Local organizers have been brainstorming ways to maintain pressure on the Riverside City Council after weeks of failed attempts to convince the majority of the members to reconsider accepting millions in state funding for an affordable housing project.
“People are really ready to act,” Janice Rooths, a longtime advocate who mediated the conversation, told The Riverside Record. “We need them to go out and vote for the candidates [to] get them elected, go out and recall candidates because that would help us even faster and then to help get the real word out about housing-first.”
Several Inland Empire-based organizations, including Starting Over, Inc. and the Fair Housing Council of Riverside County, hosted a community town hall meeting last Friday night, where more than 50 residents received updates on the nearly-killed affordable housing project on University Avenue.
The Riverside City Council January 13 voted 4-3 to reject $20 million in state funds that local nonprofit Riverside Housing Development Corporation (RHDC) would have used to convert the Quality Inn Motel into apartments for both low income residents and people transitioning out of homelessness.
Council members Philip Falcone, Steven Robillard, Chuck Conder and Sean Mill cited several reasons why they voted against the funds, primarily taking issue with the Housing First model.
The model, which gets people into housing first and then provides supportive services, has been required for all state-funded housing programs since 2016 when Senate Bill 1380 was signed into law. The city’s own Housing First Strategy Plan, adopted in 2018, noted that the approach increased housing stability, improved quality of life and was more cost-effective than traditional programs with higher barriers to entry.
Following that January meeting, RHDC CEO Bruce Kulpa told The Record that the state’s department of Housing and Community Development gave the organization a one month extension for the city to accept the funds. Advocates for the project repeatedly, and unsuccessfully, asked the four council members to reconsider the vote.
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Although the deadline for reconsideration has passed, community leaders at the town hall said there was still hope for the project.
Dan Hoxworth, an Inland SoCal Housing Collective board member, told the group that he believed a letter sent by three nonprofit law firms citing the possibility of legal action against the city could pressure the council members to reconsider before the state began the process of distributing that money to another project.
He added that a press conference about the letter and potential litigation was planned for March 3.
“This project is a defining moment,” Hoxworth said. “It will define our city. It will define each of the city council members who oppose it.”
The letter, sent February 10 by the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Southern California, the Inland Counties Legal Services and the Public Interest Law Project, outlined four reasons city leaders should reconsider the vote. They included the potential of losing funding incentives tied to the city’s pro-housing designation and possibly facing liability for discrimination based on the comments made by some council members.
Veronica Garcia, the Inland Counties Legal Services’ housing practice group director, said she hoped the upcoming press conference would get city officials to take action. If not, she said the three firms would look into options for litigation.
“Any attorney doesn’t necessarily want to pursue litigation, but it’s how you can move a case forward,” Garcia told The Record.
During the session, several members also brought up this year’s election cycle. Some suggested advocating for candidates who have openly stated they would have supported the housing project. Others mentioned the possibility of recalling one of the four council members whose seat was not up for reelection this year.
“We have the possibility of changing out one candidate who is against homeless housing,” Rooths said. “We have the perfect opportunity in an election year to get people out of the seats that they’re in and to put in new people as well.”
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