A sign greets in Hillsborough, California, April 10, 2015.
On January 30, the prosperous city of Hillsborough held a town council meeting to discuss its faltering detailed housing plan. the California Department of Housing and Community Development through Feb. 1.
This is not the case. And it remains in limbo more than a week later. Even more troubling, one Hillsborough resident proposed a loophole that appears to be in other affluent Bay Area cities looking to meet their housing needs: building a separate progression particularly for adults with progressive disabilities, thus avoiding a potential influx of other unwanted “low-income” neighbors.
Hillsborough must zone for another 554 housing complexes through 2031, some of which will have to be “affordable” based on the area’s average income source. As is the case in many ultra-wealthy neighborhoods, Hillsborough citizens and local politicians have expressed their fear at city council meetings of absorbing citizens whose source of income is classified as “very low” for the area. (In Hillsborough’s case, “very low” is considered $87,000 consistent with the year for a circle of relatives of four. )
During the assembly over the lack of concrete housing plans, Hillsborough citizens used the public comment segment to go through a series of desperate plans and pleas to replace as little as possible. One resident expressed solidarity with Steph Curry of Atherton, who sent a letter to the council saying he and his wife don’t need multifamily housing built near their home. Another resident speculated that Hillsborough might annex nearby land, reducing its housing needs.
Then, a resident named Gib took the podium. He came up with an express plan: to build housing for what he called “special needs” adults, whom the National Center on Disability and Journalism calls adults with developmental disabilities, an organization that includes autism spectrum, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and intellectuality. disorders”. off. “
“Very low-income and low-income housing will scare a lot of other people in this community, because we all know what it entails, don’t we?””But as a parent of a child with special needs . . . The very low and low income [housing units], a lot of them can be used here by offering adequate housing for other people here. “
Gib said he believes that, unlike other people who might qualify for low-income housing, other people with developmental disabilities “don’t commit crimes, don’t bring drugs, don’t cause problems. They don’t bring all the crazy things they’re going through with him. They also can’t drive, Gib said, “so you don’t have a bunch of extra cars and God knows what. “
“I urge everyone,” he continued, “to step back and say we may not have enough good enough housing. They don’t cause any trouble, they stay there forever. We provide them with a position here in this city.
After Gib concluded his remarks, Hillsborough Mayor Christine Krolik responded, “Thank you so much, that’s a wonderful point. “also a necessity. “)
A day later, Woodside City Councilman Dick Brown, who sparked a firestorm last year when he tried to block new homes that posed the predicted danger to mountain lions, delivered an equally naked speech that his city also deserves to consider housing for adults with developmental disabilities as a way to avoid the option of unwanted neighbors and traffic. A Woodside resident spoke at the same assembly to say that the citizens of Portola Valley, a wealthy enclave neighboring San Mateo County, had already devised an imaginable plan: a subdivision for adults with developmental disabilities called Willow Commons.
Still in its infancy, Willow Commons promises to bring thirteen homes to Portola Valley. This can go a long way toward fulfilling Portola Valley’s very low-income housing desires. Its developer also claimed that Willow Commons citizens would not give a contribution. to additional traffic and that “local employers will gain advantages from an unwavering, entry-level source of employees. “
“I agree with you, optics are terrible,” Portola Valley Mayor Jeff Aalfs told SFGATE, when asked about some of the reasons given for building the Willow Commons development.
California State Council on Developmental Disabilities models imply that, out of a general population of about 4300, there are about 67 adults in Portola Valley with developmental disabilities. However, in their housing project (rejected), the city itself only had 3 adults with intellectual disabilities in Portola Valley. In other words: Portola Valley politicians feel there are very few adults with intellectual disabilities in their city, but still Willow Commons.
“My most productive assumption would be that it would be some locals [on Willow Commons] and then some other Bay Area people,” Aalfs said of how the city would locate other people to live in. “I guess there is will be a preference for the local population. But honestly, I don’t know.
The developer of the Willow Commons assignment did not return a request for comment from SFGATE.
Drawing inspiration from the same less inclusive research formula that Portola Valley uses, Hillsborough believes he has 27 adults with developmental disabilities and Woodside believes he has 20. Based on models from the California State Council on Developmental Disabilities, those numbers are underestimated by about 147 and 61, respectively. The total population of Hillsborough is approximately 11,000 and that of Woodside is approximately 5,130.
“It’s frustrating to see public entities engaging with other people with certain types of disabilities as a way to circumvent government goals and oppress other populations they deem less desirable for their community,” Michelle Uzeta, senior advisor at Disability Rights. Education.
There is a housing crisis in the state of California, and that crisis actually applies to adults with developmental disabilities, many of whom live on a small steady income. In 2017, estimates indicated that there were 628,998 adults with developmental disabilities in California. According to knowledge gathered through The Kelsey, a nonprofit that co-develops “accessible and inclusive multifamily housing for others with and without disabilities,” there were approximately 113,000 adults with developmental disabilities in the Bay Area in 2021.
“People with disabilities are disproportionately affected by the state’s housing crisis,” said Allie Cannington, Kelsey’s senior advocacy and organizing officer. “California and the country have existing political mandates . . . to create built-in and affordable housing for other people with disabilities. “that they require and support at home. Our state has not yet controlled to build this mandatory supply.
Navneet Grewal, an attorney with Disability Rights California, also told SFGATE that there is a pressing need to provide more housing for California adults with developmental disabilities. But that doesn’t mean endorsing all advances for other people with intellectual disabilities, especially if the advances are far from surrounding communities, he said.
“The need is great, but we believe housing needs to be integrated,” Grewal said. “We oppose the creation of more institutions. There will have to be a mix of sources of income and types of housing being offered. “
The concepts raised at Hillsborough and Woodside council meetings are separate housing because they propose an organization of adults with developmental disabilities in a separate building or building organization from the others. This presents its own legal risks, according to disability rights advocates who spoke to SFGATE.
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This could also be a challenge to the progress of Portola Valley’s Willow Commons, which is officially underway, but barely. The allocation was originally conceived for reasons beyond meeting affordable housing needs; the developer has a child with progressive disabilities and began designing the assets long before the city’s housing detail took shape, Portola Valley owner Aalfs told SFGATE. “This is by no means a strategy on our part,” Aalfs said. “This task came to us here. And it turns out that it corresponds to our requirements.
Willow Commons in its final form is conceived as a “multi-family residential community” of 11 one-bedroom apartments for adults with developmental disabilities, as well as two sets of secondary housing for on-site staff.
“Every time you restrict housing to a person, you threaten to violate many federal and state housing laws,” Grewal said. “You can break the law in two ways. One: if it excludes people, and two: if it creates a structure. “
Grewal pointed to a 1999 Supreme Court ruling that “unjustifiable” segregation of other people with disabilities violates the Americans with Disabilities Act. The development recommends embedded environments “where other people with disabilities can live and interact with other people without disabilities, while receiving physical and long-term care. “The long-term support they need.
Aalfs told SFGATE that Willow Commons’ prestige of integration, or lack thereof, “has a problem,” though he added that he still supports the project. “I would say supportive housing is rare in California, all other categories of the downstream housing market are essential,” he said.
While Portola Valley argues that it seeks to build the amount of housing needed for other people with disabilities, the reasons given by an elected official in Woodside are distinctly less altruistic.
“There have been a lot of Array considerations. . . about traffic, noise, congestion and the possibility of crime expressed in each and every assembly in which we communicate on proposals for multi-unit housing for low-income people,” Councilman Brown said in his city. Assembly. Assembly, which took position on January 31. (Woodside, like Hillsborough and Portola Valley, has yet to adopt its detailed housing plan. )
After discussing the state’s needs to expand the number of units, Brown proposed “a suggestion that I think can trump all of those issues, and that is that we expand an asset of 20 studios and one-bedroom apartments, plus two ADUs to serve as a house for independents. adults living with intellectual and expansive disabilities, mainly adults with autism, and two or 3 full-time supervisors. “
“It probably wouldn’t have much effect on the surrounding network because they’re very quiet, crime-free, almost no traffic because almost none of them drive and are heavily monitored 24/7,” he continued.
When asked, among other things, why Woodside thought of his own independent living home and where adults with disabilities would come from, Brown wrote in an email to SFGATE: “Thank you for your interest, but I have nothing to upload to my comments. “. done at the meeting.
Uzeta, of the Disability Education and Advocacy Fund, said comments like those made at Hillsborough and Woodside council meetings are “disturbing, childish and illustrative of the NIMBY attitudes prevalent across the state. “
“It is offensive that they use other people with disabilities as a corner to save their availability and housing,” added Grewal, attorney with Disability Rights California.
Aalfs said that, to his knowledge, no one in Portola Valley has blatantly used the kind of language expressed at Hillsborough and Woodside council meetings. But he didn’t refute questions about why some members of his city’s community, which is almost as wealthy as Hillsborough. and Woodside, are in favor of a progression like Willow Commons.
“I’m sure a lot of other people find this more appropriate than just a below-market housing allocation for some of the reasons you’re talking about,” he told SFGATE. “I’m not proud to say that about our community. But I can’t deny that the feeling is there.