1 From: Kyle Sweeney <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, January 12, 2022 7:13 AM
To: CityClerkMbx <[email protected]>; Cervantes, Clarissa <[email protected]> Subject: [External] Inclusionary Housing Policies
Dear Councilmembers,
Currently we have made it legal for the rich and corporations to buy and horde basic human necessities in order to drive up the prices. They then use their artificially created scarcity to exploit our most vulnerable population. People are forced to continuously pay for access to basic necessities while th e people who exploit them produce nothing. Anyone who can't pay is forced onto the streets, usually with the assistance of our government. There they suffer trauma, abuse, and frequently death.
The people most effected by this are the same people who have always been marginalized in our society. Black, Indige
nous, People of Color, LGBTQIA+, disabled, mentally ill, and Women. This is a policy of eugenics. Any time people don't have a right to basic human necessities this is what happens. We need a right to shelter. The city needs to ensure public housing is available for everyone.
We ne
ed to stop land speculation which drives up costs. Most of the cost of a house is not the building but the land.
Publicly accountable and democratically run land management such as through Community Land Trusts is a powerful and effective tool for this. By stopping lan d speculation we drive down costs and ensure the land owners are community members, not outside speculators exploiting our community.
We need medium density housing with mixed use zoning. Building our cities around cars and ignoring public transit punishes those without the ability to maintain vehicles, who are the same people being pre yed upon by landlords. By making our city navigatable by walking, biking, and public transit and reducing travel distances we help our most vulnerable, reduce maintenance costs, increase housing access, and make our cities safer.
You will hear a lot of people complaining about their housing value. These people are prioritizing money over their neigh
bors. Treating basic human necessities as an investment opportunity is exactly the problem. Their shelter won't suddenly disappear. People without shelter might have a chance though. This makes our city stronger, more resilient, and safer. When someone objects, it's worth asking if they are one of th e landlords exploiting people poorer than them for profit. A landlord who loses a rental property still has a house to live in. At worst they will have to work for their income instead of taking other people's labor.
Kyle E Sweeney
Ward 2
1436 7th St
Riverside, CA 92507
HHC Date: 1-24-22
Item No.: 5
cc Mayor
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