Californians will vote on ten statewide ballot propositions this fall. Proposition 1 would let the state borrow $11.5 billion through a state bond to pay for affordable housing.
Prop. 1 would help build rental housing, provide supportive housing for homeless people and fund mortgages for veterans. Supporters said Prop. 1 could create up to 40,000 new homes and generate up to $1 billion in state and local tax revenue.
Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson is the chair of the Big City Mayor’s Coalition and supports the bill.
“It actually can help them with a down payment, it can help them be able to afford a house and get in there, which to me is very important,” Lock-Dawson told KVCR, “because it's a road to generational wealth. It's a road to building equity, and I think that's the longer term goal here.”
Lock-Dawson recently joined San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran and Moreno Valley Mayor Ulises Cabrera on a tour of the Mulberry Gardens housing project in downtown Riverside. The project, which will sit on a former CalFire site, will have apartments for seniors, low-income families and people who are at-risk of being homeless.
The tour was organized by the Inland SoCal Housing Collective, an organization dedicated to advancing “humane housing” across both counties.
Cabrera said at the press conference that people who live in Riverside, San Bernardino and Moreno Valley often reside in shared households, inside garages or in their vehicles.
“That is unfathomable. That should never happen,” said Cabrera. “We need the funding to put those shovels on the ground to be able to move these projects forward to provide rooftops for our families, our veterans.”
No formal opposition was filed. But Republican lawmakers who oppose Prop. 1 say the state has already spent billions without resolving housing and only one percent of the bond is dedicated to veterans.
“Prop 1 does nothing to make housing more affordable,” reads the voter guide recommendation made by Carl DeMaio’s Reform California organization. DeMaio is a Republican Assemblyman that represents San Diego county.
“Many of the boondoggle projects supported by this bond will cost more than $1 million per unit!”
