Affordable housing

Activists rallied at Richmond City Hall on Thursday, vowing to spare this city from the gentrification that has swept low-income people out of San Francisco, Oakland, Berkeley and other Bay Area cities.

"We're not going anywhere," said emcee Melvin Willis of the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment (ACCE).

To afford anything larger than a one-bedroom rental unit in Santa Monica requires a household annual income of $100,000.

This was one of the findings in a report issued by the Rent Control Board that found the city's rental market became less affordable in 2015 than in any previous year.

When a rent-controlled unit is vacated, the owner can raise the rent to the market rate for the next tenant. The median rate for new tenants in 2015 was up in all categories, according to the report.

Federal programs provide homes for about 5 million families nationwide, but that’s only a fraction of the people who are trying to receive assistance, according to a report released Thursday.

Grade-school art teacher Melissa Jones is attending the opening of an exhibit called Roofless: Art Against Displacement at the Arlene Francis Center in Santa Rosa. It is a cold, rainy night in early January. Jones is a single mother; she and her 12-year-old son live in a one-bedroom basement flat in the nearby rural community of Forestville, for which she pays $825 per month plus utilities. She is desperate to move into a bigger place, but for many the rents in Sonoma County have become unaffordable.

One block north of fabled Hollywood Boulevard, and a stone’s throw from the iconic Capitol Records Building, sit three rent-stabilized, two-story apartment buildings, known to residents as the Yucca-Argyle complex. One building is peach-colored, one green and the third yellow. Each is organized around a small courtyard and in back is a parking lot for tenants’ cars. Together they are home to roughly 50 families, the residents ranging in age from young children to old-timers who have lived in the complex for more than half a century.

It’s no secret that California residents pay more for housing than residents in most other states, especially in the metropolitan coastal areas and Silicon Valley cities. Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, San Jose, Palo Alto and other highly attractive, jobs- and amenities-rich cities are widely documented as being the least-affordable housing markets in California.

Hillary Clinton announced a $25 billion housing reform plan as part of her “Breaking Every Barrier Agenda,” which outlines her plans for economic reform, should she be elected to the presidency.

The key points for the housing part of the plan are to revitalize communities hurt by physical decay, improve economic support in high-poverty neighborhoods, help Americans obtain homeownership and put rising rents in check.

The plan will be paid for by a tax on Wall Street, although details on the specifics of the tax were not described in the plan.
Focusing On Core Problems

Tenants and property owners packed a San Mateo church Monday night to discuss the region’s housing crisis with many sharing stories of steep rent increases and greedy landlords.

“Emails and letters from constituents triggered my need to call for this town hall,” said U.S. Rep. Jackie Speier, D-San Mateo.

She shared stories of a 74-year-old Belmont woman who had her rent increase 50 percent overnight and a Pacifica resident who makes over $100,000 a year who cannot afford to rent a two-bedroom apartment considering the increasing cost of child care.

California’s housing crisis is a complex one, as befits a state with a population of close to 40 million people, spread out over 163,696 square miles, and with some of the country’s largest cities and fastest growing population hubs, as well as some of its most rugged rural areas.