inclusionary housing

With notoriously high housing costs in San Francisco pushing workers across occupations out of the city and into long commutes, the value of alliances between housing advocates and labor organizers are becoming increasingly clear.

City officials can’t wait for the cavalry to solve their housing problems; they are going to have to do it themselves.

CityHealth revamps its housing medal criteria, shifts away from inclusionary zoning to flexible funding and tenant protections. “We realized there is no singular policy intervention that can address the whole of affordable housing.”

Three city administrators go beyond the press releases to talk about what it really takes to make an inclusionary housing requirement serve households of color.

The question of integrating affordable housing units required by inclusionary zoning on-site versus allowing developers to pay a fee to locate them off-site has long been a contentious one.

In the face of accelerating gentrification, along with ongoing speculation and eviction, the idea of putting a substantial number of homes outside of the reach of the speculative market has been gaining momentum across the country.

Though the need is greater than ever for resale-restricted, affordable homes, the growth of this model of homeownership appears to be limited.

The time to strike isn’t when the iron is hot. Cities in soft or mixed markets should adopt inclusionary housing policies before the housing market heats up and the process becomes even more challenging.

It’s time for more states to do what it takes to pass enabling legislation for inclusionary housing, adding this valuable policy tool to the fight for more affordable housing opportunities.

The meager supply of affordable housing is a major contributor to housing’s high cost, yet the policy tools to address the shortfall often seem to worsen the problem. But this is because they ignore the underlying infrastructure and financing to support growth.

A: No, they do not. Market-rate developers are business people. They charge as much as the market will bear. When housing prices go up . . .

A: No! Research shows that hasn’t been the case. And here’s what local officials in places that have implemented it had to say . . .