California Drops $20-Billion ‘Affordable-Housing’ Plan

A $20-billion proposal to build more affordable housing in the Bay Area, one of the most expensive real estate markets in the country, will not be put to voters in November after the Bay Area Housing Finance Authority (BAHFA) decided not to have it on the ballot.

The BAHFA’s board had decided to put the Affordable Housing Bond, which would have been the largest of its kind, to voters in November only two months ago. But on Wednesday, it announced that it was dropping the borrowing plan from this year’s ballot, saying 2026 might be a better time for the measure to go through.

The $20 billion included in the measure would have been used to build and preserve subsidized housing across the Bay Area, but homeowners in the region would have raised funds through a surcharge in homeowners’ property taxes—a likely unpopular solution. The measure would have needed over 67 percent of voters to pass, but the BAHFA commissioners said it didn’t have enough support, at 55 percent in recent polls.

Contacted by Newsweek, BAHFA shared a statement released on Wednesday by its Chair Alfredo Pedroza and Belia Ramos, president of the Association of Bay Area Governments’ Executive Board.

“The BAHFA Board’s decision to withdraw the affordable housing bond measure from this November’s ballot is not one that was taken lightly,” the statement reads. “The Bay Area’s housing affordability crisis has been decades in the making and is far too big for any one city or county to solve on its own.

“The BAHFA board has always understood that it would be a steep climb to establish this source of funding. Recent developments have led the board to conclude that the wise choice is to look ahead to another election season for a regional housing measure when there is more certainty and the voters have weighed in affirmatively on Proposition 5,” Pedroza and Ramos said.

Despite voting to not have the proposal on the ballot, they said that BAHFA’s commitment to increase the production of affordable housing in the Bay Area is “stronger than ever.”

“When the climb toward passage of a regional revenue measure resumes, the board looks forward to teaming with every one of the Bay Area’s nine counties and 101 cities; and with the hundreds of other public, private and nonprofit partners who already have invested so much energy into this effort,” Pedroza and Ramos said.

“Their work to prepare for a November bond measure, and the relationships built along the way, have laid a strong foundation for future success. Each step brings us closer to the summit.”

Heather Hood, who manages the Northern California market for housing nonprofit Enterprise Community Partners, said that the decision will enable them to “preserve our collective ability to really fight and win” for affordable housing, as reported by CalMatters. “We are recommending that you pull (the measure) from the ballot and I really deeply regret this recommendation,” Hood said.

Proposition 5, another ballot measure that will be put to Bay Area voters in November, could lower the threshold from the current two-thirds to 55 percent.

“We have to be strategic,” Contra Costa County Supervisor Federal D. Glover, who sits on the BAHFA’s board, said, as reported by CalMatters.

“We know that we need the best shot in communicating with the voters in a way that helps people understand how important this opportunity is to getting housing built in our community, and that the timing was off,” Santa Clara County Supervisor Cindy Chavez said about Wednesday’s decision, as reported by ABC7.

According to BAHFA, the bond had the potential to create 72,000 new affordable homes in the Bay Area.

Newsweek contacted Chavez’s office for comment but was told she would defer to the chair of the BAHFA, Pedroza. Newsweek contacted Glover for comment on Friday, but received no response.