{"id":311915,"date":"2026-05-12T12:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311915\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T12:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T12:42:16","slug":"transform-talk-affordable-housing-leaders-committed-to-fight-to-save-transit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311915\/","title":{"rendered":"Transform Talk: Affordable Housing Leaders Committed to Fight to Save Transit"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cTransit is the foundation of how affordable\u00a0housing works,\u201d said Quintin Mecke, Executive Director of the Council of Community Housing Organizations, during a panel discussion Monday afternoon hosted by the advocates at Transform and aligned groups about why housing and transit are joined at the proverbial hip<\/a>. In fact, with state laws now in effect that override local jurisdictions and allow higher density around quality transit<\/a>, projects to build affordable housing are in direct jeopardy if BART, Muni, and Caltrain aren\u2019t funded. \u201cAffordable housing relies on a stable funding source,\u201d said Mecke.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s a big part of why affordable housing advocates are joining transit advocates and working hard to get signatures to qualify the regional measure<\/a> for the November ballot. \u201cWe\u2019ve been helping out with getting more signatures,\u201d said Kenneth Javier-Rosales with Silicon Valley at Home (SV@home). \u201cPeople are eager to support the measure. The most common response is Yes!\u2019 or \u2018I\u2019ve already signed!’\u201d<\/p>\n

Transform\u2019s Zack Deutsch-Gross<\/a> explained the fundamentals of why the measure, which would implement a half-cent sales tax to fund transit, is so important. Without it<\/a>, there will be drastic cuts at \u201cMuni, BART, Caltrain, and AC Transit, which together represent 80 percent of all transit ridership in the Bay Area.\u201d He explained how Caltrain would reduce to hourly weekday service only. Muni would cut entire lines, \u201cAC transit would see over one-third of all lines cut in the East Bay,\u201d he said, and BART would cut entire stations from the system.<\/p>\n

\"\"A map of BART stations that would be cut under the doomsday scenario.<\/p>\n

Basically, people throughout the region would lose access to jobs and services. But nobody would be harder hit than low-income, working-class folks who absolutely depend on transit to get around.<\/p>\n

\u201c70 percent of us use public transit,\u201d said Sophia DeWitt of East Bay Housing Organizations. For affordable housing residents, the situation is truly dire, because transit is the most economical way to get around, \u201cparticularly right now with gas prices where they are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cCuts to Caltrain would put that many more cars on our streets and highways,\u201d explained the Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County\u2019s Ken Chan. \u201cBut about 77 percent of Sam Trans ridership is considered low income. 41 percent of its ridership makes less than $25,000 per year.\u201d So it\u2019s farm workers, service workers who will suffer the most, he said.<\/p>\n

\"\"From the presentations: do we want more parking, or more housing?<\/p>\n

But even if the regional measure ultimately receives enough signatures, gets on the ballot, and passes in November, housing advocates say they need to keep fighting for a vision of how they want the Bay Area to look in the future. Is it going to be a place where the working class drives long hours from the only housing they can afford, to leave their cars in big parking lots for a long ride to work or school? Or is it a place with dense housing around transit stops that are affordable to all, so people aren\u2019t forced into exurbia?<\/p>\n

\u201cThe key is to get more housing near transit, for folks of low income and the working class,\u201d said Javier-Rosales. <\/p>\n

The panelists also agreed that a way has to be found to fund transit and housing in the future in a more progressive way. \u201cSales taxes are regressive,\u201d said Deutsch-Gross. \u201cSo while we support the transit measure, we have to ask and think about how we can make the Bay Area more equitable.\u201d<\/p>\n

All the panelists agreed with so much wealth in the Bay Area, especially in San Francisco and the Peninsula, at some point a wealth tax or some kind of more progressive tax is needed to fund transit and housing.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

But for now, given the disaster that would unfold if transit is defunded, the housing and transit advocates realized a sales tax (and a parcel tax in San Francisco) is the most politically feasible and the only way to avoid a cataclysm for the working class. \u201cA half-cent sales tax is doable,\u201d said Javier-Rosales. \u201cLosing our transit is not.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe wealth disparity is so deep here in the city,\u201d said Mecke. After transit is saved, \u201cwe\u2019ll have more strategic conversations in the future,\u201d concluded Javier-Rosales.<\/p>\n

To help gather signatures for the regional measure sign up here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cTransit is the foundation of how affordable\u00a0housing works,\u201d said Quintin Mecke, Executive Director of the Council of Community…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311916,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144,109921],"class_list":["post-311915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-promoted"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311915","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311915"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311915\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311916"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311915"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311915"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311915"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}