The RHNA HMC (Regional Housing Needs Assessment Housing Methodology Committee) can sound like a jumble of jargon. Yet this committee is grappling with some of the biggest questions in the region around how and where we grow.
California state law recognizes that local governments play a vital role in developing affordable housing and mandates that cities plan for new homes. The RHNA process identifies the number of new homes the Bay Area needs to build—and how affordable those homes need to be—in order to meet the housing needs of people at all income levels, distributing a share to each city, town, and county in the region.
Greenbelt Alliance is serving on this committee and wants to hear what you think! We’re working to ensure that the plans for new homes do not sprawl into our natural and working lands. That the allocations help to reduce historic inequities due to past racist zoning policies. That new development patterns reduce our overall greenhouse gas emissions, and that we don’t plan for new homes in high hazard zones not suited for development.
This year ABAG (the Association of Bay Area Governments) staff have created an online tool to help develop the methodology to achieve these goals. Please take a look and share any thoughts or advice on the factors you think are most important with our Executive Director, Amanda Brown-Stevens.
Photo: Dakota Roos via Unsplash
