August 6, 2007VOL. 45, NO. 14Oakland, CA

COR asks San Leandro to add
more affordable units to housing plan

By Sharon Abercrombie
Staff writer

More than 150 San Leandro residents assembled in St. Leander Church on June 19 to remind the city’s mayor and other officials about a situation they find “intolerable,’ in the words of Deacon Dennis Davis: the lack of affordable housing in San Leandro and the need to remedy the situation so that families can live in the city where their adult breadwinners are employed.

The meeting, organized by Congregations Organizing for Renewal (COR), a faith-based organization which represents 13 congregations and two neighborhood groups from San Leandro to Fremont, specifically addressed San Leandro’s proposed plan to build a stock of housing units in the downtown area near the BART station.

One of the primary goals of this plan is to help people save on transportation costs by living near public transportation. Besides construction of homes, the plan includes a Bus Rapid Transit station.

COR leaders say that’s all well and good – as long as the city includes a variety of affordable options in the mix. While the plan has a mandate to make 15 percent of all new housing affordable as required by a 2005 inclusionary zoning ordinance, city planners need to be purposeful in assuring that there be a substantial number of affordable rental units as well, said Dan Martinez, a COR representative from St. Leander’s.

Martinez and other parishioners told Mayor Tony Santos and Council Member Michael Gregory how the lack of reasonably priced housing has affected their families. Martinez, the father of six, said none of his four children who are grown and living away from the family home can afford to live in San Leandro.

One of his daughters, a single mom with two kids, had to move to Tracy to live and work. Because she is an epileptic and cannot drive, she isn’t able to see her family as often as they would like. One of Martinez’s sons commutes from Modesto to work in Fremont.

“We are living in a time of housing crisis,” said Davis. “And I know that many of us could not afford our homes at today’s prices. Housing prices have increased by 38 percent over the past three years in San Leandro.”

It’s no better for renters, he emphasized. A retail salesperson earning $12.23 per hour needs to work 79 hours per week to afford the fair market rent of $1,250, Davis said.

He called both situations “intolerable for people.”

Eighty percent of people who grew up in San Leandro can’t buy back into the city of their birth, he said. Providing affordable housing is “a case for justice” that all religious communities need to address.

At the meeting, COR organizers presented city officials with its community vision for the downtown area. The five point plan calls for affordable rental housing as the pathway to home ownerships; an examination of new funding sources such as a Redevelopment Housing Bond, and partnerships between non-profit and for profit developers to maximize the development of affordable housing for these sites.

Vice Mayor Surlene Grant could not attend the meeting, but signed on to the COR proposal. Mayor Tony Santos and Councilman Michael Gregory said they would find more venues for affording housing, underscoring that they are already working on the problem.

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