Learn how the Housing Action Coalition is holding San Mateo County for their bogus housing plan.

To honor pride month, HAC is shedding light on the ways that San Francisco is economically exclusive while touting it's cultural inclusivity. This reality affects housing security for LGBTQIA+ folks disproportionately and needs to be addressed.

With HAC's coverage of this annual event, you can learn:

• How we can decrease rent costs in the Bay Area

• The policy amendments needed to jumpstart housing production

• Why homebuilders, elected officials, and labor leaders need to work together

• How we can make San Francisco a more inclusive city

• And more!

May is Affordable Housing Month! While this month provides an opportunity to celebrate the progress the pro-housing community has helped achieve, May is also a stark reminder of the challenges our region and state still have to overcome.

As we enter the 2024 legislative cycle, HAC will help achieve more progress by driving key state housing policy initiatives forward. This year we’re sponsoring six pieces of statewide legislation to make building new housing faster and easier.

While it’s still too early to know how all of HAC’s endorsed candidates and ballot measures did, the results so far are looking positive for the pro-housing community. Check the status of some of the major statewide and local races as of March 6, 2024.

On February 26th, Daly City City Council voted to approve Jefferson Union High School District’s (JUHSD) proposal to introduce 1,235 new homes and a Head Start child care facility at the Serramonte Del Rey site.

This past Wednesday morning, HAC hosted our Regulatory Committee across the Bay in Oakland featuring Mayor Sheng Thao and several members of her administration to give updates on major Oakland housing policies and processes.

The last few years have posed significant challenges to homebuilders. Inflation, soaring interest rates, and high construction costs have made it increasingly difficult to finance housing projects. 

While the state of the market is out of our control, we can reform state and local housing policies to help create more favorable conditions for housing production.

Mountain View’s Gatekeeper Process is a review mechanism created to review proposed development projects that may require a new zoning designation, and has been the city’s main mechanism to build large-scale projects. Proposals must first undergo a “pre-review” by the council before city staff evaluates them. The intent of the current Gatekeeper process is to make project expectations more clear, and simplify the path to council approval. 

In January, I got a notification from LinkedIn that I had just reached my eight-year workivesary at the Housing Action Coalition. Looking back on the near-decade I’ve spent advocating for housing, it’s moving to think about how much progress has been made.

The San Francisco City Attorney’s Office sent memorandums on Assembly Bill 1114 (Haney) and Senate Bill 423 (Wiener) to San Francisco officials on November 8. HAC sponsored AB 1114, and was a leading champion of SB 423. Together, these two bills will significantly improve the housing construction process from start to finish, helping alleviate California’s housing shortage and affordability crisis.

As a housing advocacy group, HAC constantly monitors cities, elected officials, and neighbors to know who is and isn’t supporting more housing creation. This year, we made a list (and checked it twice) to chronicle some of the pro- and anti-housing actors from across the region. And with the holiday season upon us, there is no better time to unveil HAC’s running catalog of housing advocates and antagonists — informally referred to as our ‘Naughty or Nice’ list. 

You better watch out. You better not cry. Read on to learn who has been naughty and who has been nice in 2023. 

On Wednesday, October 18th the Housing Action Coalition was proud to host our 21st Annual Housing Heroes at the Salesforce Transit Center. Here’s a recap of the event:

As someone who cherishes the time they’ve spent in Rockridge, the prospect of making the neighborhood more affordable and accessible to families of all income levels means a lot to me. There are far too many wealthy enclaves in the Bay Area with anti-housing laws and regulations that create barriers to access for middle and lower-income residents. Upzoning will lead to more affordable housing opportunities while preserving the essence and charm of a neighborhood that I and so many other Oakland residents hold dear. 

To create pro-housing change we need bold pro-housing leaders who are committed to solving our state’s severe housing shortage, affordability, and displacement crisis.

To that end, here are the pro-housing candidates in critical local and state races HAC is proud to endorse for the March 5 election.

The 2023 legislative session in Sacramento was a landmark moment for pro-housing advocates. From reforming CEQA to addressing the post-entitlement process, California legislators passed a number of significant housing bills that will undoubtedly help accelerate housing production across our state.

In June of 2023 the San José City Council moved to adopt their housing element prior to state certification from the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). HAC, alongside our coalition partners, firmly advocated against the city’s decision. However, San José’s staff felt confident that the housing plan they drafted met the state’s requirements and would be certified by HCD; if revisions were needed, they would be minor. Yet on August 28th, HCD sent the city a 9-page rejection letter, highlighting a number of issues with the housing element draft they sent.

With the overwhelming success of the latest legislative session, getting multifamily housing entitled and permitted will soon be faster and easier than ever. HAC is proud to be one of the driving forces behind these recent wins as our ongoing efforts to collaborate with state and local elected officials to break down critical barriers to housing production are starting to pay off.

Updates to project agreements + councilmember activity.