Elizabeth Patterson on the Housing - Questions & Answers

QUESTION: Housing - Could Benicia have “affordable” housing?

Benicia has affordable housing. In fact, Benicia is now the “good poster” example of helping build affordable housing (after a long legal battle and a very dishonorable city position). We could acquire older homes, bring them up to code, and put them in a trust so they would remain affordable for the life of the structure. We could establish trusts for new affordable housing projects so that they remain affordable after the obligatory permitting time expires that they remain affordable. There is a great opportunity to have affordable housing at the western portion of the Seeno project. This could be adjacent to transit lines and services such as laundry would be within walking distance. (School access could be a problem).

QUESTION: If so, who could afford it?

As Henry Gardner, ABAG Exec., said recently, all housing is unaffordable to us. Right now the best Benicia could do for “middle class, working people” is to stipulate that housing should be developed for this income range. This would mean smaller homes and more compact development. I could write extensively about how we have shifted the property tax burden from commercial, retail and industrial share in 1978 of 33% to 2006 share at 13%. In other words, residential property tax is the overwhelming revenue source. I could also note that capital gains taxes have been reduced and the investment in California property with fixed property tax rates, low capital gains tax all combine to make California property an investment and not a home. Thus property prices go up making home ownership becoming less than 50% - a reverse in the post WWII trend. Until property tax revenues are more equitably disturbed and until investment in California real estate is no longer a speculative capital investment, there will be few affordable towns and cities.

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