Our volunteer, Brendan McCurdy, is an undergraduate student from the University of San Francisco working towards a degree in History and is from Portland, OR.
On April 5th, the Bill Sorro Housing Program (BiSHoP) attended a public Land Use Committee hearing for The Housing Balance Monitoring and Reporting Ordinance, an amendment that would require the San Francisco Planning Department to make a twice yearly report on the balance between newly constructed affordable and market price housing in the city. It would also require an annual hearing on environmental findings and strategies to meet and maintain the housing balance commitment that 30% of all new housing construction be made affordable for low income families
All member of BiSHop spoke in favor of the ordinance, as well as over 40 other members of the community and other housing organizations. There was unanimous support from everyone who spoke that the collection of this data is necessary to better evaluate how housing is built in the city and to insure that that remain places to live for low income families. Perhaps the most moving speech was by an elementary school boy named Robert about why he felt there needed to be more low income housing in the city. His family had recently been evicted from their apartment. He and his mother were living out of their car and the lack of affordable housing meant that they would likely have to move out of the city, away from his school and friends, in order to find a place to live.
The housing balance ordinance passed the Land Use Committee and will move to a vote in front of the Full Board of Supervisors on April 14th. It was a promising step towards making more housing available and affordable to low income families and children like Robert. If you are interesting in getting involved or if you have any questions please contact: Caroline Calderon at caroline.calderon@vetsequitycenter.org or call at (415) 225-2347