We are in support of ACTUAL housing in Eureka!

We are a group of committed Eurekans, joining forces to defeat ballot initiative that threatens to stop desperately needed affordable housing. We have come together under a new banner — ”I Like Eureka Housing!” — to officially oppose the deceptively-named “City of Eureka Housing for All and Downtown Vitality Initiative.”

This anti-housing initiative, which will be placed on the November 2024 ballot, would stop the construction of affordable housing, put the city's housing plan in legal jeopardy, and risk millions of dollars of housing grant funding. Eureka deserves better. Eureka needs affordable housing for the people that work at the businesses in Old Town and Downtown - housing for the teachers, baristas, grocery store clerks, waiters, and more that work hard and need places to live that they can afford in the long term.

What would this initiative do?

• The proposed initiative would stop the development of five lots already approved for affordable housing development. In total, the initiative would threaten the construction of at least 199 total housing units in the heart of Eureka. 
• The initiative prioritizes parking over housing - prohibiting the loss of any parking through redevelopment of the sites, functionally making housing construction impossible. The only housing allowed by the "zoning overlay" it creates are above ground-level parking structures, requiring costly extra earthquake safety measures that would make the sites too expensive for affordable housing construction.
• The initiative also moves to rezone the old Jacobs school campus. They state that this will add more housing, but it is simply not true - re-zoning that site will not guarantee any housing will be build. To add the the complexity, the Eureka City School District (who owns the site), is still in complicated negotiations with both the California Highway Patrol and an un-named third party for a potential sale of this property. While housing may someday be developed on this site, we can (and should!) invest in adding housing all over the city, especially in our urban core. Simply re-zoning this site does nothing to add much-needed housing in Eureka.
• If this initiative passes, the City of Eureka would risk legal ramifications from the State, since state law mandates that every city in California needs to be taking steps towards building a specific number of housing units. Without the planned housing units on these parking lots, the City of Eureka will be at risk of lawsuit and cuts in funding to pivotal programs from the state. 

This initiative is very complicated and riddled with misinformation. Visit our FAQ page to learn more about the details, and click here if you'd like to read the initiative itself. And help us spread the word about what this initiative really means for the future of our City by talking with your friends and neighbors, donating, or volunteering.

Join with us in voting "NO" on Measure F this November.