Updated financial disclosure forms submitted to the City of Eureka this week reveal that backers of the “Eureka Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative” raised $290,000 and spent $314,415.27 through the end of last year.

Compare that to the $2,900 raised and $1,932.08 spent by the Committee Opposed to the Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative and you get a spending ratio of roughly 163-1.

We say “backers,” plural, in reference to the financiers behind the “Housing for All” campaign, and that’s technically true – but only because former Renner Petroleum owner Michael Lawrence Renner, who now lives outside Las Vegas, chipped in $500. The rest of the contributions — more than a quarter of $1 million — have come from Security National Properties Holding Company, the real estate acquisition and servicing firm founded by Robin P. Arkley, II.

As of this latest disclosure form, the campaign has roughly $27,000 in debt.

On the other side, the committee fighting against the Housing for All initiative has built its comparatively modest war chest largely via $100 donations from Eureka residents. The largest donor thus far is Eureka City Councilmember G. Mario Fernandez, who chipped in $800.

As a refresher, the Eureka Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative would, if passed by voters, amend the city’s General Plan to rezone the former Jacobs Middle School property, which was recently purchased by a mysterious buyer who has so far refused to identify themself or their plans.

It would also add an amendment that would functionally block a number of planned housing development projects downtown by requiring that they be built if and only if the existing number of parking spaces are preserved and additional parking is built for residents.

The measure will appear on Eureka ballots in the November Presidential Election.

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