But it’s clear also that the residents in San José want swift and meaningful action for people who are unsheltered on the streets, and supporting interim housing is going to help us get there.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, the spending approved Tuesday allocates $93.2 million to build permanent affordable housing across a variety of income levels, $29.1 million for temporary housing and $7.4 million on aid and assistance for renters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan’s plan, which would have put $33 million in unspent Measure E funds toward short-term housing, was voted down by the council. While the mayor was able to find consensus around the idea that unhoused residents need faster, cheaper exit ramps out of encampments and creek beds, he couldn’t build a coalition to support anything more than a modest redirection of funds toward temporary units.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11952937\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11952937\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A white man with a maroon sweater smiles as he looks past the camera. He has salt and pepper hair and is standing outdoors with trees behind him.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/06/RS59960_025_KQED_MattMahanSanJose_11082022-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">San José Mayor Matt Mahan in San José on Nov. 8, 2022. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“Certainly disappointed it wasn’t more and I think we’ll be back to this conversation next year,” Mahan said. “But I think it’s certainly a move in the right direction.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>Fierce pushback from the council and housing advocates has forced Mahan to pare back his proposals throughout the spring. Earlier this month, the mayor jettisoned \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11949797/in-controversial-plan-san-jose-mayor-seeks-to-use-homelessness-dollars-to-build-more-temporary-shelters-instead-of-permanent-housing\">a plan that would have eliminated future Measure E funding\u003c/a> for permanent housing. Tuesday’s agreement distributes homelessness dollars in the upcoming 2023–24 fiscal year under the existing formula, putting roughly three-quarters of the $50 million in expected revenue toward constructing affordable housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Councilmember Peter Ortiz, who represents East San José, said the mayor’s shelter strategy was being driven by short-term politics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We should not be considering quick wins that lack the investment necessary to impact lasting change,” Ortiz said. “It’s not the city council’s job to complete campaign promises or to help officials get reelected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_11949856\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-11949856\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-800x533.jpg\" alt=\"A bunk bed with black frame and mattresses covered in navy sheets is inside a small shipping container that was converted into temporary housing. A yellow door and a sink are seen just behind the bunk bed.\" width=\"800\" height=\"533\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-800x533.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-1020x680.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-160x107.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2023/05/RS62452_022_KQED_SanJoseInterimHousing_01302023-qut.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The interior of a family home at Evans Lane, an interim housing facility located on city-owned land in San José, on Jan. 30, 2023. \u003ccite>(Beth LaBerge/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Tuesday’s vote doesn’t answer the longer-term question of how to pay for all the homeless housing San José leaders are hoping to build. The city currently operates six interim housing sites with 628 beds, and is planning for many more. An analysis from San José’s budget director found that costs for temporary housing will begin to outpace dedicated funding by the end of the decade.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Over the long haul, we’re going to have to dip into the general fund, unless we have a good economy and money keeps on coming in or we find alternative sources of funding,” said Councilmember Rosemary Kamei.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Thus far, the slowing economy has had less impact on San José’s budget compared to the Bay Area’s other large cities. San José is entering the new fiscal year with a modest projected surplus of $35 million. Most of that windfall — $18.8 million — will be socked away for the next fiscal year, when city analysts project a deficit of that amount.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Mahan has had no problem getting approval for his other top spending priority: hiring more officers in the San José Police Department, in hopes of lowering response times to 911 calls.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>His request has created 31 new positions, including 17 officers, two sergeants and one lieutenant with a projected start date of February 2025. Six new community service officers, who typically respond to lower-priority calls such as petty theft and vandalism, will be assigned to downtown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Residents who turned out to Tuesday’s meeting largely focused their comments on homelessness spending. That followed more than five hours of public comment on Measure E plans on Monday evening.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dontae Lartigue, who runs Razing the Bar, a nonprofit providing mentoring for transitional-age youth, told the council that he’s benefited from living in subsidized housing for the last 11 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem is we’re not investing in the people that call San José their home, that were born here in this city and they can’t afford to live here,” Lartigue said. “If we stop investing in permanent supportive housing and try to divert funds into interim housing, we’re going to run into big problems.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San José resident Jenice Condie urged the council to get behind Mahan’s reallocation and give him an opportunity to realize a top campaign promise.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If it doesn’t work, we can always vote him out next time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and … housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are trying to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240ACA10\">enshrine the right to housing\u003c/a> in the state’s constitution. But what exactly does that mean in a state that lacks the resources to give everyone a roof over their heads? Supporters say the constitutional amendment would hold state and local officials more accountable for solving California’s homelessness crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a way to make sure elected officials and the government does its job and doesn’t continue to fail so miserably in ensuring access to housing for all,” said the author of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/matt-haney-1982/\">San Francisco Democrat Matt Haney\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote size=\"medium\" align=\"right\" citation=\"Ann Owens, sociology professor, University of Southern California\"]‘You can have this constitutional amendment, but what happens when you don’t actually have the money to provide it?’[/pullquote]But the language of the measure is brief and vague, and doesn’t specify what a right to housing entails or how it would be enforced. Some critics worry the amendment wouldn’t do much. Others fear it would do too much — with unintended consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While several prior attempts to create a right to housing in California failed, this one recently passed its first committee vote. Even if it passes, the proposed amendment would still need approval from California voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What would a right to housing do?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The proposed amendment recognizes the fundamental right to “adequate housing” for everyone in California. Local and state lawmakers must work toward fulfilling that right “by all appropriate means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about it. What that looks like in practice and how it is enforced would be hammered out by local officials and the courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney, one of the few state legislators who rents rather than owns a home, called the measure a “game changer” during a recent rally in front of the Capitol. He was backed by several dozen people carrying signs that read “Housing is a human right” and “Keep families home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the amendment could influence local planning decisions, such as by empowering lawsuits against zoning rules or policy decisions that restrict affordable housing development. It could also help the state enforce existing pro-housing laws, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10889597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10889597 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A grimy, wet sidewalk lines an asphalt strip of road bordered by a cement railing, elevated alongside a neighboring building. In the foreground is an olive green tent, and beyond it, down the sidewalk, is a bright orange tent.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents pitched on Florida Street, north of 16th Street, in the northeastern corner of the Mission District. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Michael Tubbs, former mayor of Stockton and now an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, a right to housing also would require the government to regulate landlords, potentially by enacting rent control or tenant anti-harassment policies, or guaranteeing renters a right to counsel during evictions. It also would create an obligation for the government to budget for housing programs, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/housing-crisis-california-constitution-amendment/\">he wrote in a recent op-ed for CalMatters\u003c/a>. Newsom has not endorsed the right-to-housing amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What would a ‘right to housing’ cost California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Declaring a right to housing wouldn’t immediately solve California’s homelessness crisis, Haney acknowledged, nor would it require cities to provide housing to everyone or entitle people to free housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades of under-building have led to soaring housing prices and more people living on the streets. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-exodus-housing-cost/\">The state needed to build 220,000 new homes per year\u003c/a> for two decades to meet its population’s needs, California’s Department of Housing and Community Development estimated in 2000. Last year, the state added just 113,130.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[aside postID=\"news_11950199,news_11949978,news_11950483\" label=\"Related Posts\"]As a result, rents are unaffordable for many Californians. The median rent for a two-bedroom home in San José, for example, is $3,100, according to Zillow. It’s the same in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ann Owens, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California specializing in social inequality and housing, believes everyone has a right to housing. But she’s not sure how much good putting it in the state’s constitution will do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The resources part, I think, is where the right to housing often hits a wall,” she said. “You can have this constitutional amendment, but what happens when you don’t actually have the money to provide it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AB-2405.pdf\">vetoed a bill that would have guaranteed a right to housing (PDF)\u003c/a>, citing its estimated price tag of more than $10 billion a year. An analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee laid out billions in potential costs for state agencies to design programs and connect people with housing and other services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s amendment doesn’t yet have a cost estimate. California \u003ca href=\"https://calneeds.csh.org/\">would have to spend $8.1 billion a year for the next dozen years\u003c/a> to house all its unhoused residents, according to a 2022 analysis by the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the California Housing Partnership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, several lawmakers expressed concern that a right to housing would go too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/joe-patterson-1982/\">Joe Patterson, a Granite Bay Republican\u003c/a>, voted against the measure in committee last week. He said he’s “really scared” about the leeway California’s judges would have when interpreting a right to housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/jesse-gabriel-1981/\">Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat from Woodland Hills\u003c/a> and an attorney, worried it would subject every budget decision the Legislature makes to litigation. If legislators allocate money to clean energy or health care, he asked, could someone sue because that money wasn’t being spent on housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The major, major heartburn I’m having right now is around enforcement and implementation of this,” he said, though he ended up voting for the amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney dismissed Gabriel’s argument as a “straw man if there ever was one.” But he promised to work with legislators, constitutional experts and housing leaders to address his colleagues’ concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure narrowly passed the Assembly’s housing committee and next must clear appropriations.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California renter groups back amendment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If this idea makes it onto the ballot and voters OK it, California would become the first U.S. state to legally recognize a right to housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a really big deal,” said Eric Tars, legal director for the National Homelessness Law Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not for lack of trying that it hasn’t been done before. Attempts in 2020 and in 2022 to put the right in the state constitution both failed — neither was heard in committee. And \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/12/california-homeless-housing-podcast/\">Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg proposed a right to housing\u003c/a> in his city, paired with an obligation for unhoused people to accept a bed when it was offered, but it didn’t get far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new state proposal likely will meet the same fate, said political consultant Steven Maviglio, who served as spokesperson for the campaign against \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/election-2020-guide/proposition-21-rent-control/\">California’s Proposition 21 rent control initiative\u003c/a> in 2020. Local officials likely will balk at the cost, he said, as will individual homeowners worried about tax increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see it having a very long future,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 housing and renter advocacy groups and other organizations support the amendment, which is co-sponsored by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action, ACLU California Action, Abundant Housing LA and several others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No organizations are on the record opposing the amendment, but the League of California Cities has expressed reservations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal Cities has concerns with ACA 10, as it does not include the significant investment needed from the state to jumpstart the construction of sorely needed affordable housing throughout California,” Jason Rhine, assistant director of legislative affairs said in an emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s next?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To make it onto the March 2024 primary ballot, the right-to-housing amendment must pass the Legislature before it adjourns in mid-September. To hit the November 2024 ballot, it has until June 2024. It needs a two-thirds vote in both houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hearing the feedback from his colleagues Wednesday, Haney said it might take longer than this year to pass his measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not trying to rush this just to force it to the ballot,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it does pass, Haney hopes it will help people like Peggy Pleasant, who spoke at the committee hearing on behalf of the amendment. The Los Angeles mother lost her job in 2008 and became unhoused, sleeping with her daughter in her car until it was repossessed. She eventually found housing, but recognizes she’s one of the lucky few who did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re homeless, you lose housing, whatever, you lose family members,” Pleasant said. “But you lose your hope. And when you lose your hope, that makes you an inadequate person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "More than 170,000 people are unhoused in California. Some Democrats want to make the state the nation's first to declare housing a human right, but opponents worry it would be costly.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness and … housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California lawmakers are trying to \u003ca href=\"https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billNavClient.xhtml?bill_id=202320240ACA10\">enshrine the right to housing\u003c/a> in the state’s constitution. But what exactly does that mean in a state that lacks the resources to give everyone a roof over their heads? Supporters say the constitutional amendment would hold state and local officials more accountable for solving California’s homelessness crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s really a way to make sure elected officials and the government does its job and doesn’t continue to fail so miserably in ensuring access to housing for all,” said the author of Assembly Constitutional Amendment 10, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/matt-haney-1982/\">San Francisco Democrat Matt Haney\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>But the language of the measure is brief and vague, and doesn’t specify what a right to housing entails or how it would be enforced. Some critics worry the amendment wouldn’t do much. Others fear it would do too much — with unintended consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While several prior attempts to create a right to housing in California failed, this one recently passed its first committee vote. Even if it passes, the proposed amendment would still need approval from California voters.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What would a right to housing do?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>The proposed amendment recognizes the fundamental right to “adequate housing” for everyone in California. Local and state lawmakers must work toward fulfilling that right “by all appropriate means.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s about it. What that looks like in practice and how it is enforced would be hammered out by local officials and the courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney, one of the few state legislators who rents rather than owns a home, called the measure a “game changer” during a recent rally in front of the Capitol. He was backed by several dozen people carrying signs that read “Housing is a human right” and “Keep families home.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He said the amendment could influence local planning decisions, such as by empowering lawsuits against zoning rules or policy decisions that restrict affordable housing development. It could also help the state enforce existing pro-housing laws, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_10889597\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-10889597 size-medium\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"A grimy, wet sidewalk lines an asphalt strip of road bordered by a cement railing, elevated alongside a neighboring building. In the foreground is an olive green tent, and beyond it, down the sidewalk, is a bright orange tent.\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-400x300.jpg 400w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet.jpg 1920w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-1180x885.jpg 1180w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/03/floridastreet-960x720.jpg 960w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Tents pitched on Florida Street, north of 16th Street, in the northeastern corner of the Mission District. \u003ccite>(Dan Brekke/KQED)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>According to Michael Tubbs, former mayor of Stockton and now an adviser to Gov. Gavin Newsom, a right to housing also would require the government to regulate landlords, potentially by enacting rent control or tenant anti-harassment policies, or guaranteeing renters a right to counsel during evictions. It also would create an obligation for the government to budget for housing programs, \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/housing-crisis-california-constitution-amendment/\">he wrote in a recent op-ed for CalMatters\u003c/a>. Newsom has not endorsed the right-to-housing amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What would a ‘right to housing’ cost California?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>Declaring a right to housing wouldn’t immediately solve California’s homelessness crisis, Haney acknowledged, nor would it require cities to provide housing to everyone or entitle people to free housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Decades of under-building have led to soaring housing prices and more people living on the streets. \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2023/05/california-exodus-housing-cost/\">The state needed to build 220,000 new homes per year\u003c/a> for two decades to meet its population’s needs, California’s Department of Housing and Community Development estimated in 2000. Last year, the state added just 113,130.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As a result, rents are unaffordable for many Californians. The median rent for a two-bedroom home in San José, for example, is $3,100, according to Zillow. It’s the same in Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ann Owens, a sociology professor at the University of Southern California specializing in social inequality and housing, believes everyone has a right to housing. But she’s not sure how much good putting it in the state’s constitution will do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The resources part, I think, is where the right to housing often hits a wall,” she said. “You can have this constitutional amendment, but what happens when you don’t actually have the money to provide it?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In 2020, Newsom \u003ca href=\"https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/AB-2405.pdf\">vetoed a bill that would have guaranteed a right to housing (PDF)\u003c/a>, citing its estimated price tag of more than $10 billion a year. An analysis by the Senate Appropriations Committee laid out billions in potential costs for state agencies to design programs and connect people with housing and other services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney’s amendment doesn’t yet have a cost estimate. California \u003ca href=\"https://calneeds.csh.org/\">would have to spend $8.1 billion a year for the next dozen years\u003c/a> to house all its unhoused residents, according to a 2022 analysis by the Corporation for Supportive Housing and the California Housing Partnership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, several lawmakers expressed concern that a right to housing would go too far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Assemblymember \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/joe-patterson-1982/\">Joe Patterson, a Granite Bay Republican\u003c/a>, voted against the measure in committee last week. He said he’s “really scared” about the leeway California’s judges would have when interpreting a right to housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/legislator-tracker/jesse-gabriel-1981/\">Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel, a Democrat from Woodland Hills\u003c/a> and an attorney, worried it would subject every budget decision the Legislature makes to litigation. If legislators allocate money to clean energy or health care, he asked, could someone sue because that money wasn’t being spent on housing?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The major, major heartburn I’m having right now is around enforcement and implementation of this,” he said, though he ended up voting for the amendment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Haney dismissed Gabriel’s argument as a “straw man if there ever was one.” But he promised to work with legislators, constitutional experts and housing leaders to address his colleagues’ concerns.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The measure narrowly passed the Assembly’s housing committee and next must clear appropriations.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>California renter groups back amendment\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>If this idea makes it onto the ballot and voters OK it, California would become the first U.S. state to legally recognize a right to housing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It would be a really big deal,” said Eric Tars, legal director for the National Homelessness Law Center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s not for lack of trying that it hasn’t been done before. Attempts in 2020 and in 2022 to put the right in the state constitution both failed — neither was heard in committee. And \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/housing/2021/12/california-homeless-housing-podcast/\">Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg proposed a right to housing\u003c/a> in his city, paired with an obligation for unhoused people to accept a bed when it was offered, but it didn’t get far.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The new state proposal likely will meet the same fate, said political consultant Steven Maviglio, who served as spokesperson for the campaign against \u003ca href=\"https://calmatters.org/election-2020-guide/proposition-21-rent-control/\">California’s Proposition 21 rent control initiative\u003c/a> in 2020. Local officials likely will balk at the cost, he said, as will individual homeowners worried about tax increases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I don’t see it having a very long future,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More than 100 housing and renter advocacy groups and other organizations support the amendment, which is co-sponsored by the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment Action, ACLU California Action, Abundant Housing LA and several others.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>No organizations are on the record opposing the amendment, but the League of California Cities has expressed reservations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Cal Cities has concerns with ACA 10, as it does not include the significant investment needed from the state to jumpstart the construction of sorely needed affordable housing throughout California,” Jason Rhine, assistant director of legislative affairs said in an emailed statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003ch2>What’s next?\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>To make it onto the March 2024 primary ballot, the right-to-housing amendment must pass the Legislature before it adjourns in mid-September. To hit the November 2024 ballot, it has until June 2024. It needs a two-thirds vote in both houses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After hearing the feedback from his colleagues Wednesday, Haney said it might take longer than this year to pass his measure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I’m not trying to rush this just to force it to the ballot,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If it does pass, Haney hopes it will help people like Peggy Pleasant, who spoke at the committee hearing on behalf of the amendment. The Los Angeles mother lost her job in 2008 and became unhoused, sleeping with her daughter in her car until it was repossessed. She eventually found housing, but recognizes she’s one of the lucky few who did.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When you’re homeless, you lose housing, whatever, you lose family members,” Pleasant said. “But you lose your hope. And when you lose your hope, that makes you an inadequate person.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
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"possible": {
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"radiolab": {
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},
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"title": "Rightnowish",
"tagline": "Art is where you find it",
"info": "Rightnowish digs into life in the Bay Area right now… ish. Journalist Pendarvis Harshaw takes us to galleries painted on the sides of liquor stores in West Oakland. We'll dance in warehouses in the Bayview, make smoothies with kids in South Berkeley, and listen to classical music in a 1984 Cutlass Supreme in Richmond. Every week, Pen talks to movers and shakers about how the Bay Area shapes what they create, and how they shape the place we call home.",
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"tagline": "Real stories with killer beats",
"info": "The Snap Judgment radio show and podcast mixes real stories with killer beats to produce cinematic, dramatic radio. Snap's musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see the world through the eyes of another. This is storytelling... with a BEAT!! Snap first aired on public radio stations nationwide in July 2010. Today, Snap Judgment airs on over 450 public radio stations and is brought to the airwaves by KQED & PRX.",
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"soldout": {
"id": "soldout",
"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
"info": "Sold Out: Rethinking Housing in America",
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