Failed Family Friendly Housing Policies: Housing YES But Family Housing? NO

Emeryville: Worst City For Families in the East Bay

City Spending Money on New No Account Housing Plan 

To Follow the Last No Account Housing Plan 

Lots of Talk But Where Are The Families?

News Analysis

The City of Emeryville has failed in its pledge to bring families to Emeryville that it promised when it passed its 2014 housing plan, now in the process of being updated.  The 'Housing Element' plan, is part of the General Plan and it places "family friendly" housing as one of its core goals.  Regardless of the officially stated goal of increasing families in town, Emeryville’s average household size remains stuck at 1.8 people per housing unit, the same as it was when the last  Housing Element was written.  And it continues to be the lowest, by far, of all cities in the East Bay.   

The objective data highlight failed public housing policy for Emeryville, even as all the familiar talking heads try to tell us otherwise.  Despite family friendly housing being identified as a primary goal by the Housing Element and despite the Planning Commission and the City Council both having repeatedly assured us they are taking the goal seriously, Emeryville has not moved the needle forward on that metric one iota according to data from the US Census Bureau.  Emeryville is as family un-friendly now as it has been since before 2010.

Listening to all the over heated talk from City Hall and the City Council on this subject, people could be forgiven for thinking Emeryville is doing very well bringing families to our town.  It’s the kind of talk voters like to hear.  At election time, every City Council candidate says they’re going to deliver more families to Emeryville, sometimes ad nauseam.  The developers with construction proposals all say their residential developments will attract lots of families.  But at 1.8 average household size for more than ten years running, Emeryville is on the bottom among East Bay cities, right where it's been for decades.  Berkeley is the second least family friendly at 2.2 people per housing unit, followed by El Cerrito that has 2.3 people per unit.  Many cities east of the hills in the Tri-Valley area average three or even more than four people per unit.

Like it did in 2014 when it was writing the Housing Element it is currently replacing, the City has been conducting polls to see what housing goals the people want.  Then as now, the people are stating family friendly housing is essential.  In 2014, the goals ensconced in the Housing Element included “larger households” and to “improve the housing tenure” for families as well as “more for-sale units and less rental units” and to “increase owner occupancy”.  Emeryville has failed on all counts. 

The new goals, same as the old goals, will almost certainly be unmet when the newest Housing Element itself sunsets (in 2033) owing to the City Council’s recent pledge to build more housing at the cost of building parks.  The General Plan delineates providing at least 50 acres of park by the time that document sunsets in 2030.  However Emeryville’s mayor, John Bauters recently announced no new parks would be build in Emeryville until enough housing is built, an unquantified statement that will not likely happen before 2030, if ever.  If building parks means building less housing, then also requiring developers to build family friendly houses that actually attract families will also come at the cost of greater numbers of general housing units. 

If Emeryville would build the parks it has promised, they would likely find themselves in a virtuous circle; parks bringing families, families bringing more parks.  But with a City Council hostile to parks, this will not be tested.  Instead, Emeryville seems to be caught in a viscous circle; a lack of parks keeping families away and a lack of families demanding more parks translating into no parks being built.

To the extent that the City Council brags about building more family friendly housing units, a reality check is in order.  Because even if Emeryville is building more "family friendly" housing units than before, that fact has failed to bring more families the Census data shows us.   That being the case, clearly Emeryville needs to re-define what family friendly housing is.   Any proper definition needs to include a metric that relies on actual families moving into town.

However, bringing in families may not even be a real goal for Emeryville's elite.  Developers want to maximize their profits and to do that they need to build more market rate rental housing.  The City Council is helping the developers by ignoring the jobs/housing balance we traditionally have followed delineated in the objective data complied by the Association of Bay Area Governments and its Regional Housing Needs Assessment.   The City of Emeryville is a dues paying member of ABAG but has been de-coupling itself from that organization in recent years in favor of a different organization; YIMBY (Yes In My Backyard), a developer backed national housing lobbying conglomerate.  The group calls for de-regulation in housing and is funded by right wing scions including the Koch brothers.

During the formulation of the 2014 Housing Element, there was a high level of popular support for bringing families to Emeryville.  The power elite in our town, the corporations, the School Board, the City staff and the City Council however have not supported this.  The Census data proves that.  The powers that be in Emeryville have not delivered on this goal despite a near constant whinging on about how they support it.  

Decade after decade, Emeryville is the most un-friendly city for families in the East Bay.

  All the talk has net ZERO for average household size.  At what point do we conclude they're not serious about bringing families to Emeryville?

                                                                               Data from the US Census Bureau