The Housing Readiness Report is a partnership between the San Francisco Foundation's Partnership for the Bay’s Future, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and affordable housing advocates throughout the Bay Area.
The tool provides affordable housing advocates with data, resources and tools to track, monitor and engage housing plans and policies throughout the Bay Area to ensure equitable racial, economic and social outcomes.
Every eight years, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) plans for the future of housing across the state. The plans start with the development of RHNA goals – a set number of new homes and how affordable those homes need to be – that regions must build in order to meet local housing needs of people at all income levels.
Once the regional RHNA goals are set, each region’s “council of governments” (in the Bay Area, this is the Association of Bay Area Governments) allocates the housing needs amongst all cities and counties within the region. If cities and counties don’t meet these housing goals, they will not receive certain types of state funding.
To meet their RHNA goals, local cities and counties develop policies and programs as well as find developable land that provide opportunities to develop low-income to market-rate housing. The local housing plans are called Housing Elements, and it’s during this planning process that community members are able to provide input and have their voices heard.
Because this only occurs once every eight years, the time is now to plan for the future of your community.
If you would like to read more about housing policies or Housing Elements, including resources on how you might be able to participate in your city or county’s housing plan, please visit these sites:
The Housing Readiness Report aggregates available data from the U.S. Census, MTC/ABAG, and PolicyLink in order to show existing population and housing conditions, city by city, and future potential for a city to equitably increase housing capacity to meet all of its housing needs, especially for the most vulnerable communities.
“Housing Readiness” – the potential future ability a city has to increase housing capacity, especially affordable housing for its most vulnerable population – is assessed using the following metrics:
Our scoring formula is referenced from The Opportunity Index, which is a composite measure that draws upon important economic, educational, health and civic indicators of opportunity.
The cost of housing in the Bay Area denies so many of us from having a stable and affordable place to call home, but it disproportionately impacts communities of color. When we look at the data on housing burden (housing costs exceed 30% of income), it is clear that Black, Latino and Native American households are most likely to be rent-burdened. And when we look at diversity within cities, the evidence shows that communities of colors are being displaced at extraordinary rates. The Housing Readiness Report utilizes data on housing burdens and diversity to help us understand what policies and plans cities have or will implement to keep communities diverse and vibrant.
In the first phase of the Housing Readiness Report, the resources are tailored towards the cities that participated in the San Francisco Foundation’s Partnership for the Bay’s Future Initiative. As the tool expands to include more resources, it will eventually cover the 109 cities and counties that represent the Bay Area.
The Housing Readiness Report is provided to the Bay Area housing community through a generous grant from the San Francisco Foundation's Partnership for the Bay’s Future and the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative. It is developed by Exygy, a digital innovation studio on a mission to build resilient and healthy communities. Exygy enables impact-focused organizations to rethink experiences and create digital products that solve their problems and delight users.
Thank you to the following organizations who have contributed to the Housing Readiness Report: Public Advocates, Working Partnership USA, Greenbelt Alliance, PolicyLink, MTC/ABAG, Housing Leadership Council of San Mateo County, SOMOS Mayfair, Non-Profit Housing Association of Northern California and Public Interest Law Project.
In the first phase of the Housing Readiness Report, the resources are tailored towards the cities that participated in the San Francisco Foundation’s Partnership for the Bay’s Future (PBF) Initiative. PBF provided grants to these cities and partnering community-based organizations (bringing a voice to communities usually excluded to the policy process) to implement equity-centered affordable housing policies. The two-year grants provide technical assistance and added capacity by placing a housing policy fellow in the local government.
The Housing Readiness Report is a partnership between the San Francisco Foundation's Partnership for the Bay’s Future, Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and affordable housing advocates throughout the Bay Area.
The tool provides affordable housing advocates with data, resources and tools to track, monitor and engage housing plans and policies throughout the Bay Area to ensure equitable racial, economic and social outcomes.
Every eight years, the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) plans for the future of housing across the state. The plans start with the development of RHNA goals – a set number of new homes and how affordable those homes need to be – that regions must build in order to meet local housing needs of people at all income levels.
Once the regional RHNA goals are set, each region’s “council of governments” (in the Bay Area, this is the Association of Bay Area Governments) allocates the housing needs amongst all cities and counties within the region. If cities and counties don’t meet these housing goals, they will not receive certain types of state funding.
To meet their RHNA goals, local cities and counties develop policies and programs as well as find developable land that provide opportunities to develop low-income to market-rate housing. The local housing plans are called Housing Elements, and it’s during this planning process that community members are able to provide input and have their voices heard.
Because this only occurs once every eight years, the time is now to plan for the future of your community.
If you would like to read more about housing policies or Housing Elements, including resources on how you might be able to participate in your city or county’s housing plan, please visit these sites: