CORRESPONDENCE FROM THE
MAY 4, 2026 & MAY 11,2026
CITY COUNCIL MEETINGS
McMillan, Acquanette (Netta)
From:
Sent:
To:
Subject:
Bert Newton
Monday, May 4, 2026 11:21 AM
PublicComment-AutoResponse
Item 12, budget and lack of revenue
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Dear Mayor and City Council,
I was looking at the staff report for item 1 2 tonight and noticed that one of the problems the city is facing is lack of revenue, not just this year but for the next four years (and there was a deficit last year as well).
A lot of American cities are facing this problem, and one reason for it is that most American cities have very low residential and commercial density. Studies have shown that low density neighborhoods, zoned only to allow single-family homes, are a financial drain on the city whereas high density neighborhoods are a financial net positive for the city.
This entertaining video explains it and cites the
studies: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Nw6qyyrTel
We need to consider this in city planning if we are going to be a financially solvent city. Even dense affordable housing is financially better for the city.
Sincerely,
Rev. Bert Newton
Making Housing and Community Happen
MyPodcast
"Blessed are the poor, for they will inherit the land." Matthew 5:5 EWN Translation 04/20/
1 05/04/2026
Item 12
McMillan, Acquanette (Netta)
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[email protected]
Monday, May 4, 2026 1:54 PM
PublicComment-AutoResponse; Gordo, Victor; Jess Rivas; Hampton, Tyron; Masuda, Gene; Madison, Steve; Lyon, Jason; Jones, Justin; Cole, Rick Prioritize a year-round shelter over increased police funding! [ I ] CAUTION: This email was delivered from the Internet. Do not click links or open attachments unless you fcnowthe content is safe. Report phish using the Phish Alert Button. For more information about the Phish Alert Button view article "KB0011474" on the DolT portal.
Dear Mayor Gordo and City Council members,
As a resident of District 1, I am writing to urge you to fund a year-round shelter for Pasadena residents experiencing homelessness, This is not mentioned in the Housing Department's proposed budget. I agree with Council member Rick Cole and the Council that our city's unhoused residents desperately need a year-round shelter.
581 people were experiencing homelessness in Pasadena on the night of the 2025 Point In Time Count.
This represents a 4% increase over the 2024 one-night count. The sheltered count included 12 people who reported being directly impacted by the Eaton Fire.
Unsheltered homelessness rose by 7% in 2025. On the night of the count, 342 people were living in unsheltered locations, with over half (54%) sleeping on the street or sidewalk, representing the most visible segment of the homeless population. This is an increase of 21 people from last year's count.
When I see unhoused people sleeping on our streets, it breaks my heart. Our city has done a lot to help our unhoused neighbors, but we cannot and should not rest until we have achieved functional zero homelessness, meaning homelessness should be rare and brief.
I realize that the city is facing bleak economic times, with deficits forecast for the next few years. It is nonetheless important to have the right priorities. It s proposed that the Police Department's budget be increased by over $9 million from last year to $131 ,910 million. Over 92% of PPD's budget is funded by the general fund.
I Live in Northwest Pasadena and feel that our community is over-policed. Alt too often helicopters fly overhead as we prepare to go to bed, and it sometimes feels as if we're in a war zone. Are these costly flights over Northwest Pasadena really necessary?
Despite doing stellar work in creating much needed affordable housing, with over 1,000 units in the pipeline, and over 400 of our unhoused neighbors permanently housed each year, the Housing Department's recommended budget is decreased from last year's revised budget to $58.023 million; only
4.59% of which is funded by the general fund.
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There is a simple fix. Instead of increasing the police budget, allocate $9 million to the Housing Department to be used for a desperately needed year-round shelter and other housing needs.
Anthony Manousos
1 05/04/2026
Item 12
Co-founder of Making Housing and Community Happen
2 McMillan, Acquanette (Netta)
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Attachments:
Jill Shook
Monday, May 4, 2026 2:29 PM
PublicComment-AutoResponse
re: Please post this public comment for the Budget discussion tonight, '# 12 Letter to CC on May 4-26 re-budget.docx
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Dr. Jill Shook, D-Min Bakke Graduate University
Co-Founding Visionary, Workshop Leader/Speaker: makinflhousincihappen.orci Aythor/Edjtor: Ma/c/'ng Housing Happen: Faith Based Affordable Hous/ng Afpofe/s Chair of CLP-Congregatoinal Land Partners: https://www.conalandpartners.org/ [email protected] Phone: (E2B) E75-131G
My zaam raom link
'If your dream is big enough to complete in your lifetime, then it's too small." SMISSI
1 05/04/2026
Ttem12
To: Pasadena City Council
100 N. Garfield, Pasadena, CA
From: Making h-lousing and Community Happen.
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Making
Housing &
Community
Happen
After reviewing the budget, we are concerned that items that the City Council has approved are not reflected in this budget. We are especially concerned that there is no funding set aside for a year-round shelter. It is essential to care for our most vulnerable citizens, and the Council agreed and approved a year-round shelter.
We know what ends homelessness, and it is shelter (including permanent housing). There should be an urgency to address this issue in our city especially before the Olympic games.
Since you plan to increase the budget for the police for this reason, this is also the time to support our homeless neighbors for the same.
Honestly, I question whether we need all the police we have now. On my way to church on this Sunday (yesterday) as I drove down N. Fair Oaks to the United Methodist church on Colorado and Los Robles, I witnessed three police cars—one in front of me, one behind me and one more turning onto Corson. It felt strange and a bit scary to see so many police, especially on a Sunday. I wonder how necessary this is.
I believe some of the money allocated for the police would be better spent by ensuring that our homeless neighbors have a place to stay—right now, the police don't have a year- round place where they can refer people experiencing homelessness. The police have limited tools to address homelessness. Please give them and our community what they/we need: a year-round shelter.
Thankyou!
Dr. Jill Shook, cofounder Making Housing and Community Happen jill(a>makinghousinghappen.org
SONJA K. BERNDT
Pasadena, CA
c - •
May 10, 2026
Mayor Victor Gordo
Members of the Pasadena City Council
Pasadena, CA
correspondencefSicityofpasadena.net
(By Email)
City Council Meeting May 11, 2026 Agenda Item # 19
Dear Mayor Gordo and Members of the Pasadena City Council:
A. Introduction
I am a long-time resident of Pasadena and an advocate for the unhoused residents of our City. This letter is to express my deep concerns regarding the FY 2027 proposed Operating Budget as a whole and the Housing Department's budget specifically. I am most concerned about the grossly inadequate resources for our 581 unhoused residents, 342 of which have no shelter at all. I am hopeful that after consideration of this letter you will approve a substantial increase in the proposed appropriations to the Housing Department specifically for interim (transitional) housing for our unsheltered and a year- round shelter.
I will discuss the narrative provided by Housing Department ("Department") staff, providing comments based upon my research and posing questions related to its homelessness program. Scrutiny of the narrative and data presented by staff is necessary to ascertain precisely what is being done for our unhoused residents and where there are gaps in meeting their needs. Transparency and accountability are crucial, or the City will never make any meaningful progress in ending its homelessness crisis.
B. Background
Last December, staff was given five City Council priorities including investing in a year- round shelter and transitional housing for our City's hundreds of unsheltered residents.
Staff was told to find potential ways to fund the Council's priorities. However, a year- round shelter and transitional housing appear nowhere in the proposed FY2027 Operating Budget. And what is staffs answer to the 7% increase in unsheltered homelessness in our City? To decrease the Housing Department's General Fund budget to a pathetic 0.69% of total General Fund appropriations to departments. 1 For years, interim and permanent housing as well as critical services for our unhoused (and especially our unsheltered residents) have been vastly underfunded because our Housing Department receives only "crumbs" from City-generated sources to serve our most vulnerable residents.
Meanwhile, the Pasadena Police Department's (PPD's) General Fund appropriations have increased by over $10 million over last year's adopted budget with a nearly $10 million increase in personnel costs. The year-after-year steep increases in PPD salary and pension costs are unsustainable. To make matters worse, the Council continues to approve every piece of equipment that PPD wants, at the expense of people suffering on the street.
Significantly, the Interim City Manager's transmittal letter states "Without adjustments to service levels, staffing, or long-term financial strategies, the gap between revenues and expenditures will continue to expand." The necessary "adjustments" need to start with PPD which receives over $121 million from the General Fund. If the City provided housing for our unsheltered residents, the calls for service would substantially decrease and PPD staffing and pension costs could be substantially reduced as well.
C. Department's Narrative in the Proposed FY2027 Operating Budget In FY2026, 91.4% of the Department's budget was received from the federal and state governments. For FY2027, it is slightly higher. This is significant since the Trump Administration has threatened substantial cuts in federal funding for programs benefiting our unhoused residents and the state faces a structural deficit of $20-30 billion.
Shockingly, only 4.59% of the Department's proposed budget is funded by the City's General Fund.
It is unclear what specific federal funding is at risk or what funding is included in the multistate case against the Trump Administration related to cuts in federal funding for state homelessness programs. Recent media reports state that HUD's discretionary budget authority will be cut by $10.7 billion starting this October. But it is not clear how that will affect the substantial funding the Department hopes to receive from the federal government. There must be a full discussion on this BEFORE the FY2027 Operating Budget is approved.
1. FY 2026 Accomplishments (Proposed Budget, p. 87)
Housing Production
I compared the list ofFY2026 accomplishments with the list ofFY2025 accomplishments in last year's proposed budget to ascertain what new units of housing 2 •
were developed in 2026 to avoid "double counting" of units already reported in the 2025 accomplishments.
Door of Hope (20 units of transitional housing under construction): these also appeared in the Department's list ofFY2025 housing production accomplishments and should not be double counted.1
The Starr (57 units): according to the developer's website it is in "pre- development" phase. It is unclear whether necessary funding has been identified.
Ramona Senior Housing project (100 units): the Disposition and Development Agreement for this project was approved by the City Council five years ago and it remains mostly a weed lot after all these years. The project, with a reported ballooning estimated cost of $83.1 million, will have only 48 units set aside for seniors experiencing homelessness, and not until possibly in 2028.
CalTrans Homes: the City has reportedly netted $18 million from the sale of these homes. At page 87, the Department states it will deploy the sales proceeds for affordable housing projects. A substantial portion of the money should be used for interim housing to rescue our hundreds of unsheltered residents from our unsafe streets.
Rental Assistance Program
At page 87 of the FY2027 proposed budget, the Department states that 1,350 households received rental assistance (from the federal government). This is apparently through the federal (Section 8) Housing Choice Voucher Program. As discussed above, is any of this very substantial funding at risk?
"Implemented new subsidy (HOME TBRA, Local Solutions Fund) and transferred 42 EHV households before EHV sunsets. The Department previously advised the Council that the Emergency Housing Voucher (EHV) program was sunsetting at the end of 2025 and that 35 of the 87 very low-income households in the program would be funded by the City's Measure A Local Solutions Fund allotment. At the May 6, 2026 HHP Committee meeting, staff advised that no funding has been found to fund continued housing vouchers for 42 EH V households.
Homeless Services
At page 88 of the proposed budget, the Department states that 489 formerly homeless individuals were provided ongoing permanent supportive housing. The city "provides' this housing through non-city financial resources. The real question is how many new 1 At the May 6, 2026 HHP Committee meeting. Housing Director Wong stated the Door of Hope units should not be included as they will not be completed until early 2027. 3 units of permanent supportive housing the City has created to address our rising number of unsheltered residents. What progress, if any, did the City make in FY2026? Last year, the Department reported the number of formerly homeless individuals provided ongoing permanent supportive housing as 505. There is no explanation for the decrease in the number of permanent supportive units. Is it because the City lostl42 units of permanent supportive housing when Centennial Place was repurposed for senior housing? Councilmember Jones has repeatedly stated that Centennial Place, with an SRO model, suffered several substantial problems. But that opinion does not address the fact that the City still lost 142 units of permanent supportive housing at a time when those units are desperately needed. The City could have chosen to renovate Centennial Place for formerly unhoused persons, but it specifically chose senior housing instead.
The failure to even mention these lost units illustrates a lack of transparency in the Department's narrative.
At page 88, the narrative states that 65 households experiencing homelessness were placed in permanent housing through 12/31/2025. Were any of these 65 households simply transferred from Centennial Place to another permanent supportive housing site? If so, those persons were not experiencing homelessness at the time of the transfer and should not be counted as such. Transfers of a housed person to another housing site does nothing to decrease our unsheltered count.
Another FY2026 accomplishment listed is an award $2.19 million in IMeasure A funding for homeless services. This is troubling. In last year's report ofFY2025 Homeless Services accomplishments, the Housing Department reported a total of just under $5 million in grants. Was there a substantial decrease in state and federal grant funding received for homeless services in FY2026?
2. Fiscal Year 2027 Recommended Operating Budget (Proposed Budget, p. 88) The Department notes that the FY 2027 Recommended Budget of $58,022,974 is $8,904,349 or 18.1 percent higher than the FY 2026 Adopted Budget, However, the FY2027 recommended budget is $2.5 million lower than the FY 2026 revised budget.
The Department's appropriations are 95.41 percent funded with federal, state and local sources and 4.59 percent General Fund support. The Department's General Fund appropriations for FY2027 are less than FY2026.
3. Future Outlook (Proposed Budget, p. 89)
Homeless Services
4 The Department's plan for addressing homelessness in FY2027 is as follows:
In FY 2027, the Department will continue to work to support the goals as outlined in the Pasadena Continuum of Care's Homelessness Plan. The Department will also administer County Measure A funds allocated to the City under the following fund categories: Local Solutions Fund, Continuum of Care Allocation, and Renter Protection and Homelessness Prevention.2
There is no plan stated for accomplishing the goals set forth in the Continuum of Care's Homelessness Plan other than the City will administer whatever Measure A or other non- City-generated funds come its way. This is unacceptable. The continued neglect of our unsheltered residents is inhumane.
Conclusion
For all of the reasons stated, I respectfully request the HHPC to do the following:
For the FY2027 Operating Budget: Recommend additional appropriations from the General Fund, reserves, and/or other source to create a year-round shelter; For the FY2027 Operating Budget: Recommend additional appropriations from the General Fund, reserves and/or other source to fund interim housing for at least 100 currently unsheltered residents; and
Explore on an urgent basis a dedicated funding stream for interim housing and permanent supportive housing.
•
•
The stark reality is that the City cannot possibly address its homelessness crisis in any meaningful way with the meager amount of city-generated funds the City contributes year after year. And the plan addressing homelessness set forth in the proposed FY2027 Operating Budget will do little to alleviate the suffering endured by our unsheltered residents living on our streets.
Sincerely,
/s/
SonjaK. Berndt, Esq. (retired)
Cc: James Wong, Housing Director
2 In the FY2026 recommended budget, the following was stated: "In FY 2026, the Department will complete capital improvements at the Bad Weather Shelter location." Were the capital improvements at the Bad Weather Shelter completed?
5