EBHO held its Kick-Off of Affordable Housing Week 2010 on Friday, May 7th at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center! It was a wonderful success with over 300 people coming together as EBHO members, activists and supporters to grow the movement for affordable housing, healthy families and sustainable communities. We honored Barry Luboviski, the immediate past Secretary-Treasurer of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Alameda County, and Bob Uyeki, the Executive Director of the Y&H Soda Foundation, and paid tribute to the memory of Eve Bach -- celebrating her life-long dedication to environmental sustainability, community development and affordable housing. What a tremendous outpouring of community, with great food and music, and renewed dedication to EBHO's mission of educating, advocating, and building coalitions for affordable housing. Please click HERE to see a slideshow of the night!
Affordable Housing Week events included two grand openings of affordable family housing in Pittsburg and Oakland; three groundbreakings in Richmond, Fremont, and Emeryville; and three open houses in Livermore, Alameda, and San Leandro. All together, these developments represent 413 new affordable rental homes.
Additional highlights included tours of three areas for future transit-oriented development communities in which EBHO and coalition partners are advocating for the inclusion of affordable homes: Oakland’s Broadway Auto Row, the Concord Naval Weapon Station (near the North Concord BART), and Pittsburg’s BART station and surrounding area.
EBHO, along with UC Berkeley's Center for Community Innovation, and the East Bay Community Foundation, held our 2nd Annual Policy Symposium, "State of Housing in the East Bay: How Can We Meet Affordable Housing & Climate Change Goals During the Economic Crisis?" Our impressive panel brought together non-profit affordable housing developers, public sector policy makers, and policy researchers. They emphasized that the only way to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is if communities are inclusive and have housing affordable to all incomes. Moreover, redevelopment funds, an essential finance tool for local jurisdictions, are more critical than ever to achieve these dual statewide goals, and should not be taken by the state to close the budget gap.
Fifteen jurisdictions recognized Affordable Housing Week with proclamations, and events were covered by KQED, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Contra Costa Times, along with other local papers and media outlets. To see media coverage on Affordable Housing Week 2010, please click HERE.
Affordable Housing Week is put on every year by EBHO during the second week of May. A special thank you goes to all of this year’s event organizers! EBHO also deeply appreciates Chase and US Bank, EBHO's Lead Sponsors of Affordable Housing Week, as well as the sponsorship of Union Bank and Wells Fargo.
