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.

--
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