TOPA TALKING POINTS
Tell Elected Officials How You Feel
Speaking up to let your City Councilmembers and the Mayor know how you feel about legislation does have impact! And it's not hard to do. You typically only have one minute to speak, so practicing ahead of time will help you! Not sure what do say? Just read the script below.
2024 talking points
"Hi. I am a rental housing provider. I oppose this TOPA proposal. A community promise by the Mayor last time this was brought to Council has not been fulfilled. He said there would be a comprehensive Equity Study measuring the impact on small property owners.
Not only have those promises not been fulfilled, but today's legislation is authored by a Councilmember that quit their elected position. How can you move forward on legislation when the author is no longer there to answer the community's questions? We need solutions that increases rental housing availability and allows new small owners to enter the market, not fear tactics to keep them out.
As our elected officials, you cannot vote in good conscience for something that has not been properly vetted for its impact on important members in our community."
Can't Attend the Meeting? Here's what to do.
Email the Mayor and City Councilmembers with your testimony. If you don't have personal testimony, use our statement above titled "Talking Points."
additional talking points
TOPA hasn't worked in Washington D.C. and it won't work in Berkeley. After more than 40 years of implementation in D.C. there is no research that shows TOPA was an effective tool against displacement. Nearly all of the data presented by proponents thus far reflects D.C. TOPA sales for buildings with 5 or more units. If you dig deeper, the average building size for a successful TOPA sale in Washington D.C. is more than 30 units. Owners of 30 unit buildings aren't small property owners!
Unfortunately, the City of Berkeley only has enough money to subsidize an extremely small number of sales to tenants and tenant groups. The city will help more underserved tenants by investing in larger buildings as has been the case in Washington D.C. As such, there is no reason to apply TOPA to small buildings. Doing so only serves to penalize small owners without good reason.
Small owners make up the existing middle and their only offense was thinking they would be safe planning for a future in Berkeley. Many of these owners are elderly and cannot keep up with the deluge of new regulations thrown their way. Some are people of color that bought in segregated areas and thought owning property would secure their legacy in Berkeley. Ultimately, TOPA is a misplaced policy that will hurt more people than it will help. The numbers simply don't add up.