Platform Overview

A Berkeley Where People Can Remain, Belong, and Rely on Public Systems

Housing people can afford to keep. Public space everyone can use. Services people can rely on.

I have lived in Southside since 2016, first as a transfer and re-entry student and now as a renter, organizer, and medical health worker. I have seen how quickly a housing problem can become a health problem, how public space supports daily care and community life, and how a blocked sidewalk or unanswered service request can make an ordinary day harder.

Southside is growing. New housing, institutional expansion, construction, and increasing street use are changing the neighborhood. That growth creates public responsibilities. People need homes they can afford, places where they can gather without paying for entry, and public systems capable of serving a denser neighborhood.

My platform brings those responsibilities together. Berkeley should add homes while helping existing residents remain, protect and rebuild the places that support public life, and fund the infrastructure and services that growth requires.

Three Plans, One Governing Standard

Each part of this platform follows the same standard: identify the need, assign responsibility, determine how the work will be funded, and report what residents actually received.

A policy announcement is only the beginning. Residents should be able to distinguish what was requested, approved, funded, delivered, and maintained. When something is delayed, the public should know which decision, institution, or resource is holding it up.

  • Berkeley needs more homes. It also needs to preserve existing lower-cost housing, prevent displacement, and expand homes that remain affordable permanently.

    My Housing Stability Plan connects production with preservation. It calls for earlier assistance when a renter receives an eviction notice, a social-housing and preservation partnership, clearer housing-delivery procedures, stronger public and community ownership, and public reporting from application through occupancy.

    The plan also asks UC Berkeley to account for enrollment, campus housing, property acquisitions, repair needs, and the effects its decisions have on the surrounding rental market. Major development should identify the sidewalks, sewers, transit, sanitation, trees, public space, and emergency access it requires.

    The public measure is whether Berkeley adds homes while giving current residents a stronger chance to remain.

    Read the Housing Stability Plan

  • Public space gives community life somewhere to happen. A shared meal needs a location. A neighborhood meeting needs an accessible room. Rest requires seating, shade, water, sanitation, and enough time to remain.

    My Public Space Plan begins with an inventory of the land, rooms, restrooms, gardens, trees, seating, drinking water, emergency locations, and accessible routes Southside already has. It then identifies what is missing, who controls possible sites, what public-access rights exist, and what maintenance each place requires.

    The plan seeks more indoor and outdoor gathering places, durable public-access agreements, responsible operating budgets, a Southside tree and amenities plan, and early identification of land that could be protected or acquired for public use. It also calls for restoring People’s Park as public land, ecological space, and a place for community life while pursuing affordable and supportive housing on appropriate alternative sites.

    The public measure is whether Southside gains durable places where people can gather, rest, meet daily needs, and belong without paying for entry.

    Read the Public Space Plan

  • Maintenance is governance. A service request should begin a process with a responsible department, an expected next step, and a way to verify whether the underlying problem was resolved.

    My City Services Plan calls for service-resolution standards, coordinated accessible-route repairs, and annual planning for predictable conditions such as move-in, move-out, waste collection, construction, loading, and shared scooters obstructing sidewalks and curb ramps.

    It also proposes a Southside Community Care Network connecting City and County services with campus programs, health providers, student organizations, cooperatives, businesses, faith communities, neighborhood groups, and mutual-aid organizations. The City and UC should provide dependable services and resources. Community networks should help people find support, maintain relationships across student turnover, and identify needs that public systems are failing to meet.

    Emergency preparation, major development, and UC projects belong in the same service framework. Each should identify accessible routes, transportation effects, sanitation, emergency access, maintenance duties, funding, and the institution responsible for delivery.

    The public measure is whether an ordinary problem gets fixed, care reaches the person who needs it, and the improvement continues working.

    Read the City Services Plan

Growth Must Improve Daily Life

These three plans depend on one another.

Housing without preservation can displace the people growth was supposed to serve. Housing without public space leaves residents with fewer places to rest, gather, and build community. Housing and public space without maintenance leave the neighborhood with facilities that exist on paper but cannot be relied upon.

The same connection works in the other direction. Stable housing helps people maintain relationships and participate in neighborhood life. Public spaces give care networks, culture, recreation, and emergency preparation somewhere to operate. Dependable City services keep homes, streets, and gathering places accessible and usable.

That is the governing standard I will bring to Council: growth should expand Berkeley’s capacity to house people, support public life, and provide dependable services.

What Residents Will Be Able to Track

Residents should be able to see:

  • Homes approved, completed, occupied, preserved, and lost

  • Affordability levels, tenant outcomes, and ownership opportunities

  • Public land and usable public space gained, restricted, or lost

  • Restrooms, water, seating, shade, trees, rooms, and accessible routes added or repaired

  • Service requests, response times, repeat failures, and permanent repairs

  • Community-care connections, crisis-response coverage, and documented service gaps

  • City, UC, developer, and project-sponsor commitments completed or delayed

  • Capital costs, recurring operating expenses, and responsible funding sources

Public reporting should show where conditions improved, where they did not, and what decision comes next.

A City People Can Continue Calling Home

Berkeley can add homes while protecting the people already here. It can restore public space and build the wider network Southside needs. It can provide services that residents, students, workers, businesses, and community organizations can rely on.

When elected, I will carry these three plans as one governing program: help people remain, protect the places where community life happens, and make public institutions follow through.

Aidan Hill

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