June 2002 Key Findings San Francisco Bay Area 72% of Bay Area governments are failing to take the most basic steps to address Housing the affordable housing shortage. Three local actions could double the production of affordable homes: allowing Crisis more apartments to be built, dedicating local funds to affordable housing, and Report adopting inclusionary zoning. Local governments helped cause our affordable housing shortage but also have Card the means to turn failure into success. Desperate for housing A crowd gathers at San Francisco Housing Authority after the waiting list for low income housing vouchers was reopened for the first time in three years. The Voice of Affordable Housing San Francisco Bay Area Housing Crisis Report Card Table Of Contents Executive Summary ..................................................................................................................... 1 Grades on the Housing Crisis Report Card ............................................................................... 3 How Cities Prolong The Bay Area Housing Crisis ................................................................. 4 What the Grades Mean ............................................................................................................... 6 Who Needs Affordable Housing in the Bay Area?.................................................................. 7 The Status Quo Is Failing To Provide Housing Choices ........................................................... 8 Housing Element Results Fall Short: New Affordable Housing 1988—1998 ........................ 9 How Cities Can Make The Grade .............................................................................................. 10 Housing 101: Zoning for Housing Choices and Smart Growth ........................................... 10 Dedicated Funds for Affordable Housing .............................................................................. 12 Jobs-Housing Linkage Programs ..................................................................................... 12 Increasing Redevelopment Funds for Affordable Housing .............................................. 14 Housing Trust Funds & Bonds ....................................................................................... 15 Inclusionary Policies .............................................................................................................. 16 The Bay Area’s Homework: Housing Reform ............................................................................ 18 Appendix A: Report Card Grading System ................................................................................... 20 Appendix B: Regional Housing Needs Determination .................................................................. 21 Notes ............................................................................................................................................ 24 Glossary ........................................................................................................................................ 25 Copyright Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, Greenbelt Alliance 2002 The Voice of Affordable Housing The Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern Greenbelt Alliance California (NPH) 530 Bush St., Suite 303, 369 Pine St., Suite 350, San Francisco, CA 94104 San Francisco, CA 94108 (415) 989-8160 • www.nonprofithousing.org (415) 398-3730 • www.greenbelt.org Nine County Housing Advocacy Network East Bay Housing Organizations Association of Homeless & Housing Service Providers of Contra Costa County Marin Housing Council Napa Valley Nonprofit Housing Coalition Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County Council of Community Housing Organizations, San Francisco Santa Clara County Collaborative on Affordable Housing and Homeless Issues Sonoma County Housing Advocacy Group California Affordable Housing Law Project Executive Summary Local Government Inaction is Worsening The Housing Crisis Can be Solved the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Three straightforward local government actions This Report Card reveals why the San Francisco Bay could double the creation of affordable homes in Area continues to have a housing crisis, and how our existing cities and towns across the Bay Area. local governments can help end it. A major cause They are: of the crisis is that 72% of the region’s cities and counties are failing to take basic steps to address the 1. Creating Housing Choices: In order to Bay Area’s affordable housing shortage. increase the overall supply of housing, allow apartments and condominiums to be built There is a set of proven solutions that can provide a where they are now prohibited. range of housing choices for everyone, from young 2. Dedicating Local Funds to Housing: Use working families to grandparents on fixed incomes. jobs-housing linkage fees, housing trust funds, These solutions can increase the overall supply of and additional revenues from Redevelopment housing, including permanently affordable housing, Areas to create new affordable housing. yet all too many local governments have declined to 3. Adopting Inclusionary Zoning: Require that adopt them. The Housing Crisis Report Card new housing include at least 15% of all homes examines the extent to which cities and counties are as affordable to lower income residents. adopting common sense strategies for affordable housing. It takes a closer look at 40 key cities and As the examples that follow show, these policies are counties, selected because they are among the already in place and effective in some Bay Area largest and fastest growing places in the Bay Area. cities and counties that are serious about solving the Of these 40 cities and counties, only seven made housing crisis. They should be in effect in every one the housing Honor Roll, while nearly three- of the Bay Area’s 109 jurisdictions. quarters earned unsatisfactory marks. Failing to Plan, Planning for Failure According to the Association of Bay Area The Housing Crisis Report Card is the first Governments, to house its growing population this comprehensive look at housing elements in the Bay nine-county region will need to add over 230,000 Area. California law requires each city and new homes from 1999-2006. Of those, at least county to plan for its “fair share” of housing for 72,000—nearly 10,000 per year—must be people of all income levels. The housing element affordable to lower-income families. If local is the state-mandated plan for meeting housing governments do not act, homelessness will rise and young families with children will continue to be priced out of the region. Low wage workers—who are disproportionately people of color— will be unable to live near their jobs, and commutes will only get longer. Strobridge Court Apartments in Castro Valley was built by BRIDGE Housing as a mixed- use development adjacent to BART, which also incorporates an historic home. Photo: Tom Jones/California Futures Network. 1 Solving the housing crisis will take all levels of government The federal and state government are two legs of a three-legged stool that supports the creation of affordable housing. The third leg is our cities and counties, and that leg’s weakness could collapse the whole stool if stronger action is not taken soon. One important development that will start us toward solutions is recent action by the California legislature. The Governor and legislators have needs. Bay Area housing elements were due to be placed a $2.1 billion housing bond—the Housing updated in 2001 for the first time in ten years. and Emergency Shelter Trust Fund Act of 2002— before voters in November 2002. And in By law, cities must provide for a broad spectrum of Washington D.C., a National Housing Trust Fund housing by using their zoning power to to produce and preserve 1.5 million affordable accommodate a range of housing choices, removing homes has been introduced in Congress. local government obstacles to housing, and carrying out programs to assist in the development of But as this Report Card shows, local government affordable housing. At the end of the 1990s, 39% is not doing its part. Because California’s “fair of Bay Area cities were out of compliance with the share” housing law has no teeth, far too many city “fair share” housing law. And this Report Card’s leaders continue to shirk their responsibilities. The findings show that less than one-third of the needed alternative is a new state law with real rewards for affordable housing was actually built. cities and counties that are doing their “fair share” to meet housing needs—and real consequences for The problem of failing to plan for a diversity of those that, year after year, refuse to provide housing housing types, including affordable housing, is choices for all of us. getting worse. Today, 89% of Bay Area cities and counties are not complying with our state’s “fair share” housing law.1 This report puts Bay Area leaders on alert that the region’s housing crisis will worsen unless they act to adopt needed solutions. Investing to solve the housing crisis makes sense Building more housing overall—and investing in affordable housing in particular—strengthens our economy by ensuring that businesses have access to high quality workers. It strengthens our communities by ensuring that the full diversity of Bay Area residents has decent housing, everyone from our children to our grandparents. And it protects our environment by guiding new growth toward our existing cities and towns and away from our beautiful