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Measure would fund more affordable housing

By Karen de Sa
Mercury News
October 03, 2006

In a state where many can't afford to buy homes and rents gobble up modest paychecks, voters are being asked to renew the largest affordable housing bond in U.S. history.

Proposition 1C on California's Nov. 7 general election ballot would authorize the state to issue $2.85 billion in bonds to build tens of thousands of homes and apartment units for people now shut out of the market.

The measure requires a simple majority to pass. It picks up where an earlier measure leaves off -- Proposition 46, a bond passed in 2002 that has paid for more than 100,000 new housing units, according to state officials.

Proposition 46 allowed seniors, families, farmworkers and the disabled to rent or buy homes with down-payment assistance. Emergency shelter beds for battered women and homeless people increased by 10,000, and people were able to move from armories, friends' sofas, public parks and cramped studios into permanent homes.

But Proposition 46 money is expected to run out next year. So dozens of non-profit groups and housing advocates are supporting Proposition 1C, the Housing and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2006.

"Prop. 46 prompted the construction of thousands of homes affordable to Bay Area families, and we expect a similar return through Prop. 1C,'' said Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group and the initiative's statewide co-chair.

Guardino said the proposition is crucial to Silicon Valley, where ``housing is an issue as important to CEOs in the boardroom as it is to families in their living rooms."

Proposition 1C is the smallest of several bonds in a $37.8 billion infrastructure package that would provide for highway and school building improvements, port security and disaster preparedness if approved by voters.

"We hope people understand the gravity of the issue," said Tina Duong, spokeswoman for the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. "Every time a new affordable housing project opens, there are 10 applicants for every unit and sometimes more. The need is so dire and these programs work -- so why wouldn't we continue funding them?"

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