Earlier this year, the Metropolitan Transportation Commission and Association of Bay Area Governments jointly released a draft of Plan Bay Area 2040 for public comment. Plan Bay Area includes an Action Plan and housing strategies that provide a starting point for improving access to affordable housing across the Region over a 24-year period. SV@Home provided early comments, and then provided additional recommendations, focusing on implementation, stronger affordability requirements, more substantial incentives for Priority Development Areas, and better connections between transit and affordable housing.
A key Plan Bay Area 2040 action is to bring together a group of partners to develop a Regional Housing Implementation Strategy for the nine-county Bay Area. This multi-sector group will officially launch in September, though work will begin in June. CASA – the Committee to House the Bay Area, will bring together 42 leaders from throughout the Bay Area and charge them with developing a regional, nine-county strategy to respond to the Bay Area’s housing crisis. While the problem has been decades in the making, despite significant efforts by many dedicated professionals, we still have a serious housing problem requiring a different approach.
CASA has been brought forward by MTC, and will be co-chaired by SV@Home Executive Director Leslye Corsiglia, San Francisco Foundation CEO Fred Blackwell, and Chairman and CEO of TMG Partners Michael Covarrubias. Attached is the list of CASA members. CASA will work to develop a package of funding and legislative measures for State action, a package of funding and legislative measures for regional and local action, and an advocacy platform and coalition to advance housing policies in the State and region.
We are ready to get started, and are excited to be working alongside Jennifer LeSar and Cecilia Estolano from Estolano LeSar Perez Advisors, Carol Galante from the Terner Center for Housing Innovation, and Miriam Zuk from the Center for Community Innovation to support us with our work.
We will continue to provide updates on the progress of CASA through these regular e-newsletters.