Mayor Tries To Axe Homelessness Task Force
In Which: The Poet Laureate rocks a Council Meeting. Homelessness is still an emergency. And vacant properties vie with street vendors for top concern.
Problematic Proclamations and Powerful Poetry
Who Should Be Rewarded For Fair Housing Policy?
At the start of the meeting, the City of Hayward issues a proclamation declaring April to be Fair Housing Month, which celebrates the passage of the Fair Housing Act. The Housing part of the Fair Housing and Employment Act was to prevent discrimination when buying or renting a home, especially on the basis of race.
As any student of history will tell you, the reason we need regulation is because industries can’t regulate themselves. And one of the groups that drove the need for this regulation is real estate agents—though financial institutions and federal and local governments played a big part, as well. It’s literally the whole reason why Russell City existed and was then demolished.
It felt rather tone-deaf to have the proclamation on Fair Housing Month accepted by the Bay East Association of Realtors (BEAR).* Admittedly, ECHO Housing accepted the proclamation, as well. Though their representative, Angie Watson-Hajjem, was only able to participate remotely. It’s possible that the only reason ECHO was included at all is because of a dust-up in the City of Newark around their Fair Housing Month proclamation.
Regardless, it’s good that ECHO was there. The Bay East Association of Realtors is explicitly on the side of landlords, many of whom skirt the lines of housing law whenever possible. Their official stance on Rental Housing Policy reads:
Rental Housing Policies: We recognize and support the crucial role smaller, low-volume, “Mom and Pop” owners and managers of rental properties with four or fewer units play in providing safe, secure and affordable rental housing opportunities. We support regional and municipal policies which enable these property owners and managers to sustainably function as housing providers.
BEAR, and their colleagues at the East Bay Rental Housing Association, have stood against renter’s protections every time they come up before the City Council. So having a landlord advocacy group, a group who at the state level has a specific fundraising button to oppose rent control, accept a proclamation for Fair Housing Month feels like having coal companies accept a Clean Air Month proclamation: they’re literally the reason it exists.
*Fun Fact: Did you know the term Realtor is a trademark? It’s the Kleenex of real estate agents.
Poet Laureate’s First Poem Lifts Up Community Power
The City of Hayward formally announced its new Poet Laureate, Leticia Guzman. After taking photos with the Mayor and the former Poet Laureate, Ms. Guzman performed her first poem in her official capacity. Check out the video below.
The poem covers themes of community and resilience and taking care of each other with a take-action tone that is definitely needed. With a powerful opening like this, I have no doubt Ms. Guzman is going to bring some fiery energy to future City functions. With any luck, it’ll help bring in a new wave of resistance art to the City of Hayward that’s long overdue.
Homelessness Committee: Keep or Can?
Despite the fact that housing has been expensive in the Bay Area for at least the last 20 years, the City of Hayward only put together the Homelessness and Housing Task Force (HHTF) in 2019—a full decade after the most recent housing bubble collapsed. Designed to address a “time-limited” task, the Task Force has been extended twice over the last 5 years, and been the starting point of some transformative polices: the Residential Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RRSO), Tenant Relocation Assistance, the Affordable Housing Ordinance, and a Rental Registry (still in the works).
Mayor Supports Cutting Homelessness Committee
These tenant-focused polices have helped keep people off the streets in the first place—a significantly cheaper and more effective course than helping people once they’re there. But before even allowing the public to speak, Mayor Mark Salinas put forward the idea to disband the HHTF. “We’ve done our work in the committee,” he said, “I would suggest, if we don’t eliminate it, at the very least what I’d like to do is maybe pause the committee—if not eliminate it.”
At the same time, he acknowledged that the HHTF had been a force for good in the City. “We have been the first in the county in a lot of policy work… and we remain ahead of the curve.” The Mayor took the idea of being “ahead of the curve” as a justification for hitting pause. “Now we’re watching these policies mature and grow.”
When he did open public comment, those who spoke were overwhelmingly in favor of making the HHTF a full committee—with one exception. One caller suggested that the City should eliminate the HHTF and “let the state guide our decision making.” Citing the recent constitutional amendment pushing the Governor’s Care Courts—a divisive policy, to say the least—the commenter tried to make the argument that so much is happening, that we shouldn’t have a committee keeping an eye on it.
This feels backwards, considering if something is changing a lot, the last thing a responsible person would do is ignore it.
Only one other person on Council supported dissolving the HHTF. “The problems haven’t gone away,” Councilmember Dan Goldstein said. But he recommended dissolving the committee, anyway. “There’s also other things the city needs to focus on,” he said, expressing a desire to “give staff time back.” He pointed out that the Task Force could always be started up again, if the need arose.
City Council Pushes Back
Other Councilmembers pointed out that there was no end in sight to the housing and homelessness crisis we’re experiencing. “We have to keep on top of this,” Councilmember Bonilla Jr. said, “We have no clear way out of this homelessness crisis yet… we need to be at the table.” Councilmember Zermeño said, “Homelessness is going to be with us for a long long time and we know that affordable housing is going to be a need for many many years.”
Councilmember Syrop explained why having a full committee on the topic is so important, “[This] is why the task force should be a committee, the fate of our housing work coming up for review year after year makes it vulnerable to being closed down.” He pointed out his particular perspective as the only renter on the City Council. “It makes my stomach churn… because there are still so many other ideas and topics and solutions that I think we need to be prioritizing and working on.”
Councilmember Roche pointed out that it would be “potentially tone-deaf to let off the gas at this point.” Especially as the City’s new vision states that it will be “a regional leader in addressing the housing and homelessness crisis,” she said.
There was a desire by some on Council to focus the scope of the Committee. “Homelessness is here,” Councilmember Andrews said, “and we have to do as much as we can to resolve as much as we can.” But she said she wanted to use the change as a moment to re-evaluate the scope of the committee, with an emphasis on data-driven solutions. “What are the actual outcomes of that committee?”
Thankfully, Mayor Salinas was swayed by some of the Council’s comments, especially those of Councilmembers Bonilla Jr. and Andrews. He supported a data-drive approach and a desire for a clear scope for the committee. Although he initially tried to put the job on the upcoming ad hoc committee that will re-evaluate the Commissions, after a suggestion from Councilmember Syrop, the Council settled on letting the HHTF convene again and make those decisions.
It will be interesting to see how that works out, considering two of the three people on it were in favor of dissolving it. Since the HHTF only meets quarterly, it’s unknown when the next meeting will be where these decisions will be made.
Council Goals Center Code Enforcement
The City Council took a final look at their Strategic Priorities for the coming year before diving into budget negotiations in May. Most things had been finalized, though there were a few places where Staff was looking for more guidance on prioritization.
In the realm of Code Enforcement, there was an even split on prioritizing Street Vendor Enforcement and Vacant Property Enforcement—both of which fall under the purview of Code Enforcement division. Under Economic Development, the primary focus seemed to be on Small Businesses and Popups in Residential Areas, Studying Mid-Sized City Downtown Revitalization Strategies, and looking at problematic ordinances.
One other thing that came from the Staff Report was news that BART has apparently prioritized Hayward for it’s next round of development, so there’s still a chance that empty lot next to Downtown BART will be used for more than a construction staging area. Eventually.
Council Prioritizes Vacant Properties And Ordinances
The primary ask from Staff was whether to prioritize Street Vendors or Vacant Properties. The majority of Council leaned toward the latter, citing vacant commercial properties as something that should be addressed first. Councilmember Syrop expressed a desire to tackle vacant properties over street vendors.
Councilmember Roche asked if there was a way to discover what was the most “bang for the buck” on the different Code Enforcement Priorities. “[Code Enforcement] is stretched pretty thin,” she said. Unfortunately, Code Enforcement Staff wasn’t available to say, but they would provide information on that soon. Councilmember Roche felt that vacant properties may be an easier task, especially since they don’t move.
Another concern was the role that the County plays in enforcing rules on street vendors. She admitted she wished the City could “prioritize large open grills,” she said, “but that’s a county issue.” Councilmember Bonilla Jr. also felt street vendors were a County issue. “The County does have a very big role to play when it comes to street vendor enforcement,” he said. He expressed concern about “stepping in other people’s space” regarding street vendor enforcement.
Councilmember Andrews didn’t weigh into that particular discussion, instead putting forward other initiatives. She pushed for the Hayward Evaluation and Response Team (HEART) Program to be 24 hours/day—the City Manager said the real restriction was that service providers aren’t open 24 hours/day—but got confirmation that it will be a permanent program, not a pilot.
Councilmember Andrews then asked about business support programs, specifically the “Open For Business” program—which will end when the funding ends—and mail theft. The City Manager said that the Postal Services is piloting a new Master Key program—there are currently on 6 different keys for the whole country—and suggested effort on that should be put toward advocacy over code changes in the near-term.
Salinas Takes On Street Vendors Again
After pointing out that the budget process was coming soon and that “Priorities may shift” because of budget realities—an important reminder—Mayor Mark Salinas spent nine full minutes railing against food vendors. He’s expressed issues with street vendors before, and it’s clear that the past six months haven’t changed his mind at all.
Citing several examples of street vendors he saw during the most recent cleanup event at Weekes Park, Mayor Salinas said, “We need to do something immediately… They’re not only increasing in number, but their operations are increasing.” He expressed dismay that vendors were putting out additional popups with tables and chairs for people to sit on. He cited issues with polystyrene food ware—prohibited by Section 5-11.01 of Hayward Municipal Code—though, in fairness, I’ve gotten polystyrene food ware from brick and mortar food vendors in the past and this has been in effect since 2011.
Mayor Salinas also said, “the County only has one responsibility: food safety.” This may not technically be correct. Many food vendors need to obtain a Mobile Food Facility license—even if it’s not actually moving—which is given by the County. And, to his credit, if the vendors are violating City Ordinance—including sidewalk obstruction, doorway obstruction, and polystyrene food ware—that’s a City issue to solve.
But on several occasions, Mayor Salinas showed that his idea of how the ordinance came to be and what it’s for may not be the same as everyone else’s. “The goal [of the ordinance],” he said, “was to transition from street vendor to brick and mortar.” And while many make that transition, the start-up and overhead costs for brick and mortar restaurants is enormous—many may not be able to, or even want to, for many years.
And beyond that, he made clear that street vendor input was barely considered in crafting the ordinance. “We did it in partnership with restaurant owners in the city, we did it with some neighborhood stakeholders,” but he didn’t mention street vendors themselves—he almost did, but then changed mid-word to neighborhood stakeholders. According to a previous staff report, they only engaged with fewer than 4 street vendors, compared to dozens of restaurant owners. So there may not be buy-in from vendors because they didn’t get a chance to shape it.
But Mayor Salinas pushed for an end to the education. “We really need to pivot,” he said, “from education to enforcement.” Councilmember Zermeño, the other Councilmember who takes a hard-line against street vendors, expressed a fear that the City would lose its brick and mortar restaurants if street vendors continued to expand. This ignores the multitude of other economic factors that cause restaurants to fail: high rent, low margins, inflation, and employee costs—rent and inflation alone have taken all kinds of businesses out since the pandemic. We can hardly blame street vendors for macroeconomic trends.
But it was abundantly clear that street vendors are Mayor Mark Salinas’ number 1 priority when it comes to code enforcement.
Council Happily Approves CSC Rec’s
Council approved the Community Services Commission’s (CSC) funding recommendations with many thanks. Councilmember Goldstein summed up the comments when he said, “the sheet [that Council gets] doesn’t really reflect the hours and hours of deliberation that’s been done.”
Councilmember Bonilla Jr., who served on the CSC for almost 6 years, also expressed gratitude for the work done. “What’s also clear,” he said, “is how hard this work is.” He talked about the difficult deliberations and the difficult choices that the CSC needs to make to allocate funds that fall far short of the need.
Councilmember Syrop continued to push the Council to find more funding for the CSC to allocate to much-needed social services. “We do need to find ways to grow these funds,” he said. “There are always a couple hundred thousand dollars to purchase new forms of military equipment and I think we could find a couple hundred thousand dollars to support our community that are most in need. I think that’s a priority.”
Councilmember Zermeño also supported finding new funding, but was less explicit in where it might come from. “Let’s figure out how we can get some more funds,” he said.
But it was Mayor Mark Salinas who closed out the night with the best comment possible, “I’m gonna save 10 minutes tonight,” he said. “Madame City Clerk, if you can call the vote.” The vote came after over three and a half hours of meeting, and was passed unanimously.