Okay.

All right.

Well, good afternoon, everyone.

Just wanted to let you know that we will be getting started momentarily.

Councilmember Fife is here.

Good afternoon, and welcome to the community economic committee meeting of today to state, Tuesday, September 30th.

The time is now 143 p.m.

And this meeting has come to order.

Before taking roll, I will provide instructions on how to submit a speaker's card for items on this agenda.

If you are here with us in chambers and you would like to submit a speaker's card, please fill one out and turn into a clerk representative before the item is read into record.

Item online speaker requests were due 24 hours prior to this meeting.

The meeting came to order at 143 p.m.

speaker cards were no longer be accepted ten minutes after the meeting has begun.

Making it time 153 p.m.

With that, we would now proceed to take roll.

Councilmember Fife.

Present.

Councilmember Ramachandran is excused.

Councilmember Unger?

Here.

And Chair Brown.

Present.

We have three members present, one excused.

I'm present.

Can you hear me?

Yes, we can hear you.

Okay.

And so since uh council member Ramachandran will be um attending um remotely using um the AB two four four nine.

Two two four-nine.

Um I believe that I believe that you have to have your camera on and please state who is in the room with you.

Uh no one is in the room with me.

I am in the council office.

All right, thank you so much.

And I I believe we also need the council member to state the basis for using the AB two four four nine, whether it's a just cause or that's the form I filled out as just cause.

Thank you.

Okay, and we have four members present.

And before we begin, Chair, do you have any announcements?

Um excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um good afternoon, everyone.

Welcome back to the community and economic development committee.

Um, very delighted to be back in session and uh look forward to the exciting um work that we will be doing in the coming work in the coming months.

Thank you.

Thank you so much, Chair Brown.

And moving to our first item, item one, please be advised that this is a special community CED meeting, so no minutes will be approved.

Moving to item two, which is determination of schedule outstanding committee items.

And you do not have any speakers for this item.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um administrator Lake, did you have any um changes here?

I do not have changes at this time.

Um council member um Unger.

There we go.

Um yeah, so there's been a lot of great work done this summer by the mayor and the city administrator around permitting.

Um, but I would like to request that uh you all come back to me with a informational report on permitting and what hurdles we still face, and I am happy to email you a list of the questions that we have and and when do you think you would be able to come back with that?

Thank you.

Um I look forward to the list of questions and um we are working on an informational report, so I think we would be able to come back.

I would confirm, but I think October 28th.

Okay, I would like to schedule that and I will send you the list of questions today.

I appreciate that.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

So we'll look forward to that.

I do want to flag that the 1028 date is getting a little impacted.

So if Councilmember Ungar is open to November, that would be preferred.

Yes, I'm okay with that.

Okay, perfect.

Excellent.

Okay, thank you so much.

I'll make a motion to move this item along.

And then similarly, I believe from the clerk's office.

Councilmember Ramachandran, your camera has to be on.

Perfect.

Thank you so much.

And I'll entertain a motion a second.

I can second that.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Chair Brown.

Seconded by Councilmember Onger.

Councilmember Margo, please turn your mic off, please.

Thank you.

To accept determination schedule outstanding committee items as is.

On roll.

Councilmember Fife.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ramachandron.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Unger?

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

This motion passes with four eyes to accept a termination schedule and outstanding committee items as is moving to item three.

Adopt a resolution authorizing a city administrator to A establish the permit ready express program.

B, allocate up to 5,1997 517,000 from the pathways to reducing obstacles to housing grant for the permit ready express program.

C, allocate associated pre-development loan repayments to the permit ready express program, and D make affordable housing pre-development loans to qualified developers under the permit ready express program.

And you do have four four speakers for this item.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And so I believe Caleb will be Caleb Smith will be presenting this one and it will just be an oral report.

Right.

Good afternoon, Council members.

My name is Caleb Smith.

I'm a senior policy analyst with the City of Oakland's housing community development department.

We are pleased to bring this item to you today.

It's proposing to use a portion of the funds that the City of Oakland received earlier this year as part of our successful application for the federal government's pathways to reducing obstacles to housing or pro housing grant program.

That was a $7 million grant, and of that we have about $5.2 million that was included specifically to set up a brand new revolving pre-development loan program, which we are calling the permit ready express program or PrEP.

PrEP is going to be used in a couple of key different ways.

The first sub pool is going to be addressing a long-standing concern which has been raised by our affordable housing developer partners, which is that the building permit application and review fees can sometimes be a significant uh impact on the accounts of those affordable housing developers in that stage when they're applying for those building permits.

So a portion of these funds are expected to be used for providing loans to developers between when they need to submit their building permits and when they do their construction loan financing to begin construction on their projects.

This is going to not just help the developers have less of an impact on their accounts from those associated permit fees.

We also anticipate this will encourage developers who are just about ready to apply for the last step in the funding process, which is typically tax credits for some of our new construction NOFA projects.

They're going to be able to apply for those permits hopefully a few months earlier, which means they can begin construction sooner after they receive that final funding step and therefore open the project to the public and serve our residents on an expedited timeline.

So that is the first sub pool of how the funds will be used.

The second sub pool is addressing a somewhat different set of pre-development needs.

We've also heard that there's a need for pre-development funding, especially for feasibility assessment, but also for early pre-development work for projects that are just in the process of being initially planned or are being studied as potential sites for future affordable housing.

This is particularly keenly felt for emerging developers that are new to the affordable housing world and perhaps do not have as much resources as more larger established developers to do this initial feasibility work.

So this will be uh offering up to $50,000 in initial feasibility funding plus potentially $350,000 for other types of early pre-development work, such as architectural and engineering fees to get these projects to a place where they're ready to subsequently apply not just for city funding but also for state and federal grants, so we can not just try to make sure that the best possible projects rise to the top in future city funding applications, but also make sure that Oakland's affordable housing pipeline is as large and vibrant as possible to apply for the largest possible share of state and federal resources that could be directed towards affordable housing here in Oakland.

And within that early stage pre-development pool, there's also a set aside of 1.2 million dollars specifically for emerging developers, because we want to make sure that they receive a large portion of the benefit there.

So this is going to be a revolving program.

Once these loans are repaid, there can be put towards future affordable housing development uh needs in future in that pre-development use.

Um so this should be able to rotate and continue more or less indefinitely.

So that's a short overview of this program.

Um we're hoping to get this launched uh at some point in the next few weeks, some or maybe a month or two as we work out the final details.

But otherwise, uh you saw the draft guidelines included in the council packet.

Now, please to take any questions.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Caleb.

Um council members, um, council member Unger.

And this is a federal grant, it's not general fund money.

Uh, through the chair to council member Unger, yes, this was a federal grant.

Um it was uh so far it's only been offered twice.

It was one of these very flexible describe how you want to use the money type federal grant opportunities.

They were looking for creative opportunities to expedite uh housing and especially affordable housing production.

So considering the city's uh existing investments through things like measure you in the construction, we saw that there were still some remaining pre-development needs that were uh less of a good fit for existing funding sources.

So that's why our department suggested that as a use for these funds, and we were successful uh among this very competitive grant application.

I think only about 10% of applications were successful.

Um, and we do have a signed grant agreement, so we are confident that we will receive these funds, and have been working with HUD to get the mechanics worked out for that.

That's great.

Thanks for chasing that money down.

Excellent.

Council Member Fife.

Thank you.

Um, first I want to say amazing work again from our HCD staff.

And even though this is a completely different topic, I want to thank facilities for turning on the air conditioning.

It was insane.

I don't know what was happening in here.

But my question to you, Caleb, is will this be able to support uh some of the projects that are coming through our the uh could potentially support the pipeline that we set aside and are working with the San Francisco group.

I can't recall the name that was helping with um our potential housing pipeline.

Director Weinstein helped me when we set aside funds a year or two ago.

Um for the the project to grow affordable housing developments.

Do you know the organization I'm talking about in San Francisco?

Yeah, through uh the chair to Councilmember Fife.

I believe you're speaking about the housing accelerator fund for the acquisition and conversion to affordable housing program.

These funds are really dedicated to uh new construction in our R2H2 program, where the permit fees are really are kind of a barrier to moving forward.

Um the acquisition and conversion generally don't have as much rehab or kind of uh permit fee needs because they're rehab.

So that's what these are more dedicated to those new construction projects, or for our R2H2, kind of smaller program that are uh focused on permanent supportive housing.

Okay, thank you.

Excellent.

Um, well, thank you so much, um, Caleb.

I really um in HCD, I do really think that this is a creative proposal in trying to overcome some of the barriers to creating um to building more affordable housing.

Um, so just a couple questions before we move to public comment.

Um, how does the number of projects that you'll be able to serve in this program compare to the scale of need from our affordable housing developers?

Sure.

So uh we anticipate that's going to probably change over time.

Um we see that in the short term uh we have a lot of good news when it comes to some of this state level funding.

Um I think we've all seen the announcements of some of the home key awards that have just been provided to Oakland over the past few weeks.

Um, so those are potential candidates to use these funds.

We also are know that our projects continue to apply for tax credits on the state level.

Um, although it has not yet been confirmed, I guess early indications are that a couple of our very large projects look like they probably were successful in this most recent round of tax credit applications that the state will soon be announcing awards for.

So uh the short version is that we expect this to be helpful for a lot of projects, but in times when a lot of our projects are moving together simultaneously, it's possible that the permit fee portion may not be enough to cover 100% of the fees for 100% of the projects right away, though we will naturally work to revolve the funds as quickly as possible to try to serve as many projects as possible.

And then taking a look separately at the early stage pre-development portion, um, based on a past needs and interest that we've received.

Uh, we anticipate that these funds should be uh enough to address the typical amount of need that we see there.

But again, as the broader funding landscape changes and potentially new emerging developers emerge, then we will certainly keep track of that landscape and we will monitor uh future funding sources in case there's additional pre-development needs and a possible funding source through other grants that might be a good fit there.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um we can go to the public speakers.

Thank you, Chair, and move it to our public speakers.

Want to call your name to approach the podium.

If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified when your name is called.

Kevin, Jeff Levin, excuse me, Derek Barnes, and Obina Awuka.

And excuse me if I mispronounced your last name.

Thank you.

So it seems like there needs to be some clarity on why permitting is not coming from the planning department.

Uh there's a mention in the report that a new position in the planning and building department will be the result of this, and has that been looked into in terms of cost, source of funding, and what is in detail uh gonna be the job of this new position.

Uh so the statement was made by the presenter that you're interested in producing obstacles to housing, but at the same time, you will never deal with the issue of gentrification and how it is an obstacle to housing for certain groups of people.

You also will not uh put on the table discussion on why being a sanctuary city creates challenges for housing for the current residents of Oakland when we have other people coming in.

You are concentrating quite a bit on creating new development by looking at the issue of permitting.

There are many other issues that have to be looked at.

One of them is why are developers defaulting so much on their loans?

Another issue is uh how much land do we actually have to create new development?

Uh developers uh privilege for deciding for uh investing in high-end projects rather than low-end projects.

How we get them to do more investment in low-end projects.

How do we create uh eliminate projects like Oakno that just sit, sit, sit, sit, sit, and nothing happens.

How do we nominate projects like the MacArthur and High Street project where there is absolutely hardly no parking with the interest of taking the Walgreen store and creating more housing with no parking?

So the issue of how we deal with the lack of parking when we create new uh potential issues, and then lastly, the climate.

Going to our Zoom speakers, Miss Obi Awaka.

Please unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.

Good afternoon.

My name is Obi Uwaka.

I'm a product developer with Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer serving Oakland.

We strongly support the city's efforts to establish the permit ready express program and allocate funding from the pathways to reducing obstacle to housing grant.

Streamlining the permitting process and providing pre-development loan supports are critical steps towards the celebrating the delivery of affordable housing for developers like Eden, access to pre-development loans, and it's got a permitting, can make a difference between the project moving forward or stalling.

These tools help us to close financing gaps, meet competitive state funding deadlines, and ultimately bring affordable homes online faster.

We appreciate the city's leadership in removing barriers to housing production.

And urge you to adopt the resolution to establish and fund the permit ready express program.

This initiative will help ensure that affordable housing projects are not only shovel ready but permit ready.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Obina.

I do apologize.

That would be Mr.

Obi.

Moving to Jeff Levin, please unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.

Good afternoon.

I'm unmuted.

Can you hear me?

We can hear you, Mr.

Levin.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Jeff Levin.

Speaking on behalf of East Bay Housing Organizations in support of this item.

We and our members have long identified permit fees as one of the barriers to moving affordable housing projects through the pipeline faster.

We brought this up during the housing element process, and there was some commitment in the housing element to uh address this issue.

So we're really happy to see that this uh program is coming online, and that we've actually been able to secure federal funds so it's not uh competing with our own local funds to do this.

I think this is a really positive step, and we look forward to the implementation of it.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comment, Mr.

Levin.

And that concludes your public speakers for item three.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, does Councilmember Ramachandran have any questions or comments?

Uh, not at the time, uh, just a quick comment.

Um, I'm very excited about this, and thank you, staff for being able to identify this and move forward and reducing and get another barrier to housing.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you so much, and thank you as well.

Um, I'll entertain a motion to um, I believe, send this item to the uh October 7th City Council meeting on consent.

Move approval.

Second.

Thank you.

There's a motion made by Councilmember Fife, seconded by Councilmember Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent on roll.

Councilmember Five.

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachandra.

Aye.

Council Member Onger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

This motion passes with four eyes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the October 7th.

City Council agenda, and that is on consent moving to item four.

Adopt an ordinance, establishing a middle income joint powers authority bond financing program for the purpose of financing the acquisition, construction improvement for Oakland middle income housing projects, authorizing the city administrator to join joint powers authorities, enter into joint exercise of powers agreements and other agreements with municipal finance agencies under the program and approved issuance of revenue bonds by said agencies for the Oakland projects identified by the city administrator without returning to council and related and making related sequel findings.

And you do have six speakers for this item.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And we will once again hear from Caleb Smith.

Thank you.

Caleb Smith, Senior Policy Analyst for the City of Oakland's Housing Community Development Department.

So with this item, we are proposing to create a new program to address the council's previously stated desire to see more middle income housing opportunities in Oakland and to protect those middle income housing opportunities on a long-term basis.

We have seen that there's been a lot of success for our department's existing acquisition and conversion to affordable housing program, focusing on acquiring typically older buildings and maintaining those as long-term affordable housing, so that the residents have the certainty that comes with that long-term affordability covenant, and that we are increasing the supply of long-term affordable housing.

We've seen that because there was such a prodigious construction of new housing in Oakland over the past five to seven years, that there are a lot of these new market housing buildings that are currently in service.

And although they're temporarily providing relatively low rents by regional standards, we know that these rents in the long term tend to increase here in Oakland.

And we also know that because there's so many of these buildings, the sale price for some of the recent transactions has been quite low.

So our department has therefore looked at a model that has been tried in a number of other California cities, the so-called JPA bond model, and with a number of noteworthy improvements specific to Oakland, we are proposing to do a version of that program here.

Now, in this model, the city's role is fairly limited.

We primarily serve as an approver.

There are joint power authorities, which we're all familiar with, which are a number of government agencies working together.

There are some statewide joint power authorities that exist, which primarily serve as an issuer of debt for smaller cities that don't have the capacity to issue their own debt, as well as working with affordable housing developers for some of the more intricacies associated with tax credit affordable housing finance.

A few years ago, folks realized that in some cases the financial markets were willing to buy bonds to cover 100% of the acquisition price of an existing residential building if that building was then subject to affordability covenants, and then the rents from that building would pay off the bonds over time.

This was the origin of the JPA bond model.

Now, in this model, a subsidiary of the statewide joint power authorities is the owner of record and the borrower of the bonds.

The way this typically works is that there's a project sponsor, typically a local developer, who identifies a building that's for sale, runs the financial model to figure out if the service if the rents would be adequate to pay off the debt service associated with the bonds, and then they approach one of these statewide joint power authorities and say, Hey, I think there's an opportunity here.

They then need the city's permission to proceed with the deal because we have to be a member of that subsidiary joint power authority, even though we have no ongoing role in the administration of the project, nor do we have any liability associated with the deal.

We do not issue the debt, it does not have a bearing on the city's credit rating.

It is a transaction outside of the city's books that we still need to get grant our permission to.

These deals work both from a financial perspective because these bonds are tax exempt typically, which makes them attractive to investors.

So the projects are able to get a favorable interest rate on the bond debt, and because a joint power authority is a government agency, the properties themselves qualify for the government-owned property tax exemption.

Now it's worth noting that normal affordable housing is also subject to a different property tax exemption, the so-called welfare exemption, but in this case, it's a slightly different legal provision, though the results are likely similar.

Now, when we saw that these models were done elsewhere in California, and when my colleagues were first approached with the initial round of these proposals a few years ago, we did see a number of issues with the model.

In some cases, projects were being bought with this model with inflated valuations, or the amount of rental income to cover the debt service on the bonds was uh too tight, where even a small downturn could be an issue for the project.

As well as in some cases, the value of the asset was uh, and there was other issues on more mechanical level.

So initially the city of Oakland said no thank you to these.

But in some of our ongoing conversations, research from elsewhere, and other investigations, we've been able to develop a set of standards which methodically address the issues that have been occurred in other projects elsewhere in California.

So in Oakland's proposal, placing limits that the rents are limited at no more than 80% of area median income to try to ensure that these projects are not too close to market rate the where the way they were in some other cities.

There is a cost of benefit test that the pro that the rent savings to the tenants needs to outweigh the fork on property taxes.

There is additional more technical requirements associated with the financial structure of the deal to try to avoid the unwise underwriting we saw in some of these deals previously.

And the long-term benefit here is that we could take some of these new marker rate housing buildings and have long-term affordability covenants placed on these.

So even when rents likely increase in future, the tenants there will be able to stay long term, and we can have a diversity of income households in Oakland neighborhoods, including the neighborhoods which have seen the most marker rate development recently.

Now, at the end of the bond term, typically the at the housing would be transferred to the city, or in Oakland's case, more likely a nonprofit designated by the city.

But because again, we're trying to be very conservative here in our handling of the underwriting, we are not including that future benefit in our cost benefit analysis ratio.

We want to be very specifically looking at the rent savings and the property taxes.

So we are mindful that because we are setting such a high bar for these projects, that we may see a low initial volume of these projects.

However, with such a large number of, again, these new marker rate housing that was built in Oakland and the low per unit prices we've been seeing, we believe that now is an especially good time for the city of Oakland to consider this program.

So that's a brief overview of what is involved in this model.

I'm now pleased to take any questions.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um I'll um hear from the public speakers first.

Thank you.

When I call your name, please approach the podium.

If you're participating via Zoom, once again, please raise your hand so you're easily identified.

David Park, Max Melman, Isaac Cosfrud, because Fraud, Miss Asada, Derek Barnes, and Diego Castro.

Good afternoon, Chair Brown and members of the committee.

Uh, it's great to be here today.

Um, here on behalf of hybrid capital management, I believe Max Melman and David Parker both online and they're affiliated with this project as well.

I'd like to thank staff first and foremost for their leadership, you know, on this and many other issues, but particularly on building a new program that's responsive to this middle income need, which is a very unique and important one.

Speaking of unique and important, this project that we're working on is at uh 4400 MLK way or MLK Boulevard.

Everybody's seen this, it's right off the 24.

It's covered in scaffolding and graffiti.

It unfortunately is a major source of blight in our city, and it's a big PR problem because everybody coming in out of that tunnel sees that project along the 24.

More substantially, it's a blight problem in the neighborhood.

We understand that many people from the local bid, from the children's hospital that of course is a regional hospital, are always complaining about the state of this project.

We had a commitment of funding from the city for um home key funds, but those were contingent on LITEC.

We can't access that without a commitment from Litech.

Those funding options were taken off the table.

This bond funding program is the best solution to get this project done in an expeditious way.

And so we're hoping, um, you know, I think it was important that staff noted that in a space where there's little city liability, it's great to be as flexible and creative as possible.

And so we're hoping that there can be some flexibility around certain parameters to ensure that this project can really move forward.

Um, those include things like appraisal value, rental comps, um, even potentially the AMI thing, um, because also this project will not be completely taken off the property rolls.

There is a commercial component to it, so this will continue to have some property tax benefit to the city.

Um, furthermore, I believe, and and the other speakers will speak to this, uh, they're willing to make a 55-year commitment uh of retaining the affordability of this property.

So thank you for your consideration, and again, thank you for considering as much creativity and flexibility as possible.

It is it is my understanding that the target group is middle income.

So, what is the percentage of individuals who need housing in Oakland that are middle income individuals?

We have to have that because we have to know, is there a relevant number of middle income people that we can support this?

Now, I read uh in a Pew report that since 1971, 61% decline of middle income individuals throughout the country has been the picture we're currently dealing with.

So, where is the uh statement that we have this percentage of middle incomers who are in Oakland or potentially estimated that could come to Oakland if housing is being made available and through some through this process?

Okay, and then you have a statement where you say the city has no responsibility or liability with respect to such bonds or any other uh liabilities.

Now, what does that mean for the middle income person in terms of their responsibility?

If you take none, what are some of the liability issues they're gonna be facing if they decide to take this on themselves?

Okay.

Um, and what are some of the responsibilities that they take on that you as the city saying you will not take responsibility for?

Let's make that clear uh for those who might want to pursue this to understand some of the things that they will have to be responsible for or possibly have liability around.

Thank you for your comment, Ms.ada.

Moving to our Zoom speakers, David.

Please unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.

Hi, my name is David Park, and I am working with uh Isaac and um Hybridge for this project.

Uh, before I begin, again, I just want to kind of echo the sentiments that Isaac uh brought up.

I just want to thank Caleb Smith and a city staff, they've been truly not just leaders but instrumental in helping us uh kind of um really target the items that they felt were um uh things that uh might be of issue later on, and so uh what we're doing with this project, as Isaac said, is that uh we are unique in this project because we're taking a blighted project, not just an existing building and creating new housing in that aspect of it.

Again, we've got that commercial component, so we um won't have the property be taken off the property tax registry, and along with that commercial space, not just the property taxes.

I feel like uh the benefit to that is gonna be that there's not only the creation of construction jobs but permanent jobs in the future generation of sales tax.

Um, Isaac brought up the fact that we will be um signing an affordability covenant.

I know that in um Caleb Smith's staff report that uh it was very important to utilize this type of funding and this type of housing, and the fact that we will be signing this affordability covenant, ensuring the affordability lasts even as rents around the city go up, this building will remain affordable.

Um, we are uh ready to really roll up our sleeves and really uh help impact uh the economic viability of this area and wanting to work hard because the liability again is gonna be following on us as developers, as the bond issuers and the bond trustees, and working together with city staff again to make sure that the bonds are paid off, paid off in time, and that it's a viable project that's kept upright and also a viable project, and we really ask for city council support and a continued.

Thank you for your comment, David.

Moving to our other Zoom speakers.

Max B.

Please unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.

Good afternoon, council members and staff.

Uh, thank you for your time and thoughtful consideration.

Uh Max Melman, an affordable housing developer focused on building high-quality real estate here in Oakland.

Uh the middle income JPA program is one of the most fiscally responsible tools to expand affordability, uses fully amortizing bonds, paid entirely from project rents, at no burden to the city's balance sheet or taxpayer liability.

And at the end of the term, Oakland owns these buildings outright at no cost.

That means permanent affordability, which is responsibly achieved.

It's important that Oakland doesn't limit itself to a single vehicle like CMFA.

I know the latest document specifically states that, but by allowing multiple qualified JPAs, it ensures competition, transparency, and flexibility.

So the city can always get the strongest partners and best outcomes for residents.

At the same time, we urge narrow flexibility for distressed or at risk projects and emphasis on narrow flexibility.

Um if these projects are left unaddressed, they may never deliver high housing.

A clear example of this is 4400 MLK.

It's a half-built apartment building.

Uh, we stepped in to salvage the transaction, and with a tool like this, we believe we can finish and actually deliver high-quality housing for the city.

Uh, we want to be cognizant of the city's concerns about rent savings.

Our project is structured, so the tenant savings should be impactful enough to meet the cost-benefit test.

Um, and importantly, that we're not coming to the city with inflated valuations or unrealistic assumptions.

We have reasonable expectations and conservative underwriting and hoping we can get there.

Um, our development is a best in class, professionally managed, co-compliant, and rents will be capped at 80% of AMI with robust reserves to ensure that uh this is not a problem for the city down the line.

Uh, thank you so much for your consideration.

Thank you for your comment, Max, and that concludes your public speakers for item four.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, colleagues, any questions or comments?

Councilmember Fife.

Yes, through the chair to Caleb.

Um, I have a couple questions.

Um you mentioned rent limits, but are there limits for tenant incomes?

Yes.

Uh through the chair to council member five, uh, the projects would be subject to an affordability restriction.

Uh, somewhat similar in nature to affordable housing where both the rent and the tenant incomes were both limited.

Um so if there's an 80% of area median income restriction, then households would have to earn no more than 80% of area median income to qualify for that unit.

And also based on the 80% area median income rent standard, that would be the rent standard that would apply for such a unit.

Is that articulated in the report anywhere that you could help me find or is that just assumed?

Uh through the chair to council member five.

I don't think we specifically elaborated that point.

So I appreciate the question to clarify that.

And then once the the loans are completely or the bonds are completely amortized, uh, and these properties could be transferred to the city of Oakland, where would they sit?

Where would the would it be the ownership of the property?

How would that work?

Sure.

Through the chair to council member five.

Um, based on some of our previous discussions with the finance department, for federal tax purposes, it would make most sense for the city to transfer the property to a nonprofit or potentially if they were interested, the housing authority, most likely a nonprofit, uh, to have that be in long-term service as affordable housing.

Um that is also from the city's perspective.

We do not have the capability to really manage a large affordable housing portfolio at the moment.

Um, so transferring that to one of our affordable housing partners would be the logical strategy to take there.

And would that also include community land trusts?

That would be certainly a possibility.

We have not got to the point where we've identified specific partners or anything like that.

We would have to further examine that question, potentially in the context of a particular deal because we know that different properties may be more suitable for future dispositioned options, but I'm not aware of any reason why that couldn't be the case.

So would the city then have to develop a criteria for uh identifying or deciding what types of organizations or nonprofits this would go to that?

Yeah.

Through the chair to council member five, I expect that we will continue that conversation and come up with a clearer uh proceed set of procedures for identifying such partners.

We're continuing to investigate whether that transfer partner needs to be identified at the beginning or at a subsequent point further on in the deal.

So that's a question that may bear some further examination because we're also mindful that the landscape of affordable housing may be different in 30 years' time compared with where it is today.

So we'll certainly continue to investigate that, and I'm sure we'll have opportunities to engage with the council offices as we continue to think about that question.

And then my final question: would then that nonprofit would be responsible for the 100% of the property management and upkeep and maintenance of these projects, these assets.

That is correct.

Once the city is transfers the property at the end of the bond term, they that nonprofit would likely own the property fully, and it would be like any other asset, they would be responsible for uh administration, maintenance, property management, etc.

The city, of course, as we're looking at these possibilities, may have the opportunity to establish some requirements, such as potentially a different set of income targeting.

Um we are also mindful that we don't that we want to make sure that if these assets are going to be transferred in 30 or 40 years' time, that they're transferred in good condition.

So one of the guidelines that's included in our requirements is a minimum sort of capital reserve set aside.

So we're continuing to invest in the maintenance of the building over the term of the bond, so that when the building is transferred at the end, the building is going to be in good condition.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you, Councilmember Unger.

Thank you for this.

This is really um creative.

I know we're in a unique position where market rate housing is going for reduced prices right now.

So this is this is exciting.

Um, but I want to clarify when we talk about there being no risk or cost to the city.

There is we are foregoing tax revenue, right?

Uh through the chair to council member Unker, that is correct.

Um as we noted in the report, there is uh going to be foregone tax revenue, a portion of which is the city of Oakland's taxes.

We are also mindful that there would be tax impacts on Alameda County and the Oakland Unified School District, as well as potentially smaller impacts on some other public agencies.

Uh it's part of our cost-benefit analysis test, we are trying to ensure that the foregone rents outweighs the cost of the foregone taxes to all agencies, not just the city of Oakland.

Um we are proposing to initially limit the volume of this council authorization, in part because this is a new program in Oakland, and because we also are very mindful of the trade-off, which is that foregone property taxes.

So that is why we are proposing to put that cap on the number of units in this council authorization.

And if this program works well, once we've had the opportunity to evaluate it further, then it may make sense to come back for a future council authorization.

But again, we know that there's difficult trade-offs that are being made, and that is why we wanted to put a cap on the initial volume.

So that cost-benefit analysis, can was that in the report?

I don't remember seeing it.

Can we see that?

Sure.

Uh so through the chair to council member Unger, the cost-benefit analysis will be on a project-by-project basis.

Um we have a financial model that our team built, which takes a look at all the different categories of tax income that's generated by the projects, which includes uh the base property tax, parcel taxes, um, the the gross receipts tax that's applied on rental income, as well as future real estate transfer taxes.

We assume that if the city wasn't involved in a deal, then at some point maybe 10 years from now, that property would likely sell to somebody else.

We also want to include that in the model.

So we have a model that takes that into account, and then we also look at the market rents and the proposed project rents to then look at what is on the other side, the rent savings, we put that all into net present value so we can do an apples to apples comparison.

We'd be happy to share more information about the specific financial model with your office if that would be helpful.

Yeah, I'd like that.

And um, since there are impacts to the county and the school board, do they have to approve this as well before we can go through with it?

Uh through the chair to council member Unger, it does not require separate approval from the county or the school destruct.

Okay.

Um, you know, I I know in in recent years the sort of distinction between middle income housing and market rate housing has gotten kind of squishy, and I think you know, in the majority of the last 10 years, they've been the same.

So, how are we ensuring that we're not subsidizing market rate housing?

Sure.

Uh, through the chair to council member Uncker, that is a large part why we are so insistent on this cost-benefit test.

So just because a project is willing is able to set its rents at 80% area median income, we do not believe that automatically means that they do actually meet that cost-benefit analysis test.

We look at a sample of comparable projects on a case-by-case basis to ensure that we are looking at what is that actual market rent, and then we're looking at the proposed market, uh the proposed project level rents, and then we're doing that comparison to make sure that there's an actual discount there, that they're not saying, oh, we're an 80% project, but then potentially not actually being under what the current prevailing rent is.

We also have as part of our guidelines some built-in assumptions around things like future rent growth that we are uh putting into place here to make sure that that projection of the rent savings is realistic over time, that people are not claiming excessive future rent savings based on an unrealistic increase in rents.

Um and and you said you thought that we might not get a bunch of applicants for this initially.

Do you have projects in mind?

Have you already identified?

I believe my director liked to address that question.

Thank you through the chair to council member Unger.

So at this time and what's before you today is really just the box of the program itself.

Um we're not looking for approval for any specific projects.

Um this is a program and kind of designed within it, is a level of of conservative assumptions so that we can underwrite and make sure that the um the public benefit is enough to offset the foregone taxes.

So, you know, up until this point and through our research, we haven't yet found a project that works specifically perfectly in the box.

We are obviously talking to a number of different um project sponsors, um, and working with them to make sure that uh if the project were to meet the program that they have to meet the program needs.

So that's what's in front of you today.

It's not related to a specific project, it's really about kind of the boundaries of the project and how we would underwrite projects moving forward.

And you put a 600 unit cap on it.

Is that because you're worried it won't work or because it's a pilot project, or why why limit it?

Yes, through the chair to council member Unger.

That's exactly it.

This is a new program, and um, in other jurisdictions, um, they have learned other lot of cautionary tales really from other jurisdictions.

So we have met and in and interviewed staff and other jurisdictions that have projects that were overleveraged or whether or had rents that were uh pro formaed or that they were charging that were in fact above what the market could bear, right?

Um, and so we want to really make sure that we are not putting um the city or the school board or the county in any kind of position where we're not seeing the public benefit.

So this is just another kind of conservative way to manage any potential risks.

And can you just finish?

Can you sort of put a bow on this for me?

Because we are foregoing some revenue.

So, what is the what is the public benefit here?

Is it finishing off projects that wouldn't be finished?

Is it providing moderate income housing?

Like, like just wrap it up for me.

Uh through the chair to council member Unger.

So this is really a counter-cyclical sort of approach.

It is a point in the market where projects are particularly cheap to acquire for the most part.

And right now we know that we have a soft market.

So that's what makes the way it's kind of a cost, it's a two sides of the same coin.

It's the reason why projects are cheap is because we have a soft market.

But the soft market also means that market rate rents are actually depressed, and you know, you can right now rent a market rate unit that is affordable to families at 80% area meaning income.

So what we have built in is this idea, this cap of 80% AMI.

Many other jurisdictions allow it to go up to 120% AMI, but given where we are in the market, we're capping it at 80% AMI, and the hope is that you're taking a certain segment of the market rate projects that would otherwise increase rents over time.

But we're getting in before the rental increase to basically take projects off of the speculative market and hold a certain number affordable to families at 80% AMI or below.

That's great.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Ramachandrin.

Thank you.

Most of my questions were just covered in that go-round, but just two additional questions.

Is part of the goal, I mean, I know you discussed a little bit about why this would qualify as middle income rather than actually in effect market rate housing, but we talk a lot about workforce housing for you know, teachers, nurses, essential workers, etc.

Is this something that is likely to fit in that bucket of workforce housing?

Sure.

Through the chair to council member Ramachandran, it would in some cases likely address that need uh the segment which is in many cases still feeling some of the impacts from rents or would be vulnerable to the impact of rent increases in future, but tends to earn a little bit too much to apply for the bulk of our affordable of our deeper affordable housing here in Oakland.

Um the specifics depend a bit based on which kind of job, but for a group such as an entry-level teacher at Oakland Unified School District, or in some cases other kinds of workers who do very important public saving work, public serving work in the community, we do anticipate that by increasing the supply of housing affordable on a long-run basis, up to 80% of area and median income, that that could help indeed help address that need.

Okay, thank you.

And just one more question.

Um there are other existing affordable housing projects all over the city, you know, probably less so, but probably some that um encompass the middle ground um housing.

Um is do you anticipate that this project is going to compete with those, or you know, could they complement one another?

Sure.

Uh through the chair to council member Ramachandra, uh, we do know that there are some affordable housing which includes this 80% uh area median income units.

We are mindful that there continues to be a limited number of those units.

Uh a lot of our when we are funding projects in our department, we're typically focusing at lower parts of the income spectrum, our key priority being the 30% of area median income or below the extremely low income, but also our projects tend to have a lot of units restricted at around 50 or in some cases 60% of area median income, so typically below the target level of that would be for the type of housing included in this new program, and especially when we anticipate the rents increasing in future, we anticipate that there would be strong demand for this for the housing in this new program, uh, so that it would not really be competing with our existing affordable housing.

We see this as a a complement rather than a competitor or a substitute.

Thank you so much.

Excellent.

Um, so thank you so much to my colleagues.

Um, many of the questions that I had were answered.

Um I did want to note that on page, and feel free to expand if you would like, Caleb.

Um, but on page 10 of the report, it does outline um the percentage of middle income Oaklanders, and it's break broken down there as far as 26% Latino households, 20% white, 15% black, 15% Asian.

So not sure if you want to kind of talk a little bit more about that.

But I also know in our conversation that we had prior, you were uplifting the piece that you just mentioned around helping to support potentially support workforce housing development, kind of in and around this proposal.

But my follow-up question is so on page nine of the report, kind of as Councilmember Unger mentioned, it it kind of alludes to the fact that there will be a lower volume of proposals.

But I am curious, you know, what action can we take to ensure that potential project sponsors are actually equipped to craft the proposals, you know, craft their proposals as the as soon as these opportunities arrive, and if there's any education that we can do in order to advance that effort.

Thank you.

So I'll start by saying that we anticipate that there's a strong developer interest there.

The quest the challenge is going to be more in the developing proposals which meet these high criteria.

So by providing uh by approving this box, the council will be providing these developers more certainty over what kind of proposals would be amendable to the city.

Um so the developers instead of submitting these unsolicited proposals where there's more or less guessing of what the city wants, they know what are the criteria they're going to be evaluated against so they can get their ducks in a row up front.

Also, the fact that this delegates the authority of the city administrator to move quickly as these opportunities come up is going to be helpful to these types of transactions because we've seen that sometimes when these buildings are for sale and when a sponsor identifies a building that's for sale, there's a very limited window of time that they have to complete that transaction to notify the seller of the building.

Yes, we do want to make a bid on behalf of this joint power authority.

Um, and we've seen that in some cases for uh some of the unsolicited proposals, they have felt that time pressure.

So by delegating that authority, it will provide flexibility and move quickly when good opportunities do emerge through this program.

And we are certainly planning on uh making word about this program available publicly, and again, with the public release of these guidelines, would be providing a clear idea of what projects need to do here, and we'll I imagine continue to receive a lot of interest moving forward again.

Just need to make sure that that interest aligns with the city's core priorities here.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Caleb.

Um, and so um amazing, incredible job as as was mentioned on just the level of detail and even just the background research as well to put this together.

Um, so I will entertain a motion um on this item.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by council member five, seconded by council member Unger to approve the recommendations of staff and forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

And please note this will be the first reading on roll.

If approved, this would be the first reading.

On roll, Councilmember Five.

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Unger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

This motion passes with four ayes to approve the recommendations of staff and afford this item to the October 7th City Council agenda, and that is on consent.

Moving to item five.

Adopt a resolution authorizing the appropriation of accumulated net revenue of the affordable housing program fund revenue from the low and moderate income housing asset fund and the H HUD home Improvement Partnerships Fund to fund the new construction of multifamily rental affordable housing program, rapid response homeless housing, acquisition and or conversion of the affordable housing and rehabilitation of the existing affordable housing collectively, affordable housing programs, to authorizing the annual annual appropriation of the net revenue of the of the affordable housing program funding revenue from the low and moderate income housing asset fund and the HUD investment partnership fund for affordable housing programs for a period of five years, three allocating funds for the measure U housing fund and other non-bond funds and a total amount not to exceed 66 million for affordable housing programs, four reallocating impact fees and other affordable housing capital sources funds approved through the fiscal year 2526 revenue to affordable housing programs and five authorizing the city administrator to make a development loans and grants on the affordable housing programs contingent to the funding availability, and you do have 10 speakers for this item.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

And we will hear from staff on this item.

Good afternoon, Chairperson Brown and community members.

Christa Katz Multi Housing Development Services Manager for HCD.

This item seeks to provide up to 66 million dollars in funding to eligible affordable housing activities in accordance with HCD's strategic action plan for capital funding, and also to reappropriate funding from two sources the low mod income asset fund and home funds for a five period of five years automatically to deploy those funds more expeditiously, and finally to allow the city administrator to make the final decision on the loans and grants to eligible projects.

The programs involved here are the new construction of affordable housing with long-term affordability restrictions, primarily through our new construction notice of funding availability or NOFA.

The home key rapid response homeless housing or R2HG program, which is issued through an RFP or request for proposals, acquisition and conversion of affordable housing for market rate deals, existing market rate residences going to affordable housing with restrictions, and also preservation of our restricted affordable housing portfolio, the rehab NOFA.

We're focusing primarily with the funding here on new construction with permanent supportive housing and homeless units from our pretty substantial current un or partially funded pipeline, which you can see in attachment B, we have over 300 million dollars of unmet funding needs for the new construction pipeline.

And this is to position projects to take advantage of a loosening tax credit market and provide additional, we'll also provide additional funding to our upcoming portfolio, uh, rehab NOFA and Home Key R2H2 RFPs.

As table three notes in the report, this flexible strategies allowed us to work with developers in our competitive funding pools to position affordable housing to move into construction quickly.

So out of the five NOFO awardees from projects that we awarded funds to in January, two already have tax credits and are proceeding towards construction, two have pretty good tax credit chances to receive tax credits in November, and we also had a tax credit project from a prior round that is getting tax credits today in the 9% round.

We'll continue to report annually on use like we did in June.

And then in terms of the funding composition of the 66 million dollars, most of the fundings measure U for voter approved bonds.

When council approved the second tranche issuance of measure U funds on September 15th, 180 million dollars was included for eligible affordable housing capital uses.

The remaining sources, just under 30 million, are a mix of low mod income asset funds, home dollars, impact fees, excess bonds, and potential state funding.

These funds are restricted in use for affordable housing activities as laid out in attachment eight of the report.

Finally, uh annual reappropriation and authorization of the funds allows uh staff to streamline uh awards to projects to keep them moving quickly and get into construction.

Um we do have one correction to the RESO's first resolve in order to have it align with the title of the report.

I can pull that up on screen, but it's a change for a typo of 60 million in the first resolved to 66 million to match the title.

And thank you.

And staff is available if you have any questions.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

We can hear from the public speakers.

Thank you, Colin.

Our public speakers want to call your name, please approach the podium if you're here in chambers.

If you are participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so you're easily identified.

Ms.

Carla Guerrera, Courtney Powell, Ms.

Asada, Jeff Levin, Derek Barnes.

Angelina Cornejo, Obi Owaka, Adam Levin, Nicole Guzman, and Sharon Corney.

And Eric Valuez.

Good afternoon, Chair Brown and members of the committee.

Carla Guerra, Paulis and Albuquerques, Senior Manager at the Unity Council, on behalf of our organization and the community we serve.

I want to thank the CED for moving forward with the release of Tranch 2 funding.

These resources are critical to closing the Unity Council's 2700 International Boulevard Affordable Housing Project, which will provide 75 affordable units, including 22 units designated for individuals experiencing homelessness and special needs populations.

Beyond our project, these funds will play a vital role in supporting the development of new affordable housing, creating permanent exits from homelessness, rehabilitating existing affordable housing, and preserving and converting affordable housing units across many projects currently in the pipeline.

So we deeply appreciate your commitment to keeping Oakland affordable.

Thank you.

Can you please state your name to the public speaker?

To the public speaker that just spoke.

That would be all 991.

Thank you.

No such thing as the QA.

Good afternoon.

My name is Courtney Powell, and I'm the policy manager at Resources for Community Development, or RCD, as we're known in the field.

RCD is a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating and preserving affordable homes for people with the fewest options.

Within Oakland, we currently provide around 700 homes and have another 77 unit development opening next year.

I'm here to share our thanks for HCD staff and council for moving to allocate the second batch of measure you funding.

These funds will support deeply affordable homes and particularly supportive housing units for people exiting homelessness.

I wanted to specifically express gratitude in support of the portion of the funds for rehabilitation of existing affordable housing.

When nonprofit developers like RCD build affordable housing, we are intending to keep it affordable in perpetuity.

And 20 or 30 years after a building is built, we want to give it a refresh to repair routine wear and tear and to upgrade building systems to maintain our properties as modern, well-designed places to live.

Right now we have a really unique opportunity at the state level where there's going to be potentially more funding to move forward rehabilitation projects at an unprecedented scale.

And local funds can really advantage projects in that statewide competition.

We commend the city for dedicating some of these measure U funds specifically to the rehabilitation of affordable housing to maximize this moment.

Thank you.

Hello, Angelina Cornejo from East Bay Housing Organization.

I want to thank the City Council for moving to release the second tranche of measure U funds.

This will allow HCD to support the new construction of affordable housing units and homeless exits into permanent housing.

Um as well as supporting rehab of existing affordable housing and preservation and conversion of affordable housing.

HCD has been working with developers on all their programs, and this resolution allows them to add to the new construction rehab and home key R2H2 pools to focus on getting developments of additional units, especially extremely low-income and permanent supportive housing and preservation deals underway in 2026.

The city has seen affordable housing development accelerate, but it's only because of the level of investment that our voters supported through Measure U and other local sources like impact fees.

These investments have enabled the projects and the pipeline to go forward.

We have to ensure that HCD in partnership with our affordable housing developers deliver quickly on affordable homes for our most vulnerable communities.

This will do just that.

Thank you.

Good afternoon, Chair and Committee members.

My name is Eric Vasquez Izagiri.

I'm here on behalf of EAH Housing, one of the leading nonprofit affordable housing developers serving over 25,000 residents across California and Hawaii here in the Bay Area as well, including 100 working class and low-income families right here in Oakland at Cathedral Gardens located on 22nd, 21st Street, sorry.

We stand here today in strong support of item five.

The appropriation of accumulated net revenue combined with Measure U bond funds, HUD home dollars, and impact fees will give Oakland the tools needed to tackle the most pressing housing challenges.

These resources will move for forward projects in our pipeline, such as 500 Lake Park, a 53 unit community with 20 units set aside for directly unhoused neighbors and 33 for working families.

This resolution expands Oakland's ability to fund new construction, rehabilitation, and home key rapid response projects, making way for deeply affordable housing, permanent supportive housing, and preservation deals in 2026 and beyond.

To date, Measure U has authorized 350 million dollars.

Tranch one committed 68 million, Tranch 2 programmed 180 million, with about 35 million still available.

Roughly 102 million remains for future trenches.

By deploying these funds quickly, Oakland can create new homes, preserve affordability, and protect stability for residents.

Every local dollar invested leverages state, federal, and private financing, multiplying impacts with families and seniors and individuals experiencing homelessness.

We urge you to adopt this resolution without delay.

Timely action remains real.

Homes and stability is needed for the dignity of Oakland residents and for generations to come.

Thank you.

Hi, good afternoon, Chair Brown and committee members.

My name is Nicole Guzman.

I'm currently a senior project manager at Satellite Affordable Housing Associates based in Berkeley.

I'm here to urge you all to please adopt the allocation of Measure Utron 2 funds, which will benefit and further support the development of affordable housing, such as projects like 3135 San Pablo in partnership with St.

Mary's Center, who will provide resident services and case management services for unhoused seniors in West Oakland.

Please move forward to grant the housing and community development team the ability to fund these new construction pipeline projects.

Thank you to staff and council members for your time and consideration.

Good afternoon.

My name is Sharon Cornew, CORNU CORNU.

Thank you.

I am the director of St.

Mary's Center on San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland.

That talented young project manager is partnered with St.

Mary's Center in SAHA to develop 73 new homes for seniors.

We appreciate support from the state of California, the Oakland Housing Authority, the City of Oakland, as well as private donors to the project.

But very soon, St.

Mary's will celebrate 10 years of working on this project.

We encourage the city to accelerate the process to move forward quickly.

We appreciate your support through the difficult work.

Uh, but we need to move because we have increasing numbers of unhoused seniors on the San Pablo Avenue corridor.

Let me close with a request for clarification today of the status of the Measure U bonds, perhaps from finance staff.

Thank you so much.

It's it's very disgraceful what's happening with the homeless in this city.

When you did your budget for 25-27, you had no funding for homelessness.

You had home homeless prevention fund.

And you're saying you were going to Alameda County for them to use Measure W for the homeless.

And you know that's not going to happen.

You're not getting nothing from Alameda County until you sue them.

When you look at the the information made available, homeless units by districts, they have no homeless units identified for the homeless in districts one, four, and seven.

When you look at by districts, the notice of funding availability awards for district one zero, district two, seven, district three, seven, district four, zero, district five, five, district six, three, district seven zero.

What are we seeing?

Disproportionality of awards among among our different districts, and that needs to be corrected.

When you also look at the status of recent developers by district, district one, two, two, district two, two, district three, seven, district four, one, district five, two, district six, zero.

District seven, zero.

So we got a problem.

We don't have equity of distribution of awarding of fundings or creation of homeless sites within districts.

When you look at the race and equity statement provided, you want to ensure housing for over-represented housing.

You don't mention, they don't want to mention that the African American community is the group that you're talking about.

Okay.

So why wouldn't we do that?

At the same time, when you go to the next committee meeting, you are reducing funding for homelessness because you don't have the money.

Oh, you're gonna use it for one month or six months.

You're not serious about homelessness, okay.

So, moving to our Zoom speakers, excuse me, Mr.

Obi, you may unmute yourself and begin your two-minute comment.

Good afternoon, City Council.

Again, my name is Obi Walker.

I'm a project developer with Eden Housing, a nonprofit affordable housing developer serving Oakland.

Housing currently owns and operates um multiple pro one property in the city of Oakland.

That's the Alton Heim, and are currently working on a private development to include Liberation Park, Dr.

Kenneth Anderson's senior housing, and the 77th and Bancroft project, which will trigger a total of 276 affordable housing units.

We strongly support the city's efforts to appropriate and allocate funding from the low and moderate income housing fund um in partnership with the including the measure you bond proceeds to support housing programs.

These programs are essential to advancing new multifamily rental construction, rapid response housing for people experiencing homelessness, acquisition and conversion of properties to affordable housing.

The availability and timely deployment of these funds are critical.

Projects like ours rely on coordinated funding to meet deadlines for state level programs such as SIDLAC.

For products already awarded initial funding, these allocations will help close funding gaps and move us forward to construction.

Affordable housing is the foundation of resilient equitable communities.

We thank the council for its leadership in advancing this resolution and for continued commitment to expanding and preserving affordable housing opportunities in Oakland.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments to all the public speakers.

That concludes your public speakers for item five.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, colleagues, any questions or comments?

Let's council member Ramashandran have our hand up.

Okay.

Excellent.

Well, thank you so much for the report.

Um, very detailed.

Um, I think it's relevant relatively straightforward.

Um, and then of course we know that we need to approve uh this item with the um amendment to change the dollar amount in the first resolve clause from sixty million to sixty-six million.

And so I'll entertain a motion.

So moved.

Second.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by council member five, seconded by councilmember Ungar to approve as amended the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October seventh city council agenda on consent with the amendments as follows.

The first resolve changing that from 60 million to 66 million to match the title on roll, Councilmember 5.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ramatran.

Excuse.

Councilmember Ogger.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

Thank you.

This motion passes with three ayes, one excuse Romatandra to approve as amended.

The recommendations of staff and the forward is to the October 7th city council agenda on consent.

Moving to item six.

Adopt an ordinance declaring the city owned residential real property located at 1226 73rd Avenue property.

Exempt surplus land and authorizing the city administrator to a list the property to the open market, B.

negotiate with any or all interested purchasers, and C, enter into an agreement to dispose of the property and they select their purchaser for its fair market value as determined by the city administrator.

And you do have one speaker for this item.

Excellent.

And so I believe on for this item, um Brendan is remote in the Zoom.

And Brendan, you may unmute yourself and begin your presentation.

Thank you.

Good afternoon.

Can you hear me?

We can.

Thank you.

Wonderful.

Thank you so much.

Um thank you, Chair Brown, for accommodating my need to be remote today.

Appreciate the opportunity to present this item.

Um so there uh there is a PowerPoint presentation, a brief one.

Let's um see that that gets on the screen here.

Not sure what you're able to see right now.

Yes, the PowerPoint is being displayed.

Thank you very much.

Okay, um, so good afternoon, members of the committee.

My name is Brendan Moriarty.

I'm the director of real estate for the city of Oakland.

Um, just gonna take a few minutes to describe this item, um, which is um about a uh city-owned property located at 1226 73rd Avenue.

Um let's go to the second slide of the presentation, please.

So this is a um uh the property is near the intersection of Hagenbergen International, it's a city-owned residential triplex building on a fairly small lot, about five thousand seven hundred and forty-four square feet, uh with a uh building of about twenty four hundred square feet on it, um, that is currently configured as a triplex.

Uh, was acquired for right-of-way purposes in 1970.

At that time, it was a larger lot, and it was acquired at the time when the city was gonna be building the what is now known as the Hagenberger Expressway.

So the city acquired the property.

Um uh then used the back portion of the lot for that right-of-way project that left behind is 5,744 square foot remainder.

The city attempted to sell that remainder um in the late 1980s and was unsuccessful at the time.

Um don't know the specifics of why that's no longer in the records.

Um after that failure to sell, the city then transitioned and started to use the property under the shelter plus care program as a location for low-income housing um through several different nonprofit partners, Catholic charities, Mercy Properties, and most recently, East Oakland Community Project.

Um let's go to the next slide, please.

So uh the most recent recent partner, EOCP returned it to the city uh in 2024.

At this point, it had a fair amount of deferred maintenance um due to its its um uses over the years without sufficient ongoing capital investment from the city.

It also had some unauthorized documents, essentially individuals who were attempting to establish residency in the property without authorization, and even when the property was turned back to the city, they were there and were not cooperative in leaving.

And it is currently in an uninhabitable condition.

So let's go through a series of photographs here so you can get a feel for what it looks like.

Let's go to slide number four.

This is a picture of the building from about at the sidewalk.

So this is the front after the fire and after we boarded it up.

On the back, let's go to the next slide.

This is the next slide is a picture of the building from the back.

You can see the chard marks there from where the fire occurred in the lower level.

Let's go to the third picture here, slide number six.

There's a picture from inside that lower level looking out the back.

You can see the extent of interior damage to the lower floor here.

Let's go to the next slide, slide seven.

It's another picture from that first floor.

I think either the kitchen or the laundry space, you can see just how extensive that damage was.

From the second floor unit, you can see a hole going down to the first floor.

Let's go to the next slide, number 11.

I think that's the last picture.

Just more evidence of the extent of damage here on the second floor.

So let's go now to the final slide, number 12.

This is a joint recommendation to sell the property on the open market to the highest bidder.

And when I say joint, I mean this is the collaboration between the Office of Homelessness Solutions, the community homelessness services division of the human services department, and the real estate division of the economic and workforce development department.

That's who I'm representing here today.

So assessing the situation, we're bringing this forward and recommending a sale of the property on the open market to the highest to the highest bidder.

The city's consolidated fiscal policy says that proceeds from land sales should be invested to pay down long-term obligations, augment reserves and retire debt.

And so the net proceeds from the sale would be deposited into the general fund to augment reserves.

Our thinking and developing this recommendation is that the property fulfilled its original intent of enabling the right-of-way project.

That's long since passed, and then fulfilled an additional and unplanned use for low-income housing for about a 30-year period.

It's now with the city in a very poor condition.

It's difficult to secure, it's difficult to stabilize, it's hazardous.

It could pose a threat to public health and safety, and it poses uh imposes blight on this neighborhood.

It would require substantial capital to address that deferred maintenance, uh resolve the fire damage, bring this you bring the building back into usable condition, and then additional ongoing capital to sustain it at a level where it can continue to be a usable property.

So given all of these challenges and the relatively small number of units at stake, just three, which are currently not usable, we recommend that uh we do go ahead and move to sell the property quickly and uh generate some revenue for the general fund.

That's the that's the end of the presentation.

Excellent.

Thank you so much, Brendan.

Um I just wanted to go ahead and ask a really quick question.

I know that the report states that you know the sale will go to the highest bidder, um, but I was just curious um if you if, you know, what will be the criteria used to select um the purchaser and if we've thought about like will this be like a community serving purpose or you know what will kind of go into an ensuring that whoever kind of owns this property next, it's in alignment with you know um the city's priorities, I would say.

And then also lastly, um, did you have the opportunity to connect with um the council member to which this um property is, which is district six council council president Jenkins?

Um to the chair, thank you for those questions.

I'll go in a little bit of reverse order here.

We did have the opportunity to send a briefing to council member Jenkins, um, as he requested, as uh at rules last Thursday.

Um, so I believe he's had the opportunity to review this.

Um the we did, and I should also say that we do.

I think in the room right now, there I believe there is somebody from the community homelessness um services division of HSD, so they they are available to help answer any questions as well.

Um so the um we did consider the a few different scenarios, one being could this property be put back into service as like an affordable housing project.

Um as it stands right now, as this ordinance is written, and what we are recommending is that that not be one among the criteria for the sale of the property, that the criteria simply be highest bidder.

In practice, that would mean a combination of price and certainty.

You know, somebody might submit the highest bid, but if it's not a real offer, of course, we don't want to take that.

Um, but really we're looking for the highest return here.

We're not recommending that the credit that we look at community benefit of the buyer's proposed use as our criteria because we believe the potential community benefit here is fairly limited given the small size of the property, um, and and also given the very subs um you know degraded condition of the property would take quite a bit of capital to bring it back into usable condition, and uh we think that uh really the power of the marketplace is going to be necessary to address that condition.

Okay, see, thank you so much.

Um, and then I guess while we're waiting to, you know, um this property, um, based on the images that were provided, it it doesn't look like the property is you know, I guess relatively secured, and so what steps are we taking to ensure um you know some of the outcomes that we um see from the images um don't occur again while in the meantime to the chair it's a it's a really good question.

Some of those pictures I should say were taken before we boarded the property, some were taken after, and they're not in chronological order.

So where you see pictures from the interior looking out into the backyard, that was taken before we boarded the house uh or the building.

So after the fire, uh we we went out there with um with OPD with our code enforcement team.

Uh we had a coordinated um action to remove the uh remove individuals who are still there despite the fire.

Uh we boarded up the premises, we're keeping an eye on it.

Um, and the longer we hold the property, the more it's gonna be under pressure from individuals seeking shelter who may put themselves in harm's way.

So, you know, we're we're very sensitive about uh moving this property as quickly as we possibly can.

Okay, excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, any questions for my colleagues?

Um council member Fife.

It it's not a question.

I wanted to make a motion to approve staff's recommendations, but I also wanted to state for the record that under the California Surplus Lands Act, this parcel can be uh exempted from having to go through the certain processes that require us to uh inform the public of of certain uses and engage in a certain um you know certain steps to dispose of of this parcel, but I think it's prudent that we try to sell this parcel as quickly as possible so we're not holding on to costly assets that can be a liability to the city.

So I just wanted to go ahead and make the motion.

Second.

Thank you.

Moving to our public speakers, when I call your name, please approach the podium.

So when it comes to this property, it looks like y'all were slum young landlords, Oakland.

You had a responsibility to maintain that property, but you didn't.

There was no proper maintaining of the property, you only invested a small amount, and the property deteriorated because your care was not put in place by the city.

So the homeless community, the low-income community, the disabled community lost housing.

And so why?

Why wasn't this done correctly to maintain the property and have it available for people that needed it?

But this is a pattern.

Same thing happened with the Lake Merit cabins.

You didn't maintain those cabins, and at the end when they moved out, they had to be destroyed.

The West Oakland cabins, they weren't maintained at the end of the use of the cabinets, they had to be destroyed.

Lake Merit Lodge, when you left, the owner said you completely destroyed the building.

I'm gonna go over to that property over in Emeryville, that hotel, and I bet you when I walk in there, it's gonna be a total mess.

You are not maintaining property when it comes to the homeless community, and this is a disgrace that this property was allowed to deteriorate.

You say it's a triple plex, it was one point a fourplex.

I don't know what happened.

But there's no excuse for this happening that we have the property looking like it's looking now, and it's only that way because you didn't do what was necessary to protect people you don't value.

You don't value the homeless, you don't but you don't value our seniors, and you don't value our disabled community.

If this was somebody else in this position, I can't call it a group, but if it was a certain group that you do value, this would not have happened.

Thank you for your comment.

And that concludes your public speakers for item six.

We did have a motion made by Councilmember 5, seconded by Councilmember Ungar, and this is to approve the recommendations of staff and to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

On roll, Councilmember 5.

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachandran.

Aye.

Thank you.

Councilmember Onger.

I and Chair Brown?

Aye.

This motion passes with four ayes to approve the recommendations of the staff and to forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent.

Moving to item 7, receive an informational report on the 25th or 29 economic development action plan.

I think we do have K Top with a presentation.

Excellent, thank you so much.

Um, and so for this presentation, we'll be hearing from Director Ashley Cannon.

Good afternoon, thank you.

Well, I'm really excited to be here today to present this draft 2025 to 2029 economic development action plan.

EDAP for short.

Oakland is resilient, we all know that, but our economy is under real strain.

We know that too.

Businesses are navigating high costs, uneven conditions, some corridors struggle with safety, some with vacancies, and that affects jobs, it affects real estate, and it affects city revenues.

So the EDAP is responding to these challenges with a strategy to close gaps and build an inclusive thriving economy.

So this plan lays out how Oakland can stabilize and grow its economy over the next five years while putting equity at its center of every action.

Because when Oakland's economy is strong, it supports businesses, it creates more job opportunities, it stimulates real estate activity, and it grows public revenues, enabling greater investment in the services and infrastructure that support our communities.

So EWDD is the city's connector.

We help businesses navigate city services, support workforce development, manage real property assets, catalyze development on city owned property, and bring partners together.

This plan builds and leverages on that role, giving us a roadmap to coordinate across departments and with community stakeholders.

And this plan was built with input from businesses, employers, chambers of commerce, merchant associations, cultural and labor groups, real estate and finance leaders, community and neighborhood organizations.

It reflects what we heard directly from Oakland's business community and residents.

Importantly, the listening continues.

We see our work with stakeholders and the business community as an ongoing commitment and partnership.

So Oakland's AI or administrative instruction 6802 on inclusive community engagement defines the City of Oakland's methods for inclusive engagement.

Specifically, the AI requires that city departments collect, analyze, and use evidence to shape service priorities and delivery, making sure that community input is built into the design process.

It requires really truly sustained relationships so that we can build upon prior engagement activities.

And in the case of the EDAP, this work is data led, it's verified in community, and the goals and actions described in the plan respond to the data and community input that we've heard.

So the EDAP is grounded in five guiding principles, and these principles will guide our implementation going forward.

They guided the work of preparing the plan, and they'll guide the implementation.

So principle number one, advance a just and equitable economy.

Principle number two, be responsive, accountable, and transparent.

Principle number three, use data informed by community experience.

Principle four, cultivate community partnerships.

And principle five, align with the city of Oakland's other policies and strategies.

Our vision for the city of Oakland is an inclusive, thriving economy that offers equitable opportunities to live, work, learn, and play in sustainable neighborhoods.

And our mission, the way we get there, is to close persistent gaps in employment, income, and business ownership while making sure that the growth benefits all Oaklanders.

All right.

So the plan is organized around five goals, and I'll go into each one in a bit more detail, but just briefly, goal number one, attract and grow key industries.

Goal number two, support and sustain businesses.

Three, build Oakland's workforce.

Four, invest in places, and five, support Oakland's artistic, cultural, and social activities.

So our first goal is about making sure Oakland is competitive in the industry shaping the future.

That means healthcare, transportation, logistics, the creative economy, climate tech.

These are high impact, high growth sectors where Oakland can lead, and this diversification strengthens our fiscal base and creates access to quality jobs.

So the actions are to pursue sector-specific strategies to catalyze investment and support growth.

That means targeted support for sectors like food production, the creative and cultural industries, technology, responsible AI, climate tech, clean energy, electrification, sustainable mobility, resilient infrastructure.

And we'll also coordinate infrastructure upgrades, like working with PGE on substations, for example, so that industry has the opportunity to scale here in Oakland.

Second action is to develop a business attraction plan to promote Oakland's assets and attract investment.

So EWDD will lead on the development of a comprehensive business attraction plan that showcases Oakland's strengths as a premier destination for investment and innovation.

This work really leans on partnerships and public landowners, our real estate sector, and visit Oakland among others.

The third action is to build partnerships to grow workforce development opportunities in key sectors to ensure equitable access to good jobs and growing wages for all Oaklanders.

So with this, we'll form employer advisory councils and support industry fostering opportunity across the economic landscape.

A lot of alignment here with goal number three.

Goal number two, sustain and support existing businesses.

So Oakland's businesses, particularly small, local, and minority and women owned enterprises, play a critical role in generating employment, maintaining neighborhood character, and circulating capital within the local economy.

Strengthening support systems for these businesses can improve resilience, reduce displacement, and advance inclusive economic development outcomes.

Some of the key actions are to support a clean, safe, and inviting place to do business.

And this is the most important thing that we hear from businesses when we're out in community and in listening.

For EWD, this means community corridor ambassadors, it means funding for activation and better coordination with and among other departments.

The second action to assist businesses by helping to navigate city services.

So EWDD will act as a liaison across departments when needed.

That's what's intended here.

The third action, provide regular opportunities for businesses to engage with the city.

This matters because ongoing communication and collaboration between businesses and city government helps ensure that city services meet community and business needs and builds trust.

The fourth action, assist with site identification and business location services.

EWDD does this work day in, day out.

It's tenant site matching, relocation help, temporary use programs to still fill storefronts.

And the fifth action of this goal is to connect businesses with capital and financial assistance.

Just after clean, safe places to do business, this is what we hear from businesses.

They need access to capital.

So access to funding is crucial for business growth and sustainability, especially for those small businesses and those owned by Black, Latinx, Asian Pacific Islander entrepreneurs.

Goal number three: build Oakland's workforce.

Our diverse workforce is one of our greatest strengths, but disparities persist.

So building a workforce strategy that connects residents to thriving wage jobs and in-demand skills is essential to equitable economic growth.

Our actions include delivering job training and employment services for adults and youth to increase workforce participation and support sustained employment for Oakland residents.

As an example, this includes scaling the mayor's summer youth employment program.

A second action is to enhance business and employer engagement to create training programs that intentionally open employment opportunities for residents.

So this includes on-the-job training and apprenticeship expansion in key sectors as an example.

The third action is to establish partnerships to advance equity and ensure Oaklanders have opportunities for economic security, especially those living in communities dealing with the most community stressors.

And here we really believe that an equitable workforce system must prioritize those who have been historically excluded from opportunity.

The final action in this goal is to implement special workforce innovation initiatives to coordinate with our education, business, and agency partners to improve the ecosystem of employment support services.

We have a number of examples to point to, like the California Volunteers Job Corps Program and industry-specific efforts like Bay Tech and the Marine Trades Initiative, where we're really working to connect industry pipelines to local talent.

Invest in places goal for this is a shorthand way of expressing all the ways in which we work to support catalytic new development and the physical improvements that are aligned with community needs.

We believe these place-based strategies can help attract new businesses and additional investment in Oakland's business corridors.

So school is really around activating corridors, reducing vacancies, leveraging public-private investment without displacement.

The first action to draw your attention to is to enable the conditions for private sector development, including working with business and developers to improve the business climate.

This work is very much underway.

Much of what I've described is underway, but this one in particular has gotten a lot of focus.

That means faster permit navigation, site planning, infrastructure readiness, and really stewarding development projects through city processes when needed.

The second action, pursue public-private real estate development projects to increase access to affordable housing.

So we'll use city-owned sites and partnerships, much like what you've heard earlier this afternoon, to deliver affordable units, catalytic mixed-use projects consistent with the housing element and measure you commitments.

If you you've probably seen through the presentations today, the ways in which EWD and HCD work closely together for this towards this action.

Action C is to manage the city's real estate assets to generate revenue and meet community needs.

And so here we strategically lease, license, and activate properties to both raise funds and deliver neighborhood benefits.

The fourth action advanced business corridor development strategies, working with local businesses and property owners to again steward those clean, safe, active places and spaces.

That's corridor plans, ambassadors, facade programs, and other targeted incentives to reduce vacancies and restore foot traffic, which our businesses need.

And our fifth goal here is support Oakland's artistic, cultural and social activities.

And I think we all recognize Oakland's culture as both an identity and an economic driver.

Art, music, food, sports, festivals, all of this attracts visitors and spending and reinforces the pride that we feel in our city.

So supporting artistic, cultural and social activities is economic development.

The first action is to invest in culture, arts, and creative industries.

This is to amplify Oakland's rich cultural identity, reduce barriers to community gathering, and ensure that cultural social events continue to feed Oakland's economy.

The second goal facilitate spaces for community connection and celebration through strengthening local partnerships and really positioning Oakland as a very dynamic place to live, create, celebrate, and do business.

So we'll continue to work to make event permitting as straightforward as possible.

That's one example.

The third action, support local business and vendor participation in cultural and social activities.

The idea here is to generate real economic opportunity, especially for small businesses and underrepresented entrepreneurs.

And the fourth action, I'm sorry, it's hidden by the transcription, is to increase economic development through the activation of parks, streets, and vacant spaces.

So just as we did at Ramondi Park, and a huge congratulations to Oakland Ballers, there's a celebration this weekend on Sunday.

That's an example of leveraging a city-owned asset and creating some real economic development, some real momentum.

So in closing, that's my final slide.

Um, in closing, I just want to touch on implementation.

This plan is a lot, it's ambitious.

And the good news is that the five goals and the related actions and sub-actions in the EDAP, they're really aligned with EWD's organizational structure with each goal reflecting the work of one or more divisions within the department, thereby embedding the plans, goals and actions into our day-to-day activities.

There's an implementation matrix at the back of the EDAP document that summarizes the goals, the actions, who is lead and who supports.

And I will officially close by thanking the Biz Dev team for shepherding this work to this point.

All my division managers for leaning in and accepting ownership.

I'd really like to thank Spur who for offering supporting for supporting and assisting as we work through the organization of this plan.

Thank you to planning, building, department of race and equity, city administrators' office, and really to the businesses, the business organizations, the industry leaders, employers, council members, folks in the mayor's office, community leaders, everyone who spent just honestly hours with us helping to get this right.

So this plan reflects Oakland's challenges, but also Oakland's enormous potential, and my team and I look forward to working with you to bring it to life.

Thank you.

Excellent, thank you so much.

We can hear from the public speakers, call in and our public speakers, Miss Asada.

So this department has a habit when it comes to discussing issues of disproportionality based on race, they include everybody.

So when they talk about racial policies, and they talk about redlining, urban renewal, disconnections of our community in Oakland.

So this involves the black, the Asians, the indigenous, the Latinos, and other people of color.

Everybody was involved in this situation.

When they talk about the issue of unemployment, they say everybody has an issue in Oakland related to unemployment.

But in fact, the unemployment rate for African Americans in Oakland is 8.9.

For whites, it's 4.2.

For Asians, it's 5.8.

And for Latinos, it's 4.5.

So and I think it's even worse for African Americans since Trump came into office.

So y'all got to stop this mess about everybody who is considered a person of color.

They all suffer the same, and you gotta address everybody.

No.

Now one thing they didn't address is uh by law, they have a right to create non-citizen in uh grants or non-citizen issues, and they did it.

And so I want to know how many, how you're gonna support the non-citizens because you have a grant that you applied for that is for non-citizens to start small businesses, but you you put a burden on the city because that was for one year, and the city has to take up the expenses of wherever that goes in the future.

So let me see what you're gonna be doing for the non-citizens, because I need to see if you're gonna do as much for black people, which you don't as this thus far, haven't done much of anything as a department.

So you um you say that there's persistent racial disparities in business and ownerships.

Wow, at least you admitted that.

This action plan.

That concludes your public speakers for item seven.

Excellent.

Um, thank you so much.

Um, any comments or questions from um my colleagues?

Councilmember Fife.

I want to just say thank you to the staff for for all of this work.

Uh, district three is a major economic engine for the city, so I definitely am excited about some of the things that we have moving forward, especially some news I just shared with you, Director Cannett.

Uh, and I will make a motion to approve uh this item moving forward on consent.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Unger.

I'll second that.

Okay, perfect.

Um, well, um, I also want to offer my gratitude to both you and the entire team.

Um the report is extremely comprehensive, and I know that I had the opportunity to meet with you and the team uh during the summer around just so many um amazing things that you all are doing to really try to um increase economic development here in the city of Oakland.

Um, as mentioned, I think that the the plan is um very comprehensive and you know really I really like the implementation matrix at the at the back where it really outlines um just all of the key partners that will really kind of play a role.

Um, and then I also kind of want to emphasize that you know, myself, council member Rama Chandran, and the entire budget team, we were very focused also on what we were what we would be doing, um, you know, with the few you know dollars that we have as a city to really help support local businesses and help increase economic development, and so there's a handful of buckets of money that are really focused in on that.

Um, but I did have a question just from this comprehensive report because there's a lot to do, right?

Um, and so um what would you say would be some of the highest priority initiatives that you think that um EWD should be moving forward with?

Um, this is good timing.

We're helping to brainstorm for the mayor's state of the city address, and so doing some thinking about that.

Um, each of my divisions has their own unique priorities that they're focused on, but writ large it's all in service of economic development.

Um, I would say business development is currently very focused on getting some of the funding that was approved in the adopted budget out.

Um you'll be seeing an agenda report about the ambassador program very shortly.

Um that's just one item.

Also very focused on filling vacancies and trying to address conditions in our downtown uptown area, one of our uh economic engines that we need to protect and really leaning in on the nighttime economy and entertainment.

So I think that's there's a there's a lot that that division is doing, but I'll stop there for there for that.

On real estate public-private development, really seeing through a number of high profile projects.

Samuel Merritt University is going to be up and running at the beginning of the year.

The Henry J.

Kaiser Convention Center is nearly complete.

They're gonna have an official opening early in the year.

These are examples of the public-private development work that's underway and really have these catalytic impacts.

Public private development is also working on a number of affordable housing projects that we're seeing through.

East 12th Street and also the 3050 international, thank you.

3050 international.

So seeing those through, and then there was an RFP that we've uh we're starting work with the Unity Council for 36th in Foot Health.

Glad my team is here to help with that.

Cultural affairs division, we're gonna be bringing a cultural affair, a permanent cultural affairs manager on board.

This group is also is really led under Lexus Lex Life Heights' leadership, really led on delivering one of the DOS actions around the cultural districts, and so we're rolling that out this week.

I'm so excited to really have a framework that we're gonna be developed developing collaboratively.

So that's one thing that that division is pretty focused on.

Special activities continues to be focused on permitting, and we're really looking at the legislation around special events, entertainment venues, central district entertainment venues, and making sure that those processes are clear and navigable.

I'm sure there's so much I'm forgetting, but I think those are our really near-term priorities.

No, I'm I'm really grateful.

Thank you for outlining just some of those top priorities and just even from our conversations.

I know that those are all things that you all are actively moving forward.

Um, and so maybe lastly, and I know uh council member Ramashandran's hand is up, so I'll call and call on you momentarily.

Um, but I did, of course, I have to ask this question around like we so we have this plan that everyone works so hard on.

Um, so what's the communication strategy?

Oh, thanks.

Yeah, thanks for asking.

So we are going to want to come back to this committee on at least an annual basis with an implementation report.

We expect that that implementation progress report will consist of data updates.

So, where are we with respect to the data that we're tracking, and then where are we with respect to the key actions as well?

Um, I actually have a senior manager retreat coming up, and we're gonna put together the template for that report so that it's something we can.

I was gonna say churn.

Churn is the only word coming to mind.

That's not the word I want to use, but so that we can come back with regularity, and it's a um we get into just that that habit of reporting to you with some frequency about where we are.

Excellent.

That definitely makes sense to keep us updated.

I guess maybe more specifically how how are we going to communicate this this new economic development plan to Oaklanders?

Of course.

Oh, that's that's a better question.

Um, well, we are in regular communication with cities PIO and the mayor's office.

I think that we'll have a strategy there with respect to getting that message out.

Um, would love the council members' support, sharing the news.

We can help with links or anything like that if there's social media to announce.

Of course, it will be on our website.

Um, we'll probably put it into our business newsletter.

Um, so we've got a number a number of um ways of getting the word out, but appreciate everyone's support helping to talk about it.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Um, Councilmember Ramashandran.

Yes, hi, thank you for the presentation.

Um, I just have two questions.

So, first on that first slide on the attraction strategy, and I know we've had several conversations about it offline as well.

One of the bullet points is about developing a business plan to promote.

Um, and I wanted to understand a little bit more about what the attraction and incentive policy was.

Um, council also unanimously passed, I believe it was May this year, um, a request for you to include a chapter on specific incentives.

So just kind of wanted to know where the attraction and incentive part of the plan is at.

Um, we've been in regular conversation with you, Councilmember Unger, uh hearing input from the mayor's office as well, and these are conversations we need to continue to have to really dial in where the current efforts are.

We also have been talking a little bit about a number of items that don't impact, that do not impact our expenses or revenues, cost neutral, if you will, like a sales tax sharing agreement, for example, as an incentive to attract a major retailer.

That's an example of the type of incentive that we've been talking about.

There's also an item going to let's see, CED in a couple of weeks to help with a TOT, transient occupancy tax share back for Oakland Roots and Soul to help them be more competitive as they work to attract a world World Cup team to their facility to be a to be a team-based site for World Cup in summer of 2026.

So there are a few things like that.

We're trying to stay as revenue neutral as possible, and then looking for continuing to look for input from the mayor's office and council members on the business incentive money that was put into the budget.

Thank you.

Is there, and I understand, and I am very much a part of bringing forward the TOT one, and would love to learn more about this sales tax sharing that you mentioned.

Perhaps offline is fine.

And I really wanted to understand a little bit more about specific actions that your I have either taken or or will be taking to really get specific industries here.

Like for example, you know, many years ago there was in very intentional work done to try to get the automotive industry here back well into Deep East Oakland.

There were intentional things being done to get big businesses that could employ hundreds of folks in here.

Are there sector strategies that you're taking?

And could you explain a little bit about that?

Yes, and they are very much.

They're bringing in goal one, goal two, and goal three all together.

So as we think about our sector strategy, we're in communication with businesses and employers and thinking about the full ecosystem of workforce, what businesses need, what skills are needed, and what are the industries that are either already strong and or growing.

And that's been a data-led effort, and workforce and business development are working very closely there.

There are a number of round tables or convenings that are being led between industry and employers, and that's where a lot of the idea generation is occurring, and that work is currently underway.

And I'm gonna just see if my colleague would like to add any detail.

I think this will bring you some specifics.

Good afternoon, Sophia Navarro, executive director of the Oakland Workforce Development Board.

So some of the initiatives where we're engaging industry have really been focused on a few key priorities.

So healthcare, IT, construction, um, the creative economy, and I'm losing one, but what we're doing related to sectors is really looking at, for example, uh, it was mentioned the Bay Tech Career Initiative.

One of the things that we're doing there is beyond developing curriculum and training in partnership with community-based organizations, we've developed an employer advisory council that really focuses at bringing business to the table to really inform not only what are the skill sets that are needed for this industry, but how is industry trending and what do we need to do to make sure that we are again bringing that information not only to how we're developing the skill set of individuals, but also how do we engage industry into coming to Oakland?

So that is, as our director mentioned, a partnership that we're working really closely with our business development division to really look at how do we package these services and efforts when we're talking to the business community and attracting them to Oakland.

So that is just one example of how we're doing that in tech.

We are also in partnership with the California Jobs First Initiative.

There's a local Bay Area jobs First effort that is really also looking at engaging industry.

So they have what's called sector investment coordinators that we are really working closely with to start identifying and engaging industry in the conversation.

So healthcare is one of them that's come up.

Obviously, we know Oakland has a lot of big institutions within healthcare here.

And so what we're doing there is really looking at how do we again engage folks at the table.

There are existing healthcare-related trainings already happening in Oakland.

So we're not trying to duplicate efforts, but we're really trying to figure out how can we then grow industry from there.

So life sciences has come up, and how do we bring in, you know, those resources in addition to we know that there are community clinics that are also looking at expansion programs and plans.

So they're talking about biotechnology, right?

So all of that is coming out of these conversations that are being had in those larger groups.

And so what we're doing is again working with our business development team to figure out how do we again package this so that we can attract those industries here in Oakland where it's needed.

So I'll pass it over to Christy, our deputy director to add.

If you want, sure.

What I'll do is I'll bring it back to a higher level of thinking and that the sector strategies that oh hi, I'm Christy Johnson Limon, Deputy Director at EWD.

Um what we've done in the economic development action plan is taken the state's blueprint, which creates an economic development strategy across the state, and it actually outline what our essential industries, the ones that Oakland has built its economy around, like transportation and logistics, like uh much of the activity that we're seeing at the airport and the seaport, uh really leaning in hard into those as the pillars.

And then we have our growth industries, uh, such as what we're seeing in advanced manufacturing uh research and development and in healthcare.

And so the strategy is a both end where we're leaning in into those industries that are helped to create and strengthen Oakland as well as some of the areas of growth that the state has confirmed are the right strategies for Oakland to pursue.

Thank you.

Excellent.

Um, did you have any additional questions?

Councilmember Ramashandran.

Um, no, I'll follow up by email.

Thank you.

Okay, perfect.

Thank you so much.

Councilmember Fife.

I just wanted to make a motion.

I do want to just remind everyone we have a four o'clock committee and another agenda item.

And uh, so just to be mindful of time, I'll make a motion to approve the recommendation to move this forward on consent to the next full city council meeting.

And then I believe the second can already came from Councilmember Unger.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Appreciate it.

Thank you.

We have a motion made by Councilmember Five, seconded by Councilmember Unger to receive and forward this item to the October 7th.

City Council agenda on consent on role, Councilmember Fife.

Aye.

Councilmember Ramachanjaran.

Hi.

Thank you.

Councilmember Ogger.

Aye.

And Chair Brown.

Aye.

This motion passes with four eyes to receive and forward this item to the October 7th City Council agenda on consent moving to open forum.

We do have two speakers, Ms.

Sada and Derek Barnes.

Derek, if you're participating via Zoom, please raise your hand so I you're easily identified.

Thank you.

So I have serious issue how many black women who have worked in this city have been treated unfairly and pushed out.

But uh just read that Makisha Smith is moving from the city manager of uh Santa Rosa, and she'll be the first black woman to be the city manager of SACA Mino.

Congratulations to her.

We missed out on an opportunity to have her in this city, just like we're missing out on Latanya Simmons being here to help us and Desley Brooks.

Oh boy, I wish she could come back.

But uh I also want to acknowledge uh Asada Secorro.

Uh, you know, you call yourself a sanctuary city, but when we were taking many of our political uh brothers and sisters who were black liberators and putting them in the jails, there was no sanctuary city to protect them.

Uh and I'll just want to remind you also that uh you got an economic and worse force department that says when it comes to redlining and urban renewal, every group that's not white was involved in that.

When it comes to the issue of unemployment, every group that is not white is involved in that.

Something's wrong with that department.

Lastly, I'd like to see some reporting out on what we're doing as a sanctuary city that it impacts anything related to housing, jobs, and so forth.

There is an impact.

You don't talk about gentrification, you don't talk about your and you have a right, be a sanctuary city, but you can't do it on the backs of other people who are citizens in this city not getting when people who are not citizens are getting, you can't do that.

So uh I I'm saying it, but I haven't seen the exact data to support it.

So I'm asking you to produce the data that being a sanctuary city has not created problems for housing and jobs for African Americans in this city.

That concludes your public speakers for open forum.

Excellent.

Thank you so much.

This meeting is adjourned.