Cities can punish homeless people for sleeping outside, Supreme Court rules
The Grants Pass v. Johnson decision upholds an Oregon city’s outdoor sleeping ban. It’s unclear if it will change Berkeley and Oakland’s approach to the homelessness crisis.
$20 billion in new funding for Bay Area housing will be on November ballot
Voters will decide on an unprecedented bond to build and preserve affordable housing in the region.
Bay Area will decide California’s biggest housing bond ever
A newly created regional housing finance authority for the entire San Francisco Bay Area will send a bond of up to $20 billion to the ballot. But the fate of its statewide counterpart looks bleak.
Berkeley City Council to update demolition ordinance, tenant protections
The city is updating the ordinance to become compliant with state laws that require affordable housing to be replaced when it is demolished.
Housing at BART
Affordable housing
Housing Trust Fund
The Housing Trust Fund is the money the city uses to build and support affordable housing projects in Berkeley. The money can be leveraged 4-to-1 to seek outside funding. Money generally comes into the fund when developers choose not to include affordable units within their projects, or who do not include the full number of those units. Rather than building on site, they can pay a fee into the city’s Trust Fund instead.