While homelessness funds were largely spared from proposed budget cuts, California lawmakers press for more funding for other housing programs.

California lawmakers' new plan for housing production pushes for an end to single-family-only zoning and converting retail to housing.

· Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said employees looking to leave Silicon Valley for areas with cheaper.. • Technology • One News Page: Friday, 22 May 2020

As the far-reaching impacts of the COVID-19 crisis continue to reverberate nationwide, California lawmakers are attempting to reorient the state's housing policies in an effort to continue making progress in addressing the housing crisis gripping the region. Previously on Archinect:

Increasing Housing Options for Homeless Populations Through a Shared Housing Approach Although many Americans have significant experience living in shared housing, shared housing has been an infrequently used strategy within the affordable housing and homelessness systems. Inadequate supply presents a challenge to people transitioning from homelessness to permanent, stable housing. At the National Alliance to End Homelessness’ 2020 Solutions for Individual Homeless Adults conference, held in ...

Rectangles designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing line a city-sanctioned homeless encampment at San Francisco's Civic Center on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) Rectangles designed to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus by encouraging social distancing line a city-sanctioned homeless encampment at San Francisco's Civic Center on Thursday, May 21, 2020. (AP Photo/Noah Berger) SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco is joining o...

The Trump administration has reversed its approval for San Francisco to open a 200-bed navigation center in the Bayview neighborhood — a blow that has thrown plans for dozens of homeless shelters across the state into disarray.

In a matter of a few weeks, the coronavirus pandemic has shaken America to its core, and has brutally exposed our society’s most serious problems. This is no less true in California, where fast-rising housing costs were already creating significant hardship prior to the pandemic. The primary cause is California’s severe shortage of new housing: one study estimates that the state needs 1.3 million more affordable rental homes to meet current demand. The housing crisis made California a nationa...

Last week members of the Los Angeles Tenants Union gathered outside City Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell’s Echo Park office to demand more protections for struggling renters. Due to social distancing guidelines, some demonstrators stood apart from each other on the sidewalk, while others participated in their vehicles, honking and holding signs as they caravanned down Sunset Boulevard. As COVID-19 continues to bring unemployment and economic hardship, state, county and city governments have imp...

The U.S. housing movement is bigger than ever.

A contractor uses a hammer while working on townhouse under construction at the PulteGroup Metro housing development in Milpitas, California, Oct. 25, 2018. David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images After the sharpest one-month drop in the history of the index in April, homebuilder sentiment bounced back slightly in May as builders saw a quick rebound in interest from buyers. Confidence in the market for single-family, newly built homes rose 7 points in May to 37, according to the National...

With a forecasted deficit of near-record proportions and an economy in freefall, homelessness and low-income housing advocates were braced for painful cuts in the revised budget proposal Gov. Gavin Newsom unveiled Thursday. But unlike some of the more severe pandemic-induced rollbacks Newsom outlined in areas like education and climate change, affordable housing and homelessness dollars were mostly spared from the administration’s fiscal cleaver. Given an assist from the federal government’s ...

Sales of existing, single-family homes in April — the first month to show the full force of the coronavirus — dropped a stunning 30.1% statewide and 37.4% in the Bay Area compared to the same period last year, but median prices were more less unchanged, according to a survey released Monday by the California Association of Realtors. April’s data sheds the most light yet on how the coronavirus is affecting residential real estate because deals that closed in March were entered into before most...

Rents are expected to go down, but home prices may stay high. Low-income earners will be hit the hardest, while those with the deepest pockets are likely to come out of sheltering in place unscathed.

State Senate leaders proposed a massive economic relief package on Tuesday to guide California through its coronavirus budget woes by encouraging residents to prepay their future state income taxes and offering struggling tenants more than a decade to make up the rent they owe.

As the California Legislature returns for a session redefined by the fallout from the coronavirus pandemic, lawmakers say they remain committed to addressing what has become one of the biggest debates at the state Capitol: H ow to resolve the state’s housing crisis. But their options may be limited by a budget shortfall and the more urgent need prevent mass evictions and foreclosures.

Four out of five apartment renters in the U.S. were able to make their rent payment in May. But the data only tells part of the story.

Landlords, renter groups and state lawmakers grapple with who should pay for rent forgiveness as missed rents pile up in wake of the coronavirus.

Mortgage applications data indicates homebuying is coming out of lockdown.

Homeownership is a key symbol of the American Dream, providing stability and enabling working families to build wealth that can be passed on to the next generation. Unfortunately, this dream has not been an opportunity for all to enjoy. In the United States, deliberate policies were enacted that maintained racial segregation, bolstered prejudiced institutions, and locked people of color out of homeownership by denying mortgages and other services.

Better walking, biking, and transit

UC Berkeley Othering & Belonging Institute researchers released a brief suggesting rent and mortgage cancellation policy is necessary during the pandemic.

The Disaster Housing Recovery Coalition is leading on daily updates and resources for people experiencing homelessness, low-income renters and homeless shelter providers.

The coronavirus pandemic has put millions of people out of work going back to mid-March. That loss of income is now reverberating in the housing market. Tenants throughout the Bay Area are organizing “rent strikes” and calling for landlords to “cancel the rent” to ease housing costs for people who have lost income. At the same time, California’s statewide eviction moratorium ends May 31, leaving many renters anxious that they will be evicted soon after. We talk to experts about the challenges tenants and landlords are facing.

With millions losing their jobs, tenants in the Bay Area are rallying behind #CancelRent and calling for the government to do the same during the coronavirus...

Sometimes the biggest problems have the simplest solutions

Emergency Interim Housing In response to the COVID-19 emergency and the City’s shelter crisis declaration, the City of San José is developing three emergency interim housing communities to help protect unhoused people from the disease, slow the spread of COVID-19, and expand the City's interim housing capacity after the emergency recedes. On April 21, 2020, the City Council approved construction of the first emergency interim housing community at the intersection of Monterey Road and Bernal ...

While Californians are being advised to shelter in place to slow the spread of COVID-19, thousands of our unhoused neighbors remain at risk on our city streets. Now more than ever, it’s essential to fund effective homelessness prevention and housing programs that last beyond the crisis. Federal legislators approved approximately $12 billion to help people experiencing homelessness during the COVID-19 crisis, but more funding is needed to make sure emergency housing and supportive services bec...

The San Jose City Council has unanimously approved the construction of a new six-story, mixed-use affordable housing development in the Willow Glen neighborhood. The project — dubbed Meridian Apartments — will be located on a 2.09-acre site at 961-971 Meridian Avenue between Fruitdale Avenue and Curci Drive. It will consist of 231 affordable units, two units for property managers and 1,780 square feet of commercial space on the ground floor. Councilmember Dev Davis, who represents the Willow ...

Rent and mortgage payments are due. Different states have different strategies for people who can't pay during the pandemic. We're updating this post as the situation evolves

CA still needs to build a lot more housing

Mortgage volume appears to be settling into a new normal, as refinance demand stays high and purchase demand sits at a five-year low.

COVID-19 has given Gov. Gavin Newsom the authority to commandeer vacant hotels—but he isn’t using it.

As the COVID-19 crisis continues, lawmakers are proposing national rent relief. Here's what housing experts think that should look like.

Threatening to sue hotel owners or lodging protests, some California cities and residents are fighting plans to house homeless people for the pandemic.

How Co-Living Communities are Suited to Handle Pandemics While Maintaining a Sense of Normal Life

Health hazards lurking in substandard housing — lead, roaches, black mold, water leaks, faulty wiring — pose serious threats even in normal times. Their impact could be intensified in the age of COVID-19.

Nervous market-watchers aren’t ready to call it a “housing crisis” yet, but the echoes of 2008 can already be heard. The economy has been placed in shutdown, but rent and mortgage payments are still due — and hundreds of thousands of households across Connecticut have no idea how they’ll make their next payment. Only the federal government can provide aid at the scale necessary to prevent another housing crisis, and the window of opportunity is closing. The first stimulus bills have not prov...

Latanya Wilson is no stranger to life on the street. She’s been unhoused in San Francisco, California, on and off, for 15 years. But sleeping outdoors during a pandemic is unlike anything she’s experienced. “I’m really scared being out here,” says Wilson, who is living in a green two-person Coleman camping tent in the Mission neighbourhood. “You can go to sleep and anyone can come up and unzip the tent”. Wilson says there are far fewer pedestrians on the street to ask for food or change, alth...