Affordable housing

California’s affordable housing crisis is hurting millions but Governor Jerry Brown still refuses to do his part to help. Brown released his May budget revise last Friday and allocated $0 in new housing funds. The Governor offered a complete rebuff to backers of the $1.3 billion Assembly affordable housing plan sponsored by the Bay Area’s Tony Thurmond and David Chiu, preferring to keep $2 billion in a rainy day fund while ignoring the housing tsunami impacting millions of Californians.

State Assemblyman Kevin Mullin, D-South San Francisco, praised Gov. Jerry Brown’s fiscally prudent budget Friday but said it falls short when it comes to affordable housing.

Brown released his May budget revision Friday that does not include an Assembly proposal to earmark $1.3 billion toward affordable housing.

Mullin hopes that by the time the budget is adopted in mid-June, Brown will embrace the Assembly proposal.

A new study released today finds that Sacramento County workers need to earn more than twice today's minimum wage of $10 in order to afford to rent an average apartment.

The study says median rent in Sacramento County has gone up 13 percent since 2000 while median renter household income has gone down 13 percent, when adjusted for inflation.

Voters of Berkeley, beware! There is a deceptive, cynical petition being circulated right now claiming to be an "affordable housing" initiative that is actually a landlord/property owner funded proposal that would substantially reduce those housing fees and revenues. The Berkeley Property Owners' Association is circulating a petition which purports to raise additional funds for the Housing Trust Fund.

More than one-third of Bay Area residents say they are prepared to leave the region in the next few years due to high and rising housing costs, worsening traffic, widening income inequality and other concerns, reports the Mercury News. In a poll of 1,000 residents conducted by the Bay Area Council, 34 percent said they are considering leaving. Residents who are spending more of their income on housing, and those who have lived in the region for fewer than five years were the most likely to say they want to depart.

When the rent on Paula Beal's one-bedroom apartment went up $230 a month, there was no way she could afford to stay. The Oakland senior's monthly income from Social Security and disability insurance is less than $900. Even with a roommate, she couldn't swing $1,080 and still have enough left for food, transportation and her medications.

So, in early March, Beal gave away most of her possessions, put what was left in storage and gave her landlord back the keys. She's been searching for a place to live ever since.

Ushering in a new era of housing policy, San Francisco has proposed a tougher rule on short-term rentals like Airbnb and will vote today on legislation to increase affordable housing requirements.

Legislation from supervisors Aaron Peskin and Jane Kim would impose new affordable housing requirements on development, should voters in June approve Proposition C, a charter amendment that would allow the Board of Supervisors to adjust the requirements rather than voters, who currently have that power.

San Francisco’s existing system of care for homeless residents was never designed to address an older population, leaving it ill-equipped to meet the needs of today’s growing number of seniors living on the streets, says a new city report.

More than half of San Francisco’s homeless shelter residents are age 50 or older, which has created many challenges for The City. Older homeless residents are often confused as to how to access shelter and unable to receive proper medical care.