The City of San Mateo denied housing. Today, we filed suit.

In 2017, a modest housing project was proposed for 4 West Santa Inez Avenue that would add 10 units to the Bay Area’s already scarce housing supply. On February 5, 2018, San Mateo City Council voted to deny the project.

Today, we filed a lawsuit against the City of San Mateo, alleging that the city violated the state’s Housing Accountability Act with an unlawful denial of a housing project.

Ten homes may not seem like the solution to the state’s housing shortage, but every every home counts. The remedy for the housing shortage will be the sum of many individual new housing units. In the struggle to secure the human right of housing for all, we must use every means available to us.

San Mateo resident John “Cliff” Moon is party to the lawsuit as plaintiff. “As a resident of San Mateo of almost 10 years, I’ve seen friends and neighbors displaced and the overall diversity of our community go down as a result of San Mateo’s reluctance to build new housing. When the city makes arbitrary decisions to reject new housing, someone must hold them accountable for the harm that causes to long term residents and renters like me and my family. We’re in a crisis and every new home counts, which is why I’m happy to put my name to this suit.”

“The Bay Area’s wealthy enclaves cannot break the law with impunity,” said our attorney Ryan Patterson. “As we have done elsewhere in Berkeley and Sausalito, we will compel San Mateo to obey state housing mandates and approve code-compliant projects.”