Neighbors for Jason Overman | Berkeley City Council, District 8

There are few priorities more important to me than making it easier to afford living in our wonderful community. The cost of housing in our district is out of control, and it’s troubling that, in addition to increasing the tax burden of our residents, the incumbent has proposed 7 ways to raise rents.

In order to protect the diversity that gives Berkeley its character, we’ve got to make sure that our neighbors can find affordable places to live—and that they aren’t priced out of our neighborhoods.

Yet during his term, the incumbent has refused to vote in favor of allocating one dime from the city’s general fund to the affordable housing trust fund.

One of my proudest moments in the last 3.5 years was my vote to appropriate funding to create more affordable housing. And my record is clear: if elected, I would support affordable housing without allowing inappropriate development.

The incumbent’s 7 proposals to raise rents in Berkeley would have made it even more difficult to afford living in our neighborhoods. I, on the other hand, have fought to give our city’s residents financial security and stability.

One of the most controversial issues recently has been how we regulate the conversion of apartments to condominiums. It’s a tricky issue that has forced city leaders to be careful and balanced in our approach. I helped craft our city’s ordinance that allows 100 conversions per year—and I believe we worked out a compromise that balances all of our city’s competing interests.

But some aren’t satisfied, instead, placing Measure I on the November ballot—a measure that would open the floodgates for conversion, allowing 500 conversions per year. Simple economics tells us that, if passed, this would create mass-scale evictions that would severely tighten the supply of rental housing, causing rents to skyrocket. Proponents have argued that it would make buying a home more affordable—but according to official city analysis, very few of these new condos would be affordable to the majority of Berkeley residents.

This misguided initiative would introduce potentially thousands of new condos on the backs of evicted tenants, and most of them would still be unaffordable to all but the wealthy few. Despite the reality that this initiative is an illusion, the incumbent has refused to oppose it.

I believe in the American Dream of owning your own home, and I strongly believe our city should do more to help those who want to buy. But we must make it a genuine effort. If elected, I would push for the creation of program that provides real assistance for first-time homebuyers.