You can add affordable housing advocates to the list of people upset by Governor Brown’s budget proposal to eliminate redevelopment agencies.
They rallied at the Capitol Tuesday before an afternoon hearing on how redevelopment funds help support housing projects for low- and middle-income residents.
Dianne Spaulding is with a Bay Area-based non-profit that represents affordable housing developers. She says redevelopment agencies should be reformed and cut – but not eliminated.
"Don’t dismantle a system that’s in place before you have a really good idea of what you’re gonna replace it with," Spaulding said.
The governor believes the roughly $5 billion a year in property taxes that go to redevelopment agencies could be better used elsewhere.
About one-fifth of that money – $1 billion a year – currently goes towards affordable housing.
