Improvements moving forward

Despite East Palo Alto’s historical problems and weaker tax base due to tech companies, redlining, racism and a freeway, the city passed the 2024-2028 Affordable Housing Strategy in February, an effort to build more low-income housing to accommodate the needs of renters in East Palo Alto.

“If we’re the only ones building for this segment of the population, that’s going to hurt us,” Lopez said. “I want to emphasize, it’s not an East Palo Alto issue; it’s a regional issue. In the past 10 years, for every unit of housing that we’ve created, we’ve created nine jobs. So we have a one-to-nine housing job ratio. If other cities do not all work together to build commensurate housing on all income levels, we’re going to continue to see housing prices rise.”

In the end, Lopez said all cities need to share the blame for rising prices and unaffordable housing.

“The true root of the problem is all of our collective responsibility to make this place affordable,” Lopez said. “We, as cities, frankly, have failed.”

Additionally, Lopez said the cities involved need to revisit the Tinsley program and how it can be changed to fit today’s needs.

The Tinsley program served its purpose 40 years ago,” he said. “There needs to be revisiting and having an important conversation. What is the efficacy, what is the purpose and what is the benefit of this program in 2024? Is it an asset, or is it a liability? Is it actually moving our community forward, or is it hurting our autonomy and our ability to govern and create a sense of unity?”