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Oral arguments will be heard tomorrow morning for Make UC A Good Neighbor (MUCGN) and the Peoples Park Historic District Advocacy Group (PPHDAG) lawsuit against UC before the First District Appellate Court of California, Division 5, San Francisco.

New information received yesterday by PPHDAG in the letter below clearly shows that despite UC's claim that supportive housing is integral to Housing Project #2, it is willing to undermine funding for it and jeopardize the project. Because People's Park is on the National Register of Historic Places, a federal environmental review is required to be eligible for HUD vouchers. Despite the PR spin put on this project, this new information clearly undermines their stated intention.  

Subject: Supportive Housing in People's Park, UC Berkeley 

Date: January 10, 2023 at 7:45:39 AM PST 

To: People’s Park Historic District Advocacy Group 

Sent via email 

The Supportive Housing in People’s Park, UC, Berkeley (the Project) was selected for Project-Based Vouchers (PBVs) through the competitive process administered by the Berkeley Housing Authority (BHA). Resources for Community Development (RCD) requested 27 to 54 PBVs in its application to BHA, and BHA conditionally committed 27 PBVs to the proposed project.  

BHA submitted notice to HUD on December 12, 2022, with the following record.  

RCD has reached the end of our investigation of whether we can use Project-based Vouchers in the development of Supportive Housing in People’s Park and concluded that the way that CEQA was conducted in combination with UC Berkeley starting construction on the student housing next year [2023] is incompatible with NEPA regulations. In brief, no construction or other "choice limiting actions" may start prior to the completion of NEPA, and the ability to demonstrate that the supportive housing was a separate project completely independent of UC's projects was negated when UC entered a brief in court defending the CEQA arguing that alternate sites for Housing Project #2 were not studied because they would not fit both UC's programs along with the supportive housing, which was intrinsic and interrelated to the UC development at People’s Park. Since UC is not willing to delay its projects for the completion of NEPA, no federal funds may be used on the supportive housing. On 11/4/22 RCD notified Berkeley Housing Authority that we will need to return the conditional commitment of 27 PBVs and have canceled our contract with the NEPA consultant. We have submitted an application to California Department of Social Services Community Care Expansion program for grant funding to replace the rental subsidies lost by the vouchers so that we can fulfil our commitment to serving those with the fewest options. 

BHA notified HUD that the federal application has been rescinded and the conditional commitment canceled. HUD had no objection to the BHA’s decision to accept the rescissions of the application and to cancel the conditional commitment of the 27 PBVs to the Project. HUD funds or assistance is no longer anticipated to be used at the Project, and there are no HUD funding or assistance eligibility requirements to be maintained by RCD. The Project is now a non-federal action, as NEPA no longer applies to the Project. 

Persons and agencies seeking redress in relation to the CEQA review cited by RCD shall deal directly with the Regents of the University of California, and not with HUD.