Measure U – Allocate $850m Via a Bond Towards Affordable Housing and Infrastructure Improvement

No matter who you are or where you come from, success in life starts at home. When we all have safe and secure places to live, parents earn more, kids learn better, health and well-being improve, our communities are strengthened, and our region has the building blocks to thrive. But right now, wealthy and powerful real estate developers and corporate landlords control the housing market in California and pour millions into each election to swing votes in their favor. They use predatory strategies to drive up their profits when ordinary working Californians can’t even afford our rent or our mortgages. This especially affects people of color, working families, seniors, and people with disabilities.

To address this problem, we need more affordable housing, among other things. Measure U is a bond measure which will allocate $350M to the much needed development, construction, and/or acquisition of housing units for low-income households and individuals in Oakland. While the bond also allows for $30M to go to police facilities, we believe the overall improvements for Oakland from investments in other areas outweigh this negative. The total $850M bond will be allocated to the following:

• $350M to acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of interim and permanent affordable and social housing
• $290M to transportation projects such as street paving, curb ramps and sidewalks
• $210M to citywide facility preservation and improvement projects such as libraries, Head Start, recreation and senior centers consistent with Oakland’s Equitable Climate Action Plan
• $45M to parks & open spaces
• $40M to fire facilities
• $30M to police facilities
• $15M to library facilities
• $80M to other city facilities

Vote yes on Measure U.