2026.07.07 Speaker Cards - PC - Laserfiche WebLink

Browse Search

2 In our Preservation Model, we target rents at or below 60% of AMI so this model is not a money making endeavor but rather a mission driven labor of love designed to increase the inventory of available affordable housing. Any small profit we might receive from our properties goes directly into debt service, maintenance reserves, and assisting our social service programs like Home Sharing, Self Sufficiency for families and Housing Readiness for seniors. With 7 properties in Redwood City, 6 of which would be subject to the measure, the measure’s impact on both our programs and our properties is huge. The measure comes at a particularly difficult time. The unprecedented rise in the cost of operating our building the past 5-years has already put our them in a financial risky position. Things like rising property insurance premiums, increased sewer fees, City monitoring fees, and property parcel tax measures (which regardless of nonprofit status must be paid), have already financially stressed BMR units like ours that do not, and cannot, raise rents in step with expenses. Why the measure hurts affordable housing: With no provision for already deed restricted affordable housing, owned and operated by well-respected nonprofits like us, the proposed measure will further exacerbate and complicate the already dramatic financial challenges of owning preservation housing. Examples of concerning provisions in the measure include (but are not limited to): • The creation of a City oversight program that makes owning older properties nearly impossible and that passes the cost of the program on to owners through mandatory fees. • Re-rental requirement spanning up to 10-years that include rent roll backs and costly punitive damages for provisions that are nearly impossible to comply with. • New costly and onerous requirements related to how building repairs must be managed. • Costly, and often implausible, changes to utility fees structures, which in some cases, may not be legal under existing law. • Redundant and heavy compliance burdens related to rent increase for units already under affordable deed restrictions and subject existing lender and City oversight. • Onerous compliance requirements related to renovation work that most older building are going to need, and that are already subject to tremendously strict lender and in some cases, State requirements. The measure will not only have a tremendous chilling effect, but is actually a death blow for the preservation model and for anyone interested in maintaining and preserving affordable housing.