A California senator says he’s got a new plan to address California’s affordable housing crisis.
Friday, Senator Adam Schiff arrived in the Bay Area to unveil legislation meant to boost new housing construction and tackle some of the many challenges for those trying to make it in the Bay.
Senator Adam Schiff came to San Francisco, one of America’s most expensive cities, to roll out his new affordable housing legislation.
“This is legislation that would make a massive new investment in building affordable homes for middle income and lower income families to make it possible for young people to own a home or be able to pay their rent,” Schiff said.
Schiff says the price of renting or owning a home is creating an unfair burden for too many families, since many are now spending more than 30% of their monthly income on their home.
He also says solving the crisis has to involve building more housing, particularly for America’s middle class, and that’s what his legislation aims to do.
“It would make the largest expansion of the low-income tax credit ever with triple the size of low-income tax credit but also importantly it would invest a substantial amount in building work force housing just like this,” Schiff said.
He unveiled the legislation at the Sophie Maxwell building in the city.
“It has 105 units, it has studios, one bedrooms and two bedrooms and it is targeted and limited and permanently affordable for working class San Franciscans, the people we build housing for,” said Enrique Landa, managing partner at Fifth Space.
“This is exactly what the Housing Boom Act will do. This act focuses on building affordable housing for families and workers, increasing funding for programs that support our most vulnerable residents and revitalizing underused spaces for housing and for critical services,” said San Francisco mayor Daniel Lurie.
The legislation also aims to increase rental assistance, long term housing solutions and boost funds for “homeless to housed” programs.
One of the key questions the senator was asked was “Does it have support from the other side of the aisle?”
“Not yet. I certainly hope that we will get bipartisan support for a massive investment in new housing like this,” Schiff responded.