Adequate housing is basic to human dignity and a healthy community. I have consistently voted in favor of increased residential housing in our city. I am also an advocate of affordable housing and helped shape our inclusionary housing ordinance, which has served as a model for others locally. It is a step in the right direction, but lack of affordable housing is still a major problem for our city. While falling home prices may make ownership possible for a lucky few in our workforce, the majority still must pay rents in a high-rent student housing market.

While our homeless shelter is doing a wonderful job, given limited funding, there are still approximately 1,000 homeless children in our county. These are mostly local kids, whose parents may have been foreclosed upon or simply cannot earn enough to pay the rent. Often, families are camping out in our creeks. This is why I support the Ten Year Campaign to End Homelessness and the proposed creation of a large scale facility combining the functions of Prado Day Care and the Maxine Lewis Homeless Shelter.
For homeless, low income families or our seniors, manufactured housing is another affordable way to achieve housing stability. That is why, besides being in favor of affordable and multi-family housing, I am in favor of mobile home park zoning that would make land available for manufactured housing. I also am in favor of innovative smart-growth planning measures, for instance allowing rooming houses and having a cottage ordinance that would allow more small, modest homes to be built in our city. We need to research practical and sustainable solutions which have worked other cities, and consider them during our Land Use Element Update hearings.