June 7, 2023

Dear Mayor, Oakland City Council Members, City Finance Director, and City Administrator,

CEO Action for Racial Equity (CEOARE) writes this letter to share our views on how the City of Oakland can potentially increase funding for affordable housing and gain oversight efficiencies by combining certain decision-making authority for the Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD) and Measure U.

The 2022 Affordable Housing Infrastructure Bond, Measure U, includes significant affordable housing financing. The dollars raised from that measure can help house many of Oakland’s most racially/ethnically diverse community members. However, Measure U’s funds alone are not enough to solve the housing crisis and the related racial inequities.

As we indicated in our letter dated December 5, 2022, an Enhanced Infrastructure Financing District (EIFD), which the City Council expressed an interest in pursuing through a Resolution of Interest on November 1, 2022, could help close the gap. As such, CEOARE strongly encourages the city to move forward with an affordable housing/mixed use infrastructure EIFD for West Oakland and East Oakland as outlined in our previously shared report.

Additionally, CEOARE strongly recommends combining some of the oversight and decision-making for Measure U and the EIFD. We encourage the city to have a single body that could provide oversight and identify projects for funding from both Measure U and the EIFD. The EIFD Public Finance Authority (PFA) could be this body. This combination would help with efficiency of decision-making for affordable housing. It could also help bring greater societal racial equity considerations to the affordable housing discussions. Among other things, it could allow for greater/more influential community representation in determining how the funds are spent.

Joint decision-making authority for Measure U and the EIFD may also help provide an incentive for Alameda County participation in the EIFD. To the extent the County participates in the EIFD, they would also have representation on the PFA and as such they will be able to participate more fulsomely in solving the Oakland housing crisis.

From the City’s perspective, County participation would result in an additional pool of funds to help pay for more affordable housing units in Oakland and would foster consolidated and coordinated decision-making on Oakland’s affordable housing projects.

For these reasons, we encourage the city to combine and coordinate Measure U and EIFD efforts, while dealing with Oakland’s affordable housing crisis, as these could go a long way to revitalizing the well-being of Black residents.

Kind regards,
CEO Action for Racial Equity