Over the past months, I’ve listened to City Council members at council meetings. I’ve talked with some of you directly. As a matter of shared values, we all agree affordable housing is a worthy goal. The question is how to get there.
That question is the hot potato. Community advocates have asked you to find a way. The question gets tossed back to us: “Tell us where you think funds should come from to dedicate $5 million per year to the LHTF for affordable housing.”
Here are possible ways to fund the Local Housing Trust Fund (LHTF). Please take a breath, look at them afresh, and help problem solve by offering alternatives.
How to Fund $5 Million
$1,500,000 Measure I: fund the Local Housing Trust Fund per staff recommendations
$750,000 Measure I: reallocate to the LHTF one-half the proposed $1.5 million for unspecified Housing & Homeless Services; or, increase this amount to $950,000
$800,000 Allocate projected Measure I surplus for FY26 into LHTF;
$1,000,000 Allocate expected Affordable Housing Fund loan payoffs to LHTF;
$1,000,000 Measure C: reallocate approximately 15% of Pavement Maintenance budget to LHTF in each of the next two years;
$750,000 Continue to freeze three police department positions that were not providing essential services when Measure I passed; and/or temporarily reduce City’s reserve policy for a 2-year period; and/or shave other non-essential Measure C budget items each by a small percentage to round out LHTF funding at $5 million.
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$5,000,000++
DEFER PAVEMENT MAINTENANCE: There are large Measure C allocations for Pavement maintenance (FY26 = $6 million; FY27 = $7 million).Find a way to safely defer $1 million of these (about 15%) in each of the next two years.
DEFER SOME POLICE COSTS: Very large sums are budgeted for our police department: Measure C includes a new police station (for FY26 & FY27, $13,957,927 and $12,757,927 respectively); and Police Equipment ($687,000 each year). In addition, Measure I’s draft budget includes additional 34 police positions for FY26 and FY27, $6,298,046 and $6,209,376, respectively, equal to 42 percent of projected Measure I revenues vs. 24 percent for Fire and 22 percent for Homeless & Housing.
While recognizing the importance of public safety, our community is not in the midst of a crime wave, but is in an affordable housing crisis. County-wide crime statistics show a continuing downward trend over the past 10 years. There is no urgency to unfreeze three police positions to maintain existing public safety. The police budget, considering its overall large funding, is not an unreasonable place to look for small compromises to achieve much-needed affordable housing goals.
Laurence Severance is a member of CLUE-SB’s Housing Justice Workgroup.
