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i MINUTES AUGUST 22 , 1972 HOUSING COT:CEE N;S COMMITTEE 7 : 00 A . M. COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES BUILDING 1.) OOROOSEVELT MEN EM] REDWOOD CITY MEMBERS PRESENT : William Floyd , Mazy I . Henderson , Melvin C . Kerwin Robert E . Norris MEMBERS ABSENT : Chairman Paul C . Kcckley , Sylvester. McGuire , Eugene Moriguch:i , Frederick A . Soderer. STAFF PRESENT : City Manager Dales , Assistant City Manager Smith , Building Official Gyselbrechi, , Planning Director Schroeter , I-Iousing Aide Ransom, Deputy City Attorney Ri.back , and Gene Gutierrez , City Manager ' s staff . • VISITORS : _Louis Knowles , P . 0 ; Box 295 , Redwood City Maxim K . Rice , P. 0 . Box 295 , Redwood City Myron Flu erne , 410 Park Street , Redwood City Eileen Gray , 950 Iris Street, Redwood City . Kathleen Mahaney, 1026 Vera Avenue , Redwood City. Rick Malaspina , Redwood City Tribune • Lacking a quorum , Vice Chairwoman Henderson declared the meeting a study session at 7 : 15 A . M. "STATUS OF RENTERS" Housing Aide David Ransom summarized the findings of a memorandum he had sent Housing Concerns Committee members , entitled "The Status of Renters in Redwood City . " Newly available data from the 1970 Census showed that the majority of Redwood City renters were clustered in the City ' s central neighborhoods , he said , where the percentage of households renting was about 65 percent . Many of these neighborhoods also included a large number of elderly households and older houses , suggesting a high degree of elderly homeownership . Ransom said that because a large part of these neighborhoods are also zoned for denser residential use, the. high degree of elderly homeownership also makes it likely that the next few years will see an increase in speculative absentee ownership and the consequent deterioration of many older houses . The percentage of renters will also increase . This means that the problems of demolition , eviction, and relocation will not only stay with Redwood City but probably increase , Ransom said . Ransom pointed out that, while homeownership has been on the increase on the national level since 1950 , levelling off in the 1960s , the opposite has been true in the Bay Region , where the percentage of households renting has been increasing since 1950 . The Peninsula cities of San Mateo , Palo Alto , and Mountain View, as well as Redwood City, all show a marked increase of renters since 1960, to nearly half or more than half of total households . Ransom suggested that Committee members consider the economic and psychological differences between homeowners and renters . In his free time the working man MINUTES HOUSING CONCERNS COMMITTEE AUGUST 22, 1972 PAGE 1 OF 5 O