Public Comment

The letter below was sent to Berkeley City Council members:

The BCA Steering Committee is writing you to support plans to develop affordable housing on Berkeley's BART stations and minimize the carbon footprint of these dwellings.

The for-profit housing market has built and continues to build abundant market-rate housing in Berkeley. However, in many cases, this market-rate housing is not housing Berkeley’s residents but is rented out as short term housing. 

We support the use of affordable housing developers who have built or are now building the non-profit below-market housing at more than a half dozen BART stations. At some of these stations, 100% of the housing is below-market affordable and we recommend the same for housing at Berkeley’s BART stations. 

We of the Berkeley Citizens Action Steering Committee would like to voice our concern that this public BART land not be used as a land-grab for profiteers but as a place to house our vulnerable and gentrified communities. The city of Berkeley has a duty to provide middle-income and low-income residents with housing. This is just the opportunity to show that Berkeley is an inclusive community. 

A non-profit developer should be chosen for building at North Berkeley and Ashby BART, and the units should be 100% low income, green and affordable. Berkeley needs a green affordable housing scenario for the Berkeley BART sites. 

We urge councilmembers to take this opportunity and do the right thing