Local WorkBAY AREA
Making Room for the Homes the Bay Area Needs
From San Francisco's Board of Supervisors to planning commissions in the East Bay and Silicon Valley, the Housing Action Coalition fights to make it faster, cheaper, and more feasible to build homes, and holds local government to the housing laws already on the books.
Our Policy Strategy for the Region
The Housing Action Coalition works to end California's housing shortage by reforming the rules that govern how, where, and what kind of housing gets built. In the Bay Area, that means showing up at hearings for the projects that matter: San Francisco's rezoning and inclusionary reform, Berkeley's corridor upzoning, Oakland's citywide growth plan, San José's General Plan update in Silicon Valley, and more. We push each project toward outcomes that are actually feasible to build, not just legal to build.
We bring together the developers, architects, attorneys, and labor and community partners who build multifamily housing with the officials who regulate it, and turn that shared expertise into testimony, letters of support, coalition organizing, and the public pressure that moves votes.
Take Action
Pro-housing policy wins when people speak up. Want to be a powerful voice impacting housing policy in California? Here's how you can help move the campaigns we’re working on.
200
Active Members
20
Active Projects
10
Completed Project
San Francisco
Most of San Francisco's housing rules are set at City Hall, and HAC shows up for the votes that decide them. We work with the Board of Supervisors and the Mayor to open more of the city to new homes, fix the requirements that make projects impossible to finance, and close the appeals that stall homes already approved.
Family Zoning Plan
San Francisco's Family Zoning Plan is now law. Adopted by the Board of Supervisors and signed by Mayor Lurie in December 2025, it opens up room for more than 36,000 new homes near transit and along major corridors. HAC helped drive the win — testifying at every key hearing and organizing alongside Abundant SF, SF YIMBY, SPUR, and GrowSF. We see it as a strong first step, not a finish line: expanding capacity further, funding affordability, and fixing feasibility gaps are next.
Inclusionary Housing Reform + Housing Trust Fund
San Francisco's inclusionary housing rule wasn't working: a city feasibility study found no housing project in San Francisco could pencil out under the old 15% requirement. In July 2026, with HAC's support, the Board of Supervisors fixed that, lowering the on-site requirement to 5% for larger projects and exempting smaller ones. A companion measure more than doubles the city's affordable housing fund, to as much as $125 million a year, and extends it through 2058. It heads to voters this November.
SHADE Act
A shadow on a sidewalk shouldn't be enough to stall a fully-approved apartment building, but in San Francisco, it has been. Shadow-based appeals have delayed roughly 2,200 homes across 11 projects since 2017. Supervisor Mahmood's SHADE Act would end that as a standalone basis for a CEQA appeal and cut the appeal window from 30 days to 15, closing a gap the state itself flagged in San Francisco's Housing Element. HAC backed the reform with public comment and a letter of support; it's still making its way through City Hall.
Ceiling Height Ordinance
Thousands of basement and garage-level units in the Sunset and Parkside are fully livable under state code, but blocked by a stricter local rule. Supervisor Wong's ordinance would lower San Francisco's minimum ceiling height from 7'6" to 7'0", matching state standards and unlocking legal ADU and rental conversions without costly excavation. HAC backed the effort with media remarks and a letter of support. Co-sponsored by five supervisors, the ordinance is still working through approval.
East Bay
From Berkeley's transit corridors to Oakland's citywide growth plan, East Bay cities are rewriting the rules for where homes can go. HAC testifies and organizes for plans that are feasible to build, and when a city's Housing Element falls short of state law, we hold it to account, as our settlements with Lafayette and Pleasanton show.
Corridor Upzoning in Berkeley
After a year of hearings, Berkeley's Planning Commission recommended upzoning the North Shattuck, Solano, and College Avenue corridors. This would allow buildings of 5 to 7 stories (7-8 with the state density bonus), paired with protections for small businesses. HAC organized alongside East Bay YIMBY throughout and pushed for a stronger, citywide standard that would have added hundreds more homes than the plan that advanced. It now heads to Berkeley’s City Council for a final vote.
San Pablo Avenue Specific Plan
Berkeley's years-in-the-making update to San Pablo Avenue, one of its key transit corridors, is still taking shape. HAC has testified twice, pushing for a simple, flat seven-story standard instead of a complicated tiered system, backing a condo pilot to unlock ownership housing and fund affordable housing, and urging the city to retire an outdated, redundant planning document. More hearings, and a formal letter of support, are ahead.
Ashby BART West Lot (Berkeley)
The Ashby BART West Lot is a surface parking lot at Ashby/Adeline/MLK Jr. Way, adjacent to the Ashby BART station in South Berkeley, with Adeline Alliance Partners selected as developer and a City/BART commitment to a minimum of 35% affordable housing on the site. HAC submitted a written letter of support ahead of the July 1 Planning Commission session, and it's still very much live. Final Objective Design Standards (ODS) return to the Planning Commission in September and City Council considers adoption in November 2026. Stay tuned!
Oakland General Plan Update
Oakland is rewriting its long-term growth plan, and HAC is at the table — testifying in support of the Draft Land Use Framework and submitting letters of support through each committee hearing since. The framework projects roughly 92,200 new homes by 2045 and builds the state's new SB 79 transit-density law into the city's strategy around nine BART stations and 39 AC Transit Tempo BRT stops. The real fight comes this fall: the Land Use and Transportation Element (the piece that actually sets the binding density rules) heads to City Council next.
Lafayette Housing Element Lawsuit
HAC reached a settlement with the City of Lafayette over Housing Element compliance. The city agreed to consider upzoning 130 acres along and near Mt. Diablo Boulevard — with density up to 45-65 dwelling units per acre on key parcels — plus two more acres at De Silva South, through its regular hearing process by year's end. Lafayette also paid $120,080 toward HAC's attorney's fees.
Pleasanton Housing Element Lawsuit
HAC reached a settlement with the City of Pleasanton over its 2023-2031 Housing Element. Under the agreement, Pleasanton would consider rezoning three sites (Hacienda West, Metro 580, and the Inglewood site, roughly 36 acres in all) for up to 100% residential use at densities of 30 to 60 dwelling units per acre, with rezoning, including any required environmental review, completed by December 31, 2026 if the city moves forward.
Silicon Valley
In Silicon Valley, HAC holds cities to the housing plans they have already committed to. We push San José to build the capacity its own Housing Element calls for, and we go to court when a city's plan counts on sites that will never be built, as we did in San Mateo.
San Mateo Housing Element Lawsuit
HAC and Farella Braun + Martel LLP sued San Mateo in 2024 over its Housing Element — the first Bay Area case to challenge whether "available" housing sites were backed by real evidence, and the first pro bono partnership between a law firm and a nonprofit on Housing Element enforcement. The suit argued many listed sites weren't realistically developable, from a shopping center lot barred from residential use to office buildings mid-lease with no redevelopment plans. It settled in June 2025: San Mateo agreed to drop nine unrealistic sites, add capacity elsewhere under Measure T's new density limits, and contribute $250,000 to affordable housing. HAC's support for Measure T, which added roughly 20,000 units of citywide capacity, made the win possible.
San José General Plan
San José needs to plan for roughly 62,000 additional homes in its once-every-four-years General Plan update, and HAC has been pushing the city to actually build the capacity to get there. We’re fighting for missing-middle density in single-family neighborhoods (up to 32 units per acre, the level the city's own Housing Element requires), for taller buildings on underused corridors like Winchester Boulevard near Santana Row, and against new parking minimums that would undercut both.
In August, City Council started to waver, declining to commit to the 32 du/ac its own staff and Planning Commission recommended, and instead directed a study of weaker alternatives alongside new restrictions concentrated in the city's highest-opportunity neighborhoods. HAC is holding San José to the standard it already set for itself, pushing back on delay and dilution as the process heads toward final adoption.
Recent News from the Bay Area
