Overheard in Fog City

Luke Thomas
FCJ Publisher and Editor-in-Chief
Photo by Adam Aufdencamp

By Luke Thomas

January 24, 2008

Daly kicks off affordable housing petition drive

Affordable housing champion Supervisor Chris Daly rallied progressive allies and community leaders yesterday in a grassroots effort to gather petition signatures for an affordable housing ballot initiative.

Daly has less than two weeks to collect 7,168 valid signatures to qualify the initiative for the June ballot.

The kick-off event, held at the San Francisco Green Party headquarters, drew as many as 30 volunteers who pledged to collect upto 2,500 signatures.

Supervisor Chris Daly rallies supporters at the San Francisco Green Party headquarters.

A similar mobilzation effort has been scheduled tonight at the Grace Tabernacle Community Church in the Bayview at 7pm.

The Bayview Affordable Housing Initiative would mandate 50 percent of all housing built by Lennar to be affordable to residents with incomes between 30 and 80 percent of median income.

The intiative would also mandate the phased rebuilding of Alice Griffith Public Housing residents while protecting all residents from displacement.

Daly said his affordable housing initative is needed because a Mayor Gavin Newsom sponsored proposal does not legally commit Lennar to sell or rent homes at specific income levels.

"When it comes to issues as important as affordable housing, we need guarantees, not empty rhetoric," Daly told Fog City Journal. "We need to be clear that the Newsom backed proposal is a Lennar inititative."

"Lennar has already spent over $500,000 and the campaign has not yet begun," Daly added.

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