THE BAY AREA INCLUSIONARY HOUSING INITIATIVE (IHI)

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For most of the 1990s, the Bay Area’s largest and fastest-growing cities produced just a third of the affordable housing needed by residents in those communities. At the same time, these cities were over-producing higher-end, market-rate housing. It was a broken and lopsided housing market that offered no solutions for low-income and working class families.

The Bay Area Inclusionary Housing Initiative was designed to combat this trend by targeting a dozen of the Bay Area’s fastest-growing cities and counties to pass new or improved inclusionary policies that would create affordable homes. Why inclusionary policies? Because inclusionary policies are effective at creating housing choices in communities where no tradition of affordable housing development exists. Inclusionary policies produce housing without direct government funding. And, most importantly, new inclusionary policies held the potential for major regional impact.

In conjunction with the advocacy efforts of the campaign, NPH, in cooperation with the California Coalition for Rural Housing, San Diego Housing Federation, and the Sacramento Housing Alliance, researched and created a new report examining inclusionary policies all over the state of California. The report, released August 14, 2007, examined the effectiveness of the varied policies, what kinds of homes were produced, who lived in these homes, and the overall impact on the city or county. To order Affordable By Choice: Trends in California Inclusionary Housing Programs, click here. To download the Executive Summary, click here.

For more information about Bay Area Inclusionary housing Initiative, please see below:

On Common Ground: Joint Principles on Inclusionary Housing Policies. NPH and HBANC, July 2005 - the joint policy brief issued by NPH and the Home Builders Association of Northern California.

Bay Area Inclusionary Housing Initiative Partners - find out about the funders and community groups implementing the campaign to bring more affordable housing to the Bay Area.

Bay Area Projections for Inclusionary Housing Production - read about the Initiative's potential to increase affordable housing production through inclusionary housing policies.

Responding to Inclusionary Housing Critics - download the expert analysis of the BIA-funded report critical of inclusionary housing policies. (June 2004)

Bay Area Spotlight - trends and updates on inclusionary housing programs in Bay Area jurisdictions.

Read the press release - the initiative was announced on June 7 at the kick-off for Affordable Housing Week.

Inclusionary Housing in California: 30 Years of Innovation the original report from NPH and California Coalition for Rural Housing. July 2003. Now available as a free download.

Free download of the entire report.

Download Inclusionary Zoning After Palmer & Patterson -- Alive & Well In California by Michael Rawson of the Public Interest Law Project.