We urge Governor Jerry Brown to sign AB 1229 and give back to localities this valuable tool for responding to our residents struggling with modest wages and high housing costs. California has a severe shortage of affordable housing for its workforce. Most of the housing built in the state during the past decade has been for the very top of the market, luxury units affordable to only the most affluent people.
Meanwhile, the middle class, and working families -- secretaries, bus drivers, nurses, school teachers, computer programmers, waiters, cashiers, garment workers, police officers, and others The Asheville Tool Library is set to open
-- are suffering from the lack of reasonably-priced housing. Worst of all, our poorest residents are forced to double-up and triple-up in overcrowded apartments, pay almost all their meager incomes for rent, or wind up on the street and in shelters.One developer lobby group has claimed that inclusionary laws force developers to increase the price of their market-rate units to accommodate below-market apartments, claiming it's a "tax" on the middle class. But the private for-profit developers we've dealt with don't agree.
They recognize that their developments benefit from public investments – parks, schools, public transit -- that make cities livable. These developers recognize that local governments must find a balance between the public good and private gain that benefits everyone. That is the essence of local inclusionary housing laws. Under the AB 1229, no city is required to adopt an inclusionary housing policy. Many cities have considered and rejected inclusionary policies. But we know it's the right policy for Pasadena and Santa Monica, and we don't believe state law was ever intended to keep us from implementing our locally crafted policies.