Davis, CA – With Friday’s tally, Linda Deos leads with 51.5 percent of the vote and just under a 900 vote over second place Victor Lagunes. According to the county they have counted 3839 ballots and there are less than 3000 votes to county in the race. While not mathematically impossible, it would be pretty difficult to shift the results at this point—meaning that most likely Deos will succeed Will Arnold on the city council.
We asked, as it turned out, four questions that related to housing or homelessness. Here are Deos’s answers to those four questions.
If elected, what key issue would you most like to address—please explain why you chose that issue and how you would address it.
If elected to the Davis City Council, the key issue I would most like to address is the availability and affordability of housing. Affordable and accessible housing is fundamental to our community’s success and future. Davis faces a critical housing problem, with home prices and rental rates outpacing the financial capabilities of many residents, particularly students, young families, and seniors. This shortage of affordable housing threatens to erode the diversity and inclusivity that make Davis such a vibrant place to live.
The housing issue is a fulcrum for so many other problems. Families struggle to stay in Davis, local businesses find it harder to attract and retain employees, and economic inequality deepens. We are seeing the impacts of lack of housing already; we have fewer families going downtown and our schools are facing declining enrollment. We have shuttered storefronts resulting in less diversity of business types. Our schools are facing difficult decisions with cutting classes and curriculum. We must ensure that Davis remains a place where people from all backgrounds can find a home and contribute to our community.
To address this issue, I will focus on a multi-pronged approach. First, I will advocate for increased development of affordable housing units through both public and private partnerships. This includes working with developers to create mixed-income housing projects and implementing policies that incentivize the creation of affordable rental and ownership opportunities. I will also support efforts to streamline the development process while ensuring we maintain high standards of community input and environmental sustainability.
Second, I will push for policies that protect renters, including expanding tenant protections and addressing rental affordability through targeted programs. This is crucial to prevent displacement and ensure that those already living in Davis can afford to stay.
Finally, I will collaborate with regional partners to address housing needs on a larger scale, recognizing that affordable housing is a regional issue that requires regional solutions.
Affordable housing is essential to the health and future of Davis, and I am committed to ensuring that everyone who wants to live here can find a home.
How would you address homelessness concerns in the city of Davis? You can discuss issues like permanent supportive housing, law enforcement roles, and homeless encampments.
Addressing the unhoused community is one of the most complex and pressing issues Davis faces. We have to think about it in a variety of contexts and timelines: What can we do in the short term; what can we plan for the medium term; and, what should we plan for in the long term?
Short Term – Our respite center is open Monday-Friday, 8:00 am-4:00 pm. Paul’s Place, which also offers daytime services, is open the same days and roughly the same time. You can see the problem. People can’t find supportive shelter on the weekend or after 4pm. With nowhere to safely go, they come into the downtown, libraries and parks. We need to work with these centers to have hours that make the most sense for the people they serve, and for the rest of our community, by providing coverage 7 days a week. And, during the summer, when the hottest time of the day is 4pm, hours should be adjusted to reflect that reality.
Medium Term – One of the key programs for our newly established Department of Social Services and Housing is to help take pressure off of our police force to handle situations that do not require an armed officer. I want to give the Department the tools it needs to help folks get connected to needed services. We also need to ensure our Outreach staff are available to assist, not only our unhoused residents, but also our local business owners and residents when they encounter folks in crisis.
Long Term – We need more permanent supportive housing like Paul’s Place because safe and supervised housing is proven as the best means to transition folks off of the streets.
Davis is not alone in struggling with how to address homelessness issues. That’s why we need to work with the County and other regional agencies because this is not a problem we can solve on our own. I will use my experience of working with multiple agencies in my professional life, and my experience directly working with our unhoused community, to advocate for local, regional, and statewide solutions.
Traditionally schools have been treated as a separate silo from the city and city council, however, concerns about declining enrollment and out of district transfers are impacted by city housing policies. As a member of the city council, how would you seek to address this issue?
The issue of declining school enrollment in Davis is closely tied to city policies, particularly around housing. While our school district and city are different entities with different responsibilities, tools, and goals, ultimately the outcome of one heavily affects the outcome of the other. It’s important that the City works with the school district to ensure our schools and students thrive. Davis has an incredible reputation for the quality of our public schools; declining enrollment threatens that reputation.
The most important thing the City can do right now to help our schools, particularly with declining enrollment, is expand affordable, family-friendly housing options. Declining enrollment is often driven by families being priced out of Davis due to the high cost of housing. By promoting the development of more affordable housing, especially multi-bedroom units suitable for families, we can attract and retain families with school-age children. This could include zoning for mixed-use developments near schools, encouraging infill projects, and working with developers to ensure that new housing is accessible to a broader range of income levels.
Our schools’ funding is reliant on ADA or average daily attendance. In tandem with declining ADA, we have also seen an increase in out-of-district transfers. This can help as a stop-gap to prop up funding, but these are students and families commuting to and from Davis, which means they likely are not shopping here and their tax revenue is being spent on other communities. These families also don’t pay into the parcel taxes that help fund our schools. If we provide affordable and available housing, many of these families would prefer to live in the town where the parents work and their kids go to school.
If we do not address this issue, the school district will face hard questions about cutting programs, increasing class sizes, and even closing schools. These solutions will certainly have a negative impact on the reputation of our schools, and more importantly, the quality of education our children receive.
Ultimately, by making housing more affordable, strengthening partnerships with DJUSD, and investing in family-oriented community infrastructure, we can help stabilize and even increase school enrollment, ensuring that both the city and its schools thrive together.
If elected to the city council, would you seek to amend Measure J and, if so, what would that look like? If not, how would you attempt to address the city’s housing needs?
It is important to note that Measure D (the Measure J/R extension) was passed in 2020 by over 80% of voters. It is clear that Davis voters want input and a voice on what peripheral development looks like. At the same time, it’s clear that our current growth model isn’t sustainable long-term.
Most Davis residents will agree that the state and the City have not built enough housing in the past few decades. The recent struggle to pass our Housing Element underscores the limited infill options we have going forward.
Right now, we have several projects moving through the Measure J/R/D process. Though I’m unable to comment on individual projects due to my role on the Planning Commission, I recognize the need for some level of peripheral growth. Such growth is essential to meet our Regional Housing Needs Allocation (RHNA) requirements and address Davis’s broader housing needs—no ifs, ands, or buts about it.
Looking ahead, I am open to considering adjustments to Measure J/R/D. Such changes could allow for a streamlined approval process for projects that meet specific density, affordability, and sustainability standards. With robust safeguards, I believe the community would support a responsible amendment to Measure J/R/D that balances the need for growth with the city’s unique character and values. Ultimately, though, any changes will need voter approval, regardless of who is on the council.
Moving forward, it’s about preparing for the next chapter of Davis’s growth while preserving our commitment to thoughtful development and community engagement. I am confident that, with the right framework, we can foster new housing options that align with our community’s long-term goals. I am ready to step in on Day 1 to champion this process for addressing our community’s needs, whether that is an amendment to Measure J/R/D or through our general plan update. I have the experience and vision to face the challenges that lie ahead.
The two proposals have land enough to fulfill most of Linda’s goals but they for the most part go in the opposite direction.
A shift in usage can achieve needed changes but the applicants need to be more amenable and council members more demanding. Or else we get more of what we don’t need.
More affordable and market rate apartments are needed than the paltry few being offered to bring overall rents down.
Limited equity housing co-ops have NOT been included though being our community’s best example of permanently affordable moderate income ownership housing.
Neither project has proposed any units of permanently affordable home ownership for moderate income families.
I suggest Linda looks at her goals and asks more of the applicants.
The applicants should think more about how to meet Linda’s goals which are also the goals of many citizens.
AS Rich Rifkin has said the proposals need to meet the needs of our community. At this time they do not.
David J Thompson