What would have been the biggest housing bond in California history has already been yanked off the ballot three months before the election, and Bay Area voters will not be voting on a $20 billion affordable housing bond in November’s elections.
CalMatters reported in June that the biggest affordable housing bond in state history was heading for this November’s ballot, a $20 billion bond measure that would have been jointly included on the ballot in all nine Bay Area counties. It may have seemed like the right time for it, with the Bay Area facing a state mandate to build 250,000 new affordable units by 2031, and private developers abandoning their housing projects due to market conditions.
But just as November ballot measures are being finalized, Mission Local reported Tuesday that the bond measure’s sponsor, the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) was contemplating pulling the measure off the ballot. And that report proved prescient, as NBC Bay Area reported that BAHFA did indeed kill off the ballot measure in a unanimous vote at their Wednesday meeting, amidst poor polling and the threat of lawsuits.
“This is a really difficult day for the campaign side. We have had to think about the long run — and it's going to now have to be … an even longer run,” affordable housing executive Heather Hood, who would have been the bond campaign’s co-chair, said at the Wednesday meeting, according to the Chronicle. “To preserve our collective ability to really fight and win, we are recommending that you pull [the reaginal measure] from the ballot. And, I really deeply regret this recommendation.”
One of the problems was that the measure just wasn’t polling well. A bond measure with a corresponding tax increase would need a two-thirds (66%) supermajority to pass. But per NBC Bay Area, this bond measure was only polling at 54% in June.
But BAHFA can only blame themselves for a significant mathematical error. They said in administrative materials that the bond would cost $670 million a year to pay off, but the real figure was $911 million a year. They blamed this on a “clerical error,” but it was enough to draw a lawsuit from anti-tax advocates, and ultimately scuttle the bond measure.
There will, however, be a somewhat-corresponding state ballot measure in November to lower the approval threshold to 55% for these general bond measures. But even if it passes, it will be too late for this particular bond proposal.
Image: Antonio Gabola via Unsplash
