Inclusionary Housing and California's Housing Crisis: Increasing Affordable Housing Supply and Promoting Smart Growth through Local Government Policy
Abstract
It is a fact: California faces a housing crisis of unprecedented proportion. From Northern to Southern California, middle and lower-income renters and prospective homebuyers alike cannot afford to pay the housing costs demanded by an escalating market. The broad impacts of this crisis are just as much sociological as they are economic, as both the economic viability of the state and its localities, as well as the social fabric of neighborhoods are threatened by its lasting effects.
The implications of the housing crisis are well known to California's residents and local governments, as members of all sectors of the workforce must bear with long commutes between homes and job centers; exacerbating the state's freeway traffic congestion problems, overburdening inadequate public transportation systems, and increasing pollution in regions that already rank among the worst in air quality throughout the nation. Major employers find it hard to retain workers who cannot afford to live near their jobs, in turn hindering the effort of localities to attract top employers to their jurisdictions and regions.
