The Need for More Affordable Housing

Do you think think we should build more affordable housing or do you think we’ve done enough and should just focus on building more moderate and high-end housing?

Housing is a basic need and therefore a human right. 

“High end housing” is not affordable by most Americans and also most Arcatas. Therefore that’s not where our priorities should be as a society with democratic ambitions. We are not a city and I do not want to see Arcata become a city composed exclusively of the wealthiest top ten percent. So, it’s off-to-work-we-go to build housing that working class families and people can actually afford. Housing like I am living and writing in right now; a one bedroom apartment with responsive staff and well maintained infrastructure, plenty dense with two story maximum height.

We have shown we can build affordable, sustainable and fire-resilient housing, but we cannot stop there. I want to see Arcata City Council bring prices and risks down everywhere we can. To do that in this era of devastating cuts to public services will take studying the California Regulatory Code quite deeply. It will also take fluency withe the many State and Federal laws being broken by the Trump Administration in daily barrage.

The Federal diversion of Trillions of dollars away from health care and public programs for Americans, instead going to support ICE terrorism and arcane colonial projects like murdering people in boats off Venezuela and threatening to “take” Greenland, and the atrocious bombing and starving of civilians in Palestine, Lebanon and Iran which have led to gas and therefore all goods to skyrocket, must be stopped. 

However, until then, these lost revenues and services must be subsidized and mitigated by States and by Local governments like our absolutely darling Arcata.

For example, this mitigation of Federal waste in anti-immigrant, colonial priorities and theft from public services has raised the prices for building materials to produce housing, so we have to find ways to bring insurance costs down and expensive fire risks simultaneously. In the aforementioned California Regulatory Code, Title 10, Section 2644, there is a clause which requires insurance companies to reduce prices for communities who lower their fire risks. Only a few Humboldt communities have done this and Arcata needs to take from their good example.

Again, affordable rents and prices? Yes! But, also all the other complimentary costs implicated with housing. Affordability is a web not a switch.

Trump’s claim that, “affordability was made up by the Democrats” and is “a hoax”, is as much a twisted, sadistic lie as the same claim made about climate change, or his claims that he would drop consumer prices and not engage in new foreign wars and expenditures. Unfortunately, in this context of cataclysmic political pathology, another way American cities and States are reclaiming the funds no longer available because tariffs and diversions such as the above, are - wait for it - LAWSUITS !

Court decisions against the Federal Government as well as against the Mega-Corporations whose CEO’s, like Elon Musk, have taken hold of it are winning some money back. Purdue paying billions from suits to cities for killing millions of people with addictive opioids is just one example. Pending suits against the feds for the measles and other outbreaks due to planned neglect by the sabotaged CDC is another set of examples.

Like it or not, lawsuits are becoming an increasing revenue source for American cities that can be used to subsidize what has been stolen from them and their citizens. These are some aspects of the new dreary web of policy which ensnares affordable housing development in Arcata and some of the creative tools we can use to deal with them. With those tools engaged by the strong hands of Arcatans and their city council in solidarity, we shall overcome.

Thanks for a great question.

Think Glocally, Vote Bonpane.

I absolutely believe we need to continue prioritizing affordable housing. We cannot pull up the ladder on people who haven’t arrived yet but want to make Humboldt County their home. Just as important are the people who are already here and want to stay, raise their families, and build a future here. They can only do that if they can afford housing.

I also believe we need moderate- and higher-income housing to attract medical practitioners, professors, instructors, and others who are important to our community and need a place to live. We need housing for people at all income levels. But we are nowhere near meeting our affordable housing needs in Humboldt County, and definitely not here in Arcata.

We have been given a roadmap from the state through our Regional Housing Needs Assessment (RHNA). I’ve seen Arcata come very close to meeting our RHNA numbers in the past, and I know we can do it again! We need to get creative on all levels. We need more opportunities for homeownership, including condominiums for people who want to own a home and build equity. We need to explore cooperative housing, which could provide both rental and homeownership opportunities. We also need to make it easier to build smaller housing options, including accessory dwelling units (ADUs).

And we really need to look seriously at tiny home villages. Not just for our unhoused community, but also for individuals who want a smaller living space and a sense of community. Think about our older adults who may no longer need a three-bedroom house and all that goes with it. It could also be a great option for students, professors, and others who need a smaller, more affordable place to live.

I hope our City will consider exploring models like Oregon’s Opportunity Village. Paul Pitino has tried to bring this to the table many times. We just need to keep at it!

At the end of the day, housing isn’t one-size-fits-all. We need a variety of housing options for people at different stages of life and income levels. But we have not done enough to address our affordable housing needs, and we cannot lose sight of that. People who work here should have an opportunity to live here, and people who want to make Humboldt County their home should have that opportunity, too.