Public Comment

I have been thinking more about how to encourage owners to renovate the uninhabited housing that is currently in Berkeley, especially since President Biden announced he would not extend the eviction moratorium beyond this weekend.  

I wrote to you last week with the subject line, "Problem solved and new ideas to help others." As Kate Harrison's office summed it up:  

"it is in the public interest to retrofit/invest in existing buildings and to preserve embodied carbon. We are happy to report that last month the Mayor and Council agreed to fund her budget referral seeding a Climate Equity Action Fund Pilot with $500,000 in grant money and an additional $100,000 for staff costs. 

The fund will provide low-income homeowners and renters with grants for various climate upgrades, including increasing panel capacity and circuitry, electrifying appliances, and providing low-carbon transportation and micro mobility options (e.g. e-bikes and transit passes). 

My idea was a bit different : 

"Berkeley is putting more and more emphasis on going electrical, but they are losing a lot of their housing supply by not helping existing buildings upgrade for little or no cost. Older buildings, where many people with rent control or lower incomes live, will not be able to upgrade without affecting the current landlords financially in significant ways. They will have no incentive to use the already constructed buildings and will, instead, resort to tearing down what is there and rebuilding from scratch. All of this will effect the environment and consume more resources that we already have there. This is not smart growth, since it is adding to climate change, which going all electrical in housing is supposed to help. 

Grants are needed for redoing the electrical wiring in these buildings. We can't expect a lot of these older buildings to be able to handle our modern lifestyles. We should try to keep the resources that we have and limit further unnecessary destruction and construction. Grants would benefit the landlords and the current and future renters would to be able to continue to live in these wonderful older buildings  

Old housing codes, which are currently grandfathered into the building code. do not require the rewiring of older apartments to accommodate newer electrical needs or the amount of electricity that people now use. However, we could really increase the occupancy of currently built, but unoccupied rental housing, if grants were provided to the landlords with agreements for rentals. We would not see the destruction of buildings that are already there.  

Kate's office stated that " The fund will provide low-income homeowners and renters with grants for various climate upgrades." I would like to add to this to say that the owners who are currently holding empty apartments or buildings be contacted and that the reasons for and obstacles to that they are stating for the non-habitation of the apartments or buildings be considered. If the reason has to do with electrical circuitry or plumbing issues, the city could provide them grants so they can upgrade the residences and make them habitable to low-income, very low-income or moderated income people. Agreements would have to be made. 

This approach would open up vast numbers of apartments and buildings to the target renters, without the owner having to be low-income too. I do not suggest giving these grants be given to the large, corporate style landlords - Everest, Equity, etc. - but to local landlords who are meeting obstacles and could use these grants to upgrade to code and provide needed housing.  

I am a renter who has lived in the same apartment for 30 years. My interest is there because I appreciate what I have. I want to see more people find rentals in Berkeley.