Bay Area Monitor: “Finding a Way Home”

“This summer, officials are expected to adopt Plan Bay Area 2040, the region’s land use and transportation roadmap. While the plan advances environmental goals and transportation system improvements, more work is needed to resolve a confounding Bay Area problem: affordable housing.

That’s why regional agencies are forming the Committee for Affordable and Sustainable Accommodations (CASA), a task force that will draw up a housing implementation strategy to accompany Plan Bay Area. CASA will identify actions to fix plan targets moving off course, focusing on displacement risk, access to jobs, and the high costs of rent and mortgages facing low-to-middle-income households…

CASA’s formation is the result of a request from groups (such as the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, Greenbelt Alliance, and Public Advocates) that asked MTC and ABAG to delve deeper and create a strategy that resolves affordability issues.

“Our hope is that it will address a number of topics covered by [Plan Bay Area] like housing affordability and open space protection, while creating more transit choices for Bay Area residents,” said Matt Vander Sluis, head of Greenbelt Alliance’s Homes and Neighborhoods initiative…”

Read more via the Bay Area Monitor