Sunday, February 25, 2007

Older seniors being forced out of housing...

Check out C. W. Nevius' excellent article in the 2/25 San Francisco Chronicle:
At first it sounds hilarious. A generation gap at the retirement village between the 60-year-old Baby Boomers and the 80-plus old timers? What's the conflict? Frank Zappa versus Frank Sinatra?
But beneath the surface a nasty little battle of demographics is brewing. Sprawling retirement communities are attempting to spruce up facilities to appeal to the onslaught of Baby Boomers, while the longtime residents worry that they are subtly being nudged out the gate.
Out in Walnut Creek, where the "active retirement" community of Rossmoor is experiencing growing pains, resident Dick Hayes, 71, a former president of the Residents Association, speaks for many retirees.
"I think there is an attempt, and it may be subtle and unconscious, to get rid of the 80- and 90-year-olds,'' says Hayes.
See the full article at: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=df7q7cfm_31ff67t8

Wednesday, February 21, 2007

Wouldn't it be nice to see this kind of reception everywhere...

Welcome committee welcomes homeless to their neighborhood
Monday, June 12, 2006DEBORAH FELDMAN / KING 5 News

SEATTLE - Pramila Jayapal says she'd rather have a building on an undeveloped corner south of the Columbia City neighborhood than an overgrown lot.

KING

The facility would ultimately host people with histories of living in emergency shelters.

So when she learned of a proposal to turn the spot into a facility to house 60 mentally ill and chronically homeless people, she says she was thrilled.

"Columbia City really has a history of welcoming diversity of all sorts into our neighborhood and I think that for that reason I think, I hope that we as a neighborhood will be really welcoming to people who need homes," she said.

So Jayapal and about two dozen of her neighbors formed a group called "Rainier Home" to help smooth the way for the construction of a sister facility to this one, created by the nonprofit group Downtown Emergency Service Center or DESC.

The group plans to volunteer with the buildings' residents after they move in, teaching art classes and gardening.

"If they have enough people to help to watch it and take care of it and people volunteer to help it will be helpful. I hate to see people living on the street," said Carol Phillips.

The facility proposed for this location would ultimately host people with histories of living in emergency shelters. The agency says it will screen out people who have been convicted of violent felonies or sex offenses.

But not everyone is thrilled. Some residents worry it will damage the progress this community has made in recent years.

"This will be nothing but an attraction to bring the drugs, the violence, the gangs and whatever else into the neighborhood," said Jon Daykin.

Despite detractors, the executive director of DESC says a welcoming group for the homeless is new, and humbling experience.

"If we're going to end homelessness, it requires the development of housing and when we develop housing they have to be in some neighborhood. and its really heartening to see more and more people in Columbia City open up and very pridefully accept this project," said Bill Hobson.

There are still numerous hurdles to be jumped, but groundbreaking for the facility is scheduled to take place next fall.

[ For another article about this amazing neighborhood, Click here: The Seattle Times: Local News: Neighbors welcome housing project for mentally ill homeless people ]

Thursday, February 15, 2007

Santa Rosa Downtown Station Area Plan

Santa Rosa is developing a "Station Area Plan" for the downtown area. It will include 3,200+ units of new housing, along with 300,000 sq.ft. of commercial and retail space and 200,000 sq.ft. of "civic" space. But the plan has some serious shortcomings. There's no mention of affordable housing. There's no mention of "green design" or other environmental concerns. While the plan's purpose is supposedly to encourage a walkable downtown, they want to take out the sidewalk on the south side of 3rd Street under the mall.
The plan has lots of nice drawings of "streetscapes" and "pocket parks," but main goal seems to be to tear down the existing City Hall and build a large "Performing Arts Center" in its place. Then they want to build a new, bigger City Hall nearby... all with public money. As with most of the "plans" coming out of City Hall these days, the people of Santa Rosa don't get much benefit. HAG has submitted a letter to the City Design Review Board expressing concerns about the new plan. Please take a look at the draft plan on the City of Santa Rosa Website -- and let the City Council know that downtown should be for everyone to enjoy, and the 3,000 units of new housing shouldn't be just for the wealthy. We'd like to see at least 20% of these new units be affordable to moderate income households, and 20% be affordable to lower income households.

Monday, February 5, 2007

REAL mixed use development

Here's a new Albertson's supermarket (along with a bank and other stores) with housing above and parking below in a mixed income neighborhood ( Fulton and Masonic ) in San Francisco... this should be the norm not the exception for commercial development in urban areas. Click on the photo to see a larger view...







Here's a new Albertson's supermarket with housing above and parking below at Fulton and Masonic in San Francisco... this should be the norm not the exception for commercial development in urban areas...

Friday, February 2, 2007

Affordable housing good for the planet, group says

Rob Rogers IJ reporter Marin Independent Journal
02/01/2007
Affordable housing advocates are urging environmentalists to support the housing cause as a way to fight global warming.
"Almost everything we're doing with global warming goes back to land use," said Stuart Cohen, co-founder of the Transportation and Land Use Coalition, at a luncheon Thursday sponsored by the Ecumenical Association for Housing, now known as EAH Housing.
"Affordable housing residents have the highest use of public transportation, statistically, in the area," Cohen said. "All of you who are working for affordable housing will be able to look your children and grandchildren in the eye and say you did the most important thing possible to fight global warming."
Cohen and other speakers took aim at environmentalists and others who have blocked affordable housing developments in Marin County, such as a proposed Habitat for Humanity project in unincorporated Strawberry.
"What we have to do is change public opinion," said EAH chief executive Mary Murtagh. "We all know that what's cloaked in an environmental theme is really an antipathy to 'those people.' We hear it all the time. We're hearing it now in Tiburon. And it's a shame."
EAH Housing is one of the nation's largest nonprofit housing organizations, with offices in San Rafael, Fresno, San Jose and Honolulu. The group met at the Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Terra Linda.
Environmentalists should support mixed-use affordable housing developments - which combine residential and retail units - because people who live there tend to drive less and use public transportation more, Cohen argued.
"A recent study by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District says that transportation is responsible for 50 percent of the Bay Area's greenhouse gas emissions," said Cohen, whose organization campaigns on behalf of public transportation. "A lot of that is because of land use. It's difficult to get into or out of this area without using the auto. We have to do what we can to grow around public transit. Those who live less than half a mile from public transportation are four times or more less likely to own a car."
According to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, low-income residents take half as many car trips per day as high-income residents, and own an average of 1.35 vehicles, in contrast to high-income residents' 2.45.
Cohen urged Marin leaders to push for a reduction in the parking requirements for affordable housing developments, encouraging residents to use public transportation.
"Our current planning codes present the biggest obstacle to placing a lot of affordable housing near transportation," Cohen said.
Another obstacle to affordable housing comes from neighbors who claim the developments will lower their property values - a contention disputed by speaker Lynn Sedway.
"There is no measurable difference between property value escalations whether the property is close to affordable housing or not," said Sedway, a market analyst for the Sedway Group, a consulting firm with offices in San Francisco and Los Angeles. Sedway authored Marin's zoning ordinance that requires a certain percentage of homes be affordable.
"What we talk about as low- or moderate-income housing in Marin is really workforce housing for the journalists, scientists, firefighters and police who live here. Those owners tend to take an active role in their homeowners associations, and there's never been a problem in terms of integration with other home-owners."
Sedway based her statements on a host of recent academic studies, including a 2003 study by Virginia Tech University and a 2002 study by the University of Wisconsin that suggest properties near low-income developments may actually increase in value.
The need for affordable housingguz is acute, Sedway said, because the median housing price in the county has grown from $499,000 in 2000 to nearly $1 million last year. While 39 percent of Marin's population could be classified as "low" or "very low" income, only 7 percent of the homes built between 1999 and 2005 are available to them, she said - the lowest affordable housing percentage in the Bay Area.
"I'm shocked at what's going on in Tiburon," Sedway said. "People talk about the traffic impact (of affordable homes), but there's actually less of a traffic impact with affordable homes because there are fewer cars. People should be ashamed of themselves."
Sedway's words resonated with Strawberry resident Susan Crosier, even though she objected to having her neighborhood described as being part of Tiburon.
"I live on Eagle Rock Road (the site of the proposed Habitat for Humanity project), and it has nothing to do with Tiburon or its government," Crosier said. "There are definitely people who don't want the development, but there are also those of us who support it."
Crosier said she'll try to convince her neighbors to support the project.
"There are four widows at the end of the street who have been worried about their property values," Crosier said. "They'll find this information helpful."