Regional Attempt to Address Housing Crisis Advances in Bay Area

A regional, comprehensive, and controversial approach to tackling the housing affordability crisis in the nine-county Bay Area, including strategies to render renter protections and new housing production, has cleared three major hurdles.

3 minute read

January 25, 2019, 12:00 PM PST

By Irvin Dawid


The Peninsula

yhelfman / Shutterstock

Guy Marzorati, who covers politics for KQED, on Jan. 18.

In an enjoyable Jan. 23 podcast for The Bay on the compact, Marzorati quips that CASA – The Committee to House the Bay Area, may not "stand for anything," literally, as it's not an actual acronym, which would be CTHTBA, or some similar compilation. Erika Aguilar, a housing reporter for KQED News and his partner on the 11-minute podcast, indicates that the committee was formed by two regional planning groups, ABAG and the Metropolitan Transportation Commission or MTC.

"MTC director Steve Heminger, who also signed the compact after his board overwhelmingly approved it in December, said he hoped the new agency would be created in time to place a revenue-generating measure on the 2020 ballot," adds Marzorati in his report on the ABAG approval. On Dec. 12, the compact had cleared the CASA Steering Committee in its first hurdle.

We need a significant amount of new authority and new revenue to deliver on a solution to the housing crisis," Heminger said. "And for that you gotta go to Sacramento."

"CASA is not legislation," writes Randy Shaw, editor of Beyond Chron, emphasizing Heminger's last point. "A legislator would either have to introduce the compact in the form of a bill or it would appear on California’s 2020 ballot."

Shaw's piece focuses largely on the last of the “three Ps” of housing: production, preservation, and protection, i.e., tenant protection. He praises the coalition backing regional approach.

CASA  is the largest and most diverse Bay Area housing coalition ever assembled. It seeks a comprehensive policy consensus to expand production and affordability, a very challenging task.

The ten agenda items in the CASA Compact include many recommendations I include in my new book, Generation Priced Out: Who Gets to Live in the New Urban America.

Shaw's view is not shared by many of the local elected officials who followed the deliberations, and the votes. 

"But the vote to direct ABAG president David Rabbitt to sign the compact was nonetheless controversial," adds Marzorati.

Dozens of elected officials and members of the public packed into the meeting to criticize it as government overreach and a misguided effort to force suburbs to become more dense.

"That the CASA committee could come up with a product that 97 percent of Bay Area cities think is a terrible idea proves that a public agency is capable of building consensus," said Cupertino Mayor Steven Scharf, who opposes the plan. 

To illustrate the degree of opposition to the compact, the chairman of the Metropolitan Transportation Commission, whose terms expires next month, appears to have suffered political consequences for his vote on Dec. 19 to support the compact. 

"In a stunning rebuke, veteran Rohnert Park Councilman Jake Mackenzie was stripped by his own City Council Tuesday night [Jan. 22] of influential posts on the Sonoma-Marin Area Rail Transit board and another regional transit agency," reports Kevin Fixler for The Press Democrat.

Earlier this month at a City Council meeting, he faced an hourlong tongue lashing from each of his four fellow council members for backing the CASA Compact, a new 15-year regional initiative to address the Bay Area’s housing crisis. 

More audio on CASA from KQED:

Rachel Swan reported for the San Francisco Chronicle on the MTC approval on Dec. 19: "Ambitious plan to ease Bay Area housing crunch draws heat, but passes."

Hat tips to David McCoard and David Schonbrunn.

Friday, January 18, 2019 in KQED: California Report

portrait of professional woman

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching. Mary G., Urban Planner

I love the variety of courses, many practical, and all richly illustrated. They have inspired many ideas that I've applied in practice, and in my own teaching.

Mary G., Urban Planner

Cover CM Credits, Earn Certificates, Push Your Career Forward

Logo for Planetizen Federal Action Tracker with black and white image of U.S. Capitol with water ripple overlay.

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker

A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

June 11, 2025 - Diana Ionescu

Metrorail train pulling into newly opened subterranean station in Washington, D.C. with crowd on platform taking photos.

Congressman Proposes Bill to Rename DC Metro “Trump Train”

The Make Autorail Great Again Act would withhold federal funding to the system until the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), rebrands as the Washington Metropolitan Authority for Greater Access (WMAGA).

June 2, 2025 - The Hill

Large crowd on street in San Francisco, California during Oktoberfest festival.

The Simple Legislative Tool Transforming Vacant Downtowns

In California, Michigan and Georgia, an easy win is bringing dollars — and delight — back to city centers.

June 2, 2025 - Robbie Silver

Two children and an adult looking out over railing at Grand Canyon.

DOJ Says Trump Has Power to Roll Back National Monuments

The opinion sheds light on how the administration may justify its effort to eliminate protected public lands.

45 minutes ago - Inside Climate News

Aerial view of Camden Station train station in Baltimore, Maryland. Train station is brick neoclassical building with three-tier tower.

Maryland Awards $1.25M in TOD-Related Grants

The state’s DOT is funding projects that prepare sites around transit stations for future mixed-use development and housing.

1 hour ago - The Baltimore Banner

Aerial view of purple MBTA commuter train at station in Lynn, Massachusetts.

Judge Rules in Favor of Massachusetts TOD Law

The court rejected an argument that the MBTA Communities law, which requires zoning for multifamily housing, is an “unfunded mandate.”

2 hours ago - CommonWealth Beacon