Here at Enterprise, we are committed to pushing for bold, transformative solutions to the housing crisis facing our region, state, and nation. That is why we’re incredibly proud to have been working with our partners over the last six plus years to create the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) and fund it through a regional bond.

But this month, we faced a significant setback. Over the last week, we and the other leaders of this campaign – the Nonprofit Housing Association of Northern California (NPH), All Home, and the San Francisco Foundation – made the difficult but necessary recommendation to the BAHFA board to pull Regional Measure 4 (RM4) off the ballot, and the board voted unanimously to do so.

It is with a heavy heart that I share this news because we know that the people who will be impacted the most are the hundreds of thousands of Bay Area residents who are already struggling to afford a place to call home – disproportionately people of color. As reported in various news stories, I teared up when making my public recommendation at the BAHFA Board meeting. The funds are essential! I knew how many people would be affected by a decision not to pursue such catalytic funding this year.

It is a crying shame that the same well-funded, anti-government, anti-housing extremists who have been obstructing our progress for decades are fighting hard to keep the status quo. They lobbed a series of well-timed lawsuits, throwing everything at the wall to see what would stick, and unfortunately, this time, they got lucky.

Statewide Proposition 5, which sets a 55% voter threshold for affordable housing and public infrastructure bonds, will remain on this fall’s ballot. You can learn more about Prop. 5 and how to get involved. 

These legal and other challenges have complicated both State Proposition 5 and RM4 enough that if both measures continued to be on the November ballot, both campaigns would unlikely succeed. We may only have one shot at something like RM4 and whenever that is, our communities can’t afford us to fail. So, we believe it’s better to regroup, learn what we can from this, build our movement, and come back stronger to win big next time.

We all share disappointment, but we are not defeated. Solving big problems requires big solutions and time. This is a long-term effort to deal with decades of divestment. We will stay in this fight until we win.

Thank you to our partners and everyone who has supported all the incredible work that has taken us this far. We have made big strides in acting as one region so far, and we will continue to move forward together.