Community Wins Affordable Housing Near Transit

First TOD Development Approved for San Leandro's Downtown

On March 2nd, after over a year of public meetings, the San Leandro (CALIF) City Council approved the construction of 100 units of affordable housing in the downtown. "The Alameda" is the first component of the first TOD development (called The Crossings) to be approved since the Station Area Plan was adopted in late 2007.

At full build-out, Phase I of The Crossings (a 5+ acre development that straddles the downtown BART station) will also include a 200-unit market rate condominium complex, a 324 space BART parking garage to replace spaces lost to the new development, a new pedestrian and bicycle pathway to eventually connect to the East Bay Greenway, and improved pedestrian and bicycle access to the downtown BART station from the East and West. Both residential projects will be built LEED certified and the landscaping will include bioswales to reduce pollution in the runoff from the buildings.

The Alameda will be the first affordable rental housing development geared toward very low income families built in over twenty years. The families will have incomes ranging from $22,000 to $46,000. And 40% of apartments will have 3 bedrooms, 35% will have 2 bedrooms and 24% will have1 bedroom. This housing is incredibly needed, as more than half of San Leandro residents cannot afford to purchase a median-priced home and an estimated 250-350 students attending San Leandro schools are currently living in overcrowded conditions, in home where families are doubled and tripled up.

While redevelopment funding still needs to be approved for The Alameda (vote on April 6th) and funding is yet to be secured for a child care center within the Alameda, we are confident that by this September, Bridge Housing, the developer, will be breaking ground on The Alameda.

Monday's vote was the culmination of two and a half years of organizing community support for a downtown transit-oriented development (TOD) plan that includes housing affordable to families of all incomes - particularly low-wage working families. Congregations Organizing for Renewal (COR), a faith-based, grassroots community organization made up of thirteen congregations representing 25,000 families across South Alameda County, has been working closely with Urban Habitat to educate, organize, and mobilize residents in support of the TOD plan and affordable housing. Most recently, COR held its own town hall meeting on February 24th with three City Council members and over 100 San Leandro residents to support The Alameda and ask that childcare be included in the project (photos seen here are from that event).

COR and UH have been joined by members of the Great Communities Collaborative- most notably Greenbelt Alliance and TransForm, as well as by social welfare and environmental groups such as the Interfaith Homelessness Network, Davis Street Family Resource Center and the Sierra Club's Northern Alameda County Group. Their support has proven invaluable to add legitimacy and weight to what San Leandro is undertaking with The Alameda, The Crossings and its entire TOD Plan.

COR and UH also continue to partner with Alameda County Building Trades to strategize ways to ensure that the construction of The Crossings and future TOD developments be done by union labor that maximizes employment for San Leandro residents and provides apprenticeship opportunities.

Thank you all who have played a role in Monday's victory. We have accomplished something major in a city that has never provided public funding for a family, rental housing development and a city that has produced 12x's more for-sale (mainly market-rate) housing than rental housing over the past 10 years.

The City Council will vote on providing a $9.1 million low-interest loan in Redevelopment Housing Set-Aside funds in early April.

Contact Lindsay Imai at: Lindsay(at)urbanhabitat.org or Chris Belluomini at chris(at)corcommunity.org for more information

For additional information, see the Sierra Club Yodeler's Article about The Crossings: http://sanfranciscobay.sierraclub.org/yodeler/html/2009/03/article13.htm