[Illegal invaders thwarted...] $20 billion Bay Area housing bond pulled from November ballot

https://oaklandside.org/2024/08/14/20-billion-bay-area-housing-bond-
pulled-from-november-ballot/

In a “heartbreaking” blow to housing advocates, Bay Area officials on 
Wednesday yanked an upcoming ballot measure that could have generated $20 
billion for affordable housing across the region.

The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority Board, a regional government 
agency, voted just two months ago to place the unprecedented bond measure 
on the November ballot in nine Bay Area counties. 

The move was celebrated by advocates and many city leaders who’d been 
working on developing the measure for close to five years. Cities and 
counties have struggled to independently address their gaping housing 
shortages and ballooning homelessness crises.

Through the measure, Oakland stood to receive over $720 million, enough to 
build and preserve roughly 5,000 affordable homes.

But recent polling, lawsuits, conflicts with a related state proposition, 
and a devastating calculation error undercut the measure’s viability.

On Wednesday morning, the BAHFA board—including Oakland Mayor Sheng Thao 
and former Mayor Libby Schaaf—voted unanimously to reverse their decision 
and pull the measure. Today was the last day the board could withdraw it.

Polling has found that about 55% of Bay Area voters support the bond, 
significantly under the two-thirds “supermajority” threshold it needs to 
pass. To fund the bond, property owners would have been taxed at a rate of 
$19 per $100,000 in assessed property value.

“Bay Area voters remain in an anti-tax mood,” wrote Andrew Fremier, 
executive director of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, in a 
memo to the BAHFA board.

Proponents were counting on a separate state ballot item — Proposition 5 — 
that will ask voters to lower the threshold for bond measures to 55%. If 
the proposition passes in November, it will apply directly to any bond 
measures passed during the same election, making it easier for them to 
succeed. 

However, the state proposition is facing opposition. And if it fails, the 
regional bond’s chances are dashed as well.

“Given voter attitudes, it has been clear for several years that the Bay 
Area affordable housing bond’s viability is inextricably linked to passage 
of an amendment to the state’s constitution to adjust the vote threshold,” 
wrote Fremier in his memo. 

Anti-tax group Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association filed a lawsuit against 
the state, arguing Proposition 5’s language was misleading. Last week, a 
state judge agreed. The proposition may be rewritten, but this could make 
it less likely to pass. 

Thirteen voters also sued the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority and 
county election officials over the regional bond measure. The suit alleged 
the government under-calculated the annual cost of repaying the bond — by 
a margin of $241 million. BAHFA acknowledged the error and scrambled to 
correct it. Mission Local first reported on the debacle Tuesday.

At Wednesday’s meeting, a number of housing activists, nonprofit 
developers, and government leaders bemoaned the idea of abandoning the 
potential windfall for much-needed housing. Some urged the board to stay 
the course.

But even several leaders of the campaign for the bond measure recommended 
— tearfully in one case — taking it off the ballot. They said it now makes 
sense to go step by step, raising the voting threshold at the state level 
and then returning to the regional plan. They blasted the measure’s 
opponents as “extremists” and “anti-government activists.” 

“This is a really difficult day for the campaign side,” said Heather Hood 
of Enterprise Community Partners, a campaign leader. “We’ve had to think 
about the long run, and now it’s going to be an even longer run.”

The city of Oakland’s housing director, Emily Weinstein, called the demise 
of the 2024 bond measure “heartbreaking.” 

In addition to the funding that cities like Oakland would have received, 
the measure would have created a public bank that could invest in housing.

“Not having an ongoing source of funding is one of the biggest challenges 
for investment in affordable housing,” Weinstein told The Oaklandside, 
moments after the bond measure was pulled. 

She said the task now facing Oakland and others who supported the measure 
is to “increase the appetite for affordable housing and investment in 
affordable housing across the region.”

A speaker at Wednesday’s special meeting criticized the BAHFA board’s lack 
of transparency around its decision. The agenda item that led to the 
removal of the bond was simply labeled as an “update” on the state and 
regional measures.


-- 
We live in a time where intelligent people are being silenced so that 
stupid people won't be offended.

Durham Report: The FBI has an integrity problem.  It has none.

No collusion - Special Counsel Robert Swan Mueller III, March 2019.  
Officially made Nancy Pelosi a two-time impeachment loser.

Thank you for cleaning up the disaster of the 2008-2017 Obama / Biden 
fiasco, President Trump.  

Under Barack Obama's leadership, the United States of America became the 
The World According To Garp.  Obama sold out heterosexuals for Hollywood 
queer liberal democrat donors.

President Trump boosted the economy, reduced illegal invasions, appointed 
dozens of judges and three SCOTUS justices.