California's communities face take-away of $1.7 billion in community redevelopment funding, putting thousands of construction jobs at risk

Did you know that the California Legislature is now a few hours away from voting to seize $1.7 billion from redevelopment agencies this year to fix the state budget deficit?

Redevelopment projects are needed now, more than ever, to build affordable housing, expand businesses, create new jobs and improve the quality of life for our city's families and children.

This gutting of the CRA budgets across California will mean that we will not be able to complete millions of dollars of redevelopment projects including developing and building affordable homes, resulting in a loss of thousands of construction jobs and a loss of hundreds of million dollars in private investment coming into your neighborhoods.

This seizure of redevelopment funds will have a significant negative impact on our communities ability to complete affordable homes that are underway or to start new projects.

This loss of funds could eliminate business incentive programs where plans exist for new, family-supporting jobs in green manufacturing. Business, commercial and industrial assistance will also be drastically reduced and/or eliminated.

The state budget should not be balanced by taking money away from the communities who most need economic assistance during the economic recession.