San Francisco Chronicle: “Two measures would raise record-breaking $6 billion for affordable housing”

“Two years after voters approved billions of dollars to fund low-income homes around California, affordable housing advocates are upping the ante bigtime — with two statewide bond measures on the Nov. 6 ballot to raise a record-breaking $6 billion for housing for struggling families, veterans and severely mentally ill people…

“Proponents are so optimistic about these two bonds, plus six similar local measures in the Bay Area that would raise an additional $1 billion total, that they are calling this “The Year of Affordable Housing.” Both [statewide measures] need just over 50 percent approval to pass — and the same advocates were key to 2016’s passage of $3 billion in local affordable housing taxes and bonds throughout the state…

Amie Fishman, head of the Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California, said the 2016 measures passed in Alameda and Santa Clara counties alone are already funding more than 2,000 affordable housing units, but that was just a start that needs to be capitalized upon. Studies show that more than half of all Californians spend more than the recommended 30 percent of their income on rent — and San Francisco, according to the financial advice site Walletwyse, has the highest average rent in the nation, at about $3,500 a month.

“We have seen this kind of funding, this kind of housing work, and it’s obvious where we need to go,” Fishman said. “This type of housing is our future. This is our time.””

Read more via the San Francisco Chronicle