Project Summary
California’s Housing Element law requires the allocation of housing targets to local governments. These targets should align with long-range regional strategies to concentrate growth in transit rich areas, but little evidence exists about the effectiveness of housing allocation schemes for achieving accessibility and affordability. Indeed, there is some evidence that – to date – the law has not served these goals effectively. In 2018 California Senate Bill (SB) 828 significantly amended the Housing Element law, conferring additional authority on the California Department of Housing & Community Development (HCD) to determine housing targets. Moreover, SB 50 (introduced in 2019) proposes to require HCD to identify “jobs-rich” areas, in which local governments would be required to allow relatively dense residential development. SB 50 proposes to also raise the minimum allowable density for residential development in areas close to transit stops. State legislators and administrators have very little information to evaluate the current housing target allocation process or its interaction with the regulatory scheme contemplated by SB 50. This project would fill that gap, providing guidance for linking housing and transportation policy. This project will provide decision support for state legislators and administrators by: 1) comparing California’s housing target allocation and implementation methods to methods currently used in other states, as well as methods described in the scholarly literature; 2) comparing the possible effects of different allocation and implementation methods on job accessibility at different levels of housing affordability; and 3) identifying ways that future legislation and implementation could promote the goals of the Housing Element law related to accessibility.
