Arcata — Please Wake Up!

In Arcata we’ve been discussing the Gateway Plan for over a year. The promises include providing housing for a wide range of income levels and the possibility of home ownership (condominium apartments).

But the Plan does not require affordable housing and homes for purchase. It only “encourages” this. How many apartments will be built that students and working people can reasonably afford to live in? I’d say possibly 10% of the total — if that. And how many “home ownership opportunities”? My guess: Zero.

If the Gateway Plan is not going to provide truly affordable housing for the people who need it, then what’s the point?

 

If working people can’t buy a home and they can’t afford the rent, then we need to think this through more.

Lots of intelligent people have the notion that as soon as a Gateway Plan is passed, our housing problems will be solved. The truth is that if a developer wanted to build a dense, tall apartment building, it could be done right now. The cost of rent today, as high as it may seem, would not cover the cost of construction. A developer is not going to build and lose money, and so there is no incentive to build.

And the passage of a Gateway Plan does nothing to change the reality of that equation. For more on the economics of creating affordable housing, see the OLLI presentation by Chris Dart (Danco) and Beth Matsumoto (Rural Communities Housing Development Corp.) It’s on the Arcata1.com website, under “What’s New” or directly here. They know more about the practicalities of affordability than anyone up here.

Housing will get built when either:  1) Construction costs come down substantially. This is not likely to happen. 2) Rent prices go up substantially. Ugh. 3) Danco and others are able to construct more government-subsidized housing.

What I propose is: Nothing gets built until the developer can guarantee true affordable housing and a balance of homes available to purchase. Are there laws in place that support this? Sorry, no. Can we rally as a progressive community, challenge existing law, and create new housing? I think we can.

If the Gateway Plan is not going to provide truly affordable housing for the people who need it, then what’s the point?
If working people can’t buy a home and they can’t afford the rent, then we need to think this through more.

Oh, I’m in favor of a Gateway plan. The bike paths are great and the dense housing near downtown makes for a great walkable community. But the current plan ignores people’s basic needs for housing and tramples on our rights.

Want to get involved? Write to our City Councilmembers and Planning Commissioners with your viewpoints. Write to me (to: Fred, at this website) and tell me what’s important to you. Check out What’s New on Arcata1.com. And come to the Council meetings and speak.

The City of Arcata is perpetuating an enormous falsehood here. The Gateway Plan does not guarantee housing that’s “affordable to the full range of Arcatan household incomes,” as the Plan states.

Affordable housing will only occur if you demand it.

I started Arcata1.com out of concern that information needed for good decision-making was not being accurately supplied by our City government. I can be reached at fred @ arcata1.com

Included in the Mad River Union, Wednesday, February 23, as a letter to the editor.