University Terrace / Home Key

Retired pastor urged the council to support Housing First, recounting a site visit to a successful housing-first community where residents pay rent and hold each other accountable.

Asked the council — especially Councilmember Falcone — to reconsider the no vote, arguing half the homeless count asked for help and the project is a community of homes, not a warehouse.

Called the original Home Key vote anti-science and pro-profit, alleging council members accepted developer money and vowing accountability at the ballot.

Ward 3 resident said she was disheartened by council members shaking their heads during testimony and noted pending lawsuits give the council a chance to act.

Ward 3 resident urged the council to reconsider and accept the grant, saying there's no safe shelter for vulnerable people right now.

Said rejecting the $20 million for 94 units for disabled seniors and veterans thwarted the city's RHNA obligations, noting only 47 very-low-income units built since 2021 against a 4,816-unit obligation.

Said the RHNA results are unacceptable, that the $20 million shovel-ready project was the city's best opportunity, and demanded the council show a real plan.

Ward 1 resident questioned turning down state funding, invoking Timothy Chalamet's affordable-housing roots and calling the decision 'a bad job.'

Told a story about her husband's failed qualifying exam to urge council members who voted no to have the courage to reconsider.

Shared her own near-homelessness at 19 to show the crisis reaches people who don't look homeless, and said she can't afford a Riverside studio despite working 40+ hours a week.

A Public Interest Law Project attorney said the city's housing element and fair housing duties are mandatory, and that stigmatizing statements about homelessness cannot lawfully form the basis of the decision.

A member of the homeless community living in her car with her dog, she asked the council to reconsider and accept the grant, saying not everyone homeless is an addict or criminal.

Retired mental health professional and person of faith said churches can feed and clothe the homeless but only the city can give them homes; challenged the council to look homeless people in the eye.

UCR student with the Working Families Party alleged councilmembers received campaign donations from real estate interests and announced a student petition and ASUCR resolution asking the council to reconsider.

Board president of the Universalist Unitarian Church said the Housing First model works, cited the HCD investigation and the legal notice, and asked one no-voting councilmember to call for reconsideration.

Ward 1 resident and formerly homeless child said she couldn't understand rejecting free money for housing; spoke for the Inland Empire Community Land Trust and Tenant Union.

Warned of a financial tsunami: HCD could revoke the city's pro-housing designation like Fresno's, making the city ineligible for grants including a recent $1.44 million application, with possible Attorney General takeover; noted the $20.1 million is not yet reallocated.

Attorney with the Public Interest Law Project said the city's rejection of $20.1M in Home Key funds risks its housing element certification and pro-housing designation, and noted 140 unsheltered deaths last year.

Ward 3 resident said he feels lied to about the city's affordable housing record and urged the council to reconsider before the April closed session.

Ward 6 resident accused councilmembers of spreading misinformation about the funding and threatened a recall effort against Councilmember Falcone.

Ward 6 resident said rejecting the project risks millions in grants and the city's pro-housing designation, and would cost local jobs.

Ward 4 resident said she was blindsided by the rejection and contrasted it with the swift approval of a 49-home subdivision; thanked Cervantes, Perry and Hemenway.

UCR student from Ward 2 said she'd feel safer with the project approved than with it rejected in the name of student safety.

UCR public policy student said students keep showing up in support, criticized putting a 'price tag' on homeless lives, and urged evidence-based policy.

UCR freshman asked how councilmembers can justify denying housing to families, citing figures that 15% of the unhoused would be housed by the project.

UCR student told the council not to use students as a shield for its policies and invoked a Bible verse on giving to the poor.

UCR student said nobody is homeless by choice and the students support the project.

UCR student supported the council putting the project back on the table and cited research showing no causal link between affordable housing and crime.

History teacher said the rejection process wasn't democratic, defended the nonprofit developer's 37-year Riverside track record, and cited Redlands' successful hotel conversion.

Ward 5 caller accused councilmembers of calling advocates 'disingenuous,' urged the council to consider the legal letters in March rather than April, and said the ACLU's involvement should give them pause.

Ward 1 caller urged acceptance of the Home Key money, citing rising homelessness (up 14.1%) and rent increases versus wage growth.