Tuesday’s election makes it clear that the Bay Area will not solve its housing crisis until it formulates a regional solution with broad support.
]Voters recognize that the region lacks a coherent approach that will provide the funding and engender the political support necessary to transform it into a place where young people and low- and middle-class workers can live and thrive.
The good news is that could change if a regional housing plan that has been in the works for the past 18 months finds favor.
The nine-county Committee to House the Bay Area, which is calling itself CASA, is composed of a wide range of labor, business, nonprofit, political and housing leaders throughout the region. CASA plans to release a package of proposals by the end of the year that would address the region’s financial and political housing challenges. CASA has drawn a wide range of support, including tech titans such as Google and Facebook in addition to politicians such as San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo and Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf.
“The housing crisis is truly an emergency that demands that kind of support,” said CASA co-chair Leslye Corsiglia, executive director of SV@Home, the Silicon Valley nonprofit housing advocacy group.
Tuesday’s election results illustrate the urgent need for the regional approach.
On the positive side, Bay Area voters helped pass statewide Propositions 1 and 2, which will make billions in funding available to the region for more housing. And they elected a governor, Gavin Newsom, who has pledged to add 3.5 million housing units in California by 2025 — a bold, ambitious plan. Closer to home, Berkeley voters passed Measure O, a $135 million bond measure to fund affordable housing for low-income and working households and teachers, seniors, veterans, the homeless and persons with disabilities.
But San Jose’s Measure V, which would have provided $450 million in bonds for desperately needed affordable housing, appears to have been defeated. Nearly half of the ballots have not been counted, but Measure V would have to receive 70 percent approval of the remaining ballots to pass. And on the Peninsula, council seats were won by candidates who favor slower or no growth at the expense of candidates who favored building more housing.
The negative results shouldn’t necessarily be interpreted to mean residents of those cities oppose affordable housing. More than 60 percent of San Jose voters, for example, favor Measure V, which required two-thirds approval. The results more likely reflect the lack of a coherent, strategic regional plan that assures residents that the feel of their treasured neighborhoods and city centers will not be damaged. Or that their traffic woes will not be made even worse.
No other region in California has experienced the Bay Area’s explosive growth of high-paying jobs. Statewide, between 2011 and 2016, California added just 171 homes for every 1,000 people.
The Bay Area must do better. A regional approach offers the best opportunity to solve the crisis.
