SPUR and the Food as Medicine Collaborative, as co-sponsors of the legislation, support of AB 1644 (Bonta), which would transition medically supportive food and nutrition interventions from optional services in healthcare to covered Medi-Cal benefits. By fully embracing food and nutrition support as a critical and strategic investment in health outcomes and health equity, California can lead the nation in tackling root causes of health disparities.

The draft 2023 State Hazard Mitigation Plan did not include mention of a newly understood climate risk known as groundwater rise. Groundwater rise is likely to cause flooding, toxin mobilization in soils, and deterioration of underground infrastructure at an accelerated pace. This letter is signed by SPUR partners working on groundwater rise and climate adaptation issues in the region.

SPUR supports the End Debtors' Prisons Act and encourages the Assembly's Public Safety Committee to vote "aye" on the legislation. The Act would end the practice of issuing arrest warrants for people who are unable to pay things like traffic tickets or who miss their court dates for these fines and fees. California must end the practice of arresting and jailing people for being too poor to pay.

SPUR sent a letter to the California Senate Education Committee encouraging an "aye" vote on the CalSOAR Act. This legislation would establish a guaranteed income pilot for unhoused youth graduating from high school. This pilot would establish a five month program to give those young people financial support so that they can thrive.

SPUR strongly supports support AB 761, a bill to establish a statewide Transit Transformation Task Force. SPUR views AB 761 as the necessary complement to the request for multiyear operating fund on a limited-term basis to avert a fiscal cliff and regrow ridership.

SPUR calls on State Budget Leaders to help the state's public transit systems and avoid looming cuts to critical transit service that millions of Californians rely upon and that is foundational to our state's climate strategy. In addition, we urge the state to restore at-risk commitments to clean transportation from the FY22-23 budget.

Expanding CalFresh Fruit and Vegetable Supplemental Benefits to be available to hundreds of thousands of households across the state will, in the short-term, help families afford the foods they need to stay healthy and help alleviate some of the economic strain they are facing with SNAP emergency allotments ending. In the long-term, it will position the program to become permanently available to CalFresh families throughout California. It is a “win-win-win” that reduces hunger, improves public health, and boosts California’s agricultural economy.

SPUR’s new research paper, Losing Ground: What the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality, aims to identify how the Bay Area’s housing market has become shaped by scarcity and wide economic divides not only among income groups but also among races and ethnicities.

SPUR and other housing advocates request the state take action to protect public transit, which provides an essential mobility option for residents of infill housing developments across California. Left unaddressed, transit's fiscal cliff will harm the state's most vulnerable residents and undermine the production of infill housing.

SPUR is sponsoring a bill to require that agencies allow land owners and managers to share underutilized parking and to count such shared parking toward meeting parking requirements. The bill would also require new developments and parking lots funded by public agencies to evaluate shared parking options. If passed, this bill will reduce a common circumstance of costly parking being required in situations where other parking is available nearby.

SPUR along with other San Francisco business and civic groups have come together with a shared goal to renew the economic core and deliver real change. We are encouraged by the Mayor's Roadmap to Recovery, and look forward to working in partnership to create livable, programmable, and resilient Downtown neighborhoods.