A new report says most jurisdictions in California - including San Bernardino and Riverside counties - are falling short on their low-income housing goals. KVCR's Benjamin Purper has the story.
The report, put out by nonprofit think tank Next 10 and Beacon Economics, finds that most jurisdictions are behind on low-income housing targets, and that many aren’t participating in the reporting process at all.
Adam Fowler with Beacon Economics says the San Bernardino and Riverside areas are falling behind on building enough housing to keep up with job growth.
Fowler: “The Inland Empire really over the past couple decades has seen some very interesting and important demographic changes. The kind of young workforce moving into the area, starting families in the Inland Empire from other kind of economic job centers in Southern California has been really impressive over the years. What we don't see is an attempt to provide the housing for all those new jobs that are being created in all those new households that are moving into the region to take advantage of that economic growth.”
Noel Perry is the founder of Next 10. He says the report has three main recommendations for how the state can address this problem.
Perry: “The first one which we talked about earlier is that California needs to re-define its housing need calculations to better account for historic, un-met housing demand. The second one is that housing development should be better aligned with projected regional job growth to ensure there is adequate local housing for workers rather than forcing people to live far from their place of employment. And finally, the report talks about local zoning laws that favor single family units over multi-family units, that this area be looked at and potentially revised to ensure communities can adequately meet their housing needs.”
You can read the full report at next10.org.
