“In a raucous meeting that lasted more than six hours and drew hundreds of people, the City Council early Wednesday made Richmond the first city in Contra Costa County to enact rent control.”
More at Contra Costa Times
“In a raucous meeting that lasted more than six hours and drew hundreds of people, the City Council early Wednesday made Richmond the first city in Contra Costa County to enact rent control.”
More at Contra Costa Times
The best news I saw this Queer Freedom season was the San Francisco opening of “Jazzie’s Place”, amazing apparently the first homeless shelter for queer youth in the world.
Thanks to Gary Sponholtz for this great video of the ribbon-cutting event!
“Residents of the so-called Pigeon Palace, who have been resisting its sale for fear of a massive rent increase or eviction and out of respect for what they say are the wishes of its owner, scored a huge victory today when the Community Land Trust won the $3.28 million auction for the property in probate court.”
More at Mission Local
“The San Francisco Giants and a team of affordable housing advocates led by Supervisor Jane Kim have reached an agreement to increase to 40% the affordable housing component in the team’s Mission Rock development.”
More at SF Weekly
“Supervisor David Campos is making moves toward a proposal that would give the city the first shot to buy private property that goes up for sale in the [Mission] neighborhood or near BART stations.”
More at San Francisco Business Times
“From Monday, landlords in the capital [Berlin] will be barred from increasing rents by more than 10% above the local average. Such controls were already in place for existing tenants but have now been extended to new contracts.”
More at The Guardian
Why a Mission Housing Moratorium makes sense:
“A new report released Friday shows just how limited the land is in the neighborhood and what is likely to occur if development is not “paused,” helping to explain why Mission community leaders are fighting for the proposal.
There are currently 13 sites located in the Mission on which 40 or more units of additional housing could be developed, the report from The City’s budget analyst found. These are considered the key parcels for nonprofit below-market-rate developers who can receive federal funding for developments of that size.
Supporters of the moratorium want The City to buy these parcels. These sites could generate a total of 851 below-market-rate units. But if developed by private developers, just 102 of the 851 units would be offered at below market rate. And that’s only if the builders elect to meet The City’s housing construction requirement that 12 percent of the units on site are offered at below market rate. Developers can also pay fees to skirt that requirement.
There are also 324 sites in the neighborhood on which five or more units of additional housing could be developed. If all of these sites were developed, that’s 4,240 new housing units. Looking at historical trends, just 293 of the more than 4,000 units would be offered at below market rate.
In the past five years, 60, or just 9.6 percent, of the 627 units constructed in developments of all sizes in the Mission were offered at below market rate, the report said. The report also found that of the below-market-rate units built in the Mission between 2010 and 2014, none were for those of the lowest income levels, but instead lower and moderate incomes.
There are currently 90 developments comprising 1,227 new units planned for the Mission, of which 1,060 are covered by city development requirements. If developers include 12 percent of those 1,060 units at below market rate, that would be about 127 homes.”
More at SF Examiner
“…many housing activists consider the sponsorship a betrayal of SF Pride’s equality mission. They claim that Airbnb does not promote equality in a city where many lower income and senior LGBT people continue to face evictions and skyrocketing rents.”
More in the Bay Area Reporter.