Shawn Danino
About Shawn
With extensive experience at the State Housing Department and California Department of Housing and Community Development, Shawn Danino has been a driving force behind planning for approximately 250,000 housing units across California. His dedication and expertise have been recognized through 8 peer recognition awards via the RISE and Director’s Award Nomination Program.
Shawn's collaboration with the State Treasurer led to the establishment of a $100 million recurring annual grant program, financing affordable backyard homes in North Oakland. As a founding member of both the State ADU Team and Prohousing Team, he has mentored over 10 staff members on housing feasibility, zoning, climate resilience planning, and creating tools for persons with disabilities.
In Oakland, Shawn served as the Primary Reviewer for the city’s Housing Element, ensuring plans to accommodate nearly 28,000 housing units over eight years. He was also the Primary Reviewer for Oakland’s successful Prohousing Designation Program Application, securing $3 million through the Prohousing Incentive Program. His advocacy has been instrumental in the approval of a 222-unit mixed-income project near West Oakland BART, with special environmental justice concessions for lower-income households. Shawn led efforts to revise the housing element to affirmatively further fair housing by rezoning historically segregated communities.
Shawn holds a Bachelor's degree in Sociology from the University of Southern California (Magna Cum Laude) and dual Master's degrees in Information and Public Policy from the University of Michigan.
Building a More Equitable and Sustainable Oakland
Shawn is a progressive climate organizer and the most pro-housing, pro-mobility candidate in the race centering climate change and affordability. He has been an organizer with the Sunrise Movement and the Bernie Sanders 2016/2020 campaign, where he got over a thousand voters registered. Shawn centered climate justice when he worked at California's state housing department and continues to thread the needle between housing and climate issues.
Shawn is running on 1) a zero displacement housing program that creates housing abundance without displacing current Oakland residents; 2) a 4-day work week with 9-hour days and 36 hour weeks; 3) a program to create mobility lanes so that scooters, wheelchair users, and bikes are able to safely move throughout the city, replacing the lane on the inside of the parking to avoid getting hit by car doors and other road injuries; 4) a neighborhood market program to legalize corner stores in residential areas so we don't have to get in a car to meet 100% of our daily needs; and 5) a program to legalize the separate sale of backyard homes, to make home ownership more accessible and support the creation of generational wealth.
To protect cyclists, wheelchair users, and people walking, Shawn will work with our neighboring cities to overhaul road designs where accidents are most common, including International Boulevard, Alcatraz, and San Pablo, and add speed bumps at the on- and off-ramps of I-580. Shawn will actively target Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) money, of which there is billions of dollars available for Active Mobility improvement plans, protected bike lanes, bumpouts, and other traffic calming measures. There are several other policies that will encourage complete streets. One is narrowing the right of way, particularly by putting bike lanes on the inside of parking spots, so that cars are less incentivized to speed and bikes / wheelchairs / other mobility users are less likely to be “doored” or hit by a car. Shawn will also invest in tree canopy, more greenways, and allowing neighborhood markets that both lower the barriers to entry to starting a small business and offer retail opportunities that do not rely on cars. Shawn currently serves on the boards of Transport Oakland and TransForm, where he will have active partners on advocating for complete streets as a elected official.
Contact: shawn.danino@gmail.com
Phone: 510-982-1892