SF Bay Area's $20 billion housing bond is removed from the ballot

The sponsors of a $20 billion bond measure to fund affordable housing in the San Francisco Bay Area have removed it from the November ballot.

A statement announcing the Bay Area Housing Finance Agency's decision to withdraw the measure indicated doubt about its ability to garner the necessary two-thirds supermajority from voters in the nine-county region, and hope that state law will change to reduce that needed margin.

"The BAHFA Board has always understood that it would be a steep climb to establish this source of funding," said Wednesday's joint statement from BAHFA Chair Alfredo Pedroza and Belia Ramos, president of the Association of Bay Area Governments executive board. "Recent developments have led the Board to conclude that the wise choice is to look ahead to another election season for a regional housing measure when there is more certainty and the voters have weighed in affirmatively on Proposition 5."

Proposition 5, on the statewide ballot Nov. 5, would reduce the threshold to approve local general obligation bonds for housing assistance or public infrastructure to 55%.

The Bay Area Council, a lobbying organization for local businesses, had supported the measure.

"While we step away for now from Regional Measure 4, we must step up our efforts to remove the many barriers that have been erected to block and delay new housing," said Jim Wunderman, the council's president and CEO. "This setback is unquestionably disappointing, but it can serve as a powerful motivator for us to get even more aggressive in changing restrictive land use policies and updating outdated laws like the California Environmental Quality Act that for too long have been abused to discourage and deter investors and builders from creating the housing we desperately need."

Californians will not lack for bond measures in November. In addition to many local school bond measures, there will be two state GO measures; $10 billion for school construction, and $10 billion to combat and prepare for climate change.