Patricia Belding This is Me

Education

 Web References

1. 1. Independent: Articles

   www.independentnews.com/2may3. - [Cached]

   Published on: 5/1/2002   Last Visited: 5/1/2002

   The cause of affordable housing in Pleasanton has found one of its most fervent advocates in Patricia Belding, a church woman who has devoted most of her life to social justice issues.
   
   Belding is the point person in Pleasanton for the Tri-Valley Interfaith Poverty Forum. Founded three years ago, the group has representatives in all five tri-valley cities. They've participated in welfare-to-work issues and published a booklet listing local agencies that help the poor and a hotline list of places where food/clothing is available in crisis situations. The group is currently focusing on affordable housing.
   
   "It's just very basic," Belding says of this issue. "Affordable housing is the key for many people who are trying to make something of their lives. If most of your income is needed for housing, it's hard to be successful. This is especially so in the Bay Area, where housing costs are so high."
   
   Led by Belding, the Interfaith Poverty Forum has become a force in Pleasanton. She served on the committee that reviewed the housing element of the Pleasanton General Plan, and helped gain changes that have made affordable housing the city's topmost housing priority. Her group also threw itself into the planning for the Busch property.
   
   The development plan at first showed virtually nothing but large expensive homes. A collaborative effort developed later produced a final plan that includes affordable housing.
   ...
   Belding expects to be very active in Citizens for a Caring Community, which is being organized to oppose the initiative.
   
   "We have a big job ahead of us educating the community," she says. "We just think there is a desperate need for affordable housing, and hope citizens will see that." An active member of Saint Augustine's Catholic Church, Patricia Belding draws her strength of belief on such issues directly from the church.
   
   "From the time I started going to church as a child, I was told that taking care of people in need was a big part of what it means to be a Christian. That message was very clear. I was six years old then, but I still remember that." She has served on Saint Augustine's social justice committee for 14 years, including a two-year stint as chair.
   
   Belding also has taught religious education at the church for 10 years. That work inspired her to return to college, the University of San Francisco, where she earned her master's in religious education.
   
   She grew up in the East Bay and went to College of Notre Dame in Belmont, receiving a B.A. in history. Upon graduating, she was awarded a Coro Foundation internship in public affairs, a one-year program during which she met her husband, Ward Belding, who was also an intern in the program. Now retired, he was BART's chief of planning. He and Patricia have raised two girls.
   
   She joined President Johnson's War on Poverty in the 1960s, working as an Office of Economic Opportunity field representative out of the San Francisco regional office. She shepherded programs throughout the West. It was very satisfying, she states. "That was a job which just fit me to a T. I felt I was working to help people in a very direct way."
   
   ...
   Patricia Belding's volunteer spirit was reborn when she moved to Pleasanton. Though she had done volunteer work in Oakland, she had begun feeling she wasn't making much of a difference there.
   
   "From the very first, I liked Pleasanton. I could sense a real community feeling here," Belding says. "I felt this was a community where it was possible to get involved and make an even better community."
   
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