Here’s what Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer said at the California Big City Mayor Summit

SAN FRANCISCO, Calif. (KSEE/KGPE) – Thirteen of California’s big city mayors gathered in San Francisco this week, including Fresno Mayor Jerry Dyer.

The focus was on affordable housing, but it wasn’t just for low-income households; it was for the inaugural Big City Mayors Summit outside of San Francisco’s City Hall. This was a chance for mayors to stand together on common issues, and Dyer made sure to address the widespread issue of expensive housing.

“We’ve had productive conversations on our shared priorities, including housing, homelessness, and economic development,” San Francisco Mayor Daniel Laurie said.

The 13 mayors at the Oct. 22nd summit represent over 11 million Californians.

“In Riverside, we currently have 6,000 units in the development pipeline,” Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson said.

Dyer started his speech complimenting San Francisco, “I’ve never felt safer walking through a city in my life.”

However, Dyer wasted no time diving deep into the issues at hand.

“It’s no question we are in a housing crisis in America,” Dyer said.

He said progress is being made, but the crisis isn’t limited to low-income families. 

“It also impacts the missing middle. Middle-income families, people that used to be able to afford to buy a home, who can no longer afford to buy a home,” Dyer said.

He added that it’s not only important to increase housing supply, “But make sure that the housing that we’re providing is affordable, and how do we do that? We reduce our appetite in many cases. The amenities which we want to have in our homes.”

He said some California laws are in the way.

“It’s important that we further condominium ownership, which we are not able to do right now in the state of California as a result of construction defect liability laws,” Dyer said.

Still, Fresno’s mayor has some ideas to assist the “missing middle.”

“It’s also important that we create, in the state of California, a housing trust fund to be able to provide those folks with downpayment assistance funds and to be able to give them those funds with a forgivable loan after a 15-year period,” Dyer said.

Dyer also said this year, Fresno will have 800 affordable housing units built and an additional 1,600 units in 2026.