Californians face an incredible opportunity to use over 38,800 acres of underused land for new, affordable homes.
Through Senate Bill 899, faith-based institutions and nonprofit colleges could choose to make their land available for affordable housing development, regardless of any local restrictions, to meet our communities’ needs.
These institutions collectively own 38,800 acres of land which add up to the size of Stockton, California’s 13th largest city. The bill would remove zoning restrictions and speed up approval processes so affordable homes for seniors, low-wage workers, people with disabilities and low-income families could be built easier, faster and less expensively.
This innovative proposal would authorize faith-based institutions and nonprofit colleges to address our affordable-housing shortage and transform historically exclusive communities of opportunity into inclusive neighborhoods for all. While rising costs have displaced thousands of families and workers — Black, White, Latinx, Asian and Indigenous — this proposal could help keep residents in the communities where they live and work.
Housing — one of the most critical foundations for community, individual and economic health, and stability — is an essential prong in our region’s pathway to justice. COVID-19 has reminded us that our communities, our bodies and our economies are stronger when we house and care for everyone.
Our nation’s re-energized conversation around race and racism has reinforced the need for new laws and policies that put equity and inclusion at the forefront. SB 899 is a critical example of affordable housing policy that creates solutions for all our neighbors, while working to undo harmful exclusionary policies of the past.
UC Berkeley’s Terner Center found that 45% of the land owned by faith-based institutions and nonprofit colleges is located in high-resource neighborhoods, enabling future residents to access great schools and services and experience higher life expectancy and better life outcomes — directly redressing the intertwined injustices of housing and racial inequities in the Bay Area.
Many of us are unaware that some of the most exclusionary housing policies — some still practiced nationwide — originated here in our diverse Bay Area. As examined in UC Berkeley Othering and Belonging Institute’s “Roots, Race, & Place,” San Francisco’s 1890 Bingham Ordinance explicitly excluded Chinese residents from living in certain zones. Berkeley’s 1916 comprehensive zoning ordinance created exclusive single-family residential zones to exclude Black and Asian Americans. An Oakland-led consortium advanced our state Constitution’s Article 34 intended to make affordable housing nearly impossible or even illegal to build in some jurisdictions. Just 10 years ago, Marin County’s zoning restrictions were cited by the Department of Housing and Urban Development for failing to further fair housing.
Our region didn’t just create discriminatory policies — we led the way.
Racist policies breed racist ideas, says Ibram X. Kendi, director of the Center for Antiracist Research at Boston University. In “How To Be Anti-Racist,” Kendi explains how it’s easy to blame people for racist ideas but harder to pinpoint the invisible hand of racist policies that keep racism alive — by giving people legal excuses to act in racist ways. While our nation begins to wake up to this reality, our region needs to embrace our own power to undo it. Change starts at home.
As residents, let’s embrace this opportunity to undo our unwitting participation in our own segregationist history — by mobilizing support behind SB 899. We’re so close. Nearly every California senator has already voted to advance the bill. Now, we need your help to urge your Assembly member to support SB 899’s win-win scenario — to ease California’s housing crisis, protect our state’s future and create more inclusive communities.
Amie Fishman is executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. Carla Dartis is the congregation council president of the United Lutheran Church of Oakland.
