MPNAH Campaign Manager Announcement

We would like to take this opportunity to welcome Alex Dersch to the Menlo Park Neighbors for Affordable Homes Campaign! 

If you haven’t done so already, please donate today to help stop a measure that, as indicated by an independent impact report commissioned by the Menlo Park City Council, will:

• Block affordable housing for teachers and school staff at the vacant site of the former Flood School site owned by Ravenswood City School District without a citywide vote.
• Lock in and exacerbate racial and economic segregation by blocking future homes in high opportunity neighborhoods which are predominantly upper income and white.
• Limit the city’s ability to plan for housing for people at a variety of income levels, in conflict with the city’s General Plan
• Put the city at risk of being sued by reducing our ability to affirmatively further fair housing (AFFH), as required by law (CA 2018 Assembly Bill 686)
• Block Menlo Park Fire District from redeveloping their headquarters without a public vote.
• Block Menlo Park religious organizations from redeveloping their properties without a public vote.

Housing Elements Review 

On August 3, the Redwood City Pulse released a major news story covering the rejection of Redwood City’s housing element by the state department of Housing and Community Development. The story heavily quotes HLC executive director Evvy Stivers and Policy Manager Jeremy Levine. Way back in March, Evvy wrote a letter to Redwood City regarding their draft housing element, and Jeremy followed up with a letter to HCD in June.

“We’re not trying to get cities in trouble; we’re trying to get cities to plan for affordable housing” –Redwood City Pulse Story

Shortly before the release of the Pulse story, HLC sent a housing element review letter to South San Francisco, on July 29. SSF’s housing element plans for more than 17,000 new homes, well above the total 3,956 required for the 6th RHNA cycle. The high number reflects the city’s recent “Shape SSF 2040” general plan update, which attempts to anticipate local housing need for the next 20 years. However, despite its admirable ambition to create new homes for two decades’ worth of new residents, SSF’s plan only accommodates 670 very low-income units, well below the city’s RHNA number of 871. 

SSF actually deserves applause for recognizing that it does not yet have capacity to meet the very low-income housing allocation in its draft housing element. Many cities manipulate their housing numbers in order to pretend they don’t need policy changes to support affordable development, putting advocates like HLC in a position where we have to expose those cities’ inaccurate statements and propose stronger remedies to the state regulator. 

On the other hand, SSF presents a credible estimate of its capacity, leaving more room for advocates to work more closely with the city in supporting its goals. HLC supports the city’s good-faith efforts to evaluate and address all housing needs, and we look forward to continuing to provide SSF support in planning for deeply affordable homes. 

Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition presents:
✧Annual Bike Summit✧

Silicon Valley Bicycle Coalition’s Annual Bike Summit is two weeks away! This year’s Summit will bring some great topics like future and innovations in e-bikes, women leaders in the world of transportation, various approaches to community engagement, non-infrastructure ways to get more butts on bikes and much much more. There will be speakers from the Bay Area, surrounding cities and states! 

HLC Updates! 

✧We are hiring an Operations Manager!✧

Are you or someone you know looking for a career in affordable housing? We are hiring an Operations Manager at HLC! Learn more at: https://hlcsmc.org/we-are-hiring/

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