Model Places Illustration

Housing

We believe: Housing is a human right and should be affordable to everyone.

Our Goals

• Increase the supply of housing.

• Provide more affordable housing for low- and middle-income residents.

• Protect low-income communities of color from displacement.

Monte Vista Gardens apartments in San José

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅReport

Structured for Success

A key cause of California’s high housing costs is its decentralized and fragmented housing governance system. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅmakes 11 recommendations to set California and the Bay Area on the path to produce the housing we need.
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photo of balconies on an apartment building

Research

Losing Ground

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅexamines how the Bay Area’s housing market has become shaped by scarcity and wide economic divides — not only among income groups but also among races and ethnicities.
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Apartment Building

Research

Housing the Middle

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅdigs into the housing market’s failure to meet the needs of middle-income households. California can look to innovative programs across the country as models for how to address the state’s housing challenges.
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Apartment Construction

Research

Planning by Ballot

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅhas created the most up-to-date database of local land use ballot measures that impact housing production in California. Over the long term, measures that restrict infill housing can undermine housing affordability and have the potential to exacerbate racial segregation.
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Updates and Events

capitol building

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅSponsors Seven State Bills to Make Housing More Affordable

News /
Housing continues to be scarce in the Bay Area and unobtainable for even many middle-income residents. ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅis advocating for and sponsoring legislation that incentivizes and removes barriers to housing production. In addition, we are supporting a nearly $8 billion budget request for investments in affordable housing and funding for homelessness solutions.

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅProvides Feedback on the Zoning Incentive Program for the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan

Advocacy Letter
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅsent a letter to Oakland’s Planning Department with comments on the Zoning Incentive Program (ZIP) for the Downtown Oakland Specific Plan (DOSP). In the letter, we recommend that the project team reconsider various aspects of the program, such as its narrative that value will be created if rents increase by over 20%, the complexity of its implementation, and its affordable housing requirements.
Sarah Karlinsky headshot

The Bay Area Has Too Little Middle-Income Housing: Q&A With Sarah Karlinsky

News /
In a new research paper, Losing Ground: What the Bay Area's Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality, SPUR’s senior advisor on housing policy, Sarah Karlinsky, reveals how the high cost of housing is shaping the Bay Area in ways that erode quality of life and erase economic and racial diversity. We spoke with Sarah about the research and its implications.
Losing Ground: What the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality

Losing Ground

Research
SPUR’s new research paper, Losing Ground: What the Bay Area’s Housing Crisis Means for Middle-Income Households and Racial Inequality, aims to identify how the Bay Area’s housing market has become shaped by scarcity and wide economic divides not only among income groups but also among races and ethnicities.

Housing Advocates to State: Transit-Oriented Communities Don't Work Without Transit

Advocacy Letter
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅand other housing advocates request the state take action to protect public transit, which provides an essential mobility option for residents of infill housing developments across California. Left unaddressed, transit's fiscal cliff will harm the state's most vulnerable residents and undermine the production of infill housing.

ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅSponsors Bill to Increase Shared Parking (AB 894 - Friedman)

Advocacy Letter
ºÚÁÏ´«ËÍÃÅis sponsoring a bill to require that agencies allow land owners and managers to share underutilized parking and to count such shared parking toward meeting parking requirements. The bill would also require new developments and parking lots funded by public agencies to evaluate shared parking options. If passed, this bill will reduce a common circumstance of costly parking being required in situations where other parking is available nearby.
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