Everyone concerned about the dire Housing Crisis should sign up on eventbrite to attend the free “Face the Future” event titled “Conversation on Housing” on Monday, March 29, 7 – 9 pm, by ZOOM with keynote speaker CA Senator Scott Wiener and a panel of officials and local citizens concerned with housing. The aim of this community event, sponsored by the League of Women Voters of Berkeley, Albany, Emeryville, is to educate everyone on the Housing Crisis so that the most equitable and effective solutions can be considered as elected officials and others move forward to resolve this problem which impacts us all. The League hopes to hold future events also focused on solutions to the housing crisis.

Panel members will include Berkeley Vice-Mayor Lori Droste who recently introduced Resolution 29 in the Berkeley City Council to end Exclusionary Zoning in Berkeley; UC Berkeley Urban Planning Professor Karen Chapple of the Urban Displacement Project; Association of Bay Area Governments (ABAG) President and Berkeley Mayor Jesse Arreguin; Janis Ching, a leader of the Berkeley Neighborhoods Council; and Berkeley Rent Stabilization Board member and Latinx Unidx de Berkeley member Paola Laverde.

Following Sen. Wiener’s opening remarks and the brief introduction of each panelist, a League moderator will guide Sen. Wiener and the panel in addressing questions from each other, League members, and the audience after review by LWVBAE sorters, according to standard League procedures. A conversational, profitable and inclusive dialogue is hoped for on how more affordable housing can be provided through legislation like Sen. Wiener’s newly introduced SB10 and other state measures and by local steps such as banning Exclusionary Zoning in cities like Berkeley and across the country. Education of and input from the community about on-the-table and emerging solutions to the Housing Crisis are urgently needed, as signs of increasing homelessness and housing costs surge in the East Bay and elsewhere. Continuation of this alarming trend will certainly mean greater costs of many kinds unless citizens educate themselves about the crisis so that they can work out mutually agreeable ways of dealing with it. For background material on this event, go to California’s Homelessness Challenges in Context and quickly search here for the Missing Middle Document #29

Everyone is encouraged to sign-up for this free, community panel discussion on eventbrite here so as not to miss out on what LWVBAE hopes will be an educational, productive and exciting “Conversation on Housing”!

–Ruby MacDonald, President LWVBAE