Housing Models Compared: How Much Housing Does California Need?Updated February 2021 | Gab Layton, PhD - President of the Embarcadero Institute To the question, how much housing does California need, there’s a range of anwers. Only a couple make sense.Why do some state legislators refuse to [...]

Double Counting in the Latest Housing Needs Assessment Updated September 2020 | Gab Layton, PhD - President of the Embarcadero Institute Do the Math: The state has ordered more than 350 cities to prepare the way for more than 2 million homes by 2030.But what if [...]

The Defunding of Affordable Housing in California Updated June 2020 | Embarcadero Institute Historically, local Redevelopment Agencies (RDAs) have been central to state funding of affordable housing. RDA revenue came from local property taxes and 20% of that revenue was required to be spent on affordable [...]

California's Transit Expenditures are Failing Embarcadero Institute Board | February 2020 Even though transit expenses (operating and capital) increased steadily between 2014 and 2018, and even though more than a million new jobs were added in those same four years, transit ridership has continued to decline year over [...]

California Cities Surpass State's RHNA Housing Goals September 2019 The Department of Community and Housing Development (HCD) sets regional targets for housing by income level. The rolled up totals for all 58 counties are shown in the slides below. View PDF Report [...]

Housing-Impacted Bay Area Cities Keep Little of Their Own Taxes September 2019 San Francisco, San Mateo, and Santa Clara Counties are at the epicenter of the housing affordability crisis in California. The California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has established State-wide housing needs with regional targets (RHNA* ) [...]

California's 3.5 Million Housing Shortage Number Raises Questions Embarcadero Institute Board | July 2019 California has a housing shortage, and the State Legislature has called for construction of 3.5 million homes by 2025. However, how do we reliably determine how many homes California needs to build? The State number [...]