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Affordable Housing
Why is it important?
In
the Bay Area, only 16% of people can afford to buy a median-priced home.
For the nearly one-half of people who are renters, affordable apartments
and homes are extremely hard to find. As a result, many families are doubled
or tripled up in overcrowded, substandard housing. Others are braving
three- or four-hour-a-day commutes and contributing to traffic gridlock
as they drive to the Central Valley, Central Coast, and once-rural areas
to the north to find homes they can afford. At Greenbelt Alliance, we
believe that affordable housing is necessary to preserve the environment
and the diversity and livability of the Bay Area. We can begin to meet
the housing demand by giving residents more choices of where they can
live. Residents need choices in addition to suburban single family residential
homes and luxury estates. By creating communities with a mix of single
family homes, apartments, condominiums, and townhouses, we can offer a
range of housing choices at different levels of affordability.
How Greenbelt Alliance works
for housing choices and affordable housing:
- We endorse development projects that offer housing units other than
single family residential and include affordable housing.
- We build coalitions with other environmental groups and social justice
organizations directed toward addressing housing problems.
- We provide policy recommendations to regional intra-governmental agencies
in order to find housing solutions that transcend local jurisdictions.
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