ebho @ ca on fire april 2014

East Bay Housing Organizations

Agenda

1. Current Landscape- Development and Housing Trends in the East Bay

2. Causes and Contributors of Affordable Housing Crisis and Displacement

3. What are Communities Doing to Address These Concerns?

What’s Happening in the East Bay?

1. Affordable housing crisis

2. Threat of displacement of low- and moderate- income populations and communities of color

Affordability Crisis

Renters Earn Half of Homeowners Income in the Bay Area

Bay Area Owner Median Income and Renter Median Income 2010

$0

$20,000

$40,000

$60,000

$80,000

$100,000

$120,000

Alam

eda

Contra

Costa

Mar

in

Napa

San

Fran

cisc

o

San

Mat

eo

Sant

a Cla

ra

Solano

Sono

ma

Owner

Median

Income

Renter

Median

Income

6

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey, 5-year Estimates 2010

Source: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year Estimates, 2010

Housing Cost Burden is Most Severe for Lowest-Income Renters

• In all Bay Area counties, nine out of every ten renters earning less than $35,000 per year have housing cost burdens, spending more than 30% of their income on rent

• In eight of nine Bay Area counties, only one out of every ten renters earning more than $75,000 per year face the same rent cost burdens

7

Rent Gap / Housing Wage

9 Based on HUD April 2013 estimated “fair-market rent” of $1,222 for a one-bedroom apartment in Alameda or Contra Costa County, and on 2013 wage data from http://www.labormarketinfo.edd.ca.gov.

Occupation Median

Hourly Wage Median

Annual Salary Weekly hours of work to afford a 1-BR apt.

Calif. Minimum Wage $8.00 $16,640 118

Food Preparation and Serving Workers $9.40 $19,552 100

Cashiers $10.93 $22,734 86

Security Guards $14.47 $30,098 65

Janitors $14.98 $31,158 63

Preschool Teachers $15.18 $31,574 62

Office Clerks $17.29 $35,963 54

Construction Laborers $24.24 $50,419 39 Licensed Practical and Vocational Nurses $28.60 $59,488 33 Police, Fire and Ambulance Dispatchers $32.88 $68,390 29

Displacement

Story of the Lee family in San Francisco

One of many: the bigger struggle

The Region: Uneven Impact

WHAT IS DISPLACEMENT?

• People losing their homes & communities against their will.

• Describes what happens when external forces make living in a home or community impossible.

• When market forces or public policy cause people to be pushed out of their neighborhoods & replaced by people who may be of a different race, economic status, & background.

Impacts of displacement If the displacee(s)…

• Re-settles nearby… • Moves far away… • Doubles up with

family/friends… • Moves into a single-race, lower

income community…

• Takes on the higher cost for housing…

• Can’t find anything else…

Then they are at risk of…

• Repeated displacement • Higher transportation costs • Over-crowding & illegal

conversions • Increasing segregation &

breaking-up of political power of minority groups

• Decrease money left for other necessities

• Homelessness

Causes of affordable housing crisis & threat of displacement

• Bay Area’s Hot Housing Market and Profit-Driven Response

• Lack of Government Funding

• Lack of Equity in Transit-Oriented Development

Bay Area’s “hot” housing market

Capitalizing on the Hot Market

• Evictions

• Foreclosures

• Condo conversions

Foreclosure & speculation

22

23

Completed Foreclosures (2007-2011)

24

Investor purchased properties (2007-2011)

Displacement by condo conversion

Brief history

• Condo as form of ownership emerged in the 1960s and grew in the 1970s in CA as house prices rose and people looked to condos as a less expensive route to homeownership.

• However, condo conversions can negatively affect low-income renters by taking affordable rental units off the housing market and by threatening eviction.

• Condo buyers – Paying $300,000 -

$500,000

– Need down payment of $30,000 to $50,000

– And monthly mortgage payment of $2,000 - $3,000

– Affordable to incomes of $75,000 to $120,000

• Renters:

– Paying $900-$1200/ month

– Affordable to incomes of $35,000 to $50,000

During the recent real estate boom in the late 2000s, Oakland lost about 800 apartments.

Lack of Government Funding

Transit-Oriented Development

34

New Regional Plan

• Adopted 2013

• Reduce sprawl and congestion

• Housing close to transit

• “Complete communities”

• Equity issues

35

Displacement Risks

40

• Direct Displacement

– Publicly owned sites (BART, etc.)

– Privately owned sites

• Indirect Displacement

– Rent Increases

– Condo conversions

East Bay Housing Organizations

TOD in Oakland

Coliseum City

International Blvd –

Bus Rapid Transit

TOD in Oakland

East Bay Housing Organizations 42

Broadway Valdez

Lake Merritt Station Area

Solutions – New Affordable Housing

MURAL, BRIDGE Housing –

MacArthur BART transit village

Solutions - Anti-displacement policies

• Replacement housing requirements

• Relocation assistance

• Preservation of existing assisted housing

• Acquisition/rehab of housing currently affordable

• Rent control

• Just cause for eviction

• Condo conversion controls

45 East Bay Housing Organizations

Solutions – Inclusive Policies

• Funding for development of affordable housing

• “Value capture” strategies

• Commercial linkage fees

• Inclusionary zoning ordinances

• Housing impact fees

• Individual development agreements

• Land dedication and banking

46 East Bay Housing Organizations

Opportunities for Advocacy

East Bay Housing Organizations 47

– Individual Projects

–Plan Level Advocacy • Specific Plans

• Housing Elements

–Regional Advocacy • BART and Transit agencies

• One Bay Area Grants

• Transportation Funding – Measure B?

• Cap and Trade Revenues

Solutions- Ideological Shift

• Alter our relationship with housing-Decommodification of housing

• Change our approach to development from being profit-driven to being human-based

• Make sure that long-standing residents have a fundamental role in the development of their neighborhoods

• Build power in disinvested communities through organizing

Dominique Tan

(510) 590-8262

dominique@ebho.org