Victory for Small Sites & Housing Preservation in Berkeley!
Community members, Berkeley residents, & supporters of small sites at the Berkeley City Council Meeting.
Berkeley residents organized, showed up, and won to keep the neglected “P” of “Preservation” within the City of Berkeley’s affordable housing strategy through the Small Sites Program! Funding for Small Sites was included in Mayor Ishii’s budget amendments through early advocacy from land trusts and affordable housing advocates. Despite desperate efforts from Councilmembers Kesarwani, Taplin, and Blackaby to defund Small Sites and delete the Capacity Building grant, Mayor Ishii and Councilmembers Tregub, Bartlett, Lunaparra, O'Keefe, and Humbert stood strong. In the end the Mayor's budget proposal passed unanimously.
The message was loud and clear:
Community support for Preservation is strong – and Councilmembers took notice.
We do not abide Councilmembers who try to divide and pit us against one another.
We are organized!
Big thanks to:
10+ BACLT Board, residents, and staff who turned out on short notice
30+ other community members who spoke in favor of Small Sites
Community partners who wrote and spoke in support, including Healthy Black Families, RCD, EBHO, Urban Habitat, NCLT, Friends of Adeline, Center for Independent Living, East Bay Gray Panthers, Berkeley Cohousing, League of Women Voters, East Bay for Everyone, The Courtyard Tenants Association, Berkeley Farmhouse Collective, and several CLTs around the Bay
Mayor Ishii, who championed Small Sites and navigated an extremely difficult budget negotiation with great leadership.
Read more from the Daily Cal on how the community came together to save the Small Sites Program from being stripped of funding! “Community organizers successfully advocate for affordable housing restoration program after history of cuts.”
Read more on how the Small Sites Program supports housing Preservation in this Berkeleyside article, “Should the city of Berkeley help buy these affordable apartments?”