Safe Housing: Yes on 77

Proposition 77 on the June 7 ballot provides for the sale of $150 million in general-obligation bonds to preserve and upgrade existing low-income housing, which in California as in many other states is in desperately short supply. Two approaches are authorized. Under a seismic-safety rehabilitation program, $80 million would be provided for loans to owners of potentially unsafe apartment buildings to improve the ability of the structures to withstand earthquakes. And $70 million would be provided to further finance an existing program to purchase and repair affordable housing units with the aim of making them safe and fit for occupancy.

Residential structures that are the most vulnerable to seismic damage are those built with such masonry materials as stone, brick and cinder block. Of the approximately 700 apartment buildings damaged by the earthquake that struck the Los Angeles area last October, 80% were built with masonry materials. Thousands of such units housing tens of thousands of people exist throughout the state. Proposition 77 would permit the seismic rehabilitation of about 12,500 units of unreinforced-masonry multifamily housing. The structural reinforcement could not only save lives but also help ensure the survival of existing housing units in an earthquake.

Hundreds of thousands of apartment units in California are now considered substandard in terms of basic health and safety requirements. The $70 million provided by Proposition 77 for the rehabilitation of affordable rental and ownership housing would bring 7,000 of these units up to acceptable standards, helping to preserve vital low-income housing for those with special needs--particularly the elderly and the handicapped.

Proposition 77 would not end the shortage of affordable housing. But it would rehabilitate nearly 20,000 housing units, providing safer and healthier housing for more than 100,000 adults and children. We urge a Yes vote on Proposition 77.