Three Inland Empire mayors urged voters to approve Proposition 1 — an $11.25 billion statewide affordable housing bond on the Nov. 3 ballot — at a news conference Oct. 9 at Mulberry Gardens, an affordable housing development under construction on former state land near Downtown Riverside.
Riverside Mayor Patricia Lock Dawson, San Bernardino Mayor Helen Tran and Moreno Valley Mayor Ulises Cabrera joined the Inland SoCal Housing Collective (ISCHC), a regional nonprofit that organized the event. Supporters say the measure would help fund hundreds of affordable apartments already planned in Riverside that are waiting on money to start construction.
Figures from the city and county of Riverside show the bond could help close funding gaps for approximately 450 affordable units in the city and 4,952 across Riverside County, according to event organizers.
“Projects like Mulberry Gardens, where we’re gathered today, will eventually open its doors to give seniors and families more than a roof over their heads,” Lock Dawson said at the event. “It will provide them with a home — a home with stability, security, and a place to build their futures.”
Lock Dawson also pitched the measure as a way to keep graduates of the city’s universities and community college in Riverside. “A diploma should open the door to a future in Riverside, but the high cost of housing should not close it,” she said.
Proposition 1, formally the Veterans and Affordable Housing Bond Act of 2026, was placed on the ballot by the state Legislature. It would set aside $1.25 billion for veterans’ home loans through the California Department of Veterans Affairs (CalVet) home loan program and $1.1 billion for homeownership and down payment assistance, according to supporters. The largest share — $5.1 billion — would go to the state’s main program for building affordable rental housing, with another $1.15 billion for supportive housing for people leaving homelessness. The rest would go to programs including farmworker housing, student housing at University of California and California State University campuses, and infrastructure for new housing.
A handful of state lawmakers have opposed the measure. Assemblymember David Tangipa, R-Fresno, questioned why the state needs to borrow at all rather than pay for veterans and affordable housing programs directly, , KQED reported.
Cabrera and Tran framed the measure around residents who struggle to stay housed.
“Housing affordability is one of the greatest challenges facing working families in the Inland Empire. … In Moreno Valley, we know that when families can afford to live in the communities where they work and raise their children, our entire region is stronger,” Cabrera said in a statement.
“Building or buying a home has grown increasingly expensive, and many families are working hard just to stay current,” Tran said, adding that San Bernardino has 348 affordable units ready to move forward once they secure gap financing.
Mulberry Gardens is being built by Eden Housing, a Bay Area nonprofit developer, on the former Southern Region headquarters of the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire), on Mulberry Street less than a mile from Downtown Riverside. The project has two phases that share a central walkway, a walking loop and a playground.
The first phase, Sparrow at Mulberry Gardens, will have 59 apartments for seniors 55 and older, 58 of them one-bedroom units. It is expected to open around the end of this year or early 2027. The second phase, Goldfinch at Mulberry Gardens, will have 150 apartments for families, ranging from one to three bedrooms, with 37 set aside for families at risk of homelessness. It is expected to be finished in December 2027.
Rents will be limited to households earning between 30% and 50% of the area median income at Sparrow, and between 30% and 60% at Goldfinch. For a single senior, that means earning no more than about $43,000 a year, according to Eden Housing.
The two phases are expected to cost a combined $141.7 million — about $44.7 million for Sparrow and $97 million for Goldfinch — according to project fact sheets from Eden Housing. Organizers said the development received $39 million from the $4 billion housing bond California voters approved in 2018.
“This project wouldn’t have been possible without the housing bond that voters approved back in 2018,” Lock Dawson said.
The city of Riverside, Riverside County and private tax credit investors are also contributing.
Because the state — not the city — handled the project’s land-use approvals, the 209 units cannot currently be counted toward Riverside’s state-mandated housing production targets, Housing and Human Services Director Michelle Davis told a City Council committee in March.
