The shortage of housing in California is a crisis that is negatively impacting residents at all income levels. Regardless of income, 48% of owners and 57% of renters in California are cost burdened paying well above the desired 30% of income for housing. The numbers are even more alarming for low-income households. The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s annual report, Out of Reach, ranks California as the third most expensive rental market in the country. Additionally, the five most expensive rental counties are all located in the San Francisco Bay Area.
The high cost of housing is aggravated by the lack of supply. According to a report from the Legislative Analyst’s Office, housing production is far below the estimated housing units needed to meet the demand, especially in strong employment markets. Traditional approaches for adding units such as large multifamily buildings and subdivisions are the solutions deemed most efficient and effective because of their economies of scale. But this scale has its own drawbacks such as a hefty price tag, extensive pre-development lead time, and most importantly the willingness of a developer to assume the risk. Large scale development cannot be the only solution when we need more housing now.
This forum explored some of the experimental and smaller scale activities that hold the promise of bringing housing to market sooner. Innovations such as vacant property recapture, pre-fab construction, small sites acquisition and accessory dwelling units are solutions that are poised for immediate adoption. Could these innovations be accomplished on a bigger scale and what would it take? How can we help organizations build capacity to execute these ideas more productively?