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Even with the 1.5 million homes that the Embarcadero Center indicates are needed in California (much fewer than McKenzie’s estimated 3.5 million), it is clear we need to increase our efforts to build housing. I agree with [the author] that just building more housing is not the solution – our focus needs to be on Affordable Housing accompanied with protections for tenants and small homeowners and policies that discourage speculation. As I have stated publicly, I am against wanton upzoning and don’t believe it will yield affordability for the average person. RoadMap Home avoids the very simplistic idea.

[The author] characterized the RoadMap Home report as a “project” and I’m not sure what [they're] getting at by using that word. The Roadmap isn’t an actual housing development nor is it a legislative package ready for a vote. It’s a demonstration of how complete our response to housing issues must be. I may not love every aspect of this plan but it is refreshing to see its wide scope and its focus on state support for local governments. This is the attitude that has been conspicuously missing from this discussion to date. 

RoadMap does endorse reducing two major roadblocks to the construction of Affordable Housing -- state funding and barriers for approval of affordable housing. In fact, there are many parts of the RoadMap that reinforce what Affordable Housing advocates have been saying for a long time: the state needs to do more to support local governments in their creation of affordable housing. Recommendation C6 calls for “reimbursing local government 50% of fee waivers or reductions for affordable housing” which would provide Berkeley with much-needed funds to create the affordable housing we need, not for speeding development. Federal funding has stagnated or fallen over the years, and Governor Brown’s dissolution of the Redevelopment Agencies have left many cities without the funding to make significant investments in affordability. In section A, the RoadMap advocates for providing local governments with flexible ongoing funding for a range of homelessness solutions (A1), empowering voters to support building affordable homes locally by setting the threshold for passage of housing ballot measures at 55% (A6), and initiating a $10 Billion state-wide housing bond (A3). In section B it calls for increased taxes on the wealthy (B2), closing tax loopholes (B3) and a reform of Proposition 13 (B4). Section D encourages the state to adopt many of our local tenant protections at a state level (D1), repeal or reform Costa-Hawkins (D2), and create new protections against housing discrimination (D4). These are all incredible boons to Berkeley and a reinforcement of actions this city already supports. 

Policy recommendations C1 and C3 both reduce barriers to building more Affordable Housing. C3 advocates for this, with a specific call out for exempting hotel conversions under Project Homekey, which would be a significant benefit to Berkeley. CEQA has ostensibly been about environmental concerns but the environmental answer is not to stop housing locally just to create more commuters. None of this can happen without strong objective design standards for Berkeley. This will be increasingly important under the new RHNA cycle and will help address many environmental and aesthetic concerns in new construction. 

RoadMap Home is endorsed by local housing advocates, including the East Bay Housing Organizations. It is a comprehensive package full of many ideas -- including some great ones.