Alameda County’s Measure A1 and Santa Clara County’s Measure A were both transformative 2016 local housing bonds that brought thousands of new affordable homes to the Bay Area. In a Goldman School of Public Policy capstone report prepared for NPH, author Keanu Lim (MPP ’26) draws on a combination of quantitative analysis and qualitative interviews with affordable housing developers, county staff, and other experts to identify key lessons learned from Measures A and A1 and offer considerations for future funding mechanisms, including recommendations for next steps for policy and research.
As communities consider future opportunities to fund affordable housing development, Gauging the Gap: Understanding How Public Financing Mechanisms Shape Affordable Housing Production in the Bay Area provides critical insights that will support the Bay Area in building upon the successes of Measures A and A1.
In particular, the capstone recommends that local jurisdictions:
- Prioritize long-term, predictable revenue sources (such as progressive parcel taxes) over temporary General Obligation bonds;
- Create “one-stop shop” models to institutionalize coordination of capital, land use, and operating subsidies for deeply affordable projects; and
- Standardize and enhance their public reporting to more clearly demonstrate the power of local housing investments.
Gauging the Gap: Understanding How Public Financing Mechanisms Shape Affordable Housing Production in the Bay Area