More Than 70 Housing Groups Urge Californians to Vote No on Prop 43

Nonprofit builders, tenant and homelessness advocates, and local YIMBY groups warn Prop 43 would put funding for affordable homes and homelessness services at risk

SACRAMENTO, CA – More than 70 affordable housing, homelessness, tenant, and pro-housing organizations are urging Californians to vote No on Proposition 43. Leaders warn that it would make it far harder for communities to fund affordable homes and homelessness services. The coalition stretches from the North Bay to San Diego County and includes nonprofit builders, renters’ rights groups, homelessness service providers, and more than 20 local YIMBY groups.

“Affordable homes get built when communities have the ability to invest in them,” said Amie Fishman, Executive Director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “When neighbors gather the signatures and win a majority at the ballot box, that should be enough. Prop 43 would let barely one-third of voters block what most of a community supports, and it would put affordable homes for working people, seniors and veterans even further out of reach.”

“Measure A gave Los Angeles County resources to prevent homelessness, move people from the streets into homes and build the affordable housing our region needs,” said Mike Dennis, Senior Director of Housing Justice at the Liberty Hill Foundation. “Voters across the county said yes, but under Prop 43’s two-thirds rule, it would have been blocked. Any community that wants to follow LA County’s lead would face that same barrier.”

“Los Angeles renters have shown what’s possible when working families organize and take their case directly to voters,” said Joe Donlin, Director of United to House LA. “That’s how communities win new affordable housing and protections that keep renters in their homes. Prop 43 would put that power out of reach for renters and working families all across California.”

“YIMBYs want California to build more homes of every kind, and growing communities need the transit, infrastructure and affordable housing dollars that make new homes possible,” said Leora Tanjuatco Ross, California Director of YIMBY Action. “Prop 43 makes those investments harder to fund. When communities can’t pay for the basics, they tax new homes, which means fewer homes at higher prices.”

BACKGROUND

If Prop 43 is passed by voters, beginning January 1, 2027, it will require a two-thirds vote to pass any local special tax that voters place on the ballot through a citizen initiative, up from a simple majority today. That would put future housing and homelessness measures at risk in every corner of the state. Under the same rule, major measures funding homelessness services and housing in Los Angeles, San Francisco and San Diego would have been blocked:

• Los Angeles County Measure A (2024): more than $1 billion a year for homelessness services and affordable housing. Passed with 57.8 percent.

• San Francisco Proposition C (November 2018), Our City, Our Home: about $250 million a year for homelessness services and housing. Passed with 61.3 percent.

• San Diego Measure C (March 2020): a hotel tax for homelessness programs, street repairs and convention center expansion, with 41 percent of new revenue going to homelessness in its first five years. Passed with more than 65 percent, less than two points short of two-thirds.

All three were citizen initiatives that won clear majorities, but none reached two-thirds.

Prop 43’s largest funder is the California Business Roundtable’s issues PAC, which collects money from corporations and other big donors and passes it on to campaigns.

Election Day is Tuesday, November 3. The housing organizations opposing Prop 43 are listed below, and the full coalition is at NoProp43CA.com/our-coalition.

Housing Organizations Opposing Prop 43

Affordable Housing NOW - Santa Cruz County

All Home

Bonnewit Development Services

Bring California Home Coalition

California Coalition for Rural Housing

California Housing Partnership

Call Marin Home

Campbell YIMBY

Chinatown Community Development Center

Coalition on Homelessness

Community Economics

Corporation for Supportive Housing (CSH)

Council of Community Housing Organizations

EAH Housing

East Bay Housing Organizations

East Bay YIMBY

East LA Community Corporation

Enterprise Community Partners

Esperanza Community Housing

Generation Housing

Grow the Richmond

Hollywood Community Housing Corporation

Homes for All - California

Housing California

Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County

Housing Now!

Housing Santa Cruz County

Housing Trust Silicon Valley

Inner City Law Center

Keep LA Housed Coalition

LiBRE, Long Beach Residents Empowered

Lift to Rise

Little Tokyo Service Center

Low Income Investment Fund

Marin YIMBY

Mercy Housing California

MidPen Housing Corporation

Mission Economic Development Agency (MEDA)

Mountain View YIMBY

Napa-Solano for Everyone

Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California

Northern Neighbors

Palo Alto Forward

PATH

Peninsula for Everyone

Resources for Community Development

San Francisco Anti-Displacement Coalition

San Francisco Housing Accelerator Fund

San Francisco Housing Development Corporation

San Francisco YIMBY

San Jose YIMBY

San Leandro Housing Platform

San Mateo Forward

Santa Cruz YIMBY

Santa Monicans for Renters’ Rights

Santa Rosa YIMBY

Silicon Valley @Home Action Fund

SLOCo YIMBY

South Bay YIMBY

Southern California Association of Nonprofit Housing

Tenants Together

Tenants United Anaheim

The Home Team Santa Barbara County

The Housing Rights Committee of San Francisco

United to House LA

Vacancy Fee Project

Venice Community Housing Corporation

Ventura County YIMBY

Yes In Redwood City

YIMBY Los Angeles

YIMBY Monterey Peninsula

YIMBY Oceanside

Yolo YIMBY

Community Land Trusts Opposing Prop 43

Artist Space Trust

Beverly-Vermont Community Land Trust

California Community Land Trust Network

Mountain View Community Land Trust

San Francisco Community Land Trust

South Bay Community Land Trust

Tierras Indígenas Community Land Trust

T.R.U.S.T. South LA