Brief Summary of points raised at May 4th 2001 Conference held at Civic Center:
Assemblyman Joe Nation referred to the “exponential growth of affordable housing concerns in Sacramento.” After raising the issue of where will our teachers live he referred to the linkage between affordable housing and our transportation dilemma. He also mentioned that he did not believe the state could address the affordable housing issues “till they deal with state and local finance issues.” Cities being linked to strip mall development to finance themselves was part of the financing problem.
Nation referred to the Housing Bond Act of 2002 which provides for $1 billion in bond money to address housing needs. Although impressive sounding, this provides only $1,000 per family. The four objectives of the bill are to:
1) Provide emergency shelter
2) Provide rental housing
3) Preserve affordability
4) Assist first time homebuyers
Alex Amaroso of ABAG discussed the increasingly critical shortfall between needs and units delivered. The North Bay’s regional need would be 238,000 units and Marin’s share would be 6500 units. He explained that each community must plan for all categories of housing. “They must make housing feasible. They must plan for it, even if they do not build it.”
“Fiscalization of the land” was the term he used to describe why cities were doing malls, and big box building – so that they could make as much money as possible on the land. Fiscalization when combined with NIMBYism both contributed to our affordable housing shortfall.
Alex explained that if a city does not have a certified Hosing Element in their General Plan they open themselves to a possible lawsuit. With a lawsuit all development can be shut down in a city. To put some teeth into the Housing Elements state monies are increasingly being linked to cities providing affordable housing. (These have long been weak efforts and continue to be minimal efforts at best. Editor’s note) Alex mentioned CDBG grants being linked to a certified Hosing Element. “Community Amenities Funds” were being looked at in Sacramento wherein those cities who issued substantial affordable housing permits would be put into a pool for a $300 million dollar fund. These kind of programs were looked to as incentives wherein money is linked to housing production.
Elissa Giambastiani of the San Rafael Chamber opened her comments by saying that Marin’s number one problem was the shortage of employees. “If you can fog a mirror, you can get a job in Marin.” Consequently, many employers, such as Fair Issacs and Autodesk were looking elsewhere to expand their companies. Elissa gave several examples:
1) Allen Heating has none of their employees living in Marin
2) Kaiser must find jobs for spouses in order to attract medical people
3) One-half of San Rafael’s city workers commute into the city to work
4) School districts and police and fire struggle to find and maintain personnel.