SF Chronicle: Affordable housing drying up across Bay Area, report finds

“I’ve worked on affordable housing in the Bay Area for 20 years, and it has never been like this,” said Amie Fishman, executive director of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California.

“Skyrocketing rents, shrinking incomes and severe cuts in state- and federal-government support for affordable housing have made it far harder for lower-income Bay Area residents to find a place to live, according to a report being released Friday.

The report looks at rents and incomes in Alameda, Contra Costa, Sonoma and San Mateo counties, and concludes that each is more than 10,000 rental spots short of what it would take for everyone of limited means to find an affordable place to live.

People who earn less than 50 percent of the median income in the four counties must spend more than half of their monthly paychecks on rent, according to the report compiled by the nonprofit California Housing Partnership Corp. and the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California. Many economists recommend that households spend no more than 30 percent of their income on rent.”

Read the full article via the San Francisco Chronicle