pages: CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-07-11.pdf, 26
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CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities | 2018-07-11 | 26 | COMMISSION ON DISABILITY MEETING MINUTES Wednesday July 11, 2018 6:30 p.m. wheelchair. That's my second item. Anto Aghapekian: The third that I have is, there was a forum composed by the League of Women Voters here in Alameda, and during that forum, there were four or five people that talked, and, Thomas, the City Planner, was also there. And they talked about the new housing state laws that I was very curious about to find out what this new laws are. And it's not code. It does not impact wheelchair. It's not code related. It's all number of housing. Each city is required, not requested. It's required by law to provide. And cities have been bucking this for about two, three years, but the state is making it very clear that if a city does not comply by providing a certain percentage of housing, per income Anto Aghapekian: All the details, then the state will stop all funding with that city, and that's paralyzing. That's a very serious threat. And they can do it and cities cannot do anything about it. So, cities have been approving housing projects on many fronts, as much as they can. Alameda is one of them. And the thing that is ironic is, the developers have put in a lot of money, getting their plans prepared and approved by the city, it takes sometimes years. And after they receive their approval, their permits to go ahead with the construction, they find out that the banks are refusing to give them the money, because they're creating low-cost housing or market value housing, and the banks say, "The numbers don't jive. There is no way your income is going to be able to pay your loan, so we're not going to give you any money.' So, that's why some of the projects that have been approved that we know of, that's been advertised, or spoken of, written about in the papers, one of them being the brick building that used to be a factor - Del Monte. Anto Aghapekian: I think the guy had his approval, his permit about two or three years ago and it's still vacant. Nothing is going on and I saw a sign on it that says that it's ready for lease, but I don't know what that means. So this is really not much to do with what we're all about and yet it has impact as to availability of housing. The monies to build parks, the developers have promised to create parks, but they cannot do it. It's all at a standstill. And I just wanted to share that with you. Chair Beth Kenny: Thank you, Commissioner Aghapekian. Commissioner Linton? Jenny Linton: I joined a group this year called Genesis. They are a group of community organizers in Oakland over by the eastern edge of Lake Merritt. And this year they're focusing on Disability Justice. They've created a Disability Justice League, in particular, focusing on exactly what the anthropologists from the Haas Center of Disability Studies came and spoke to us about, which is around the intersection of multiple disabilities, being a woman with disabilities, a minority with disabilities. And along with their focus on disabilities, they're looking at housing and getting young people out of jail, and these things are all related. Housing is an issue for those with disabilities. Jenny Linton: Those without housing tend to find themselves in jail or in trouble earlier on and could or could not be disabled as well. And so they're working to organize groups, people willing to speak. We did a training this week at the Arc in San Leandro where we took a group of people from the day program and got them. Actually, my son and I both went to two different sites. Gave them a chance to talk about themselves and see who could develop the confidence to come speak to their assembly about what they need in their population, and they're called genesisca.org, and their 09/12/18 Page 26 of 29 | CommissiononPersonswithDisabilities/2018-07-11.pdf |