Continue the fun at our Houser Happy Hour after the conference! Join us from 3:30 PM to 5:00 PM to celebrate Housing Leadership Day at Alhambra Irish Pub (831 Main St, Redwood City, CA 94063), located around the block from the conference space! IMPORTANT: Space is limited and available on a first come, first served basis.

Sponsorship Opportunity Still Available!

Sponsorship benefits include:

• Logo placement on all print and digital HLD materials
• Ad/message of support in HLC’s social media platforms
• Complimentary tickets to the conference
• One-year membership to HLC

Confirmed supporters and housing heroes, activists, advocates and friends!!

Housing Elements Review 

Good morning and merry housing element review season! Over the past month, HCD has sent review letters for Colma, San Mateo, and Foster City. Over the next month, we’ll get more letters for San Bruno (which was actually due yesterday, we just haven’t seen it yet), Woodside, Menlo Park, and Atherton. 

Each city is special, and the letters HCD has sent are catered to the specific needs of each community. However, some common themes are emerging, as multiple cities made the same easily avoidable mistakes over and over again. For example, as part of the housing element process, jurisdictions are required to formulate programs that remove constraints to new development and incentivize affordable housing. These programs need to meet specific requirements, which Colma, San Mateo, and Foster City fell short of. Consider: 

• HCD wrote Colma “Programs must demonstrate … specific commitment to deliverables, measurable metrics or objectives, definitive deadlines, dates, or benchmarks for implementation” (page 12 of Colma’s review letter). 
• HCD wrote San Mateo “programs should include: (1) a description of the City’s specific role in implementation; (2) definitive implementation timelines; (3) objectives, quantified where appropriate; and (4) identification of responsible agencies and officials” (page 12 of San Mateo’s review letter).
• HCD wrote Foster City “To have a beneficial impact and achieve the goals and objectives of the housing element, program [sic] must have specific commitment [sic] and discrete timing” (page 11 of Foster City’s review letter). 

The ubiquity of these errors is all the more confusing because the Housing Leadership Council wrote public comments to all of these cities that said “In their housing elements, cities are required to implement new programs, and those programs must make clear commitments to change local policies in ways that promote fair housing with specific actions, timelines, and measurable metrics for success.” We cited HCD presentations and memos demonstrating as much! Now, Colma, San Mateo, and Foster City will need to spend months rewriting their housing elements, even as the deadline for compliance marches irrevocably forward. Jurisdictions ignore public comments at their own peril. 

Many of HCD’s comments request the city’s to provide more analysis: More analysis of the constraints preventing housing development, more analysis of relevant fair housing factors, more analysis of the sites on which housing is planned and their likelihood of redevelopment. Planning staff in many jurisdictions may be tempted to write a few extra paragraphs and resubmit to HCD in the hope that they won’t notice nothing has really changed. But jurisdictions cannot analyze their way to housing element compliance. At the end of the day, communities must take substantial actions to promote new housing, which can include raising revenue for subsidies, changing zoning standards for incentives, and dedicating land to support affordable housing. Housing elements that do not address these issues are insufficient from the Housing Leadership Council’s perspective.

At the same time as some cities are receiving housing element review letters from HCD, other cities are further behind in the process. San Mateo County released a preliminary draft earlier this week, which will go before the planning commission before being released for the 30-day public comment period later in the month. Other cities, such as Pacifica, are just starting their public input processes, which means they are months away from releasing a public review draft or submitting to HCD–a nerve wracking place to be when the January 31 submission deadline is rapidly approaching. The Housing Leadership Council will continue to provide support for communities that are struggling to pull their housing elements together. 

Opportunities to get engaged: 

• Oct. 10: Deadline to comment on Millbrae draft housing element
• Redwood City revised draft housing element released Sept. 9
• San Bruno revised draft housing element released Sept. 23
• San Mateo County planning commission draft housing element released Oct. 5

✧Join No on V - Protect Teacher Housing canvassing this weekend!✧

Protecting teaching housing allows us to create an integrated, diverse, multi-generational, and environmentally sustainable Menlo Park. That’s why we’re excited to let you know that Leah Rothstein will be visiting our city this Saturday for lunch with us! You are invited!

Leah supports No on Measure V because she understands that it would further segregate Menlo Park and make housing more unequal and unfair.

With your help, we can defeat this measure! Join your neighbors to knock on doors THIS SATURDAY and lunch with Leah!

Here are the details:

Celebrity Canvassing Event this Saturday (Oct 8): SIGN UP HERE

• Join your neighbors at Flood Park for canvassing and to meet Leah Rothstein, co-author of the upcoming follow up to the Color of Law: The Forgotten History of How our Government Segregated America. Hear from Leah herself about the book she is writing with her dad, Richard Rothstein, about policies to remedy residential segregation.
• Leah will join us to learn more about our campaign, visit the Flood School site, encourage us, and enjoy lunch together - we’ll provide Lulu’s chopped salad at noon on Saturday at Flood Park for hungry canvassers! Canvass before (9am) or canvass after (12pm and 3pm). Leah will be with us from 11:30-12:30 pm.

Can’t make it on Saturday? Sign up for Sunday!

✧ Peninsula Healthcare District - Peninsula Wellness Community, Burlingame ✧

Our partners at MidPen Housing will be co-hosting a community meeting next Wednesday, October 12 from 6 - 8 regarding the Peninsula Health Care District’s proposal to construct 377 senior homes. Of these homes 152 will be standalone affordable; with an additional 23 set aside to be below market rate homes by the private developer.

Click here to learn more about the meeting today! 

If you have any questions, please direct them to kchan@hlcsmc.org.

HLC Updates! 

✧Meet Jaina-Marie, our new Operations Manager!✧

What is Affordable Housing? Take a peek at our brand-new Affordable Housing in San Mateo County eBook to learn more. Our project features an array of diverse developments, organizations, and people who work, support, and live in affordable homes.

Want to read the PDF? Find it here!

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