Commission Shifts To Right On Supportive Housing
In Which: We answer the question "What is public land?", Commissioner Meyers gets his Neighborhood Council, and Commissioner Stevens calls Council "naive" about safe parking.
Planning Commission on Supportive Housing—Again
If you’re getting a feeling like we’ve done this before, you’re right. This is the third time that the Planning Commission (PC) has weighed in on proposed zoning amendments that will make it easier to develop supportive housing.
Right now, there’s a homelessness crisis in the Bay Area, and Hayward is no exception. In order to get people permanently housed, there needs to be somewhere for them to go—often with wrap-around services to mitigate the traumas people face on the streets. Unfortunately, most of those solutions are currently illegal to build in Hayward—no safe parking, no emergency shelters—so there’s nowhere for people to go if they can’t afford an apartment.
Changing the zoning fixes all of that. The idea is to make it easier to build a whole range of supportive housing to get people on the path to permanent housing. Someone still has to build it, but it should be a lot easier to do—permitting timelines will be cut by as much as half. Given that homelessness has been one of the top concerns for Hayward residents for multiple years in a row, this should be a popular idea.
Minor Changes
City Staff made a few minor changes to the zoning ordinance:
Bike parking is now required for Single Room Occupancy (SRO) developments
Temporary restroom facilities are allowed at Safe Parking sites
There was also a specification that bath and laundry facilities have to be made available at safe parking sites at least once per week.
A Wide Range Of Questions
Commissioner Haman spent about 20 minutes asking a range of questions, some of which could have been asked of Staff via email before the public meeting. He asked for clarification on what “publicly owned land” is, which is any land owned by the City of Hayward. He also seemed to still be unaware of the St. Regis project that has been underway for several years.
“Is there private land that we can utilize?” he asked, “For example, St. Regis or perhaps Southland Mall?” Staff clarified that public and private land could be used for any of the proposed purposes, if it was appropriately zoned. He also asked about Day Centers, and Staff pointed out that they are not included in the discussion because they are not residential facilities.
Commissioner Haman was also concerned about how few service providers had responded to requests for feedback and why there wasn’t outreach to the unhoused community. Staff said that they reached out to 74 organizations who answered, or not, for any number of reasons. They also pointed out that these zoning recommendations are based on the Let’s House Hayward Strategic Plan from 2021, which included feedback from multiple people experiencing homelessness—they were the ones who recommended making more types of supportive housing available.
Haman also continued the trend of Planning Commissioners attempting to give feedback on operational policy. He asked if pets would be allowed by the service providers, but Staff again pointed out that zoning has no governance over operations. Those will be submitted to and approved by City Staff with their Administrative Use Permit application.
Commissioner Goodbody asked if those management plans would go before the Planning Commission or City Council—a process which could take months. Staff said they would not, unless they were appealed. “We know what we’re looking for,” they said, “so that they won’t result in nuisances.”
Goodbody also asked if someone fleeing domestic violence would qualify as homeless, relaying an anecdote where someone fleeing domestic violence was killed in the Southland parking lot—there did not seem to be an immediate connection to their housing situation. Staff pointed out that domestic violence victims are included in the Housing and Urban Development (HUD) definition, and they would update the local ordinance to match.
Commissioner Goodbody finally asked about prioritizing unhoused Hayward residents for these services, but Staff said that if the provider uses county, state, or federal funding—which is very likely—they would need to use the Coordinated Entry System, which allocates beds county-wide.
Commissioner Stevens sought clarification on whether or not Council was explicitly in support of an Administrative Use Permit (AUP)—which only City Staff needs to review—for Safe Parking Sites. “[The City Council] explicitly stated that they were comfortable with the [AUP] process,” Staff said, “And didn’t want to overburden applicants with a longer permitting process.” The Conditional Use Permit adds an additional 3-6 months to the process and includes multiple hearings before the Planning Commission and City Council.
Chair Lowe asked why there wasn’t a distancing requirement for Group Homes—which, to be clear, can include care facilities as well as dormitories and frat/soror houses. Staff said that they’ve been allowed for years and haven’t had an issue with over concentration so far.
Ron Meyers Is An Expert
Commissioner Meyers has been outspoken in his attempts to place more barriers in front of supportive housing projects. In the previous meeting on the subject, he spent his entire comment period railing against by-right development—which Council had already approved—and pushing for some kind of neighborhood oversight body. He also alleged that more projects would be approved if developers were required to work with the neighbors who don’t want them there—he blamed by-right development for his son’s current homelessness.
In this meeting, Commissioner Meyers revealed that his son is actually unhoused in another state—which would have completely different rules and laws around housing development—but continued to rail against by-right development. This is in spite of the fact that the only by-right development allowed is group homes, which is mandated by California State Law.
“I think it would have been great,” Commissioner Meyers said, “on some of these by-right potential future issues, such as other low-income or homeless centers, that we would have had someone on the Planning Commission that would actually have firsthand knowledge—that we could pull from that knowledge before… implementing any new projects.” This could have been a call for including the voice of people with lived experience with homelessness or even service providers who work with them.
“And it just so happens,” Meyers continued, “we have someone on the Planning Commission that has first hand knowledge and sees what works and what doesn’t work.” He was referring to himself, however. “What I see is when we are making everything ministerial and changing the verbage to be by-right… we’re saying we don’t care what has worked and not worked in the past… We just want to push forward and to me that’s not solving the issue of getting rid of NIMBYism.”
Staff, once again, clarified that most of the by-right ordinances are mandated by State Law—the City cannot change it. “The one I’m referring to was also mandated by the State,” Commissioner Meyers said. The reason that State Law has mandated by-right development is because of concerted opposition to development by disgruntled neighborhood groups. Empowering NIMBYs, as Meyers suggests, is a move in the opposite direction and could further slow development.
Deputizing Disgruntled Neighborhoods
Commissioner Meyers started the Comments portion of the meeting by reading a list of issues he’s had with the Depot Community Apartments, run by Abode, though he never mentioned them by name. The list included concerns about trash, “unleashed pit bulls,” a broken street light, stolen tires, an alleged increase in sex offenders—he referenced an unnamed reporting agency—and a shooting somewhere nearby.
Meyers implied that Abode was to blame for all of these issues, based largely on correlative evidence—they had happened since the development came online in January of 2024. He connected the shooting to the Depot Community Apartments, for example, because “[it was] a homeless that was shot and killed.” It’s important, however, to note that homelessness and property crimes have a number of causes—including inflation and the eviction wave that hit in late 2023.
The remedy proposed by Commissioner Meyers is a “neighborhood accountability group that the neighbors can work with the [service provider] that also has a City liaison.” It was unclear if this so-called accountability group would have any authority or how the City would pay for a liaison between disgruntled neighbors and service providers.
Commissioner Franco-Clausen was sympathetic to Commissioner Meyers’s concerns about community issues. She listed several from her own neighborhood and recommended he call Animal Services about the dogs. Then she touched on her own lived experiences, “As someone who’s lived in group homes,” she said, “I understand about [them] and when you put barriers in front of owners of groups homes you put barriers in how they treat the kids in there.”
Commissioner Hardy then moved to approve the recommendations with the addition of Meyers’s suggestion. “It seems like we would like to add… a community liaison or some other program to support the neighborhoods in which these would be opened.” she said.
Commissioner Robert Stevens Calls Council “Naive”
Commissioner Stevens pushed for an additional barrier on Safe Parking Sites, asking for a Conditional Use Permit (CUP) despite the City Council’s explicit intent to lower barriers to implementation.
“I believe the Council is very naive,” Commissioner Stevens said, “in allowing that action to happen. As I pointed out, several of these potential sites are located in very close proximity to developing neighborhoods and I suspect that many individuals would not understand why this use is being allowed there.” Using community ignorance as a reason to slow development was a new argument.
Stevens expressed an interest in a CUP, which requires approval of the Planning Commission, “so people can be knowledgeable about what’s planned and so they can actually comment about it.” Commissioner Stevens has complained publicly in the past about a lack of public engagement during Planning Commission meetings.
Stevens took issue not only with the lack of opportunities for community engagement, but also with the resources necessary to run a safe parking site, which he seemed to believe would be substantial. “I do not believe that the City has the resources… to police these activities,” he said.
Stevens also complained about the zoning ordinance itself. “This whole document is very abstract and arcane,” said the Civil Engineer. “[it’s] interesting words and really interesting policies, but… I just don’t see this being successful.”
When this was first brought before the Planning Commission in June, Stevens demonstrated contempt for unhoused people in general. “I fail to see the logic of how Council has initiated this where it affects, let’s say 1% of the population. What about the other 99% of us that have to live in this city and have to look at all the things? For me, from my perspective, there’s a lot more consequential problems to deal with,” he said at the June 27th meeting.
The Planning Commission Supports Increasing Barriers
After his comments, Commissioner Hardy asked if Commissioner Stevens wanted to add the Conditional Use Permit for Safe Parking Sites as an amendment. Stevens said he was merely making a comment because, “I’m reading behind the lines that my previous comments are not acceptable.” However, he said he made the comments because, “in good faith I need to stay true to what I believe in.”
But Stevens found he was not alone in his ire for Safe Parking Sites. “I actually agree with you,” Commissioner Hardy said. Commissioner Meyers and Chair Lowe also supported recommending a Conditional Use Permit to Safe Parking Sites.
Commissioner Haman said he was generally supportive, but ultimately agreed with the rest of the Planning Commission’s comments. “I believe we need to be careful when we suspend our local planning and zoning regulations,” he said. “These protections were put there for a reason.” He seemed unaware of the history of zoning practices—often racist—and why we have an increasing population of unhoused people in Hayward—because zoning has prohibited an increase in density to account for population growth.
“I hope that we are mindful of the neighborhood dynamic when we make these changes or we move to approve these projects,” Commissioner Haman said. “Safety and security are paramount.” He failed to specify the safety and security of whom.
Commission Unanimously Votes To Increase Barriers
When it came time to vote, the Planning Commission voted to approve the Staff recommendations with the following additions:
Align the ordinance with the HUD definition of Homeless—which includes victims of domestic violence
Adding a community liaison with a vague charge to work with neighborhood groups and service providers
Changing Safe Parking from Administrative Use Permit to Conditional Use Permit, which requires approval from the Planning Commission
Additional cleanup of typos and errors
The vote was unanimous in favor of the changes, even from Commissioner Franco-Clausen who had spoken against adding barriers to supportive housing. By her vote, it seems clear she feels differently about Safe Parking Sites.
This vote was just a recommendation, however. The ordinance will now go to the City Council who will discuss and vote on the ordinance sometime in the new year.