You're Not an Environmentalist if You're Also a Nimby

From the July 1, 2009 East Bay Express:

Global warming is changing far more than just the climate. It's altering the way environmentalists view development. For years, city dwellers who consider themselves to be eco-conscious have used environmental laws and arcane zoning rules to block new home construction, especially apartments and condominiums. In the inner East Bay, liberals have justified their actions by railing against gentrification and portraying developers as profiteers. But the lack of urban growth in Berkeley and in parts of Oakland during the past few decades also has contributed to suburban sprawl and long commutes. And all those freeways choked with cars are now the single biggest cause of greenhouse gas emissions in the region.

Environmentalists who think globally say suburban sprawl and the destruction of rural farmland must stop. Indeed, the threat of the coming global warming crisis makes the growth of urban areas an imperative. And some activists who have fought developers for years are now embracing them and calling for so-called "smart growth" or "infill development" — dense urban housing near mass transit. And they note that downtown Berkeley and Oakland, along with the major transportation corridors between the two cities, are nearly perfect for transit-oriented development. [Click Here to read full article -- highly recommended!]

SR Press Democrat: City seeks funding to develop foreclosure properties

By MIKE McCOY THE PRESS DEMOCRAT: 7/12/2009

Twenty acres once planned for market-rate housing in Santa Rosa’s southwest and southeast quadrants — projects now in foreclosure — are being targeted by city officials for potential development of nearly 400 low-income apartments.

The City Council on Tuesday is expected to apply for $80 million in federal stimulus funds to purchase the three parcels and provide builders with the bulk of money needed to construct affordable housing.

Besides providing housing for the city’s poorest residents, the proposal could generate 550 construction jobs, said David Gouin, the city’s economic development and housing director.

The $80 million is being sought from a $1.9 billion federal package established so that states and local governments could acquire and develop abandoned and foreclosed residential properties. Santa Rosa’s ambitious request represents 4 percent of the $1.9 billion available nationwide.

“What are our chances? We have no idea,” said Nancy Gornowicz, the city’s economic development and housing manager. “They could give us all of it, part of it or none of it.”

Gouin said California and a few other areas in the country may have a competitive edge because of loan default rates.

“We are suffering the most from foreclosures and we anticipate HUD (Housing and Urban Development) will consider that,” he said.

Since the stimulus package was passed by Congress in February, the city has been asking real estate agents, banks and land owners what foreclosed properties might become bank-owned, the criteria the city must meet to qualify for the federal funds.

The search has resulted in three properties being selected for the proposal. They are:

-- Kawana Terrace — 2.8 acres on Kawana Terrace once planned for 39 homes by Das Homes. The property has been taken back by Exchange Bank.

-- Village Gardens — 8.7 acres on the southwest corner of Sebastopol Road and Boyd Street once planned for 110 condominiums by Christopherson Homes. The lien-holder is Wells Fargo Bank.

-- Sundance Village — 8.3 acres at the western end of Sebastopol Road originally proposed for 51 homes by MetroPacific Properties. The lien-holder is Comerica Bank.

Gornowicz said the city does not know the asking prices for the properties.

Two of the properties are in the city’s southwest section, an area that some residents have complained is being forced to accommodate a excessive share of the city’s low-income housing.

“We are sensitive to that,” said Gornowicz.

But she also said that the two Sebastopol Road projects have roads and utilities installed, giving them a greater chance of meeting federal stimulus-spending deadlines.

“We looked at which projects would be the closest to shovel-ready,” she said, noting that the city would have to spend half the money within two years and all of it within three.

The amount of money allocated, if any, would determine whether the city proceeds with one, two or all three of the projects, or none at all.

The developments would be intended for the city’s lowest-income residents, individuals and families making between 30 and 60 percent of median income. For a family of four that would represent a combined $24,050 income for a family of four at the 30 percent level and $48,120 at the 60 percent level.

The possible addition of nearly 400 units for very-low income residents is critical to meeting state-mandated housing goals. These goals outline how many very-low, low and affordable residential units must be built in each city and county in the state.

From 1999 through 2006, nearly 4,100 lower-income units were built in the city, the third-highest total among the 101 cities in the nine-county Bay Area.

While Santa Rosa easily met its low- and moderate-income housing goals, it fell more than 900 units shorts of the amount of rentals to accommodate very-low income residents.

Community Development Director Chuck Regalia said the three parcels, which already have city-approved plans to develop 208 homes and condominiums, would have to be rezoned to accommodate the 396 apartments the city wants.

Road to Ruin: Burned by Brokers

Economists, politicians, and pundits refer to "toxic assets" as if they are some unspeakable stew bubbling in a barrel behind an old warehouse. But "toxic assets" are actually mortgages and, by extension, houses and the people who live in them. Sandra Berrios is one of millions facing the prospect of ballooning loan payments forcing her and her family from their home. The bank that lent her the money is getting hundreds of millions in TARP money, but the federal dollars flowing to the bank show no sign of trickling down to Sandra's level.

Click here for more....

Santa Rosa's Draft Housing Element Lacking

All cities in the ABAG region ( 9 counties in the SF Bay area ) must revise and update the Housing Elements of their General Plans by July 1, 2009. Before adopting the revised plan, they must allow the California Department of Housing and Community Development ("HCD") to review and comment on the final draft.

HCD is currently reviewing a draft element submitted by Santa Rosa. HAG and the Non Profit Housing Association of Northern California ("NPH") have submitted comments to HCD pointing out some deficiencies in the draft. All this sounds rather dry and technical, but a good housing element vastly simplifies the job of building affordable housing in a community. And a weak housing element makes the process much more difficult.

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

Gov shafts renters (again)

After defunding the renters' and homeowners' tax assistance program (known as the "renters' rebate") on grounds that the state could not afford to make any tax rebate payments to low-income senior, blind and disabled Californians, the Governor has signed legislation to give $100 million in new tax credits to people who buy homes between March 2009 and March 2010.

The Governor's move is another slap in the face to low-income Californians. The Governor prefers to give $10,000 each to individuals who are well off enough to be buying new homes in the current economy, rather than continue a program that provides an annual $347.50 payment to low-income senior, blind and disabled Californians.

Full story at www.RentsandRants.org

Work

The workmen over and above the fence
fit bricks, lift mortar, slap it accurately
in place. Guilty by sitting idle, I
imagine they envy my luxury
of doing nothing until I remember
the days I had my hands full of shovel,
the dragline plowing the ditch of a sewer
through a future subdivision and how
I pitied those who walked by our work
with no apparent occupation,
denied the pleasure of making something,
piece by piece—even if it would soon
be buried—they would depend upon.

- Robert King (from www.rattle.com)

NY Times Urges Affordable Housing Funding in Stimulus Package

A Stimulus for the Poor

   February 7, 2009

   NY Times Editorial

The stimulus package taking shape in Congress does little to provide affordable housing for the country's poorest families. That is grim news. Affordable housing has been hard to find in recent years. It's even harder now that many Americans have lost their jobs and homes.

Congress could help low-income Americans find homes — and create jobs doing it — by providing money for the National Housing Trust Fund, a worthy program it created last summer but has so far failed to finance. The Senate and House versions of the stimulus bills do not now contain such money, but funds could and should be added in the conference committee that must reconcile the bills.

The trust fund was originally envisioned as a project that would encourage developers to build 1.5 million affordable housing units in mixed-income developments. The government-backed mortgage companies, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, were to provide the money. Both, however, ran into financial trouble.

Congress can take up the slack. The need for affordable housing has increased dramatically in the last six months, and the Department of Housing and Urban Development has already done a lot of advance planning.

Estimates by the National Low Income Housing Coalition suggest that a Congressional down payment of $10 billion for the fund, plus $3.5 billion in housing vouchers under the Section 8 program, could produce affordable housing for up to 400,000 people. New construction would, of course, spawn new jobs right away.

The Senate's stimulus bill would give home buyers a tax credit of 10 percent of the price of a primary residence, up to $15,000. This would help middle- and upper-income buyers, but not the elderly, poor and disabled who don't earn enough to qualify for this break. Congress can help them by reviving the National Housing Trust Fund.

ADA Case vs Shelter Providers Settled in DC

(A settlement agreement in an ADA case brought in Washington DC by lawyers for the US Department of Justice [yes, the same DOJ that says it's OK to torture prisoners] has nationwide significance for shelters and homeless services providers.  Here's some details.)

On December 10, 2008, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) entered into a settlement agreement with the District of Columbia to improve the accessibility of D.C. homeless shelters for people with disabilities after numerous complaints about the District's widespread violations of Title II of the American with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The agreement covers all severe weather, low barrier, and temporary shelters run directly or through contractual arrangement by D.C.  The settlement will remain in effect for three years for all terms except the physical accessibility provisions, which will remain in effect for five years.  The full settlement can be found at http://www.ada.gov/dc_shelter.htm#settlement.

The press releases from the Department of Justice and the D.C. Attorney General summarize the settlement as follows:

"The terms of the settlement require the District to increase the accessibility of its shelter program by:

• Developing a comprehensive plan to ensure that persons with disabilities have equal access to the District's homeless shelter facilities;
• Implementing specific policies, practices and training to ensure that individuals with disabilities have equivalent access to all services and activities of the shelter program;
• Improving notice and procedures to ensure that shelter applicants and residents are aware of their rights under the ADA;
• Enhancing effective communication with shelter applicants and residents who have disabilities related to speech, vision or hearing; and
• Enhancing oversight of private contractors and subcontractors that provide homeless shelter services in the District."

http://www.usdoj.gov/opa/pr/2008/December/08-crt-1096.html; http://dc.gov/mayor/news/release.asp?id=1438&mon=200812. 

Major findings and requirements contained within the settlement:

1. D.C. must make changes to its policies and procedures to allow for greater programmatic accessibility, including the following:
• Notifying shelter applicants of their rights to request reasonable modifications to rules, policies, practices, or procedures because of a disability.
• Individuals are not required to use specific forms or procedures to make requests, and requests cannot be denied for failing to follow a preferred procedure.
• Shelter providers shall only request verification regarding the reasonable modification request if it is necessary and tailored to verifying the disability or the need for the request.  Such verification can usually come from the requester or another person in the know.
• Shelter providers must respond promptly to requests for reasonable modifications.  In addition: "Reasonable modification requests shall be granted immediately where the denial of the request is reasonably likely to cause serious harm to an individual with a disability." (Paragraph 21(a)(iii)).

2. DOJ surveyed 15 shelters for physical accessibility, 10 of which D.C. claimed met ADA standards. DOJ found that none of the shelters complied with the ADA, thus D.C. does not operate a single homeless shelter that is accessible to persons with physical disabilities.  There is a detailed appendix to the settlement listing the violations. 

3. D.C. must draft and implement an interim and comprehensive physical accessibility plan to bring the shelter system into compliance with the ADA.  The first drafts of the plans are due no later than ninety (90) days from December 10^th.  The shelters must be brought into compliance within two (2) years of the completion of the comprehensive plan.  The public will have an opportunity to comment on these plans in writing and at a public hearing.

4. If the comprehensive physical accessibility plan does not require that every shelter be accessible, "it must ensure that:
1. the locations of the accessible Shelters are at least equivalent to the locations of the inaccessible Shelters with regard to the Shelters' proximity to various forms of public transportation and non-Shelter services that are frequently used by individuals residing at Shelters including, but not limited to, meal programs, employment assistance programs, health clinics, legal clinics, and government offices that administer or distribute benefits to low-income residents of the District;
2. individuals with physical disabilities are not subjected to Shelter rules or requirements more burdensome than those used at inaccessible Shelters;
3. individuals with physical disabilities have access to the Shelter Program in the most integrated setting appropriate to the needs of such individuals; and
4. individuals with physical disabilities otherwise have equivalent access to the services, programs, and activities of the Shelter Program." (Paragraph 20(c)).

5. D.C. must develop the means to effectively communicate with shelter applicants and residents with speech, vision, or hearing-related disabilities, including acquiring necessary equipment, alternative formats, and oral and sign language interpretation services.

6. D.C. must draft and implement a plan for accessible transportation among shelters and services.

7. D.C. must have at least one ADA Coordinator to oversee ADA compliance in the shelter system, resolve complaints, and monitor the adherence to the terms of the settlement.  Currently, Rhonda Stewart at DHS is the ADA Coordinator (671-4422).

8. D.C. has to post notifications of ADA rights and complaint procedures in all shelters and places where shelter residents might use services.

9. D.C. must develop and implement procedures to improve monitoring and oversight of the ADA compliance of its contractors and subcontractors to "include, but not necessarily be limited to:
1. review of contractors' or subcontractors' written rules and procedures;
2. scheduled and unscheduled visits to intake sites and Shelters. Such visits shall include inspection of clients' files and interviews with Shelter clients and applicants;
3. review of Shelter denials;
4. strict time limits for corrective action for any deficiencies discovered during monitoring; and
5. sanctions for contractors or subcontractors." (Paragraph 24).

10. D.C. must develop, through the D.C. Office of Disability Rights, a comprehensive training program for shelter staff on the ADA, reasonable modification policies and procedures and the requirements of the settlement.

No Furnaces but Heat Aplenty in ‘Passive Houses’(Germany)

By ELISABETH ROSENTHAL - NY Times 12/27/08

DARMSTADT, Germany — From the outside, there is nothing unusual about the stylish new gray and orange row houses in the Kranichstein District, with wreaths on the doors and Christmas lights twinkling through a freezing drizzle. But these houses are part of a revolution in building design: There are no drafts, no cold tile floors, no snuggling under blankets until the furnace kicks in. There is, in fact, no furnace.

In Berthold Kaufmann's home, there is, to be fair, one radiator for emergency backup in the living room — but it is not in use. Even on the coldest nights in central Germany, Mr. Kaufmann's new "passive house" and others of this design get all the heat and hot water they need from the amount of energy that would be needed to run a hair dryer.

"You don't think about temperature — the house just adjusts," said Mr. Kaufmann, watching his 2-year-old daughter, dressed in a T-shirt, tuck into her sausage in the spacious living room, whose glass doors open to a patio. His new home uses about one-twentieth the heating energy of his parents' home of roughly the same size, he said.

Architects in many countries, in attempts to meet new energy efficiency standards like the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design standard in the United States, are designing homes with better insulation and high-efficiency appliances, as well as tapping into alternative sources of power, like solar panels and wind turbines.

The concept of the passive house, pioneered in this city of 140,000 outside Frankfurt, approaches the challenge from a different angle. Using ultrathick insulation and complex doors and windows, the architect engineers a home encased in an airtight shell, so that barely any heat escapes and barely any cold seeps in. That means a passive house can be warmed not only by the sun, but also by the heat from appliances and even from occupants' bodies.

And in Germany, passive houses cost only about 5 to 7 percent more to build than conventional houses.

Decades ago, attempts at creating sealed solar-heated homes failed, because of stagnant air and mold. But new passive houses use an ingenious central ventilation system. The warm air going out passes side by side with clean, cold air coming in, exchanging heat with 90 percent efficiency.

"The myth before was that to be warm you had to have heating. Our goal is to create a warm house without energy demand," said Wolfgang Hasper, an engineer at the Passivhaus Institut in Darmstadt. "This is not about wearing thick pullovers, turning the thermostat down and putting up with drafts. It's about being comfortable with less energy input, and we do this by recycling heating."

There are now an estimated 15,000 passive houses around the world, the vast majority built in the past few years in German-speaking countries or Scandinavia.

The first passive home was built here in 1991 by Wolfgang Feist, a local physicist, but diffusion of the idea was slowed by language. The courses and literature were mostly in German, and even now the components are mass-produced only in this part of the world.

The industry is thriving in Germany, however — for example, schools in Frankfurt are built with the technique.

Moreover, its popularity is spreading. The European Commission is promoting passive-house building, and the European Parliament has proposed that new buildings meet passive-house standards by 2011.

The United States Army, long a presence in this part of Germany, is considering passive-house barracks.

"Awareness is skyrocketing; it's hard for us to keep up with requests," Mr. Hasper said.

Nabih Tahan, a California architect who worked in Austria for 11 years, is completing one of the first passive houses in the United States for his family in Berkeley. He heads a group of 70 Bay Area architects and engineers working to encourage wider acceptance of the standards. "This is a recipe for energy that makes sense to people," Mr. Tahan said. "Why not reuse this heat you get for free?"

Ironically, however, when California inspectors were examining the Berkeley home to determine whether it met "green" building codes (it did), he could not get credit for the heat exchanger, a device that is still uncommon in the United States. "When you think about passive-house standards, you start looking at buildings in a different way," he said.

Buildings that are certified hermetically sealed may sound suffocating. (To meet the standard, a building must pass a "blow test" showing that it loses minimal air under pressure.) In fact, passive houses have plenty of windows — though far more face south than north — and all can be opened.

Inside, a passive home does have a slightly different gestalt from conventional houses, just as an electric car drives differently from its gas-using cousin. There is a kind of spaceship-like uniformity of air and temperature. The air from outside all goes through HEPA filters before entering the rooms. The cement floor of the basement isn't cold. The walls and the air are basically the same temperature.

Look closer and there are technical differences: When the windows are swung open, you see their layers of glass and gas, as well as the elaborate seals around the edges. A small, grated duct near the ceiling in the living room brings in clean air. In the basement there is no furnace, but instead what looks like a giant Styrofoam cooler, containing the heat exchanger.

Passive houses need no human tinkering, but most architects put in a switch with three settings, which can be turned down for vacations, or up to circulate air for a party (though you can also just open the windows). "We've found it's very important to people that they feel they can influence the system," Mr. Hasper said.

The houses may be too radical for those who treasure an experience like drinking hot chocolate in a cold kitchen. But not for others. "I grew up in a great old house that was always 10 degrees too cold, so I knew I wanted to make something different," said Georg W. Zielke, who built his first passive house here, for his family, in 2003 and now designs no other kinds of buildings.

In Germany the added construction costs of passive houses are modest and, because of their growing popularity and an ever larger array of attractive off-the-shelf components, are shrinking.

But the sophisticated windows and heat-exchange ventilation systems needed to make passive houses work properly are not readily available in the United States. So the construction of passive houses in the United States, at least initially, is likely to entail a higher price differential.

Moreover, the kinds of home construction popular in the United States are more difficult to adapt to the standard: residential buildings tend not to have built-in ventilation systems of any kind, and sliding windows are hard to seal.

Dr. Feist's original passive house — a boxy white building with four apartments — looks like the science project that it was intended to be. But new passive houses come in many shapes and styles. The Passivhaus Institut, which he founded a decade ago, continues to conduct research, teaches architects, and tests homes to make sure they meet standards. It now has affiliates in Britain and the United States.

Still, there are challenges to broader adoption even in Europe.

Because a successful passive house requires the interplay of the building, the sun and the climate, architects need to be careful about site selection. Passive-house heating might not work in a shady valley in Switzerland, or on an urban street with no south-facing wall. Researchers are looking into whether the concept will work in warmer climates — where a heat exchanger could be used in reverse, to keep cool air in and warm air out.

And those who want passive-house mansions may be disappointed. Compact shapes are simpler to seal, while sprawling homes are difficult to insulate and heat.

Most passive houses allow about 500 square feet per person, a comfortable though not expansive living space. Mr. Hasper said people who wanted thousands of square feet per person should look for another design.