Model Places Illustration

Housing

We Believe: Housing is a human right and should be affordable to everyone.

Our Goals

• Increase the supply of housing.

• Provide more affordable housing for low- and middle-income residents.

• Protect low-income communities of color from displacement.

Monte Vista Gardens apartments in San José

SPUR Report

Structured for Success

A key cause of California’s high housing costs is its decentralized and fragmented housing governance system. SPUR makes 11 recommendations to set California and the Bay Area on the path to produce the housing we need.
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photo of balconies on an apartment building

Research

Losing Ground

SPUR examines how the Bay Area’s housing market has become shaped by scarcity and wide economic divides — not only among income groups but also among races and ethnicities.
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Apartment Building

Research

Housing the Middle

SPUR digs into the housing market’s failure to meet the needs of middle-income households. California can look to innovative programs across the country as models for how to address the state’s housing challenges.
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Apartment Construction

Research

Planning by Ballot

SPUR has created the most up-to-date database of local land use ballot measures that impact housing production in California. Over the long term, measures that restrict infill housing can undermine housing affordability and have the potential to exacerbate racial segregation.
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Updates and Events

SPUR Supports SB 5 to Create a Housing and Development Investment Program

Advocacy Letter
SB 5 is structured to make significant affordable housing and community development dollars available immediately. Fifty percent of the funding overall and 50 percent of a given local agency’s funding would be required to be spent on affordable housing. SB 5 is an important commitment from the state general fund toward important affordable housing and community development needs across the state.

SPUR Supports Assembly Bill 11 to Create Affordable Housing and Infrastructure Agencies

Advocacy Letter
SPUR supports Assembly Bill 11, which authorizes cities, counties and other districts to create affordable housing and infrastructure agencies. AB 11 would require that at least 30 percent of funding going to the affordable housing and infrastructure agency would be dedicated to the creation, improvement and preservation of low- and moderate-income housing. SPUR sees AB 11 as a step in the right direction.

SPUR Supports AB 1487 to Create a Bay Area Regional Housing Entity

Advocacy Letter
The Bay Area needs more funding for affordable housing and regional coordination of policies. SPUR supports Assembly Bill 1487, which would help increase affordable housing in the Bay Area by providing funding and technical assistance. We believe it is critical that the creation of this entity strengthen the Bay Area’s ability to function as a region rather than weakening it.

What’s Next for Housing Now That SB 50 Has Been Deferred to 2020?

News /
Earlier this month, controversial state zoning bill SB 50 was denied a committee hearing , meaning the state legislature won't pass it in 2019. But the push to increase housing supply goes on. Quite a number of other housing bills are still under consideration, and SPUR is supporting many of them.

SPUR Supports SB 18 to Expand Statewide Rental Assistance and Legal Aid

Advocacy Letter
SB 18 will help prevent individuals and families from falling into homelessness by providing additional funding to the California Department of Housing and Community Development for rental assistance and legal aid, and requiring HCD to post informational material about landlords’ obligations to tenants on their website.
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