Sacramento’s Railyards project needs at least 25% affordable housing | Opinion

I am one of the thousands of Sacramentans who has been forced to live on the street. I spent six months without a home, but it felt like a lifetime. It was the hardest thing I’ve ever done.

Last year, I found a home again, in an affordable senior housing complex in the Railyards. I am so grateful that this resource exists, but there are still so many people sleeping on the streets of Sacramento, and far too little truly affordable housing for all of them.

Now that I have escaped homelessness, I feel it is my responsibility to advocate for other people. That’s why I am opposing the city’s vote today on the Railyards project.

When I first heard about the Railyards project, with 10,000 housing units but only 6% affordable housing right in my neighborhood, I was horrified. When I heard that the city was planning to give the developers — Downtown Railyards Ventures and Indomitable — $92 million of taxpayer money in the form of an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD), I was even more upset. (EIFDs are a form of financing in California law that allows cities to redirect tax revenue from increasing property value that would normally go to the general fund to reimburse developers for their costs instead.)

This frustration led my neighbors and I to organize last summer to stop that $92 million public financing proposal and demand a minimum of 25% affordable housing in the Railyards. Many protestors shared my experience of escaping homelessness by finding affordable housing, and we want other people to be able to do the same. We knocked on our neighbors’ doors, held community meetings and submitted a strong majority of opposition letters from residents in the proposed tax district.

Our actions forced the city to postpone the financing proposal by a year.

The delay gave city leaders an opportunity to make a better Railyards deal. The proposed Sacramento Republic FC soccer stadium, which has been at the heart of public discussion, is moving forward already. That’s great, not only because many of us are excited to see soccer in our neighborhood, but also because now we can have an honest conversation about the rest of the development, which is much more than a stadium.

But now, nearly six months after our protest, it seems Sacramento city leadership plans to bring back essentially the same exact deal while ignoring residents’ voices.

Not only do city officials want to bring back the $92 million EIFD, they will also be voting today to give Railyards developers free leases for digital billboards. The city has so far not shared the value of these leases, but the 12 planned billboard leases are worth an estimated $115 million.

The Railyards project will double the size of downtown. If our city leaders really take homelessness seriously, this is their biggest opportunity to set us on a new path.

A meager 6% affordable housing is shamefully inadequate. My neighbors and I are demanding a minimum of 25% affordable housing in the Railyards, which would make a real impact on the housing crisis. It’s also an achievable number: California requires 25% for developers of public lands who want to expedite their process. San Francisco’s Mission Rock development will have 40% affordable housing, and Concord’s Naval redevelopment is slated to have 25%.

The city council must listen to residents and negotiate a better deal for Sacramentans. Plan for a Railyards where people who have fallen on hard times can find housing and community.

Pamela Freemon is a resident of the Railyards neighborhood and an advocate for housing justice.