Local elected leaders weigh in on scuttled housing bond measure

The Bay Area Housing Finance Authority made the decision to pull the $20 billion bond from the November ballot due to weak polling numbers.

photo credit: Travis Estell/flickr

Citing poor public opinion polls, last week, BAHFA, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority, made the call to pull a $20 billion bond measure from the November ballots of the nine Bay Area counties.

Elected officials from across Sonoma County sounded off with their thoughts to KRCB about the decision.

Santa Rosa City Council member Victoria Fleming represents Sonoma County and its cities on the BAHFA Board.

"On June 26th when we put it on the ballot, that was one of the happiest and best votes I've ever taken," Fleming said. "When we had to pull it last Wednesday to ensure that when it does go on the ballot, it does pass in the future, it was certainly one of the saddest days, one of the worst votes I've had to take."

Fleming said just because voters won't see the bond this cycle, doesn't mean the effort is gone for good.

"You never want to overload voters with bond measures on any one given ballot," Fleming said. "So whether it happens in...two or four years, I'm not sure yet, but I'm committed to bringing it back."

Lament for a lost opportunity has been common amongst local elected officials.

Petaluma Planning Commissioner and city council candidate Blake Hooper said he shares the sorrow that the multi billion dollar bond won't go before voters.

"We not only need more missing middle housing units for families, but we also need a lot of smaller housing units for our seniors," Hooper said. "[The bond] would've meant we could start looking at projects that are kind of like the projects that you would've seen built during the era of redevelopment in the state."

"Where the city's able to work with the community, start to pick and choose which projects really fit, fill our needs; and you're looking at affordable deed restricted mixed use projects," Hooper said. "You're looking at concentrations near transit hubs."

In Healdsburg the loss of the housing bond is far from abstract said council member Ariel Kelley.

"We have a couple projects right here in Healdsburg that are permitted, ready to go, and just awaiting funding," Kelley said. "It's over 150 homes for our low and very low income community; and so knowing how desperate people are for housing, knowing that they're looking to us for solutions and not being able to move forward at this time was pretty heartbreaking."

While Sonoma County Supervisor Chris Coursey noted that other pathways remain to get new housing built in Sonoma County and around the Bay Area, he said there's none quite like the now-dormant bond measure.

"There is not a single one of those ways that is going to produce, as this would have just for Sonoma County and eight of the nine cities, more than a half a billion dollars, [which] would've been produced by this bond," Coursey said. "I know that that's taxpayer's money, but the taxpayers should have a chance to decide whether this is an important enough issue."

Voters in Sonoma County and across the other eight Bay Area counties could see the BAHFA bond on their ballots in 2026 or 2028.