GILROY
– He has endorsed other ballot initiatives this election season,
but if Tom Springer could vote for only one of them, the Gilroy
mayor would choose Proposition 46.
GILROY – He has endorsed other ballot initiatives this election season, but if Tom Springer could vote for only one of them, the Gilroy mayor would choose Proposition 46.
“Proposition 46 will provide the most benefit for your tax dollar investment,” Springer said Wednesday at a local rally for the $2.1-billion state bond measure.
Proposition 46 would provide shelters for battered women and the homeless as well as affordable housing for seniors, the disabled, farmworkers and low-income families. It would be funded through existing state resources. Supporters also claim it would improve quality of life for thousands of Californians while pumping more than $13 billion in private investment and federal funds into the state.
Opponents, however, assert that it will cost an additional $1.25 billion to pay off the bond. They say the initiative will only provide minuscule benefits to first-time home buyers and will do nothing to remove the bureaucratic and regulatory barriers to affordable housing.
Former Gilroy mayors and current Santa Clara County supervisors Don Gage and Sig Sanchez joined Springer at the rally, held at Wheeler Manor on Sixth Street. Roughly two dozen supporters, many of whom were seniors, attended the rally.
Wheeler Manor, which opened in 1993, is an example of the kind of project that could be made possible by Proposition 46, supporters said.
Wheeler was built with the help of voter-approved bond measures passed in 1988 and 1990 and is home to more than 100 seniors.
During the rally, Springer and Gage stressed the importance of Proposition 46, specifically for working Gilroyans. They said the state funding is necessary to help Gilroy children stay in Gilroy after they graduate from school and enter the work force.
“One thing we’ve lost in our lifetime is the ability to keep families together. We’ve priced seniors out of the housing market, and families with two income earners can’t afford homes here. Affordable housing isn’t available for our kids and grandkids,” Springer said.
Springer talked about a Gilroy police officer who said his dream is to live and work here, but a lack of affordable housing is making that impossible.
“We will forever have a community of civil servants who work here but can’t live here. That’s not an economically sound principle. That’s not quality of life,” Springer said. “We need vehicles like Proposition 46. Without it, we may very well see the end of the American dream.”
In an interview after the session, Springer said the affordable housing aspect of the initiative targets families that make less than $80,000 a year. Funding from Proposition 46 would provide first-time home buyers with down payment assistance.
Other provisions under the initiative set aside monies for the construction of affordable apartments, farmworker housing and shelters for battered women and homeless. Statewide, passage of the proposition will create more than 22,000 new affordable rental units and 31,000 new emergency shelter beds for the homeless and victims of domestic violence.
The Sobrato Family Transitional Center, which is opening a shelter in Gilroy, would be eligible for Proposition 46 funding. The center will include 60 units of transitional housing, a 140-bed emergency shelter and access to support services, such as employment search and parenting classes, to help each client move toward self-sufficiency.
For more information on Proposition 46, visit the League of Women Voters’ Web site at www.smartvoter.org.
