Affordable Housing and Air Quality

Sacramento County has one of the most innovative and progressive affordable housing ordinances in the country. The ordinance was crafted with a coalition of building industry representatives and housing advocates and went into affect in 2005. Yet, just as soon as a more politically favorable climate emerged on the County Board of Supervisors, the Building Industry Association began to backtrack. The ordinance, which has already created 4,000 new affordable units, is now in jeopardy according to the Sacramento Bee:

The building industry challenged this ordinance in court and lost the first round. That would suggest the county is on strong legal footing with its requirement that 15 percent of any new development provide for affordable housing.

Yet for dubious reasons, a new majority on the Board of Supervisors has been negotiating a settlement with the building industry to revise this landmark ordinance. Housing advocates, who helped craft the original law, were excluded from these talks and only recently have seen details of the settlement proposal. What they've seen gives them great fear that supervisors are preparing to rush through changes that undermine the goals of the 2004 ordinance.

It isn't a stretch to link the lack of affordable housing in our urban areas to poor air quality. Just think about the situation in the Bay Area during the past several decades. As housing prices soared, more and more families had to search for housing outside of the urban corridors--Livermore, Gilroy, San Benito County, Santa Rosa. These commuters spend hours a day on the freeway in order to fulfill the American Dream. But that Dream has turned into a nightmare as congestion worsened and pollution emissions increased. In the Bay Area most of that pollution drifts through the Delta to worsen air quality in the Central Valley. See the Transportation and Land Use Coalition website for more on the links between housing, environment and transportation.

In the same fashion, greenhouse gas emissions increase with the increase in the vehicle miles traveled to these affordable homes. It is imperative that local politicians do all they can to create and enhance a mix of affordable homes in the urban core in order to stem the rise in homelessness and improve our environment. Contact the Sacramento Housing Alliance to find out what you can do to protect affordable housing in sacramento.