Our View: Meeting the affordable housing goals set by ABAG has
become a charade. What’s needed are concrete examples of what’s
working where, and how
The Association of Bay Area Governments and affordable housing advocates are right on: There’s not enough housing for very low-income residents in Gilroy. But it’s not just a problem that Gilroy faces, as ABAG itself admits on its Web site: “Recent estimates indicate that only 12 percent of Bay Area households can afford a median-priced home in the region.”
So it is clear that Gilroy is not alone in finding it difficult to attract developers to build housing that people who make less than 50 percent of the area’s median income can afford. As reporter Serdar Tumgoren’s recent story pointed out, “In Santa Clara County, that classification applies to individuals who earn yearly wages of up to $37,150, or four-person families earning up to $53,050, according to state income tables.”
Housing advocates will tell you that it is very difficult to make these projects pencil out, given the low rental rates that very low-income households can afford to pay.
That means that ABAG, instead of just setting housing element numbers and griping when Gilroy – like most of the 101 cities in the nine-county San Francisco Bay Area – doesn’t meet them, has a larger role to play.
Can ABAG, or the non-profit group Public Advocates, which sued Gilroy a few years ago over its affordable housing numbers, point to any city in the Bay Area that meets its goals for very low-income housing? If so, how did that city meet its goal? Would those solutions apply to Gilroy, a largely rural community in the largely urban Bay Area?
If not, then it’s up to ABAG, and groups like Public Advocates, to lobby state and federal representatives to provide the missing funding that would make it possible for developers to build housing for very low-income households.
Complaining, like ABAG does, is not helpful. Suing, like Public Advocates did (and lost, we note), is counter productive. We’re all aware of the housing crisis. What we need are solutions, not finger pointing and raw numbers that point out the problem. How about some creative solutions from ABAG presented to cities in a cooperative way?
If ABAG would switch gears, Bay Area cities might be able to make some progress in this difficult arena.
