White Communities in the Bay Area Don't Plan as Much Low-Income Housing as Their Neighbors Do

A study from Berkeley's Haas Institute revealed a new wrinkle in the Bay Area's affordable housing crisis when it discovered that white communities were not planning for or setting goals for as much low-income housing as their neighboring cities.

The state of California sets housing goals by sending population estimates to regional agencies, including the Association of Bay Area Governments. "These agencies tell cities and counties how many homes are needed by income level, and local governments have to zone enough land to accommodate the new home building," Liam Dillon reports for Los Angeles Times. Cities with majority white population were not asked to build as much low income housing as more diverse cities, even when the cities had equivalent incomes.

This disparity is driven not only by the associations, but also by their constituents. "Moore, the study’s author, said the findings imply that cities in the Bay Area with larger white populations did not want such development," Dillon reports.