Last month, the U.S. Census Bureau released the first wave of results from the second phase of the Household Pulse Survey, an experimental survey to measure the social and economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic over time. The survey assesses housing security among several other economic, educational, and health indicators by asking whether respondents paid last month’s rent or mortgage and Read More
Racial disparities in access to safe, stable, and affordable housing were present long before the COVID-19 pandemic hit California. People of color are more likely to experience housing cost burdens, homelessness, and housing instability in the state and are less likely to own homes and acquire wealth, due in large part to California’s long history of discrimination in public and private housing markets, structural racism, and government-sponsored segregation. Recent Read More
The California Housing Partnership’s new Housing Needs Dashboard reveals not only that 1.3 million low-income renter households in California do not have access to an affordable home, but also that this situation has persisted for years. My 22 years of experience working in affordable housing has made clear to me that the private market is unable to produce homes for Read More
In an April 16th post from President & CEO Matt Schwartz, the California Housing Partnership made the case that while Congress, the Governor and the Legislature have taken important steps to address the needs of renters, there is a ticking financial time bomb represented by low-income households living in rent-restricted housing unsupported by rent subsidies, who have lost substantial income due to COVID-19 and Read More
Much of my work at the California Housing Partnership focuses on analyzing the state of affordable rental housing in California and its impacts on individual residents and families, taxpayers, and local economies. Last month, these efforts culminated in our release of the 2020 California Affordable Housing Needs Report. One of the major data findings from this year’s report is the Read More
A new report from the California Housing Partnership finds that the Bay Area needs 235,656 more affordable homes just to meet existing needs. The report finds that: High housing costs are effectively doubling official county poverty rates. More than two-thirds of the lowest income households are severely rent burdened, meaning they are paying more than half their incomes in housing Read More
Today, the California Housing Partnership released a new policy brief — co-authored with Enterprise Community Partners — that documents the substantial community and environmental benefits made possible by the first four rounds of the Affordable Housing and Sustainable Communities (AHSC) program. By requiring coordination of housing, transportation, and land use planning, AHSC simultaneously and holistically addresses three of California’s most pressing challenges: housing affordability, transportation, Read More
What social and economic benefits are generated when we relieve low-income families of housing insecurity and rent burden? Or when we help households move to healthier higher resource neighborhoods? How much local economic activity, job creation, and tax revenue is generated when we build and preserve affordable housing? To help answer these questions, the California Housing Partnership recently launched the Affordable Read More
A new report from the California Housing Partnership shows that recent state initiatives designed to stimulate production of more affordable rental housing have yet to make a significant impact in reducing the shortfall of 1.4 million affordable homes needed or in housing the 130,000 Californians experiencing homelessness on any given night. California Housing Partnership CEO Matt Schwartz says, “It is unacceptable that Read More
The California Housing Partnership is pleased to announce a $100,000, one-year grant from The San Francisco Foundation to document the relationship between rental housing affordability and patterns of displacement, segregation, and unequal access to opportunity for low-income people of color in the Bay Area since 2000. The Urban Displacement Project at UC Berkeley will be our partner on this project, Read More