Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Market Octavia Cac topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Rules Committee recommends Matthew Steen for Market-Octavia low-income seat after split views
Summary
After hearing two candidates and public testimony, the committee recommended Matthew Steen for the Market Octavia Citizens Advisory Committee low-income seat by committee vote; supporters of Nick Wolf argued the LGBT Center’s ties to low-income residents made him a strong candidate.
The Rules Committee on Dec. 6 recommended Matthew Steen to the full Board for the low-income seat on the Market Octavia Citizens Advisory Committee after a contested committee vote.
The seat — continued from the prior meeting — attracted two applicants. Matthew Steen, a long-time Bay Area resident with prior community-council and planning experience in Isla Vista, told the committee he would emphasize protection of low-income and very-low-income residents, supportive housing strategies such as master-leasing SROs, disability access and pedestrian safety. “From the perspective of being a low income representative, there’s a declining number of low income residents within the boundaries,” he told the committee, and urged focused preservation and supportive programs.
Nick Wolf, who works in economic development at the LGBT Center on Market and Octavia, said his day-to-day work serves large numbers of low-income clients and emphasized eviction prevention, tenant repair, and employment pathways. Public commenters from community-housing providers and the LGBT Center described Mr. Wolf’s hands-on work with low-income and homeless populations.
Supervisors debated whether the seat should be held by a neighborhood resident or a service-provider representative. Supervisor Avalos said Mr. Steen “better represents the interest of what the seat is about” as a resident perspective, while Supervisor Weiner and others highlighted Mr. Wolf’s service-provider perspective and the Center’s central role in the plan area. The committee took a roll-call on the chair’s motion to forward Mr. Steen as the committee recommendation: Supervisor Farrell voted No; Supervisors Avalos and Kim voted Aye. The committee forwarded Mr. Steen to the full Board as its recommendation.
What’s next: The full Board will consider confirmation in the coming month. Regardless of outcome, supervisors encouraged both applicants to remain engaged with the CAC and neighborhood stakeholders.
Sources: Candidate testimony and committee roll-call at Rules Committee meeting, Dec. 6.
