Register Today: South Bay Housing Roundtable with Elected Officials, moderated by Regina!
Join SV@Home, the Housing Action Coalition, Greenbelt Alliance, California YIMBY, and YIMBY Action for a discussion of South Bay housing hot topics with elected official representing us in a number of Santa Clara County jurisdictions and in Sacramento.
From 3:30 – 4pm Assemblymember Alex Lee (D-25) will be in conversation with HAC’s Executive Director Todd David.
From 4 – 5pm we’ll have Mountain View Mayor Lucas Ramirez, Sunnyvale Vice Mayor Alysa Cisneros, and Campbell City Councilmember Sergio Lopez in conversation with SV@Home Executive Director Regina Celestin Williams.
This event is free and open to the public.
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Silicon Valley Council of Nonprofits launches new discussion series: Housing Policy A to Z
Last week Silicon Valley Council of Non Profits (SVCN) hosted a kick off event to introduce a new series of discussions titled Housing Policy A to Z, which will pick up in March. SVCN has recognized that nonprofit leaders rate the ongoing affordable housing shortage as an extremely important policy issue that the nonprofit community should tackle. Partnering with the affordable housing community the series will dive into the components of the big housing policy decisions that our local governments will be making to have the tools to engage knowledgably as advocates on these issues.
At Tuesday’s kickoff event SV@Home’s Director of Policy, Mathew Reed, participated in a broad policy briefing and discussion with Jennifer Loving from Destination: Home and Nadia Aziz from the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, moderated by SVCN’s Kyra Kazantzis. The first deep dive session, Housing Planning Law = Big Housing Wins, will discuss the opportunities around the Housing Element Update process, and will take place on March 2, at 2:00PM. Panelists will include Aaron Eckhouse from California YIMBY, and Kalisha Webster from Housing Choices. Register here.
The second deep dive, Nonprofit and Community Ownership of Land, will address why community ownership of land in a housing crisis is important and how the debate will unfold at the City of San Jose in upcoming weeks. It will also answer the question: “what is COPA?!” The discussion will take place on Wednesday, March 9, at 2:00PM, and the panel will include: Andrea Portillo from SOMOS Mayfair, Huascar Castro from Working Partnerships USA, Aboubacar Ndiaye now at PowerSwitch Action, and SV@Home’s own Regina Celestin Williams. Register here.
The third and final deep dive event, Fighting Stigma Against Folks Who Need Housing, will address bias and prejudice against people who are unhoused and folks who need affordable housing. We’ll discuss possible narrative shift approaches as well as how to hold the public officials who perpetrate harmful stereotypes of unhoused people and people with disabilities accountable. This event will be held on Wednesday, March 16, at 2:00PM, and will include housing and homelessness policy advocates as well voices from the community. Register here.
We at SV@Home are excited about this series, which aims to broaden the knowledge and advocacy opportunities of new organizations and individuals on critical policy issues active right now. (It’s almost like a mini Affordable Housing Month in March.) We look forward to seeing you there.
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February HAC: Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA)
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The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) is a law that requires a landlord who wishes to sell their rental property to first offer it for sale to a Qualified Non-Profit. When a landlord wants to sell their property, they would first notify a list of nonprofits pre-approved by the city. These nonprofits have a certain amount of time to indicate their interest and then time to put together an offer for the property. The landlord is not obligated to accept the offer, but they usually must allow that nonprofit to match their preferred offer when it goes on the market.
This is a preservation policy designed to keep units affordable, especially rent controlled units that have lower rents than the market average due to age or upkeep.
In 2017, the San Jose City council set anti-displacement tenant preference as a priority, which expanded to developing anti-displacement strategies as part of its Housing Response Crisis Workplan in 2018. In 2019, the city council held a study session on the topic of displacement resulting in the Citywide Anti-displacement Strategy in 2020. One of the recommendations was to explore a COPA program. In 2018, the city applied for a “Challenge Grant” from the Partnership for the Bay’s Future with SOMOS Mayfair as a community partner. Through the Challenge Grant, the City has been able to create a draft framework for a COPA program. These policies have been presented at numerous formal stakeholder meetings (SAC and TAC) and community input meetings. With the feedback of these meetings, San Jose City Council will decide to adopt a COPA program at an upcoming council meeting.
Come learn more about San Jose’s COPA proposal, and share your thoughts.
Featured Speakers:
- Andrea Portillo, Orgnaizing and Policy Manager SOMOS Mayfair
- Kristin Clements, Division Housing Manager, San Jose Housing Department
- Aboubacar “Asn” Ndiyae, Partnership for the Bay’s Future Fellow for the City of San José
Moderated by Regina Celestin Williams, Executive Director of SV@Home
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New Statewide Organization Sees Housing as a Key to
Ending Poverty
Former Stockton Mayor Michael Tubbs has founded a new organization called End Poverty In California (EPIC). As the name suggests, EPIC is focused on ending poverty in our state and has an ambitious scope. We are thrilled that one of their focus areas is — you guessed it — housing!
EPIC’s approach broadly mirrors SV@Home’s 3Ps (Production, Preservation, Protection) approach to housing policy. It categorizes its work as (1) “Increasing the Supply of Affordable Housing” and 2) “Protecting the Especially Vulnerable.”
EPIC joining the fight to reform statewide housing policies to address ongoing segregation is exciting to see. In particular, this new nonprofit seeing solving our housing crisis as central to addressing poverty and inequality aligns with SV@Home’s mission and values, adding to the collective effort to improve the quality of life for low-income community members. SV@Home fully agrees with this statement from EPIC’s page on housing: “If California housing policies created the environment for housing costs to get so high and result in so much inequity, housing policies can also right these wrongs.”
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Two great new grant opportunities for groups working on creative affordable housing solutions
The United Way Bay Area is looking for applications for its community housing grants, as part of its Housing Justice Initiative launched in 2021. The goals are to increase access to stable and affordable housing, prevent homelessness, and address the racial wealth gap through programming, grantmaking, partnerships, and policy advocacy.
This round of grants are clustered in three categories:
- Support Local, Grassroots, BIPOC-Led Housing Organization
- Support innovative housing solutions
- Redressing racial wealth through pathways to homeownership
More details can be found in the Request for Proposals, and the grant application itself. Proposals are due to UWBA by February 25, 2022.
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The County of Santa Clara has launched its Community Development Corporation Grant Program, and will be accepting applications from non-profit organizations until March 4th. The intention of the Grant Program is to help community-based organizations (e.g., Community Land Trusts, Community Housing Development Organizations, etc.) play more substantial roles in acquiring, developing, rehabilitating, and/or managing properties to increase affordable rental and/or ownership housing opportunities (collectively, “affordable housing development”) in economically-disadvantaged neighborhoods, communities, or municipalities within Santa Clara County. Application can be found here. You must register to get access to the full application, but the registration is free.
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A new section of our newsletter devoted to highlighting SV@Home’s education and partnership-building work across Santa Clara County, as well as the work of the committed local advocates making change in their communities.
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(From L-R: Andrea Portillo, Emily Ann Ramos, Huascar Castro)
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Partner Spotlight: SOMOS Mayfair!
For our second entry in our new recurring series, we are highlighting the awesome work of SOMOS Mayfair, one of our San José-based partners.
SOMOS Mayfair is a community-building organization that focuses on organizing and developing leaders in East Side San José. Founded in 1997 to address the issues affecting the Mayfair neighborhood, one of the oldest neighborhoods in San Jose, and its predominantly low-income Mexican and immigrant families, SOMOS Mayfair expanded to respond to the needs of the wider community. United Farm Workers’ leader César Chávez once called Mayfair home, and it was the base for the first generation of the Chicano Movement in the 1960s.
One of SOMOS’s key priorities right now is an issue that SV@Home is also deeply involved in: the Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA). SOMOS is currently partnering with the City of San José to engage the community on all aspects of the public process to create and inform the proposed policy.
COPA is a city policy that would require an owner who wishes to sell their rental property to first offer it for sale to a qualified nonprofit. This gives City approved nonprofits a short time period to decide to put together an offer for the property. While the owner is not obligated to accept the nonprofit’s offer, they usually must allow that nonprofit to match their preferred offer when it goes on the market.
SV@Home is a supporter of COPA because it is a key preservation policy designed to create opportunities for keeping units affordable, especially rent-controlled units that have lower rents than the market average due to age or maintenance requirements. SOMOS Mayfair has been working on community outreach on COPA for the past two years as part of the Partnership for the Bay’s Future’s grant to address anti-displacement. SV@Home is proud to be part of their COPA Coalition.
On Valentine’s Day, SOMOS Mayfair hosted a moving event highlighting people who have been displaced from San José. Residents could walk or drive up and create a valentine to honor their neighbors who were displaced. The valentines were then placed on a cloth mural. You can see example photos above and below. Emily Ann Ramos, Preservation and Protection Associate, was proud to attend in support on behalf of the SV@Home team.
If you want to help SOMOS and the COPA Coalition, sign their petition to support COPA or join them at their office to canvas on Saturdays at 10am!
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#MembershipMatters
Become a member today and help us plan housing-rich, transit-oriented communities that are accessible to people of all incomes,
backgrounds, and abilities.
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Welcome to SV@Home’s Policy Rundown, your need-to-know overview of important housing policy actions and developments from the past two weeks
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Mountain View Advances AvalonBay Community’s 555 W Middlefield Road
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Last week, after a long discussion, the Mountain View Council moved forward AvalonBay’s 555 W Middlefield Road project while also adding a few more steps to be taken, including exploring a reduction of parking to save trees and updating the project’s transportation study. The Council’s 5-2 vote to advance the project signaled that Council acknowledges the work staff, the community, and the developer have put into the proposal. Because this was only a partial approval of staff recommendations, the project will return to Council for entitlement.
AvalonBay first proposed the redevelopment in 2016 and has worked with staff and the community to incorporate feedback into the design ever since. The project will add 323-units to the existing 402-unit apartment community without displacing residents, including 48 new deed-restricted homes. The addition of units without displacement will help a large number of families continue to call Mountain View home, while opening new doors for future residents.
SV@Home endorses the project and continues to advocate for approval of this residential development. We are excited to see the project advance, as it will bring much needed housing, at a variety of income levels, to the City.
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Board of Supervisors Approves Funding for Six New Measure A Proposals
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Last week, the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors approved the latest round of Measure A funding for six proposals in San José, Mountain View, and Sunnyvale. The proposals will create 758 new deeply affordable homes, rehab 30 units, and convert a hotel to 102 new deed-restricted affordable homes. The County also extended funding to support a motel shelter program for homeless families with children.
Our partners at Destination: Home report that since voters approved the Measure A Affordable Housing Bonding in 2016, the County has funded 41 developments to build 4,441 new homes throughout Santa Clara County. Nine developments (with 830 affordable apartments) are already open and operating. These nine developments have provided a new home for 1,640 of our most vulnerable community members. Eleven more developments (with another 1,280 new homes) are under construction, with seven of them on track to open this year.
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Celebrate Your Groundbreaking or Grand Opening with Us During Affordable Housing Month!
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If you are planning project groundbreaking or grand opening ceremony in the month of May, consider inviting us to help celebrate your housing accomplishments! SV@Home will highlight the housing milestone as a part of Affordable Housing Month through various media channels to celebrate your team’s accomplishment.
If you have a groundbreaking or grand opening ceremony coming-up, please let us know by contacting Rick Gosalvez (rick@siliconvalleyathome.org).
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Register Today for NPH’s Community Advocacy and Voter Engagement Certification Program!
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The Community Advocacy and Voter Engagement (CAVE) certification program, offered to all resident staff of NPH member organizations, is a professional development opportunity that provides timely and impactful training on how to become and work as an advocate in your community. Participants gain skills in affordable housing advocacy and community engagement strategies as well as obtain a basic knowledge of housing policy topics.
This is an exciting opportunity to help housing professionals learn how they can get more engaged in affordable housing advocacy. With election season right around the corner, this is a great time to get involved. Look forward to more information in the coming weeks from the SV@Home Action Fund, SV@Home’s 501(c)4, about upcoming events and activities for voters to learn about the importance of local elections to affordable housing.
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Town of Los Gatos: Development of Objective Standards for Streamlined Review of Qualifying Multi-Family Housing and Mixed-Use Development
Tuesday, February 22nd, 6:00PM
On Tuesday, February 22, 2022, the Town will hold a virtual Community Meeting to obtain public input for the development of Objective Standards for the Town. More information on objective standards is available online here.
In compliance with recent State legislation, the Town of Los Gatos is developing Objective Standards for the streamlined review of qualifying multi-family housing and mixed-use development applications.
The meeting will be held virtually via a Zoom webinar. The community is welcome to submit written comments to planning@losgatosca.gov. The public is encouraged to attend the February 22, 2022 Community Meeting at 6:00 p.m. If you are interested in providing oral comments in real-time during the meeting, you must join the Zoom webinar at:
https://zoom.us/join, Meeting ID: 895 5876 6077
Passcode: 096806
Or telephone dial: USA 877-336-1839 US Toll-free. Conference Code: 969184.
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City of San Jose: Draft Building Electrification Plan
Wednesday, February 23, 12:00PM
The City is ready to release a draft of the Building Electrification Plan. Join us to learn more about the Plan and provide your input.
Over the last year, city staff have been working to develop a Building Electrification Plan, a roadmap for electrifying homes and businesses in San José. We’ve worked with several community based organizations to develop a plan that prioritizes equity and focuses on making building electrification more accessible.
Approximately 34% of San José’s greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings. By switching from natural gas to electricity in our homes and businesses, we can significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, improve indoor and outdoor air quality and safety, and reach our goals under Climate Smart.
The draft of the Building Electrification Plan is ready for release! At this meeting we will:
- Introduce the draft of the Building Electrification Plan, including proposed policies and programs
- Provide an update on our timeline
- Provide details on how to provide public comment and input
Please RSVP for one of the webinars by registering for this virtual event. The webinars will be hosted at two different times to accommodate schedules but will contain the same content. We will also be raffling off a San José branded shirt and hat during these webinars.
The Draft Plan will be posted on the City’s Building Electrification Plan webpage on February 22nd.
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City of San Jose: Draft Building Electrification Plan
Thursday, February 24th , 6PM
The City is ready to release a draft of the Building Electrification Plan. Join us to learn more about the Plan and provide your input.
Over the last year, city staff have been working to develop a Building Electrification Plan, a roadmap for electrifying homes and businesses in San José. We’ve worked with several community based organizations to develop a plan that prioritizes equity and focuses on making building electrification more accessible.
Approximately 34% of San José’s greenhouse gas emissions come from our buildings. By switching from natural gas to electricity in our homes and businesses, we can significantly reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, improve indoor and outdoor air quality and safety, and reach our goals under Climate Smart.
The draft of the Building Electrification Plan is ready for release! At this meeting we will:
- Introduce the draft of the Building Electrification Plan, including proposed policies and programs
- Provide an update on our timeline
- Provide details on how to provide public comment and input
Please RSVP for one of the webinars by registering for this virtual event. The webinars will be hosted at two different times to accommodate schedules but will contain the same content. We will also be raffling off a San José branded shirt and hat during these webinars.
The Draft Plan will be posted on the City’s Building Electrification Plan webpage on February 22nd.
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Fighting Displacement in San Jose: A Community Conversation
San Jose Housing Element Community Meeting
Thursday, February 24th at 5:00PM
Join SV@Home to identify community housing priorities and focus on strategies to engage in San Jose!
Every eight years, cities throughout the state are required to update their Housing Elements to plan how they will meet their share of new housing development (known as RHNA, or the Regional Housing Needs Allocation). In the Bay Area, it is our turn to begin this new Housing Element cycle, which covers the years 2023 to 2031.
New to this planning cycle, local jurisdictions must demonstrate that they are using their Housing Element to combat discrimination, overcome existing patterns of segregation, and foster inclusive communities free from barriers that restrict access to opportunity based on protected characteristics such as race and ethnicity. HCD has recently released comprehensive guidance on how cities must incorporate the law, known as Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH), into their Housing Element.
Using fair housing metrics to allocate the Bay Area’s total housing need will help advance the AFFH mandate and create housing opportunities in resource-rich communities, many of which have a legacy of exclusion that must be overcome. Promoting greater housing opportunities in these neighborhoods helps advance regional priorities such as economic mobility, public health, and improved educational outcomes. This metric should be used to choose sites for all income levels, not just the low-income share of housing need, to ensure that more housing of all types is built where it is needed most. In this way, allocation based on access to high opportunity areas can also advance the requirement to increase housing supply & mix of housing types across all jurisdictions in an equitable way.
We want your input in San Jose! What are your housing priorities? What policies should the city pursue to ensure investment in under-resourced communities and opportunities for all in affluent communities?
Please register to receive the video meeting access link. Help grow the movement by inviting a friend or two to join you! All friends and advocates are welcome!
We will work together on concrete action steps and clear follow up.
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February HAC: Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA)
Friday, February 25th, 12:00pm
The Community Opportunity to Purchase Act (COPA) is a law that requires a landlord who wishes to sell their rental property to first offer it for sale to a Qualified Non-Profit. When a landlord wants to sell their property, they would first notify a list of nonprofits pre-approved by the city. These nonprofits have a certain amount of time to indicate their interest and then time to put together an offer for the property. The landlord is not obligated to accept the offer, but they usually must allow that nonprofit to match their preferred offer when it goes on the market.
This is a preservation policy designed to keep units affordable, especially rent controlled units that have lower rents than the market average due to age or upkeep.
In 2017, the San Jose City council set anti-displacement tenant preference as a priority, which expanded to developing anti-displacement strategies as part of its Housing Response Crisis Workplan in 2018. In 2019, the city council held a study session on the topic of displacement resulting in the Citywide Anti-displacement Strategy in 2020. One of the recommendations was to explore a COPA program. In 2018, the city applied for a “Challenge Grant” from the Partnership for the Bay’s Future with SOMOS Mayfair as a community partner. Through the Challenge Grant, the City has been able to create a draft framework for a COPA program. These policies have been presented at numerous formal stakeholder meetings (SAC and TAC) and community input meetings. With the feedback of these meetings, San Jose City Council will decide to adopt a COPA program at an upcoming council meeting.
Come learn more about San Jose’s COPA proposal, and share your thoughts.
Featured Speakers:
- Andrea Portillo, Organizing and Policy Manager, SOMOS Mayfair
- Kristen Clements, Division Housing Manager, San Jose Housing Department
- Aboubacar “Asn” Ndiaye, Partnership for the Bay’s Future Fellow for the City of San Jose
Moderated by Regina Celestin Williams, Executive Director of SV@Home
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Joint Venture Presents: The 2022 State of the Valley Conference
Friday, February 18th, 9:00AM
What is the State of the Valley Conference?
State of the Valley is an old-fashioned “town hall” meeting, a tradition at least as old as our nation’s founding, when concerned citizens met on the village green to mobilize for the challenges ahead. In that same spirit, Joint Venture’s town meeting convenes the entire region—concerned citizens and stakeholders, thought leaders and opinion makers, journalists, students and academics, our elected representatives and their professional staff, business leaders, labor and workforce leaders, venture capitalists and others—for dialogue and discussion about the Valley’s challenges and opportunities.
To inform the discussion our principal tool is the Silicon Valley Index, a nationally-recognized publication that has been telling the Silicon Valley story since 1995. The indicators measure the strength of our economy and the health of our community, highlighting challenges and providing a data-rich foundation for decision making.
How will State of the Valley work during the Pandemic?
As the pandemic stretches on, State of the Valley has adapted to be a hybrid event:
- The conference will take place live and in person at Stanford University for an audience capped at 300 people (masked, providing proof of vaccination). Those people will be seated at sponsored tables, and your organization can sponsor one of the few remaining tables by contacting the Joint Venture office. It goes without saying that the in-person gathering will conform to the official guidelines issued by the public health officers of San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. It will be canceled—even at the last minute—if the breakthrough variants flare up and health officials ratchet the standards upward.
- The event will be simultaneously broadcast to a sizable audience in the Bay Area and beyond, via Brandlive. Registration ($35) is simple with a credit card. Registered participants will receive access to 100 percent of the proceedings, the ability to chat and post comments, and a downloadable PDF version of the 2022 Silicon Valley Index. A few days before the conference online attendees will receive an email with all the details on how to access the virtual event.
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Harvard Joint Center for Housing Presents: Does Our Housing Stock Meet Our Accessibility Needs?
Friday, February 18th, 11:00AM
Many Americans who need accessibility features live in homes don’t have them. In this talk, Jennifer Molinsky, project director for the Center’s new Housing an Aging Society Program, will discuss a forthcoming paper, co-authored with Samara Scheckler and Whitney Airgood-Obrycki, that uses data from the American Housing Survey to explore the demographic characteristics of residents who have challenges entering, navigating, and using their homes. She will also discuss the types of housing where residents are more likely to have these difficulties, and policies that could make housing more accessible for the growing number of older Americans (and other people) who would benefit from such improvements.
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TechEquity Presents: the Affordability Crisis 101
Friday, February 18th, 12:00PM
Join us in an introduction to TechEquity: what our mission is, how we work, and what you can do to help address the Bay’s affordability crisis.
We’ll give a 101 on how we got into the affordability crisis we’re in and what’s happening in the housing + workforce worlds to combat it. For those that are new to TechEquity, this is a great primer to help you get plugged in over your lunch break.
This webinar is hosted on Zoom; register for free to get access to the webinar link.
We can’t wait to see you!
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League of Women Voters of The Bay Area Presents Solving for Housing: The Nexus of Housing Policy and Climate Policy
Saturday, February 19th, 10:00AM
As wildfires worsen, temperatures peak and air quality decreases, Bay Area communities are already experiencing the impacts of climate change. These challenges directly impact the caliber and number of houses available and to be built. This year’s LWV Bay Area annual educational day explores how we build more housing that is affordable while protecting critical natural and working lands. A resilient Bay Area requires the implementation of strategies at local and regional levels that can achieve multiple benefits. Our Solving for Housing webinar will take a holistic look at land-use strategies and decision-making involved in placing housing today at the federal, state and regional level.
Learn how leading environmental and housing advocates are coming together to create a more resilient California with nature-based solutions for how we use our land and equitably grow our cities. Hear state and regional experts like Thomas Silverstein (Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law) discuss Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing and Assemblymember Buffy Wicks (Chair of the Committee on Housing and Community Development) and Senator Dave Cortese (Senate Housing and Transportation Committees) discuss critical actions being taken to increase housing affordability and availability for all, while addressing climate challenges.
The panel Save the Planet with Land Use!—Alliance for Housing and Climate Solutions, features speakers like Sarah Karlinsky, SPUR author of Housing as Infrastructure; Amanda Brown Stevens, Greenbelt Alliance Executive Director and author of Resilience by Design-Resilience Playbook; and Graciela Castillo-Krings, Sacramento Advocates and advisor to Alliance for Housing; moderated by Melissa Breach, COO of YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard).
Experience interactive resilience demonstrations from the Resilience Playbook and the Cool Climate Network featuring Ben Gould (UC Berkeley Development) and Dr. Chris Jones (Director UCB and Lecturer at Haas School of Business). They will show you how to calculate your Green House Gas (GHG) emissions by census block and show your carbon footprint. Hear from California Department of Housing and Community Development (invited), state legislators and local elected officials explore the Housing Landscape in 2022-what’s happening now and on the horizon regarding policy, legislation and housing elements.
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Greenbelt Alliance Presents: The Environmental Case for Housing, part of the Resilience Playbook Series
Housing Policy = Climate Policy.
Tuesday, February 22nd, 5:00PM
In this first webinar of the Resilience Playbook series, Greenbelt Alliance makes the environmental case for housing and connects the dots between infill housing, transit-oriented development, and future climate risks. Based on the concepts, research, and policies featured in the recently launched Resilience Playbook, we will lead audiences through the case for accelerating adaptation to climate risks and conservation through housing policy in the Bay Area.
Join our Executive Director, Amanda Brown-Stevens, in conversation with Dr. Karen Chapple, Director of the School of Cities, Professor of Geography and Planning at the University of Toronto, and Professor Emerita of City & Regional Planning at the University of California, Berkeley to learn how cities can accommodate more housing while also conserving valuable lands that provide ecosystem services and the resources we need to adapt to climate change.
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SCANPH Presents Righting Past Wrongs: Redlining’s Causal Role in Shaping Southern CA Communities and the Movement for Land Reparations
Wednesday, February 23, 9:30AM
In recent times, localities throughout the country have been grappling with ways to right the wrongs of the past. The creation of a California State Reparations Task Force and local efforts to return land to displaced communities reflect the efforts being made. Join us on February 23rd as we take a deeper look into what actions can be taken at the state and local level, and how we as housers can play a role.
We will first have a presentation by Dr. Anthony Orlando, whose new book, “Keeping Races in Their Places: The Dividing Lines That Shaped the American City” explores the lasting impacts of redlining and the potential current day solutions. We will then hear from a fantastic panel on what land reparations mean for our communities, followed by a Q+A from the audience.
Moderator:
- Kelsey Brewer, Director of Government Affairs and Policy, Jamboree Housing
Speakers:
- Dr. Anthony W. Orlando, Assistant Professor in the Finance, Real Estate, and Law Department, California State Polytechnic University, Pomona
- Lisa Holder, Esq, LA Civil Rights litigator; Member of the State Task Force on Reparations
- Tara Barauskas, Executive Director, Community Corporation of Santa Monica
- Kristin McCowan, City Councilmember, Santa Monica
- Kimberly Morales Johnson, Tribal Secretary, San Gabriel Band of Mission Indians/Gabrieleno Tongva
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Terner Center Presents Hotels to Affordable Housing: Strategies for Conversion from Across the Country
Wednesday, February 23, 12:00PM
During the COVID-19 pandemic, unprecedented federal and state resources have enabled the conversion of motels and hotels into affordable and permanent supportive housing. Hotel conversions hold promise as a strategy to create housing more quickly and cost effectively than new construction, but challenges related to funding and community opposition remain.
Join the Terner Center on Wednesday, February 23 from 12 to 1 pm PT for a webinar that will highlight effective strategies and lessons learned from these approaches, as well as the policy changes that are needed to support the long-term success of conversion projects. Panelists will also explore how this body of work can inform the broader policy dialogue around affordable and permanent supportive housing.
Following a short presentation from the Terner Center on key findings from our recent paper, which was produced as part of the Housing Crisis Research Collaborative, a panel of experts will offer their thoughts.
Panelists include:
- Amy Anderson, Housing Affordability Philanthropy at Wells Fargo
- Matthew Mollica, Ending Community Homelessness Coalition (ECHO)
- Christina Mun, City of Oakland
- Mary Tingerthal, Tingerthal Group (formerly with Minnesota Housing)
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The Casita Coalition Presents Hot Topics in Small Housing: Garage to ADU Conversions
Friday, February 25th, 11:00AM
Join Casita Coalition industry experts for a free one-hour webinar that shares innovative solutions around this ADU hot topic!
The conversion of existing garages to self-contained accessory homes is a growing trend in the ADU industry. In some California cities, they represent more than 40% of all ADUs built. The potential to add housing in these often underutilized spaces is huge–but with each garage, a unique structure, so are the challenges. Join Casita Coalition industry experts for a free one-hour webinar that shares best practices and innovative solutions around this ADU hot topic.
Keynote Speaker: Dana Cuff, Director, cityLAB
Panel Moderator: Renee Schomp, Napa Sonoma ADU Center
Panelists:
- Florentine Christian, Founder & CEO, Sidekick Homes
- Carrie Shores-Diller, Principal Architect & Co-Founder, Inspired ADU
- Derek Ouyang, Founder, ADUO & City System
- Gracie O’Rourke, Director of Design, ADApt Dwellings
- Rolf Bell, Founder, Green Living Builders
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SPUR Presents: Coming to Terms with the Bay Area’s Parking Problem
Monday, February 28th, 12:30PM
Parking may seem scarce when you’re looking for just the right spot, but it’s actually one of the Bay Area’s most expansive resources. With 15 million parking spaces — enough to wrap around the planet more than twice — almost half of the region is devoted to driving or storing cars. Yet for decades, planners have operated blindly when they attempt to determine parking needs or assess the impacts of new parking policies. An unprecedented new SPUR and Arizona State University report quantifies the Bay Area’s glut of parking and details the negative effects that this exorbitant amount of space dedicated to vehicles has on the environment, marginalized communities and public health. Come learn more about the analysis and the strategies that cities should implement to help manage and convert our capacious supply of parking.
Generously supported by the San Jose Mineta Transportation Institute.
- Mikhail Chester / Arizona State University
- Martha Roskowski / Further Strategies
- Laura Tolkoff / SPUR
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Greenbelt Alliance Presents: Housing Elements 101, part of the Resilience Playbook Series
Tuesday, March 1, 5:00PM
After this webinar, you will understand why the Housing Element of the General Plan is so important and how to get involved in the process.
For years, California has required that all local governments (cities and counties) adequately plan to meet the housing needs of everyone in the community. To meet this requirement, they adopt Housing Elements as part of their General Plan (also required by the State).
California’s Housing Element law acknowledges that, in order for the private market to adequately address the housing needs and demands of Californians, local governments must adopt plans and regulatory systems that provide opportunities for housing development. As a result, housing policy and inventory availability in California rests largely on the effective implementation of General Plans and, in particular, local Housing Elements.
As we face an unprecedented housing crisis and cities dive into their Housing Element update process(which happens every eight years), Greenbelt Alliance is excited to work with our partners to advocate for a more sustainable, equitable future. Join us as we chat with Aaron Eckhouse, Regional Policy Director at California Yimby, on why the Housing Element is so important and how to get involved!
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