Proponents of California Proposition 36, which would undo many of the reforms brought by voter approval of Proposition 47 in 2014, are claiming that voter approval of this new measure would reduce homelessness in our state. As a Sociologist with the California Housing Partnership, I can tell you these claims are patently false. Here’s why: What Did Proposition 47 Do Read More
Housing advocates, agencies, policymakers, and developers in California understand that we need to build more – much more – to meet current and future housing needs, particularly affordable homes for those with low incomes. At the same time, the State’s housing production goals can feel so large and daunting that they stand apart from the day-to-day practices of housers working Read More
This blog post and related research were prepared for the California Housing Partnership by undergraduate students at Stanford University as part of the Program on Urban Studies community engaged learning course “Gentrification.” Students learn about this complicated topic in class and through engaging in a real-world project with partner organizations including Faith in Action Bay Area, Silicon Valley at Home Read More
Earlier this month, California’s Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) released the final Neighborhood Change Map, which is intended to inform statewide policy for affordable housing and advance affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) objectives. The Neighborhood Change Map identifies low- and moderate-income communities of color that have undergone substantial racial/ethnic and economic changes. This map signals that the State Read More
Discussion about the State of California’s efforts to advance the affirmatively furthering fair housing (AFFH) objective of increasing access to opportunity have typically framed neighborhood opportunity broadly, in terms of higher and lower levels of “resources,” rather than in terms of the specific characteristics of those neighborhoods. This framing is helpful in the context of policy design and also understandable Read More
As California’s housing crisis has deepened in recent years, more and more families have been affected, leading some state and local leaders to consider investing scarce resources to help the households earning at (or even above) the area median income (AMI). But what does the data show concerning the ability of households at each income level to afford market rents Read More
Advocates and experts have gone on the record to say that inflation is exacerbating the housing affordability crisis in the Bay Area as families do not have as much disposable income to cover cost-of-living increases. An article in the SF Chronicle discussed how, “inflation means a Bay Area resident will spend $4,400 more the same stuff this year” compared to Read More
Decades of systemic racism and economic inequality have led the cost burden of renter households to vary across racial groups, which can be seen by looking at the charts available in the California Housing Partnership’s Housing Needs Dashboard. Typically, households are considered cost burdened if thirty percent or more of their income is allocated towards housing costs and severely cost Read More
This year’s state budget authorized $2.9 billion to fund new and existing housing programs and $3.4 billion to assist individuals experiencing homelessness. While these investments are substantial, this allocation is not to scale for California’s growing 1.2 million housing-cost-burdened population. According to the Roadmap Home 2030, California needs to invest $17.9 billion a year to have the capacity to create Read More
A recent study completed by a team of graduate student researchers at the Goldman School of Public Policy raises major doubts about statewide efforts to reduce rent for middle income renters under current middle-income housing programs and raises new equity concerns. California’s middle income housing program has grown substantially in the last three years and currently includes over 12,000 units. Read More