Editorial Note: Today’s guest blog post comes from Elizabeth Wampler and East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO).
Seeking, data, stories, or deep thinking about housing affordability in the Bay Area? Look no further…
East Bay Housing Organizations (EBHO) recently highlighted three reports on Bay Area & housing affordability. They are all so great; we wanted to share with TSFF’s community.
- A beautiful piece written by Rachel Thomson, EBHO’s interfaith program’s intern, that weaves together stories from twelve faith leaders, highlighting both the destabilizing and destructive impacts of displacement on faith communities and “suggests concrete ways that faith leaders and communities can respond to the displacement crisis through theology, advocacy, and as owners of sacred land.”
- A punch of data highlighting the housing crisis in Alameda County, where more than 60,000 low income households do not have affordable housing.
- A robust academic response to folks who call for only ‘supply-side’* solutions to the housing crisis. The study finds that while both market-rate and subsidized housing development can reduce displacement pressures, subsidized housing is twice as effective as market-rate development at the regional level.
Thanks to EBHO for being such an important resource for affordable housing tools and research!
*Supply-side solutions focus on the fact that the Bay Area has historically produced far far far less housing than we should have considering the number of people who want to live and work here. This under-production of housing is a real problem, but as the report finds, creating affordable, stable communities requires multi-dimensional solutions.
