Terner Center considers public funding in addressing housing affordability crisis

This policy brief explores how public funding can address the San Francisco Bay Area’s housing affordability crisis by increasing the supply of affordable housing, preserving existing affordable housing stock, and keeping renters stably housed.

Most Bay Area households are affected in some way by the region’s ongoing affordability crisis: housing costs are increasing faster than incomes, nearly half of renters are cost-burdened, and rates of homelessness continue to rise. At the heart of the crisis is a lack of housing supply and housing subsidy. Both the state and localities need to continue to expand funding dedicated to affordable housing production: insufficient public subsidies remain a binding constraint on efforts to expand the supply of affordable units.

Throughout the brief, we highlight various programs, policies, and funding initiatives that hold promise for the region’s housing crisis, but which need additional funding to get to scale.

Christi Economy, Research Associate; Quinn Underriner, Senior Data Scientist; Julie Aguilar, Research Analyst; and Carolina Reid, Faculty Research Advisor