Inflation and the cost of living are widely recognized as heavily impacting this election. That is, a lot of people who voted against the incumbent party did so because of inflation and the cost of living. We have heard this a lot in post-election analyses.
But, what we haven’t talked about enough: One of the biggest cost of living issues in America is the cost of housing. And it’s as bad in Silicon Valley as anywhere.
In a couple of post-election blog posts/newsletter pieces, we here at SV@Home are talking about the impact of housing costs on this past national election. Josh’s Heart and Home this month is about what the data says about housing costs and the cost of living. This piece is about some of the bigger picture political implications.
Decades of underbuilding of housing in California (and New York, Oregon, Massachusetts, Washington, etc.) created our housing crisis. That crisis causes many harms. It’s time to start thinking more about the harm it has on our national politics.
How many of us have (or know people who have) struggled to afford rent, given up on home-ownership, had to stay in an abusive home because finding a place to rent was too hard, become homeless (which includes sleeping in a car or couch-surfing), fled the Bay Area or California entirely due to housing costs? Unless you live in a bubble of extreme privilege, all of us have first or second hand experience with some or all of these circumstances.
Some questions we need to sit with:
- What happens to a person’s politics when they move to a more conservative area?
- Hot take: California’s decades of NIMBYism creates conservative voters and because much of our political views are heavily influenced by our community, forcing people to leave a “liberal” area for a conservative area will statistically make people more conservative. Plus, they might have less-than-fond memories of the “progressive” politics that turned them into economic refugees.
- What happens to the credibility of the political party (Democratic) which dominates an area (California, the Bay Area) and claims to fight for the poor and working class when that area sees skyrocketing housing costs and homelessness?
- Hot take: It hurts. And, that hurt Kamala Harris, a Bay Area, California Democrat.
- Side take: the harm was guilt-by association, not Harris’ fault. She stood up to the big banks after the foreclosure crisis, and she (and Biden, and Obama) had pro-housing policies.
- Hot take: It hurts. And, that hurt Kamala Harris, a Bay Area, California Democrat.
- How many electoral college votes did California lose in the 2020 election because we had been displacing people from our state? How many will we lose in 2030?
- Hot take: Even if it wasn’t enough to swing this election, it sure did not help.
- What happens to a person’s, or a community’s, politics when they are frustrated, angry?
- Hot take: they are far more open to reactionary politics, and someone who promises to break the system.
So, what do we do with this?
We double down! We double down on our housing work. We double down on anti-displacement measures, funding for affordable housing, access to homeownership, and removing barriers to constructing the millions of new homes we need in California, starting right here in Silicon Valley.
– Cory Wolbach, Civic Engagement Senior Associate