Two important statewide research reports on our affordable housing ecosystem came out last week. Together, they highlight the need for deeply affordable housing- and for sources of public funding to support affordable developments “stuck” in the pipeline. Read on to find out why this work needs you- and why, if you are not a member already (you can check here), we hope you’ll join us today.
The National Low Income Housing Coalition’s newly released The Gap: A Shortage of Affordable Homes report highlights the severe shortage of homes affordable to the lowest-income renters—and the urgent need for stronger housing investments. You can view results for both California and at the national level.
Statewide, about 1.29 million renter households have extremely low incomes, meaning they earn at or below 30% of area median income. California has just 25 homes for every 100 extremely low-income renters, a shortage of about 977,000 affordable and available homes for families and individuals at this income level.
As a result, 78% of extremely low-income renters in California are severely cost-burdened, spending more than half their income on rent and utilities. In high-cost regions like Silicon Valley, rents have far outpaced the incomes of low-wage workers, seniors, and people with disabilities, making the shortage of deeply affordable homes especially acute and underscoring the urgent need for sustained investment.
At the same time, The California Affordable Housing Production Pipeline, from Enterprise, shows that despite recent success, nearly 40,000 affordable homes that could serve more than 432,000 low-income households over the next 55 years are awaiting final funding to begin construction in California. While the 2026 California Affordable Housing Pipeline shows strong development momentum, the analysis makes clear that without adequate public funding, these shovel-ready projects will not move forward.
In response, the report calls for a statewide solution that includes investing urgent state funding through the 2026-27 budget, passing the 2026 affordable housing bond act for longer-term funding, and streamlining the housing finance system to improve cost-efficiency.
SV@Home is strongly supporting statewide efforts, and we also acknowledge the deep need for local funding for affordable housing. The amazing success of Santa Clara County’s 2016 Measure A Affordable Housing Bond (delivering significantly more housing than promised!) shows that in Santa Clara County, we know how to be great stewards of public funding for affordable housing, with strong partnerships between the County and local cities. Now, Measure A’s funds have been fully deployed, and new sources of local funding are needed to keep up the momentum.
SV@Home is digging into the work, engaging in discussions with local and regional partners and elected officials, and exploring ways to leverage new tools to dedicate more funds to affordable housing near transit. While the need for affordable housing is immediate, efforts to secure the resources we need to help it move forward take time to develop. At the same time, we acknowledge that we are all working within a deeply imperfect system that imposes this scarcity even here in the midst of Silicon Valley’s vast wealth. Changing these systems requires a long-range approach that brings together partners from every corner to join together in a broad and sustained movement for housing justice. If you’re not a member already, we hope you’ll join us today.