Election results and Friendraiser recap - Marin Environmental Housing Collaborative

THE ELECTION RESULTS MAKE FIXING OUR HOUSING CRISIS MORE DIFFICULT, BUT THAT WON’T STOP US.

A word from Jenny Silva, MEHC’s Board Chair

I, like many of my friends and family, am grappling with the implications of the election. The impact is extremely broad, but today, I’ll focus on the election’s impact on housing. This was a really tough election for housing.

Trump won the presidency. This means that the prospects of increasing or even maintaining federal funds for housing is low. Local tenant protection measures failed, even as evictions are up in Marin 80% this year over last year.Prop 5, which would have made it easier to pass affordable housing bonds, failed. Funding is currently the biggest obstacle to more affordable housing.Marinites want their local governments to address housing affordability. The need is severe. Currently, there are no viable housing options for households earning less than $65,000/year – that’s $32.50/hour with a 40 hour week and 2 weeks vacation. (For context, the median job listing on Indeed pays $50,000/year, or $25/hour for the same working hours.)

Policy makers advocate for the “3 Ps”

Policy makers have long advocated for a “3P” approach to affordable housing:

Protections to prevent tenant displacement,
Preservation of existing housing and,
Production of new housing.

Marinites say they want affordability, yet they voted against tenant protections and against making it easier to pass bonds, a potentially powerful tool for funding more affordable housing.
The election will make our work harder, but it doesn’t make it less important. Residents have not connected their end-goals with the means to get there. Marin’s housing crisis has been decades in the making. We won’t be able to fix it without meaningful policy changes.

I’ve heard a number of people lament about the impact of state housing laws, and suggest that maybe we should pull back. While there has been a great deal of angst over state laws, they haven’t produced much housing. During our March review, there were only 250 housing units in production in all of Marin. This is nowhere near the level needed to address the housing shortage. There have been more projects approved, but approvals have fallen far short of state goals, and many approved projects have not – and may not ever – be built.

Hoping more affordable housing will appear without funding or making it easier to build is a “thoughts and prayers” approach to the problem. We need to clearly communicate the changes necessary to build a healthy housing ecosystem.

The Housing Crisis impacts us all. We will all need to work to fix it.

— Jenny Silva, MEHC Chair

Local election results on housing measures

PROPOSITION 5 — NO

MEHC endorsed this measure.
It would have reduced the virtually unachievable threshold for approving affordable housing bonds from 67% to 55%. Funding is the biggest obstacle for more affordable housing, and this measure would have made it easier to pass local or regional bonds to fund housing.

PROPOSITION 33 — NO

MEHC did not take a position on Proposition 33, as we had concerns about whether its limitations on state oversight could be abused by local jurisdictions that oppose building more housing.

Results of local rent control measures…
Fairfax | MEASURE I — YES

MEHC opposed this measure. This measure repealed Fairfax’s recently- enacted tenant protections. It also repealed some of its long-standing protections and limits the Town Council from further legislating on tenant protections.

Larkspur | MEASURE K — NO

MEHC supported this measure. This would have provided stronger tenant protections for Larkspur residents.

San Anselmo | MEASURES N and O — NO on BOTH

MEHC supported these measures, which would have provided enhanced tenant protections for San Anselmo residents.

In summary, the election was a setback in our work for more affordable housing in Marin, But the need is still strong, and we ask all our supporters to join us in continuing the fight.