AFFORDABLE HOUSING, TRANSIT ADVOCATES OPPOSE PROP 45

SACRAMENTO – Disputing claims by its proponents that it will accelerate transit and housing projects, more statewide and regional affordable housing and transit advocates announced their opposition to Proposition 45. Proposition 45 is the California Chamber of Commerce’s 41-page ballot initiative that would roll back state environmental protections and weaken the state’s defense against President Trump’s attack on state clean air, water, and public health laws.

Silicon Valley at Home (SV@Home), formed to “address Santa Clara County’s urgent need for housing and advance housing justice by boosting production of affordable housing,” officially urged its members to vote NO on Prop 45. “Prop 45 promotes urban sprawl and environmentally damaging development, which SV@Home has consistently opposed. The best way to build the vibrant, affordable, and sustainable future we want and need is through infill: removing exclusionary zoning, investing in our communities, and adding more homes where we have already developed.”

Abundant Housing LA, whose mission is “fighting for a more affordable Los Angeles” has joined California YIMBY in refusing to back Prop 45. It notes: “[T]he new category of ‘essential projects’ introduced into statute by Prop 45 does not discriminate between environmentally beneficial projects, such as large scale infill housing projects, and environmentally harmful projects, such as new highways and infrastructure to support urban sprawl. Also troubling is the measure's ⅔ threshold for the state legislature to make any changes.”

LA Forward, a housing justice organization, calls Prop 45 “dangerous.” Notes the group’s recommendation: “Because of the considerable harms represented by 45, especially those to our environment and public health, LA Forward urges you to vote NO…The Chamber’s talk of “red tape” obscures the real dangers posed by taking shortcuts in environmental review. From June’s Lineage Logistics fire in Boyle Heights and the chemical leak and near-explosion last May at GKN Aerospace in Garden Grove, to the decades-long lead contamination from the Exide Technologies plant in southeast Los Angeles, our region has experienced the devastating human and financial costs of corporate environmental damage. CEQA provides key public oversight over projects that might poison our water, destroy ecosystems, and fill neighborhood air with emissions.”

Long Beach Forward, whose mission is “to create a healthy Long Beach with low-income communities of color by building community knowledge, leadership and power” also is urging a No vote on Prop 45.

ACT-LA, a housing and transit justice coalition, also urges Californians to vote no: "Proposition 45 would limit our city's ability to screen out possible public health hazards of land development and shifts costs of unforeseen environmental hazards to taxpayers."

Transform, another transit and affordable housing advocacy group, is also opposing Prop 45: "Prop 45 shortens the environmental review process under CEQA for projects deemed “essential” — including new highways. While CEQA has, at times, been used to slow or halt housing development, this proposition would streamline many projects that are outright bad for people and the planet. Vote no on Prop 45."

Meanwhile, LA transit advocate Nick Andert has produced a video opposing Proposition 45 that is raking up tens of thousands of views on YouTube. Watch it here.

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