By Susannah Parsons, All Home
This year will bring generational opportunities for voters in the Bay Area and across California to support bolder solutions to address homelessness and housing insecurity. Voters will consider a host of ballot measures that will impact our communities for decades to come. Housing is on the ballot in 2024, and we can choose a different future—one where we invest in each other and where all of us can thrive. Here’s a roundup of the measures we’re watching closely—learn more and see you at the ballot box!
No matter how you’re voting, it’s important to make your voice heard. Here are links to help you check your registration status, find your polling place, and learn about what’s on your ballot in 2024.
Note: This post will be updated as new measures qualify for the November ballot.
March
Statewide Measures
- Proposition 1: A two-part ballot measure and $6.4 billion bond that would devote more of the state’s ongoing mental health funding to housing solutions for people who experience chronic homelessness and mental illness. The bond would go in large part to create an estimated 10,000 supportive housing placements and behavioral health treatment beds, and $2 billion would fund the Homekey program—half to house people with behavioral health conditions who are experiencing homelessness, and half for veterans.
Local Measures
Voters in the Bay Area will consider more housing issues this year, including:
San Francisco:
- Proposition A: This $300 million affordable housing bond would bring in more resources for rental housing serving extremely low-income to moderate-income households, including workforce and senior housing.
- Proposition C: Would waive the City’s transfer tax on projects that convert buildings from commercial to residential uses. This could lead to more underused office buildings being converted into housing, but would also deprive the City of a significant amount of revenue if those conversions would take place without this incentive.
- Proposition F: Would require drug screening and treatment as a condition for people with extremely low incomes to receive cash assistance. This is the one local issue in this election where All Home has taken a position, because we’re concerned about the precedent this could set if it passes. See our opposition statement with the National Alliance to End Homelessness
Larkspur:
- Referendum to repeal a Rent Stabilization ordinance: Last summer, the city of Larkspur passed a rent control ordinance to prohibit annual rental rate increases exceeding five percent plus the Consumer Price Index or seven percent, whichever is lower. Then in September 2023, a petition to put a referendum that could repeal the oridnance gathered enough signatures to be on the March ballot. A yes vote on the referendum would repeal the rent control law, as well as the new rent registry to collect data on rental prices and ownership.
November
More statewide housing ballot measures are on the horizon, including:
Statewide Measures
- Enable voters to approve more housing: ACA 1, a constitutional amendment being put on the ballot by the legislature, will restore the power of the people to enable affordable housing production. The statewide initiative will lower the voter threshold for approval of housing and infrastructure from two-thirds to 55%. Requiring a supermajority on these decisions has fueled the housing crisis by blocking vital infrastructure, including several recent housing bonds in the Bay Area. Lowering the threshold is a good government reform to restore balance.
- Affordable Housing Bond: A broad coalition of housing advocates are asking state legislators to place a $10 billion dollar affordable housing bond on the ballot. Because California doesn’t have an ongoing source of funding for housing, we rely on one-time bonds to support the state’s housing programs. Our existing funds have been exhausted, and without new resources, the pipeline of housing production will stall out. This potential bond would result in roughly 30,000 new homes affordable to very-low income, extremely-low income and homeless families, including for farmworkers and for California tribes, while preserving 100,000 existing affordable homes. It will also preserve and/or rehabilitate nearly 100,000 new homes.
- Senate Constitutional Amendment 2: A proposal to repeal Article 34 of the California Constitution, which requires local voter approval for any rental housing projects that receive public funding and serve low-income tenants. Article 34 was added to California’s constitution in 1950 and intended to make it difficult to build affordable housing—a disastrous policy expression of racist and classist views about people with low incomes.
- Justice for Renters Act: Voters will weigh in on this proposal to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing Act. Current law restricts the amount of annual rent increases that are allowed for certain residential housing, but Costa-Hawkins restricts the ability of local jurisdictions to pass rent control ordinances that are more expansive. This measure would allow cities and counties to pass such laws, and would prohibit the state from limiting that local right.
- Taxpayer Deception Act: The California Business Roundtable and California Business Properties Association are in the process of gathering signatures for this initiative to limit the ability of voters, and state and local governments, to fund a wide range of basic services. It would require all actions raising taxes to be approved by both a majority of voters, and two-thirds of the State Legislature. The proposal is retroactive to January 2022, and would overturn approved funding for programs including paid family and medical leave, infrastructure, and disability insurance, as well as make a wide range of programs harder to fund in the future.
Bay Area Regional Affordable Housing Bond
Slated for the November election, a nine-county general obligation bond measure for $10-$20 billion to enable the construction of up to 45,000 affordable homes for over 500,000 Bay Area residents. It would also fund preservation of existing affordable housing, and protections for tenants who are trying to make ends meet and stay housed. Resources at this scale would allow Bay Area communities to make concurrent investments in prevention, interim, and permanent housing solutions to bend the curve on homelessness—while investing in needed deeply affordable housing. All Home is co-leading the coalition to pass this bond, so you’ll be hearing more about it from us as the election nears.
Note: Most of the issues here are presented in the spirit of providing general information and urging people to vote. As a regional organization that works with many cities and counties, All Home does not normally take positions on local ballot measures (though we made an exception for Prop F in San Francisco, see below!). We do take positions on regional and statewide issues that are very clearly aligned with our work, which we’ll be doing more of in the fall.
