Why All the Fuss About Affordable Housing?

I guess it all started about two years ago.  Novato, like other cities, needed to update its Housing Element as part of its General Plan Update.  New rules require greater specificity as to numbers and locations for affordable housing units.  A consultant was hired by the city to work on the project.

The consultant came up with a list of  recommended locations and that list was released to the public in advance of a public meeting.  Well, the mob scene at the old City Hall that night resembled the Bastille on July 14, 1789.  In response to the public outcry, the city fired the consultant and put together a citizens’ committee to address the issue.  Meanwhile, members of the public took sides, pro and con, and carried on an often contentious debate at public meetings, in the media, at Peet’s over coffee, at deBorba’s over a brew, and just about everywhere else around town.

The anti-affordable housing group, for the most part, has presented a cacophony of arguments to support their points of view.  Some say it will bring crime to the city.  Others say Novato has built enough affordable housing already.  Still others don’t want the city to do anything that the state requires. . Others state that it will lower their property values.   And some gave reasons that were too vile to repeat.  The late Gilda Radner’s character Roseanne Roseannadanna said it best: it's always something--if it ain't one thing, it's another.

The pro-affordable housing group hasn’t really said much. Their point of view, simply stated, is that we need homes for people that work here, young folks starting out, and for our aging population.

The arguments presented by the loyal opposition to affordable housing, while numerous, are weak and without much substance.

Affordable housing will not bring crime to the city.  All you have to do is google crime and affordable housing study and you will find study after study that indicates there is no connection between the two.  Wyndover Apartments has become the poster child for those attesting to the crime and affordable housing link.  There is no doubt that there was a problem there.  As I understand it, the difficulties were caused by a small group of troublemakers and have been addressed by our police department and property management.  The vast majority of residents at the complex are decent, law abiding folks who have been unjustly vilified by the outcry.

Novato might have built a large number of affordable units as part of the Hamilton development, but that same project saw the city tear down an even greater number of affordable units. The military family housing on the base and along Ignacio Boulevard was certainly a form of affordable housing.  Spouses and older children of military personnel were also a key component of our city’s work force, filling many of the lower paying retail and clerical jobs.  A total of seven percent of Novato’s housing inventory is affordable.  This is within the range of 5.5% to 7.6% that you find in the North Bay’s larger cities. 

I don’t know what to say about the anarchic cry for the city to defy state law.  Some folks seem to express greater contempt for the bureaucratic ABAG than they do for  Muammar Qaddafi.

Affordable housing could lower property values.  The real issue is not affordable housing per se, but what any structure looks like and how well it fits in with the immediate community.  This is true whether it is affordable housing, unaffordable housing, or a rendering plant. Novato puts developers through a gauntlet of Design Reviews, Planning Commission reviews, and City Council reviews in which the public can take their shots at the proposed structures.  Ugly affordable housing will hurt values; attractive affordable housing will not.  Density has nothing to do with it.

But there is more to this concern over property values.  Fear sells.  In fact, in difficult times, it moves to the top of the best seller list.   Over the past few years, most Novato homeowners have seen the equity in their homes diminish markedly.  A number of families are sitting on a fat mortgage that is under water.  Older folks who had counted on their home equity to fund their later years are worried if they can make it.  These conditions provide fertile ground for irrational reaction to anything perceived as a further threat.

The bottom line is that Novato needs more affordable housing.  We lack the resident workforce to sustain our business community with its large number of lower paying retail and clerical jobs.  Our new teachers, postal employees, and other service industry workers cannot afford to live here.  The rising cost of gasoline alone will eventually cut off the legion of working folks that commute fair distances into Novato from lower housing cost communities.  We depend on our retail establishments not only for our personal needs and convenience, but also for the sales tax revenue that our city so desperately needs to survive.

Well, now the citizen’s committee has completed their assigned task with mixed results.  Let’s hope that, in the end, our City Council has the leadership capability and the courage to do the right thing.