SACRAMENTO — The Bay Area, widely considered the epicenter of the state’s housing crisis, could soon see the formation of a new, regional authority tasked with shoring up the supply of affordable housing — largely, by raising more taxes to pay for it.
A state proposal to create such a body, Assembly Bill 1487 by San Francisco Democrat David Chiu, passed out of the California Assembly Friday, 42-18.
“A regional approach is crucial to tackling our housing crisis in the Bay Area,” Chiu said in a statement after the vote. “Our challenges are inextricably linked across our region, and we need to tackle them together. By generating more funding at a regional level, we are taking a significant step towards a more affordable and equitable Bay Area.”
The Housing Alliance for the Bay Area, as it would be called, was a key component of the CASA Compact, a regional initiative that yielded an array of proposed solutions to the region’s housing woes.
The proposed new body would be staffed and managed by existing regional transportation and planning organizations, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and the Association of Bay Area Governments. Much like regional transit authorities, it would have the power to put parcel taxes, housing bonds, business taxes and other revenue-generating measures before voters across the nine-county region — possibly raising as much as $1.5 billion annually. It would not have the authority to change or enforce local land-use decisions.
At least 75 percent of the funds generated from a given county would be spent within that county on affordable-housing and tenant-protection purposes outlined in the bill, according to a legislative analysis.
One affordable housing advocate cheered the development, calling it “great news for families who need solutions now.”
“We are facing a housing crisis of existential proportions,” said Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. “We’re on this collision course of growth but no housing.”
Fishman cited a recently unveiled count of the homeless in the Bay Area. It showed that the number of people living on the street, in shelters or in their cars had swelled by 43 percent in Alameda and by 42 percent in Santa Clara counties during the past two years.
The bill will now move through the state Senate, where it will face opposition from the chamber’s anti-tax advocates who have argued such measures will make the region even more costly to live in.
Carl Guardino, president and CEO of the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, which represents business interests and has championed bridge-toll increases and other taxes for transportation improvements, said his group had not yet taken a position on the legislation. He said he understood the rationale behind the proposal, but noted that the details matter — “which taxes and which fees impacting which individuals or entities.”
“Burdens of new taxes and fees can add to the incredibly high cost of living,” Guardino said. “That delicate dance of addressing a problem without creating another problem is what we’ll have to soberly consider.”
