Berkeleyside: “Vote yes on Measures O and P to help the less advantaged in Berkeley”

“Gwendolyn Downs spent years working as a nurse in Alameda County. But when she retired, she found that her retirement income prevented her from even renting her own apartment in Berkeley. She also watched her elderly, but otherwise healthy friends be put into convalescent homes because it was the only place they could go besides the streets.

As leaders of local housing organizations, we hear these kinds of stories every day. They are heartbreaking and demoralizing. Gwendolyn, her friends and many other lower-income Bay Area residents are victims of a tech boom that has doubled housing prices. There has been insufficient new construction going back three decades. The state and federal governments have also made deep cuts to housing subsidies. Taken together, those have created a humanitarian crisis.

Luckily, this November, Berkeley residents have a chance to do something meaningful to invest in and uplift our community for decades to come…”

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