A $900 million housing bond proposed for the November ballot took a key step forward Tuesday when the San Diego City Council voted 6-3 to declare the bond measure necessary.
The council’s six Democrats voted in favor of the measure, which would raise property taxes within the city of San Diego to build several thousand housing units for the homeless, veterans, seniors, the disabled and low-income families.
The council’s two Republicans and one independent voted against declaring the bond measure necessary, the legally required first step toward officially placing it on the Nov. 3 ballot this summer.
Each of the six votes in favor was crucial. The declaration of necessity needed approval from two-thirds of the nine-member council because the bond measure itself would need that level of support from voters in November.
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Supporters said the bond measure is a crucial step toward solving San Diego’s homelessness problem and its housing affordability crisis, contending that shelters and social service programs aren’t enough.
They also said the bond would help San Diego take advantage of state and federal matching dollars that Los Angeles and San Francisco already are getting because similar bond measures have been approved there.
Critics said the bond measure, which would cost the average homeowner $72 more per year, would be too large a burden on middle-income homeowners who also are struggling with housing affordability.
They also said the subsidized units that the measure would fund are too expensive because of government red tape, and they criticized the measure for being vague about how many units it would build — estimates range from 5,400 to 7,500 units.
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Another concern some have raised about the measure is its potential overlap with Measure C, a hotel tax hike on the March ballot that could provide millions of dollars for homelessness efforts, including housing programs.
Democratic Councilwoman Barbara Bry and Republican Councilman Scott Sherman said the success or failure of the March hotel measure could affect whether they’ll support placing the housing bond on the November ballot.
A recent poll shows that prospects for the housing bond, which is being dubbed “Homes for San Diegans” by supporters, will likely hinge on how aggressively opponents campaign against it.
A phone poll conducted in November showed that support for the measure among likely voters dips from 71 percent to 64 percent when voters are told the most common arguments against the measure.
Democratic Councilman Chris Ward, who has spearheaded the measure, said the housing bond is absolutely crucial to San Diego solving its homelessness and housing problems.
“We can’t get where we need to be without significant public investment to build affordable homes,” Ward said.
He also stressed that a local bond would allow San Diego to take advantage of state and federal matching dollars that Los Angeles and San Francisco are already getting.
“Today’s item will bring us one step closer to establishing a desperately needed source of local funding for critically needed homes, and allow the city to tap into hundreds of millions of dollars of state and federal funding that would otherwise be left on the table,” Ward said.
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Councilwoman Vivian Moreno, another Democrat, was more succinct.
“My goal is to build our way out of this housing crisis,” she said.
Councilman Chris Cate, a Republican, said supporters are overlooking the impact that higher property taxes would have on middle-income homeowners who also struggle with high local housing costs.
He also blamed the housing crisis on what he called overregulation by the state, which he said has driven up construction costs.
“We need more housing, but I cannot in good conscience tell my constituents that their cost of living has to increase as a result of mistakes made by politicians up and down the state,” Cate said.
Stephen Russell, executive director of the San Diego Housing Federation, said property taxes would go up more slowly than some critics say because the bonds wouldn’t all be sold immediately.
He estimated that the full impact, which would be $19 per year for every $100,000 of assessed property value, would be felt by property owners on the seventh year of the tax surcharge.
Russell also stressed that there would be a citizens’ oversight committee for bond spending, and there would be an independent annual audit.
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Measure C, the March ballot measure, would increase local hotel taxes to pay for expansion of the city’s waterfront convention center, road repairs and homelessness programs.
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Proposed $900M San Diego housing bond gets key approval in 6-3 vote - The San Diego Union-Tribune
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