1.2 California's Housing Crisis

The 6th Cycle Housing Element update comes at a critical time because the State of California is experiencing a housing crisis, and as is the case for all jurisdictions in California, Belvedere must play its part in meeting the growing demand for housing. In the coming 20-year period, Marin County is projected to add 169,700 jobs, which represents a 15 percent increase. These changes will increase demand for housing across all income levels, and if the region can’t identify ways to significantly increase housing production, it risks worsening the burden for existing lower-income households, many of whom don’t have the luxury or skill set to move to new a job center but that are nonetheless faced with unsustainable increases in housing cost.

If the region become less competitive in attracting high-skilled workers and increasingly unaffordable to lower-income workers and seniors, then social and economic segregation will worsen, only exacerbating historic patterns of housing discrimination, racial bias, and segregation. This potentiality has become so acute in recent years that the California Legislature addressed the issue with new legislation in 2018. SB 686 requires all state and local agencies to explicitly address, combat, and relieve disparities resulting from past patterns of housing segregation to foster more inclusive communities. This is commonly referred to as Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing, or AFFH (more on this below).