San Leandro's Crossings Project: Benefits for the Community

Background
The Crossings is the first project in San Leandro’s Downtown TOD Plan.  When it is completed it will cover about 8 acres around the Downtown BART Station.  It will include 700 units of housing – of which at least 100 will be affordable rental housing for families – as well as some retail, BART parking, and other community amenities.  The City will also use this development opportunity to make needed improvements to the walkability and bikeability of surrounding streets, including enhanced green spaces in and around the development.

San Leandro Needs Housing for Working Families
The Crossings promises at least 100 units of family housing affordable at rates that average working families can afford.  As of 2005, less than 20% of San Leandro residents could afford the median priced home. (1)  The 100 units by Bridge will provide homes for families whose adults work as: pre-school teachers, nurses, retail clerks, legal secretaries, custodial staff etc.  

New Housing near BART will Increase Safety of the Station Area
Where there was once a parking lot and an empty lot, there will now be 300 units of new housing.  This means that there will be many residents living in a previously vacant area, who have a vested stake in the safety of the BART neighborhood.  These are more “eyes on the street” 24 hours a day, watching goings-on and keeping their neighborhood safe.

In fact, according to the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, there is no evidence that affordable housing brings crime to a neighborhood.  (2)  And the National Crime Prevention Council calls for the construction of affordable housing as a way to increase “neighborhood cohesion and economic stability,” thus reducing crime. (3)

Bridge Will Provide Beautiful, Well-Managed Housing
Business and Professional People for the Public Interest’s Fact Sheet states: “Whether a development will be an asset or a detriment to a community more often turns on basic management practices: careful screening, prudent security measures, and regular upkeep.  Most affordable housing residents are seeking safe and decent housing that will allow them to live self-sufficient lives in a good community.” (4)  Over the past 25 years, Bridge has built and managed over 13,000 units, which gives it a long track record of successful affordable housing creation.

The Crossings will Create More High Quality Jobs in San Leandro
The Crossings has the potential to create local high paid union jobs in its construction.  It will also create permanent jobs for the project’s property managers and non-profits and small businesses in the project’s retail component.

The Crossings will make San Leandro Greener
San Leandro has stepped up to become one of many cities in the Bay Area committed to the Governor’s goals of reducing Green House Gas emissions by 25% by 2020.  Car travel and building energy use are the top culprits of Green House Gas emissions in the city.  Building mixed-income, green, dense housing in downtown San Leandro – within walking distance of BART, AC Transit, shops and restaurants – will significantly reduce San Leandro’s carbon footprint by accommodating almost one half of the city’s estimated needed housing units over the next 7 years. (5)   We know that people who live within ¼ mile of transit are four times as likely to walk, bike or ride transit to get to work and that lower income families are even more likely to use transit than higher income families. (6)

And this affordable housing could provide needed housing for some of San Leandro’s current workers who must commute from more affordable places to work here now.  In fact, of the 38,000 people working in San Leandro, only 8,000 live here.  That means that 30,000 people must commute here from other places. (7)  The City’s General Plan anticipates another 9,275 jobs being added in San Leandro between 2000-2015.  (8)

The Crossings will Benefit the Neighborhood and Property Values
According to the Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, “repeated research has shown that affordable housing has no negative impact on the price or frequency of sales of neighboring homes.  A recent study of four very-low income family housing developments in suburban Chicago revealed that affordable housing can have a positive impact on surrounding property values.  A Wisconsin study of housing constructed under the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program concluded that property values surrounding these developments rose, even in relatively affluent areas.  In addition, mixed-income buildings can boost the residential real estate market in many areas by replacing the blighted buildings that keep real estate values low.  Numerous studies over time from around the country support the general notion that affordable housing has no negative impact on surrounding property values- especially if it is thoroughly integrated into the neighborhood.” (9)

Footnotes

1) As of 2005, a median priced single family home in San Leandro was $530,000 and for a family to afford the monthly payments on such a house, they would need to earn at least $116,000.   At that time, far more than 85% of households in the downtown area of San Leandro and far more than 77.5% of all of San Leandro’s households earned less than $116,000.

2)  Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, Myths and Facts about Affordable Housing http://www.affirmedhousing.com/resources/pdf/myths_stereotypes.pdf

3)  National Crime Prevention Council, Topics in Crime Prevention. “Strategy: Ensure Supply of Affordable Housing.” http://www.ncpc.org

4)  Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, Myths and Facts about Affordable Housing http://www.affirmedhousing.com/resources/pdf/myths_stereotypes.pdf

5)  According to the Association of Bay Area Governments, San Leandro will need to build 1,630 housing units between 2007 and 2013 to meet the needs of its growing population. 

6)  In the Bay Area, households of four earning less than $66,000 commute by bus twice as frequently as households of four making more than $66,000.  Source:  Transportation and Land Use Coalition

7)  Data from Association of Bay Area Governments, 2000 Census.
ftp://ftp.abag.ca.gov/pub/mtc/census2000/CTPP/flowdata/CTPP2000_California_PlaceFlow_SelVars.zip

8)  City of San Leandro, Housing Element; An Element of the San Leandro General Plan. 2003.

9) Business and Professional People for the Public Interest, Myths and Facts about Affordable Housing http://www.affirmedhousing.com/resources/pdf/myths_stereotypes.pdf