An increase in Bay Area 9-county property taxes called ACA-1 is being proposed that will cost property owners about $190/year for each $1 million in assessed value (or potentially as much as $342/million in assessed value). This is being done to ostensibly “solve” the homeless crisis in the area. Government spending has NEVER “solved” homelessness. The principal reasons for homelessness in the Bay Area are: (1) excessive, increasing, and often government-subsidized or mediated drug use and the attendant creation of severe mental illness and (2) regulations on the construction and rental of housing that prevent the meaningful working of a free market in housing. Spending at any level of government of unaccountable millions of dollars on “affordable housing” projects addresses neither of these root causes. Government spending for housing invites waste, fraud, and insider dealing. As proof, simply look at the cost per unit of recently constructed government sponsored housing in Santa Monica, which amounted to over $1 million per unit. The constructed housing is never sufficient to relieve the scale of the homeless problem; it simply invites more distressed individuals to the area to take advantage of government largess. Moreover, by government ownership of housing creates a destructive, careless attitude towards the housing by its occupants. The list is extensive of government sponsored low income housing projects around the country that quickly degraded into worse slums than those they replaced.
DO NOT SUPPORT ACA-1. Urge San Mateo County to provide mental health and drug treatment (including involuntary incarceration) for the individuals who need it. Repeal all of the rental housing regulations that incentivize property owners to NEVER become or remain landlords. Ease the building code regulations and permitting rules that add needlessly to the cost of all construction. Government spending on “affordable housing" construction is a useless way to reduce Bay Area homelessness.
Regards,
Mical Atz Brenzel
105 Garland Drive, Menlo Park
