Silicon Valley investors are securing property in Solano County. The ultra-wealthy in our region have a serious role to play contributing toward solutions to our housing shortage, and indeed many of them have helped fund housing programs to address the issue. It’s vital to build more housing to ensure that everyone who calls the Bay Area home has a place to live. Yet it seems as if this group of Silicon Valley elites, instead of saying, “Yes in my backyard,” is saying, “I’ll take your backyard instead!”
The Bay Area housing shortage stems from slow home construction, skewed toward high-end properties, which has pushed rent prices to record highs. It’s basic supply and demand. Now, nearly 4 in 10 households in the Bay Area pay 30% of their income or more for housing — far too much.
In Solano County, we need to build more than 1,700 homes for very low-income buyers and renters. So far, only 129 permits have been granted. My advice to these developers is to ensure you have the entire community in mind with your plans so that folks who have called Solano home for generations still have a place in the community.
Investors developing in Solano County must understand the needs in this community. Our most recent 2-1-1 snapshot report, which provides data on why people in different communities call our helpline for assistance, shows higher than average calls about hunger, with 22% of calls compared to 16% across the region. It’s notable that our Solano County neighbors have a harder time putting food on their tables. We need to focus our efforts.
Plus, we already know policy solutions and public investments that work to build more housing for people where they are in our community. Some things they could do include:
Saying “Yes in my backyard” when specific housing projects are proposed, instead of constructing walls between them and our neighbors who need affordable housing.
Supporting legislation and local ordinances that will speed up the production of affordable housing in Silicon Valley and across the Bay Area — it’s hard, but it’s working.
Lower the threshold for voters to approve bonds to build housing — Vote yes on ACA-1, on the ballot next November.
Housing justice advocates have seen some success. Several Bay Area counties, since 2016, have passed a local bond measure to support affordable housing. In Santa Clara County, for example, Measure A, the $950 million bond, is on track to create 4,481 new apartments, 689 home renovations and a $25 million appropriation for first-time homebuyers so far. As a community, we made these bold investments in recent years, and now we’re seeing returns in the form of new housing. We should double down to meet the scale of this problem.
Excitingly, the California Legislature just added ACA 1 to the ballot for 2024. The constitutional amendment, if passed, lowers the voter threshold from a two-thirds supermajority to 55% to approve local bonds and other sources of funding for building affordable housing and other infrastructure. This will allow California voters the chance to regain control over housing decisions in their communities.
If we’re serious about housing affordability in our region, we cannot focus solely on buying up land and building enclaves at the expense of funding development in our own backyards, too. We need to offer solutions that help those who are struggling the most — and that doesn’t include simply building higher walls between the ultra wealthy and those struggling to remain housed. It means building affordable homes, where people are, and working to get people into them. We welcome the help and the investment, but let’s focus on real solutions.
Kevin Zwick is chief executive officer of United Way Bay Area.
