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EEC asks staff to synthesize 'Housing for All' plan and narrow focus for housing work
Summary
The commission asked city staff to provide a concise synthesis of the 132-page "Housing for All" plan and agreed to narrow housing work to one or two concrete topics (e.g., affordable single-family ownership, landlord/zoning issues) before assigning commission resources.
At its March 19 meeting, the Equity and Empowerment Commission agreed to ask city staff to synthesize the city's "Housing for All" action plan and return with a shorter briefing so commissioners can identify a narrow set of housing issues to pursue this year.
Council Member Harris told the commission she had met with staff and that the plan is a 132-page document. "We could ask them to come and possibly synthesize the information," Harris said, urging a concise summary so commissioners who have not read the full document can prepare targeted questions.
Commissioners said housing is a broad topic and recommended the commission pick one or two focused lines of work — suggestions included affordable single-family ownership, landlord practices, zoning, eviction and housing stability, and regional disparities. One commissioner suggested centering discussion on households earning roughly $75,000 to $100,000 as one target demographic when considering what "affordable" means locally. Commissioners also noted existing items on the referral tracker (for example, the circuit-breaker program and strategic housing plan items) that may be relevant to the commission's priorities.
Staff (Assistant Deputy Manager Tashik) offered to arrange a digestible "white paper" or 5–10 page summary and suggested commissioners attend an upcoming council or committee presentation where the plan would be discussed to help frame questions. Commissioners asked that staff highlight items they believe the commission should focus on and provide data that clarifies disparities and who would be affected.
Next steps: staff will prepare a condensed briefing of the Housing for All plan and bring it to a future EEC meeting; commissioners said they will prepare questions and possible recommendations for how the commission could support or supplement city work.
