Housing opponents argue that there is no housing crisis in California, and if there were, cities could not solve it. This is wrong. There is a housing crisis and cities can solve it.
In 1987, my husband and I were able to buy a house in Los Altos on two professional salaries. It is easy for long-term residents like us not to realize how unaffordable Los Altos has become. According to Zillow’s numbers, to buy a typical Los Altos house, a young family now would have to search the couch cushions for about an $800,000 down payment, and pay almost $26,000 a month – and it’s much more in Los Altos Hills. These numbers seem crazy, but this is the reality now. Only stratospherically wealthy people can buy in Los Altos; young professionals are locked out. Moderate-income couples can’t buy in Mountain View, and lower-income people can hardly find anything in the Bay Area. We have a big problem!
Even if readers of this paper are generally unaffected by the housing crisis in our own housing – we’re fortunate enough to be able to afford to live here, after all – we can’t ignore its serious effects. Often our children can’t stay in the area when they grow up. Our police, teachers and firefighters can’t afford to live where they work. Businesses we patronize can’t hire workers, because the workers can’t live here and are unwilling to make three-hour commutes; Dittmer’s had to close my favorite sandwich bar because they can’t hire workers to make sandwiches for us.
As we age and stay in our houses, and don’t allow new homes to be built, our area gets older and older, dwindling into a “naturally occurring retirement community” instead of a vibrant community filled with people of all ages. Our young doctors, nurses and aides to the elderly are leaving to find more reasonable housing, potentially leaving us with no one to take care of us in our old age.
We got here because cities and towns, including our own, acted like housing was somebody else’s problem. We made it virtually impossible to build new housing. We restricted where it can be built, how much can be built, what it has to look like, how much parking it has to have and how many extraneous fees the developers have to pay. With so many cities shirking their responsibility, California has been underbuilding for 40 years, causing prices to skyrocket as there are too many potential buyers for every home.
The good news is we are making progress on reducing the housing crisis. For years, California legislators passed laws attempting to require cities to build their fair share, but cities found ways to avoid their obligation. Recently, state legislators have put teeth into the housing requirements. They are requiring cities to plan for an amount of housing more appropriate to the scale of the huge problem, and penalizing cities that refuse. Now, because of these state laws, we are already building some of the housing we need, and our cities are planning for more.
Accessory dwelling units are quietly popping up in backyards all over the state. Los Altos Hills plans for many more ADUs, some triplex conversions and zoning for some multifamily housing. And the state has confirmed that its plan meets state requirements. Los Altos’ city staff and our council are working hard to create a compliant housing plan, with infill projects such as ADUs, lot splits and small multiunit projects, plus larger multifamily buildings on major arterials.
With their housing elements, Los Altos and Los Altos Hills have made great strides in planning for doing our share to help fix this housing crisis. We should build on this progress. We have a big problem, and the solution is to build more housing for more neighbors.
Anne Paulson is a member of the Los Altos Affordable Housing Alliance Steering Committee.
