LAGUNA HONDA: Supporters Want To Push Bond Measure To Spring
Laguna Honda Hospital's supporters want to push back until spring a $502.5 million bond measure to rebuild the facility, even though the city's supervisors are scheduled to vote today to put the measure on the November ballot. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that because tenants are not backing the measure, "prominent builder Joe O'Donoghue said he and other hospital supporters will ask for the delay" today so they can muster more support for the bond measure. O'Donoghue said hospital supporters have "been trying to broker a compromise behind closed doors between landlords and tenants" to assuage tenants' fears that bond measures "unfairly burden the poor." Yesterday, tenant advocates said they would support Laguna Honda "if landlords agreed to limit rent increases from the bond measure to no more than $1 per unit," a compromise landlords would not agree to. "We heard from labor intermediaries that they are not supporting the cap," said San Francisco Tenants Union's Ted Gullicksen. "Thus, we're back in the position of having to oppose the bond" (Wilson, 7/28). Click here for past California Healthline coverage of Laguna Honda.
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